Ilchi Lee's Blog, page 39

Aim Beyond Limiting Beliefs

In my spare time nowadays, I like practicing archery. I usually use two different types of bow. One is designed to shoot arrows fifty meters, and the other, made for athletes, is designed to shoot them one hundred meters. But there’s no law that says you can only shoot up to fifty meters with a fifty-meter bow. So I decided to shoot a target 200 meters away with it. This is a good challenge for my brain, I thought.

The first two arrows I aimed at the target didn’t reach it, but I thought, let me try one more time. Then the third arrow hit the board with the 200-meter target. The moment the arrow hit, the people around me were astonished and people who heard about it came rushing over. Then I went for a one hundred-meter target and managed to get a bullseye. It was a good day.

That day demonstrated that no matter what information you are given or limitations you think there are, if you choose it, you can make it. A bow is just a tool. Just because the tool you have isn’t ready or has some shortcomings, that doesn’t mean you can’t do what you’re aiming for. There are no restrictions on choosing and challenging yourself. If you accept a challenge, there are plenty of ways to make it happen. But if you tell yourself that it’s not going to work before you try it, then it definitely won’t work. Expecting a negative outcome and being afraid without even trying is the first component you have to eliminate whenever you make a choice and set a clear goal.

I made a choice that day. I had a clear goal that I intended to achieve, and I had a tool for that target. I wasn’t the one who had decided that the ability of the tool was fifty meters. That was pre-existing information, and it wasn’t something I had experienced myself. Information is only information; only what I’ve tried for myself is real. I decided clearly on my target, aimed, and put my energy into firing. And it hit.

Mistakes can happen, but when they did, I fired again, and the arrow stuck. I made it; I succeeded. The joy I experienced at that moment is the joy of having a goal.

Would you say that it happened because of good luck? Good luck also comes when I make a clear choice.

Even if I had failed, I would have at least confirmed that the bow could send an arrow farther than fifty meters. Since there would be other learning and ideas found in that failure, that’s also something to be glad about.

Whatever you want, you have to choose it for it to happen. The power of your choice comes from your brain, not only the neurons firing, but the divine energy in your brain that is connected to the creative power and wisdom of the universe. With that power, there isn’t anything you can’t do. If you live this one day today with that conviction and with assertiveness and self-assurance, you’ll do more than make your dreams come true.

When you picture a clear goal in your mind, like an arrow hitting a 200-meter target, the bright and great light of the divine energy in your brain can melt away all of your preconceptions and worries. Instead of that negative information, the information of your goal being achieved will turn into energy. Believe in your goal and act with this energy, and total transformation, endless evolution will occur inside and around you. The energy you put into action will manifest as phenomena in your life that will lead to success.

I hope that you too can experience the joy of challenging yourself to surpass preconceived limitations and make a life of your choice.

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[Video] Swing Meditation: A Fun Way to Meditate

Where are your favorite places to meditate? Do you like sitting still in your room or walking in the woods? Many locations and movements can be used for meditation, for meditation does not need to be serious, nor does it need to be still and silent. You can even meditate on a swing! Have fun swinging with me in this video.

To see more of my videos regularly, you can subscribe here to my YouTube channel. New videos are uploaded every week.

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Know Yourself as You Truly Are

[Photo courtesy of javi_indy at Envato Elements]

In some of my recent posts, I shared how you can connect to your body and your soul. Did you try any of the exercises? How did you feel afterward?

In order to be fully connected, though, there’s another part of ourselves we need to be aware of—our divinity, or our spiritual side.

What I’ve felt through my own meditation and learned through the principles of ancient Korean texts is that within our brain we have a bit of the cosmic energy and pure consciousness that is the creative aspect of the universe. People use many names for this divine aspect, but regardless of what we call it, it connects us all.

When we recover our connection to the divine, we can discover the true solution and insight we need to simultaneously solve our individual problems and the Earth’s problems.
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We find this divine energy and consciousness in the pineal gland in the center of our brain, which many spiritual traditions associate with the “third eye” or sixth chakra. The pineal gland can also be thought of as a plug with which we can connect our own divine energy to the source of divine, cosmic energy in the universe.

I believe that by connecting to this divine consciousness, we can know ourselves as we truly are and recover our connection to all things in existence. We can feel how powerful, beautiful, and divinely sacred our essential nature is, and gain a broader perspective, empathy, understanding, and tolerance. I am certain that when we recover our connection to the divine, we can discover the true solution and insight we need to simultaneously solve our individual problems and the Earth’s problems.

To awaken and become aware of your divine consciousness, I recommend grounding yourself by connecting to your body and your soul first. Once you do, you can follow this Pineal Gland Meditation based my book, Connect: How to Find Clarity and Expand Your Consciousness with Pineal Gland Meditation.

Pineal Gland Meditation

Sit with your back straight and your shoulders relaxed. Close your eyes.
Lightly tap around your head with your fingertips to open the energy points that connect to your pineal gland/sixth chakra, especially on your forehead, temples, crown, back of head, and base of skull.

Then face your palms together in front of your chest with a little bit of space between them. Feel any sensation in your palms.
Separate your palms as you inhale, then bring them closer together as you exhale. Repeat this motion for a few minutes to quiet your mind and attune it to the energy of your body.

Then raise your palms and place them on either side of your head, facing your skull. Move your hands away from and toward your head repeatedly, feeling the energy between your palms and your head.
Continue this motion with your palms in front of your face. Then move your hands up along the midline of your head to the top and then down the back of your head.
Now move your hands freely around your head to send energy into every nook and cranny of your brain. If parts feel a little blocked, spend more time on those places, ensuring that energy can flow throughout your brain.

Then point the tips of the four fingers on each hand toward your forehead (third eye). Keep a little space between your hands and each finger as well. Imagine energy light rays going from your fingers through the energy point to the pineal gland in the center. Repeat this for the point at the very top of your head.

Rest your hands on your knees and look at this picture of the LifeParticle Sun. Imagine energy coming from the image going through your forehead and into your pineal gland.
Now see the energy coming in through the top of your head to your pineal gland, brightening and strengthening the energy there. See this energy descending down your spine, turning into a pillar of energy from the top of your head to the bottom of your trunk. See and feel energy also coming up from below you to the top of your head.
With your hands on your knees and your eyes closed, bring your awareness to the center of your brain, your pineal gland. Hold your consciousness there until you have a sense of opening, clarity, or brightness—the eye of the pineal gland opening. Observe any thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations you experience at this time. Fully accept anything you experience with gratitude.
Finally, sweep your hands over your body and complete the meditation with three deep breaths.

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8 Ways to Eat Mindfully and Healthfully

[Photo by @grubelnik.gasper via Twenty20]

What are your eating habits? Eating is fundamental, and while we all need to eat to survive, each of us eats differently. So what’s the best way to eat to have a healthy body, mind, and spirit?

Here are 8 mindful eating habits for better digestion, clearer energy, and a stronger character:

Observe Your Eating Habits

Carefully look at whether you’re eating unbalanced meals centered on a specific food, whether you’re getting the right level of nutrition, how much your eating, and how quickly you’re eating.

Eat Slowly

Eating slowly eases the burden on your digestive organs and helps them process food more efficiently.

Eat Regularly

It’s important to eat regular meals to manage your health. It’s good to set definite times, if possible, to supply your body with nutrients, like the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening.

Eat Less

Just because the food you’re eating is good does not mean that eating a lot and more frequently is good for your body. Stop eating a meal when you feel eighty percent full, and unless you do manual labor, you may only need to eat two full meals a day.

Fast Occasionally

By stopping your food intake every once in a while, you not only let your body rest completely, but you get an opportunity to watch yourself as you control your desires. We all need practice escaping from our attachments, because sooner or later, the time will come when we have to let go of everything, even our bodies. So we sometimes need that kind of training, too. If we do mind-body training, though, we become charged with energy, so then skipping a meal won’t seem like a big deal.

Choose Specific Flavors to Strengthen Specific Organs

Each flavor has an effect on a specific organ. Salty flavors strengthen the kidneys, sweet flavors the stomach, sour flavors the liver, and bitter flavors the heart. If you’re feeling nauseous, eating something bitter will settle and calm your stomach.

Do Mind-Body Training

By connecting mind and body, consistently practicing methods such as yoga, qigong, and Brain Education changes your food preferences to cleaner, healthier foods.

Listen to Your Body

We actually have within us a sense for distinguishing which foods are healthy and which are unhealthy. But many people tend to eat indiscriminately because their sense for food has been dulled by their living environment or habits. Once your sense for food becomes normal, your body will look for the food it needs and tell you when to eat as well. So you should eat according to this sense instead of being confused about the contradictory diet advice available. That sense is revived by mind-body training.

Mindful Eating Exercise

In addition to the recommendations above, I’d like to suggest practicing this mindful eating exercise when you can. It will help you reduce stress during eating and efficiently get the most nutrients possible out of your food.

Close your eyes and direct your awareness inward. Isolating yourself from visual information in this way helps you pay better attention to your body. A large quantity of energy (blood and oxygen) is needed for food to be processed in your digestive organs. By decreasing your brain’s activity when you close your eyes, you prevent energy from being wasted, which makes it available for digestion.

Chew each bite of food thoroughly as you eat, about thirty to fifty times, while focusing your mind on your lower abdomen. A lot of saliva, which contains digestive enzymes, may fill your mouth, and you may feel your thoughts subside more and more with each mouthful.

To eat mindfully, chew each bite of food thoroughly, about 30 to 50 times, while focusing your mind on your lower abdomen.
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People who have poor digestive function, including stomach problems, become healthier when they eat this way for just three months.

What’s most important for improving your eating habits is developing your sense of your body. Those who cultivate a deeper awareness of their body develop a healthy constitution, and, from then on, eating what they want and like ends up being best for maintaining their health.

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[Video] Want to Control Your Emotions? Flip Your Perspective



Whether it’s happiness or sadness, joy or pain, all your emotions begin with your thoughts. So if you want to change how you feel about something, start by changing how you think about it. When I first came to the United States, my suitcase with all of my money and belongings was stolen at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City. I was devastated at first, but then I decided to change my perspective. It wasn’t that my money was stolen, but that I had made a donation to the poor of New York City. With this new outlook, I could move forward with hope and determination. In this video clip of a lecture I gave, I talk about how different thoughts produce different emotions and, therefore, different outcomes. To create what you really want, find the perspective that will support it.

If you want to change how you feel about something, start by changing how you think about it.
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To see more of my videos regularly, you can subscribe here to my YouTube channel. New videos are uploaded every week.

Where Does Strength for Change Come From?

[Photo by mimagephotography @ Envato Elements]

The world around you may feel like chaos, but what is going on inside you? Did you check today?

You may already know that any change you seek in your life or in the world needs to begin with yourself. But where does the strength to change yourself come from? How do you find that elusive “inner peace”?

That strength and peace are already part of your original nature, but it’s like a talent that needs to be exercised in order to be fully realized. You exercise this true nature when you connect with yourself deeply and regularly through meditation. In this post, I offered simple exercises for mindfully connecting to your body. Now, I would like to share with you how to connect with your soul.

Yes, within you is a very pure, noble soul. Your soul is the bright and pure energy you’re born with, which resides in your heart chakra in the center of your chest. It’s pure love and compassion, free of attachments or conditions, victim consciousness or selfishness. Your soul is your guiding conscience.

Soul energy can be small and caged, or it can be big and free. Those whose soul energy is vigorously active have healthy bodies and minds. They’re just peaceful and joyful for no particular reason. Their hearts are full, and their hearts and minds are integrated. On the other hand, those who cannot realize their selves will feel blocked and empty.

Also found around in your chest is emotional energy. Your emotions are not your soul. Heavy and negative emotions cover your soul, keeping it small and preventing you from hearing its voice.

Often, you need to let go of these emotions, which stem from your thoughts, worries, and past experiences, in order for your soul to expand and express itself. This does not need to be difficult. It can be as simple as turning over your hand, as in this meditation from my book Connect: How to Find Clarity and Expand Your Consciousness with Pineal Gland Meditation.

Letting Go Meditation

Relax your body, and sit with your back straight and your hands on your knees.
Close your eyes and steady your breathing.
Bring one hand in front of your chest, with your cupped palm facing upward toward the sky. Imagine this cup you make with your hand as your soul.
See all of the attachments and negative emotions you have go in the cup of your soul.
Now, it’s time to release them. Count to three in your mind and turn your palm down, pouring everything out. Completely let go of everything that burdened and troubled your soul.
Put your hands on your knees and look inside yourself. What are you feeling in your heart right now? Give thanks to everything you have experienced in your life, both good and bad, bitter and sweet, for it has been meaningful and has taught you.
Let peace from this knowledge begin to spread in your heart, letting it grow the seed of your soul.
Finish with three deep breaths.

Once you have less emotional energy around your soul, you can communicate with it. You and your soul can converse with words. You can tell your soul how grateful you are and how much you love it. Or you can connect with the language of energy—feeling. Use the following meditation from Connect to feel your soul.

Feeling the Soul Energy in Your Heart

Start with this exercise for feeling energy between your hands to put your mind in that space:

Then close your eyes and slowly bring the palms of your hands in front of your chest. Leave about two inches between your palms and your chest.
Imagine the subtle energy of your body being emitted from your palms and flowing into your chest.
As you do this, focus your mind in your chest, which holds the energy of your soul and your emotions. Notice how your chest feels. The more your chest feels tense or stuffy, the more your emotional energy is predominating and the energy of your soul is contracting.
Continuing to concentrate your mind on your chest, repeat to yourself, “My soul . . . my soul . . . my soul.” If you get a feeling of connection, say this to your soul: “I love you. I love you, my soul.” And, with the utmost sincerity, offer an apology to your soul: “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were always there. I was disconnected from you. I’m really sorry.” Relax and exhale through your mouth strongly to release any old, stagnant energy.
Now tell your soul anything you’ve been wanting to say. You may feel your soul’s energy gradually reviving and fully filling your chest. Keep focusing on that feeling.
Continue sending energy into your chest, imagining that your soul energy is spreading to your whole body.
Now slowly move your palms over your body, a couple of inches away, sending energy as you go. Think of a ray of energy, like a beam of light, coming out of your hands. Try to feel the energy of each part of your body being activated.
Finally, bring your palms back in front of your chest, sending energy to your soul. Visualize the bright, golden soul energy in your heart spreading out to your face, arms, legs—your whole body. Your body is gradually being transformed into an energy body. It will feel progressively lighter, brighter, and more transparent, as if your physical body has disappeared. That is the feeling of the energy body.
Finally, slowly lower your hands onto your knees, take a deep breath, and exhale as you open your eyes.

What did you feel through this energy meditation? If you don’t feel any changes in your chest the first time you try to communicate with your soul, don’t worry. Keep trying to connect and you will soon feel it. Some days it may be more difficult than others, but your soul will answer your sincerity in the end.

Whatever your circumstances, you can be unhappy or you can have hope. You can choose hope, positivity, and resilience if you maintain your connection to our soul. Imagine how happy and peaceful you could be if you made some time to visit with your soul every day.

[Video] What’s Most Important for Living a Better Life

We’ve been living in a world that makes us constantly compete with each other. And sometimes it even makes us greedy. However, being greedy doesn’t help us, but rather, it ruins our life. We need to find a way to balance it. Our brain has the power to balance it; it starts from finding what’s important in our lives.

In this short video, I talk about what’s really important—what values we need to pay attention to in order benefit and improve our own lives while at the same time benefitting the lives of others.

What values do you think we all hold in common?

 

To see more of my videos regularly, you can subscribe here to my YouTube channel. New videos are uploaded every week.

 

What’s Most Important for Living a Better Life

We’ve been living in a world that makes us constantly compete with each other. And sometimes it even makes us greedy. However, being greedy doesn’t help us, but rather, it ruins our life. We need to find a way to balance it. Our brain has the power to balance it; it starts from finding what’s important in our lives.

In this short video, I talk about what’s really important—what values we need to pay attention to in order benefit and improve our own lives while at the same time benefitting the lives of others.

What values do you think we all hold in common?

 

To see more of my videos regularly, you can subscribe here to my YouTube channel. New videos are uploaded every week.

 

Exercises to Connect to Your Body

Who is your closest friend? You might think of the people coming in and out of your life when answering this question, but maybe your best friend is always with you on this journey.

Personally, I consider my body to be my closest friend, my best buddy, since it is always there for me 24 hours a day, never apart for even a second. It is my greatest asset in life.

While my soul is my substance, my body is the precious vessel containing that soul. Without bodies, our souls cannot affect material reality. It is because they have bodies that our souls can interact with other people and things—experiencing, feeling, expressing, creating, and growing. The body is truly the partner of the soul.

The body is truly the partner of the soul.
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We are always enmeshed with our bodies, but how much time do we spend concentrating solely and entirely on them. Most of the time, our consciousness is focused outside of ourselves or immersed in our thoughts. Countless bits of external information enter through our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin, constantly stirring up thoughts and feelings. Our ability to focus on the body drops as busy thoughts whirl around in our heads.

Why is connecting with the body important? Our soul exists in our body—or, to be more precise, in our chest. To connect with the soul in our heart, our mind must come into our body. And if we don’t have good communication with our body, it’s difficult to hear our body’s voice telling us what it needs to be healthy.

Connecting with the body means calling our awareness into our body by focusing entirely on it. There are many different methods for doing this, like walking or exercising by consciously moving the body as in yoga, tai chi, or qigong. Even during such practices, however, it’s easy for your mind to look outward; you look at the scenery or other people, or think about this and that. It’s an important part of the practice to catch yourself and recognize where your awareness is focused. Once you do, you can bring it inside the body once again. Focusing on the body’s feeling while exercising, either physical or energetic sensations, helps keep your attention inside you.

I’ve devised many training methods and movements for connecting with the body. Two I consider the simplest and most effective are Toe Tapping and Belly Button Healing.

These movements are so simple that you can learn them in a minute, but within their simplicity are hidden profound principles. For both of these exercises you repeat simple motions, creating a frequency. Nothing is more effective than vibrational frequencies for calming a brain filled by continuous, buzzing thoughts, and for calling awareness into the body.

You have probably experienced this in your daily life. What do you do to put a baby to sleep? You hold it in your arms while bouncing it gently up and down, pat it rhythmically on the chest with the palm of your hand, or rock its cradle. Those repetitive motions create comfortable vibrations that eventually put the baby to sleep.

And this works for grown-ups, too. Have you ever sat in a rocking chair, your mind gradually growing calmer as you rocked back and forth? Or sometimes, when your mind is anxious and impatient, you shake your legs without even realizing it, or stand up and pace back and forth. Such repetitive movements help relax your tension and release your anxious thoughts and feelings. Amazingly, our bodies do these things automatically. That’s probably because we were created so that our bodies and brains are automatically relaxed by comfortable, repetitive vibrations.

Toe Tapping and Belly Button Healing have another thing in common besides repetitive vibration, and that’s breathing. Vibrate repetitively for a while, and before you know it you’ll find yourself exhaling through your mouth. By repeatedly tapping your toes or pressing your belly button, you’ll discover that you’re continuously exhaling the energy that had stagnated inside you, stifling you—the energy of thought and emotion.

After driving out your body’s stagnant energy this way, you replenish yourself with clear, clean energy by controlling your breath, making it smooth, even, and deep. It’s amazing how comfortable and deep breathing becomes through these exercises. Thoughts and emotions grow calm, and you start to feel life itself through your breath.

Toe Tapping

Lie in a comfortable position with your legs straight and the insides of your heels touching.
Bring your feet together so that the inside of your big toes tap each other.
Then use your entire leg, up to your hip, to swing your feet outward in an arc until your little toes tap the floor. Try to keep your heels together as you do this.
Repeat these motions. Find a comfortable rhythm.
As you do Toe Tapping, keep your awareness on the sensation of your toes.
Exhale any tension you have out your mouth.
Try at least 100 taps, but you can do Toe Tapping for five minutes or more.

Belly Button Healing

Use a tool or your fingers to repeatedly and gently press your navel over your clothing.
Relax your shoulders and abdomen as you press. You do not have to press in deeply.
Focus your awareness on the sensations in your abdomen.
Press more gently if you experience some pain or discomfort. Simply rub your abdomen or press around instead of directly on the belly button if it’s too painful.
Practice at least 100 presses or for five minutes or more.

Practicing either or both of these exercises daily will help you experience what it means for your mind to stay completely in your body. I especially recommend doing them after waking up and before going to sleep.

Next week, I’ll show you how to connect to your soul through meditation. Sign up for my newsletter below if you want this information sent directly to your Inbox.

Finding Joy in Small Things, One Day at a Time

Nowadays, much of my time in between web conferences is spent developing a farm and trails in the Far North region of New Zealand. I’ve planted seeds for hwangchil (dendropanax) trees and other crops and made new hiking trails and meditation spots.

I also take care of the many animals who now call this land their home. There are horses, goats, chickens, cats, and dogs. Here, people and animals live in harmony and love and cherish each other.

The black cat, Eda, likes to leave presents on the doorstep. I believe she’s showing us her affection and loyalty. There is also a chicken who is a founding member of the farm. His name is Tao. That’s the third name we’ve given him. He offers a greeting in the morning from outside the window and waits for me to come and feed him. He is a very independent guy who stands guard over the house with dignity. His special talent is that he can fly up over 50 meters and demonstrate aerial stunts.

Our four cows come running whenever I come by to give them some bread. But I have to scold the brown one, Hwangnamie, who is particularly greedy. I’m training him to share the food.

There are two white cats named Mameh and Ogi. They’re twin sisters who love goat milk. Among the cats, Ogi, the one with the grey nose, is the most active. I think she’s going to do something big someday.

The four goats are still young. The newest baby is called White Snow. He’s widely popular and has become the mascot of the farm. I finally succeeded in training the baby goats to nurse.

As an animal caretaker, farmer, and steward of the Earth Village, I’m designing my life in New Zealand by remaining free from thoughts and ideas. With my awareness present in each moment, I keep my mind clear and stay connected to my true nature as I move diligently through my day.

Each day is a new day that I create. Although my day is filled with small actions, I celebrate each success. I’m happy as I envision the people who will visit this place in the future and discover the beauty and harmony of their inner nature amid nature’s beauty and harmony.

Designing one day is designing a whole lifetime. Making a single happy day is possible for anyone. Being happy your whole life is going to be harder, but you can make one day happy. Those single days add up and become a lifetime. All you have to do is start with today, right now, and be happy right now.

That energy of happiness, the power of creation, changes your destiny. The one who makes you happy is none other than you yourself.