Meditation changes temperatures: Mind controls body in extreme experiments

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

By William J. Cromie 

Gazette Staff

In a monastery in northern India, thinly clad Tibetan monks sat quietly in a room where the temperature was a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a yoga technique known as g Tum-mo, they entered a state of deep meditation. Other monks soaked 3-by-6-foot sheets in cold water (49 degrees) and placed them over the meditators' shoulders. For untrained people, such frigid wrappings would produce uncontrolled shivering.

If body temperatures continue to drop under these conditions, death can result. But it was not long before steam began rising from the sheets. As a result of body heat produced by the monks during meditation, the sheets dried in about an hour.

Attendants removed the sheets, then covered the meditators with a second chilled, wet wrapping. Each monk was required to dry three sheets over a period of several hours.

Why would anyone do this? Herbert Benson, who has been studying g Tum-mo for 20 years, answers that "Buddhists feel the reality we live in is not the ultimate one. There's another reality we can tap into that's unaffected by our emotions, by our everyday world. Buddhists believe this state of mind can be achieved by doing good for others and by meditation. The heat they generate during the process is just a by-product of g Tum-mo meditation."

Benson is an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He firmly believes that studying advanced forms of meditation "can uncover capacities that will help us to better treat stress-related illnesses."

Benson developed the "relaxation response," which he describes as "a physiological state opposite to stress." It is characterized by decreases in metabolism, breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure. He and others have amassed evidence that it can help those suffering from illnesses caused or exacerbated by stress. Benson and colleagues use it to treat anxiety, mild and moderate depression, high blood pressure, heartbeat irregularities, excessive anger, insomnia, and even infertility. His team also uses this type of simple meditation to calm those who have been traumatized by the deaths of others, or by diagnoses of cancer or other painful, life-threatening illnesses.

"More than 60 percent of visits to physicians in the United States are due to stress-related problems, most of which are poorly treated by drugs, surgery, or other medical procedures," Benson maintains.

The Mind/Body Medical Institute is now training people to use the relaxation response to help people working at Ground Zero in New York City, where two airplanes toppled the World Trade Center Towers last Sept. 11. Facilities have been set up at nearby St. Paul's Chapel to aid people still working on clearing wreckage and bodies. Anyone else who feels stressed by those terrible events can also obtain help at the chapel. "We are training the trainers who work there," Benson says.

The relaxation response involves repeating a word, sound, phrase, or short prayer while disregarding intrusive thoughts. "If such an easy-to-master practice can bring about the remarkable changes we observe," Benson notes. "I want to investigate what advanced forms of meditation can do to help the mind control physical processes once thought to be uncontrollable."

Breathtaking results

Some Westerners practice g Tum-mo, but it often takes years to reach states like those achieved by Buddhist monks. In trying to find groups he could study, Benson met Westerners who claimed to have mastered such advanced techniques, but who were, in his words, "fraudulent."

Benson decided that he needed to locate a religious setting, where advanced mediation is traditionally practiced. His opportunity came in 1979 when the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet, visited Harvard University. "His Holiness agreed to help me," recalls Benson. That visit was the beginning of a long friendship and several expeditions to northern India where many Tibetan monks live in exile.

During visits to remote monasteries in the 1980s, Benson and his team studied monks living in the Himalayan Mountains who could, by g Tum-mo meditation, raise the temperatures of their fingers and toes by as much as 17 degrees. It has yet to be determined how the monks are able to generate such heat.

The researchers also made measurements on practitioners of other forms of advanced meditation in Sikkim, India. They were astonished to find that these monks could lower their metabolism by 64 percent. "It was an astounding, breathtaking [no pun intended] result," Benson exclaims.

To put that decrease in perspective, metabolism, or oxygen consumption, drops only 10-15 percent in sleep and about 17 percent during simple meditation. Benson believes that such a capability could be useful for space travel. Travelers might use meditation to ease stress and oxygen consumption on long flights to other planets.

In 1985, the meditation team made a video of monks drying cold, wet sheets with body heat. They also documented monks spending a winter night on a rocky ledge 15,000 feet high in the Himalayas. The sleep-out took place in February on the night of the winter full moon when temperatures reached zero degrees F. Wearing only woolen or cotton shawls, the monks promptly fell asleep on the rocky ledge, They did not huddle together and the video shows no evidence of shivering. They slept until dawn then walked back to their monastery.

Overcoming obstacles

Working in isolated monasteries in the foothills of the Himalayas proved extremely difficult. Some religious leaders keep their meditative procedures a closely guarded secret. Medical measuring devices require electrical power and wall outlets are not always available. In addition, trying to meditate while strangers attempt to measure your rectal temperature is not something most monks are happy to do.

To avoid these problems, Instructor in Psychology Sara Lazar, a Benson colleague, used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of meditators at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The subjects were males, aged 22-45, who had practiced a form of advanced mediation called Kundalini daily for at least four years. In these experiments, the obstacles of cold and isolation were replaced by the difficulties of trying to meditate in a cramped, noisy machine. However, the results, published in the May 15, 2000, issue of the journal NeuroReport, turned out to be significant.

"Lazar found a marked decrease in blood flow to the entire brain," Benson explains. "At the same time, certain areas of the brain became more active, specifically those that control attention and autonomic functions like blood pressure and metabolism. In short, she showed the value of using this method to record changes in the brain's activity during meditation."

The biggest obstruction in further studies, whether in India or Boston, has always been money. Research proceeded slowly and intermittently until February 2001, when Benson's team received a $1.25 million grant from Loel Guinness, via the beer magnate's Kalpa Foundation, established to study extraordinary human capacities.

The funds enabled researchers to bring three monks experienced in g Tum-mo to a Guinness estate in Normandy, France, last July. The monks then practiced for 100 days to reach their full meditative capacity. An eye infection sidelined one of the monks, but the other two proved able to dry frigid, wet sheets while wearing sensors that recorded changes in heat production and metabolism.

Although the team obtained valuable data, Benson concludes that "the room was not cold enough to do the tests properly." His team will try again this coming winter with six monks. They will start practice in late summer and should be ready during the coldest part of winter.

Benson feels sure these attempts to understand advanced mediation will lead to better treatments for stress-related illnesses. "My hope," he says, "is that self-care will stand equal with medical drugs, surgery, and other therapies that are now used to alleviate mental and physical suffering. Along with nutrition and exercise, mind/body approaches can be part of self-care practices that could save millions of dollars annually in medical costs."

Debiasing the Mind Through Meditation

Mindfulness and the Sunk-Cost Bias

1. Andrew C. Hafenbrack1
2. Zoe Kinias1
3. Sigal G. Barsade2

1. ¹Department of Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD
2. ²Management Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

1. Andrew C. Hafenbrack, Department of Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD, 1 Ayer Rajah Ave., Singapore 138676, Singapore E-mail: andrew.hafenbrack@insead.edu

From: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/06/0956797613503853

Abstract from The Harvard Business Review:  A Little Meditating Helps You Make Better Business Decisions
Research participants who had spent just 15 minutes in “mindfulness” meditation, focusing on their breathing, were 77% more likely than others to resist what’s known as the “sunk-cost bias,” the tendency to stick with a less-than-optimal strategy merely because a lot of money has been sunk into it, says a team led by Andrew C. Hafenbrack of Insead business school in France. In a fictional scenario, the participants had to decide whether to buy a highly efficient $10,000 machine shortly after spending $200,000 on equipment that was much less efficient (and couldn’t be sold). Meditation’s impact on the sunk-cost bias may have to do with its ability to improve mood and decrease people’s focus on the future and past, the researchers suggest.

10 Scientifically proven ways to make yourself happier

9. Meditate – rewire your brain for happiness

Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, clarity and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm. It turns out it’s also useful for improving your happiness:

In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the participants’ brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank.

Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down, it’s been often proven to be the single most effective way to live a happier live. According to Shawn Achor, meditation can actually make you happier long-term:

Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating, we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness.

The fact that we can actually alter our brain structure through mediation is most surprising to me and somewhat reassuring that however we feel and think today isn’t permanent.

Thoughts on Meditation

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/meditation-for-kids_n_3318721.html

..."When you realize that you have come to your wit’s end, you can begin meditation. Or meditation happens, and that happening is simply the watching of what is, of all the information conveyed to you by your exterior and interior senses, and even the thoughts that keep chattering on about it all. You don’t try to stop those thoughts, you just let them run as if they were birds twittering outside, and they will eventually become tired and stop. But don’t worry about whether they do or don’t. Just simply watch whatever it is that you are feeling, thinking, or experiencing – that’s it. Just watch it, and don’t go out of your way to put any names on it. This is really what meditation is." ~Alan Watts...

The 22 Things Happy People Do Differently

Number 16: Meditate

Meditating silences your mind and helps you find inner peace. You don’t have to be a zen master to pull it off. Happy people know how to silence their minds anywhere and anytime they need to calm their nerves.

Original article: http://successify.net/2012/10/31/22-things-happy-people-do-differently/

In Mindfulness, a Method to Sharpen Focus and Open Minds

From New York Times

By Alina Tugend

March 22, 2013

LIKE most people, I have my share of tension and anxiety. And I’m happy to find ways to cope that don’t involve illegal drugs. So when the term mindfulness began cropping up everywhere, I became intrigued.

Elementary school students practice it. Doctors practice it — and their patients. Prisoners practice it. There’s mindful eating that promises a healthier way of eating. And scans show mindfulness may change the way our brains function and help us improve attention, reduce stress hormones and even bounce back faster from negative information.

But, skeptic that I am, I wondered if it was being oversold as a panacea that is simple, safe and involves no heavy objects.

First, I had to figure out what exactly it is. I had an understanding that mindfulness went hand-in-hand with meditation, but also that it was more than that.

“Intentionally paying attention to the present nonjudgmentally” is the way that Janice Marturano explains it. Ms. Marturano is a former deputy general counsel and vice president for public responsibility at General Mills, and helped start its Mindful Leadership Forum in 2004. She left a few years ago to start the nonprofit Institute for Mindful Leadership.

What it’s not, she said, is only about reducing stress. Or about emptying our minds of all thoughts. Or about religion.

“People have the sense that mindfulness is something they can do by focusing on a raisin for five minutes,” said Michael Baime, director of the Penn Program for Mindfulness at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “That is mindful practice, but it takes more than that.”

So here’s what I learned about the basic techniques. First, find a quiet place to focus your attention — on your breath or perhaps on an object. It’s not deep breathing, but rather experiencing “when the breath enters and leaves,” Ms. Marturano said. “Feel the stretch in the rib cage, without me doing anything. Can I notice when the mind takes a hike and redirect it? That redirection is the exercise.”

Perhaps you start at 10 minutes and work your way up to half an hour or 40 minutes a day. But that’s only part of the whole practice.

There’s also what Ms. Marturano calls “purposeful pauses.” Deciding that instead of thinking of a coming meeting while brushing your teeth you really focus on the taste of the toothpaste and the bristles and the water.

“Take yourself out of autopilot,” she said. And eventually expand that “being in the moment” to other parts of your life.

The idea is that over time you’ll feel more focused and more connected to yourself and others. It sounds simple, but it’s not, because it so goes against the grain of how most of us think and operate. We want to get things done, to identify and fix problems. And that’s the opposite of what mindfulness is all about.

“The way it’s presented in the media, people begin to believe it’s a magic pill,” said Christy Matta, author of the book “The Stress Response” (2012, New Harbinger Publications). “I’ll clear my mind and I’ll be peaceful and stress-free. If that’s what people think, they’ll be disappointed.” Rather, she said, “it takes time and sustained practice to experience the benefits.”

And, she said, if you go into it with the idea of reducing stress, you’re working against the very thing you’re trying to attain, because you’re aiming toward a goal. Mindfulness, “is about being present,” she said. “You have to do it just to do it. You can’t strive for things.”

While being aware of your feelings may be nice when drinking a lovely cup of tea or relaxing in a garden, Ms. Matta said, part of mindfulness is also uncomfortable feelings — not trying to change or judge them, but being aware of them. And that may not feel so pleasant.

Dr. Baime said another common misconception is that mindfulness is about learning to be happy. It’s not. Nor is it about eliminating stress. “Stress doesn’t go away, ever. That’s why we call it stress management rather than stress elimination,” he said. Rather, he said, mindfulness can “create a world where you experience depth, meaning and connectedness. You see joy and sadness more fully and settle more deeply into an authentic way of being.”

If that’s a bit tough to wrap one’s mind around, that’s O.K. Just go with it. Eventually, mindfulness is supposed to help us spend less time worrying about the future or fretting about the past. We’ll gain perspective, listen better and step back to consider more choices and make decisions more clearly and intentionally, rather than reactively, Ms. Marturano said.

But you shouldn’t assume that mindfulness is the one answer to everything. For instance, while it has been used to good effect in classrooms, it shouldn’t be used in isolation, said Linda Lantieri, director of the nonprofit group the Inner Resilience Program.

She and others have found that practicing mindfulness can increase attention and focus, and help children respond to stress in a calmer manner, but it also “needs to be part of learning concrete emotional and social skills,” she said. And although it can help with anxiety and depression, you may need to augment it with other therapies or medication, Ms. Matta said.

Is mindfulness something you can learn by yourself? There are some good books that offer guidance. Ms. Matta mentioned her own, of course, and “Full Catastrophe Living,” (Delacorte Press, 1990) by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Professor Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is considered one of the foremost experts on the subject.

But everyone I spoke to said that you need to take a course and perhaps go on a retreat to fully experience and gain value from mindfulness. I realize that the people I talked to tended to teach courses, so maybe they’re a little biased. But it also makes sense to me.

Ms. Marturano, who delivered a presentation on mindfulness at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, compared it to exercise. You can watch a video of how to play tennis or read a book and perhaps even learn to play at a basic level that way. But to get better, you need a teacher.

“You’re on a journey of self-discovery and you need a guide,” she said.

Dr. Baime’s institute offers eight-week courses, which cost $549, in which participants attend class for two and half hours a week and one full-day session, and are provided with textbooks and recordings to help meditation at home. The class members are asked to meditate for 40 minutes daily, although Dr. Baime acknowledged that wasn’t an easy goal.

Professor Kabat-Zinn’s center has a useful list to search for centers and teachers by state. Now that I know more about the potential and limits of mindfulness, I can see it as an option. And I can see why other people are drawn to it, given that we’re living in a such a fractured, information-overloaded world. We’re looking so far ahead to the next thing, we miss what’s going on in the present.

Mindfulness may not be the answer to every ill. But it may be the answer to some. And I’ll settle for that.

Settle the Mind in its Natural State

Flawless quiescence [shamatha] is like an oil lamp that is unmoved by wind. Wherever the awareness is placed, it is unwaveringly present; awareness is vividly clear, without being sullied by laxity, lethargy, or dimness; wherever the awareness is directed, it is steady and sharply pointed; unmoved by adventitious thoughts, it is straight. Thus, a flawless meditative state arises in one's mind-stream; and until this happens, it is important that the mind is settled in its natural state.

- PADMASAHMHAVA

Santo Sigung speaks on three ancient high technology for internal art

Priceless information. Listen a few times... Find a good coach! 

Hendrik Santo Sigung speaks about and demonstrates Chinese internal art.

Santo Sigung talks about Chinese Internal Art Posture. Enjoy!

10 Steps to Zhan Zhuang by Wikihow

From Wikihow

This posture is the most common of all the tai chi (taiji) and qigong (chi-gung) postures, and is often used as a separate exercise to increase leg strength, concentration, deep breathing and chi (qi) flow.  The stance is used in standing meditation and is known as the Zhan Zhuang or Embrace the tree posture.

Bill Gallagher PT, CMT, CYT 

1 Stand with the feet about shoulder width apart.

2 Turn the toes in so the outside of the feet are parallel.

3 Sit back to bend the knees and fold in the hip joints to go into a shallow squat (up to a 45 degree bend in the knee).

4 If you tend to be "knock-kneed" (valgus), gently roll the knees out a bit without moving the feet. This will tend to lift the arch. Don't allow the big toes to lose contact with the floor. If you are bow-legged (varus), gently roll the knees in.

5 Release the lower back to allow the coccyx (tailbone) to hang down.

6 As your tailbone hangs down, lengthen the back of your skull up.

7 Hold arms as if embracing a tree with elbows hanging down

8 Sink the shoulders down.

9 Use inhalation to expand body and exhalation to release unnecessary tension down into the ground using the bones as conduits.

10 Hold. Most teachers recommend building up to a minimum of 20 minutes, but beginners may feel fatigued far earlier, and it is advisable to practice caution.

Guard the Mind

credited to Yun Hoi:  www.yunhoiwingchun.com

All suffering in this life and others is created by the unsubdued mind. Similarly, the basis of all the practices of the six paramitas, such as generosity, moral discipline, and so on, is the mind.

Nothing is more important than guarding the mind. Let us constantly keep watch over the wild elephant of the mind, curbing it with mindfulness and vigilance. This is how to avoid being influenced by different external conditions. But even in retreat in a very secluded place, if the mind is not kept under control, it will wander all over the place. Even completely alone, we can have an enormous amount of negative emotions.

How are we to guard the mind? We should use attentiveness to watch our thoughts and use mindfulness to judge whether we are acting correctly. With these two we have the means to annihilate all adverse conditions. But without them, we will not see whether our thoughts are positive or negative or whether we are doing right or wrong, nor will we then be able to use antidotes as necessary.

- Kundun, Dalai Lama Sonam

TED Talk: Stepping back for 10 minutes a day

Andy Puddicombe describes the transformative power of doing just that: Refreshing your mind for 10 minutes a day, simply by being mindful and experiencing the present moment. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/andy_puddicombe_all_it_takes_is_10_mindful_minutes.html

"All it takes is 10 mindful minutes a day... We are so distracted that we are no longer present in the world in which we live. And the crazy thing is that most people believe that that is just the way it is, so let's get on with it. But that's just not how it has to be. When I first started meditating, I thought that it was just like aspirin for the mind. I didn't realize that meditation could be so preventive. I gave up everything and became a monk to completely give in to the present moment. By that, I mean, not being lost in thought, distracted, but instead, learning how to be in the here and now, mindful, present. I think the present moment is so under-rated, and yet we spend so little of our time there. Research has shown that humans spend almost 47% of their time lost in thought. In just ten minutes a day, you can impact your entire life. Meditation is familiarizing ourselves with the present moment. Most people assume that meditation is about stopping thoughts, controlling the mind. That's not true. It's about stepping back, watching the world with a relaxed, focused mind. It's only in learning to watch the mind in this way that we can learn to let go. Don't feel surprised if you feel a bit agitated when you first sit down to meditate. Meditation offers the opportunity to step back and get a different perspective and see that things aren't always as they appear. We can't always change every little thing that happens to us in our life... but we can change the way we experience it. You don't have to burn any incense or sit on the floor. Just take 10 minutes a day to step back and familiarize yourself with the present moment so you get to experience a better sense of focus, calm, and clarity in your life."

New Year, New Breath

by Martha Everett
Link to original article from Desert Exposure

Breathing techniques from the ancient Chinese system of Qigong can boost your oxygen and sense of peace.

Qigong is an ancient Chinese system that uses movement, breath and mindfulness to gather intrinsic life force energy, or Qi, for healing, meditation and exercise. Qigong is said to be over 4,000 years old. Over those thousands of years, many varieties of Qigong were formed, using Chinese medicine for curing and preventing disease, using philosophy for reaching enlightenment, developing longevity and meditative practices.

Contemporary Qigong blends these principles together, using physical training in either static postures or dynamic movement. It engages mental training, using visualization and focusing on the movement of Qi and practicing slow, rhythmic breathing or other Qigong breath exercises. Qigong is also supported by the ingestion of medicinal herbs, foods with high Qi content or those that interact with the elemental forces.

Qi travels within the blood, true to the adage, "Where the blood flows, the Qi goes." Qi does not flow as well through areas of tension, tightness, injury and restriction, as the blood is not able to penetrate these areas as deeply. This creates an area of stagnation, which Chinese medicine believes is the root of disease.

Qigong can be a great way for people of all ages to increase blood flow and circulation, because the practitioner is using breath, movement and visualization to increase the flow of Qi. Breath work can be especially beneficial to bring more Qi and oxygen to the blood, as well as aiding in the shifting of the emotional composition in the areas of tension or tightness.

Qigong breathing brings a lot more oxygen into the lungs than normal respiration. This oxygen is for both the respiration process of breathing and for fueling all metabolic processes of the body. The oxygen is shared through the process of diffusion from the lungs to the blood. Transfer to the blood allows the hemoglobin protein in the blood to distribute the oxygen throughout the body. Qigong breathing will greatly amplify the amount of oxygen coming into the body, thereby oxygenating every cell. With this breath, as it increases more blood flow in the body, Qi is simultaneously increased. The Qi can be felt in the body as heat, pulsing, or a sense of inflation to the limbs. The Qi and breath can help move through emotional blocks, as the emotions and the breath are so closely related. The oxygenation of the cells that occurs during Qigong is very important for the health and wellbeing of the physical body.  

Martha K. Everett, certified Qigong facilitator, will be holding a three- hour breath workshop Saturday, Jan. 19, from 1-4 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 3845 N. Swan in Silver City. The price is $35, $25 if you've attended a previous Breath Empowerment with Martha, and advanced registration is required. For information, call (575) 388-2098 or (575) 574-7268 or email martha@abundancetherapeutics.com.

MIT Qigong - Special Session at Harvard Business School!

Big thanks to Sean Voigt (HBS social chair of section-D) for organizing this special event. Huge thanks to Coach Jim Roselando for teaching us Wang Xiangzhai's art of Yiquan Qigong every monday night for free! Thank you all for the past 4 great years of Health Nourishing Qigong Cultivation!

Special thanks to Jon Tee and Joseph Perovenzano for documenting the event! 

See their other work at: 
http://contour-video.com/

Quiet your Senses with Meditation

Qi Magazine - Issue 85 (December 2007)

Michael Tse

Meditation is very important for good health. No one can be really healthy if they cannot shut down their minds and be calm and relaxed. Many problems and illnesses begin with stress and tension. If you watch the behaviour of someone who is stressed and under tension, you will see that they are always active and cannot sit or stand still.

Even when people have some personal leisure time they listen to music and are doing things all the time. They are like a machine that is always being used and never turned off. Obviously it will eventually break down, so how can someone like that not become ill? Nowadays people do not understand that calmness and relaxation are important. Most people think that in their spare time they can listen to music, read the newspaper, do the crossword or Sudoku puzzle or watch TV and that these things will help them to relax and recharge their energy after a hard day’s work. This is wrong.

Three thousand years ago in China and India people already discovered the secret and method for longevity. It is all based on the senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. All these senses use a lot of energy, so if we want to live longer we must learn how to shut them down. The method to do this is meditation.

Eye Sense

Whenever we use our eyes, either for watching TV, reading a book or playing agame, we are using energy. The longer we do it the more tired we will become and the older we will look. If you look at highly academic people like university professors, they spend a lot of time researching and reading from books or are working on the computer. They use so much energy and in the end they look tired and older. However, their hard work is for a purpose and brings them success, so for them, it is worth it. Nowadays, though, people will spend hours and hours on the internet for fun or looking up useless information and the energy they use is just wasted.

Hearing Sense

Our hearing also uses energy, although it is not as must as your eyesight. Over-using our hearing can damage the kidneys as in Chinese medicine the kidneys are related to the ears. Today people listen to loud music all the time, so you can imagine how damaged their hearing gets.When they are older they will definitely need a hearing aid and I feel sad for them. Also it means that these people need excitement, something to stimulate them. Without this excitement they find life boring. This is also sad. We should not be partying all the time as this will damage our heart by making it beat too fast. If this is the case, then we cannot be healthy because we cannot sit down and be calm. Then we will continually lose our Qi all the time.

Aside from this, when they are older, people will have to talk loudly to them. Then they will complain that their hearing is weak all because they have damaged it with overuse when they were younger.

Smell Sense

The sense of smell also has a big effect on the body. Many people like to smell nice fragrant scents. However, we can also over–use oursense of smell . If we surround ourselves all the time with pleasant, strong smells, then some of us can lose our sense of smell so that we cannot smell the scent of a simple flower. This is because we have over-stimulated our senses and this makes us feel under stress and hyper-active. Then our sense of smell becomes weak. If we can calm down and relax, then the sense of smell can come back. Our sense of smell is very important. Everything around us has a different smell:- our homes, our offices and even the country we live in has a different smell. A good smell means that the energy in that area is good. If the smell is bad then obviously the energy is bad. This can cause the people who live or work there to be healthy or unhealthy depending on whether it is good or bad energy. It also affects their luck.

Today many people talk about Feng Shui, but most of the time they only talk about or know very low-level knowledge.They only talk about external decoration but how many really understand the internal things and the energy of Feng Shui? Smell plays a big part, so we should not overuse our sense ofsmell. The more perfume we use the more our sense of smell will decline.

Taste Sense

We use our tongue to taste food. People love tasty food and many people enjoy sweets and candy. However, this is not good for the body. What we eat plays a big part in our health. In Chinese medicine we also relate to our internal organs and sour relates to the liver, bitter relates to the heart, sweet relates to the spleen, spicy relates to the lungs and salty relates to the kidneys.

Other tastes are a mixture of these five. If we only like food with one of these tastes or hate certain other tastes, then this can cause an imbalance. For example, sweet tastes are good for the spleen, but the spleen is also related to the stomach and and so if we take a lot of sweet then it will affect the stomach and if we take just a little, then it can be good for the stomach. Anything we overdo can cause a problem. Anything too strong will have an effect and weaken something else. So we should not just concentrate on certain tastes but try and take all kinds but not in excess. Sometimes we do not like bitter tastes but we should still take some.

Most people who live longer lives eat very simply and do not eat unusual food or very highly nutritious food. This minimises the amount they need to use their taste buds and so it does not exhaust the internal organs.

Touch Sense

The sense of touch is also very important. Many people like the feel of fine fabrics, like silks and linens. Also people like the feel of wood in good furniture like beds and tables. This sense excites the mind so that it cannot be calm. This contact stimulates the nerves and sometimes these can be overused, especially if we over-indulge ourselves. This too means we will lose Qi.

To save our Qi we should keep our sense of touch or feeling calm and then our Qi can settle back to the Dantian. We should not let our Qi run around our body too vigorously. In order to save Qi we must let it settle and calm down, as if nothing has happened to the body. Although everything in the body is still functioning, the heart is still beating and we are still breathing, we should slow things as much as possible.

Four Postures of Meditation

Remember, meditation is not about moving the Qi. Physical movement helps us to circulate the Qi, to use our Qi in the right way and get rid of negative Qi. During meditation we should shut down the five senses so we can settle and collect more Qi. This increases our longevity.

For practising meditation there are four postures: One is standing and we call this Zhan Zhuang, the second way is sitting in a chair, the third is sitting in lotusposition, which, in Chinese, we call Pan Xi. The fourth method is lying down, which we call ErGong. Standing, sitting and lying are all different physically but all have the same principle which is to settle the Qi and store it in the Dantian.

Zhan Zhuang

When we do Zhan Zhuang there are different levels:- high position, middle position and a low position. Lower is more difficult and higher is easier.When we stand in a lower stance we call this Ma Bo Zhan, which means horse stance standing position. This demands a lot of leg strength and so it is not easy to do for long. However, nomatter which position we choose to stand in, we need to keep the body in a line. The top of the head at the Bai Hui pointshould be vertically in line with the Yongquan points on thesoles of the feet.  

In the high and middle positions the Huiyin point between the legs also lines up with the Baihui point. This we can see if we check our posture from the side. About the hands,we can hold these in various positions and use different gestures, such as at the Middle Dantian or the Lower Dantian.These areas connect with the areas of the Qi. Different gestures involve the palms and the Laogong Points or the shape of the fingers and this directs the Qi to go a different way at first.However, if we stay for long enough, then the feeling is thesame for all of them. The will be Qi is strong and runs all overthe body following the proper channels.

In the low position we should try and keep the thighsparallel to the ground. In this position the Huiyin point will notline up with the Baihui and Yongquan. This low stance willdevelop the lower legs more, particularly the calves. The feetshould be shoulder width apart, the eyes should be open, but not focused. We should keep the mouth closed naturally andbreathe in and out through the nose.

Generally, when we practise the low stance we will notstay for too long and when we are tired we should stand upand change to a mid or high position. When we feel strongagain we can go back down again. So we can repeat low, highand middle stance for quite a long time. Generally, peoplecan stand one to two minutes in the low posture and somemore senior students five to seven minutes. The low stancewill not make you heavy and stiff but actually the opposite, asit makes you feel lighter. In Chinese we say, “Light Gong (XingGong) training is based on heavy training.” This standing exercise can also help a lot of leg and knee problems.

The height of the middle position can vary, but the Baihui, Huiyin and Yongquan points must line up vertically together. The feet can be wider than the shoulders. The eyes and breathing are the same as in the low position. The eyes must be open because in this exercise there is a lot of Qi that needs to be released out through them. We do not focus so it means we are not using our eyes to see. Again, the hand positions and gestures can vary, for example, Laogong points facing each other or facing the ground, etc. It has the same meaning as the low stance.

Sitting Meditation

When meditating sitting on a chair, we should not lean back against the back of the chair like we do when watching TV. We should sit forward towards the edge of the chair and inthis way we minimise how much contact we have with thechair. There are many ways and gestures we can use for thehands. You might just place your hands on your thighs so that the Laogong points touch the Liangqiu points or form a hand gesture which is also fine. The feet should rest on the floor and the knees and toes should line up vertically, but the feet must be flat on the floor.

Lying Meditation

The last way of meditation is lying down. The most common way is to lie on your back and rest your hands on your Dantian, this means that the Laogong points cover the Dantian. The head should be raised up a little using a pillowso that the head is higher the feet. This allows the Qi toflow down to the Dantian and to the feet. The downside of this position is that it is easy to fall asleep, so generally I donot do much lying meditation. Another way is to lie on yourside and put one hand close to your head and the other hand on your thigh. This creates a Taiji symbol with the body.

All these four ways to do meditation are the same inthat they allow us to calm down, shut down our senses andstore our Qi. However, standing positions develop the bones and lotus position concentrates the Qi in the upper body more which is why the legs feel numb because the circulation ha sbeen blocked somewhat. In the end, no matter which one we do, we need to be patient and relax the body. The longer we can meditate the better we will get and the more we will enjoy its benefits in the future.

Qigong for Digestive Problems

Qi Magazine - Issue 85 (December 2007)

Today, many people have digestion problems because they do not get enough exercise, eat improperly or have too much stress. Some have all of these factors and so it is understandable that they will have illness.

Our bodies are meant to be maintained and looked after but often we neglect to do so until we have an illness which tells us something is starting to go wrong. We know we need to service our cars regularly, changing the oil and topping up brake fluid and water or coolant. Every so often we need to have something more serious done like replacing old brake pads or a worn tire as we know that otherwise it could be very dangerous and cause us to have a serious accident. Most of us though, do not give the same regard to our health until it is too late. When the big problem comes, the time for worry is already gone. We can only try to limit the effects of the problem and start to build up our Qi and immune system through Qigong exercise and meditation.

The first thing we should work for is the bones and so doing some standing meditations like Zhan Zhuang or Horse Stance is ideal. In the beginning you may only be able to stand a minute but can slowly build up to 5, 10 and 15 minutes or longer. You should feel good when you are standing although at first you may find the mind wandering and that you are impatient to be still for so long. If you can conquer this impatience, then you can start to develop yourself. The longer you stand (within reason), the more Qi you will gather which will "wash" the internal organs and make you stronger.

Sometimes it is the most simple exercises, like Wuji stance, that will give us the most benefit. However, in the end, it is all up to us as we are the ones who have to work for our own Qi and healing.

With kind regards,

Michael Tse

Qigong from one of our Subscribers

Thank you, Richard Curtis, for sharing this video from a recent class he leads in Punta Gorda, Florida. For more information on Hun Yuan Primoridal (Wudang) Meditation and the Peace River Taichi / Qigong school: http://goo.gl/wYcnI

If you would like a video of your practice shared on our MIT Qigong Blog, please submit to qi@mit.edu. We are interested in learning and sharing about all forms of Qigong. Comments? Feel free to respond below... We would love to facilitate more discussion and appreciate your readership and support.

Qigong in the News: find the right kind of meditation

The right kind of meditation for you; Mantra, mindfulness, zen, and qigong visualization are different ways to relax

New research suggests you could be missing out on all the health benefits of meditation by simply starting out with a technique not well matched to your personal tastes.

NY Daily News : Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 11:32 AM

Did you give meditation a chance and decide it's not your cup of tea? New research suggests you could be missing out on all the health benefits of meditation by simply starting out with a technique not well matched to your personal tastes.

Adam Burke, director of San Francisco State University's Institute for Holistic Health Studies, suggests trying another method to see which one is best suited to you.

"If someone is exposed to a particular technique through the media or a health care provider, they might assume because it's popular, it's the best for everyone," he said. "But that's like saying because a pink dress or a blue sport coat is popular this year, it's going to look good on everybody. In truth, different people like different things."

Burke and colleagues recently conducted a study of college students new to meditation and their preferences among four meditation techniques -- mantra, mindfulness, zen, and qigong visualization.

The participants learned all four different techniques, with 31 percent rating mantra as their preferred choice and another 31 percent choosing mindfulness. However, 22 percent said zen was their favorite, and 15 percent voted for qigong. Participants who opted for mantra and mindfulness said they thought the techniques were easier to practice, more calming, and less complex.

Partly accounting for the differences in tastes, the researchers note, is age, with older participants opting for zen, while younger participants preferred mindfulness. The results of the study appear in the July 7 issue of the journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing.

Another type of mindfulness meditation known as integrative body-mind training (which focuses on breathing and posture awareness) has recently been a hot topic in the media with a new study that found that the technique can have a positive physical effect on the brain, boosting connectivity and efficiency. The study appears in the June issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Meditation shopping? While it may seem strange, it is perhaps the best approach to finding a technique that works for you, at least according to a new study from San Francisco State University's Institute for Holistic Health Studies.

Published on July 7 in the journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, the findings reveal that by finding a form of meditation that works for you, you are less likely to quit. The result of sticking with it? Research-backed benefits of reduced stress, lower blood pressure, and help with addiction problems.

While meditation styles vary, you'll want a comfortable, quiet room, perhaps a cushion to sit on, and anywhere from five to 20 minutes for beginners.

Here are a few traditional seated meditation techniques used in the study that you may want to try:

Vipassana (or mindfulness) - This meditation dates back to the times of Gautama Buddha and translates to "seeing deeply." You can start out by breath awareness and then advance to stages of being mindful of your perceptions and thoughts at any time, regardless of what you are doing. Some people attend 10-day Vipassana retreats, or "bootcamps," to delve deeper into the practice.

Mantra - This style involves the repetition of a word, phrase, or sound, or repeatedly envisioning a specific image. In the San Francisco State University study, participants imagined a ball of light in the area of their heart. For sounds or words, basically every sound-vibration you can think of is a potential mantra, but one of the most popular ones is Om.

Zen - Zen is similar to mindfulness in its focus on presence of mind, but it involves a more general awareness, rather than a focus on something specific. The practice typically asks you to silently focus on breathing and posture with eyes open in a quiet place and to dismiss any thoughts that pop into your head, essentially "thinking nothing."

Qigong visualization - This Taoist practice utilizes several techniques to help restore health and balance to the body, including the Inner Smile, visualizing "smile-energy" penetrating your internal organs; Moon on Lake, visualizing the moon's reflection on a lake; and Holding Heaven in the Palm of Your Hand, imagining the energy of the galaxy in the palm of your hand. Other simpler techniques, such as those used in the study, involve imagining a beam of light running along the spine.

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Or you can join us FOR FREE at MIT every Monday for soft natural Yiquan Qigong taught by Coach Jim Roselando from ApricotForestHall. All the benefits of meditation, yoga, and taiji in one simple exercise!! 

Tonight, we meet in the basement of the prestigious Kresge Auditorium from 7-8pm. See you there! To join our email list for updates on locations and special events, click here: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/qigong

Yiquan Founder Wang Xiangzhai Poem

Wang Xiangzhai Poem

Integrated with spirit and mind,
With plain truth easy to understand,
It is both interesting and enlightening.
It has no method yet every method,
for in boxing all methods are of no avail.
With profound knowledge it helps you to mold your temperment,
Cultivating you in faithfulness, sense of justice, benevolence and bravery.
Propelled by natural strength,
you are as strong as a dragon.
Inhaling and exhaling naturally and quietly,
You perceive the mechanism of all movements.
Be neither too familiar nor too distant towards others,
Show them courtesy, modesty, and respect.
Avail yourself of the force of the universe,
And bring your instinctive ability into full play.
Stand at the center holding the key,
Act according to circumstances without trace.
Eyes seeing nothing and ears hearing only your breathing sound,
You train your mind and regulate your nervous system.
In motion you are like the angry tiger,
In quietness you are like the hibernating dragon.
Your expression is as awesome as that of a leopard,
Your strength is as powerful as that of a rhino.
Preserving the heavenly wisdom and maintaining the state of meditation,
You are ready to act in response to all possible situations.

Thank you to http://daoyinchuan.com for posting this on their site!

Meditation is Part of the Solution