Ilchi Lee's Blog, page 24

[Video] What’s an Emotional Washing Machine?

On November 10, 2021, Ilchi Lee answered 3 questions live on his Korean YouTube channel, Ilchi Lee’s Brain TV. In this clip, he addresses the question:

“You recently gave a lecture about using an emotional washing machine for cleaning and clearing emotions. How did you come up with this idea of an emotional washing machine meditation, and what’s its significance?”

He goes on to answer:

“Do you also run your emotional washing machine frequently? I’m so curious to know how you actually do it when you’re feeling negative emotions, and if you have a morning or evening routine?”

Finally he talks about:

Why hasn’t anyone else, like scientists, invented the “emotional washing machine” yet? Why did you make it?

5 Ways to Have the Courage to Be Yourself

[Photo by wayhomestudioo via Envato Elements]

It takes courage to be who we really are. We can find that courage in Life itself.

Each role we play in our lives places obligations and expectations on us. Some of these external pressures resonate with our inner being without any effort on our part. Some, however, may make us feel trapped, heavy, or oppressed. We may even feel as if we’re living the wrong life.

These negative emotions can be great motivators to make a change. We can set aside a particular role, or if we can’t or don’t want to, we can change our approach to it. If we don’t want to feel smothered by one of our life roles, I suggest we find ways let our inner selves out while we fulfill it.

That takes courage. It takes courage to discover who we really are, and it takes courage to let other people see it. Fear of disapproval or disaster may have been what led us to feel oppressed in the first place. However, there’s something greater than that fear and more powerful than social expectations—Life.

There’s something greater than that fear and more powerful than social expectations—Life.
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Getting into the Rhythm

Life with a capital “L” carries on without end. Regardless of the birth and death of many generations of creatures, despite mistakes and misunderstandings, Life continues, growing and contracting, ever-changing while permeating everything.

Human beings, you and me, are all part of this Life force and at our core, it’s who we really are. Being ourselves essentially means expressing the rhythm of Life.

When we can feel this Life force inside us rather than only knowing it exists, we become filled with courage and confidence. We know when we’re doing the right thing, because it matches the feeling of Life inside us. And we realize that if we follow this Life force, everything in our lives will fall into alignment with it.

That’s why I tell everyone to move with the bright rhythm of Life. As this rhythm grows bigger in their lives, their happiness grows bigger and so does their gratitude.

Here are some ways I suggest getting with the rhythm of Life:I AM ME Declaration
At least once a day, I declare out loud: “I am me! I am authentic! I am a bright human being! All my dreams are already coming true. Of course they are.” Speaking out this affirmation with our voice tells our brain our intention. Then it starts to make that intention reality through our thoughts, words, and actions.Tapping the Solar Plexus
Around the solar plexus in the upper part of our abdomen lies our third chakra (energy center), which is associated with courage, willpower, self-worth, and creativity. When we feel very stressed or anxious, tension can accumulate there. By tapping this area with our palms or relaxed fists, we can release built-up stress and awaken a deeper sense of presence and rhythm in our body. I sometimes even do it one hundred times every hour to keep this area relaxed and empowered.Light Visualization
The rhythm of Life can be expressed through light, sound, and other forms of vibration. By imagining light pouring down into me or shooting arrows of the brightest, hottest light into my chakras, such as my third chakra, I can feel myself filling with that rhythm.Singing and Dancing
At least once a day, I sing and dance to my heart’s content. I don’t necessarily use particular dance steps or lyrics. By moving my body freely and joyfully and making it feel good, the natural rhythm of Life starts to come out, and my body starts to express it.Happiness List
Every day, I make a list of ten things that make me happy. The things that make us truly happy reflect who we are. By consciously taking note of them regularly, we strengthen our authentic selves and start to grow toward them.

These simple actions we can do every day to resonate with and strengthen the rhythm of Life inside us are even more powerful together. When our daily rhythm matches the rhythm of Life, every situation and role, regardless of the obligation, becomes our creation. It becomes fuel for how we really want ourselves and our lives to be.

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Ilchi Lee’s 3 Bite-sized Ways to Beat Holiday Stress

[Photo by look_studio via Envato Elements]

The holiday season has come once again for many of us. Hanukkah has already begun. Bodhi day will come soon on December 8th. And Christmas and Kwanzaa will close out the month before the new year begins.

The holiday festivities may bring many people joy and light, but at the same time, they may also bring stress and worry. We have so many more things to do that stretch our time and our wallets. And while family can be our strength, family dynamics may not always be peaceful.

There’s plenty of useful and good advice out there for how to deal with stress and worry and all the side effects that go with them. I’d like to offer you three more that you can do in a moment, without preparation or equipment and without taking much time out of your busy day.

Find the silver lining.
Put on a smile (even a fake one) and think of something that makes you happy or a positive aspect of your current situation. Do this as often as you need to help you move on to the next thing on your list.Imagine light.
Imagine a gentle rain of golden particles of light soothing your body and mind like a warm shower. Breathing slowly and deeply, feel the shower of light flashing away your fatigue, worry, and tension.Take a dance break.
Shake away your worry and stress as you wiggle your way back to a calm, even happy, mood. Don’t forget to dance like no one’s watching. You’re the boss of this moment and your body. Move to your favorite song or simply the music in your head.

Squeezing in these small reminders of the brightness behind the stress can help us embody the spirit of the December holidays, which represent bringing light to darkness. I hope we all become transmitters of light for each other.

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[Video] What Is Happiness?

How would you define happiness, and how can you create a shared idea of happiness with someone else? When we understand what happiness means to us, then we can create our happiness instead of letting our happiness wax and wane based on the circumstances around us. The key to this is using our brain in a conscious, proactive way. We can do it because, ultimately, our brain has no limits.

Watch this excerpt from a YouTube Live on Brain Education TV hosted by Linda Yoonjin Suh and Gabi Petrylaite to wake up to new possibilities for happiness in your life. You can also watch the full Live at https://youtu.be/pwFgkcGfmsU

(Interpretation by Michelle Seo.)

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Thank You!

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The United States is celebrating its Thanksgiving Day today. This national holiday encourages us to remember what we’re grateful for. I would like to join with you in sharing the parts of my life for which I give thanks.

Being able to see and train people around the world online from wherever I am.The awe-inspiring natural surroundings around me in Kerikeri, New Zealand and Sedona, USA.All the people who have joined with me to create a bright, harmonious world.The people who came before me with the same dream, especially those who formulated the ancient mind-body-energy practices of Korea.The staff who give me the ability to work efficiently and take care of the smallest details.My parents, wife, sons, and their families.The production of my new film, Love Heals, which will be completed soon.The Earth Village and Earth Farm in New Zealand, which are growing steadily as the hub of the Earth Citizen Movement.My body and brain, which allow me to develop my soul and actualize my dreams on earth.The feeling of striving to overcome my limits again and again.

And all of you.

What are the things you are feeling grateful and happy for today?

The Real Source of Satisfaction

[Photo by marymandarinka via Envato Elements]

Our true selves hold the key to true satisfaction.

The events of the past couple of years have made many of us rethink our lives. We may have been stuck in survival mode, but now want to find a way to thrive. We may no longer be satisfied by the status quo. Maybe we’ve quit our jobs or perhaps we’ve moved to another part of the country looking for a better quality of life.

But what do we need to be truly satisfied with our lives? Is it the right job or the right people around us? Being blessed with the best circumstances is certainly a plus and can help us be happy. However, as we’ve learned well, circumstances can change at any moment. And we can be in the middle of a seemingly ideal situation and still feel lonely, anxious, or fearful, or we can have a sense of longing that we can’t explain.

Rather than looking for something more or different outside of ourselves, I suggest the opposite. I would recommend creating satisfaction from the inside out.

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When We’re Really Satisfied

But when does real satisfaction come? We can feel fully satisfied when we’ve completely emptied and opened ourselves. If we’re completely empty, it means we’re actually completely full. Being completely empty is a state of egolessness in which we feel whole in and of ourselves. That’s when we discover what real peace is.

On the other hand, if we’re clinging to anything, we can never be fully satisfied. Holding onto something or someone, especially out of fear, keeps us from learning, growing, and being continuously in the flow of life. Instead of being deeply satisfied, we end up strengthening our “false selves.”

Each of us has a true self as well as a false self blocking the true self. The true self wants and enables us to be courageous, honest, bold, confident, and cheerful. The desire for something better comes from our true selves. But different fears and emotions stand in the way. These are called the “false self.” Holding onto these fears and emotions, and holding onto who we think we need to be in order to survive, keeps us from being deeply satisfied.

Have a Life Purpose

What brings out the built-in satisfaction of our true selves is choosing and working for a life purpose. For I would call a life purpose is any goal or activity that satisfies the true self. The more we work on and embody our life purpose, the stronger our true selves grow and the happier we become.

A life purpose does not need to be very specific. It can simply be something like “embody love.” However, to live out our life purpose, making specific, actionable, and attainable goals within a specific time frame can prevent our life purpose from stagnating as merely a nice idea.

To decide on these goals, we can turn to our talents and joys, and we can ask our true selves. We can direct our questions to our hearts in our chest. The answers may come in the form of a knowing, words or a voice, an image, a physical sensation, and/or even a taste or smell.

While this can sound akin to being psychic, we all have this kind of intuition, which can be developed with practice. Start by trusting whatever comes to you as soon as you ask a question. Keep asking the same or related questions until you feel sure about the answer. You can also look for synchronicities in your life that support what you discover.

Once we choose a life purpose, we can serve it by aligning all the various aspects of our lives to it. Our purpose goes beyond having a job or business. It’s having a mindset that completes our purpose and gathering the people and resources that amplify it.

Regardless of our progress toward the goals we set to serve our life purpose, the real measure of our success and satisfaction comes from how completely we work toward it no matter what happens. In this view, setbacks become simply fodder for growth.

The fallout from the pandemic has also supplied this fodder, giving us the courage to search for something more. That search begins with our true self.

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Jay, the main character in this illustrated storybook, Bird of the Soul by Ilchi Lee, emerges free and happy from profound dissatisfaction with his life.

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[Video] All We Need Is to Eat, Sleep, and Poop Well: Enlightenment Is Simple

After my own enlightenment experience on Moak Mountain more than forty years ago, I realized that there is nothing to be enlightened to. But when we’re immersed in our thoughts and emotions, it’s difficult to see the simple truth.

That’s when we can remember the basics: to be healthy. And what do we need to be healthy? We need to eat well and sleep well, and even have an easy time in the bathroom.

With this solid foundation, we can see the world without illusions, and our true selves can be revealed.

I hope you enjoy this lecture clip from 2016 on the nature of enlightenment.

(English interpretation by Michelle Seo.)

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3 Exercises for Resetting Your Emotions

[Photo by prostooleh via Envato Elements]

We all have an emotional washing machine inside that lets us clean out the emotions that don’t serve us and get a fresh start.

When I’m working, there are times when I come up against so many dilemmas, conflicts, and unexpected roadblocks. Every time that happens, I run my emotional washing machine and make an effort to become centered once more. Regardless of what I’m facing, when I’m completely centered, I feel the courage to keep moving forward and get new ideas on how to do that.

To keep that center, I also clean out my emotions regularly, before they get out of hand. Every night before bed, I run my emotional washing machine. Then my brain is free of emotional sludge as it processes my day as I sleep. Instead of those emotions being embedded in my subconscious, I wake up refreshed with a hopeful outlook.

The Emotional Washing Machine

So what is this “emotional washing machine” that I use? It’s simply the ability of our brain and body to release and clear emotional energy while replacing it with fresh, bright energy. Everything has energy, and our emotions are no exception. By removing the negative energy of our emotions, we no longer feel controlled by those emotions. Without that energy, or emotional charge, even if we remember an emotional incident or trauma, we won’t feel the same weight of our emotions we did at the time.

There are many different detergents we can use to run this emotional washing machine. The ones we use and the amount of time needed for cleaning depends on the number and strength of our emotions.

We all have an emotional washing machine inside that lets us clean out the emotions that don’t serve us and get a fresh start.
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It’s possible to sit and meditate to run the emotional washing machine, but normally I do something active. For example, I sing and dance, or take a walk. I may do some weightlifting or some Brain Wave Vibration. Sometimes I simply laugh out loud.

The key to running the emotional washing machine is bringing our attention inside ourselves—the deeper, the better. The more we’re aware of what’s going on inside us, the more carefully we can clean what we need to clean.

The awareness we direct inside us also brings something else. Our awareness sends energy to whatever it’s focused on. This energy has the flavor of whatever our intentions are. So as we look inside with the intention of emotional cleaning, that cleaning will happen more deeply and powerfully.

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Caring for the Third Chakra

I also do exercises for the third chakra to operate the emotional washing machine. Our chakras are the nodes of our bodies’ system of life energy, the kind of qi (chi/ki) energy described in Asian medicine. The third chakra (solar plexus chakra) is associated with our desires and willpower. When we can’t achieve what we want, we tend to hold stress and anxiety in our third chakra, and the energy there becomes blocked. Releasing this blocked energy calms us and opens the way for better energy flow through the other seven chakras in our bodies.

Around the area of the third chakra, we find major organs such as our stomach, liver, and kidneys. These organs tend to hold the emotional energy of anxiety, anger, and fear respectively. When we do exercises that clean the energy of the third chakra, the emotional energy in these organs gets cleaned as well.

Emotional Washing Machine Exercises

Here are some exercises you can use to run your emotional washing machine. Choose the ones that suit you best on any given day. You can use them alone or in combination as you focus on all the sensations you feel inside. Perform each exercise for as long as you need to feel calm, clear, and relaxed.

[Illustration from Brain Wave Vibration by Ilchi Lee]

Organ Dancing
Bring your fists in front of your chest with your elbows up at shoulder height. Keeping your neck and shoulders relaxed, repeatedly twist your ribs and hips in opposite directions. Move as fast as you can, exhaling out your mouth and breathing through any discomfort you feel. If you feel very sharp pain, slow down your movement or massage that area to relieve the pain.

 
 

Get Bright Method (Joongwan Healing)
 

[Illustration from Water Up Fire Down by Ilchi Lee]

 
The Joongwan is an acupressure point in the center of the solar plexus associated with the third chakra. Tapping and pressing this point, along with breathing, helps to release energy that is stuck in this area. Follow the video below for an exercise sequence you can do for your Joongwan (Note: You can replace the Belly Button Healing tools I use in the video with a similar tool):
 
Vocalization
Speak whatever you feel inside. You can use actual words, or you can simply make sounds or speak in gibberish. Your voice is a powerful tool for moving energy and actualizing intention. Feeling all your emotions and physical sensations, vocalize until your inner landscape becomes peaceful and bright, and everything has become clear. Here is a Gibberish Meditation video to encourage you to speak your self without inhibition:
 

When we wash away our emotions with exercises such as these, we’re pressing the reset button on our lives. We can begin each new day, and even each new moment, unburdened by hurt or clouded by anger. We always have the means to feel lighter and brighter with our internal emotional washing machine at the ready.

Editor’s Note:
You can take group and private classes for emotional cleansing at a Body & Brain Yoga and Tai Chi center. Body & Brain centers offer online and offline classes based on Ilchi Lee’s Brain Education methods. Find a center near you at BodynBrain.com.

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Introducing Ilchi Lee’s Upcoming Film, Love Heals

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For the past 6 months, Ilchi Lee and the production team at GetBright Films have been working to create a feature-length documentary called Love Heals. The film is based on the Water Up, Fire Down principles he describes in his latest book of the same name.

Love Heals portrays the journey of Dana, a chronic pain sufferer, who realizes that she, herself, is her greatest healer. She and her partner, Krisanna, a filmmaker, travel the country together to understand how the energy principle of Water Up, Fire Down has helped so many heal and to see what’s possible for those experiencing the practices based on this principle for the first time.

Dana and a Brain Education instructor practice outdoor meditation based on the Water Up, Fire Down energy principle.

The creators hope that this film can be shown across the globe to empower people with the inspiration and means to heal themselves. They believe that this documentary will greatly expand the reach and mission of Ilchi Lee’s practice and benefit millions of lives.

To succeed in this mission, the film production team has launched an Indiegogo fundraiser for Love Heals. Contributions will cover the cost of film production, marketing, equipment, travel expenses, post-production editing, staffing, etc.

Over the next 60 days, they are hoping to raise at least $150,000 of overall expenses to support sharing this film around the world.

Go here to contribute and make this vision a reality ►

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Inspirational Message for Remembering the Preciousness of Our Lives

Let’s recognize that at the root, we are living heavenly lives in a heavenly world with a heavenly mission.

When I slip deep into meditation, inspiration and messages often come to me. They feel sacred, as if coming from a source that is beyond any one individual consciousness. They contain an energy that feels like the brightest and purest light. The closest word I can find to describe the source of this inspiration, and the spiritual aspect of life, is “heaven.”

I feel now is the right time to share one of these messages. I hope you read its words not only with your logical mind, but with your intuition and heart as well so that they touch your heart and soul as they did mine.

Message Offered to Every Soul

Using heaven’s time
Utilizing heaven’s weather
We drink heaven’s air
We use heaven’s energy
And we do heaven’s work
As we fulfill heaven’s mission.

It is not my time, but heaven’s time that I am using.
How precious is that time, and how holy and sacred?

When you come to know heaven’s love, then you can perform Hongik*.
Sunlight, moonlight. They are all heaven’s light.
People think that light is their own light,
and living inside of that, they worry and have lost their way.
We are living through heaven’s light, and living by moonlight and by starlight.

My parents, my siblings, family, children . . .
All are living through heaven’s light, heaven’s water, and heaven’s air.
Without realizing that, they forget.
They fall into emotions and flounder, wandering aimlessly,
and they hate and rage.

As we are the descendants of the sun
And born and raised inside of the air of the blue sky,
We are descendants of heaven,
We are descendants of moonlight,
We are descendants of starlight,
And when humans live, we are making heaven’s history.

Let’s make heaven’s history.
You don’t usually feel it.
When you go deeper into meditation,
When you have met with your inner self, that’s when you come to feel it.
For everything, there is nothing that is not heaven’s energy.
Cosmic energy is my energy; my energy is cosmic energy.
Cosmic mind is my mind; my mind is cosmic mind.

* Hongik is a Korean word that means “widely benefitting.” To perform Hongik means to take actions or speak words that are beneficial to all, to be compassionate, or to act in a humanitarian way.

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