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.

 

Counting Breath Meditation + Posters

Today's poster meditation is the Counting Breath Meditation. For those of you who are new to the blog, the counting breath meditation is a great for transitioning from the sound-guided meditations to the silent meditations. It helps you focus on the breath with each number, and is naturally very calming to do.

This meditation has two poster options, one illustration, and one photo. They both say the same things, so pick which ever picture you prefer to look at while meditating.

Which picture do you prefer? And which meditations would you like me to make posters for in the future? Let me know in the comments!

Happy Stretching!

Healing Energy Ball Visualization + Poster

Many students ask me for tools or guides to help them remember the steps for certain meditations and exercises that I teach. My books, DVDs, and the blog, of course, are always available for you to reference. But I have put together some helpful posters that you can print out and hang on the wall in your house that will allow you to get exactly the information you need without too much of a distraction.

Today, we start with the Healing Ball visualization. Click here to download the printable .pdf file.

The Healing Energy Ball is another name for the Lower Energy Center, but people often find it easier to visualize an "energy ball" rather than an "energy center". Do whatever works best for you.

The four steps listed on the poster are just the basics. If you want to achieve an even more advanced level of meditation, then you should begin practicing my tongue alignment trick, as well as the Up and Down Forces.

Also, pay attention to the picture! It tells you to focus your mind on the lower energy center until you can reside there. It is very important that you understand the difference between simply thinking about a visualization, and residing in a visualization. Residing is about bringing your awareness to the area and experiencing the sensations associated with it. 

Good luck visualizing the healing energy ball, and Happy Stretching!

Evoking the Spirit While You Relax

When you are marching in place, it is easy to evoke the spirit of the warrior. And when you are performing graceful Qigong moves, it is easy to evoke the spirit of whatever animal the move is based on. But when you are doing a relaxation, it is harder to get that inspiration for what your mind and soul should embody in that moment.

The best way to jumpstart your spiritual progress during relaxations is to do them in a natural area that has a spirit of its own. For my money, the best place for this is the Dead Sea. People have been visiting the Dead Sea to experience its healing powers for a very, very long time. Science has only just begun to study the effects of the Dead Sea on the people who visit, but there is no doubt that the combination of Earth's lowest land elevation, very dry and clear air, extremely high level of mineral salts, and long history can be felt.

But you don't have to fly to Israel to feel the spirit of an area! There are countless parks, forests, lakes, mountains, and so on that are probably near you. And it doesn't have to be a place that scientists are interested in studying. All that matters is that you connect with the area and can achieve a greater level of relaxation there. Perhaps there is a pond by your childhood home that holds many great memories of simpler times and sunny days. If you feel at home somewhere, and can ease your mind for a while, then you are 90% of the way to healing already.

Something else you might try is looking for natural products from these special places, such as a sea salt. Incorporating a special mineral salt into your Hot Foot Bath is a great way to take your healing routine to the next level. Some people call it the Placebo Effect, I call it the power of the mind. Either way, if you aren't using it in your mind/body routine, you're missing out!

Happy Stretching and Deep Breathing!

Foot Bath for Health

It is very beneficial to soak your feet in salt water for a few minutes a day, especially if you are constantly walking due to your job. It can be done in front of the TV, while reading a book, or (my personal favorite) while practicing your meditation and deep breathing. Enjoy!

Mind-over-Matter Weight Loss - Yin Routine

Welcome back everybody. Today, we're consolidating the second half of my Mind-over-Matter weight loss system into one workout post. This half is the Yin routine, which focuses on meditation and stretching. Don't forget about this half of the strategy. Just doing the heart-pumping Yang workout will only get you so far. You need to exercise your decision making center as much as you exercise your muscles.

Next week, I'll throw in one bonus exercise that you can add to both the Yin and Yang halves of the workout. But you'll have to wait to see what that exercise is. Good luck with the Yin workout!

Candle Meditation: This is the easiest of the self-guided meditations, so you want to begin here. To make things even easier, make sure to check the Fire Breathing and Tip-of-the-Tongue tips that I give down below the first video. If you don't have any candles lying around, you can always download an app on your smartphone, or use a candle meditation Youtube video to help guide you. Remember: make sure you are sitting comfortably, and begin with short sessions. Work your way up to 5, then 10, then 15 minutes.

Iron on the Wall with Fire Breath: Now that you've got that Fire Breathing down, you can utilize it during a gentle stretch. This will relax your entire shoulder girdle, neck, and upper back. You may even find that it helps relieve migraines and other forms of headaches. Remember to visualize the skeleton moving up, and the fascia, muscles, skin, and ligaments moving down. We don't do western style-stretching here! So don't do this for only 30 seconds and think you're done. Go for as long as you can, ideally holding the stretch for 2-3 minutes at a time. Breath deep and loud while you do this stretch, and imagine your soft tissues like ice, melting to water, and then evaporating like steam.

Water Breath: Well, now that you've mastered fire breathing, it is time in the workout for a more challenging task: water breathing. Slow, silent, and steady. That is what you should be thinking while you do water breath. If you can hear your own breathing, even that's too loud! Just like the candle meditation, work your way up to 15 or 20 minutes while doing this meditation in a workout. If you wish to only meditate by itself, not as part of a workout, you can go up to 45 minutes, but then make sure to walk around and stretch your legs for at least 15 minutes before sitting again.

Vitamin H with Water Breath: The same rules apply for this stretch as for the Iron on the Wall Stretch. You may not be as able to visualize the ice melting here, but make sure to keep your toes pointed forward, your legs straight, and tilt your hip bones toward the floor (you can think of it as tilting your butt up to the ceiling too, if that helps). This hip tilt makes sure that you put the maximum amount of stretch on your hamstrings as possible. Breath deep!

Embrace the Tree: This is a standing meditation, and some people may find it a bit tiring in the legs, but that is good. Practice it like you practice the other two meditations, working up to about 20 minutes. With this meditation, don't forget to picture the lower energy center. You can even hold a tai chi ball or something similar two inches below the navel if that helps you visualize.

Cloud Hands: Last but not least, you will put a slow, moving meditation to work for you by doing the cloud hands movement in addition to the lower energy center visualization and water breath. This exercise seems pretty simple on the surface, but when you combine everything we've done in this Yin routine do far, it actually requires a lot of concentration and control to do it correctly. Improve with this exercise in steps: first just do the motion, then incorporate the breathing, then the visualization. This is where your willpower and decision-making center really come into play and get a full workout.

Good luck and Happy Stretching!