Dahn Yoga in ArizonaArizona Dahn Yoga Community Blog for Health, Happiness and Peace

Benefits: This exercise lengthens and strengthens the muscles of the spine. It enhances the nervous system and promotes optimal functioning of the vital organs in the body.

Note: Let your neck rhythmically follow the motion without pushing with your head. This is best performed on a lightly cushioned surface.

1.    Sit with your knees bent and clasp your arms around your knees. Round your spine to form a C shape. Slightly lower your head. Relax your neck and your shoulders.
2.    Gently roll back with your back softly touching the floor in order to stimulate your spine. Slowly and gently return to Step 1.
3.    Repeat 10 times.

ABDOMINAL CLAPPING

Benefits: Abdominal Clapping is a simple but effective method for strengthening the lower abdomen, especially the Dahn-jon. By rhythmically patting the lower abdomen with the palms of both hands, blood and energy is distributed throughout the entire body. Abdominal exercises will assist in the prompt removal of excess gases and waste from the body, and you will feel increased warmth in the Dahn-jon, as well. Note: Begin with 100 strikes. You may increase the number and force of the strikes with more practice.

1.    Spread your feet shoulder-width apart and end your knees slightly.
2.    Lengthen and relax your spine. Relax your shoulders, neck, and arms.
3.   Point your toes slightly inward and feel a slight tightening of the lower abdomen.
4.   Rhythmically strike the lower abdomen area with both palms.

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COMMON COLD OR FLU

Poong-mun (Wind Gate, BLiz): Two finger widths on either side of the second thoracic vertebrae. This is the most vulnerable point where cold and damp energy may initially enter the body. [Fig.13]

Dae-chu (Great Hammer, GVi4): Right below the 7th cervical vertebrae. You can locate this point by bending your head forward and finding the biggest bone where the neck and the shoulders meet. Place your finger right below this bone. Now return your head to an upright position. Make sure you find the point after the head has returned; when the head returns to an upright position, the location moves up slightly.

Joong-bu (Central Treasury, LUi): Place your middle fingers in the hollow areas directly below the protrusions of the collarbone just outside your upper breastbone. Press this point with your thumb or make a fist with your right hand with your thumb folded in and gently tap this point on the left side. Do this for one to three minutes and then switch sides. If this is too painful or if blockages still remain, rub the pressure points with the pads of your fingers.

Oon-mun (Cloud Gate, LUz): Just below the collarbone on either side of your shoulders. Press this point with your thumb or make a fist with your right hand with your thumb folded in and gently tap this point on the left side. Do this for one to three minutes and then switch sides. If this is too painful or if blockages still remain, rub the pressure points with the pads of your fingers.

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Meridians are channels along which energy flows in our bodies. As the land has waterways — large and small rivers and streams — bringing life to all things, so, too, the human body has large and small pathways along which energy flows. Meridians, however, are not anatomically visible to the eye. Nor are the meridians through which energy flows identical with the blood vessels through which blood flows. Flowing water is living and unspoiled. The energy flowing in our bodies has a nature similar to that of water. When our bodies overflow with energy, the flow of Ki and blood is enhanced, and we feel light and full of vitality. Conversely, if our energy is weak, or is blocked and flows poorly, blood circulation is also adversely affected; blood congestion occurs as dead blood congeals. This is the beginning of all kinds of diseases. Physical and psychological tension blocks Ki and blood flow. When blood flow is blocked, so are the meridians, which makes Ki circulation difficult.

The practice of moving Ki gathered in the lower abdomen of Dahn-jon, through the meridians to the entire body is called “Un-ki,” that is, “circulating Ki.” If Ki circulation is to work well, our bodies must first be relaxed and Ki must be accumulated in the Dahn-jon. We can use intention to circulate energy through the meridians once our stiff bodies have relaxed to a certain degree, we have accumulated Ki in the Dahn-jon, and we have developed powers of concentration. Cold Ki or bad energy leaves our bodies and fundamental healing of disease takes place at this stage. We also feel new energy rising in our bodies, as well as mental stability and peace.

The Governor Vessel flows upward along the backbone to the head and controls all Yang meridians. The Conception Vessel flows downward along a central line at the front of the body, connecting the lips, throat, chest and abdomen, and controls all Yin meridians. The Conception and Governor Vessels are considered very important as the remaining 12 meridians are thought to open naturally to the flow of energy once these two meridians are opened.

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According to “HanDanGoGi” one of the oldest surviving history texts of Ancient Asia, the Heavenly Code, or “Chun Bu Kyung”, dates back more than 9,000 years. It was first put into writing approximately 6,000 years ago using a form of writing that resembles a pattern of deer hoof prints. Transcription into ancient Asian calligraphy took place around 4,400 years ago, during the Ancient Chosen era. This was to be the first country recognized as precursor to modern Korea and Manchuria. This version was translated and recorded into modern Chinese calligraphy by Chiwon Choi, foremost scholar of the Shilla Kingdom of Korea’s Three Kingdom Era around 1,200 years ago.

Although it known as the “Heavenly Code,” it is not a religious text as it does not mention god(s) or outline a particular dogma. It is possible to interpret the Heavenly Code in countless ways, yet all interpretations contain the following three basic truths about the cosmos. First, everything begins with the One, and returns to the One, which has no beginning or end. Second, the One expresses itself as Heaven, Earth, and Human, all existing within the Human Being. Third, the Oneness of all must naturally express itself in actions that benefit all. In 2,334 BC, the kingdom of the Ancient Chosen called their kings Dangun. The Danguns interpreted the Heavenly Code as instruction to “Widely Benefit All Humanity” and “Rightfully Harmonize All the World,” designating it as the philosophical and political foundation of the kingdom.

Ilchi Lee articles on human brain.

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…while preparing your brain for Dahn Yoga exercise sit comfortably on a chair or on the floor. Raise your hands above your head, and cup your hands around your head without touching your head. Close your eyes and feel the energy from your brain.

Imagine that your hands and brain are interconnected. Pull your hands out a little, and then bring them closer in. Repeat this motion for several minutes. Imagine that your brain expands as your hands drift apart, and your brain contracts as your hands come closer in.

Now, coordinate your hand motion with the rhythm of your breath, moving in and out in sync with inhaling and exhaling.

Slowly, imagine that you lift your brain up with both hands and bring it down toward your chest.

By using your mind’s eye, observe which parts of your brain are hurt, distorted, or blocked.

Now, imagine a trickle of pure spring water washing over your brain, with cool freshness and purity.

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Brain Cleansing Exercise seeks to purify the negative and self-limiting memories of the past by using imagination and energy. The power to imagine is the most creative and the highest level function of our brain. Imagination, in itself, is a wonderful brain exercise program. In order to maximize the benefits ot Brain Respiration, it is important to maximize your imaginative abilities to draw the transformation process of the brain.

As you undergo Brain Cleansing Exercise for Yoga practice, you will recall many past memories, some of them painful and raw; this is a natural phenomenon of the ‘cleansing’ process of Brain Respiration. Do not seek to force the memories to disappear, watch them roll in front of you, as if you are watching a movie, and they will soon lose their power to negatively affect or limit you. Only when you put some distance between you and your memories that have been limiting you. will you be truly free from the invisible emotional prison that often acts as our internal glass ceiling.

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Brain Respiration stimulates the brain by utilizing our physical, energy, and information (spiritual) bodies. Previously, we examined these three bodies in relation to breathing. Now let us examine them as a means of exercising our brain.

Exercising the brain on a physical level means awakening the body’s senses. We normally think we taste with our tongue, feel with our fingers, and see with our eyes. However, in reality our eyes, nose, ears, skin, and tongue merely gather sensory information. We are able to see, smell, hear. feel, and taste because of our brain’s ability to register and interpret sensory information. Therefore, when you see, feel, taste, or hear something that you haven’t experienced before, you are awakening a previously dormant part of your brain with a fresh sensory stimulant. Introducing your body to different exercises and movements also stimulates your brain in new ways.

Most of us have a set pattern of movements and exercises.

Even those of us who work out on a regular basis follow a prescribed pattern of movement, unaware that we are doing so. This limited movement stimulates a correspondingly small fraction of the brain. When stretching parts of the body that we haven’t stretched before, or exercising in ways that are new to us, we are stimulating, exercising, and activating different parts of the brain. Exercising the brain on an energetic level means concentrating the flow of energy to the brain. When you begin to awaken your senses one by one, you will become sensitized to an underlying sensation that permeates all of your other senses. You will feel the flow of life energy that surrounds us. This conscious sensation of energy provides us with another channel to directly stimulate the brain.

Although the brain consists of billions of nerve cells that control every other part of our body, it has no ability to move itself. The brain itself has no muscles. In other words, there is no way to physically move or exercise the brain directly. However, we can stimulate and exercise the brain by using the flow of Ki energy with our newly discovered sensitivity to its emanation. Just as we can exercise the muscles in our arms and legs, we can exercise our brain by directing the flow of energy.

Exercising the brain on an informational (spiritual) level means supplying the brain with good, positive information. What is good information? Good information is creative, peaceful, and productive. Of all the information that we feed on every day, the most important type of information has to do with our identity. Who am I? What is my life’s purpose? Information that relates to these two questions is important because it determines the course of our lives and provides us with the basic motivation for all of our actions. Therefore, when good information about our identity is provided, our brain can fulfill its potential for infinite cre-ativitv.

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