Amazing Low-Tech Stress Relief

"Now just lie back on your mats and place the two balls under the very top of your trapezius muscles.  That's right.... Now slowly push up from your feet, lifting your pelvis off the mat..."

It all sounded so easy as Amanda, our Yoga instructor, gave the directions.  Easy until the pain set in!  


"Holy s_ _ _ that hurts!" was all I could think.  Just like having a massage therapist's magic fingers dig right in.  Fortunately, I could use my body to control the level of discomfort.


That's the genius of Yoga Tune-Up technology - using Yoga balls to mimic a great massage up and down your back or pretty well anywhere else you need it.  And it's a lot cheaper than massage therapy, that's for sure!


The yoga balls are basically small rubber balls the size of a tennis ball.  If you squeeze them, there's certainly some "give" to them, but they do have a definite firmness.

I sure found a lot of knots to work out of my muscles - hence the pain factor for me.  Of course, it didn't help that I'd done my weight routine just before Yoga class either - I'm sure that contributed a few knots!  


As the class went on, we gradually moved the balls farther down the back, hitting the rhomboids, erector spinae, latissimus dorsi, and "the gluts".  At the end, we really did feel very relaxed (and not just because it felt so good to stop!).

The beauty of Yoga balls is also that you don't have to know much at all about traditional Hatha Yoga to benefit from them.  If you need to relieve the physical and psychological tensions built up in your muscles, you can do it right away with just about no training.  

Have a Look at this Excellent Demo:

Here at Global Resilience Solutions, we're always looking for easy-to-use tools to help you improve your health, dissolve your stress and relax you more.  And Yoga Tune-Up's ingenious little balls are a prime example.  No need to wait to see a massage- or phsyio-therapist to get those knots out of your muscles.  You can do it anytime!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger 

A MUST-HAVE Tool for Your Personal Resilience

No one recovers from Lou Gehrig's disease or "ALS" as it's sometimes called.  It's worse... way worse than cancer.  It's a death sentence, where 85% of the victims die in 20-48 months.  There's no real treatment and certainly no cure.  At least, that's what we assumed...

Dr. Ben Johnson, himself a medical doctor, had those same assumptions going through his head when he himself was diagnosed with the dread disease.  Then he came across a very new (at the time) health protocol called the Healing Codes  and gave it a try out of desperation.  The result?  He was symptom-free in a matter of weeks and still is today, nearly a decade later!

The Guy Who Made It Happen

This past Thursday night I had the honor of talking with the founder of the Healing Codes, Dr. Alex Loyd.  Alex holds doctorates in psychology and naturopathic medicine and does he have a story for you!  


You can listen to that story right here on the replay of Thursday's call.  If there's one interview you should really make time for during the next few days, this is definitely it:


=================================
To listen to the replay, click this link:
http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=21889254


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You'll learn about Dr. Alex Loyd's personal struggle - life with a severely depressed spouse.  His wife, Tracy, was terribly depressed for years.  And if you've ever lived with someone going through depression, you know that words can't express how draining it is.  Yet Alex persevered through this for twelve long years - that's nearly martyrdom in my opinion.  


You'll learn about how Alex discovered what we now call the Healing Codes, although "discover" probably isn't quite the right word.  And then you'll experience his total shock at how effective this protocol really was and at what a wide range of physical and emotional challenges it was blowing right out of the water.  Have a look for yourself...

What He Didn't Know at the Time

When Alex was living through these initial successes, including the cure of his wife's chronic depression, he had little idea how his method worked, only that it did.  Now we have a much better idea what's really going on.


And for the first few years, there were hundreds, if not thousands of letters and emails coming in from people outlining the amazing results the Healing Codes provided.  However, that's just anecdotal evidence - even if there's a ton of it - and not exactly scientific proof.  


Since that last time I interviewed Alex - back in 2006 on the topic of mindset - scientific studies of the Healing Codes have been done and Alex will tell you about those too.  


Another big change since that time is that the cost of the Healing Codes has gone down dramatically.  Five years ago the price was still almost $900, because of the high cost of printing binders full of paper and shipping it.  Fortunately, digital delivery of some components has allowed them to chop the price down to less than a quarter of that. 


If you'd prefer to cut to the chase and take a few minutes to read the facts, you can learn all about the Healing Codes here. 





In our quest for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual resilience, the Healing Codes are, in my opinion, one indispensable tool we should all have on hand and use regularly.  


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

You're Nowhere Near DEEP Relaxation Yet, Grasshopper....

Following last week's encounter with the Russian martial art of Systema, I've spent much of my time focused on the value of inner surrender and non-resistance.

When I was training with some special forces people earlier this year, one of the surprising things I was able to share with them was the fact that several classic martial arts holds and locks only work IF your opponent is resisting you - if he relaxes, the technique doesn't work at all!

How Tension Enters Your Life

Here's a really tough truth for you: most of the tension you experience, whether physical or emotional, is produced by YOU and no one else.  It's not the jerk who cut you off in traffic and it's not your circumstances.  Rather, the tension is caused by your resistance to all this.  


And every time you resist psychologically, you produce stress and tension we could measure physically if you were hooked up to the right equipment.  Your blood pressure and possibly your heart rate will elevate, the electrical resistance of your skin may change, some muscles may tighten and your metabolism and energy circulation will suffer.  

So when you worry about a situation, react impatiently with someone or dread going to that family picnic, your inner resistance will manifest physically even if it does so in a way that's too subtle for you to notice. 

The Two Doors to DEEP Relaxation

Deep relaxation is a state all of us can enter into - we're actually built for it.  And the way to get there, the only way, is by passing through the two doors of Non-Resistance.


The first door, as the world's authentic ancient traditions have long since proven, is your breath.  If you can stay gently focused on your breathing as if it is the only thing that matters (warning: if you're new at this, don't do it while driving or doing anything similar), you'll quickly discover two things:


1. You'll become much more relaxed.


2. You'll notice inner tensions and disturbances much faster.



The second door builds on the first.  This is when you spend most of your time focused on your inner world because you've finally understood your inner world is not only more important than those "external circumstances", but also that by practicing non-resistance internally, your outer world changes for the better with very little effort on your part.


In fact, as long as we see our problems as "external" and as circumstances we have to change by force and manipulation, we remain stuck in "resistance mode" and experience unending tension in our lives.  As soon as we realize that our outer world or at least how we experience it is based on our own mind and that changing our mind will cause a corresponding change externally, we begin to relax and start working on the "one thing needful" - ourselves.  


Here's a great video with Bob Proctor's take on "non-resistance".  Enjoy!

A Challenge For You

How do you reach non-resistance?  Well, first you have to become aware of all your resistance!  So try this and see what happens....


For one full day at least, track your perceived levels of emotional and physical resistance on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is negligible and 10 is very severe.  Make a point of taking a reading of your condition at least every two hours.  Between those times, try to be aware of and note down all the resistance you find within.  Don't try to resist the resistance; just notice it and let it go. 





~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Five Keys to Building Your Emotional Intelligence - by Partho Choudhury

 

Emotional intelligence consists of four core abilities:

       Self-awareness – The ability to recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior, know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.

       Self-management – The ability to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

       Social awareness – The ability to understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.

       Relationship management – The ability to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) skill 1: Rapidly reduce stress

When we’re under high levels of stress, rational thinking and decision making go out the window. Runaway stress overwhelms the mind and body, getting in the way of our ability to accurately “read” a situation, hear what someone else is saying, be aware of our own feelings and needs, and communicate clearly.
The first key skill of emotional intelligence is the ability to quickly calm yourself down when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Being able to manage stress in the moment is the key to resilience. This emotional intelligence skill helps you stay balanced, focused, and in control–no matter what challenges you face.

Stress busting: functioning well in the heat of the moment

Develop your stress busting skills by working through the following three steps:

• Realize when you’re stressed – The first step to reducing stress is recognizing what stress feels like. Many of us spend so much time in an unbalanced state that we’ve forgotten what it feels like to be calm and relaxed.
• Identify your stress response – Everyone reacts differently to stress. Do you tend to space out and get depressed? Become angry and agitated? Freeze with anxiety? The best way to quickly calm yourself depends on your specific stress response.
• Discover the stress busting techniques that work for you – The best way to reduce stress quickly is through the senses: through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. But each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find things that are soothing to you.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) skill 2: Connect to your emotions

The second key skill of emotional intelligence is having a moment-to-moment awareness of your emotions and how they influence your thoughts and actions. Emotional awareness is the key to understanding yourself and others.
Many people are disconnected from their emotions–especially strong core emotions such as anger, sadness, fear, and joy. But although we can distort, deny, or numb our feelings, we can’t eliminate them. They’re still there, whether we’re aware of them or not. Unfortunately, without emotional awareness, we are unable to fully understand our own motivations and needs, or to communicate effectively with others.

What kind of a relationship do you have with your emotions?

• Do you experience feelings that flow, encountering one emotion after another as your experiences change from moment to moment?
• Are your emotions accompanied by physical sensations that you experience in places like your stomach or chest?
• Do you experience discrete feelings and emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, joy, each of which is evident in subtle facial expressions?
• Can you experience intense feelings that are strong enough to capture both your attention and that of others?
• Do you pay attention to your emotions? Do they factor into your decision making?

If any of these experiences are unfamiliar, your emotions may be turned down or turned off. In order to be emotionally healthy and emotionally intelligent, you must reconnect to your core emotions, accept them, and become comfortable with them.

Emotional intelligence skill (EQ) 3: Nonverbal communication

Being a good communicator requires more than just verbal skills. Oftentimes, what we say is less important than how we say it or the other nonverbal signals we send out. In order to hold the attention of others and build connection and trust, we need to be aware of and in control of our nonverbal cues. We also need to be able to accurately read and respond to the nonverbal cues that other people send us.
Nonverbal communication is the third skill of emotional intelligence. This wordless form of communication is emotionally driven. It asks the questions: “Are you listening?” and “Do you understand and care?” Answers to these questions are expressed in the way we listen, look, move, and react. Our nonverbal messages will produce a sense of interest, trust, excitement, and desire for connection–or they will generate fear, confusion, distrust, and disinterest.

Part of improving nonverbal communication involves paying attention to:

• Eye contact
• Facial expression
• Tone of voice

• Posture and gesture
• Touch
• Timing and pace

Emotional intelligence (EQ) skill 4: Use humor and play to deal with challenges

Humor, laughter, and play are natural antidotes to life’s difficulties. They lighten our burdens and help us keep things in perspective. A good hearty laugh reduces stress, elevates mood, and brings our nervous system back into balance.
The ability to deal with challenges using humor and play is the fourth skill of emotional intelligence. Playful communication broadens our emotional intelligence and helps us:

• Take hardships in stride. By allowing us to view our frustrations and disappointments from new perspectives, laughter and play enable us to survive annoyances, hard times, and setbacks.  
• Smooth over differences. Using gentle humor often helps us say things that might be otherwise difficult to express without creating a flap.
• Simultaneously relax and energize ourselves. Playful communication relieves fatigue and relaxes our bodies, which allows us to recharge and accomplish more.
• Become more creative. When we loosen up, we free ourselves of rigid ways of thinking and being, allowing us to get creative and see things in new ways.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) skill 5: Resolve conflict positively

Conflict and disagreements are inevitable in relationships. Two people can’t possibly have the same needs, opinions, and expectations at all times. However, that needn’t be a bad thing! Resolving conflict in healthy, constructive ways can strengthen trust between people. When conflict isn’t perceived as threatening or punishing, it fosters freedom, creativity, and safety in relationships.
The ability to manage conflicts in a positive, trust-building way is the fifth key skill of emotional intelligence. Successfully resolving differences is supported by the previous four skills of emotional intelligence. Once you know how to manage stress, stay emotionally present and aware, communicate nonverbally, and use humor and play, you’ll be better equipped to handle emotionally-charged situations and catch and defuse many issues before they escalate.

Tips for resolving conflict in a trust-building way:

• Stay focused in the present. When we are not holding on to old hurts and resentments, we can recognize the reality of a current situation and view it as a new opportunity for resolving old feelings about conflicts.
• Choose your arguments. Arguments take time and energy, especially if you want to resolve them in a positive way. Consider what is worth arguing about and what is not.
• Forgive. If you continue to be hurt or mistreated, protect yourself. But someone else’s hurtful behavior is in the past, remember that conflict resolution involves giving up the urge to punish.
• End conflicts that can't be resolved. It takes two people to keep an argument going. You can choose to disengage from a conflict, even if you still disagree.

 ~ Special Guest Post by Partho Choudhury

Between Force and Surrender

If you're not as effective in every area of life as you'd like to be, you might want to consider the 

following...

You can react in one of two ways to pretty much everything in your life.  You can use FORCE 

(willpower) to control it, or you can SURRENDER to it.  Each has its place.  One of my clients 

brought this to my attention a few months ago.  I noticed she seemed unable to do such a 

simple thing as taking just 15-30 minutes each morning to "center" herself.   On the other hand, 

she was fighting furiously (and ineffectively) with her thoughts, with those parts of herself and her 

life she doesn't like.

In other words, she was choosing to SURRENDER to laziness (a terrible enemy you never want 

to surrender to, by the way).  And on the other hand, she was using brute FORCE to fight against 

her thoughts of inadequacy, fear, anxiety, loneliness and a host of others.

Like most of us, my client is in the habit of using FORCE and SURRENDER in exactly the wrong 

way.

We need to FORCE ourselves to lead a powerful life,  rather than giving into to our tendency to 

just let ourselves go.  That takes determination.  It always has and it always will. 

And yet, we need to SURRENDER inwardly to the truth about where we're at NOW.  That means 

we stop RESISTING our neurotic tendencies - our fears, our poor self-image, our sharp edges 

and the rest.  Why?  Because only by seeing reality as it REALLY IS can we overcome those 

neuroses.  

And we don't overcome them by FORCE, by repressing them.  That's what created most of them 

in the first place.  When we calmly stare our uncomfortable aspects in the face in a 

non-judgmental way, we find they begin to lose their hold on us.

There are lots of people who think RESILIENCE is about being tough.  And yes, there’s a place 

for that forceful “yang” approach.  It really is vital to building a deliberate, powerful and 

stress-free life.  However…

Equally important and often ignored is the judicious use of surrender, the “yin” approach, 

particularly on the more subtle emotional and spiritual levels... to the right things at the right 

moments, of course.  In fact, it’s the only way to become a fully functional human being.

Not surprisingly, the most effective tool for learning the proper way to surrender inwardly is the 

process of meditation.  Meditation puts you face to face with the very things you've been 

repressing for years or decades, yet gives you the space and comfort to "create space" for 

them and allow them to dissolve on their own.  New meditators are often astonished at how 

much emotional content they've been repressing and how neurotic it was making them.

If you're interested in learning more about the meditation process and how to transform every 

moment of your life into a meditation that builds your health and calms your thoughts and 

emotions, you can go to:

http://www.harapower.com/ 

The irony is, you'll never learn how to surrender to the REAL, to relax deeply into the essence of 

life and discover your true self, unless you know when to apply force.   Every authentic ancient 

tradition is built on this delicate balance between force and surrender.

Your friend in the "war for peace", 

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

You NEED a Vacation More Than You Think...

You need a vacation.  In fact, there's a high probability you need a vacation now and you need it more than you think.  

Your body knows you need it.  Your subconscious mind knows you need it.  So then why is your rational mind so good at finding excuses not to take any holidays, even if those are paid holidays you have coming to you?


"I'll wait until flights are cheaper in the off-season."  "I just have this one project to get out of the way."  "The kids have too many activities for us to take time off."  "The office will fall apart without me."  And the list goes on...

So why do you desperately need a vacation?  Consider the following:

• You are under a lot more chronic stress than you're consciously aware of (and you probably know from experience the only way to verify this is to take a holiday from your regular responsibilities)
• You're under continual non-psychological stress from your environment and the way you treat your body-mind organism
• These stress factors are harming your nervous system, your energy system, probably your cardiovascular system and more on a daily basis
• Therefore, you need to rest and rebuild your health and immunity on a deep level
• And you need a time where you can relax and make no decisions at all

 
Vacation Myths:

It's often said, "A change is as good as a rest."  Nonsense!  It's not uncommon to find people whose vacation was a whirlwind tour of ten European capitals and who come home all excited... only to realize they're more exhausted than when they left. 


Don't get me wrong - it's great to go see the world... as long as you take a true vacation that's separate from that.  So I'm not saying you should cancel your flight to Frankfurt; just that the vacation you mind-body organism most needs, the one that will build your personal resilience instead of depleting it , is a little different.

The holiday you really need requires lots of fresh air and sunshine, light exercise, a healthy diet, some light detoxification, better quality sleep and probably a bit more of it, and deep relaxation.

An Ideal Vacation?

In the video below you'll see an example of a near perfect, resilience-building vacation.  Please note that the point here is not so much the place itself, nor the Qi Gong master who devised it (Mantak Chia), but the key resilience-building components of the experience.  Can you pick them out?

Design Your Vacation Today:

[NOTE: The following advice is for people in a state of overall good health.  If you have particular health challenges or preexisting conditions, you should consult your health care practitioner before undertaking some elements of the following]

So now that I've persuaded you to take that long overdue vacation (!), here are some of the things you might want to consider:


First, you need time off work.  So tell the office to take a hike for at least a week and preferably no less than two weeks.

Second, make sure that at least part of your vacation involves a change of surroundings for at least a few days if possible.  You're looking for a calm and orderly environment, a place conducive to good sleep, fresh air, light exercise and a healthy diet.


Third, book yourself a few hours at a good spa, including at least one massage treatment of sixty minutes or more, plus use of the sauna and, if possible, swimming pool facilities.  This is the "light detoxification" I referred to above.  A good relaxation massage will help detoxify your body naturally, as will a sauna, especially if the sauna is followed by a dip in a cold-ish pool. 

Fourth, surround yourself with warm, optimistic and loving people.

Next time, I'll let you in on the secrets of how to construct a mini-vacation anytime, even when you can't really get away for long or at all.  That's what I did just last week ;-)


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Breathing Your Way to Superb Health

You can learn a lot about a person just by observing how they breathe...

• When they're relaxed, whether standing or sitting, can you hear their breathing?
• Do their shoulders and chest rise when they inhale?
• Does their lower abdomen move at all?
• Are they inhaling or exhaling through their mouth or their nose?

All these are key questions that can tell you volumes about their physical health and, for that matter, their emotional health and how they relate to their body.

Compelling Reasons for Breathing Right:

Simply put, your body-mind organism has been designed to breathe in a particular way, and if you knock that natural breathing out of whack, you'll eventually reap the consequences.  The breathing that's natural to the human person is what's sometimes called "Normal Abdominal Breathing".  Why should you bother with it?  As Bill Nye the Science Guy loves to say, "consider the following";

• It enhances the circulation of blood, lymph fluid and energy (chest breathing restricts all of them)
• It takes the burden off the heart (chest breathing makes your heart work harder)
• It massages your lower digestive tract, leading to more efficient elimination of toxins (chest breathing leaves your lower digestive tract stagnant and sluggish, leading to auto-intoxication)
• It calms the emotions and reduces the energy-sapping "inner dialogue" (chest breathing tends to increase negative emotional content)

Practicing Basic Normal Abdominal Breathing:

Getting started is super-simple.  You can start with the following exercise while sitting or standing, and later graduate to doing it while walking:

1. Keeping your chest and shoulders relatively stationary, expand your lower abdomen outward as you inhale through your nose
2. Contract your lower abdomen as you exhale through your nose
3. With each breath, use your mental attention to feel the breath sink down to your lower abdomen
4. Breath at whatever pace is comfortable for you - this should feel completely gentle, natural and unforced, even if it seems a bit awkward at first ;-)

Once you've got the hang of that, you can experiment with these auxilliary practices (NOTE: If you have high blood pressure, please consult your physician first):

1. As you inhale, instead of just expanding your abdomen to the front, allow your waist to expand all the way around, as if it were a big inner tube
2. As you inhale, relax your perineum completely and feel the breath move all the way down to it and push against it.  Then, when you exhale, pull up on the perineum, more or less as you would doing a Kegel exercise (the Kegel or PC muscle exercises have lots of other health benefits I don't have time to get into here). 

Breathing and Your Personal Resilience:

Proper breathing can dramatically increase your physical health on all levels, balance your emotions, reduce your stress and, over time, utterly transform your relationship with your body.  It's pretty hard to overstate the benefits of paying attention to your breathing.

Of course, its real value comes when you transition from doing Normal Abdominal Breathing as an exercise for a few minutes a day to making it the "default setting" for how you breathe all day long. 

To get the whole story on how to do that, go to this website:

http://www.harapower.com/

Now, go enjoy a few good lung-fulls of fresh air!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Meditation: Why You Need to Change Your Paradigm

One of the greatest RESILIENCE-BUILDERS out there is the regular practice of meditation. More and more people are taking up meditation for a variety of reasons, ranging from stress-management to seeking inner peace to enhancing their spiritual life to controlling their inner energy (Qi).

Unfortunately, most people are not getting nearly the benefits their meditation practice has to offer simply because they're making a culturally ingrained mistake that every Westerner is pretty much bound to make...

...they meditate when they meditate; then they get up and switch their brain into the same old stressed-out "daytime" mode they're so used to.

Hear this: your meditation's effectiveness can be easily quadrupled by simply avoiding that habitual mental shift.

"Great," you say, "but just how am I supposed to do that? My kids need their lunches made and a ride to school. My boss is on my case about that report and I'm run off my feet!"


SHIFTING YOUR FRAMEWORK

Fair enough. Let me explain... You're obviously familiar with the idea that whatever you focus on, especially with strong emotion, grows and eventually becomes your reality.

So if you insist on focusing on how insanely busy you are and how everyone is making demands on you, then that will become your reality. Let's call it the "fundamental background" of your life. Incidents will come and go throughout your day, but this "fundamental background" will always remain -ever-present and unchanged.

Suppose you decided to change that. What if the calm and centeredness of your meditation practice could be the NEW fundamental background of your life? What if your focus were constantly on that instead of on your problems and challenges?

For one thing, you'd have a lot less stress. Unpleasant incidents during the day would barely phase you. You'd be more effective and productive, since the meditative mind is always more effective than so-called "waking consciousness". And you'd be more deeply relaxed, so your health and resilience would naturally improve.


"YOU STILL HAVEN'T TOLD ME HOW, DOC!"

Mea culpa - guilty as charged! So let's get to that part now...

Here's a step-by-step method you can use to get started. Keep in mind this won't change your life overnight because your old habits of mind and body are SOOO deeply ingrained.

1. Meditate first thing in the morning

2. When you're ready to finish your meditation session, remind yourself that maintaining your meditative mind, the awareness of your inner being, is going to be the "fundamental background" of your day.

3. Become aware of the delightful PHYSICAL sensations of meditation as you go through your day - the rhythm of your breathing, the inner energy contracting and expanding, etc.

4. By focusing on these sensations, strive to keep your mind and emotions clear and calm.

"Can't be done," you say? Nonsense! Generations of experience show that people living in far more challenging circumstances than yours and mine trained themselves to do this and reaped the awesome benefits of health, immunity, longevity, inner peace and spiritual insight. That's why...

...you can too!

To learn about the SILVER BULLET for mastering meditation, whether you're sitting, standing, moving or doing anything at all, go here:

http://www.warriorcoachinginternational.com/hara.html

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Take a Week to Test Yourself and WIN

One of the best ways to get yourself to peak performance and stay there is simply this:

...every so often, train just one thing really hard for a week.

This week, for example, I'm focussing on something very physical - strength training. In concrete terms, that means I'm going to double my usual "maintenance" regime and do one thousand push-ups and five hundred squats this week.

Naturally, that may mean some other physical training items take the week off, and that's okay. The value of this type of focussed training far outweighs any potential downside.

I should emphasize that you can do this with ANY element of your usual training - your meditation, any aspect of your spiritual life, your interactions with others, etc. Your imagination's the limit!

The next two weeks happen to be a fasting period in the Orthodox Church, and fasting periods have been used since ancient times for more demanding spiritual training. What most people don't notice these days is that this "spiritual" training usually involved more physical work too. So it's a nice coincidence for me.

Using a week to focus on a single aspect of training yourself (and PLEASE remember, every single thing you do IS training you for better or worse!) has some huge benefits:

1. You improve dramatically in one area in a very short time (yeah, you may be a bit sore, but you'll still be light years ahead at the end)
   
2. You'll often find it hard to go back to your usual regime once you discover what you're really capable of
   
3. You'll feel dramatically better about yourself and what you can do when you put your mind to it.
   
4. You'll have lots more energy to burn and less stress to deal with

This kind of training gives you a victory over yourself and I can't say often enough that in the world of self-transformation, you have to experience frequent victories. They're vital to your progress and to your morale.

So why not pick something over the next few days and just do more of it than you're doing now? Give yourself that victory you deserve. Take a week to test yourself and enjoy the benefits!

~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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