Letting go!

As you read this, take a deep breath and, as you exhale,

allow all the tension to leave your body.

Let your scalp and your forehead and your face relax.

Allow your tongue and your throat and your shoulders relax.

Let go in your fingers and hands and allow them to relax.

Now allow your back and your abdomen and your pelvis relax.

Let your breathing be peaceful as you allow your legs and feet to relax.

Can you feel a change in your body?

Notice how much you hold on.

If you are doing it with your body you are doing it with your mind.

In this relaxed position, say to yourself, " I am willing to let go.

I release. I let go. I release all tension. I release all fear.

I release all anger. I release all guilt. I release all sadness.

I let go and am at peace. I'm at peace with myself.

I am at peace with the process of life. I am safe."


Repeat this exercise a few times and feel the ease of letting go.


I notice how much smoother my day goes when I'm feeling

released and relaxed.

I can't seem to get away from studies about how our minds work, most of them just seem to confirm (in a reassuring way ) what my gut reactions or instincts tell me.

This latest study I read about involved testing a person's galvanic skin response and brain function before and after reading three types of documents. The first paper was written by a person who was mentally ill.The second was an uplifting paper by a psychologist. The third combined the teachings of three different saints : Paramahansa Yogananda, Rumi, and St. Therese of Liseaux.

The results were intriguing. When the study group read the writing from the person who was mentally ill, the physiologic response was agitation. The readers felt unsettled and out of balance. When they read the story from the psychologist, their response showed an increased level of calmness. However, when the group read the passages written by the saints they went into a deep state of relaxation and reported subjectively, a sense of enhanced inner weIl-being. The results suggests that people attune themselves (or bring about a resonance) with the consciousness of the writer.

           



       With the Beloved's water of life, no illness remains

       In the Beloved's rose garden of union, no thorn remains.

       They say there is a window from one heart to another

       How can there be a window where no wall remains?

           Rumi

  

"In Japanese there is an expression ichigo ichie which is mostly associated with the tea ceremony. It means "one meeting ,one life" and refers to the fact that each tea gathering is totally unique. Even if it happened again (for instance if the same guests were in attendance ), the mood, the weather, the placement of the objects in the room - something would be different.
Each meeting is a once - in - a - lifetime event.

In a sense ichigo ichie is the secret of the present moment because when we are fully awake to the uniqueness of each new situation, we are fully alive. We are responding directly to something fresh and new. And we should begin and end each meditation (tai chi practice ) with the thought , " This meeting will never come again." "
From Clark Strand's The Wooden Bowl

One final piece on the latest 'science' of the heart.

Science identifies many different types of electromagnetic fields. The type of field being broadcast by the heart appears to be the same as (although much smaller than )the electromagnetic force field of of our planet.

This type of force field called 'torus field' is considered to to be the most stable form of energy in the universe. Furthermore, the same type of torus field is found around the sun, and around our entire solar system.

According to Joseph Chilton Pearce " The torus energy field of our heart is in effect a nested hierarchy in a nested hierarchy of electromagnetic fields." Each heartbeat with its resulting wave of electromagnetic energy,possesses the broadcasting power capable of carrying an almost infinite ammount of information. And each broadcast sends out information that interacts with the information being broadcast by the radiation fields of the planet and the solar system.

As Chinese biologist May Wan Ho put it "Each heart is in essence the heart of the universe. Our individual heart is connected with whatever there is everywhere."

Scientifically there is only one universal heart, within which our individual hearts beat.

On a practical note; here again are the first 2 postures for the newcomers.

Introductory Lessons 1 & 2 from Heartworker on Vimeo.

More about your heart.

"Recent studies of conception have shown that the first brain to develop is indeed the heart, and that the tiny heart seems to begin beating in direct interaction with the heartbeat of the mother. A powerful entrainment happens so that there is scientifically observable pulsative harmony between the mother and the fetal heart. Indeed, a controversy presently exists concerning the possibility that the fetal heart begins beating not from orders from its own brain (hardly present at this time at the top of the nervous system ) but from an energetic entrainment with the electromagnetic force field of the mother's heart.

Scientific instrument have demonstrated that the heart produces a three-phase electromagnetic force field that radiates at least fifteen feet beyond the body.
Our heart is a powerful broadcast transmitter, influencing the fetal heart and surely interacting with the electromagnetic force field of other peoples' hearts. This is actually energy being broadcast and is a full forty times greater than the total magnitude of the brain's energy.

Considering what a powerful transmitting organ the heart is I feel its well worth while spending some time getting better acquainted -


So here is another exercise if you too would like to get to know your heart ;

After reading this exercise, close your eyes, tune into your breathing , and turn your focus of attention toward your own heart experience . . . it doesn't matter for now if your heart feels good or bad, hurt or happy, open or closed . . . what matters is that you begin to hold your attention , more and more focused on your heart . . . so that change and learning can happen, as the warmth of your own mind's attention soothes your heart . . . . love yourself enough to give your own heart nonjudgemental loving attention . . . . . . .

Here are the first two lessons of our form to welcome all new comers to tai chi.I hope your tai chi journey is as amazing as mine continues to be.

Introductory Lessons 1 & 2 from Heartworker on Vimeo.

"The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring."
- Oscar Wilde


"We now know that along with all its muscular and connective tissue, somewhere between 60 and 65 percent of all the cells in your heart are actually neurons exactly like those in your brain. Furthermore, there exist unmediated neural connections between the emotional limbic region of the brain and the heart , such that "tremendous interaction occurs between the heart and the emotional brain." Furthermore, the neural cells in the heart communicate with each other through the same neural transmitters, the same type of dendrites and axons, as they do in the brain. Likewise the heart's neural ganglia produce the same hormones as produced in the brain.

The heart is beginning to be perceived as 'a fifth brain' along with the four brains
( reptilian, mammalian, forebrain, and prefrontal lobes ) we find working together in the cranium. In fact at least half the neurons of the heart have been found to be connected to, and influence, the major organs of the body."

Working directly (through heart centered meditations ) and indirectly through healing meditations that allow us to let go of the past hurts and be present in our hearts in this moment make so much sense especially now we know how influential our heart is.
So here is a little heart centered exercise . . . . . .


After reading this paragraph, close your eyes, tune into your breathing . . .the feelings (if any right now ) in your heart . . . . your whole-body presence here in the present moment . . . and without effort, allow the face of someone you love, to come to mind . . . . open your heart to this person by saying 'I love you' and notice what actual physical changes happen inside your own heart and body . . .


I've been reading some very interesting and uplifting heart research in John Selby's book 'Quiet Your Mind'. I'll share more of it over the next few posts.