Original Yang Tai Chi

Here is a wonderful Original Yang Tai Chi demonstration by Grandmaster David Chin.  You can see the power that can be harness through truly understanding and applying the principles of Tai Chi.

Sifu Chris Heintzman is the Chief Instructor under Grandmaster Chin and he currently has a Tai Chi Lesson One course available in our member’s area.  If you want begin learning the principles beyond a proper Tai Chi form I can’t recommend his course enough.

Join Now for instant access to Sifu Heintzman’s tai chi course!

PART ONE:

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PART TWO:

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PART THREE:

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PART FOUR:

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PART FIVE:

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PART SIX:

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“The Mystery of Chi” was filmed on location in Beijing and Shanghai and features David Eisenberg M.D., of Harvard Medical School, helping Bill Moyers to explore various aspects of traditional Chinese medicine. A specific focus of the program is on “Chi”, the energy or spirit at the core of much of Chinese medicine’s philosophy and practice.
The program opens with a tour of a Chinese hospital, which attempts to cure through either western medicine or eastern methods such as herbs, acupuncture, massage and meditation. The choice of eastern medicine, western medicine or a combination of both is left to the particular patient and doctors to decide.

The efficacy of Western science, as compared to the Eastern Chi energy is explored as is the possibility of placebo effect within Chi practice. A case is then made to show the basis of Chi, as much of China has already accepted it’s principles. The openness of the hosts to new concepts, where they may be of help to the ends of medicine, is apparent.

The hosts move to People’s Park in Shanghai to witness public displays of exercise/meditation by vast numbers of Chinese people. The beauty of the practitioners motion is evident. We meet a few Master’s, who know their Chi intimately, as a focus in maximizing their personal health.

Next, we meet a Taoist calligrapher who proclaims “If we follow Yin/Yang, we will not get sick” [such statements should be taken with a grain of salt], and that we should practice a centering to attain a spiritual balance in our life [at least this advice is practical].

The program, in closing, goes back to the hospital to witness a Chi Gong or energy healing treatment. Here skepticism seems a proper response, but it may also be that we just don’t have the experience with such energies in our culture, but that Chinese Masters, through their practice, do.

Either way, viewing the calming sobriety of this program is a pleasure, so it may be considered to be time well spent to those with an interest in the subject matter.

Here are a few examples of research done on Qigong Healing

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Most Tai Chi practiced in America is very weak, not at all like the art that was created 350 years ago by the Chen family in China. Recently, I read an Internet article listing 10 concepts you need to know to practice Tai Chi, but the teacher writing the article is teaching a weak version of the art.

The advice that most Tai Chi students receive from their teachers in America is wrong, but unfortunately, the students think it must be right and they’re learning high-quality Tai Chi. The teachers believe it, too. They do this because their teacher taught them a weak version of this art. The result — you meet their students and see quickly that they have no concept of body mechanics.

Here–briefly–is his list of top ten important things to focus on:

Concept 1: Tai Chi is done with an emphasis on every movement. Every movement must be connected to the next.

Concept 2: Maintain your shoulders dropped so that any tension will be eliminated.

Concept 3: Your wrists should be straight in order to maintain strength and a good flow of energy.

Concept 4: Learning to move ever more slowly is one path to increased cultivation.

Concept 5: Never let any hindrances stop you from being connected. In case you get disconnected, keep up with the motions.

Concept 6: In practicing Tai Chi, your knees must always be bent. Also you need to maintain your balance for your height not to bob up and down.

Concept 7: Power of Tai Chi will start from the feet going up to the legs, controlling the shoulders and will be expressed by the fingers and hands.

Concept 8: Your head must be maintained as if it was suspended on air.

Concept 9: Your chest must be depressed and your back should be raised but this must be done effortlessly.

Concept 10: Keep your breath to your body’s center of gravity, the dan tien; again this must be done effortlessly.

My Response to these Concepts

Most of these concepts are things that you need to know and do — but they are FAR from the top ten concepts you need. These are–in my opinion–things to think of after you begin focusing on the top concepts that you need to know.

Concepts 1 and 10 I can buy into. You must be connected through the body. As you progress, you should focus on the breathing with the dan t’ien, but that is NOT done effortlessly at first. It takes practice and focus.

Concepts 2 and three are just silly. Yes, you should relax your shoulders and “drop” them, and usually you try to keep the wrists straight. Focusing on the shoulders misses the mark. Students should be told to drop and sink their weight and relax everything, including the shoulders. At the same time, they must maintain ground and peng (see below).

Concept 4 is just wrong. Learning to move ever more slowly is the key? Actually, you learn to move properly in slow motion, you move faster and faster, learning fa-jing and how to apply the movements in self-defense. The more advanced you get, the more you are able to do the forms properly at both slow and combat speeds. Tai Chi is a martial art, first and foremost.

Concept 5 is a distraction. Don’t get distracted? Well of course. That also applies to reading a book.

Concept 6 is about bending the knees. This is another way to say relax and sink your weight.

He almost nails Concept 7. Power does start in the ground, travels through the legs — but he ignores the key concept that it is guided by the dan t’ien and then is expressed through the hands (or whatever part of the body is striking). Inserting the shoulders here is goofy. The power has to go through the shoulders but they are conduits for internal strength and should be kept out of play as much as possible except in certain circumstances involving kou energy.

Concepts 8 and 9 are pieces of advice told to all Tai Chi students. Yes, you keep your head up and balanced. The chest is slightly hollowed and the back slightly rounded but this is part of the whole body connection.

The Real Concepts You Must Focus on in Tai Chi

1. Establish and Maintain the Ground Path: All strength and power originates in the ground. You must maintain the ground connection throughout every movement, even the movements that some people call “transitions” (there are no transitions in Tai Chi, there are only fighting applications).

2. The Most Important Energy is Peng Energy and it Must Be Maintained At All Times: Peng requires the ground connection. It’s an expansive force, as if your body is inflated like a balloon. When you try to push a basketball or beach ball into a pool of water, peng is the feeling you get that — even though the ball is going into the water, pressure is building for it to spring back. Peng and the ground path must be connected through all movement. If it isn’t, you aren’t doing Tai Chi. Peng is involved in every “energy” in Tai Chi.

3. All Movement Must Be Connected Through the Body: Whole-body movement is crucial. Power should flow like a ribbon from the ground, connected. All I have to do is ask another Tai Chi person to grab me with both hands and pull me down. It becomes quickly obvious that they have no concept of whole-body movement.

4. Silk-Reeling is a Key Component of Tai Chi: It’s amazing how poorly this skill is taught, when it is one of the founding principles of Tai Chi. Yang LuChan would have learned it in the Chen Village before he created Yang style, but it has been lost. Some teachers actually say that silk-reeling happens when you “imagine” chi spiraling from the ground through the attacking hand. That’s wrong, too. Silk-reeling is a way of spiraling and moving power in a connected way through the body. It relies on the first three concepts (ground, peng and whole-body movement) plus the next two.

5. Dan Tien Rotation: Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang says Tai Chi is “One Principle, Three Techniques.” The main principle is “Dan Tien guides all movement and when one part moves, all parts move.” The three techniques are “dan tien rotating side to side; dan t’ien rotating over and back; dan t’ien rotating in a combination of these directions. Dan t’ien rotation must be involved in every movement.

6. Opening and Closing the Kua: Some past Tai Chi masters have said that “to understand the kua is to understand Tai Chi.” But I see Tai Chi players all the time who couldn’t find their kua with both hands because they’ve never been taught this concept. Every movement in Tai Chi involves opening one kua and closing the other in some way.

7. Maintain a Centered Stance: I saw a video recently of a guy teaching tai chi and he began Grasp The Swallow’s Tail. His right hip suddenly stuck out to the right and it appeared that the slightest push would send him off-balance. In Chen tai chi, standing stake is used to help you relax, sink, develop peng, build leg strength, tuck the hips slightly and remain centered — but then almost every movement in the form is performed to maintain a centered stance. In Chen Tai Chi, beginning students are made to hold stances while the entire class is corrected individually. Often, they collapse from leg fatigue. It takes a lot of strength to hold a centered stance. The better the stance, the harder it is to hold. And this is one reason you see such powerful legs on Chen masters. If you think pain is not involved in Tai Chi practice, you are not studying Tai Chi.

Those are my top concepts of internal movement. You add to this little things like keeping the head up, hollow the chest, keep the knees slightly bent, and the small things that help refine your Tai Chi.

Americans are prone to self-delusion. If a guy tells us he’s a master, we believe it and everything he says is the truth and it can’t be denied. And by golly if my master tells me I’m learning Tai Chi, then I’m learning Tai Chi.

Put these “masters” in front of the real deal and they crumble like a house of cards. In the meantime, they’re teaching Americans the wrong things, having them “cultivate chi” instead of learn to move properly. They focus on the trees — keeping the wrists straight and the shoulders sunk–and they ignore (or don’t know) the forest, where the real skills are. Too often, the teachers were not taught high-quality Tai Chi.

The best you can do for yourself is to NOT believe everything an authority figure tells you, but to investigate, research and compare, and don’t close your mind to the possibility that you just might be learning pretty poor quality Tai Chi.

Below is a true Tai Chi Master who lives in America.

Sifu David Chin

Tai Chi according to Wikipedia

The Miracle of Self-Initiated Healing

adapted from The Healer Within

by Roger Jahnke, OMD

In the amazing universe of Mind-Body Practice and Energy-Based Healing methodologies, there is one very profound bit of information that turns on our sense of the possibilities:

The human – spirit-mind-body – is naturally enabled to heal and even flourish in a state of enhanced wellbeing and vitality.  The most powerful healing elixirs (medicines) ever developed are produced naturally in the human system – for FREE!  We are empowered by nature and the architect of the universe to awaken and even master the capacity to cultivate self-healing energies and healing chemistries within us.

For some reason, we keep the fact that this is possible a secret from ourselves.  The amount of money wasted treating preventable disease is tragically immense – as much as $2 trillion annually in the US.

It is actually quite easy to activate (turn on), and for those who very attentive, it is possible to actually perceive the action of healing resources within, to feel the “healer within,” to sense healing energy (Qi).  Learning Qigong, Tai Chi and other Mind-Body may be the most important thing that anyone can do.  These practices make us all the more likely to experience healings and health recoveries that are not well understood by either science or conventional medicine.  In the near future we will either bring science to bear on how non-normal healing works or we may simply stop caring about how and just enjoy the gifts of self-healing that are available, when we cultivate self-healing mind-body practices.

The Message of Placebos, Remissions and Miracles

The placebo is the doctor that resides within.

-Norman Cousins

The placebo effect, spontaneous remissions and miracles provide rich food for thought regarding the “healer within” and the marvelous self-healing energies and resources that we may draw upon, cultivate and perhaps even create.  In each of these areas, healing occurs where no medical intervention has been utilized or where medical intervention has failed.  By exploring the research on placebo, remission and miracles, we gain two bits of wisdom.

First, it verifies that dynamic healing potential is produced spontaneously within the individual.  Second, it confirms that we can supercharge our self-healing practice by cultivating certain attitudes and emotions, states of mind or philosophical views.

The Placebo Phenomena

In 1985, I was honored to be invited to give a lecture to the Annual Medical Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona on my thoughts about the medicine within.  My research for that presentation led to the literature on the placebo, which I believe is one of the strongest bodies of knowledge confirming our natural self-healing capacity.  The concept of the placebo has been through several dramatic phases, just in recent history.  In Latin, placebo literally means “to please.”

In the 1800s and early 1900s, “placebo” described substances that appeared to be medicines, but had no clinical action.  Physicians would frequently administer a placebo, usually a sugar pill, when the patient’s healing process was progressing positively and nature needed a little more time to resolve the disorder. In more recent times, the use of placebo remedies has fallen from favor.

The word was then used to describe a process in clinical research, the “placebo effect.”  In research, the response of two groups is compared.  One receives the medicine or surgical procedure that is being studied.  The second, called the control group, receives an inert substance that appears to be the medicine or a surgical procedure but actually has no clinical effect.  If the group that receives the actual medicine or procedure has results that are significantly better than the control, then it is assumed that it is clinically effective.

A significant percentage of those who do not receive the actual drug or procedure typically experience improvement as well. This is called the placebo effect.  Patients who responded positively to inert substances or positive suggestion were termed “placebo reactors.” During this time in the history of health care, self-healing was seen as impossible and the placebo effect was nuisance to scientists.

In a unique review of data from older studies on innovative treatments for asthma, ulcer and herpes simplex, researchers from Scripp’s Clinic and Research Foundation discovered that 40% of patients reported “excellent” results, 30% reported “good” results and only 30% reported “poor” results, in other words a 70% effective rate (combined excellent and good).  This is generally considered to be solid confirmation that a medicine is useful.  Interestingly, however, these therapies were later found to be useless.  This means that 70% of the patients had exhibited the power of the placebo.  Their “excellent” and “good” healing results were completely due to the medicine within.

Bernie Siegel, MD, author of Love, Medicine and Miracles and Peace, Love and Healing, was asked to comment on the placebo during his term as president of the American Holistic Medical Association.  “The placebo effect,” he said, “can change the body chemistry and change the internal hormones.  It shows that mind and body is a single unit.  If you read a chemotherapy protocol with all of its side effects to a patient and then inject him with saline (no medicine, just a weak salt solution), the patient’s hair falls out!!”

One hundred years ago, the placebo mobilized the healer within openly.  Then, using the placebo to activate the medicine within became the sign of quackery.  Next, the placebo became an aspect of medical science that plagued researchers, a nuisance that complicated data.  Now, finally, the placebo is gaining attention as proof that the healer within is authentic.

The placebo is helping to redefine medicine in terms that declare the inherent power of natural, internal self-healing resources.  Does it work to use mind-body based energy medicine practices, such as Qigong and Tai Chi, to activate the placebo?  Absolutely yes!  However, it shifts the power from experts to oneself.  Many doubt that they could know themselves well enough to actualize the placebo phenomena without an expert.  Mind-body practice purposefully cultivates the necessary sense of personal empowerment that can mobilize the healer within plus the placebo effect.

Spontaneous Remission

The mechanisms of vis medicatrix naturae – the healing power of nature – are so effective that most diseases are self terminating.-Rene Dubos – Bacteriologist, philosopher

Spontaneous remission is the phrase typically used in the medical literature to describe cases where the disease is cured or resolved, but it is not understood how. In future decades the mechanism for spontaneous remission will be explored and understood. For now it is not so important how it happens, it is just enlightening that it happens.

When doctors acknowledge that a cure has occurred and then acknowledge that they don’t know how, it becomes evident that internal healing resources were spontaneously activated to cause the cure. The Institute of Noetic Sciences, in the 1980s, decided to explore the remission concept as a possible strategy to confirm the human capacity for self-healing.

Brendan O’Regan, then the vice president of research, began a systematic exploration of the medical literature for references to remission. To everyone’s amazement he found an immense number of references: three thousand articles from over 860 medical journals in twenty languages.

Some of the articles discussed hundreds of cases, so the over all number of cases actually reported in the medical literature turned out to be in the many thousands. “We have many cases of remission (1/5 of all cases),” O’Regan reported, “with no medical intervention at all. These are the purest ones, the ones that give us the strongest evidence that there is an extraordinary self-repair system lying dormant within us.” This historic analysis on the “remission” literature from the Institute of Noetic Science is a powerful confirmation the healer within.

As a part of their research the Noetic Sciences team actually tracked down a few of the people who were still living. Their insight is powerful teaching for our work with the self-healing methods. One of the cancer cases in the remission literature felt it was critical to, “keep my state of mind intact, no matter what.”

In another case, when one man was asked to what he attributed the remission of his cancer, he stated, “I really think it is our life, the way we experience our life.” This person’s story reveals the value of daily meditation, spousal support, massage, acupuncture, yoga, vegetarian diet and colon cleansing.

These stories are usually called testimonials. As with the placebo effect, remission testimonials have not until recently been in favor. Testimonials were historically seen as subjective and unverifiable. However, these are the stories of people documented in the scientific literature to have experienced the spontaneous remission of a dangerous disorder.

Can this information be an influential tool to create enthusiasm about self-healing methodologies? The stories of people in remission prove, perhaps even as powerfully as science, that self-healing is an undeniable and fully accessible promise.  The findings on remission demonstrate that a natural healing power is available. Qigong, Tai Chi and other self-maximizing self -practices are the most profound way to activate the medicine within.

Miracles

There are two ways to live your life.  One is as though there are no miracles. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein – physicist, mathematician, philosopher.

The capacity to produce a healing resource, an elixir within, is a kind of miracle. To some a miracle is a natural occurrence that we do not yet have the knowledge to understand. George Santayana a modern philosopher noted, “Miracles are fortunate accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood.” Certainly, the ability to fly would have required a miracle in previous eras of history, now air travel is a common occurrence that is readily understood.

In the early 21st century, the miracle of self-healing is almost as clearly understood as well. There is a second view of miracles that point to the supernatural and the divine. Miraculous outcomes credited to God’s love and angelic presences are very common throughout history. In a fascinating study of miracles Carolyn Miller, PhD has looked into hundreds of unexplainable situations. In her book, Creating Miracles: Understanding the Experience of Divine Intervention, she concludes that miracles are frequently supernatural events.

Miller was able to condense from numerous real cases, a formula for eligibility for a miracle. She calls it miracle mindedness. “Inner peace leads to miracles, the decision to shift into a loving, peaceful, accepting mental state is a necessary precondition for miracles, miracles do not produce faith, faith produces miracles.” In the Book of Luke, in the Christian Bible, Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid, just believe and she will be healed.” The formula asks that we be at peace. This, in some way, creates the possibility for a miracle.

In our quest to understand self-healing and the empowering resources that we spontaneously produce within, it is not so necessary to know how miracles work. It is enough to know that they actually occur. The shrine of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in France marks the place where an apparition of the Holy Virgin appeared in 1858. Since then 6000 claims of miraculous healing have occurred.

It is easy enough for miraculous claims to be made, how do you prove a miracle? In 1947 an official commission was formed to qualify whether actual miracles were occurring. The 25 member International Medical Commission is comprised of medical professionals from a broad array of medical specialties from nine countries. They follow a strict 18 point protocol. A correct diagnosis must have been made, the disease must be serious, no sign of psychosomatic influence can be present, spontaneous remission must not be a possibility, medical treatment must have failed completely, the cure must be fully confirmed and the time since the cure must be significant.

With this rigorous set of guidelines in place 64 “certified miracles” have been documented. The 25 physician members of the International Medical Commission have agreed that there is no way that these cases could have achieved a cure without some supernatural influence that is contrary to the observations and expectations of medical knowledge. The cures include the disappearance of tumors, blindness, paralysis and even the regrowth of bone in a case where the hip joint had deteriorated so severely that the leg and pelvis had become separated.

Miraculous healings may be natural events that we cannot yet understand. Or miracles may be direct interventions by supernatural forces, angels or God. In either case the healing occurs by mysterious mobilization of natural resources within the person.

What a gift we have in the energy based mind-body practices of Qigong/Tai Chi (Qi) and Yoga (Prana). And the most thrilling this is that becoming “prone” to miracles is very accessible with mind-body practice that activates the physiology at the same time as cultivating right mindedness in the psychology.

An Extraordinary Turning Point

We are spot on — at an extraordinary turning point in human development. Science has begun to honestly explore mysterious concepts that only recently were considered unscientific – in addition to placebo, remission and miracles there is emerging science on the energy body, turning back the cellular clock, the illusion of time, etc.

Shining the light of science on the placebo, spontaneous remission and miracles has demonstrated that the mysterious can be verified even if it is not understood. It is exciting to know that the placebo is taking on a more positive definition, that one-fifth of the cases in 8,000 medical articles on remission are “pure” and that a 25 member international team using an 18 point criterion has found 64 “certified miracles” at Lourdes.

Placebo, remission and miracle are areas of radical breakthrough. They change the rules. They confirm the presence of the healer within. They suggest that our practice of self-healing methods can mobilize the internal capacity for self-repair and health recovery. And — they point to the value of the body, mind and spirit interaction.

Mind-Body Practice — Qigong, Tai Chi and other forms of practice, which mobilize the healer within  — are very accessible and practical ways to accelerate the likelihood of healing, disease prevention, the renewal of vitality and the reversal of aging.

A Historic Opportunity

Consider consciously taking part in your own remission. Make miracles for yourself, because you are allowed to. Decide to turn on the power of the placebo.

Why not become a teacher of Qigong and Tai Chi? Be a part of the revolution in health care and medicine where people of all walks of life learn to turn on the healer within. Spread the word! A new era of health, wellbeing and life potential is emerging. We are the ones who will bring this about.

About the Author Dr. Roger Jahnke

[Roger Jahnke, OMD, has practiced clinical acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine for more than 25 years. He has traveled and studied extensively throughout Asia, visiting hospitals, universities, temples, and sacred mountain retreats to deepen his understanding of the healing traditions of Qigong, Tai Chi, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and natural feng shui. Author of two of the best-selling books on qigong, The Healer Within and The Healing Promise of Qi, as well as the acclaimed DVD, Qigong-Chi Kung: Awakening and Mastering the Medicine Within, Roger is the cofounder of the National Qigong Association, and director of the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi (IIQTC).]

Websites

http://www.FeeltheQi.com

http://www.IIQTC.org

http://www.TaiChiEasy.org

Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi Certification Overview

http://www.instituteofintegralqigongandtaichi.org/certification/overview.htm

Qigong and Tai Chi Events Led by Dr. Roger Jahnke

http://www.instituteofintegralqigongandtaichi.org/calendar/

We hope you enjoyed this article on self-healing!

I am passing on this advice from Michael Winn regarding one of the best times to practice to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

It’s that time of the year again, for those living on the northern half of the planet: long nights, darkness expanding to its maximum. A six month cycle of planetary Yin or “in-breath”, from Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice. The yang breath expands out as Spring and Summer.

That’s the annual solar cycle. But the two week lunar cycle of full and dark moons weaves in and out around this slower solar cycle. Together with the daily spin of the earth in 12 hour light and dark cycles, this sun-moon-earth trinity define the rhythm we call Time.

This year I’m celebrating the “power spot” of the Full Moon BEFORE the Winter Solstice. It’s Dec. 10 Full Moon that captures the intersection of the lunar and solar cycles closest to the Great Yin point of Winter Solstice on Dec. 21. This means, in simple language, that Dec. 10 is doubly powerful, as it captures the essence of the lunar cycle and solar cycle at a key moment in Time. So if you do a ceremony on Dec. 10, it’s effect (and your ritual intent) will be amplified.

Students of my Beta Qigong Class should practice the Qi Cultivation Technique and then meditate in darkness.  If you are not on my mailing list and want to experience the Qi Cultivation technique please sign up on my mailing list.

Winter Solstice is an essential time of year to increase your Qigong practice to protect yourself from excess cold and illness.

Training Tips for Going Deeper Into Tranquility

by Yang Yang, Ph.D.

Taiji insights sometimes come from unexpected places.  It happened to me earlier this year on a visit back home to Illinois. The occasion was a conversation with a good friend who had just retired from the University as a professor. I asked him how his life was now that he had retired. He said, “It is a special kind of feeling: I wake up in the morning without pressure to teach any classes, to meet any deadlines for grant application, to attend administrative meetings, to meet my graduate students . . . I do not have an agenda for today.” Afterwards, I wondered about that feeling because I had never experienced it. These days my efforts are focused on initiating more Taiji/Qigong research projects and disseminating our evidence-based Taiji and Qigong program. On a typical evening, I summarize what I have done during the day and come up with a list of what I am planning to do the next day. I wake up every day with a busy agenda.

Photo Courtesy of Alice Dodds

I usually practice my sitting meditation in the early morning for about 45 minutes. During the sitting session, thoughts about different projects and other issues pop up. I had been using different techniques to lead myself into tranquility. After the visit, I decided to try this method. At the beginning of my meditation, I now say to myself, I am retired and I do not have an agenda for today. I remind myself at the very beginning and a couple times during the sitting session. It is amazingly effective.

You might have heard the famous Chinese saying regarding the mechanism of Qigong healing: “Why does Qigong have a healing effect? It is because of song (mental and physical relaxation) and jing (tranquility of mind).” You may have practiced meditation for 20 or 30 years, and you may think you know relaxation well and you can enter into tranquility easily. You are correct, but you can go deeper by using this technique: say to yourself at the beginning of your meditation: I am retired and I do not have an agenda for today.

Everyone has his or her own favorite techniques for going into tranquility. This is simply another method you can try. It might generate additional Song and Jing. You might come out of your sitting session with a clearer mind and a better focus, and you might have a more tranquil and efficient day.

[Yang Yang, Ph.D. is one of the few individuals who are recognized within the traditional Taiji and Qigong community as a master practitioner and instructor, as well as an academic researcher who is using western science to explore evidence-based Eastern philosophy and healing arts. He is author of the highly acclaimed book “Taijiquan: The Art of Nurturing, The Science of Power”, and in 2006 was honored as the “Qigong Master of the Year” at the 9th World Congress on Qigong and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Yang trained in China under several of the 18th generation grandmasters of the Chen style – Chen Zhaokui, Gu Liuxin, and Feng Zhiqiang. He was a three-time Taiji champion at the Shanghai collegiate tournament and former instructor at the Shanghai Chen Style Taiji research association. To understand the power and mechanics of Taiji and Qigong beyond traditional explanatory frameworks, Master Yang completed a doctorate degree in kinesiology at the University of Illinois, where he remains as an adjunct faculty.  Dr. Yang is currently the Director of the Center for Taiji and Qigong Studies (Improve Meditation) in New York City.]

Hopefully this article from a Qigong Master will help you improve meditation.

Courage

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

~Alan Cohen

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Teow_Aun_Chew

Tao Te Ching