It's time for vacation.
A vacation into your heart.
Vacation into your own self-healing.
Vacation into the universe,
Into nature.
So what is self-healing?
You need to take an active role in your own healing process.
The difference is with active healing,
Sorry,
With passive healing,
Means you take something,
Take some pill or some medicine and it does some work on your body and you feel better.
But when you can become more active in your own healing process,
When you can awaken the healer that's within you,
There's a healing power.
The healing person,
There's a book called Healing Power of Qi or the healer within.
Qi is a Chinese word for life energy.
It means the energy of existence that's around us,
Everywhere around us.
Just like there's air that we can't see but we can breathe in to nourish our body,
Bring in fresh clean oxygen,
Which helps our body and then that oxygen is released back out into the world to be recycled,
Turning back into oxygen.
There's a constant flow.
You breathe in air,
You breathe out,
You use air,
That air gets recycled and re-mingled and then again ready,
You breathe it in again.
Same way that we can do the same thing with Qi.
We can breathe in in a different way.
We can receive energy.
The key to bringing in this energy is practice.
It's always happening anyway.
It's always an exchange of energy between us and the universe,
The same way that we're always breathing.
We're not even aware of our breathing but we can become aware of our breathing and we can do breathing exercises to improve our breath,
To strengthen our breathing,
To increase the amount of oxygen that we breathe in.
The same way that we can increase our ability to bring in more air and more oxygen,
We can also cultivate our ability to bring in more Qi,
More energy.
That's where practices such as Qi Gong come from.
Qi means energy work.
So helping work with that exchange of Qi in between us and the universe,
Nature.
Artists have always known about the power of Qi or Qi.
Mostly it was used to strengthen your body so you could have better reflexes and punch and kick better and karate chop so that you can win in a martial conflict.
But that's a low level understanding of Qi and Qi Gong.
Yes you can become very powerful and very strong with good Qi and have an iron chest and be able to live on air or be able to stop sledgehammers from bouncing into your chest or all the stuff you might see.
But Qi can have many qualities.
Qi can be murky or stagnant,
Which means it can become not as beautiful or pure,
But Qi can also be flowing,
Clear,
And light.
In Chinese medical theory,
Many causes of disease are a form of stagnation,
Stagnant Qi,
Murky Qi in the body.
And so modalities like acupuncture,
Acupressure,
Even traditional Chinese herbs,
They work to help move the flow of energy in the body,
Create more energy flow and bring in more clean energy,
Release the murky Qi and the stagnant Qi.
But how can we do this ourselves?
Practicing Qi Gong,
Tai Chi,
Yoga,
Even meditation is very good.
But what is the best method?
There are many,
Many,
Many forms of Qi Gong.
Where you just hold positions like you're holding a tree,
Squatting down like this as long as you can.
The benefit of holding this kind of posture for a long time is that eventually your muscles can relax and the flow of Qi is what supports the body.
At first,
This may be really hard to even to do for 20 seconds,
But little by little,
You can relax more energy flow then as you relax your body more and more deeply.
Some methods are hitting the sides of the kidneys to wake up the quote unquote kidney Qi or the stomach Qi or to help to eyeball Qi or Qi for depression or nervousness,
Qi for weight loss,
Weight gain,
Qi to raise your blood pressure,
Qi Gong to lower your blood pressure,
Qi Gong for lower back pain,
Upper back pain,
Foot pain,
Hip pain,
Knee pain,
Qi Gong for headaches,
Qi Gong for asthma,
Right,
It's endless.
So what's the best method?
There's another level of Qi Gong.
But first ask yourself,
Where does the Qi come from?
Who created Qi?
What created Qi?
Why is Qi even here?
Well,
Qi is the basis of life.
Without a Qi,
There's no life,
Everything's dead.
So Qi is what animates us.
But where did the Qi come from?
Well in certain philosophies like the practice of Sheng Zhen,
Qi Gong,
Or Sheng Zhen meditation,
The Qi comes from love,
From universal love,
Big love,
Original love,
Unconditional love,
Empty and full love.
You could say that was the big bang,
Love created Qi,
Qi come out,
And then it splits into yin and yang Qi,
And through that transformation,
All of life is created and maintained.
So there's always this transformation.
But what if you can go to the source?
What if you don't just cultivate Qi,
But you cultivate Qi together with love?
Well then the quality of the Qi is at its strongest,
Most clear,
Most flowing,
Most connective.
And the Qi isn't just energy for fighting,
Or to do some specific thing.
But instead,
The Qi together with love can change your consciousness,
Can open your heart,
Purify your heart.
So in that process,
Energy comes in naturally.
A lot of the causes of stuck or stagnant or murky Qi is from a constriction from the heart,
Worry,
Fear,
Depression,
Anger,
Jealousy.
These all cause our heart to close,
And these are all symptoms of a closed heart.
And then the Qi can't flow as well.
You can just feel,
Just tense your body up.
You feel flowing?
Can you move,
Try to dance?
No.
But you relax your body and you can begin to move.
This is how it happens to the Qi in your body.
As you relax more and more,
As your heart begins to open more and more,
Then there's this easier open flow.
We're increasing the flow of Qi and the quality of the Qi just by opening the heart.
So,
Qi Gong is just one level.
To take your Qi Gong practice to the next level,
You have to find the heart of Qi Gong.
What is the heart?
When the hearts open and Qi and love are together,
This is the science of Qi.
Every science is easy now for hearts and hearts to connect.
It's easy for your own heart to connect to nature,
To connect to the earth,
Even the whole universe.
All that can connect inside of you.
Your mind can rest in that open heart and then the brilliance of your mind can shine.
So right away when the hearts open,
You know,
When you're in a good mood,
Something makes you really happy or feel full of love.
You just feel better.
Everybody knows this.
So opening the heart,
Cultivating Qi together with love is good for the physical body because the body can relax more and more,
Receive more energy.
You see a clearer or flowing or complete energy.
The emotions are helped.
The negative emotions can slowly be dissolved by that Qi together with love.
Opening the heart,
Purifying the heart,
Just like warm water and melting ice,
Qi together with love can dissolve those negative emotions.
Very slowly,
In no rush,
Very naturally,
The heart begins to open more and more.
The heart begins to become once again clear like water,
Like a child's heart,
Like a young,
Innocent pure heart.
So to awaken,
To truly awaken the healer within means to open your heart,
To cultivate not just Qi,
Not just do Qi Gong,
But take your Qi Gong practice to another level.
Take your yoga practice,
Your meditation practice to another level.
Combine it with opening your heart so that you're gathering Qi and love.
Indians call this energy prana,
So prana and love.
Qi is the Japanese term,
Qi and love together.
Like a martial heart,
Aikido,
Ai means love,
Qi is energy,
Do is the way,
Ai also means harmony.
So love and Qi together,
Qi in harmony.
How do you do this?
Or practice called Sheng Zhen.
Sheng Zhen used to be called Sheng Zhen Qi Gong,
But as I'm explaining,
It's too limited.
It's not just Qi Gong.
Yes,
There's an exchange of Qi,
But it's on another level.
Qi and love are never separate.
So the main purpose of Sheng Zhen is to help,
Yes,
Gather Qi,
But most importantly,
To open the heart.
Shortcut,
It's the best,
The best quality Qi comes when Qi and love are together.
And you cultivate not just energy,
But quality is what comes from an open heart,
Courage,
Charisma,
Compassion,
Forgiveness,
Understanding,
Clarity,
Openness,
Connection,
Presence,
Authority,
Autonomy.
So many,
So much real true power,
Not the got a lot of Qi and can fight a lot of people kind of power.
My moves are really fast,
Yes.
But can you love someone so much that without attacking them,
You can dissolve and heal that energy in them that even wanted them to attack?
So this is what a practice like Aikido has done.
It's made Qi,
Qi and love together so that instead of just relying on the Qi part to stop some attacker,
You harmonize,
You blend together with love and you show the way and something miraculous happens.
You turn your opponent's aggression into laughter or joy,
Connection,
A true healing heart.
So another level of awakening the healer inside of you.
So as we practice the Shengzhen self-healing,
Let's do these movements,
Not just from a Qi Gong point of view or just exercise.
So not just good for your muscles,
Not just good for your Qi,
But allow it to open your heart.
When you open your heart,
Your perspective shifts,
Your consciousness has changed.
You become more connected.
So less and less separation between your body and the outside world,
Between you and the earth,
You and nature,
You and the whole world,
You and the whole universe.
You expand your consciousness and you complete yourself.
You become completely connected and centered inside of you so that you and the universe are one,
You and the earth are one,
You and the nature are one.
With a heart open full of unconditional love,
You and humanity,
All of humanity are one.
This is the true Qi Gong.
This is the true meditation practice.
This is the true yoga.
This is the heart of it all.
Opening the heart creates a coherence.
Scientific studies are showing how much influence this heart has.
The heart knows things before the brain knows.
The heart is the commander,
The controller of everything.
We think it's our mind,
But our mind is just our mind.
The heart is the true,
Holds the true wisdom.
You know something in your heart,
You know some truth,
Not opinions of the mind,
But the heart speaks in truth.
So as we practice this Sheng Zhen healing form,
We get in touch with our inner truth,
The truth that we come from love,
That we are an embodiment of unconditional love.
Through the practice,
Cultivate yourself,
Cultivate your energy,
Purify your heart,
Purify your body with love,
Create a stronger connection with the world around you,
The world that you are a part of,
An integral,
Integrated part of.
One of the gifts of opening the heart is to feel oneness,
One with everything.
Oneness is a big concept and may trigger some feelings of,
Oh,
I'm not an individual.
Yes,
You are a body and a being and you have a spirit and a soul,
But you are part of all of creation.
We're all connected.
We're all one family.
We all come from love.
From the biggest picture,
We're one with the trees and the hills and the mountains,
The birds,
Animals,
The fish,
Even the insects.
We're one with the weather,
The cycles of the seasons.
We're all one,
One beautiful present connected moment.
And working towards that understanding and that experience of oneness is to walk a path of self-healing.
And you can settle into this oneness energy,
Naturally,
Effortlessly flows in and out.
Create a capacity to hold more energy.
Like you're upgrading the RAM in your phone,
You can hold more pictures when you upgrade your ability to hold more love and more chi.
In the space,
But in your body,
The space between your cells gets bigger.
Studies show that positive thoughts influence the twisting of our DNA strands.
So positive thoughts allow them to relax and open and negative emotions,
Anger,
Fear,
They cause our DNA strands to tighten.
But we literally get smaller with loving thoughts,
We expand,
Our cells expand,
Our DNA expands.
There's fascinating research,
Scientific research on the heart done by doctors such as Jodis Benza,
Authors like Greg Braden,
Institutes like HeartMath Institute,
That are doing repeated studies that have been shown over and over again the same results that the heart holds the key to perfect well-being.
So if you want self-healing,
Start with your heart.
And how do you open your heart?
It's a practice.
You find some practice that helps you to open your heart.
It can be painting,
It can be playing with children,
It can be walking in nature,
It can be a more physical practice that uses the body like Shengzhen,
Like Aikido,
Where you can learn to cultivate your open heart and to be able to embody that open heart so that you can take your practice out into the world that needs you.
Take your spiritual practice,
Your meditation practice,
Your yoga practice,
Your heart opening practice.
It's one thing to feel it and experience it inside,
And then how do you share it with the world?
How do you go out in the world and be a luminary?
Be so clear that you reflect the radiance of everyone else around you back to them by your own clarity.
You show the world,
You show the people how bright they already are.
So in some ways it's about you being this shining beacon,
And in another way it's about you being a mirror for the universe,
You being a mirror for other people,
You being a mirror for nature and for the love that exists in everyone else's heart.
You shine the light of their heart back to them.
So there's a real act of love for the world by working and cultivating your open heart.
It means you're telling the world,
I want to be one of the radiance makers,
I want to be one of the mirrors of the universe.
I want to bring more light,
More reflex,
Reflectivity out into the world.
So we'll do the first part of Sheng Zhen self-healing practice.
There are ten movements usually done sitting in a chair.
I suppose you could do these standing up,
But they were designed for the chair and for sitting close to the edge.
Not so much that you fall off,
So not too close to the edge,
But when you sit right on the edge,
It's easier for your body to be upright.
So sit close to the edge,
Feel yourself tall,
Stable,
Your head and neck and spine are all in line,
And inside feel yourself expand.
So from here,
Open up everywhere here,
Standing tall or sitting tall with a big heart full of confidence.
You can look out in the world.
Just hold that space for a moment,
Allowing inside expand more and more.
Your body is full of love,
Full of openness,
Naturally full of Qi.
Even just practicing this position of just sitting in a chair,
Allowing your body to open,
Allowing your heart to open,
Allowing a feeling of merging with the universe,
Expanding upward,
Of rooted,
Grounding,
Connecting to the earth,
Going downward,
Being supported,
A sense of connecting with nature,
Opening up to nature,
Becoming one with the whole world.
Even just practicing that a few minutes a day is powerful self-healing.
So just,
Let's take one more minute just to open.
Let the cells of your body expand.
Feel the skin pores of your body opening.
Qi and love naturally entering into your body,
Nourishing,
Strengthening,
Purifying your body.
You and the universe are one.
You and the earth are one.
You and all of nature,
All of humanity,
Are one.
Last ten seconds.
Thank you for listening to my explanation on opening the heart,
The power of the heart,
And cultivating yourself in activating your own self-healing practice.
