Can you imagine the secret to your health in the palm of your hand? I'm going to show you how this tool (show the tool) can give you just that. I'm going to suggest to you that caring for your body is as easy as anything else that you put your mind to. I'm going to introduce you to the concept of chi, the vital force in your body, and give you an experience of it. Finally I'm going to show you how you can use this tool (show tool) to raise the level of your health.
When most people think about health, they usually think about exercise and nutrition -- you know, laying on the couch and imagining delectable dessertsJ . Both exercise and nutrition are important, but let's talk about the real care of your body.
All of us give some attention to some area of our life. Hopefully we give some attention to our jobs so maybe we can earn a living J . We give some attention to our relationships and family because we love to feel connected. Some of us particularly give attention to our car, our home, or perhaps our garden. Why can't we give an equal share of attention to our bodies? Afterall, if it weren't for our bodies, we wouldn't be here. Wherever you focus your attention and whatever you put a mind to will blossom and thrive. That's natural.
The Chinese for five thousand years have used the concept of chi to describe the vital force that runs through our bodies. Chi is that energy that the acupuncturist is trying to balance when he stimulates needles in your body. Let's quickly experience our chi by rubbing our palms together. Make sure that the centers of your palms rub together. You will notice an intense heat being generated. Now hold your hands apart as if cupping a small ball and you will feel an afterglow. This is the chi -- not so mysterious, huh? Remember that the essence to experiencing the chi is paying attention to the feeling in your body. Without a focused awareness of the feeling in your body, you will not experience the chi.
As you can see, you had to put some effort to experience the chi, but all good things take some time to develop. There are 4 phases to chi cultivation.
The first phase is the "body work" phase. By body work, I mean work on the body like a massage. How many of you have ever had a full body massage? How many of you need a full body massage? J In this case, I'm not talking about just plopping yourself on a massage table and indulging your pleasurable senses. I wouldn't want you to enjoy yourself too much J . Instead I'm talking about using that opportunity to learn about the chi, the feelings of energy in your body. With the help of a trained professional, you can discover a much greater experience of chi throughout your whole body.
After having learned a broad experience of chi from body work, you can move on to the next phase of chi cultivation. This is the "daoyin" phase. "Dao" and "yin" are Chinese words that both mean "to guide" or "to lead" and in this case, we are talking about guiding the chi in your body. You can do daoyin on yourself with just your hands or you can use this tool (show the tool). This is a "Knobble". By using this Knobble you can recreate some of the same sensations of chi that you discovered through your body work and deepen those sensations.
The third phase of chi cultivation is the "chi through movement" phase. Here taichi is a great example of chi through movement. When you move properly, you can experience the flow of chi in your body. The fourth phase of chi cultivation is the "meditative" phase. In this phase, you can be in a stationary position, sitting, standing, or just lying down, and you can direct the flow of the chi in your body with the help of your mind.,
Let me now show you how to use this Knobble. We can do a "crude" form of daoyin by using the flat surface of the Knobble and just striking our muscles to get an overall feeling of the energy. Remember you don't want to just go through the motions when you hit your arm, you want your mind to go there and to feel what is going on. In the more "refined" form of daoyin, you can use the pointed part of the Knobble to be more detailed about what you are feeling in your body. What muscles are you stimulating? How much tension is there? Did you hit a ligament or a nerve? What are you feeling in the cracks and crevices of your body? Where are the bones really? You can do this to every part of your body -- a total overhaul, if you will J .
As you practice putting your mind to all the places in your body, you get better and better at it and your chi will flow there also. In the taichi classics, books written by the great masters, they say where the mind goes, so goes the chi, and where the chi goes, so goes the blood.
Don't you think it's amazing that we could be in this body for several decades and yet never be taught how to properly maintain it? And those teachers want a raise?J We probably know more about caring for our car than we do about the care of our body J I've given you an experience of chi and shown you how easy it is for you to use the Knobble in the care of your body. For less than $10 and twenty minutes a day, you can raise the level of your health with a simple technique that is well worth a million dollars. The rest is up to you. I encourage you to care for your body with as much as passion as you care for other things in your life. It's a Knobble experience!
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