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!