Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
In this issue
A Quiet Inner Space 2
Maximize your Dahn Yoga time
Look forward to
History in the Making
The story of Dahn Yoga in the US
Wheel of Healing
Healing Chakra pivotal to growth
Bowing Meditation
Cultivating self-respect
To accommodate another article, the one about Dahn Yoga history was postponed to our next issue.
Happy bytes
Earth Citizen Event Schedule April 17 Earth Day Festival (MA) April 24 Mago Earth Festival (HI) April 24 YEHA Tree-planting, kigong (nationwide) May 1 Earth Citizen Walk (NY) Send us your photos! Please submit your incredible, zany, and beautiful pics of yourself and loved ones expressing truth about Dahn Yoga practice to dahnyogalife@dahnyoga.com. If you would like a subscription: Contact Michelle Seo at the above e-mail address or call (213) 545-1785 for information.
nature and that the song of the birds was my song. At six years of age, standing on a sun-drenched hillside, I felt invincible, confident and fearless. Then I grew up, life happened, and my experience of joy was buried by painful memories and hurtful preconceptions about myself and others. Forty-two years later, in March of 2007, I participated in Shimsung. I was skeptical at first: how could we possibly connect to our souls in a Ramada Inn? As the weekend progressed, my skepticism was replaced with the power and strength I felt on that sunny day in Duxbury. Allow me to introduce John Lee Sabumnim. Now a seasoned Shimsung trainer, he took his Shimsung in October of 1996 and had an experience similar to that of most Shimsung participants. Shimsung was the ultimate eye-opener for me, he says. I still remember my Shimsung moments vividly. This is when he discovered his dream. At the end of the workshop, I quietly wished to be someone who would deliver to others what I had received through those two days. (Continued on p.2)
Chakra Wisdom
The third chakra is an energy center in the solar plexus. Its health affects willpower, self-esteem, and appetite both for food and for life. Its important to keep the energy of each chakra balanced. Too much energy in the third chakra makes it easy to feel anger or hatred be obsessed with power and status. Too little may make you feel apathetic, have low self-esteem, or spend time feeling sorry for yourself. The Earths energy can help you keep your third chakra in balance to feel more grounded.
As a trainer, he is truly touched when participants share the dreams of their heart that had been covered for so long. He learns from them every time that, We are no different from each other. Although he is the trainer, he always feels like he is experiencing Shimsung along with the participants. Like them, he says, I love the feeling of freedom and that I can be completely genuine! How could this be accomplished? We have three bodies: a physical body that we can touch and see; an energetic body that can be likened to the electricity running through our homes; and a spiritual body where our soul resides. In Shimsung we use the medium of energy as a bridge to move beyond our physical body and connect to our spiritual body.
Energy moves along our body through energy channels or meridians. It is gathered and stored in energy centers or chakras. In Shimsung, we stimulate the energy paths and centers to release the dust clogging them. Here are a variety of games, physical exercises, and meditations allowing participants to observe and release long held memories, thoughts and emotions that obscure their True Self. Participants connect to a place that is not new but familiar. They connect to their hearts song. The Shimsung workshop is available every month. For more information, please ask the staff at your local Dahn Yoga Center or Body + Brain Center. Visiting www.Shimsung.com may help as well. Sungwoon Wendy Hall
Albuquerque Center members and Kim JungAe Wonjangnim have tea after class.
directlyone member who had been taking classes for a year realized that she can now touch her toes! DYL: Is there anything unique about your membership? Kim WJN: Our center has a lot of members who are families. Our goal is for half of our new members to be through word of mouth. Thats an evaluation of our service, when people bring their family and friends. DYL: Do you have any special activities going on? Kim WJN: Were planning a highly effective two-week weight loss program; anyone who loses 10 pounds in
two weeks gets a $100 rebate. Also, were implementing a Happy work health service system. DYL: Whats that? Kim WJN: Many of our members are stressed out from work. We wanted to address the cause of their stress and asked the question: How can we make work a fun and happy place? We are encouraging people not just to come and take class, but to consider doing something for their workplace. Even if they cant lead training at their workplace right away, we can connect them with our network of Brain Management Consultants. n
What being a Dahn Yoga practitioner has to do with saving the Earth
everywhere: food, nature, other people, and the general atmosphere that surrounds us. This sensitivity often results in changes of habit. For instance, when the energy of the stomach is weakened from an excess of heat in the head, the lack of balance in the body makes it crave excessive sugar and cold beverages, for example. When these urges are occurring in millions of people, it has a certain effect on the environment. If people with the same condition strengthen their stomachs energy through internal exercises, they become more aware of the immediate discomfort that accompanies the consumption of cold drinks and excessive sugar. As it becomes healthier, the stomach begins to demand wholesome food; practitioners can thus experience natural and spontaneous changes in diet. To continue this example, if the demand for refrigeration and sugar were sufficiently decreased, industries would have to respond accordingly, resulting in a positive change for the environment. The energy body feels sensations before they settle into physical reality. Sensitizing ourselves to our energy body is like getting a glimpse into the
future. It may take decades for the average person to feel the effect of too much sugar on the hips and knees. But with enhanced sensory awareness, people could feel it in their 20s. It may take a tumor on the lungs to stop a person with severe nicotine addition to quit smoking, but intense lung-meridian pain twenty years prior may provide the same incentive to quit. If people can sense some ill effect from eating food processed with unnatural chemicals in a pollutive and inhumane environment, they will choose food produced in a more healthy fashion.
From an ideal to a need It is consumers that drive the demand for products. The green movement is on the rise, but there is still a lot of room to demand more environmentally friendly products and policies. Perhaps, for the average consumer, the idea of environmentally sound choices may just be a noble idea, but not a dire need. Dahn Yoga exercise could potentially motivate us to take actions that are more aligned with our ideals. There is a growing number of people with an elevated consciousness who are aware of our place as stewards of the Earth and are working to create a world in which we behave accordingly. Thanks to these people and to sufficient scientific evidence, few could dismiss
YEHA BMC Hyojin Im (at right) pioneers in Miami, Florida, offering Dahn Yoga class at a park to help her members increase their sensitivity and awareness of connection to the Earth.
the idea of global warming without political consequence. When we develop energy sensitivity, we dont have to rely only on people whom we feel have extraordinary wisdom or higher consciousness. We will all act together in an instinctual movement for self-preservation.
Connecting with our mother We cannot feel the subtle vibration of peace from the cosmos, or the earth, if
we are numb. Unless we feel our direct connection with the Earth, we will see it only as a physical object that is separate from us, something to be used as a resource. We will feel no alarm as poorly planned urban environments threaten natural ones and our oceans and skies become polluted. We would hardly take notice until our own stomachs were hungry from lack of food, our livers bogged down with toxins from processing too many chemicals.
At the end of the movie An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore suggests that we already have the solutions to solve our environmental problems; we simply lack the desire and will to change. We can generate the will and motivation to change by awakening the senses of the body and increasing our awareness of energy. Then we would be more responsible for our bodies and connect better with the Earth and the living beings around us. Genia Sullivan
From New York to Hawaii, Earth Citizen Movement events revolve around Earth Day
Entertainment is also in the works, and attendees are invited to bring lunch and picnic at the park. The registration fee for a whole family or group is $20 preregistration or $25 on-site. Proceeds from the Earth Citizen Walk will be donated to UNICEF. Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef agreed to issue a proclamation that May 1 is Earth Citizen Day. For more information, please visit the website: www.EarthCitizenWalk.org. In Hawaii, Mayor Muffy Hannaman will present a proclamation of Earth Citizen Day in Honolulu one day prior to the Mago Earth Festival, which will be held on April 24 to celebrate the day. 300 people are expected to attend throughout this all-day event, where they will hear the message of Love for humanity, love for the Earth. The Mago Earth Festival will take place at the breathtaking Heeia State Park in the Kaneohe area. It is open to the public with no charge to attend. There will be Dahn Yoga classes, a Dahnmudo demonstration, and a samulnori (Korean drumming) and dance group. There will also be a wishing bowl activity for people to declare Earth Citizenship and write their
wishes on rice paper. The wishes are then blessed before they are released into the ocean at the end of the day. Organizers also hope to offer tree-planting activities as well. Regional Manager Ilchibuko Todd will present the Mago story. Hawaii is truly a melting pot of different cultures, so its the perfect place to go beyond nationality, race, and so on, she said. We hope the classes we offer facilitate an experience of connection with the Earth and that people will come together Ilchibuko Todd, Manager as a Hongik community. With local BBC Managers and Brain Management Consultants, she is preparing this event with Kimberly Lowe Healernim and Friends of Heeia. They share the hope that everyone can work together as a part of the Earth Citizen family to create a new culture while respecting existing cultures. Please visit www.magoearthfestival.org for more detailed information. Michelle Seo
Dowoonim
A fellow member, companion who travels on the same path with you
Wonjangnim
Center manager
Sabumnim
One who strives to lead by example, master-in-training
Chunjikiun (CJKU)
A happy smile on her face, Pam Wonjangnim checks her members dahnjon.
Cosmic or universal energy, the harmony of energy of tangible and intangible dimensions
track to human completion. Having a thriving BBC demands honesty and diligence, creativity, responsibility, and staying connected with Chunjikiun to provide a proper supply of unconditional love. If you dont follow the principles, your business will go under. Its ingenius, actually, she commented. When asked what advice she would give to future BBC owners, Pam spoke of the importance of remembering that the center is an exact reflection of you. By watching your members and their habits, you can also see yourself and your own habits. Being responsible for the center and your members makes you quickly adopt the habits and energy essential to a more positive, ideal self. Im having fun! Pam exclaims brightly. She explains the process of growth: Every time we wander away from the principles, we get into trouble. Then when Im reminded, I can change it, and youre back and everything is going great. She eagerly anticipates the day she will be able to stay inside of the energy and keep it flowing. According to Pam Wonjangnim, Its Michelle Seo heaven on earth.
Ai, shiwonhada~!
It feels so good! Its so refreshing!
Cloud image, copyright (c) Bluedesign Insitute
Editorial Director Joongji Cha Managing Editor Michelle Seo Associate Editor Michela Mangiaracina Contributors Genia Sullivan, Joseph Alexander, Sungwoon Wendy Hall, Aneetha Rajan, Sanghee Lee Designer Bill Haff Editorial Advisor Jiyoung Oh Letters 6560 Highway 179 Ste. 216 Sedona, AZ 86351 e-mail dahnyogalife@dahnyoga.com Legal Copyright 2010, Dahn Yoga & Health Centers, Inc. All rights reserved. Photocopying or reproduction without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. This publication is intended to inform, not prescribe, and is not meant to be a substitute for the advice and care of a qualified health professional. Mission Statement Our mission is to empower Dahn Yoga practitioners, members, and employees by providing a space to exchange accurate, clear, and positive information relevant to Dahn Yoga and its practitioners so that we can create and spread health, happiness, and peace for humanity and the Earth.
on stretching conducted at the Louisiana State University, stretching regularly improved not only flexibility but strength and muscle endurance as well. Another study at Bostons New England Baptist Hospital showed that regular exercise that includes stretching, performed before hip or knee surgery, improved patients recovery afterwards. At Ohio State University, a study found that exercise and stretching may have made wounds heal faster by 25% (or about 10 days faster). Another study done at Ohio State University has shown that regularly practicing yoga exercises may lower a number of compounds in the blood, compounds which have been implicated in heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, arthritis and a host of other age-related debilitating diseases. The study showed that yoga reduced the level of inflammation that normally rises both because of aging and stress. Dynamic stretching is considered beneficial for the prevention of injuries, especially for athletic activity. Static stretching may only have benefit for seniors or very young atheletes. Dahn Yoga integrates dynamic, ballistic and static in its training programs. In general, stretching helps to keep people flexible, improves posture, offers some pain relief and, in certain instances, possibly allow them to avoid some injuries and other aches and pains.
Michela Mangiaracina
Monkey Posture Named for monkeys because they sit comfortably on the pad at the base of their tailbones, this yeondahn posture is effective for quickly strengthening your core. 1.Sit on the floor with both feet raised about 2 - 12 inches and your knees shoulder-width apart. 2.Hold your hands in front of you with your shoulders relaxed and your wrists and ankles flexed.
Vibrant, young members of Dahn Yoga community take action for positive change
Whether it be beach clean-up, training, or helping senior citizens feel energy, members of YEHA put their heart into it.
In connection with the Dahn Foundation, YEHA BMCs have brought healing to their communities in the following projects: teaching Dahn Yoga to caregivers of persons with developmental disabilities; teaching Dahn Yoga in a senior center, teaching teens about the spread of HIV/ AIDS around the world and what they can do as Earth Citizens; a local beach clean-up and Dahn Yoga outreach classes in a public park. Several times a year, YEHA members from around the United States gather at a special camp. Through the camp, members will awaken body, mind and spirit and experience our connection with the Earth internally and receive motivation to take action externally, says Michael Sabumnim. The next YEHA camps are scheduled to be held in April and October. A perfect opportunity for YEHA to take action regarding their internal connection to the Earth Michael Sabumnim builds friendships with New Mexico YEHA. is Earth Day. Earth Day
is officially celebrated on Thursday, April 22. As part of the Earth Citizen Movement, YEHA members will volunteer to support Earth Day efforts by planting trees at several locations around the country on Saturday, April 24. That day also happens to be World Tai Chi and Kigong Day, so YEHA is also planning Ki Gong events in tandem with the tree-planting activities. Were hoping to have 100 volunteers nationwide that day planting 20-50 trees each, resulting in 2,000-5,000 trees breathing fresh oxygen into the lungs of humanity and the Earths atmosphere, while also breathing new life into the future of the Earth Citizen Movement. These Earth Day projects will be spearheaded by YEHA, but everyone is invited to take part. Please contact your local Dahn Yoga or Body + Brain Center to get involved with YEHAs Earth Day efforts, or email Michael Munson Sabum-nim at michaelsdream@gmail.com. Check next months newsletter for progress updates, and until then Chunjikiun Aneetha Rajan be with you!