Dahn Yoga Health Centers in Nevada

You are not simply your thoughts, habits, memories, emotional responses, triggers, and biases. That would be like saying a computer is merely a collection of microprocessors and disk drives. But a computer, properly assembled, becomes a tool for writing this book, sending people into space, or changing the world. So too are you not simply the sum of the three parts of your brain, but their combined potential. It is possible to view the transition periods of later life not as crises but as opportunities to redefine the person you are. Brain Integration fuels that redefinition.

Brain Integration unifies the disparate centers of your brain, restoring the flow of energy and renewing communication. The process allows you to let go of the sense of self that depended on aspects of your life that have changed, and empowers you to create a new identity based on today—your new pursuits, relationships, and passions.

Imagine being able to shed your outdated sense of self and to let go of the unwanted influence of other people and events. You become free to decide what parts of your new life will define you and to July experience your emotions without fear. Brain Integration establishes new, robust connections between your three brain centers and the hemispheres of your brain—the linear and analytical left brain and the creative and intuitive right brain. You will be able to unleash your creativity, control your emotions, and approach situations from both a rational and intuitive perspective.

Instead of a brain fragmented by traumas during the aging process, you will find your lifetime of experiences and knowledge meshing like the parts of a wonderful machine, carrying you to new levels of insight, including:

*    Expanded awareness of your environment
»    A sense of the oneness of existence
*    Greater self-awareness
*    The development of new talents
*    Deeper, more satisfying emotional relationships
»    Greater wisdom

Older individuals who practice Brain Integration frequently find themselves attracted to new pastimes and activities, discovering new life purposes, and healing their relationships with friends and family. Who knows, vou might discover a love for writing vou never knew you had, decide to mentor a young scholar, or join a new7 circle of friends who are on the same life journey as you are. Brain Integration is challenging, but once vou have completed the first three steps, you will be ready.

At this level, BEST is all about three skills:

a.    Being fully aware of your emotions and moods

b.    Cleansing troubling, harmful emotions from your mind

c.    Developing the ability to change long-term temperament patterns

It is a myth that our emotions are beyond our control. Those who claim this are really saying, “I choose not to exercise control over my feelings.” Often this attitude is born of a sense that negative emotions are just part of who we are—that feeling persistently angry or sad is something that just comes through the hard knocks of life. But how sensible is it to continue harboring such ideas when they wreak havoc on our bodies and our energies? The path oi personal wisdom is to harness the brain’s great powers of self-awareness—the watcher watching the watcher—to uncover the hidden patterns of mood and emotion that we bear within us and change the way we view the world. We have the power to change our set points, as it were. Have you ever wondered how some families living in poverty in the inner city or in a small village in the Third World can live with so much joy? It’s because their set points are modest. They have each other, food to eat, a roof over their heads, and, often, their faith. That is all they need. What do you need to truly be happy and at peace with this life?

Let’s differentiate between emotion and mood. Our marvelous brains recognize emotions from the time we are born. Feelings become hardwired into our neural connections long before we can manage the complex dance of cognitive thought and language. Emotion is like weather; it is what we feel in the moment as we encounter the conditions and people in our lives. Mood is like climate; it lingers and engulfs us. Thus, we say, “He’s in a bad mood.” Moods are emotion made persistent and can go on for an hour, a day, or even develop into a life-long disposition. Sometimes, when a melancholy mood becomes dark and helpless and hopeless, and persists for a long time, it is called clinical depression.

All about Ilchi lee’s research, thanks.

Dahn Yoga’s founder Prof Ilchi Lee is famous as brain educator. The subject of this chapter is Brain Refreshing, the process of releasing negative emotional residue and letting go of past traumas. The goals: a more positive state of mind and greater, more productive control over your thought patterns.

Negative thought patterns are a major source of stress, and stress is the most common mental problem of our time. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, our hominid ancestors developed stress response systems that were designed to flood their bodies with powerful hormones in the face of a threat—an attacking bear or a dangerous deer hunt on the plains, for example. Those chemicals produced a wave of very useful physical and mental changes: more blood flowed to the heart and brain, the pulse raced, the skin temperature dropped, muscles tapped reserves of sugar energy, the brain sharpened and quickened. These responses were very important if you were a hunter-gatherer looking to outrace a wounded bison or fend off a hungry wolf. In this setting, the fight-or-flight response was very healthy.

However, attacking animals are rare in our modern world, and hunts on the plains are even rarer. Our mighty brains and our knack for technology have enabled us to become a race that uses its mind, not its muscle. We are farmers of information and hunters of data now. Rather than tracking prey in woodlands, we sit at desks in cubicles. Yet in terms of evolutionary time, we’re just a few ticks of the clock from those seven days, so our physical nature has not changed much. Back then, when the danger was over, our stress response was too. Our bodies relaxed to conserve energy. But today, under the pressures of work and traffic and debt and politics and war, our stress response is on overload. Many of us are “stressed out.” Chronic, long-term stresses are our problem, and that fight-or-flight response does more harm than good. Those potent hormones are being dumped into our bodies constantly, which is not what nature intended.

As a result, our immune systems suffer. Our blood pressure spikes. We develop migraines, anxiety, and depression. In the short term, the stress response helps us. But chronic stress, hours every day, causes deterioration of both the body and the mind. And yet how easy it is to cleanse ourselves of such damaging effects! In chapter one you learned how to release tension from your body, but it is all for naught if you do not also learn how to release emotional tension from your mind. It is really a matter of choosing positive emotions to replace the negative, which is essentially what Brain Refreshing is all about.

One quick way to do this is to follow the old adage, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Research shows that laughter reduces levels of at least four of the common stress hormones. A short, intense walk (it doesn’t even have to be one mile long) can clear stress hormones from your bloodstream. And the simple act of taking a breath—something we do thousands of times each day without thought—can sweep away stress, relaxing the body and allowing it to rest and heal. But in today’s world, even the simple act of proper breathing becomes difficult, as our bodies become full of stress-related tension. What’s needed is deliberate attention to our breathing, emotions, and actions. Living consciously to shape one’s emotions and attitudes is the next step in BEST.

When you take a walk, try shifting your focus from one sense to another. Our normal habit is to rely on the information given to the brain primarily through the eyes. This habit deprives your brain of the chance to develop and maintain your full range of senses throughout life.

So, instead of focusing only on visual information, try focusing on your other senses, one at a time. Try tuning in to your ears, recognizing and isolating as many distinct sounds as you can. Then do the same for your sense of touch—feel the breeze on your skin and the warmth of the sun penetrating your body. And continue with your sense of smell and even taste. Doing so will help to stimulate various parts of your brain and help you to keep your walks interesting and new.

What is more ingrained in the brain than handedness? To really challenge your brain, try doing everything with your nondominant hand, including writing. It may be difficult at first, but you will feel your capacity to use another part of your brain improving as your coordination improves.

CREATIVE SHAPES

Take a look at these shapes. How many different objects do you see? If you think three, look again. Think of things that the shapes remind you of— maybe the square is a TV and the circle is a penny. Draw on the following shapes to turn them into something new.

1.    EXERCISE REGULARLY.

Brisk cardiovascular exercise brings rich, oxygenated blood to the brain. Ilchi Lee advice aged people that they  should get at least 30 minutes of heart-pumping exercise 3 times a week. Also, do strength training at least twice a week, because muscle development also produces more energy for the brain.

2.    REDUCE STRESS.

Stress is a major cause of illness, thanks to the effects of the hormone cortical. Too much cortical can wear down the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory function. Yoga Exercise and meditation can help.

3.    GET PLENTY OF SLEEP.

Sleep deprivation is the number one cause of fuzzy, disjointed mental function. Studies show that people who get at least eight hours of sleep each night can avoid some age-related brain decline.

4.    EAT LOW-FAT AND HEALTHY.

Glucose spikes and fatty plaque deposits that accompany overeating can damage the brain. A lower-calorie diet promotes better circulation and also controls weight, leading to lower blood pressure.

5.    GIVE YOUR BRAIN A WORKOUT.

Try to do or learn something new each week, whether you are writing a letter with the hand you do not usually use or developing your knowledge of a new language. Challenging the brain with novel tasks and activities creates new neural pathways, makes it more versatile, and improves its multitasking ability.

The word jangsaeng is a Korean word used by Professor Ilchi Lee that roughly translates as “longevity.” However, the word in English does not quite carry the same connotation. For us, longevity primarily means long life in respect to passage of time. But the Korean word suggests not only living many years, but also living them in a truly vital way. Jangsaeng person carry a youthful vitality into their older years that may be otherwise missing in their peers. To have Jangsaeng, you must have much more than long life. Jangsaeng people have a spring in their step and twinkle in their eye that is an inspiration even to the youngest ones around them.

In the West, we have done much to promote longevity. People today are living longer and longer as Western medicine advances. But extended life span should not be the only goal. It is more important that we live more fulfilling, happy lives, not just longer lives. This book exists to promote Jangsaeng, a lifestyle that promotes a positive, healthy living through awareness and utilization of the brain.

In the appendix, you will find a description of Jangsaeng Walking and Dahn Exercises (page 179), a way of walking that keeps the body and the brain energized and youthful. This is one example of how the things we do evervdav, such as walking, have great impact on the quality of life. All the information in this book is meant to promote the Jangsaeng lifestyle by helping people get the most out of their brains in their later years. Please use it to create a Jangsaeng Brain and a Jangsaeng Life.

Before we move on to the steps of BEST, a word of wisdom about changing the way vou think right now. One of the blessings of the aging brain is that you have a deep reservoir of existing knowledge that helps you gain immediate perspective on a situation.

This means that you have the insight to savor a particular moment in time, a kind of insight that a younger person often lacks. Whereas young people are usually looking toward the future and the next hurdle with little regard for the present, your time-tested perspective allows you to pause and truly be in the moment, which is where all of life’s true delights arise. But this is not a characteristic restricted to those of retirement age. No matter in DahnHak what your age, you can train your mind to perceive and live in the moment. In part, that is what BEST is all about: extracting all the learning, delight, and peace each moment has to offer, then moving on to the next.

According to Ilchi Lee Brain Respiration rules, training your brain to approach life in this way will make your maturity a marvelous adventure. Instead of experiencing a decline, you will relish the vivacity that few people of any age genuinely experience, because you will have made the most of your brain’s unlimited potential.

It might take as long as thirty minutes to an hour to experience your first vibration. However, with practice, you will be able to significantly shorten the time it takes to ignite a bodily vibration. Since vibration is a physically demanding process, it is wise to practice with an experienced trainer. It is generally recommended that the strongest vibration be limited to ten continuous minutes or less.

To begin, if you want to learn about DahnYoga, it is necessary for you to consciously ignite the vibration process, not letting your conscious awareness go until the vibration has taken your body. When you have become more “skilled,” it will be possible to control the strength and flow of the vibration. Self-Vibration is not an exercise of abandonment. You can and must remain in control of yourself, just as you control the accelerator when driving a car. Self-Vibration requires you to immerse yourself in a sea of vibration, and control the flow ot the vibration while remaining in its currents. This is not dichotomous but is all part of the same process.

Samultiori, the indigenous rhythmic music of Korea, and the indigenous music of many cultures in the world are powerful art forms to induce vibration. Although music can be used to ignite vibration, do not rely on it. Instead, rely on the sensation of naturally occurring vibration coursing through your body. Ride this sensation to enter deep into the rhythm of life.

Self Vibration Research By Prof. Ilchi Lee

There will be a point by Ilchi Lee during the Self-Vibration Exercise, when you will be most active. This is the apex of your vibration training session. Some people take five to ten minutes to reach it while others take twenty minutes or more. An apex can occur several times during a session. This apex can be physical, mental, or both. A physical apex is the point when every single cell joins in the overt vibrating dance of the body, with bones aligning and finding their proper place automatically. A mental apex can be defined by a feeling of the walls ot consciousness having disappeared, so that you feel you have become a bright light of awareness. Such a sensation is a powerful spiritual awakening. While your experience of the apex of self-vibration may not be strong enough to bring you the experience of ultimate Oneness, the vivid experience of lite energy brought about by the Self-Vibration can activate the energy of your body, including your brain. Self-Vibration is a powerful tool using vibration to enter the world of the energy of life that resides in the brain stem.

Find all about Dahn Hak and Dahn Yoga.

Simple, repetitive motions and sounds allow the circuits of the neo-cortex to rest. We cannot rest while we are engaged in complex and difficult movements. When you move a sack of rice this way and that, the rice tends to sink to the lowest point in the sack. When you move your body naturally to and fro, your energy tends to drift down and gather in the lower Dahn-jon without any special effort on your part. As your energy finds its natural center in your lower abdomen, you will find your motions becoming larger and more pronounced, as you sink into a deeper state of relaxation.

People often mistakenly believe that resting is more comfortable than moving. However, the opposite is actually true. The human body is meant to be in motion. Activity is the natural state of our being. Our lives become stagnant by forcibly repressing the naturally occurring motion of our body. Now, let us allow it to fully express itself and observe what movements it produces. You will soon notice that the motion will follow the flow of energy and will seek to strengthen weakened parts of your body. It will reinforce the sturdy parts, and heal the painful parts of your body. Natural body motions will work to restore balance in the body.

Don’t try to control your breath. Let it flow. You will notice that your breath has a rhythm of its own. In the midst of Self-Vibration Exercise, you will find that the focal point of your body shifts continuously. From the elbow to the knee, from the heels to the leg… this is part of the body’s process for healing itself, restoring its natural balance. All this process will help you for Dahn Yoga training.

In order for the Self-Vibration Exercise to be successful as Dr. Ilchi Lee says, you have to have an open mind. You cannot be conscious of your body’s vibration, thinking it to be strange, for such thoughts will impede the natural flow of energy and movement of your body. You must experience the vibration with your body, without analyzing it with your intellect. Imagine a large boat slowly sinking into the ocean. Likewise, let your awareness sink into your own body. Then you’ll find that your awareness is not separate from, but in tune with the vibration that is coursing through your body. Release any self-consciousness that interferes with giving free rein to naturally occurring movements of your body. Don’t be bothered when stray thoughts and emotions come into your mind. Just let them pass by.