Morning Mindfulness - Two Positive Minutes To Start Your Day

The word Qigong literally means Skill with Energy. Qigong is the art of dealing with internal energy by using movement, breathing and imagination. Quite often Qigong and its predecessor, Tao Yin, are called Taoist Yoga. Indeed, there’s quite a bit of similarity in some exercises, and definitely the state of mind is similar. It is about finding the balance. Qigong is one of the parts of Chinese famous immortality system, known as Internal Alchemy.

Conventional medicine in the US has less and less to do with helping people to be healthy. Oh, am I stepping on somebody’s toes right now? Sorry, but let me repeat it again: conventional medicine in the US has less and less to do with helping people to be healthy.   Let me clarify a couple of points before you fire your arguments at me.   First of all, I am not talking about doctors as humans. I am not saying that they don’t care. I met a lot of doctors of various specialities, and many of them are wonderful people. They care. So please don’t take it personal. I also met quite a few sloppy medical professionals. I think this will be true about medical care in any country. So this is not a characteristic of American healthcare.   Second, advanced technology makes it possible to save people’s lives in such ways that 20-30 years ago doctors would not even comprehend. That is amazing, I salute them. They are able to get people up and running again.    However, remember about Yin-Yan in everything. Remember in my

When I began my training over 30 years ago, one of the main questions was “Why?” Why bother with Yoga? Why worry about nutrition? Why this, why that, and so on. The answer I was giving then, and this is what I’d like to talk about today, everything has a price. The only difference is, are you prepaying now and enjoying the benefits, or are you choosing to enjoy now and later pay with interest?

I heard about being selfish for the first time from my Yoga teacher 30 years ago. The idea was simple: you have to take care of yourself enough to stay healthy and not to become a burden to your family when you get old. I know we cannot control many things, but everybody is capable of doing their best.   Loving the whole World is great! But nobody will come take care of your body or your mind for you. That is on your shoulders. Moreover, I am totally convinced that things like self-care, self-improvement, personal growth are our direct responsibility.

Have you seen people having emotions? Any emotions? Have you paid attention to how you respond to emotions? Clenching teeth in frustration, clenching fists in anger, curling your toes in anxiety, making serious face during some serious talk. I’m sure you’ve seen it.   Some of those reactions are very obvious, and they are called body language. Some of them we can feel as butterflies in the stomach, or numbness in the knees, and so on.

I like talking about heart when I teach relaxation. And I don’t mean it in metaphorical way. I am talking about the heart as anatomical part of the body. Huh! Have you ever thought about how heart is working?   Well, perhaps you know that heart never stops. All life! Never takes time off, vacations, even weekends. It is working all the time! How is it doing that?

I think all kids have dreams. I sure had mine. Did you? Dreams are great! I still have lots of dreams. However, most of dreams will never come true unless we turn them into clearly defined goals. 

Often people have an idea in their mind, but if you ask them to articulate it, they get some kind of a mental constipation. Goal is not clear. And if you are shooting at nothing, you will get it every time.

Yesterday I was talking about question “What?” as opposed to “How?" Today we’ll talk about what I think is the most important question to answer on the way to achieving any goals in life. 

I’ve heard a statement from several different coaches, and I read it as a quote from some of the most successful people in history. It basically says, If your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough.

What visualization does, it creates in our mind an image of exact goal we are trying to reach. Whether you are playing basketball or golf, throwing darts, shooting the gun, or trying to achieve some life goals, business or personal, career, fitness, or whatever, it really helps to imagine yourself achieving these goals, in your mind, first.

Well, of course, being a Russian, I have to like Vodka. Right? Wrong. I don’t know if I like it or not because I’ve never tried vodka.  In fact, I never tried any alcohol in my life. Even beer. 

Now let’s look at every day life. Let’s pretend I have an argument with a person who loves to scream. Most of the time subconsciously, my opponent will try to pull me into the screaming zone, where he is a pro, and I am a guest.

There is an ancient game that exist in many countries. In the US it is known as paper-rock-scissors game. Perhaps everybody knows it. But today we will look at this game as a manual to our daily communication.

Another martial art method I’d like to discuss today is known as Aiki - blending with your opponent. Sometimes it is described as being like water. You are being the water, flowing with your opponent. This is not becoming like your opponent. This is being flexible. Look at the water. You can pour it into the cup, and it becomes cup. But it is still water. It just changed the shape.

Have you ever had somebody throw at you some totally bizarre accusations that just don’t make any sense? I’ve experienced that before. In this case the best tactics in my opinion is to do nothing.   

We’ll talk about another martial art tactic move, which is withdrawal. Unfortunately it is misunderstood quite often. In the western culture, running away is not a good thing. This is not what big boys do, is it?   What I am talking about today is not running away from the conflict. It is exercising your right to exit the battle.

Fighting back is the last alternative when nothing else works, when this is literally a question of life and death, or perhaps a question of some serious health issues, and there are no other winning options. And please, don’t just go with the first reaction. Think, count till 10.

Martial arts are about developing inner balance. Yes, there’s interaction with a partner that some people perceive as fighting. However I’ve been observing every day conversations - at the store, or at the office, or just between neighbors - that have much more violence then any of the martial arts I’ve seen. 

Our brain is a very complex computer. It is a controlling device of a very complicated machine which is our body. Our brain has no moral judgement or common sense. Our mind does, but not the brain. So, if we ask ourselves “Why I am feeling tired?”, trust me, our brain will come up with a very elaborate and logic explanation.