Happy Monday!
I hope you all had as much fun this weekend as I did.
My buddy Jason came to visit me for a couple days, and we had lots of fun; I’ll share below. I got some fun stonework done in the past week, so I’ll share that too.
In this blog I’ll share:
1. CHI Circles – Simple Tai-Chi for Everyone!, my vlog feature sharing a simple method of enhancing your life-force energy I enjoy and hope you do too!
2. The 10 worst toxins hidden in vitamins, supplements and health foods
3. CHEK Institute Advance Training Program Completions
4. Show-N-Tell with Paul:
– Beautiful art from my client Danne Ahlquist in Sweden
– See Angie’s growing belly! and catch up on her trip through Italy
– My recent rock art
– Paintings by Jason and I
CHI Circles – Simple Tai-Chi for Everyone!
Today, I share one of my simple, fun methods of practicing tai-chi, which I call making chi circles.
With my video (about 14:00), I encourage you to get up out of your chair and participate with me so you can “feel” what I’m expressing as I’m sharing it.
I begin by reviewing breathing technique, which is the foundation of all inner-arts or “work-in” practices. Once we get our breathing mastered, I begin showing you how to couple your movement with your breathing correctly to get the best results.
I give a short discussion on what chi is, and how we can appreciate that there is always an abundance of chi, even in empty space.
I also encourage you to “smile” when doing your work-in practices to create a healthy, positive association between joy and tai-chi so that you are naturally more drawn to support yourself in joy-making each day.
We then explore the method and some of the ways you can “let go to it”, making the fine tuning adjustments encouraged by the natural energies, nature spirits, or the spirits of your body within, all of which can be positive guiding influences.
Remember the following work-in tips:
1. Always go barefooted, and if it is too cold or wet, wear wool or any natural fiber socks to stay connected to the earth; wool stays warm even when wet, so a great choice.
2. Wear natural fiber, loose fitting clothing; synthetic fibers will distort your own energy field, and are a stress to the body. I’m forever trying to get athletes out of their plastic clothes…
Women should go without a bra, or loosen it as much as possible because bra straps are very disruptive to the breathing muscles.
Even a little tension in the bra strap causes excessive contraction of the scalene muscles in the neck, and other accessory respiratory muscles, and encourages chest breathing.
This imbalance alone is commonly a trigger for anxiety and monkey mindedness…
3. Let your body move in time with your breathing. Once you’ve got mastery of that, you can switch, and learn to let your breathing mirror and support the movements you are doing.
If you want to learn more about how to work in, I share some different methods and technical details in my multimedia ebook, The Last 4 Doctors You’ll Ever Need – How To Get Healthy Now! and my book, How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy!
If you’d like to learn in person, by attending Holistic Lifestyle Coaching Level 1 with one of my highly skilled instructors you will be richly rewarded.
In HLC 1, you learn to master all the work-in concepts in my book (HTEM&BH!), as well as learning how to use your four doctors, six foundation principles and much more!
To see our schedule HLC 1 live workshops, you can click here: https://chekinstitute.com/Advanced_Training_Programs/HLC.php
I hope you enjoy making your own tai-chi circles and healing yourself each day. Then you know you have some love to share everywhere you go.
The 10 worst toxins hidden in vitamins, supplements and health foods
Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com puts out a lot of great, “wake up” information, to help better inform and educate the public.
These days, there is so much covert silliness going on in the name of health and “health food” anything, that having people like Mike Adams investigate, helps us all and saves us loads of time.
I think you’ll find this article on his site very interesting, and useful when shopping:
https://www.naturalnews.com/039638_toxins_ingredients_nutritional_supplements.html#ixzz3niPdDQQB
CHEK Advanced Training Program Completions
CHEK Exercise Coach with Dan Hellman – Knoxville, TN
Congratulations to our new CHEK Exercise Coaches in Knoxville, TN!
Dan Hellman guided his amazing CHEK Exercise Coach students to a well-rounded understanding of holistic exercise. Thanks for a great job to all of you, and to Dan for being the amazing instructor that he is.
CHEK Exercise Coach with Leigh Brandon – Copenhagen, DK
Congratulations to our new CHEK Exercise Coaches in Denmark!
Leigh guided his small, intimate group to a new level of functionality and awareness. Leigh is a great teacher and his new book “The Tennis Biomechanic’s Manual” is available at our C.H.E.K Institute online shop.
You can also enjoy the live course with Leigh if you want to master your tennis, or conditioning tennis players masterfully.
See the CHEK Institute schedule here: https://chekinstitute.com/Advanced_Training_Programs/tennis.php
Show-N-Tell with Paul
Danne Ahlquist’s Recent Mandala
Danne is a former client of mine that came to see me from Sweden a couple years ago. He’s been dong a great job implementing all the methods of healing and growing spiritually that I taught him, and it’s always lovely to see his art from time to time.
Danne recently shared this mandala he created and Vidya and I were so impressed, we asked him to write something we could share with his art, and this is what Danne had to say:
“When Paul Chek, back in the summer of 2013, first introduced me to “The Four Doctors” I didn’t understand how important they where for my healing-process.
Now I do.
When you actually can switch your mind to work in present time, be here and now, be creative, be in an intuitive flow – it is a love-moment.
I am no-one, no-where in no time. I just am and it is truly a love-moment.
To make the Mandalas, that Paul introduced me to, gives me all that. I needed to get out of stress, fight or flight-mode etc.
I am grateful to have experienced that, making Mandalas is one very pleasant way to accomplish that.
Thanks Paul!”
Angie’s Tour Through Italy, And Baby Mana Continues to GROW
As I shared in my last blog, Angie and Penny are both on vacation enjoying themselves.
Penny is in London enjoying some time off after taking a business development seminar there. She’s enjoying the museums, trekking around leisurely, and she climbed the towers in the London tower bridge and looked through the glass floor at the scene below.
Penny’s not big on photos, so I don’t have any to share, but maybe as the trip progresses and she meets Angie and Margaret in Italy, we’ll get some I can share.
Angie and Margaret had a great time in Pisa:
Here you can see Angie “playing with the leaning tower,” being her usual playful self. I’m sure Mana is enjoying all this fun too.
They left Pisa and then headed to Sienna…
Angie and Margaret toured the town and enjoyed all the art and history.
Here you can see Angie dancing with The Fat Lady and her children.
I can’t remember what city she sent this from, but with that growing tummy, she probably felt she fit right in, and she certainly still has lots of dance left in her!
Angie and Margret recently traveled to Florence, Italy, where they will stay for 12 days, and Penny will be meeting them toward the end of their stay next week.
Angie and Margaret are enjoying their accommodations and the city of Florence quite a lot.
Angie gave me a tour of her beautiful room on FaceTime, and it’s a lovely spot she’s got there with lots of room, beautiful stonework, and lots of good food to enjoy.
I asked Angie to take a picture of her in the gym so I could see her belly better, so this is what she sent me…yes…Mana is growing every day!
This has all been really fun for Angie because she says Mana moves a lot in her tummy anytime she’s doing activities that Mana seems to like.
So far, Angie has concluded that Mana really loves climbing stairs, dancing, eating a wide variety of foods, fruits, and the sound of running water.
Fortunately, those are all things Angie likes, so it’s easy for them to have fun together.
A Workout In Heaven With Maggie
While Angie is gone, I’m Maggie’s caretaker. We have lots of fun together. She’s a little dog with a BIG personality.
She’s a pug and they don’t do well in the heat, so while I was building this stack, I put her under a tree by my stone circle and she enjoyed the shade.
When I finished, I went and got Vidya to come take a photo of me and Maggie; I’d created a special space she can sit because she loves to have her photo taken.
Maggie is a professional “pug model”, so she really loves the camera; hmm…wonder where she gets that from?…
My Buddy Jason Comes To Enjoy Heaven
Jason and his lovely wife Jacque recently had a new addition to their family, baby Anjah.
He and Jacque put a lot of effort into keeping healthy and fit for the arrival of Jacque’s fourth child, and her second with Jason – I’m sure many of you know how much work a new baby is.
After several months of being engaged in getting ready for Jacque to give birth, going through the birthing process, and having a new baby, Jason was ready to come have a little down time with me.
He and I have been working closely together for several years. Jason loves doing the things I love to do, so that’s exactly what we did together for 2.5 days.
Here you can see Jason with the painting he created as we relaxed together in the Heaven House on Friday.
He’s still working on finishing his and will do that as soon as Vidya sends it to him in the mail, and I’m sure it will be even more interesting and cool when he finishes.
I was painting away at the same time, and was just painting the love I feel inside, with my baby Mana on the way, and the joy I feel when Jason and I spend time together.
You can see our paintings outside in garden in the afternoon lighting.
Here is a close up of my painting, which I titled, “This IS Love.”
I had a great time painting it, and it was one of those special days when the art spirit was within me, guiding my brushes.
I was in a no-mind state, much like when I’m deep in tai-chi or meditation. I started by putting white dots around the lid of a jar in the center, and then went freehand from there.
Somehow, I managed to keep it fairly symmetrical throughout the process, which is always lovely to see.
Jason and I spent the day at my home in Vista. We enjoyed a few hours out in my rock garden.
I love building tall stacks because the taller they are, the more centered you have to be or you may get to meet your maker!
Additionally, the taller they are, the more easily they come down when animals climb them, birds land on them, and wind blows.
As our luck would have it, at about 3:00 AM Sunday morning, we had a huge storm come in.
It rained like hell all night and through to about 11:00 AM the next morning and knocked the power out up at the Heaven House.
When I got up to go to get some work done Sunday morning, I was really surprised to see my new baby still standing tall and proud, even though the wind and rain were quite strong.
That said, I may have gotten too impressed with myself because by the time I got home in the evening, it had blown down…oh well…a good reason to create something unique and fun again!
NOTE: If you are new to stone stacking, please don’t try to emulate me with these big stacks.
The process can be VERY dangerous. It is wise to start small, learn to find your center, work with inner-calm and patients, and let your skills grow.
If your ego gets too exuberant, the mirror (of pain) can be strong…trust me on that one!
Well, that’s my blog for this week.
I have enjoyed sharing with you and I hope you enjoy your new chi circle practice, and feel inspired to do some art on paper, canvas, or out in nature!
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
