Rami's Blog

Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.

 

The Energy Centers Meditation Routine

Some time last year we began a series of posts about meditating while visualizing your lower and upper energy centers, your energetic baton, and the energetic bubble. This will be the capstone post for the series, where we put everything together, finish up the energetic bubble,  and give you a routine for practicing that you can do in less than half an hour.

The Energy Centers Meditation Routine

1. The Lower Energy Center: Sit down comfortably on the edge of a chair. Touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth and begin to visualize a glowing ball, a little smaller than your fist, sitting two inches below your naval, and two inches back from the skin, toward your spine. If it helps, picture this energy center like a calm pool of clear water. Do this for about 5 minutes and then move on.

2. The Upper Energy Center: While still visualizing the lower energy center, begin to visualize the upper energy center as well. This center is located in the middle of the brain, halfway in between the base of the skull and the nose. Don't focus on your forehead, because that is a different visualization. Instead, try being aware of the sensation of your soft palate. That should get you a lot closer. The upper center can also be visualized like a pool of water. Make sure you picture this pool on higher ground than the lower energy center. Continue these two visualizations for 5 minutes.

3: The Energetic Baton: Now it is time to connect the two visualizations into one, and cool the baton. Picture the upper energy center flowing down into the lower energy center, like a waterfall, or a stream down a hill. Focus on the sensation of moving energy from your head and shoulder girdle down to your lower abdomen. You should feel a cooling sensation as your energy settles and your brain quiets down a little. Spend another 5 minutes here.

4: The Energetic Bubble: Lastly, begin expanding your focus to just beyond the surface of your skin, about two inches, into a bubble. This bubble is your filter to pull in good energy from the world around you, and also is a shield, to protect you from negative energies. Remember that the energetic bubble reacts to the temperature around you: the colder it is, the more the bubble shrinks toward your core, the warmer it is, the more the bubble grows outward into the air. Your goal here is to visualize the bubble, identify what parts of it are weaker than others, and then visualize yourself patching those weak areas. After another 5 minutes here, you have completed your energy centers meditation routine!

And there you have it! Do this routine every other day and you will begin feeling more balanced, calm, and your energy bubble might even keep those pesky mosquitoes away! (Just kidding, but one can wish!)

Happy stretching!

The Simple Way to Breath Through All Four Gates

Here is the link to the upper two gates by themselves, and here is the link to the lower two gates by themselves.

Now let's put it all together.

Once you are comfortable with each of the two gates, it is time for you to put all four gates together. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, palms facing down in front of your body about two inches below your navel. The elbows should be a fist away from the trunk. With the next inhalation, bring your mind from the four gates into the lower energy center. On the exhalation, shift your mind into the four gates. Make sure that your focus is even at all four gates.

You will notice that two of the four gates are sometimes stronger than the others. Certain people may sense the bottom two gates more strongly, and others may sense the upper two more strongly. What needs to be done is to balance the sensation and equalize it between the four gates. Move your mind more intensely into the two gates that you feel less sensation in. Eventually, you will be able to balance the four gates.

In late blogs, I will detail how to visualize the energy moving along a particular path from the gates to the energy center. But for now, practice this technique the simplified way and let me know how it works for you.

Happy meditating!

Simple Breathing Through the Lower Two Gates

[See Upper Two Gates first, here]

After training the two upper gates for a while, place your palms on your center of gravity (lower energy center), and practice sending energy to the lower two gates. Inhale with your mind in the lower energy center. As you exhale, put your mind a few inches below the soles of your feet. Distribute the weight between the ball of the foot and the heel. 

Inhale, bring your mind into the lower energy center, exhale, put your mind and inch or two beyond the soles of your feet.

Continue with this process until you feel comfortable with the mind shifting from the lower energy center to the lower two gates, and then back again.

P.S. The dates and deadlines for my new meditation workshops at Yang's Fitness Center in Andover have been extended, so check out their new page about it and how to register. Here, and here, you can find the updated flyers.

Happy stretching!

Simple Breathing Through the Upper Two Gates

Here's last week's post about what Four Gates Breathing is, in case you missed it.

Now let's get started on the first two gates.

You may do this sitting or standing.

Put your hands out, palms facing down. They should rest at the same height as your belly button, and your finders should be slightly spread out. Relax your wrists and make a slight bend in your elbows (do NOT lock them or tense them). Drop your shoulders. Lengthen your spine and feel your head suspended. Relax your face and touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth.

Begin on the exhalation, bringing your mind into the palms. On the inhalation, move your mind from the palms, to your lower energy center.

On the next exhalation, move in the reverse, from the lower energy center to the palms.

As you can see, I'm not asking you to move the energy along any particular path in between the gates and the energy center. If you feel like the energy is moving in your body, that's good! Right now, I want you to focus on the simple method of moving the focus of the mind from the gates to the center, and back.

Meditate With Your Children

This vlog gives you, your family, and your children three methods for meditating together. It is important for children to meditate starting from a young age to develop solid emotional skills later in life. I included some videos to practice below!

Videos to use for practice!