​Today we will look at some simple yet powerful methods of meditation and exercise, for maximizing natural healing power. 

What is “natural healing?” We often hear the term and accept its meaning on the surface. This tea is natural, or that medicine is natural, but there is much deeper and more fundamental meaning to the concept. 

The source of our healing abilities exist is this deep place. It is a place that enables the whole to maintain harmony and balance from single particles to the entire universe.



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“The power of the universal mind that bestows 
sustainability and stability on all things, that enables 
the whole to maintain it’s harmony and balance-
that is the source of the natural healing ability.”
-Ilchi Lee, New York Times bestselling and Founder of the Sedona Meditation Center

Recovering our natural healing ability doesn’t simply mean becoming physically healthier. 

Ilchi Lee’s book, The Solar Body; the Secret to Natural Healing offers techniques which will help restore health and balance. (You can purchase a copy of the book here…)

The secret of natural healing is found through switching on these three processes

• First, feel your body heat 
• Second, control your breathing
• Third, Observe with your mind 

While each of these individual tools is effective for managing stress and restoring natural healing power, when used together the effect is maximized. 

By concentrating your mind, as you observe your breathing, you will begin to feel your body heat and recover the balance of body temperature. As your breathing grows slower and deeper, the life energy in your body is activated and circulates. Natural healing power works best in this relaxed, balanced state. 

As you recover your natural healing power you will discover a new perspective of self-reliance toward life. Instead of looking outside of yourself for health and happiness, you will be transformed into feeling like the master of your life, able to create those things for yourself as you trust in the restorative power of the life inside you. 

Learn more about the Solar Body Method and strengthening your immunity at solarbodymethod.com and in class and workshops offered here at the Sedona Meditation Center. 

Today we are going to expand on the previous blog….If you have not had a chance to read it yet, here's the link.

Let’s review and then explore two simple and effective ways that we can practice belly button healing. 

Eight general points around the belly button correspond with different organs and body parts located in that direction and intersect with meridians (energetic highways that carry life force energy).  By stimulating these points, you can strengthen your mind-body connection and heal yourself naturally.

The fastest and easiest way to stimulate these points is with the Belly Button Healing tool. Here's a link…

These wands were released less than a year ago, and over 100,000 people around the world are using them every day to stimulate and the bodies natural ability to heal itself. If you do not have a healing life wand, you can also do it with your fingers. Here are the quick and easy steps to do Belly Button Healing on your own.  
STEP 1 
Sit comfortably on a chair, or you can sit down in half lotus position.
 
STEP 2
Now imagine you are looking onto your abdomen area in your mind, and divide your belly button into sections like the hours on a clock. The top towards your chest is 12 o’clock, the bottom towards your feet is 6 o’clock, and your right-hand side from external view (left-hand side from own perspective) is 3 o’clock, and left-hand side from external view (right hand from own perspective) is 9 o’clock. Divide your belly button to have all of the “hours” and focus on all of the sections for a few moments. Take in 3 deep breathes in through your nose and out through your mouth. 
 
STEP 3
Make a fist with your dominant hand except the thumb to make a “thumbs up” pose. Now, with your thumb, gently push your belly button and up towards 12 o’clock and push rapidly many times, in short, rhythmic movements. You can rest your other hand on top to give your healing hand more support. Relax your abdomen and shoulders and breathe naturally. Do this about 30-50 times. You should push your thumb deep enough to feel stimulation in your intestines beyond the top surface layer of your abdomen. 
 
STEP 4
Repeat this motion to all of the “hours” of your belly button. Remember to consciously relax your abdomen and shoulders and breathe naturally. 
 
STEP 5
Once you’ve completed the cycle, gently rest your hands on your knees and take three deep breaths in through your nose and exhale out through your mouth. 
 
Can you feel a deeper sense of calm and relaxation? If you can’t yet, don’t worry. With repetition, you will be able to relax your abdomen area more and more to be able to feel a difference.  

Wouldn’t it deeply improve our health is we could press a button to promote natural healing in our bodies?

Guess what…we can!

It has been discovered that this “reset button” lives in your belly button. Yes, the same belly button that nourished you from conception. 
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The belly button is like an energetic gate to your second brain—the gut. It is directly connected to every organ in the body! Think of it as a line of energy extending from the belly button to the corresponding organ. 

There are over 100 million neurons in the gut which link directly to the brain, which is why you get that “gut feeling” or butterflies in your stomach when you’re nervous or excited. The intestines alone hold 60% of the body’s blood. It also produces 90% of the body’s serotonin, the ability to feel happiness and 50% of its dopamine, which helps us experience pleasure and drive. 

Stagnant blood and energy in our gut blocks the health of these functions and can lead to an array of adverse effects. 

By stimulating your navel, you release energetic tension to not only the widely neglected belly button but your entire abdominal cavity as well through its many energetic and nerve connections to all of your inner organs. 

In East Asian Medicine, primary energy lines, or meridians, also run through the abdomen, so when you stimulate your belly button, energetic blockages are released, and your physical body begins to detox.  

Science is also now taking an interest in the gut.  Through research, they have made similar findings, discovering the gut to be intimately linked to our body's emotional processing. 

How empowering, right…AND guess what…it get’s better! All you need to spend is 15 minutes a day to rapidly and profoundly improve your physical and emotional health.  

Ilchi Lee, founder of the Sedona Meditation Center and international mind-body expert, discovered that by applying acupressure techniques to the navel, he could detect imbalances, blockages, and tension throughout the body. 

Eight general points around the belly button correspond with the different organs and body parts located in that direction and intersect with meridians (energetic highways that carry life force energy). By stimulating these points, you can strengthen your mind-body connection and heal yourself naturally.

Only you can make a choice to heal your body. Imagine how many resources and care you give to the vehicle you drive around in. Remember that your body to is a vehicle so precious that also needs proper care and maintenance. It is so very deserving of your love. 

Say with me, “I love my body!!” And allow your choices and action to reflect that statement boldly with committed action. 

Breathing is something we are doing every moment we are alive. But breathing does not only keep our body alive; it can keep our spirit alive as well. 

Breathing is one of the simplest forms of meditation. By focusing on the sensation of breath, you automatically relax. Your heart rate and breathing rate slow down. With time your breathing becomes deeper without trying. If in the beginning, you are breathing from your chest, with your chest rising and falling, as your chest and abdomen relax, you will begin to breathe from your upper and then lower abdomen.

When you breathe from your lower abdomen, your diaphragm extends more, and you take in more air. Your brain gets more oxygen. Your breaths are longer and slower, keeping you in a restful and peaceful state—one in which the parasympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system is activated.

Abdominal breathing circulates your body’s energy healthfully in a Water Up, Fire Down cycle. Fire energy generated in your heart goes down and gathers in your lower abdomen. Your furnace-like energy center there uses that firepower to shoot the energy up to your kidneys, which cool it down with water energy that travels up to your head and finally down to your heart once more. Water Up, Fire Down is the ideal state of your body and mind.

In this state, your perception and awareness change. Your consciousness is immersed in the present moment. Because your brain waves are slower in this relaxed but awake state, your awareness can sink from the thinking of your conscious mind into the myriad memories, emotions, and ideas swimming around in your unconscious mind. With increased awareness of your unconscious mind, you can see and release with each breath, the energy of whatever has been stored there. The mental baggage of your unconscious mind is usually put away without your conscious permission. However, by making yourself aware of what’s there through breathing, you can clear it out or make it work for your goals. 

Deeper than your unconscious mind, however, at the very bottom of your consciousness, you can meet the greater knowledge and energy of the source of life. 
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At this level, you can see all things; clearly, you can integrate the knowledge you’ve acquired and truly make it your own, and you can create change with a heart alive with passion. 

The Tao or the great life force, in essence, is the world of energy. As revealed by modern quantum mechanics, everything in the world is made up of energy, and everything is the action of energy. 

This energy has been called Ki, Chi and Prana and is like a tightly woven mesh interconnecting all things. This world of energy, let’s call it Ki operates through principles. Seeing the Tao, therefore means knowing the principles by which Ki energy operates and moreover, being able to feel Ki energy and use it in your daily life! 

So how do we learn Ki? All we have to do is feel it. 

We all have a sense for feeling Ki energy. All we have to do is awaken that sense. If you want to know the Tao then start by feeling Ki, the energy of life. When the sense of energy in your body grows and develops, you can feel even the energy of other people, and you will be able to watch and continue to improve the energy of your own thoughts and actions, and your relationships with others. 

Here is an easy and simple exercise through which you can feel Ki energy. Practice indoors or out in nature. Communion with nature is enhanced when energy is turned on and heightened. You may also wish to record this with your phone or other device and play it back to yourself.
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1. Sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor, and straighten your lower back. Place your hands on your knees, Palms facing upward, and close your eyes. Relax your neck and shoulders and release the tension throughout your body. Call your mind. Take a deep breath, then slowly exhale. Release any remaining tension out of your body as you exhale.
2. Now bring your hands slowly inside of your chest. Focus on your hands with your palms together. In your mind, feel your hands with full focus. Immerse yourself in the feeling of your hands, paying attention to even very subtle sensations. Try to feel the temperature of your hands. You get the feeling your hands are growing warmer. Next, try to feel your pulse. Try to feel the blood vessels in your palms moving with your pulse according to the beating of your heart. Your pulse beats even in the tips of your fingers. Continue to focus on the feelings you sense in your hands.
3. Now move your hands slightly apart and the tips of your fingers together. Do this for about 30 seconds, then slowly move your hands so that your palms face each other about two inches between. Try to get the feeling your hands are hanging in empty space. Imagine energy filling the space between your hands. That energy flows between your hands like fog or clouds. Picture energy filling the space between your hands and shining brightly. 
4. Now, very slowly, repeatedly move your hands a little apart and then back together,  alternatively expanding and Contracting the space between them. Your hands gently push against and then pull away from each other like a butterfly flapping its wings. Continue repeating this movement until you get a feeling of magnetism between your hands. Try to sense what feelings you get in your hands. You might feel heat or a tingling sense of electricity in your hands, and you might get a feeling of magnetism or volume, as if there is a bullet between your palms. Those feelings are amplified as you continue to concentrate and pay attention to even subtle sensations. 
5. Now imagine that there is an energy ball between your hands, and very slowly spin that ball with your palms. As you continue to concentrate on the feelings between your hands, touch and spend the energy pulled this way and that. The ball is your energy, which is coming from your hands through your concentration.
6. Slowly lower your hands on to your knees. Take a deep breath and, exhaling slowly, open your eyes.

​Did you feel the Ki in your hand? Do your body and mind now feel more relaxed and more comfortable than before? Your perception of Ki is evidence that your body and mind have relaxed, which allowed your brain waves to slow down. You don't need to be disappointed, though, if you couldn't feel Ki at this time. Some people develop their ability to feel Ki easily and others take time. You will clearly be able to feel Ki energy if you focus on this training after relaxing your body and mind letting go of the thoughts in your head through stretching and gentle exercise.

​An excerpt from Living Tao, by Ilchi Lee. 

The fable of the blind turtle appears in the Buddhist scripture, the Agama Sutra. The turtle lives in the ocean and sticks its head above water to get relief for its weary body only once every hundred years. One day, when the turtle stuck its head above the water, it encountered a wooden log with a hole in it, floating on the surface of the ocean. Quite by accident, the turtles head went right into the hole at the moment it lifted its head out of the water. The blind turtle was able to rest thanks to that piece of wood very comfortably. 

Ilchi Lee reflects to us that the fable of the blind turtle is a beautiful metaphor for our journey toward the Tao, the background and motive power of everything existing in the world. 

He is pointing out just how difficult it is for us to become one with the Tao in our lives, lives that surround us with dazzling phenomena and capture our senses on all sides. It’s like the probability of a blind turtle waiting a hundred years to stick its head above water, and in that instant, encountering a piece of wood that has been floating on the vast ocean. What’s important is that hard and unlikely things can happen. We can encounter Tao by our efforts. 
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The longing to bloom into a flower must start to emanate from our hearts, even if we live tough, intense lives that capture our senses. The seeker's heart is critical in the course of becoming one with the Tao. Unless you feel the Tao in your heart, in the very cells of your body, how can you “know” the Tao. It is crucial that we are aware we have the seeker’s heart and the thirst to know the Tao within us, and that we continue to develop this. It is up to us to choose.