• Dahn Yoga tip: Focus on Yourself

    Without a goal, we have no choice but to endlessly chase after the thoughts of others. We envy those who know more or have more than we do, and we live out our lives completely forgetting our own brains. Such things happen to us often unless we are focused on ourselves. - Dahn Yoga

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    Gratitude

    By Michela | September 26, 2008

    Part of a Dahn Yoga practice is getting the energy of your body moving, including the energy in the 7 internal energy centers of the body, often called chakras. There are 3 main chakras, also called dahn-jons in Korean, a lower, middle, and upper. In a regular class, you will often hear an instructor say “dahn-jon”. They are referring to the lower dahn-jon or the second chakra. Your middle dahn-jon is your fourth or heart chakra.

    There are a lot of chest opening exercises in Dahn Yoga, and the Shim Sung workshop specifically focuses on opening your heart chakra. One of the many effects of opening your heart chakra that I’ve noticed is a feeling of gratitude, for no particular reason at all. This feeling of gratitude extends to anything and everything your mind can focus on.

    It kind of reminds me of the advice I’ve read many spiritual teachers give. They say to be grateful for everything in your life, even if it seems “bad” or it’s something you don’t want. Just have gratitude without judging it.

    In fact, Ilchi Lee writes in his book Principles of Brain Management: A Practical Approach to Making the Most of Your Brain:

    “You’ve probably been told at some point in your life to count your blessings. But have you considered that everything in your life is a blessing? Think of a difficult period in your life that has passed or a giant obstacle you have overcome. Consider how that event ultimately was a blessing to you.”

    I think that if we consider everything in our life a blessing, we will always be open to learning and growing from it. I think doing that is more difficult when we close ourselves off to something or reject it because we don’t like it.

    Another feeling I have when my heart chakra is open is that everything is connected to each other. So feeling grateful for and accepting something must be like being grateful for and accepting myself.

    What do you think?

    Topics: Consciousness |

    5 Responses to “Gratitude”

    1. Andrew Says:
      September 27th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

      Hi Michela,

      Great post. You know, the next project should be a gratitude website (to accompany the Hope Monster).

      I agree with your points, but would like to add that it takes a lot of constant effort to remain in such a state of gratitude. The workshops, the chest tapping, the exercises-we need all of this to continue to keep the 3rd chakra open.

      Perhaps we should be grateful that it is so difficult to remain grateful, for when the feeling comes the effect is double!

      Andrew

    2. Andrew Says:
      September 27th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

      Hi,

      Oops, I meant the 4th chakra. :)

    3. Michela Says:
      October 1st, 2008 at 5:41 pm

      Hi Andrew,

      I think you’re right, the work it takes to remember and feel gratitude makes it much more precious.

      I think also you can use Hope Monster as a gratitude website. I think they are linked and that the website can handle many inspiring quotes.

      Stay well!

      Michela

    4. todd Says:
      October 31st, 2008 at 8:48 am

      Commenting about Gratefulness and Gratitude - Have you seen the trailer on the upcoming doug Vermeeren film? (Mr. Vermeeren is the creator of The Opus) The trailer is challenges science and faith one against another in some kind of GRATITUDE EXPERIMENT (www.MMPWmovies.com) as he cals it. I am agnostic and believe that scientific evidence and fact are far too strong to let airy fairy new age mumbo jumbo dictate my life… Good luck with that.

    5. Michela Says:
      November 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm

      Hi Todd,

      Thanks for your comment. I checked out the trailer for the gratitude experiment, although I didn’t completely understand the point it was trying to make because the preview was just a teaser. Maybe I will have to wait for the movie because the gratitude-experiment.com website doesn’t seem to exist.

      The thing is, I don’t always think that scientific evidence and faith are always at odds. And I certainly don’t think gratitude needs to be taken on faith. I think the real gratitude experiment is when you try being grateful for what you have in your life and then watch closely to how it may affect your body and mind. I think it’s one of those those things that you can learn about from your own experience. You don’t need mantras, or special symbols, or gurus telling you about gratitude. You just need to pay attention.

      Good luck with everything!

      Michela

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