Dahn Yoga

Lie down comfortably. Have both of your hands side of your body having your palms facing upward. Breathe in and out naturally and slowly. Focus on your breathing. Feel your body. Once you feel that you are centered and calm, raise your hands and feet. Straighten the elbow and flex the wrist. Your palms should face upward. Bend your knees to 90 degrees. Bend the ankles to 90 degrees too.

You can feel that your lower abdomen is naturally tensed. As you breathe in and out, you might be able to feel that your lower abdomen goes up and down naturally. Keep the posture for 5 minutes. If you feel your lower back hurt, don’t push yourself too much.

This is called the Sleeping Tiger posture. This posture helps a practitioner strengthen the lower abdomen and accumulate energy. It’s great for circulating fresh energy in the body and releasing stress and tension.

I have been a Dahn member for 4 years. In that time I have done many programs including healer school and Myungsa training. I have enjoyed it all even breaking my foot during Myungsa training. I didn’t know I had broken it so?I still danced and hiked the rest of the time and got casted when I came back to Boston. When I started Dahn I was 3 years post cancer surgery and now it is 7. One of my providers recommended that I explore Dahn Yoga so that I could return to my body and live from there. An excellent prescription. In addition, I was recently informed by my primary care physician that the mitral valve prolapse that I had been diagnosed with 27 years ago and have been taking medication for was no longer visible on echocardiogram. I have been off the medication now for 10 months. When I asked my PCP how it could have disappeared she felt I must have been over diagnosed at the time. I have had 4 echocardiograms prior to the last 2?and none had shown an absence of the prolapse. I believe that I have healed my heart through this practice and a greater awareness of my body, Ilchi Lee with his best.

See this article in the NY Times about the research “Low Buzz May Give Mice Better Bones and Less Fat”. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/health/research/30bone.html

Ultimately, we are energy; and energy is sound, light, and vibration. Makes sense that vibration of any kind would restore health to the body.

~ Moraga Dahn Center

Upper body bending exercise everyday 100 times will stop you get old.

Try now. 

from Dahn yoga meridian exercise book 1.

The biggest is focusing on the dahn-jon. The stronger my dahn-jon is becoming and the more I focus the better I feel mentally and physically.

I have been more diligent about intestinal exercises. I find that when I am more consistent the exercises are easier and actually relaxing. My body functions better and I am less bloated; it seems to help with the water retention also, especially during the past holiday weekend.

Keeping stress in check is always a challenge for anyone. Stress either by daily challenges or even the heat can make MS Symptoms worse.

One of the best ways to deal with the heat beyond water and staying out of the sun is to learn to breathe out with your mouth slightly open and tilting your chin down to bring the water up, fire down energy in balance. You can then actually feel the back of your neck becoming cooler. This imbalance can also happen when we are exercising so again bringing the awareness here helps.

Body tapping is great to relax the muscle, energy circulation and again makes my brain lighter

Vibration is awesome for the stiffness.

Toe tapping is great for energy and strength in my legs. It also helps with the pain after a long day. I also like ankle rotations.

Recently I have also been incorporating more massage and acupressure points. Starting at the ears, then the area around the eyes, back of the neck, and down arms. Then proceeding down the outside of the legs and the inside of the legs and along the back of the legs. I then finish off with the feet. The Home Massage Therapy Books 1 and 2 have great examples for these techniques.

Being aware of my body and using the stretching exercises we learn in class and in special trainings and incorporating the above items daily keeps my body in check. If balance becomes an issue while walking the principles of the Jangsaeng Walking really helps and concentrating even more on my dahn-jon and breathing. It is so important to learn to relax even more when your body is being challenged

~ Cathy

2. Breathe with your lower abdomen.

3. Let your heel tap the ground gently as you step forward, with a straight leg.

4. Feel your weight transfer fully to the balls (yong-chon) and toes of your foot.

5. Keep your feet parallel, walking on either side of an imaginary line.

6. Angle your body 1 degree forward.

7. Relax your shoulders,

8. Swing your arms freely.

9. Smile!

12 Benefits of the Jangsaeng Walking Method

1.Lower your blood pressure

2.Increase your bone density

3.Lose weight

4.Increase the volume of your brain tissue

5.Add years to your life

6.Reduce the risk or severity of diabetes

7.Lower your cholesterol

8.Reduce heart disease risk

9.Moderate anxiety and depression

10.Improve your mood

11.Reduce colon and breast cancer risk

12.Decrease knee arthritis pain

Salty water: Taking (sucking) bad energy out from your body.

Warm energy ushes bad energy from inside to outside. Shaking feet 5 minutes helps energy moving faster.

Things we need: sea salt.

How to do: Put warm water in the bath about 2/3 heights. Add 1/3 of 1 sea salt package. (Temperature of water is not too cold, not too hot. You can decide. Hot enough is better than just warm.) Put your body in the salty water for 20 minutes. Then wash your hair in the salty water.

Hair is very connected with Karma, so If you wash your hair with salty water it’s really good.

Don’t wash your body with water or soap after salt bath. Just wipe salty water with towel. After that, rock your feet for 5 minutes and then it’s very beneficial. (Salt will suck from outside and warm energy of inside your body will push bad energy out. Just like vinegar. Vinegar help blood circulate faster.) If you do exercise like rocking feet, energy will move faster.

When you wake up in the morning, take a shower with plain water.

That’s it.

Howzit?