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.

 

Relaxing the Body

We have talked about meditation frequently on the blog, but there is a step everyone must take before we meditate that is just as important as doing the proper meditation.

We must properly relax our body.

We must let go of unnecessary tension throughout the entire body, because where there is tension, our qi circulation is inhibited.

While sitting in a chair, slowly relax your body. One-by-one, relax your face, shoulders, arms, torso, belly, hips, legs, and feet. Become aware of the up and down forces within in the body that must be maintained for proper meditation.

Experience the spine, rib cage, and head being gently pulled up, as though suspended on a string from the sky. Feel your abdomen, shoulders and face relax as the tension in your soft tissue melts away.

You can visualize ice melting off into running water from the site of these down forces, to help you experience the release and relaxation.

And remember! Do not slouch. If you collapse forward at all, even a little, you will compress your internal organs. When breathing deep, these organs need space to move so they can benefit from the internal massage. If they are under pressure to begin with, the massage won't do you any good.

Here is the .pdf version of the up and down forces chart. Feel free to print it and hang it up where you meditate, so you can remember them easily.

Come to My Meditation Workshop This Sunday

Do you want face-to-face guidance on meditation? Do you want to lower your stress levels, increase your energy, stabilize your mood, and unify your mind and body in health?

This Sunday I am teaching a workshop on meditation at Yang's Fitness Center in Andover, MA. It requires no previous experience with meditation, and is open to everyone of all fitness levels. At this workshop, we'll work on:

The workshop is this Sunday, January 18th, from 11am to 2pm at Yang's Fitness Center in Andover, MA. To register, call: 978.475.2020.

I hope to see you all there on Sunday!

I am also giving a talk at the beginning of the Natural Healing Aids and Therapies Conference at Boston Medical on January 29th, which is open to cancer survivors, patients, and their families. Check out this flyer for all of the details. I hope to see some familiar faces!

Lastly, I've decided to extend the FREE offer on my 15 Minute Mind-Body Workout course on Udemy.com until midnight on February 1st. Hundreds of people have already signed up, so don't miss your chance! Send the links to everyone you know who could use my mind-body teachings.

Happy stretching!

New Year's Health Resolution: Getting Off Medication

There is nothing wrong with prescription medication. Some people, especially in the alternative health fields, have an unwarranted grudge against medical drugs. Everyone reacts to each treatment differently, and where one patient may have their life nearly ruined by a bad reaction to a pill, many other patients's lives are revolutionized for the better with the same medication.

Before you can take control of the role that pills and potions play in your treatment, you have to take a few facts to heart. First: Just because an option didn't work for you, doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. We all have the right to select what treatments we want to try or avoid.

If you started reading this post, or this whole blog, hoping to throw away all those bottles in your medicine cabinet, you are already in the WRONG mindset. You need to listen to your body, and make small adjustments, one at a time, as you and your doctor feel comfortable with them. This brings us to the second fact: Getting off medication may mean simply reducing the number of medications you take, not being medication free. 

Everyone can agree that the fewer medications you have to take on a daily basis, the better. More pills floating around means a greater chance of mixing up or forgetting medications. That can be dangerous. Not to mention, certain medications can have such severe side-effects that they really come in pairs of two: one pill to medicate, and another pill to reduce the first pill's side-effects. This kind of medication-for-medication drug use can be a vicious circle. So what should we do about it?

If it's an emergency, take the pill. I believe exercise and meditation can improve or fix almost any ailment, but you can't exercise your way out of an infection. Don't let pride in the healing abilities of your body prevent you from properly protecting your body.

Ask your medical professional about alternative treatment options, and alternative treatment specialists you can talk to. Doctors are always going to offer what they think will help you most, while also being the least stressful for you to incorporate into your life. Often, that is a pill. But you should feel safe telling your doctor that you are up for a little more work if it means fewer pills and potentially fewer side-effects.

Always get a second opinion. And remember that your doctor isn't trying to work against you if he or she disagrees with your pursuit of different treatment options. Take what your doctor says to heart, but take it with a grain of salt. There is too much medical knowledge out there for a single person to have it all.

Never go cold turkey. Start your replacement treatment before stopping your current treatment whenever possible. I have done research showing strong support for the effectiveness of Tai Chi to treat rheumatoid arthritis in the knees. But, I would never suggest going off your medication right as you begin a Tai Chi routine for your knees. Keep in constant contact with your doctor, and figure out at what rate you should reduce your medication intake given the improvement you feel (if any) from the Tai Chi, or other treatment option.

The same goes for emotional and mental treatments. I believe that anxiety, depression, and many other disorders can be greatly improved by a meditation and mindfulness practice incorporated into your daily life. However, I insist that people trying new routines STAY ON their antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications until they feel, for an extended period of time, like they are in a position to reduce or eliminate them from their treatment plan.

Good luck with all of your heath resolutions for 2015! Happy stretching!

3 Different Levels of Meditation

This is our last blog post before the holiday break! One last time, I'll ask you to please check out my free 15 Minute Mind-Body Workout course on Udemy.com. It's free to set up a Udemy account, and it takes less than 15 minutes. You need an account to have access to my courses, but it is really free with this coupon link, no strings attached, no spam emails.

Also, the sale on my Sunrise Tai Chi DVD is coming to a close soon, so the holidays are your last chance to get this DVD for less than $10.

Get one, or both of them and share them with your friends and family. I want everyone to experience the healing benefits of Tai Chi and Qi Gong.

Now, to conclude our meditation series:

3 Different Levels of Meditation

Just like with dieting, different people require different methods for "capturing the mind" with meditation.

FIRST LEVEL OF MEDITATION:

The simplest and easiest method of meditation utilizes external sound or external objects, such as running water, bells ringing, people singing, instrumental music, someone leading with relaxing words, and so on. Focusing just your vision on an external object, such as a candle, falls into this category as well.

SECOND LEVEL OF MEDITATION:

The second method will be repeating a word, similar to praying or chanting. Some people get a mantra and keep saying it while holding certain postures, sitting, standing, or even walking. For a busy mind, or for those individuals which struggle to wrestle control over their brain waves, this method is a great way to start, or stick to, in a busy and integrated life.

MY TRICK FOR SECOND LEVEL MEDITATION:

I teach my students to breath deep and count on the exhalations. This is the trick to move from sounds and repeating words to an even a more quiet place, the breath. When we use only the breath to reach the Theta brain waves, that is considered Zen meditation. Many of my students start with counting the breath, level 2, and then pretty quickly move to using a quieter and more internal method.

THIRD LEVEL OF MEDITATION:

This level is the most quiet one, and that is the reason it is definitely more challenging. You are dealing with the hardest part of yourself to control: the constant thoughts of the busy mind.

When listening to a sound, or counting out loud, you fill up the time and head-space that would normally be used by these constant streams of though. But when using only the breath, you leave space for all these other thoughts to come in, and you need to be strong to keep the thoughts at bay. That is the reason it is so hard, you are just using your breath to calm the brain and change your brain waves to the Theta brain waves. At first work your way up to a few minutes and over time you will be able to sit 45 minutes and experience lots of Theta brain waves during that time.

ENOUGH TALK, HERE IS SOME ACTION:

When it comes to reaching this place between awake and asleep, the first thing you need to do is sit with your spine straight, but not supported, if you can manage it without pain. The reason for that is that you can almost fall asleep, but the force that you need to hold the spine straight will not let you fall asleep all the way. Check out the diagram below, or use this one for printing and home use.

To begin, do only 1 minute. Set a timer so that you aren't constantly checking the clock and worrying that you are going too long (believe me, when you are just starting out, it will feel like time is crawling by). If 1 minute was too easy or too little time to relax, do 5 minutes. Work your way up by experiencing each length of time, and seeing when you get too fidgety, or too sleepy.

And remember, it isn't about how long you can sit at one time, it is about how often you take the time, even 5 minutes a day, to sit down and meditate. If you commit to meditating 5 minutes every day, pretty soon you'll want to sit for 20, 30, or even 45 minutes at a time and experience the relaxation and healing that can occur when you reach those Theta brain waves and reside there.

Happy Holidays everyone! Happy New Year! And happy stretching!

What Kind of Meditation Should I Do?

When it comes to which meditation one should do, it is a lot like which diet one should use: whichever one works for you. The truth is that different individuals have specific diets that work for them, and a lot that do not. Which ones work and which don't change from person to person.

It's the same with meditation: everybody who mediates is trying to reach theta brain waves, but certain methods of mediation will work better for different individuals, and certain meditations may begin to work, or stop working for individuals as they evolve in their meditation practice.

The goal of all meditation is to be able, by will, to reach the theta brain waves, and over time, to stay in that stage for long periods of time. And even later, to reside there. The difference between staying in theta waves and residing in theta waves. 

There are endless meditation methods you can use to achieve the theta brain waves, and I will talk about them next.

FIRST STEP – STANDING OR SITTING MEDITATION

The first thing we need to recognize when talking about meditation is that we are dealing with and training the brain. Because of that fact, the recommended posture for beginners to start with is staying still. “When being still be as still as a mountain." Choose either sitting or standing. Sitting was my first choice when I started at 16 years old.

When reaching theta brain waves, positive hormone production is activated for certain endorphins, and the production of adrenaline and other hormones is brought to a halt. Your heart rate and pulse slows down, you increase your oxygen intake, you experience less or no anxiety while reaching a total deep relaxation of all the senses, your pain threshold will increase and sometimes you may experience a special experience of total physical transparency. When reaching this place: “you become time,” you may sit for 45 minutes, but your experience will be as if you had only spent a few minutes there.

Here is a visualization-based Taoist meditation that can be done either sitting or standing:

Cooling the Energetic Baton - visualize both the upper and lower energy centers, and then connect those visualizations with the energetic baton and pull the energy from the upper center, seated in the pituitary gland, to the lower center. This strengthens the "guardian energy," or what I call the energetic bubble. This movement of energy through the body is very important for both the philosophies of Tai Chi and Chi Kung. To see a great animation of cooling the energetic baton and the energetic bubble, check out the preview for my Sunrise Tai Chi Video here.

Controlling the Fluctuation of Brain Waves

The constant work our brain is under when leading a modern lifestyle needs to be alleviated regularly to achieve a sense of calm and emotional balance. It would be great is, at a young age, children were taught how to meditate and understand when they have an imbalance in their brain states: not enough theta waves due to a bad night of sleep, too much stress, etc.

But not every kind of meditation works for everyone. Next Friday, I'll talk about the different levels of meditation that you can move through at your own pace, finding what works for you and what doesn't. Remember, it is all about discipline at first. Give all these kinds of meditation a few tried before you decide to switch to a different one. "You are your greatest enemy: if you can conquer yourself, you can conquer anything."

What is Meditation?

Our brain is active most of the time, day and night. But our brain needs rest exactly the same way our muscles do. We only get this rest if we are relaxed,  balanced, and get a really good night's sleep.

A good night's sleep means moving smoothly through the 5 stages of sleep, especially stages 3 and 4. We can split the 5 stages of sleep into 3 "brain-wave" categories:

First: Beta brain waves (13-22 cycles). This is our normal waking state. The pattern changes as abdominal breathing and the relaxation practice begins.

Second: Alpha brain waves (8-12 cycles). This is the "Relaxation Response," a calm peaceful state of mind with many physical benefits.

Third: Theta brain waves (4-7 cycles). The deeply relaxed state, where healing and recharging take place, and where we are trying to get to when we meditate!

In sleep stages 3 and 4, we are experiencing Theta brain waves.

When we are in Theta brain waves, we are really recharging. Spending time in Theta brain waves every day (or night) allows our fight or flight response, an autonomic nervous system reaction that acts mostly unconsciously, to reset. It is vital to balance this response with good deep sleep and/or meditation. Your decision making center and attention capacity can also be affected negatively by fatigue, so spending time in Theta brain waves will prevent you from feeling too tired, and making poor judgments.

Spending time in these Theta brain waves may even boost our immune system and help us recover from illness.

Next week, we're going to talk about what kind of meditation is right for you, and give you some pointers about how you can tell if you are experiencing the Theta brainwaves or not.