Dahn Yoga Center blog

Proper abdominal breathing expels used Ki energy upon exhalation and acquires new Ki energy through inhalation. Abdominal breathing is only effective if the intestines are soft and flexible. Most people, when they begin meridian exercise, have stiff, hard intestines. The intestine exercise remedies this condition by increasing blood circulation to the intestines. It can remedy constipation and other digestive problems and can sometimes cause cysts in the uterus to disappear.

Alex, a Dahn Yoga instructor in Scottsdale, AZ, says “It is important to practice the intestine exercise on a daily basis, which is made easier by the fact that it can be performed in a variety of positions, any time and any place. You can sit, lie or stand.”

If you also tighten your rectal muscles during this exercise, you will be able to gather energy and to feel warmth much more quickly. You should not overdo this exercise in the beginning, though, because it may result in some discomfort.

According to Ilchi Lee, the founder of Dahn Yoga, it is good to combine abdominal breathing with the intestine exercise for maximum effect. Inhale as you push your abdomen out, and exhale as you contract it. Hold each inhalation and exhalation for 2-3 seconds.

As you become more proficient, you can gradually increase the number of reperitions, up to 300.

If you experience pain in the intestines during the exercise, stop and gently rub the abdomen in a circular motion, massaging the intestines with your palms.

For the sake of your own health and happiness, as well as that of so many others around you, please pay attention to the quality of your thoughts. People spend many hours honing the shapes of their bodies through weight lifting, aerobic exercise, and other athletic endeavors. Ilchi Lee says he believes people should pay equal, if not more, attention to the fitness of their brain waves. Ilchi Lee says he believes that behind almost every illness and every relationship problem lies some habit related to unhealthy brain waves. Healthier brain waves translate into healthier emotional states, which in turn create stronger bodies and happier lives.

The shamans of the past, according to Ilchi Lee in his book Brain Wave Vibration, and perhaps those existing in the present, were essentially brain wave doctors. They did not have the scientific understanding of brain waves that we possess, but it is clear that their healing system was designed to stimulate healing power from within the ailing individual. Often this involved vigorously shaking the body or dancing frenetically until a deep state of trance was achieved.

You can learn Brain Wave Vibration in a local Dahn yoga center and meet lots of Dahn yoga members who practice this new method to hone your brain waves.

Dahn Yoga Circulation Exercise

Circulation exercise helps to spread Ki energy throughout the body from the lower abdomen. it helps rid the body of tension and stagnant energy while strengthening cells and bones. The blood in the lower extremities circulates more freely, and this helps to slow the aging process. The vibration also allows for the distribution of oxygen to the brain, which helps brain functioning, particularly concentration and memory.

Circulation exercise is especially helpful for people who experience high blood pressure, heart disease, rheumatism, or bronchial asthma. It helps to ease the symptoms of thyroid disorders and diseases of the skin as well. If you have any of these disorders, you can increase the time spent practicing the circulation exercise up to 10 minutes per session.

Dahn Yoga Abdominal clapping

Combined with the intestine exercise, the abdominal clapping exercise will help the intestines to become soft and flexible for abdominal breathing. This exercise not only stimulates, strengthens, and softens the intestines, but also awakens the abdomen. As you accumulate Ki energy in your abdomen, you will experience an enhanced sense of confidence and well-being.

If you eat too much meat or have poor eating habits, the food does not digest well, stagnating in the intestines. This results in constipation and other gastrointestinal upsets. Toxins can form as well, which are often responsible for the development of headaches and skin problems. Peristalsis becomes compromised and causes age acceleration. Abdominal clapping helps to lessen this condition and to restore normal peristaltic movement.

It is also clear that even the kinds of thoughts we have can greatly affect our physical health. Ilchi Lee says the effect of the mind on the body was demonstrated by scientists more than a hundred years ago. In one experiment, scientists showed fake flowers to highly allergic people. Almost invariably, the subjects, not knowing that the flowers were fake, had allergic reactions when seeing the flowers. And for centuries physicians have noted the placebo effect, in which a patient’s beliefs about a given medicine may create as much healing as the medicine itself. According to the Ask Ilchi Lee section in his website, It stands to reason then that all sorts of negative thoughts and beliefs may have a detrimental effect on the body and that positive thoughts may assist in the healing process.

Once Ilchi Lee had a student who was a video arcade owner. He had a quick temper and found himself constantly irritated with the kids in his arcade. This anger spilled over into every part of his life. His body became very tense, and eventually blisters appeared all over his skin. Worried about his health, he came to a Dahn Yoga center and began practicing Brain Wave Vibration along with the regular Dahn Yoga class.

After only ten sessions, the blisters disappeared and his mind-set totally changed. He not only got along better with his young patrons, but he suddenly felt motivated to teach kids Brain Education techniques he learned from the Dahn Yoga center in a special after-school program. This Dahn Yoga member learned to reverse his negative brain waves, and the effect on him and those around him was almost miraculous.

From Brain Wave Vibration by Ilchi Lee

When we breathe fully and deeply, the belly, lower rib cage, and lower back expand on inhalation, thus pushing the diaphragm down deeper into the abdomen. The same structures retract on exhalation. In deep abdominal breathing, these rhythmic movements help to detoxify our inner organs, promote blood flow and peristalsis, and pump fluid more efficiently through our lymphatic system.

Awakening the energy: When you experience tightness in the chest, you would naturally want to relieve it by patting the chest with your hands. If you sense coldness in your hands, you would automatically rub the hands together to circulate blood for accelerating warmth. The meridian exercises utilize natural body movements.

When certain energy pathways or points are blocked, you pat them, open them, and get relief. The five methods described here, which could be practiced anywhere with ease, are the warm-up sequence prior to doing the Dahn Yoga, created by Ilchi Lee, meridian exercises and abdominal breathing. Twenty minutes of daily exercise will enhance your good health immensely.

Dahn Yoga patting exercise: Stand with your legs shoulder width apart. Begin by patting your chest with both hands. Move them back and forth across the chest, stimulating all the acupressure points on your upper chest. Increase the strength of the patting until it almost becomes a slapping movement. Extend your left arm in front of you with the palm facing up. Pat the arm with your right hand, beginning at the left shoulder, and then move down the inside of your left arm, along the wrist, palm, and fingertips. Then clap your hands then times.

Benefits: Accumulates heat energy in the lower abdomen and aids digestion.

Tips: Breathe normally and comfortably. Exaggerate the distending and contracting abdominal movements.

1. Sit in half-lotus position. Place your fingers in a triangle around your lower abdomen. As you inhale, distend your abdomen as much as possible. As you exhale, contract your abdomen as much as you can. Perform 200 times.

Body with bend and twist

Benefits: Eases swelling and bloating, facilitates weight loss, regulates appetite, releases excess fat from abdomen and thighs, helps to control diabetes, and realigns lumbar vertebrae and sacrum.

By performing abdominal breathing, your abdomen will become warm with Ki energy surges. Blockages are released and maximal functioning of the stomach and other vital organs can be achieved. Continuous practice will help you to achieve a balance of Water up, Fire Down.

From Meridian Exercise by Ilchi Lee

Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders affect the digestive system, which then affects your overall well-being. Symptoms may include diarrhea, constipation, bleeding from the digestive tract, regurgitation, difficulty swallowing, abdominal pain, flatulence, loss of appetite, and nausea.

Negative emotions and worrisome thoughts are often internalized within the gastrointestinal system, impairing its ability to function properly. Practice abdominal breathing to calm the mind and body, control Ki energy, and minimize the opportunity for emotions to affect your digestion. With Dahn Yoga practice, try closing your eyes and using mind’s eye to scan your body from the top of your head down to your toes. As you concentrate in this way, you are helping to bring fire energy down to the lower abdomen to aid in digestion.

From Meridian Exercise by Ilchi Lee

It’s been a little while… where were we when we left off? I don’t remember. I haven’t been to a Dahn Yoga class in a little while, but I was at a Dahn center the other day. There was a workshop followup session in progress, so I couldn’t go into the training room, but it was pleasant to just hang out and relax. How often you do get a chance to do that? (Relax, that is, no matter where you are.) I would wager a guess that it’s not often. This world of ours is moving faster and faster, and we don’t always manage ourselves well in the face of all this pressure to speed. Often the universe hands us the cosmic equivalent of a speeding ticket — perhaps a minor illness that forces us to stay at home for a week, or a missed train that forces us to wait an hour on a lonely train platform in the middle of beautiful countryside. I suggest being your own enforcer. The universe has enough work to do. Stop and smell those roses.

I just learned a new stretch that really helped my hip joints. First put your feet a little wider than shoulders width, and lean down toward the ground. Now shift your weight to one leg, and push back into that hip joint. Feel it?