Happy Thursday (Friday in Australia) to You!
I hope you are all well.
I had a lovely day teaching my very motivated, healthy Australian and New Zealand students yesterday. They are one of the liveliest and attentive bunch of students I’ve ever taught for sure!
My body was a bit sore from doing sprints and medicine ball training with Donal Carr yesterday so I took my students out in the beautiful open area here and we did breathing and movement training in the rain together.
The first day, I taught them the basic elements of the full breath. I showed them how to assess the breathing pattern, looking for expansion in three dimensions; lengthening of the spine, expansion of the belly, and lateral expansion of the rib cage.
In our session together yesterday, I taught them how to strengthen their diaphragm with the full breath.
Once they had mastery of the full breath, I taught them how to build a chi-field and follow the wisdom of their biological mind (the wisdom of your cells).
The body is inherently wise and typically knows much more about what it needs to unwind and heal than we do intellectually.
As they let their mind go, they could feel the inner-guidance directing them to the body positions that would unlock restrictions in their fascia (connective tissues) and joints.
This form of spontaneous, unbound movement is very balancing and healing to both body and mind.
As we practiced, the wind was blowing, it was raining, and all sorts of birds came and rested in the trees around us and made beautiful bird music for us.
Everyone was experiencing a deep, calming, natural high. Several students commented that they felt more grounded and calmer than they’ve ever been, which is always lovely for a teacher to hear.
After our unwinding, I gathered the group and created two rings of people and we changed OM for a while until we all harmonized.
Then we enjoyed a few minutes of silence together before enjoying a beautiful lunch together.
After lunch, we got into HLC coaching principles and discussed the psychological origins of the common behaviors that keep people from creating and living their dreams.
We all had a fantastic day and I’m excited to share another excellent day together.
A Tip For Today:
When you feel foggy in the head, tired, or stressed, try putting one hand over your belly button and the other on your chest.
Begin breathing into your belly so the hand on your belly moves away with your belly as it expands.
Only when your belly is expanded as much as you can get it to expand by breathing in through your nose should you begin letting your chest rise during the last 2/3s of your breath.
Relax on the exhalation and let it come out naturally through the mouth or nose.
It usually only takes a few minutes of deep belly breathing to re-energize your body and calm your emotions.
Using little self-help methods like this progressively teaches you how much healing power you always have under your control and that you can heal yourself and balance yourself without the use of medical drugs.
Deep breathing regularly throughout the day also reduces the need for sugar and stimulants such as coffee and tea, reducing the load on your adrenal glands. This is real freedom.
Next week I’ll be delivering a CHEK Webinar on the Essentials of Respiration and Movement. If you are interested in joining me for this hour, you may register at: www.chekinstitute.com
Breathing fully is a good, simple, healthy living practice and it’s available to you as long as you are willing to love and care for yourself.
Have a great day!
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
