Calm Chicago

Archive for the ‘Stress reduction’ Category

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How I Simplify My Life with Breathing

In Meditation, Stress Management, Stress reduction, Tai Chi on January 18, 2011 at 12:19 am

This Complicated World

The world is a pretty complicated place. So, the last thing I want is to make it more complicated that necessary. How about you?

Antidote? Simplify

For years, one of the things I’ve sought after, is a way to make things simpler. To reduce all those bummer, stressed out feelings that come from too much complication. I love tai chi, qigong and meditation because amongst their many fine qualities, one stands out day after day. That is the demand they make for me to maintain a close, sharp attention to the breath.

Why Does The Breath Matter?

Without the breath coming in and out, I’m just a dead body. The breath is so close to my life. It provides one of the keys of life; Oxygen. I can go a while without eating. I might get hungry but I’ll live. I might get a head ache, but I’ll live. On the other hand, I can’t hold my breath very long. Even magicians on tv or in Vegas, can only hold their breath so long. Within a few short minutes - no breathing? No living. End of story.

Breathing Means - Pay Attention Right Now

Paying strict attention to the breath keeps me firmly engaged in the present moment. When I can train my mind single-pointedly to observe the breath, I stay right here in this moment, letting go of worry about the past or future. After all, I’d never try to hold on to any one single breath. It’s a fool’s errand. It’s the nature of the breath to arise, peak and fade away. Each one after the next. Each one slightly different. Long. Short. Ragged or steady and so on.

And, when I stay right here, life gets a lot simpler.

Want to learn more? Come to classes at Calm Chicago. We even have some FREE classes right now as we gear up for World Tai Chi Day, Saturday, April 30 – 10 am in Chinatown Square!

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

One Reason Not To Rush Your Taiji

In Stress Management, Stress reduction, Taiji on December 2, 2010 at 1:01 pm

If we rush our taiji practice, what are we doing? We’re rushing through taiji just so we can check that off our list of things Very Busy People Do, so we can rush to the next thing – get that done – check it off and the next and the next and so on …

And we do this all day long.

Why?

Maybe if we see that long list of things checked off, we feel like we can stand back and say look at all I accomplished today. Or, maybe when we rush around, the feeling of frenetic activity gives us the delusion that we’re Working Very Hard. And that’s like, the American way.

But we should not let ourselves be fooled. Rushing around, frantically with no mind on what we are doing because half our mind is already thinking about what we have to do next or what we forgot to do yesterday and what we’ll have to do tomorrow because surely we’ll run out of time today  … Feel like you need to breathe right now from all that rushing? Me too.

One of the main points of taiji practice is to let go of all that, all the worldly concerns (not forever) and just relax and be fully present in the moment. Present, fully aware that you are breathing, moving the body, slowly, mindfully. Now, isn’t that better? We practice taiji not to get somewhere – but just because it feels good. Our mind and body come together with the breath and we begin to restore some balance, bring some softness, flexibility into all aspects of our being.

Not a bad deal for an exercise that requires no special equipment! So, try it. Sneak off at work into an empty room, an under used hallway, even the bathroom and grab a slow five-minute taiji or qigong break. (OSHA recommends that office workers take five minutes each hour away from their tasks for best health and performance.) You’ll save yourself a lot of visits to the doctor in the long run because you’ll be healthier. And your company will even safe money because you don’t miss work because of illness produced by stress.

Will your first session of taiji turn you into a perfect human specimen? No. But over time, you’ll see a big difference.

Taiji is one of those things that makes us feel better from the very first time we do it and is something we can practice for the rest of our lives.

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Taiji Helps Fibromyalgia Patients

In About our center, Stress Management, Stress reduction, Taiji on November 30, 2010 at 2:40 am

I just had to share this article from the NY Times today!

Interesting research published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing the many benefits of taiji for severe pain and chronic conditions. Especially nice that this study refers to the many levels of benefit taiji provides for body, mind and spirit. I read recently somewhere, that TCM practitioners joke that the only place the mind and body separate is in medical textbooks!

Here are few excerpts that took my attention:

The ancient Chinese practice of tai chi may be effective as a therapy for fibromyalgia, according to a study published on Thursday in TheNew England Journal of Medicine.

Before the study, “I didn’t know tai chi from a sneeze,” said Ms. Petersen, who has diabetes and other conditions. “I was like, ‘Well, O.K., I’ll get to meet some people, it will get me out of the house.’ I didn’t believe any of it. I thought this is so minimal, it’s stupid.”

After a few weeks, she said she began to feel better, and after 12 weeks “the pain had diminished 90 percent.” She has continued tai chi, lost 50 pounds and can walk three to seven miles a day.

Dr. Shmerling said that though tai chi is inexpensive compared with other treatments, some patients would reject such an alternative therapy. And Dr. Gloria Yeh, a Beth Israel Deaconess internist and co-author of the editorial, said others “will say, ‘It’s too slow, I can’t do that.’ ”

But she said it offered a “gentler option” for patients deterred by other physical activities. “The mind-body connections set it apart from other exercises,” she said, adding that doctors are seeking “anything we can offer that will make patients say ‘I can really do this.’ ”

Calm Chicago offers Yang taiji, the same taiji practiced by the Tufts study participants. Who can do taiji and enjoy the many benefits? Anybody. Whatever your situation, we can adapt the taiji to fit your abilities. And, you’ll have fun . WHat other medicine can say that?

 

 

 

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Year. New Look. A return to traditional signs.

In About our center, Stress reduction, Work on November 28, 2010 at 10:40 pm

Calm Chicago is getting ready for a great new year. We hope to offer more programs for individuals, groups and corporations in the coming years. And so, we return to the Zen circle and the Yin and Yang symbol, to better express the underlying ideas of our practice and teachings. As we prepare, we thank our teachers and students and all the friends and family, who make the center possible.

We’ll do our best to enter 2011 clearly, calmly and to live blamelessly.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yang Taiji Simplified 24- Form: Brush Knee Push – How-to

In About our center, Compassion, Loving Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Peace, Stress Management, Stress reduction, Taiji, Wisdom, Work, Zen on October 17, 2010 at 6:41 am

New You Tube video of Yang taiji 24-form showing how students at Calm Chicago learn the upper body and lower body movements separately and then put them together.

Makes learning taiji a bit easier by allowing students to build up mindfulness as they train. The focus? – keeping practice simple.

The more we can practice and keep the taiji very simple. without a lot of fancy concepts, the more we can build up our mindful, single-pointed focus.

We’re in no hurry. Piece by piece.

Thanks for stopping by, Hillary

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Clever Mind: Just Another Form of Greed

In About our center, Compassion, Job, Loving Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Peace, Stress reduction, Taiji, Uncategorized, Wisdom, Work, Zen on October 15, 2010 at 7:40 am

There’s a lot of talking out there. In here too. My own mind can churn up ideas like nobody’s business. And much of it is dressed up like things I need to pay attention to. It’s just my habit though. Thing is – a lot of all that is just noise. Self-serving noise. Okay, most of it really.

There’s a saying, some say it’s a Zen thing but others lay claim to it. What ever.  Don’t speak unless it improves the silence. Maybe, my first Dharma teacher told me that. (Carl? Do you remember?) Does it matter?

We’ve been trained to believe that lots of ideas are a sign of cleverness…much to be valued. Where I grew up, the faster your retort and the snarkier it could be, the more points you earned in the unwritten code of the fastest mouth/mind wins.

But here’s the thing. If you think about it…how much happiness has your cleverness ever really gotten you? Let me modify that. How much lasting happiness has it gotten you?

Let me guess. Not so much. Yes? Because here’s the thing. Cleverness is all about greed. Right. You know what I mean. We feel brilliant when we’re fast with a comeback. But if we really think about it …what’s the truth? And, how quickly that kind of power shifts, vanishes…it’s got some kind of super fast half-life as far as I can tell.

Clever is the Gordon Gekko of our mental habits. Greed is king.  Greed is good. We might feel pretty swell to be at the top of whatever heap… I think we do. We fall for that feeling. Pretty often… if we are honest. But at what price? And, what if all those assumptions we’ve held about greed, okay, a more nobel sounding label, self enterprise, rugged individualism … Milton Friedman ideology? What is all that really? Is there a set of unpleasant notions below the ground on which we walk? Exactly just what are those assumptions and how unconsciously do we hold them?

Surprised? Do you think self-awareness matters?

Well … don’t take my word for it. Do your own assessment.

Ask yourself next time you’re at some party, or at the office…why does being quick and clever feel so good? Then ask yourself, – Who suffers as a result?

So, here, ever so briefly…what really matters?

Patience. A mind under control.

I hope I don’t need to argue or compare any more. I practice to leave that old habit behind. All any of us needs to do is practice. Piece by piece. Slowly slowly. Breath by breath. And that means dropping our greed for holding views. The my way or the highway thoughts, however secret or public.

I don’t have much direct experience with or knowledge of, “true freedom…” whatever that really means. Do you? All I know is that my own teacher says – don’t take my word for it. Do your on investigation. See what your own experience tells you.

Just sit. Just breathe. Know you are doing it. Practice taiji maybe or qigong. The main thing is to be here, awake…aware. And why does this matter? We can try to rid ourselves of a little discomfort here and now. Sure. But what matters more?

We have big questions facing us, globally. As a species. As members of the collective o f living beings…things are changing fast. How can we possibly address this reality well?

The best we can do is to have the clearest mind we can. Because the mind fogged by emotion and bias and fear, hate, anger, delusion and so on … can not possibly see its way to any real solution. We need another model.

But don’t take my word for it. Learn to sit. See what your own insight is.

And then please, come back and share it with us. Let’s talk about it.

And then?

Let’s stop all the talk and just sit. Mindfully sit.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Taiji Puzzle: Letting Go of Tension? It’s All in the Palm of Your Hand

In About our center, Compassion, Meditation, Mindfulness, Peace, Stress Management, Stress reduction, Taiji, Zen on October 5, 2010 at 4:16 am

This will be short.

Feeling tense?

Relax your hand. (seriously)

It’s that simple. It’s really hard to hold tension in the body when you relax all the muscles in the hand.

Whether you are at home doing taiji training or at the office responding to various pressures, the solution is the same. Stress can make us feel tense. (like someone needs to remind us of this?)

The mind gets tight and so do our muscles, organs, nerves. We may hold our breath, clench the jaw or tighten various parts of the body without being aware we’re doing it.

When you feel the tension taking hold, how ever it manifests itself, try this simple solution.

Relax your hand. Know the muscles, tendons, sinews. Take some time. Don’t rush. Focus the mind and observe clearly.

Relax the hand and the rest of the body and mind will follow.

Learning taiji piece by piece: first steps

In About our center, Loving Kindness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Peace, Stress reduction, Taiji, Zen on October 4, 2010 at 4:06 am

Here is the first of a series of short videos of how we are teaching basic Yang family taiji, the 24-short form at Calm Chicago.

The form is taught by breaking each posture into simple, manageable elements. This allows students to develop unity of mind and body more easily from the first class without getting caught up in thinking mind so much.  With this kind of sharp focus, the mind becomes quiet and stress levels drop significantly.

The object is to know the body and what it is doing moment by moment by bringing full attention of the mind to bear with single-pointed attention.

Many thanks to our students for making it all possible.

With Metta,  Hillary

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Faster I Go, the Behinder I Get

In About our center, Job, Meditation, Peace, Problem Solving, Stress Management, Stress reduction, Taiji, Wisdom, Zen on August 16, 2010 at 11:49 pm

Anyone out there think like this sometimes?

If I work really hard at … x … I’ll get really good at it.

Sound familiar?

I think we all have this idea. In my experience, it’s the kind of thing that was drilled into my brain from a young age. I confess I have to watch what I say sometimes too. We push things on our children. We attack work with a ferocious energy. But what if this is just one of those things we say without being fully mindful of what our words really mean?

Now, I’m not advocating that we give up diligence and determination and such. No way. But here’s the thing. What if, at least in part – what if what we are really doing is creating more stress into the equation with this idea of working very hard? And what if that stress is one of the very things most impeding our progress, keeping us from the very success we seek?

With meditation and taiji my experience shows me that the more I relax, the more I pursue practice with diligence and determination yes but without this idea of “trying very hard,” the better things seem to go. When it comes to any form of meditation, whether sitting or standing or dynamic, the more we just show up and focus without creating any narratives or judgement or ideas about good or bad practice, the more we can just be present fully in each moment. And the more we do that, the more the way seems to open up.

And actually, I find the same thing to be true in doing about anything. At my office job in Chicago, I try to focus on the task without adding extra ideas to what I’m doing. When I go to the gym, and the owner teaches me how to use a new weight machine or new exercise, I see that having any ideas about trying very hard only get between me and the moment.

When I relax and just do, with full focus and nothing left over, life goes more smoothly and peacefully. If I’m speaking with someone and they want to debate something, I try to remember to say what I have to say just once and let it go. When a student calls me about the center and asks about taiji and meditation, I just say what these things are as clearly as possible, describe the benefits as simply as I can and then ask if the person wants to come try it out. I don’t try to hard to persuade them to come in. I offer and try to let go of the outcome.

So, basically, it comes to this: I think that if we allow ourselves to be caught up in trying very hard, it only seems that it takes longer and longer to make any progress. So, as counter intuitive as this may seem, the harder we work, the behinder we get.

Thank you Lewis Carroll!

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Key to Peace at the Office

In About our center, Compassion, Job, Meditation, Mindfulness, Peace, Stress Management, Stress reduction, Taiji, Uncategorized, Wisdom, Work, Zen on August 6, 2010 at 5:52 pm

Just breathe.

Mindfully attending to the breath can help us understand a single, single yet critical concept. That is the breath like everything else is impermanent. It comes and goes. Arises, exists for a short time, then naturally fades away.

While you sit at your desk, or stand out in the field or where ever you work, pause, once an hour and for a few minutes focus on your breath with full attention.

Notice how it rises and falls. You may notice this in the belly, on  your lip or in your nostrils. Pick one place and don’t go shopping for the spot on which you will focus.Yes, there is a continuum of breathing, one breath following the next but also, do you notice that slight moment between each breath? A tiny suspension as one ends and another begins?

Observe each single breath as you inhale, pause, exhale, pause, inhale … Each breath is different. Some short, some long. Sometimes we breathe quickly, when we’re excited, nervous or exercising.  When we’re relaxed, we tend to breathe more slowly. And note, please, that the breath has no story. We don’t judge it a good or bad breath. We just do it.

Things happen to all of us at work that seem to cause stress for us. And I say seem because, this stress need not be a fact of life at all. Of course, we can not always change those events, people or personalities which challenge us. We can however, change our reactions to them. The first simple way to do this, is to take a lesson from our breath.

As we’ve already observed, each breath is impermanent. So too with work place events.

Try these techniques:

1. When something happens, someone says something, does something, you see someone you don’t much care for coming down the hall, you’re handed a seemingly impossible deadline on a work order …see where you feel it, physically in your body.

2. Observe the physical sensation, the stomach twinge, the clenched jaw, the headache – and immediately put your attention on your breath in that same spot you always use. It’s important to have that spot pre-selected so you don’t waste time feeling stressed.

3. As you observe your breath, you will notice that the stress you felt so intensely only a moment ago is going, going … gone. The breath has no story to tell. It helps us simply arrive more fully into the present moment without judgement or assessment, good or bad. Just with what in fact, IS. In, out, in out – always changing. Going, going, gone. Repeat as needed.

In this way, we begin to be fully present without any narrative to create any stress what so ever. We are simply and peacefully here. And with this, our responses to others around us changes, becomes more relaxed. More peacful. We can begin to respond instead with quiet, clarity, and compassion. We don’t add stress to the situation. And this makes the whole office more calm. We even do better work. And that’s something every company can take to the bank.

Would you like to feel less stress at work? Try the suggestions here. See how it goes.

Need a little help making it work? Contact us at Calm Chicago. We’re here to help.

www.calmchicago.org

Have a peaceful day.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.