A Spiritual Short-Cut to Emotional Tranquility, Less Stress and More Happiness

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Please note: the following post contains a spiritual practice that you should only attempt if you are relatively stable emotionally, self-aware and not under psychiatric care.

Also, remember to join us for tonight's Spiritual Life 1: Foundations teleseminar / webinar at: http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventID=21310599

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As you already know, we'll be examining the meaning of that nebulous phrase, "spiritual life", in my upcoming teleseminar series on the subject.  Whatever it means to you personally, though, there's little doubt you're interested improving your emotional life and increasing your subjective feeling of well-being.  

And that's a key point because it shows us that whatever spiritual life may mean to each of us, one common denominator is that it is somehow intimately related to our emotional being and, through that, to our very core as human beings.  

So what can you do TODAY to calm your mind, settle your emotions, shed your stress and remain increasingly tranquil no matter what's going on around you?  Well, there is one simple practice you could adopt that will do all this for you.  In its best articulated form, it's a Tibetan Buddhist practice, although elements of the ancient Christian mystical tradition and later Taoism both have equivalents.  Please note that you don't have to be a Buddhist to practice this - the results speak for themselves.

The Practice

Choose a day to start your practice.  It should be an ordinary weekday with nothing too unusual happening.  Here's what you'll do:

1. When you wake up, sit up for a few minutes in a meditative posture and focus on your breathing to calm your mind.
   
   
2. Once your mind is as calm as it will get, say to yourself, "Everything I encounter today is simply a projection of my mind.  Pleasant or unpleasant, everything I experience is no more real or substantial than a dream.  If someone acts in a way that is hurtful to me, I can simply remember this is just a projection of my mind so that a negative emotional reaction on my part would make no sense.  If something wonderful happens, I can simply remember that pleasant and unpleasant occurrences are always alternating, so there's no point in getting too excited."
   
   
3. As you take your shower, just say to yourself, "Here I am, washing this dream body with this dream soap."  And when you're getting your breakfast, realize you're pouring dream coffee into a dream mug.
   
   
4. As you go through your day, remind yourself continually that what you experience is a product of your mind.  And remind yourself that the more positive your emotional state now, and the more positively you can affect the state of other people, the more you are planting the seeds of positive experiences for yourself in the future.
   
   

This Spiritual Practice Has Several Advantages...

1. It reminds us that nothing we see or experience in our world exists in the same way that our senses suggest to us.  For example, all "material reality" is largely empty space and fields of energy.  There is no solid "matter" at all.  As Einstein once said, "Reality is an illusion... albeit a very convincing one."
   
   
2. It quickly severs the link between what happens to us and our habitual emotional responses, thus building our inner freedom.
   
   
3. It allows us to maintain a much calmer emotional life while at the same time building positive emotional content throughout the day.
    
   
4. In other words, events will no longer control how we feel.
   
   
5. We naturally find ourselves in the "place of the observer" - one of the principal goals of meditation and of deep prayer.
   
   
6. We find ourselves happier, with less stress and a lot more joy, all for very little effort.

Is there a catch?  Just one: this is a discipline and a practice - it doesn't work unless you do it.  One hint for you before you start - take it easy and begin with few expectations.  It's pretty common near the beginning to feel a sense of "Wow! This is SO cool!!" and then, a day or two later, to feel, "Damn, this is harder than I thought!"  

No worries, though.  That's all totally natural.  Just give it a try and feel free to share what you discover by commenting on this post or dropping us a line.  Enjoy!!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger :-)

Take Charge of Your Health-Immunity-Longevity NOW

My wife and I recently had dinner with an old friend from out of town, a middle aged guy who, on the outside, looks healthy enough. Turns out he wants to drop about 20 pounds, so we asked him what he's doing about it. He said, "I'm doing a lot of walking, but for some reason I'm not dropping any weight."


Well, that was my first clue, so I asked him what he eats... and that's when it all came out - junk food, too many carbs of the worst kind and absolutely no regard for food combining. Hardly a surprise, alas...


He was actually proud of his recent switch from regular Pepsi to diet Pepsi! It's enough to make a health coach drive his head into the nearest two-by-four ;-)


Anyway, given our short time together and where he was at, there wasn't a lot we could do. My wife taught him how to maximize the weight loss from his walking and gave him a diet that will almost certainly get him to his goal of losing those 20 pounds.




THE STUPIDEST THING YOU CAN DO IS THIS...


...to focus narrowly on "losing weight", rather than on your overall health and immunity. And that's especially the case if you're looking to lose less than 50 pounds or so. The ironclad law here is this: Focus on your overall health and immunity first, and only then worry about the rest.


The most common stupidity I run into is that people haven't a clue about the exercise they need most. Our friend is typical - he thought that by going for a walk every day he had covered his bases. And then you get other people who only run or only lift some weights or only swim. Why's that a problem?


Well, the Taoist longevity masters, who figured outhow to RELIABLY GET YOU PAST YOUR 100TH BIRTHDAY IN GREAT HEALTH, knew the ONLY approach to exercise that really works. They knew about the "7 Deadly Spirals of Disease" and how to avoid them all. And they knew that just "staying active" and getting conventional exercise didn't cut it.


And here's the system they came up with:


http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/RSHQG/details.php


It has worked for them for the last 15 centuries or so and it can work for you. This is the cornerstone of their health-immunity-longevity system.


And here's the GOOD NEWS: If you grab a copy this week, we'll send you a FIFTY DOLLAR rebate off the posted price. So don't wait. Learn the most important facts and take charge of your own health, immunity and longevity today.


Or you may want to give it as a gift to someone who,like our friend above, is on the wrong track at the moment. Just because our friend and millions like him are on the wrong track doesn't mean you have to be!


http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/RSHQG/details.php


To your health!


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
Warrior Coaching International - transforming your mind, body and spirit into SOLID STEEL......wrapped in cotton ;-)

Want Inner Equilibrium? Go Outside!!

I don't know about you, but the first thing I do every morning is head downstairs, throw open the patio door, go outside and BREATHE.

If you want energy for the first half of your day, just head outside first thing in the morning - the earlier the better - and take some deep breaths. I'll tell you how in a moment.

Deep levels of inner peace and harmony are not just emotional states unrelated to your physical body and your place in the cosmos. They're not just the result of attitudes and they can't be produced simply by mind games, as some people are telling you.

This deep inner peace and harmony is the direct result of you inserting yourself in the currents of harmony that blow through all creation all around you at every moment. You want to feel these currents? Good. Then go outside first thing in the morning and to this:

1. Put your hands on your hips, bend forward keeping your back straight and exhale through your mouth, totally emptying all the stale air out of your lungs.

2. Return to an upright posture, inhaling through your nose. You'll find you really don't have to inhale - your lungs will fill up again automatically. Repeat steps 1 and 2 three times - don't hyperventilate.

3. If the sun is up, feel its warmth on your skin and gently "breathe in" its warmth.

4. Do some light stretching, enjoying the crisp, clean air.

The early morning air is first of all the cleanest air of the day, if you live in a city as most of us do. It's also thoroughly charged with Qi, according to Chinese medicine and ancient Taoist research. And that explains why parks throughout China and in Chinese communities abroad are often packed with people doing Tai Chi, Qi Gong or related exercises at dawn.

Of course, you can and should get outside anytime you can, especially to places where you can be in a more natural environment. I realize that can be tough if you work downtown in the concrete jungle. I'm very fortunate in that there are two sets of woods within walking distance of my house, woods thick enough that when you're in them you can't even see the rest of the city! It's a great place to do Qi Gong.

Whenever you can go for walks through a park or even through your neighborhood, do it. Just follow your breath with your mind and bathe yourself in the harmony you feel. This will calm your mind, calm your nerves and, from a physical point of view, give you some natural vitamin D and fresh (non-recirculated) air.

As you pursue inner peace and harmony as goals in your life, you'll find yourself spending more and more time outdoors. This is one addiction you don't want to put off!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

The ONE Thing I Want You to Really "Get"

Okay. I’ve spent the last few days giving you some concrete strategies for greatly increasing your sense of inner peace and harmony.

And, from what I’ve been hearing, that’s really helped you.

My real purpose, though, my “hidden agenda”, has been something a little different:

I’ve been trying to get you to engage your life in a different way, to sense a new possibility within yourself by rebuilding your lost mind-body connection.

Authentic Ancient Traditions all over the world have done this for millennia, with amazing results. The Taoists have called this overall process “self-cultivation” or “self-refinement”.

SELF-REFINEMENT

Look at it this way: your mind-body organism is meant to function in a certain way. When you use it in the proper way, it naturally stays healthy and functions optimally, so you’re physically healthy, emotionally happy and “in the zone”.

When you abuse your organism through your thoughts, your emotions, your diet, your physical movement (or lack thereof), you suffer the consequences.

Millennia of research have gone into figuring this out all over the world. Contrary to the modern “religious” idea that everything comes down to what you BELIEVE, ancient traditions knew – and still know – that the mind and body are interdependent.

They realized that if your energy or Qi (to use the Chinese medical term) is weak, dispersed or blocked, then your thought processes will be effected too. So you don’t have a hope in hell of governing your thoughts and emotions if you ignore your body.

The process of “combining energy and spirit” is a miraculous tool to help you enter into a whole new world, the world of self-refinement.

In the world of self-refinement, we do what makes us stronger. In the mundane world of the everyday, people do what makes them feel better (get pleasure and avoid pain) in the short term.

There’s only one small problem with the latter – it leads to weakness, illness and death. Self-refinement leads to the reverse, and that’s why the Taoists called it that path of “reversal” – reversing all the damage you’ve done to yourself up till now ;-)

When you seriously apply “combining energy and spirit” during your meditation, prayer and as you go through your day, several things start to happen…

• You learn to separate your SELF from your THOUGHTS, which is the key to spiritual development. And it happens naturally, without special effort.
  
• Your thoughts and emotions quiet down; you become peaceful and tranquil
  
• Energy (Qi) starts to build up in your lower “dantien” – the area below the navel, which is your body’s main energy storage area
  
• This clears out blockages in your energy system, so you naturally experience much improved health and immunity
  
• Your central nervous system switches over from the stressful “sympathetic” circuit to the tranquil “parasympathetic” circuit more frequently and, eventually, at your command
  
• As you pay attention to your breathing and your bodily structure, you start to experience not just levels of harmony I can’t describe, but also physical processes you never noticed before, trapped tensions and traumas you can release, the presence of energy fields around you, and more.
  
• As you learn to keep your energy flow even and undisturbed, you become very sensitive to anything that has an impact on it – among highly developed people this could include even events you wouldn’t normally notice, like someone walking on your shadow, the presence nearby of someone you can’t see or the influence of stars and planets.
  
• You start to rely on your intuition more and it gets a lot more accurate
  
• You experience increased mental capacity and improved memory
  
• Warmth and love toward everyone and everything starts to flow through you almost automatically
  
  Self-refinement is the key to everything I’ve been teaching you. Now I’ve given you the key to the door. No one can go through that door for you – you’ve got to do it yourself ;-)
  
  Consider that my challenge to you!

Blessings!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

The Second Key to Inner Harmony, Health and Energy

Last time we talked I introduced you to one of the most fundamental methods for cultivating deep levels of inner peace and harmony. And I promised to show you how to take that to the next level.

Okay... by now you've had time to practice a bit of "Normal Abdominal Breathing". And, let me guess, you found it "awkward"??

If so, don't worry. Anything you're not used to will seem that way at first and the right way to breathe is no different. Of course, if you've had any experience before with such things as Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga and even if you've been properly taught how to sing, this kind of breathing won't be anything new to you.

You may have noticed how easy it was to feel peaceful and relaxed while you were sitting and doing your meditative breathing practice, and how quickly that state disappeared the moment you got up. That's the catch...

How do you keep your mind centered and your breath relaxed while you go about your daily tasks?? Is it really possible?

Yes, and it's simpler than you think. It still takes practice and persistence, but it really can be done. And here's the method that so many ancient traditions have used so successfully for millennia in one form or another:

1. When you get up from your sitting practice, do your best to continue your Normal Abdominal Breathing.

2. The important thing here is to "watch" your breath. In other words, do what you can to keep your mental attention on your breathing, just quietly following it and turning away all other thoughts.

If you're new to abdominal breathing and this new-to-you breathing pattern presents an obstacle for you, just forget about it entirely for now and watch your breath. Forget about whether it's abdominal or not, whether you're doing it right or not. Just pay attention to the ebb and flow of your breathing.

Your mental focus on your breathing should be "light" and natural. Don't focus so hard you tense up. As you can probably guess, that kind of defeats the purpose ;-)

3. While you're focusing on your breath, you'll eventually notice physical feelings of harmony all over your body. You may notice various parts of your body and skin seem to "breathe" in conjuction with your inhaling and exhaling. Feel free to pay attention to those feelings as they arise.


Combining Energy and Spirit

Although many traditions used this procedure, only the Taoists gave it a name. They called it "combining energy and spirit". What's that mean?

Simple. "Energy" is your breathing, since breath relates to and controls energy (Qi). And "spirit" is your mental attention.

This simple procedure - paying continuous attention to your breathing - is so profound that it was often referred to as "the true path". Why? Because by doing it for a few months you could easily:

1. Banish negative emotions - all your doubts, fears, confusions
2. Gain complete control over your inner world (and therefore a lot more control of your outer world, since the former dictates the latter)
3. Increase your love for all people and all creation naturally, without much effort
4. Eliminate stress and discover levels of inner peace you didn't know existed
5. Regain your health and banish diseases arising from emotional factors

Let Me SIMPLIFY This For You...

All you need to do is get used to watching your breathing with your mental attention. It's that simple.

Of course, at the beginning you'll lose track of your breathing every time something distracts you - a chance conversation, spilling your coffee, memories of a negative emotional state, or just about anything else.

As long as you persevere, though, it won't be long before you can even do intellectual work like writing this article without losing track of your inner world!

Next time, I'll show you how to reduce some of the unseen stresses you're putting on your physical body. Until then, enjoy the wonderful practice of "combining energy and spirit".

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

The First Key to Inner Harmony, Health and Energy

As I was saying...

Over the next few days I’m going to show you exactly how I approach cultivating deeper levels of inner peace and harmony, based largely on the wisdom and actual practices of Authentic Ancient Traditions. There are several pieces to the puzzle, but I’ll give them to you one at a time.

As I said earlier this week, the purpose of all this is to take you to a level of internal harmony and equilibrium that surpasses what you experience every day (as if that would be hard!) and that probably exceeds anything you remember experiencing at all.

And, of course, it has a few wonderful side effects, like more robust health and immunity, more energy, greater control of your moods and emotions and lots more.

To learn about the first step in the process, keep reading…

RELAX AND BREATHE…

The first thing is that you’re not going to find DEEP inner harmony or deep levels of relaxation until you connect with your breathing.

The first part of that is learning to breath properly, because if you’re habitually breathing high in your chest, you’re artificially creating low-level anxiety on an ongoing basis. It’s like having one foot on the accelerator while the other one’s on the brake.

So you need to return to natural breathing, the way kids breathe before they’re taught the wrong way to do it. That means that when you inhale, your lower abdomen should expand and when you exhale it should contract. If you notice your shoulders rising when you breathe, you’re definitely breathing into your chest, which over-stimulates your rational mind (that means it stirs up thoughts and emotions) and wastes lots of physical energy too.


BASIC DIRECTIONS

1. Go find a place where you can sit with your back relatively straight. It doesn’t particularly matter if you’re sitting cross-legged in some form of meditative posture or if you’re on a chair.

2. Close your eyes and call to mind your mental image of inner harmony, the one we talked about last time.

3. Then practice the “Normal Abdominal Breathing” outlined above for a few minutes. If your mind wanders, just bring it back to your breathing. Just do your best to keep your mental attention on your breathing. When a thought says to you, “you’re not doing this right,” pay NO attention to it.

4. Repeat as often as you can during the day. You can even do it during corporate meetings (without closing your eyes, of course. No one will notice), while standing at the bus stop or when you’re taking a walk.


Remember to renew your decision to make cultivating increased levels of inner harmony your main objective for the next few days, __________. That’s indispensable.
Tomorrow we’ll talk more about the dramatic effects of the practice I’ve outlined above and I’ll show you how to take it to the next level.

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

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Disclaimer: This material is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition, nor to
replace the advice of qualified medical practitioners. You should not engage in any of the
exercises suggested here without consulting your physician, particularly if you have any
chronic medical issues or have reason to suspect these exercises could cause injury to you.
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