If you were to translate Tai Chi into English you would get something that you may not have expected as it translates into “Supreme Ultimate Force”. This means that it is a state of unlimited and complete capability. This type of practice confronts the concepts between Yin and Yang, which rule over the four realms and five elements. Without these two very important aspects there would be no world, as they are what created it and control everything about it. Without Yin there can be no Yang and vice versa. Tai Chi can also be translates as meaning Unity, Oneness, or being one with.

Tai Chi uses the concept of negative and positive energy to draw ones force from the body itself. To be good at Tai Chi one must be at one with himself and have the ultimate discipline of their body. Tai Chi has been practiced since ancient times and is still practiced today even in the western society. It is a series of slow movements that resemble Yoga or moving mediation, in fact you can even say that it is a mix of the two. The different movements end up making forms of the various poses of several animals and birds. Tai Chi is not considered a martial art because of its slow movements.

Tai Chi is considered by practitioners as a relaxing exercise that calls upon the body, mind, soul and environment to work together. However, there are some who look at Tai Chi as a type of combat due to its considerable force behind the movements. If you know anything about Chinese medicine you know that it is all about the energy force that flows through the body that is known as Chi. If for some reason the flow of good Chi is disrupted, the person can fall ill. Tai Chi is a way of keeping the good chi circulating throughout the body as it should.

It is believed that Chi circulates through the body just as you blood would, reaching all organs. Therefore, because Tai Chi helps circulate Chi energy it is directly connected to other types of Chinese medicine such as acupuncture and other oriental healing. Common knowledge is that Tai Chi is practiced to promote tranquility and calmness in ones mind. The mind has to be focused in order to do the complicated movements of Tai Chi. By doing Tai Chi the person will learn many new skills that include motor control, balance, rhythm of movement and alignment of the limbs and body.

By practicing Tai Chi often enough the person will learn how to have better posture when sitting, standing, walking and even running. There are so many different benefits to practicing Tai Chi that they can not all be discussed. However, I can tell you that Tai Chi is a great way to have a healthier body and be more in control of it. By doing Tai Chi you can use a type of “combat” in a slow way without hurting the opponent. However, if you are looking for a self defense martial arts you are looking in the wrong place.

Human beings are conditioned from babies to behave in certain ways. Our parents, other family members, teachers, neighbors and others constantly gave us suggestions that influenced how we see the world. Some of it protected us from doing harmful things, but a lot of it led to negative and limiting beliefs that prevent us from living fully successful lives as adults.

Parents may mean well, but their own fears can often be conveyed to their children. For example, if they have had a bad experience with dogs they may impress their fear upon their children. Or if they had a scare swimming, they may give their children a fear of drowning. They can also impart beliefs that affect their children’s ability to have a relationship by making comments such as “men are only after one thing” or “women just want your money.”

Our parents are not only our first teachers, they are our most powerful. When we are young we need to be guided by them for our own safety, however when we reach adulthood it is important to re-evaluate the beliefs we carry. Most of us are probably unaware of the limitations placed on our lives as a result of our beliefs. Our beliefs influence our attitudes towards life and our expectations which in turn affect our relationships, our financial security and the way we experience the world in general.

Our beliefs create our reality. In other words, the level of health and prosperity we experience can largely be tracked back to our beliefs. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is an energy meridian therapy which works on releasing negative energy and emotions and reprogramming beliefs. An EFT practitioner can often uncover underlying causes of health and other problems linked to beliefs and associated emotions which can then be released and replaced with more positive expectations. Sometimes these beliefs are a result of childhood programming, sometimes personal experiences and often from simply absorbing a steady diet of sensational and negative news reporting.

So, how should we deal with limiting beliefs? We all know people whose lives seem to flow easily, yet they are not more talented, experienced or intelligent than us. There are those in our own profession who are well ahead of us on their career path with no more experience or education. Their looks, possessions and current bank account do not appear to hold them back. So what are the factors that influence success or limit it?

The first step to programming yourself for success is to be honest about your current situation. You need to acknowledge where you are at in life and admit your tendency to repeat mistakes or to suffer the same problems repeatedly. These are patterns that must be identified before they can be overcome. You may find that you are repeating patterns your parents had towards money, diet or relationships because you have absorbed their beliefs about these things.

There are a number of excellent self help resources that can help you identify the patterns in your life. It can actually be helpful to join a group of people who are working through the same issues. By hearing other people’s stories you may recognize similarities in your own life. You can learn from other people’s experiences and obtain emotional support for your own journey.

Once you begin the life changing journey of personal transformation, you will find that it continues throughout your life. You will observe, without being critical, those who prefer the safety of their familiar lives. However, you will realize that you are choosing the more difficult but more rewarding path of inner change. This can be more challenging than any physical journey and require an enormous amount of courage and determination. Yet, the rewards are also enormous and once you receive them you would not wish to be back in your comfort zone.

Take care and enjoy!

Yoga, in its purest form, is a discipline that connects the mind, body, and spirit. It’s more than a philosophy, it’s a way of being. Forget the stereotyped, tree hugging, hippie mantras of naysayers. There is more to it than stretching, sweating, and breathing. Yoga has intellectual benefits and practical guidelines for healthy living. The practical aspects involved in the philosophy of yoga have become widely practiced due to their healthy and calming effects on the body and mind. Yoga is believed to impart balance, poise, confidence, along with internal balance and peace.

The west is beginning to accept yoga as mainstream for its genuine ability to promote a healthy body and spirit. Yoga has been shown to help those who have the desire to improve their health and vitality. Its chief benefits include a balanced endocrine system, improved posture, impart flexibility and elasticity to the spine and limbs, and even tone and shape the body. Yoga as a practical exercise is performed through the use of controlled movements, held postures, proper breathing, stretching, relaxing, becoming aware of the bodies signals, and blocking out the external interference or distractions. The result is evident during practice because the performer feels properly situated, at ease, relaxed, and in a spiritually calm state of mind.

Yoga is not just practiced and available for adults. The routines and postures have become adopted for young children and even babies. That’s right, babies. This is not intended to mean that parents attempt to contort the child’s body into odd shapes. Nor do they try to force the baby to perform in a class room on a yoga mat. Baby yoga is dissimilar to adult yoga. We know that it would be impossible to attempt to contort a baby’s body, as it would be to try to get them to follow along. So, then, what does baby yoga involve?

Baby yoga is fact becoming an interactive routine performed with a baby and its primary care givers. Mothers and nurse-maids may help aid the baby into carefully developed movements that work well for the baby’s tender body. The movements may include gentle stretching of limbs, and may also practice correct breathing while holding the babies so that the babies breathing may imitate theirs. Other methods include proper massage techniques, and calming sessions. Music or calm singing may also be used during session to help calm and sooth the baby during the exercises.

Additionally, aside form the bonding and flexibility that baby yoga may impart, yoga also has other benefits for babies. Yoga can help babies become aware of their own bodies younger in life. Yoga also aids in strengthening the spine, improves muscles condition, imparts flexibility to their joints, improves breathing and oxygen intake, helps them with balance, improves organ function, and helps prevent illnesses. Baby yoga has been proven to be safe.

Yoga is beneficial to the growth and development of babies. Their health, well being, and growth improve. If you are looking for an excellent way to improve your babies health and impart strength to the babies development, muscles, and immune system as well as help them learn to breathe and be calm, then perhaps baby yoga is what you have been looking for.

Many of us find ourselves being judgmental – even when that is not our intentions. However, when individuals differ in their personality traits, physical characteristics, and behaviors, it is easy to place some type of judgment. Chances are, you have experienced this yourself. Whether we admit it or not, each of us are constantly judging others and being judged. However, there comes a time in a person’s life in which it is time to simply accept the fact that every person is their own. We are all unique. We all have a set of unique disciplines, behaviors, feelings, interests, and similar components that makes us who we are. There should not be any room for judgment when we think of things in this manner.

There are a number of components that come together to establish who we are as individuals. First, the background that we have – such as our experiences and the attitudes that we were introduced to – plays a large role when it comes to determining who we are. Our interests, talents, and abilities also play a role in the development of who we are. While it is natural for a person to want to categorize as we see appropriately in order to associate one thing to another, it is important that when we do this with people that we remember that we are all unique. While the mind can group similar individuals together, we should not allow our minds to separate others from us simply because of the fact that they are different from us.

Throughout our lives, we will interact with a large number of people. We will live, work, and play with a variety of individuals throughout our lives. Many times, you may find that it is difficult to deal with these individuals. It is not uncommon to become frustrated with another person because they do not think, act, or feel the same way that you do. Judging an individual on these things can result in turmoil in the relationships that you share with these people. Many times, it is best to simply let go of the differences that surround you and others. We have to take a look around at the differences that surround us, and just appreciate those things that make others different from us.

There are many situations; for example, when a married couple will experience a lot of anger and frustration because of the fact that one spouse is trying to change another. It is not that the spouse does not love the other; it is just that they feel as if they should be more like them in order to make things a bit smoother in the day to day relationship with another. However, time and time again, this proves to be detrimental to the overall relationship. This is why it is very important to ensure that you never attempt to change or mold a person to your liking. Simply accept the things that you cannot change and appreciate the fact that you and others are different.

Placing judgment on others and living with the personality and characteristics that lead to a judgmental attitude can lead to anger, frustration, and a lot of other detrimental emotions that can break you down as a person. However, accepting the fact that everyone is different and avoiding the temptation of giving into judgmental attitudes can help you lead a life that is full of love, peace, and happiness. Not being judgmental is an art, start creating your masterpiece today!

You have certainly seen them while scoping out the New Age section of your local bookstore. Prana. Aura. Chakra. Tantra. What do all of these words mean? What’s the story here? Obviously there must be something to it, with all of these books dedicated to the topic.

Are All Energy Healings the Same?

Prana is a Hindu method of energy healing, and dates back to antiquity. Chakra is a term often seen in regard to Pranic healing, as is the word aura. The aura is a a sort of non-physical companion to the physical body, having seven layers, or chakras. These layers relate to the emotional, spiritual, mental and physical well being of a person as measured in energy. The color and depth of these auras give the healer a clue to the health of the person they are studying. There are six basic color variations in these auras, and are considered to be tied to six personality types. All six colors will be present in all persons, but one or two colors will be prominent in any given individual. These colors are:

Green – ambitious achiever

Blue – spiritual peacemaker

White – unconventional chameleon

Red – activist

Orange – creative communicator

Violet - psychic

Tantra is most commonly associated with the combination of spiritual and sexual techniques, it is also a type of energy healing. From the word tan (to spread, expand), tantra is related to the idea of connectedness. This connectedness is a common theme in writings on tantra. This spiritual/sexual connection is used as a way of energy healing. Tantric practitioners hold that during orgasm, the union of man and woman takes on a spiritual aspect which can cast negative energies and impurities from the bodies of the practitioners. These negative energies if left untouched can cause illnesses.

Reiki has a different origin than that of Prana and Tantra (whose roots of course lie in the Hindu religion). Reiki hails from Japan, and is much newer than the other two forms of energy healing. Reiki means “universal energy”, e.g. and energy emanating form some higher intelligence. Reiki practitioners use this source energy to heal illnesses of the emotions, the mind and the body.

All three systems of energy healing discussed here are similar in their aims, but differ in the source of the energy drawn upon for healing. Prana uses life energy, Tantra sexual energy and Reiki universal energy.

All three also share another similarity: the belief in the interconnectedness of people with their surroundings and with other living (and even non-living) things in the environment, as well as the effect of energy on the well being of individuals.

Why Do People Turn to Energy Healing?

Pranic, Tantric, and Reiki are all considered to be alternative forms of healing. More and more are drawn to energy healing, despite the continual advances made my conventional western medicine. Why is this? Here are some possibilities:

· Energy healing worked where modern medicine failed.

Modern medicine has at times just out and out failed to heal some illnesses. There are reasons for this, some explainable by science, some not. Many will take a chance on alternative treatments as a last resort when conventional medicine has failed. Sometimes, these techniques effect a cure where other methods could not. Whether or not the research bears it out statistically, alternative and traditional healing has saved the lives of some patients.

· People perceive modern medicine to be isolating.

Western medicine is not by nature holistic. Focusing strictly on the disease and it’s cause, rather than the overall health of the patient which provided the disease a place to settle, the patient can be left feeling like they are merely a petri dish where physicians do battle with their disease. While conventional medicine is starting to move in the direction of holistic treatments, the shift is happening gradually. With energy healing, health, spirituality and energy are seen as all part of one thing; this means the patient feels like they are being cared for as a person rather as a symptom.

· Energy healing is non-obtrusive and natural thus it is safer.

Surgery can be traumatic and dangerous for patients, especially if surgical interventions must occur repeatedly. this makes energy healing attractive to many patients. Non-invasive and natural, it is certainly a safe option for treatment, and one rapidly growing in popularity.

· Energy healing is a good way of relieving stress.

An added benefit of energy healing for the stressed individual is its emphasis on meditation. After stress can cause and exacerbate some health conditions. Also, energy healing is an attractive field for students to get into as it doesn’t require practitioners to have tons of sophisticated and expensive equipment.

Traditional medicine and alternative healing methods will continue to fight it out in the arena of public opinion for many years to come. Both have their benefits and their place. What matters in the end however, is the restoration and maintenance of health.