Your Most Critical Emotional Skill

Here's an astonishing fact you may never have considered:

Your level of personal happiness throughout your life will depend upon your ability to completely forgive those who have hurt or offended you.

In point of fact, the emotional-spiritual skill of forgiveness is critical to becoming a resilient person, to acting effectively and to your physical and emotional health.  And it is indeed a skill that can be learned by anyone, though it may seem terribly difficult to do at times.

Here's a short video to help you get started:

Forgiveness and Your Personal Resilience

What exactly happens to us when we refuse to forgive others, when we hang on to old hurts and nurse them, thinking about the false sweetness of revenge?  Well, it looks like this:

• Dwelling on these negative emotions compromises your immune system in numerous ways and may eventually lead you to manifest serious physical symptoms
• You'll become increasingly vulnerable to negative emotions of all kinds and lose any possibility of inner, emotional freedom
• This will blunt your capacity to experience genuine love, since loving requires vulnerability and openness to the possibility of hurt - it's a risk
• You won't understand other people and see them as they really are, nor will you see reality as it really is.  Your perspectives will become increasingly egocentric and deluded. 

Bottom line?  If you want to pursue a life of joy, love, openness, freedom and retain your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, you must learn to completely and unreservedly forgive everyone who has ever offended you.

... and yes, I realize that can be a pretty long list of people!

Overcoming the Obstacles to Forgiving

Of course, there may be some obstacles along the way...  You may feel you're unable to let go of your anger, your desire for revenge or justice.  All of that's to be expected.  So how do you get around it?  Here are several tools to help you get started...

1. First and foremost is that you'll never learn this critical skill unless you decide to.  Until you make the decision to forgive, absolutely nothing will change, so you need to start by convincing yourself that you need to do this.
   
   
2. One way to help get past the anger is to realize that people who have hurt you either did so unintentionally or intentionally.  If it was unintentional, as most hurts are, you can begin by imagining how the way they've been conditioned all their life led them to act in a way that was accidentally hurtful to you.  If they hurt you intentionally, again consider their prior conditioning, the strength of the delusion(s) controlling their behavior and realize they were not acting as truly free agents.  As Christ himself said as he was being crucified, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."  Likewise, consider that those who've hurt you intentionally are afflicted by the same insanity.
    
   
3. Then go on to think about how your real mission is not to hurt them back and perpetuate the cycle, but to act from a higher viewpoint and help them come to their senses.  Remember, all human beings act in ways they believe will bring them happiness.  It's just that they're often quite wrong!
   
   
4. Cultivating love and affection throughout your day will gradually teach you that the benefits of forgiveness vastly outweigh those of holding a grudge.
   
   
5. You can easily use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to manage the more acute feelings of anger that come up during the forgiveness process

A Common Misunderstanding on Forgiveness

In our conflict-averse culture, many people are so afraid of interpersonal tensions that they make forgiveness and reconciliation into a kind of panacea, if not a "false god".  


The fact is that in many conflicts there are real issues that must be dealt with.  Yes, you need to forgive the other party from the outset, but this does not mean the issues don't need to be dealt with openly and honestly.  Quite the opposite, if the real issues are papered over with pseudo-forgiveness and a group hug, then that unresolved conflict will come back to haunt all of you.

So in the forgiveness process, everyone has to face reality.
 

Still think you're have trouble forgiving your enemies?  Then start by remembering the old adage - "Forgive your enemies... it messes with their minds!"


NEXT TIME, I'll share with you perhaps the greatest example in the 20th century of how a simple act of loving forgiveness messed with the mind of an implacable enemy... and turned him into a friend.


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

"What a Weekend of Healing Light!"

(Today's special guest post comes from Gerry Krieg, who attended The Power of Qi workshop that Carol Look and I put on in Jersey City three weeks ago.  Here's what he wrote on his blog about the event...)

The Power of Qi - Breath-giving!

I attended a 3 day workshop in Jersey City last week entitled The Power of Qi. It was an incredibly powerful blend of two energy healing modalities, EFT and Qigong, springing from entirely different traditions. EFT has its origins in the western psychological world where it was developed a few decades ago to treat anxiety disorders. It uses a method of tapping on certain acupuncture points on the body (its Eastern component) while addressing (usually) verbally an emotional or physical problem of the individual being treated. Qigong stems from ancient Buddhist Chinese traditions that integrate physical and  meditative practices.

I developed a health problem (in simple terms, neuromuscular weakness, though nothing was ever diagnosed, thank goodness) a good dozen or so years ago which led me eventually to discover what many call Energy Medicine.  I’ll write more about that journey some other time, but my path back to the light was mainly illuminated by the these two practices, punctuated with some Marx Bothers and Seinfeld and similar masters of laughter qi (what more fun way to move energy?). So when I heard that they were being combined in a workshop (and by two instructors I closely follow and deeply admire) I knew I’d been tapped.

The entire event was exceptionally well conceived and run by EFT Master practitioner Carol Look and Martial arts Master Symeon Rodger (see below for more on both.  It was structured so that a one and a half hour presentation and practice of Qigong by Symeon was followed (after a break) by an hour and a half instruction and healing session with Carol. The synergy between the two modalities was both obvious and subtle.  As I tapped along with others’ issues, I could feel the energetic lift even as many of their issues revealed insights into my own situation. The mindfulness component of the Qigong (Symeon emphasized the integration of breath, movement and mental attention as critical to achieving a state of inner peace) seemed to ground the sometimes volatile emotional energy produced by the EFT workshops. So much incredible energy was produced at the workshops and having an energy modality that effectively directs and grounds that energy made the cumulative effect of the emotional work done that much more powerful.  What a brilliant concept!  What brilliant execution!

Carol Look is an amazing talent – sharp, intuitive, sensitive but firm (with an almost jazz-like sense of improvisation) as she hones in on an emotional issue that a person is struggling with.  So many times, she would guide an individual past a physical or surface complaint to a deeper level of engagement with their emotional state.  From there she was usually able to hit the target of what the core of an issue was.  Given the format and time constraints further work would usually need to be done by that person, but at least the ‘real’ issue had been revealed.  Her obvious compassion leavened with a quick New York wit, necessary professional distancing and a conductor’s timing allowed her to treat many simultaneously and well.

Symeon Rodger brought a personable, witty style to imparting the wisdom of the (s)ages from the Eastern traditions.  His obvious grace of movement and supple body strength were testament to the power that the disciplined practice of these techniques (really, way of being) can provide.  As he led us through several different styles of Qigong (from the fluid movements of the Muscle-Tendon Qigong to the meditative Energy Circulation – or Microcosmic Orbit – Qigong) his tremendous skill at performing the physical movements was matched by an enviable mental focus and clarity that is an obvious result of decades of such practice.

These master teachers provided the framework for healing, but the participants provided the rich content that allowed them, especially Carol, to mold this particular conference in a unique fashion.  So many bravely went onstage to expose intimate details of their personal stories to a roomful of several dozen strangers. Of course an atmosphere of trust was established by Carol and Symeon, but the courage of the individuals who did participate was inspiring to the others in the room  and contributed to a cycle of escalating trust and intimacy that allowed some who may have been hesitant to come forward.  That cycle of healing was of course echoed and enhanced by the framework of the conference itself which alternated the clearing EFT work with the grounding Qigong work.  Many of those who did participate had enormous shifts of energy, breakthroughs in insight to their issues that gave them plenty to work with after the conference was over.  And of course those in the room who were not on stage benefited as well by tapping along and lending emotional support to the courageous individuals on stage.

I believe Carol said she runs a workshop on allowing ourselves to shine. I believe that is part of what we were all doing there, doing healing work to lead us to a place where we can shine our brightest light on the world.  There is much work that needs to be done to heal this world and it needs us all at our best.  To cite part of the famous Marianne Williamson quote, “We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  Your playing small does not serve the world.”

What a weekend of healing light!

by Gerry Krieg (visit Gerry's blog, Green Energy Healing, at http://greenenergyhealing.wordpress.com/) 

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Please note that my next live event, Ageless Beauty, Timeless Health, will take place in Toronto, Canada on the weekend of June 4-5, where I'll be combining forces with nutrition/wellness guru Michael Morningstar from Texas.  Michael is a long-time friend, a superb presenter and he is, in fact, the first person I consult when I have questions about nutrition and detoxification.  

So keep an eye out for emails on that event - the early bird special offers a big discount but expires quite soon.

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Helping the Japanese People: Remote Resilience Building

It's no secret the Japanese people need all the support and every kind of support we can give them right now.  So how can you personally help out?

Of course you can give financially, and perhaps you can't envisage any other way to help out.  However, according to Authentic Ancient Traditions of self-transformation and according to an increasingly impressive body of scientific research, you may well be able to help Japan even more in a totally different way.

Remote Assistance: Is it Possible?

Can you help someone else acquire more personal resilience?  Can you do this even if the other person is unaware you're doing so?  A number of recent studies in remote healing (also known as "distance healing") tell us the answer is a definite "yes".  You can have a look for yourself at some of these studies in Lynne McTaggart's book, The Field.  Other case studies came to my attention at last year's Energy Psychology Conference.  The bottom line...


The bottom line is that human intention has the documented ability to reliably influence and alter molecular structure and mental state at a distance, any distance, unhindered by known physical laws or the perceived limitations of time and space.  Since this is the case, you and I can in fact contribute to the protection, healing and resolution of the multiple crises that have struck Japan - earthquake, tsunami, reactor meltdown, volcanic eruption, economic turmoil and more.  

A Resilient People

The Japanese have always been a resilient people, a people with a strong sense of identity, of purpose and a people who were very fortunate to learn a great lesson many centuries ago.  They learned that when a person becomes "rightly situated" within him- or herself as a human being, when the correct mind-body relationship is cultivated, that person becomes incredibly strong in every way.


"Hara no aru hito" - "the man with a belly", describes what they mean.  When a person is centered in the Hara, what the Chinese refer to as the dantian, he or she is imperturbable.  So hara no aru hito also conveys the idea of someone who always knows what to do.  Needless to day, the Japanese will need all the hara they have to deal with the present disaster.

What Can We Do?

Going back to the teachings of ancient traditions and the recent scientific evidence supporting them, here are a few simple suggestions you can implement right away.


Before you actually use one of these methods, though, take a few moments and imagine what you would be feeling and experiencing if you were in their place.  This creates empathy and opens up your capacity to use these powerful methods more effectively.

1. Pray for Them.  They need strength on all levels, the healing of trauma, protection from the impact of past and coming events.  And we can pray for the best possible outcome of those aspects of this disaster still in the making - the reactor situations and the volcanic activity.
    
   
2. Embrace Them in Love.  Simply go into a quiet meditative state and with the eye of your heart, embrace them in love.  Love is the single strongest force in the universe.  Nothing has ever or will ever defeat it.  The ancient Christian ascetics who genuinely encountered divine love called it "uncreated energy" - "uncreated" because it is totally different from anything else we know in this world, and infinitely more powerful.  That is why it is said that love is stronger than death.
   
   
3. Tap for Them.  Did you know you can use a tapping procedure such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to help others?  I first heard of the idea of doing this for Japan from Dawson Church, who has been responsible for much of the scientific research on EFT.  He suggested tapping every hour on the hour.  However you do it, it will all help.  If you're a little unclear on how to do it, here's a video to help you.  Keep in mind you that if you're used to a slightly different tapping sequence, you can use that instead.  

As you can see, you really can make a difference, and without even leaving home. 


A friend of mine, John Green, runs an organization here in Ottawa that's ranked number 3 in the world for earthquake rescue.  John and his crew have no doubt already made their way to Japan.  That's their talent and their gift.  We can't all go there, but we can all give our loving support and that support is critical.


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger





 

7 Rules for More Free Time, Productivity and a Life Under YOUR Control

There are very few things that undermine your happiness as quickly as a life out-of-control.  If that describes you, then using these 7 inviolable rules can help you create order out of chaos in no time flat.  And even if you don't feel too pressed for time in your life as it is, you'll find these simple practices can make a vast improvement for you.

We're surrounded by a huge variety of information sources vying for our attention.  Heck, I've had two calls from automated telemarketers while writing this post!  Your mental attention is the key here.  Aside from being the key for any form of real spiritual progress, where you focus your attention will determine your results in life on every level.  Using these rules will act as a shield against the modern disease of attention-scattering and let you focus on what actually matters...

 

1. Plan Your Entire Week in Advance

The week is the optimal planning cycle for nearly everyone.  This doesn't mean you shouldn't think farther ahead, of course; it's simply that effective planning at the "tactical" level of life is most easily done using the seven day cycle.

First, open an Excel spreadsheet and put the days of the week across the top and the hours of the day down the left hand side in half-hour increments.  Then you can fill in your week's activities according to the rules below.  Also, it's best to color-code your activities by type, since your mind works best with pictures and this will indeed give you a visual "snapshot" of your week.

I learned this brilliant method from Kathy W., my accountability partner, who is a superb project manager, and it works like a charm, as long as you follow the rules below, that is!

2. Minimize Your Decision-Making

 

A tremendous amount of your attention and mental energy goes to making decisions all day long.  You fret about them, worry about them, debate with yourself endlessly and finally you decide... or you decide not to decide.  The irony is that all this could have been avoided... 

How so?  By making the vast majority of decisions ahead of time.  First, by planning when you'll do certain types of activities, you take a ton of guess work out of your day.  You no longer have to think about what you'll do next.  And when you batch your activities and make your week "modular" as described below, you're simplifying your life and negating the need for constant low level decision-making.  

You may have heard the absurd idea that you'll save time by "handling it once".  That would mean, for example, that if you come home from work and find four utility bills in your mailbox, you should pay them all right away and get it over with, thus "saving time".  

If you find yourself tempted to do this, give yourself a quick slap on the wrist and snap out of it!  You'll pay the bills during one of the periods of time you will have set aside in advance to deal with administrivia - not before and not after.  "Handling it once" is a moronic idea - it makes you react to your world and puts your time and attention at the mercy of things you don't control. 

3. Schedule the Important Stuff First

"Important" has a simple definition in the world of resilience - whatever moves you forward in life, toward the goals you've set for yourself (and we simply assume here you've set your goals with the right mixture of wisdom and intelligence ;-) is truly important.  Everything else is secondary. 

You'll find there are an awful lot of "urgent" things clamoring for your attention all the time - you'd think they had been taking lessons from my cat!  However, very few of them are important according to the definition above.  The biggest trap in time management is putting what's important at the mercy of the unending stream of what claims to be "urgent".  

So first, decide what activities you'll undertake this week that fit the definition above.  What will take you where you want to go?  Is it exploring a new career, getting some training in a key skill, spending time visualizing where you would like to be six months from now in terms of your health, fitness, career, etc?  

Maybe it's writing a book, talking to a prospective client or updating a website.  Whatever it is, schedule it first!

This, by the way, includes such key regular activities and your routines for maintaining a healthy body and mind.  So be sure to make time for you fitness routine, your meditation, your spiritual activities and whatever other tools you are using to optimize your SELF.  

One last key principle when scheduling your important activities - feel free to put in all the things you think you "should" be able to get done in a day... then divide by two.  Almost everyone underestimates the time they'll need to get a task done.  

The secret here is that it's far better to construct a light schedule and exceed your own expectations than to set yourself a heavy schedule and feel permanently "behind". 

4. Schedule Play Time Next

 

Next, decide on some leisure activities you'd like to undertake this week.  These can be for yourself alone, with your spouse, with family or friends or whatever.  You might want to dive into a particular book this week, go for a swim, get a massage or see a movie.  Make sure you schedule these activities next, since they have a key motivational function in your week. 

 

5. Schedule Administrivia Last

It's been estimated that it takes about five to seven hours a week to run the average household, if you include paying bills, answering snail mail, planning and doing grocery shopping and whatever other weekly shopping you need to do.  And then there's the laundry, meal preparation and clean-up on top of that! 

Remember, you only need to account for the activities that you yourself will be doing.  But under no circumstances should you schedule these activities until you have the really important items above all accounted for.

6. Batch Your Activities and Make Your Week "Modular"

The principle of batching is to group activities of the same type together and do as few different types of activity on a given day as you can.  This leaves you free to really focus and the resulting increases in productivity are enormous.  Moreover, when you do this you're avoiding the mental exhaustion that normally results from having your mental attention pulled in ten different directions each day.  

So when you color code your spreadsheet according to types of activity, you shouldn't see a different color every half hour!  Instead you should see larger blocks and half days or whole days built around a very small number of activities.  

Not only will this boost your overall productivity, as I've said, it will also simplify your life and liberate your precious mental attention. 

7. Allocate Your Time by Metabolism

 

Do you work best at night?  Is that when you're at your most creative?  Then schedule your activities accordingly.  On the other hand, if your best working time for creative tasks is in the morning, then make sure you use the morning for those activities.  

In other words, don't fight your metabolism!  Work with it instead.  Personally, I'm pretty much brain dead by 6pm, and do my best work in the mornings.  So I build my schedule accordingly.  Be sure to get in touch with your own metabolism to find out at what times of day you do which particular tasks the best, fastest and most easily.

The weekend is coming up, so open an Excel spreadsheet for yourself and play with it using the principles above.  And treat it as a lifestyle experiment - you won't get it perfect the first time, and you don't need to.  One thing I can promise you though - if you use these principles you'll rapidly feel your life getting back under control!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the News in Not the Truth...

Warning: Today's post is not politically correct.  It deals with a set of key issues involved in personal resilience, it may challenge some of your assumptions and even make you a bit uncomfortable.  We live in a very complex world and facing that complexity is not for the faint of heart.  

I remember it as if it were yesterday... Working for the Canadian government in late 2002, as the Bush administration was furiously building its case for invading Iraq, I was sifting through various publications that regularly came across my desk, including the Russian daily, Pravda, and the Washington Post.

As I read both newspapers' accounts of the Bush administration's attempts to coerce its allies to join in this ultimately disastrous crusade, I was shocked to see that Pravda's account was more objective than the Washington Post's.  


Can you imagine my shock?  Here I was, a seasoned intelligence analyst and former Soviet specialist used to thinking of Pravda as a propaganda rag of the worst variety.  The Soviet Union, after all, had two main newspapers only - Pravda ("The Truth") and Izvestiya ("The News").  Hence the old saying in Russia, "Pravda nye Izvestiya, Izvestiya nye Pravda" - "The Truth is not The News and The News is not The Truth." 


The Media and Political Agendas 

One of the upsides of working in the intelligence community was that you sometimes found yourself on the "inside" of world events and you got used to the fact that what appeared in the media was not the whole story.  And, to be fair, there are factors the media just doesn't have access to on a timely basis.  

However, this was very different.  This was a deliberate attempt to bury the facts and present the story in a very different light.  One way the Bush administration did that was to strongly imply that Saddam's regime in Iraq was somehow linked to the events of 9/11.  By that time, any self-respecting analyst - with or without access to classified information - could have told you that Baghdad had absolutely nothing to do with planes flying into the World Trade Center.  Saddam may have been crazy, but he was independently crazy.  


To a certain extent, the events of 9/11 enabled the administration and its media lackeys to use one of the most time-tested of all manipulation techniques - "wrapping it in the flag".  You simply form a spurious link between your viewpoint and the alleged good of the nation, thus automatically casting all dissenting points of view as "unpatriotic", if not actually treasonous.  This diverts attention from the huge flaws in your own position and prevents people from paying serious attention to the valid points your opposition is making.  Works almost every time...

The Media and Corporate Agendas

Is the mainstream media subject to corporate agendas?  Well just ask yourself what the permissible range of opinion in the mainstream media is on a major public policy issue such as health care?  Are you allowed to say the whole debate misses the point?  That allopathic medicine is a proven disaster?  That we need a new medical paradigm?  That pharmaceutical drugs are not making us healthier?  No, of course not.  And if you find anything about so-called "alternative medicine" in the mainstream press, it's more than likely been edited for political correctness.  


Along these lines we also need to ask ourselves why there's so much fear-mongering in the media.  How many terrifying threats to your health has the media told you about this week?  And what about the last several years, when we've been told to cower in fear from West Nile virus, Avian Flu, Swine Flu, and several other pandemics-that-weren't?




Media Consolidation

"Media consolidation" - a seemingly benign phrase if you say it fast.  What it really means is that in contemporary society, more and more major media outlets are owned by fewer and fewer conglomerates.  In other words, there is less and less competition and more likelihood that the interests of those who do own the media outlets will coincide more with each other than with those of the average citizen.  

As citizens in what we're used to thinking of as "free countries", we don't think much about this, and yet it's a pressing concern.  If we want to become resilient people, we need to be very aware of how our viewpoints are being manipulated.  

Warning: the video that follows is far from politically correct.  It may make you angry.  Or you may love it.  Below I'll tell you why I'm posting it...

Personal Resilience and Media Exposure

One of the hallmarks of personal resilience is the ability to focus your attention on what really matters.  Yet in a society of "information overload" where the vast majority of that information is functionally irrelevant to you or so dumbed down as to be meaningless, your efforts to cultivate personal resilience lead to a couple of logical conclusions.  As Tim Ferriss recently put it:


"Most information is time consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence.  I challenge you to look at whatever you read or watch today and tell me that it wasn't at least two of the four." (in The 4 Hour Work Week, p.87.)


Conclusion One: Reduce your overall media exposure.  This will free up your mind, banish irrelevant data, and leave you free to devote more time to truly meaningful pursuits.


Conclusion Two: Cultivate alternate sources of information.  Once you've concluded you really want to get to the bottom of a particular issue or set of issues, go looking for dissenting points of view and specialized pools of information on that subject.


For example, I personally like to keep up with geopolitical trends.  To do that I regularly consult the output of numerous specialized think-tanks on these issues, knowing that what's in the mainstream media is a) lacking depth and b) lacking a spread of opinions. 


Beware the Narrow Range of Opinions

In our Western democracies, there's an increasing tendency for the mainstream media to severely limit the range of available opinion.  This makes it easier to dismiss competing views completely, paint them as absurd and hope they don't come up again.  Thus the prevailing view is a manufactured consensus and becomes the politically correct view, the norm.  

This can be especially worrying in the United States, where the range of publicly acceptable opinions on a given issue tends to be narrower than in other Western countries.  The political arena is just one example of this, since the US lacks any serious voice on the left (socialist) or the right (conservative) of the political spectrum (In case you didn't know, what passes for "liberal" or "conservative" in the US are simply two slightly different takes on classical liberalism).

Another problem in the US is the lack of a tradition of non-acrimonious public debate, of a serious intellectual attempt to deal with issues in constructive ways, rather than allowing competing ideologies to emotionalize the debate, obscure the issues and derail the whole process.  

The bottom line here is the need for all of us to preserve our intellectual independence from the increasingly intrusive and decreasingly useful mainstream media.  We may not live in the Soviet Union, but nevertheless we need to face the fact that "the news is not the truth and the truth is not the news". 
 

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger  

Body Image Propaganda: Are YOU a Victim?

For those of us who work within the emerging field of energy psychology, there are few emotional issues that we run into with our clients as frequently as "self-image" and especially "body-image" - the "my body isn't good enough" syndrome.  

Truthfully, though, as an Orthodox Christian priest with a couple of decades of pastoral counseling experience, I can tell you it was no different.  Thanks in part to the media, we're living through a bizarre period in history where almost everyone seems to think there's something wrong with how then look.  


And it's quite bizarre when you think about it - women are trying to attract guys by making themselves thinner and slimmer, not realizing that we guys prefer cuddling flesh to cuddling skin and bone.  And the guys are trying to look like body builders, not realizing that the vast majority of women find the body builder physique repulsive.  

Naturally, the most vulnerable segment of the population is the youth, and especially the females.  The statistics on the video below may not surprise you, but they should at least give you something to think about, and you may want to share it and discuss it with your own kids:









Lest you think that the women are the only victims of this propaganda barrage, think again - the guys suffer from it too, just in slightly different ways.  Here's a look at the problem from the male side of the house:










So, however you cut it, we're a culture with a huge self-image problem.  The mild cases lead to unnecessary mental anguish and wasted time (consider that statistic about the average woman spending over two years of her lifetime doing her hair alone!), while the severe cases can head toward depression, eating disorders and death.
 

Not a pretty picture, but one we need to take seriously if we're to become more resilient ourselves and prevent the young people around us from being sucked in to the media-created illusions they're being bombarded with.  

So if you think this post or the videos we've featured her could help anyone you know, please feel free to pass it on!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger 

The Power of Qi - Event Retrospective

For those of you who missed The Power of Qi workshop last week in Jersey City with myself and Carol Look, I have to tell you it was a great event!

There was a great energy in the room, thanks in large part to the wonderful participants who supported us, supported each other and truly made it a memorable time. 


Although I did nearly nine hours of Qi Gong teaching over the three days, the highlight for me was being able to sit back and watch Carol work her magic - using her uniquely powerful take on EFT, she brought about major emotional healing in the lives of many of those who came.  And the rest of us improved our own EFT practice considerably, while lending our energetic support to the people going through the process of dumping years or sometimes decades of emotional trauma.  

In case you're new to EFT or you've never had the privilege of watching Carol in action, here's clip that will give you some idea what it's like.  Granted, the clip parachutes you into the middle of a session without much context, but it's still worth a look.  Please note this clip is not from last week's workshop:

"Nothing Can Work That Fast"

Well, that's what one of the participants originally thought when she first heard about EFT.  She confided to me after the workshop had ended that her initial reaction to EFT was pretty skeptical when she had first encountered the technique a few years previously.  But she decided to put it to the test anyway and under very harsh conditions.  You see, she had almost drowned as a child.  And although she learned to love swimming as an adult, she had a very strong phobia about letting the water level get above her nose.  In other words, she could "swim", but had to keep her head out of the water. 

Well, after just one round of using the EFT tapping method on her decades-old phobia, she happily dove under water and was shocked to discover that the phobia was... well... gone!

The Power of Qi

The more Carol and I taught over the three days, the more we became convinced that Qi Gong and EFT are the proverbial "marriage made in heaven".  Of course, the EFT tapping procedure is based on Chinese meridian science, and the ancient Taoist medical system teaches that emotion itself is an aspect of the energy or Qi flowing through you, such that particular emotional states are related to specific organ systems in your body. 

The good news that follows from this is that you can use your body to access and control your emotional state, which both EFT and Qi Gong allow you to do in different ways.  The bad news is that if you fail to look after your emotional life, these powerful currents can directly affect your major organs and other bodily systems.  

During the event, I took everyone through a specific organ meditation method that not only relieves stress and rejuvenates the body, it also teaches you the various emotions, elements and colors associated with each of your organs as you go, so you learn all this without having to memorize it.  And for some people, it also taught them where certain organs are located ;-)

In fact, we spent a lot of time talking about the all important aspect of transforming Qi Gong from an exercise practice you do at certain times of day into a way of life.  All in all, a great learning experience for everyone who attended... including Carol and myself!

Future Events

Just so you know, I will be doing a live event in Toronto, Canada on 14-15 May with my dear friend Michael Morningstar.  The official notice and all the details should be out next week.  So if you're seriously interested in boosting your health and immunity, you'll want to keep this next workshop in mind.  

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger