What is Affordable Care?

As America transitions into the policies put in place by the Affordable Care Act, the future of American health care is on everyone's mind. There is anxiety on both sides, all centered around affordability. Costs are too high, there is no doubt. Is this legislation a move in the right direction? Only time will tell.

In my 30 years of training, I have learned that $100 of prevention is worth $100,000 of treatment.

Think about it this way: $100 running shoes, well used, are a good investment if they prevent the need for a $100,000 heart surgery 30 years down the road.

A $100 yoga class is well worth the money if it prevents $100,000 in joint-pain medication later.

Spending $100 more on groceries to get high-quality, nutrient rich food is smart spending if it saves you $100,000 in cancer treatments when you're 70.

Preventative care is always cheaper in the long run, but it looks expensive up-front because we're feeling good. If we're healthy, why should we spend money on health? That is the "crisis" or "treatment" healthcare mindset. Investing in our health is desirable only when the immediate alternative is death or serious lack of function. This leads to late diagnoses, earlier and earlier onset of diseases like arthritis, diabetes, and cancer, and an unsustainable reliance on pharmaceuticals.

What are the benefits of putting health off until it is bad? Time. It takes time to attend yoga twice a week. It takes time to look over the nutrition labels in the supermarket. It takes time to notice subtle mood changes or drops in our energy level. And if there is anything that always seems in short supply, it's time.

But even time is not a real benefit of today's style of healthcare. Healthier people live longer and experience a higher quality of life, so whatever time you save now by skipping your morning workout is time on loan, and older you is going to be the one who pays the balance.

Changing our healthcare system is not something that can be done overnight, even by the President. But if we can take an hour every day and practice a little mindfulness centered around our health, we can change.

Not long ago, avoiding a disease wasn't within an individual's control. Our grandparents didn't have access to nutrition facts, scientifically studied exercise routines, etc.. Now, in the age of information, we have no excuses for treating our health like a game of chance.

Your health is the most valuable thing you will ever own. Be mindful of that wisdom the next time you are making a purchase, and ask yourself, "Is this money better spent on preventative healthcare? Am I doing enough to ensure my health in later years?"

Hey Rami! Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, and Head/Neck Tension

Here is the first official installment in my new "Hey, Rami!" vlog, where I answer your questions in a short video. This week, a stretch that may help alleviate Eustachian tube dysfunction, migraines, and other head and neck soft tissue problems.

The gardens had a much louder echo than we expected! I promise our next video will be easier to hear! Here is the video transcript:

"That is a great question, Matthew. You're talking about issues between the ear and the neck. But in Chinese medicine, Qi Gong and Tai Chi, we treat any issues from here up with an array of different stretches, breathing techniques, and meditations. So, I will just show a quick one for people that have any issues form here [the sternum] up, especially with the soft tissues elements, or soft tissue that is compressing against any nerves, or blood-flow elements. So, any of those soft tissue problems can be first addressed with what I call the 'Emergency Posture' for the neck and migraines.

"The emergency posture is very simple: you sit on a chair and you lean your head on a table, with your elbows folded this way. You distance the chair as much as you can from the table, and over time you try to create more distance between the chair and the table, and more distance between your forehead and your pubic bone.

"I'll show it right now. Try it at home. Hold it for 2-3 minutes, and really allow the whole weight of your trunk to drop into your forearms. You ready to do it? Let's do it!

[Example]

"So the stretch is the physical method, or one of the many stretches, that helps with any problems from the sternum up. But there is also mental exercise, or meditation, tapping into the power of the mind to dissolve and melt any impurities, or stagnation, or tension from the top of the head to the sternum. That is done through the face meditation which you have some availability to read a little bit about [here] or you can find it in my Sunset Tai Chi book."

That's it for this week's vlog, but please, leave any question you want me to vlog about in the comments! I'm happy to answer as many as I can. And if you want to get my vlog updates through email, you can sign up with your email address on the right.

The Soft Tissue Tension You Don't Know You Have

I've been posting a lot of exercises, stretches, and tips for upper back and neck problems recently. If you've found them helpful, be on the look-out for my upcoming course on upper back pain relief. I'm finishing up this upper body series next week with the first installment in a new video segment called "Hey Rami!" where I answer questions from clients, patients, and customers.

This week, we're talking about a group of muscles that everyone uses everyday, but few people ever stretch and relax: facial muscles. There is a lot of technique and mental preparation involved in the face meditation that I detail in my Sunset Tai Chi book. For people who want a quick taste of what is it like to relax your facial muscles, try this mini meditation:

• First, open your mouth wide, like you were yawning, but keep your eyes wide open. Hold this for a few seconds. (I know, it looks weird!) This is to balance the usual, scrunched state that our faces take on during the day while we pour over emails and textbooks.
• Now, start doing deep breathing like I've posted about here. Make sure you are in a comfortable sitting or standing position. You will be maintaining the meditation for about 5 minutes, and the goal is to be as still as possible.
• Relax the muscles in your face as much as you can. This is 20% body control and 80% mind control. When I do it, I picture my face in layers, like an onion. Each layer of my face has its own tension, and I visualize peeling away that tension layer by layer.

And that's it! You won't believe how much tension you can hold in your face. Consider the reasons you hold tension in certain muscles in your face while doing the meditation. Are your cheeks tense because your job requires you to smile all day? Do you work in the sun a lot? That may lead to a constant furrow in your brow. Do this meditation in a dark room. It will help the muscles in and around the eyes relax.

Healing and Improvement: Being Mindful of Your Body's Limits

Competition is a big theme in Western health and fitness culture. You might not believe it, but even with exercises like stretching, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi, many Americans bring a competitive attitude. In sports, this mindset is good. It tells us to leave it all out on the field. When training in something like Tai Chi, this same urge tells us to be just as good as everyone around us. It pushes us beyond reasonable limits to fit in and avoid embarrassment.

Believe it or not, fitness professionals are told by their employers to forgo teaching beginner clients certain exercises for fear of injury. This goes doubly for elderly clients. The Surgeon General has even put out warnings regarding the safety of exercises like toe-touches and squats.

The exercises themselves are not dangerous. In fact, they are the foundation for a healthy exercise routine. The real danger is not knowing and accepting your limits.

Does this mean that you shouldn't push yourself in the gym, or during your morning stretches? No, of course not. But it does mean putting your goals into perspective. If you can't touch your toes today, don't force yourself to. That is a recipe for throwing out your back. But if you bend over as low as you can comfortably go every day, stretching and strengthening the muscles that support your back, you'll reach that goal of touching your toes, in time. I always tell my students to use the rule of 80% when we train Tai Chi or do stretching.

80% effort will give you the perfect balance between improvement and injury prevention.

Most important, don't be embarrassed about not being as flexible or as strong as you would like. You can get there, but it takes time, patience, and discipline. There are no shortcuts to health. Listen to your health and fitness professionals, and even more importantly, listen to your body. Not being able to touch your toes is not embarrassing. Throwing out your back in a yoga class because you pushed yourself too hard... now that's embarrassing!

I Want to Increase My Strength...

Western culture measures strength in muscle. When you ask any American, even young boys or girls, to "show me how strong you are," 99% of the time they'll lift up their arms and curl their biceps.

But big arms don't translate into health. Nobody has ever died from bicep problems! According to Eastern Philosophy and Internal Martial Arts traditions, true strength lies in the abdomen. Specifically, in the area between the bottom of your ribs and your hips, where you don't have much skeleton for support. Almost all of your internal organs are seated here, surrounded by many protective layers of muscle and fascia. When you ask about strength in an Eastern culture, people slap their bellies, as if to say, "Look how strong and protected my organs are!"

So how do you strengthen this area? Well, most people would tell you to do more crunches and sit-ups! While these exercises are good, they only touch the tip of the iceberg. The muscle and soft tissue of the abdomen doesn't just run up and down. It goes side-to-side and diagonally as well. You'd have to do a dozen different types of crunches just to exercise all these muscles!

In my classes and online courses, it's hard to find an exercise that doesn't increase your core's strength or flexibility. But for the beginner, there is one exercise I would suggest. I call it "Empty-Full Moon." It is simple to learn, but hard to master.

Here's how you do it: when you breathe in, pull your stomach and lower back toward each other with about 80% effort. Don't just suck in hard, be mindful. Pull your belly button straight backward and feel your lower back move just a little bit in. When you breathe out, do the opposite. Push out with your back and belly with 80% effort. If you're really good, you can incorporate Wing Breath into this exercise as well.

And don't worry, this won't make your belly bigger!

Hey Rami! Tightness in my upper back, neck, and shoulders.

I get questions about the upper back, neck, and shoulders all the time. Maintaining flexibility in these areas is key to performance for athletes. But even if you aren't throwing fastballs or doing bench press on a daily basis, you can still benefit from loosening the soft tissue.

Do you find yourself hunching your shoulders all day, or slouching over at your computer? How about in your car when you drive to work? It's very common! Today's modern lifestyle puts our upper back and neck under constant strain, and I developed a stretch, based on ancient Tai Chi forms, to address just this problem.

It's called Iron on the Wall, and here is an extra tip! Get a partner to help you by standing behind you while you do the stretch. Have them pinch the muscles in between your shoulders and your neck. Have the partner picture you wearing a backpack. Where the two straps would be, that's where they want to pinch! If it hurts, even when your partner isn't pinching that hard, that means you need to relax those muscles more. Put your mind in that space and try to melt away the tension.

Partners, remember, don't pinch the skin! That will always hurt no matter how loose someone's soft tissue is. Pinch the whole muscle. If it feels like a solid rock, that means they aren't as flexible as they should be. But don't sweat! If you follow the regimen in the video, you'll start seeing results in no time.