Healing Pain
By Michela | June 30, 2009
One of Dahn Yoga founder Ilchi Lee’s awakenings after a rigorous 21-days of fasting and meditation was: “My body is not me, but mine.” Inherent in this statement is that we are more than our bodies. We can transcend our physical form, and don’t need to suffer from mental anguish when our bodies are sick, injured and in pain. (At the same time, it implies we are also responsible for our bodies.
Recently I read a blog post by Jonah Lehrer on ScienceBlogs.com that talks about scientific research and doctors who have shown that the way we think of pain, especially back pain in this case, affects how much pain we experience and how we manage it. As I was reading it, the post reminded me of Dahn Yoga’s approach to pain.
This approach recognizes that body and mind are connected and that pain is merely a signal to the brain that something is not right. In terms of Eastern medicine, a something not right shows up as a blockage in the meridian channels that energy flows through in the body. And that something not right did not necessarily start as something physical, but may be an emotional or mental issue that eventually manifested itself in our bodies.
In Dahn Yoga classes, if we feel pain while doing a stretch or holding a posture, we’re instructed to focus on that pain and breathe through it, releasing stagnant energy out through our mouth. With our mind’s focus there and the help of the meridian exercise we are doing, the energy blockage moves and opens, releasing the pain and healing the underlying problem as well.
The blog post talks about a similar effect with cognitive behavioral therapy and biofeedback. These treatments have been shown not only to reduce stress or improve overall quality of life, but also to reduce or eliminate people’s back pain, something most doctors only think of as a physical condition. It seems that, with the research being done on back pain, the interconnection between the psychological and physical aspects of health are being recognized more widely.
Here is an excerpt from the post that talks about this point in more detail:
Robert Kerns has been studying the psychology of pain for thirty years. He’s a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University, and the National Program Director for Pain Management at the Veterans Health Administration. When Kerns was in graduate school, back in the late 1970’s, he happened to treat a patient with terrible back pain as a result of kidney disease. Even though this patient had a serious physical condition, Kerns noticed that psychological therapy helped her cope with the pain.
“That’s when I began to appreciate that a person’s thinking could really affect their pain experience,” he says. “Our chronic pain isn’t beyond our control.” At the time, there was little hard evidence to support such mental interventions. Treating chronic pain with psychological therapy was like treating cancer with a poem: the best thing most doctors could say about it was that it would do no harm. But few doctors expected it to actually help. Pain, after all, was a medical condition. Therapy was just words.
But the words work. Kerns’ most recent study, published in January 2007 in Health Psychology, is also his most definitive. It’s a meta-analysis of twenty-two trials that looked at the effectiveness of psychological treatments for patients with chronic lower back pain. The statistics were complicated, but the results were clear: psychological treatments made the pain go away. Patients with chronic back pain could reduce their suffering by learning how to think differently about their pain. Benson Hoffman, a clinical associate at Duke University and co-author on the study, was surprised by the robustness of the data. “Going into the study,” Hoffman says, “I thought that psychological interventions would probably increase a patient’s quality of life, but not actually reduce their pain. But my hypothesis was wrong. These psychological treatments reduced the pain more than anything else.” According to the meta-analysis, the two most effective psychological interventions were cognitive behavioral therapy and “self-regulatory therapies,” like biofeedback. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a popular form of talk therapy that teaches patients how to adopt a problem-solving approach to their pain.
The simple premise of the treatment is that we are capable of controlling our own thoughts, emotions and experiences. Therapists teach patients specific mental exercises such as keeping a journal, or practicing relaxation techniques that help them manage their negative feelings and alleviate their suffering. The goal of the therapy is to re-train the brain, so that the cycle of pain is stopped. Self-regulatory therapies, on the other hand, show people how to take back control of their body. By giving patients information about their own internal processes such as readouts of their blood pressure and brain waves the therapy teaches them how to modulate these processes. The mind needn’t be a slave to the flesh.
“Many patients with chronic back pain develop a deep sense of hopelessness,” Kerns says. “These therapies show them that they can develop everday strategies that make them feel better. I think one of the things that modern medicine has forgotten is that it’s important to treat the whole person, and this means addressing both the physical and psychological aspects of the pain. When it comes to back pain, just fixing a ‘broken’ body part often isn’t enough.
“Chronic stress is another important risk factor for chronic pain. One back surgeon, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of offending his patients, said that he’s seen several men develop lower back pain shortly after getting engaged. “Weddings are stressors,” he says, “and that stress can exacerbate the experience of pain.” Intriguing clues are beginning to emerge about how, exactly, stress might modulate pain. Joyce Deleo, a neuroscientist at Dartmouth, has discovered that chronic pain is often triggered by a response from the immune system. When Deleo bred mice that were missing a specific type of immune receptor, the mice proved much less vulnerable to the lingering effects of pain. Of course, it’s long been recognized that bouts of stress can profoundly alter the nature of our immune response. “I think the medical community is finally beginning to understand just how complicated the phenomenon of chronic pain is,” Carragee says. “There are so many different psychological variables that can amplify and distort our experience of pain. You can’t just wield a scalpel and make it go away.”
Topics: Body, Dahn Yoga | No Comments »
Dahn Yoga Makes It to Social Media
By Michela | June 16, 2009
Dahn Yoga and its founder now have Facebook pages!To join the community, click here for Dahn Yoga and here for Ilchi Lee. Then click on “Become a Fan” below the photo on the left.
You can also follow Dahn Yoga and Ilchi Lee on Twitter!
Topics: Dahn Yoga | 2 Comments »
Dahn Yoga Crazy
By Michela | June 12, 2009
Peace, serenity, calm…words often associated with yoga.
But sometimes to get to the peace and serenity, you have to go a little crazy. You have to be crazy enough to burn away the extra energy that’s stuck in your body, and crazy enough to blow past the preconceptions about yourself that are holding you back from true peace and freedom.
Just move in a crazy, new way. Use more energy than you thought you had. Soon your mind will be more quiet and your body can move without conscious direction. Afterward you’ll have more focus and peace to direct toward a clear-headed goal–a goal you care about so much you’re a little crazy about it.
This is one form of Brain Wave Vibration. Why don’t you try and be a little crazy today?
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Funny Crazy Dance
Topics: Energy, Dahn Yoga | 1 Comment »
Acupressure Points for Reproductive Problems
By Michela | June 2, 2009
According to the book Meridian Exercise for Self-Healing by Ilchi Lee, “Adherents to Eastern Medicine believe that cramps accompanying menstruation are the result of coldness and stagnant blood in the area of the pelvis. This weakens the uterus, ovaries, and muscles near the pelvis, causing fatigue, headache, anxiety, hypersensitivity, abdominal cramps, and excessive menstruation. You might even experience spasms caused by the intestines twisting. Menstrual cramping can also occur if there is blockage in the Conception Vessel, low ki energy in the kidneys, or overall body fragility.”In addition to various meridian exercises, although cautioning to avoid excessive meridian exercise at this time, it recommends a few acupressure points that you can press to help relieve symptoms.
The first is called Sp6 (Sam-eum-gyo in Korean) and is located about three fingers’ width above the inner ankle. When you press it, sit with your right leg extended and your left knee bent, the sole of your left foot against your right knee. Press on Sp6 with both thumbs. Inhale as you press down using your upper body weight. Exhale as you release your thumbs.
Sp6 also helps to relieve knee pain, uterine bleeding, and excessive bleeding during menstruation. It helps with reproductive problems in both women and men, but you don’t want to press too hard if you’re pregnant.
The other points are on both sides of your spine where your kidneys are located–by the second lumbar vertebrae. Called BI52 (Ji-shil) and BE23 (Shin-yu), they help relieve lumbago pain, improve kidney function, and treat reproductive disorders in men and women. BI23 is found right next to the spine, but BI 52 is about one and one half inches to the outside of the BI23 points.
Start with the BI23 points while standing with your feed shoulder-width apart. Inhale as you press in with your thumbs, and then gently tilt your upper body backward. Focus on your waist. Release the pressure as you exhale. Repeat twice with BI23 and then perform the same exercise with the BI52 points.
Try pressing these points the next time you experience menstrual cramps. If you can, comment on this post afterwards and let us all know about your experience.
Topics: Body, Brain Education, Exercise | No Comments »
YEHA Brain Art Camp
By Michela | May 14, 2009
YouTube DirektYEHA Brain Art Camp
Topics: Tao Fellowship, Consciousness, Dahn Yoga | 2 Comments »
Two Brain Wave Vibration Books Win Arizona Book Awards
By Michela | May 13, 2009
Brain Wave Vibration: Getting Back into the Rhythm of a Happy, Healthy Life by Ilchi Lee and In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging by Ilchi Lee and Jessie Jones, PhD won Arizona Book Awards in their categories last Saturday night, May 9, 2009, at a banquet held by the Arizona Book Publishing Association. Each winner received a Glyph trophy made of sandstone and brass. These two books describe exercises taught in Dahn Yoga and Body + Brain Centers around the world. Brain Wave Vibration specifically has become the core method of the Dahn Yoga practice, the exercise from which founder Ilchi Lee says you can receive all of the benefits of the other exercises. Makes it pretty simple, huh?
The Winners and their Awards:
Topics: General, Brain Education | No Comments »
Earth Dahn Gong Form
By Michela | May 12, 2009
Topics: Breath, Meditation, Energy, Dahn Yoga, Exercise | 1 Comment »
Ilchi Lee Poem–”More Precious Than Life”
By Michela | May 1, 2009
Happy May everyone! On this beautiful May Day, I would like to share one of my favorite hope messages from Ilchi Lee. I think it exemplifies the real Dahn Yoga practice–what the exercises are really all about and what they can ultimately give you. It also illustrates the type of consciousness Dahn Yoga hopes to create in this world. This is our life’s work.
More Precious Than Life
If you believe there is something
More precious than your life,
You will come to know what true confidence is,
And you will grow bold.What can be more precious than your life?
Your unchanging essence,
Your true self,
That will last beyond the expiration
Of your body.If you hold fast to your essence,
If you act in its best interest always,
Of what can you be afraid?
For nothing can harm it,
Or tarnish it.If you keep sweeping away the dust,
The negative thoughts
And emotions
And attachements
That hides your true self from the world
So that it shines beyond the inner recesses of your heart,
You will always embody confidence and love
And hope.
You can do daily cleaning of your true self in the regular Dahn Yoga class or through your home practice. Then you can really get out the crusty, embedded dirt and grime through more powerful workshops and programs such as Shim Sung, Tao Holistic Healing Program, and Chunhwa Meditation Tour.
When we do this cleaning we are suddenly free of a veil that was covering out eyes and affecting the way we viewed the world. As a result, we really change our brain. We can then make more positive choices more easily because we don’t have as much heavy baggage affecting our needs, wants, and desires.
Topics: Tao Fellowship, shim sung, Consciousness, Meditation, Dahn Yoga | 1 Comment »
Dahn Yoga Founder Ilchi Lee Wins Book Awards
By Michela | April 24, 2009
Two of Ilchi Lee’s books won Living Now Awards on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. Brain Wave Vibration: Getting Back into the Rhythm of a Happy, Healthy Life [BEST Life Media, June 2008] won first place in the Meditation and Relaxation Category and In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging, co-authored with Jessie Jones, PhD, won second place in the Mature Living and Anti-Aging Category.
The Living Now Book Awards recognize books that help readers help themselves, and learn about enriching their lives in wholesome, Earth-friendly ways. These two winners, which describe Ilchi Lee’s brain and earth-centered philosophy for personal and global development, fit perfectly into the Living Now Book Awards’ recognition that society is “realizing the need to slow down, see and feel the natural world around them, and to find balance in their lives. […] We need to keep ourselves healthy, and need to keep the Earth healthy – today, and for future generations.”
Brain Wave Vibration fills this need by describing an easy and powerful natural method of bringing body and mind into balance for total health, happiness, and peace. The simplest form of practice merely requires moving your body to your own internal, healing rhythms in order to slow down and integrate your brain waves. Brain Wave Vibration is more than just a physical training technique, however. Through it you can come back to who you really are and create miracles in your life.
Like Brain Wave Vibration, In Full Bloom also teaches readers simple, natural methods that are a part of Ilchi Lee’s Brain Education System Training. However, this book focuses on how they can apply the training to live healthy, creative, and productive lives at every age. Co-authored with Jessie Jones, PhD, it celebrates the older brain and its unique capabilities, while offering practical advice to maintain and accentuate its attributes. In addition to examining the important interconnection between body and brain, In Full Bloom provides a fully-illustrated series of body and brain exercises.
Both of these books have distinguished themselves among other titles by independent publishers as books of quality that can help people live more natural, healthy lives.
Topics: Health, Consciousness, Dahn Yoga, Brain Education | No Comments »
Circulating Energy with Dahn Yoga–Healing Knee Arthritis
By Michela | April 18, 2009
A man in his 20s was brought to the Forest Park Dahn Yoga center by his mother, who was already attending classes there, in hope that it would help the arthritis in his knees. At first, the center manager, David Driscoll, just did one individual Brain Wave Vibration session with him. During the session, the energy in the young man’s knees began to circulate. Right away his knees began to feel better, so he signed up for a series of private healing sessions. Through these sessions and the home practice he has been given, his arthritis has been improving a lot. His mother shared that for the first time her son is excited and active and proactively healing himself.
This story tells of one of the many small miracles happening in Dahn Yoga centers around the world.
Topics: Body, Energy, Dahn Yoga | No Comments »