Chi Kung/Tai Chi Intervention for IBS 2020

Hello again Mind-Body Practicioners.

I want to share with you this short Tai Chi form I designed as part of a Chi Kung/Tai Chi intervention for a pilot protocol at MGH to help deal with IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, its side effects and symptoms.

Front view

Side view

This Chi Kung/Tai Chi intervention is divided to 4 categories:

• Self-massage and dissolving Visualizations

• Freeing the skeleton and building strength

• A short Tai Chi Form

• Cleansing and Nourishing Meditations, sitting and standing

This mind body intervention emphasizes many important principles and techniques from both Chi Kung and Tai Chi with a strong focus on first balancing the five building blocks of our being, Body, Breath, Mind, Energy and Spirit, and then harmonizing them with the three forces, Heaven, Human and Earth.

Some of the Chi Kung & Tai Chi principles, techniques and benefits integrated in this intervention for IBS

• The Up and Down Exercise from a chair as well as the low stances while preforming the Tai Chi form to increase muscle mass and bone density.

• Touching the tongue to the roof of your mouth, throughout all 4 categories, to increase saliva which is an important part of our digestive system.

• Deep breathing to increase oxygen intake and nourish every cell in your body which may help with fatigue and sleeplessness while also helping to calm down the diaphragm and nervous system.

• The gentle arm movements in the Tai Chi form together with the coordination of the movements of the abdominal and back muscles increase flow and movement, strengthen your core and gently massage your internal organs to remove stagnation and increase circulation throughout your entire physical and energetic body.

• Deep, nose-breathing is emphasized to reduce swallowing air which may reduce gas.

• Tai Chi is a moving meditation. Emptying your mind and achieving deep levels of relaxation, the brainwaves between awake and asleep or meditation may lead to a positive hormone production, a stronger immune system and an awakening of a healing force from within.

• Visualizing your Lower Energy Center when practicing the Tai Chi form to upgrade your energetic system.

• Tapping into the power of the mind and dissolving impurities and stored traumas from the entire physical and energetic body.

• The Cleansing move at the end of the Tai Chi form to lead and deposit impurities into the stars while evoking your spirit.

• May also help: Constipation, diarrhea, reducing pain, depression, anxiety, cramping, swelling, bloating and inflammation.

Conclusion

We are just in the pilot phase of research at MGH. Our goal is to test, observe and scientifically prove which principles and techniques from the eastern philosophies, Chi Kung and Tai Chi, really work and which do not, specifically for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, its side effects and symptoms.

I have a saying that I am not going to wait for science to tell me that I can take an active role in my healing. I am not going to wait until science finds out that I can tap into the power of the mind and that together with stretching, deep breathing and evoking the spirit I can make a difference in my healing and well being. Or as my mom says: Rami, if it does not hurt, why not try it.

Here you can learn and experience some of the other components of the intervention

Empty full moon Article

Lower Energy Visualization Video

Cleansing Meditation Article

Iron on the Wall Video

Vitamin “H” Video

The Chair Twist Video

The Up and Down Video

There are more parts to this mind body intervention which I hope to release in the future.
You can find a lot more information in my Sunrise and Sunset Tai Chi books and DVDs.

My Scientific publications with Chi Kung and Tai Chi

• The New England Journal of Medicine A Randomized Trial of Tai Chi for Fibromyalgia

• The British Medical Journal Effect of Tai Chi versus Aerobic Exercise

• WCVB 5abc Chronic Pain may be Easier to Manage with Tai Chi than Aerobic Exercise

• Blog about other medical journal publications featuring Ramel Rones

Click here for Testimonials

Click here for Ramel Rones on YouTube

If you are interested in private lessons on zoom or facetime e-mail me at rami@ramelrones.com

Wishing you a Happy & Health New Year!

The Up & Down Forces or The 3 Spheres: Part 1

Welcome back Mind-Body students!

I would like to start our 2019 journey for Health and Martial Arts with a Mind-Body series about the Major Up & Down Forces, or the 3 Spheres which I refer to in my Sunrise Tai Chi book on pages 18 to 21 and in my Sunset Tai Chi book on pages 30 to 35. This series will help you understand the 3 Up Forces, the lumbar, the thoracic Spine, and the head suspended and the 3 Down Forces, relaxing your abdominal muscles, dropping your shoulders, and dissolving your face. These Up and Down forces will help you understand and be able to practice some important principles from the philosophy of Tai Chi, Chi Kung and Yoga.

ALIGNING & LENGTHENING YOUR SPINE

The first goal in this series is to start to create proper alignment through your spine. As you can see from the illustration the spine is not really straight. When you hear “Sit up straight” it is because so many of us collapse our spine when we stand and even more when we sit. This figure of speech is a great motivator to help you reverse this lazy, collapsing behavior. But it is much easier said than done!

The truth is that it takes years of learning and practicing in order to achieve proper alignment in all 3 parts of the spine.

So let’s start! Straighten your spine, please.

Correct spine alignment

In the Tai Chi philosophy to achieve optimal energy flow and martial power, Jing, correct alignment through the spine and the rest of the skeleton is key. When you can keep your spine aligned and not collapsed throughout your daily life and especially when fighting you have reached the level of a Tai Chi Master.

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It is common for people to collapse either one or all 3 parts of the spine: the lumbar, thoracic, and cervical which leads to compression of the neck and misalignment of the head.

Keeping your spine aligned and lengthened throughout the day has many health and martial benefits but it takes a lot of discipline and practice!

Maintaining correct alignment in the spine has many health and martial benefits such as reducing stress on the vertebrae and internal organs and promoting a strong, smooth flow of blood and energy and is essential for upgrading your energetic system and then transmitting power into your opponent.

Deep breathing and oxygenation are very important

When your spine is not lengthened and aligned properly, your lungs are compressed and you only utilize one third of their capacity.

Aligning your spine and utilizing your full lung capacity, breathing deep, gives you many health benefits such as reducing blood pressure, anxiety and stress.

Deep breathing has been scientifically proven to affect the heart, brain, digestive and immune system in positive ways and is beneficial for full oxygen exchange or trading incoming oxygen with outgoing carbon dioxide.

Correct spine alignment also allows optimal flow and function for your internal organs.

Challenge 1: The first 2 Major Up Forces - The lumbar & thoracic spine

I challenge you to sit, stand, and walk with a straight, lengthened and aligned spine as much as possible. Imagine lengthening up into the clouds.

You can practice sitting, standing or when walking or running. You can practice in the car, at your desk, when exercising at home or at work.

Sit on the edge of a chair, or, if possible, on the floor

Close your eyes

Lengthen your spine and take deep breaths

Calm and empty your mind

Remember to breathe in and out through your nose

From my books Sunrise Tai Chi and Sunset Tai Chi

Try to practice 3 times a day for 3 to 5 minutes

Sit on a chair or on the ground

Deep breathing will help you Empty your Mind

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In Chi Kung philosophy the breath is one of the tools, or a banana, for capturing the Monkey mind, or emotional mind. Capturing the emotional mind is referred to as Seizing the Monkey (lecture at Dana Farber about the monkey and the horse mind, 6 minutes).

For some people, sitting, lengthening the spine, breathing deep and emptying the mind is easier than for others.

If you find you are having a hard time emptying your mind by using only your quiet breath, I suggest you use a trick in the beginning to help capture the Monkey Mind.

After a few weeks of practicing with one of the tricks (enjoy the links below) the next challenge is to sit still in total quiet with no external or internal distractions using only your quiet breath to empty the mind.

Sitting in silence with water breath is harder because the monkey mind is more active when it is quiet.

Methods for capturing the Monkey Mind

Common methods for capturing the Monkey Mind are external sounds such as music, the sound of bells, or tibetan bowls.

Others prefer sounds from nature, such as calming waves, a running river or gentle rain.

For some, internal sounds work the best, like repeating a word or mantra: here is one for wealth!
(Of course, these sounds can be done vocally or mentally)

Engaging in prayer is another great tool for reaching the place of Thoughts with No Thoughts, an empty mind or meditation.

Enjoy some of my favorites! Christian, Native American, Jewish, Muslim, Gregorian.

Other methods are focusing on external visual objects - still ones or moving ones - when doing this exercise.

You can also find a page full of meditation practices on my start-up company CWellness with Jeff Sirlin
(You might need to create a free log-in to gain access).

For those of you who want to try doing this exercise while using an external moving visualization, the flame of a candle is a great visualization. It is used for both health and martial arts.

Candle Watching Meditation

In the Chinese martial arts I have been learning and practicing over the last 40 years there is traditional meditation training for the purpose of predicting or reading your opponents’ movements. To achieve this skill you can watch the smoke rising from incense or you can look at the flickering flame of a candle. I invite you to do it together with me.

Here is a link of me doing candle watching meditation for 3 minutes.

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If you are looking for more ways to stay motivated check out my online courses at Udemy.

• Martial Meditations: Reduce Stress & Make Better Decisions

• Tai Chi for a Focused Mind - Pure & Simple

• Improve your Physical & Mental Success with Tai Chi

Happy Stretching, Deep Breathing, Empty your Mind, Strengthen your Energetic System & Evoke your spirit!

Rami

Introduction to my Online Courses: Martial Meditations: Reduce Stress & Make Better Decisions

Only two more weeks for the blog this year, mind-body students! After next week, we’ll be on our holiday break until 2019! Today, we finish up the introductions to my mind-body courses with an introduction to my newest course.

My newest Udemy course is called Martial Meditations: Reduce Stress & Make Better Decisions. I used a different design philosophy when making this course, and decided to set it out in three sections.

The first section is a set of warm-up exercises that get your body ready for the meditation in section two.

The meditation is the main focus of the course, and is meant to be the part of the course that you can eventually extend to be as long as you want. After a while you won’t even have to re-watch the meditation. You can just follow along with the warm-up, and then get right into the meditation that you know well.

The third section is the cool-down. After every good meditation, you want to gently stretch and move the energy you have built up out into your body to nourish it and energize your mind. That’s how it helps you make better decisions. By making a regular mind-body practice out of this course, you will reduce your stress levels and be better equipped to make complex decisions in your professional and personal life.

What you’ll learn

By taking this course and making the techniques part of a mind-body routine, you should see improvements in their physical and mental health, as well as your professional performance!

Are there any course requirements or prerequisites?

• Basic mobility, such as being able to stand, walk, and sit for several minutes.

• You will need a wall, and a chair.

Who this course is for:

• Professionals looking to make better decisions and reduce their stress level.

• People who work in a high-stakes or competitive environment.

• Anyone who wishes to improve their overall quality of health and mental energy with a simple course.

This course is highly focused on developing one particular meditation technique with lots of supportive techniques and material around it. If that is the kind of program you think would work for you, then I highly recommend that you buy this course! If you think that you would like something more long-form, or with a focus on a particular part of the body, then definitely take a look at my other Udemy courses.

Until next week, happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!

Introduction to my Online Courses: Strengthen Your Immune System with Tai Chi and Qi Gong

Another week goes by, Mind-Body students! We are almost done with our introduction to my Udemy tai chi courses.

This week, we have one of my most interesting courses to introduce: Strengthen Your Immune System with Tai Chi and Qi Gong. The immune system is a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to defend the body against foreign invaders that can cause infection (from The National Institute of Health website). A compromised immune system can lead to the common cold, the flu, or other chronic health conditions and autoimmune diseases.

Some of the most promising studies of mindfulness and meditation from the past several years have suggested that a regular meditation practice can reduce immune-inhibiting inflammation, strengthen immune system cell defenses, and even slow the process of cell aging.

In this short course, composed of 19 lectures that span an hour of video time, we have packed as many immune-system boosting techniques as we could, while also keeping the length of the course something that you can review in a one hour session each day.

What you’ll learn

• Mind-Body techniques to boost the immune system

• Methods for deep relaxation

• Skills for managing stress, anxiety and mood / depression

• Prevention against sickness and the common cold

• Mindfulness practice to be more productive

• Improved concentration

Are there any course requirements or prerequisites?

• 15 to 30 minutes a day - For all knowledge levels. Beginner and up!

Who this course is for?

• Students of all ages

• Anyone starting or looking for a new job

• Professionals with demanding schedules and deadlines

• Athletes

• Medical Professionals and Care Takers

• Anyone seeking gentle exercises combined with deep breathing and meditation

• Cancer patients and families going through or recovering from treatment

That’s all for this week! Be sure to put this course on Strengthening the Immune System on your wish list this year! Udemy is always having great sales, so be on the lookout for a good price, and don’t miss out!

Until next week, happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!

Introduction to my Online Courses: Tai Chi for a Focused Mind - Pure and Simple

Welcome back, mind-body students! I hope you all had a happy, healthy holiday last week. Can you believe there are only a few weeks left before 2018 comes to a close? People are going to be preparing their New Years resolutions soon, and we all know how hard it is to stick to your resolutions.

A good way to stay disciplined and support yourself in your New Years resolution is to use one of my courses to guide you and make your learning and practice process easier.

This week, we’re doing an introduction to Tai Chi for a Focused Mind - Pure and Simple. I made this course as a nice middle ground between the long-form Tai Chi course and the 15 minute course. In this course, you will learn much of the same Tai Chi form as you would in the long-form course, but Focused Mind cuts out a lot of the extra stretches and meditations. That extra content might be something that you would find very valuable. But if you just want the distilled Tai Chi form, then the Focused Mind course is the one for you!

This course includes 72 lectures, each 3-5 minutes long. It totals roughly 3 hours of focused Tai Chi and Qi Gong content. There is also supplementary written material in each section.

What are the Requirements?

• An interest in becoming more fit, more flexible and more relaxed

• A small comfortable space in your house, apartment, office where you can learn and practice

• Willingness to invest 15 minutes a day, three days a week, to enjoy life more

What am I going to get from this course?

Do you want to become more focused, flexible, and relaxed? Don't have time for long workouts?

This course in nourishing Tai Chi forms for focusing the mind will show you how to do a Tai Chi routine in a simple, step-by-step proven method. Not one for all the extra philosophy behind the techniques? No worries. This course is purposefully abridged and focuses entirely on the forms.

The course begins with a short introduction to the goals for the course. Immediately after, you'll dive right into learning and practicing the Tai Chi form. At the end, we've included a bonus section of stretches and breathing exercises that will help you take the benefits of the Tai Chi form to the next level.

What is the target audience?

• Anyone interested in becoming stronger, more flexible and in reducing stress

• People with little time or interest in going to the gym and taking classes

• Weekend warriors

• People who travel frequently

That’s all for this week. Come back next week for another intro to another one of my courses!

And as always, happy stretching, deep breathing, empty your mind, strengthen your energetic system, and evoke your spirit!