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Hi silv,
I think you would easily overcome these types of obstacles with a group with instructor guidance. The group energy takes over, and the presence of experienced instructor. And then you know how.
Inner smile should be easy.
It wouldn’t be a mistake to postpone it for another time. In the meantime you could try 5 animals as ride suggested. It seems to me that you should loosen up from the expectations. There is so much to be gained from the practice of these techniques, but its not predictable of how every session will go.Good luck on your journey.
Wow, so mindblowing article. Connecting the dots between qi gong and science. And diabetes, insulin resistance and hormones are such hot topics today…
Hi elephant,
I have practiced sungazing by Hira’s method and reached 21 min. I couldn’t go any further. I had some of the promised benefits, most notable are:
– being more peaceful and relaxed (I did this technique in a turbo work period of my life. And that is one of the reasons I did it)
– closer connection to nature (inner and outer)
– clarity and centeredness– improved sleep
There are few occasions when I had rapid improvements:
– once when I sprained my foot. I had this condition for few days, and one afternoon I decided to go for sungazing and did 12 min. It was healed 95% and I didn’t limp any more– recovering a hangover or exhaustion
Now, lets talk about downsides. First it is definitely not what is promised. So many benefits and miracles are promised, but only few of them really work out. That is my experience and that is the experience of many people I know. I went to sungazing groups, and few of my friends did it. Many of these people did sungazing all the way. I didn’t find them to be so thoroughly transformed. But this is mild judgement. I find myself and others tense sometimes, like supercharged with energy but tense somehow. The thing is, because of following promises and following advice by others I sometimes disregarded the feeling that I shouldn’t do it for so long because of tension. So many times benefits were mixed with disadvantages like tension and energy going up and down (like coffee). One rule which never resonated with me was that I shouldn’t do it on the grass. So I did it on the grass, on the earth, whatever. Only thing is, it was much more beneficial barefoot.
So right now I either do sungazing as long as comfortable or don’t look directly at the sun. But I do it whenever convenient and feel like it. Not like a technique. And nowadays its never more than few minutes. I am also worried that maybe it damages the energy system if you do it more than comfortable and too long.The benefits of your eyes being exposed to the morning sunlight are now scientifically proven. You get your circadian rhythm set up, production of hormones is dependent on it, and there are other regenerative and healthy benefits. Even more although not mainstream science its still science which confirms that doing it barefoot is much effective. It is something about the photons from the sun charging the electrons that come from the ground. And then those electrons have all kinds of roles in the body, many linked to the mitochondria, the organelles that produce energy.
Now if you want to go deeper into the story, many health benefits come from darkness that would naturally come after sunset. But this darkness is not available to us any more. So many people choose to wear blue blocking glasses, some even blue and green blocking. Because blue light is a signal to the brain that is daytime and time for activity. And the night is time for regeneration and rest. That is one of the roles of melatonin, to set the stage for regeneration and rest. But blue light destroys and blocks the melatonin that we produce during the day and eyes being exposed to morning light is the beginning of this production. So if you want to optimize sleep (which by many health practitioners is considered major factor in health) first thing to do is expose your eyes to morning sunlight (doesn’t have to be direct looking in the sun). Second thing is block blue light in the night. There are many other things to do to optimize sleep but these are the first things. I don’t have my blue blockers yet, so I can’t share any experience here.
Now you probably noticed how the eyes are central to this story. That is because they have more functions that sight. The main circadian clock is there in the eyes. And even blind people who have their SCN working, have the influence of light changes.
Well light is a story of its own and it opens many topics. Because exposing most of your skin has its own benefits, and it wants morning light and it wants afternoon light (though much less) but it wants it. It wants except for the visible spectrum, blue green for energy generation and activation, red for regeneration, it wants infrared, also for regeneration. It wants UVA and UVB for much more than generation of vitamin D. The benefits sunlight exposure of the skin is cutting edge research now, and finally some scientist and doctors realize that there are more benefits than drawbacks to being exposed to the sun. Just like now science is backing up on the claim that fats and cholesterol (from food) are the bad guys, the sun will also be pardoned. Sooner or later. In the meantime some people will put cancerous creams to hide the skin from the sun.Live long and prosper,
Viktor
Hi ride,
Great to hear from you and your report on your progress. I will be short because I am traveling and have little time. I have some liver issues also, they are actually liver/spleen issues and physically maybe pancreas. Anyway, what really helped me with my liver energy is embracing the tree standing meditation. I learned it from Mantak Chia’s book Iron Shirt (is this one of Michaels books also?). If you learn it by yourself it will definitely be incomplete, and we could guess the consequences of long term doing something improperly, BUT you can get effects, and you can get wonderful effects. I was doing it for two months regularly and then less and less. I start getting really uncomfortable doing it and so I stopped. BUT many effects stuck with me, and I am much more grounded than before. So I believe this one has a profound effect on the liver, and many other nice effects.
The other advice that I can give (for the more general issue of entrenched blockages), based on my experience is changing the diet and learning more about your health. I can guess that you might have fatty liver. One way to kick start fat burning is ketogenic diet. A quick preview of what ketogenic diet may bring you would be to skip dinner, and next morning to drink and MCT drink (recipes online, search MCT coffee, or MCT tea, or MCT drink etc…). Keywords you might want to explore: ketogenic diet, fatty liver, MCT drink.
Yet another way to go to have more insight in the issue is try juice fasting. Few days of fruit juice. They say grape juice is the best. Other options are watermelon or any other acid or subacid fruit. Dark red they recommend. This is inspired by dr. Morse, but not really his protocol. So you drink 1-3 liter of juice mixed with 1-3 lemons, slowly throughout the day. In the morning you can make psyllium husk pudding, by adding 1-2 tablespoons of psyllium husk in a cup or two of juice. You might need to do enemas. Keywords you might want to explore: dr. Robert Morse (best), master fast protocol (careful with this one), plasma pudding, GI broom, grape juice fast.
If you try these things you will learn a lot about entrenched blockages and your right side issues. None of this is quick fix. You must explore thoroughly theoretically first, use common sense, and be very careful with any of these suggestions. These are all part of my path and don’t have to be or need to be part of yours. I wish I had more time, but believe to write this I am going out of my way already. In few weeks maybe I can share more.
Its chronic. I don’t have any or very little pain. It seems that the position of the vertebra is misplaced and its damaged. I think I get it in position just with stretching.
It could be either due to too much sitting since my work is on the computer, or carrying my daughter too much. Now I avoid both sitting (I stand part of my working time) and carrying my daughter. Its quite nice that I found this problem with a scan, because when I did the orbit I had a uncomfortable sensation in that area.y And it was shooting this energy towards the left. Well turns out that the vertebra is little bit damages on the left side and touches the nerve there. Its in the mid back, just opposite the solar plexus.
Thank you Steven 🙂You have described ketoacidosis a state that could happen to people with diabetes type I. Ketoacidosis is abnormal ketone count in the blood which makes it acidic and yes in that case the body tries to detoxify by urinating. But usually this happens in people with diabetes type 1, when they cannot produce insulin.
We are talking about nutritional ketosis which is very natural response to low carb diet, in which ketones are used for energy by the heart, the brain, other tissues and the mitochondria (Latest discoveries find mitochondria a key player in energy levels and health in general).
I am not after quick fixes and if this diet turns out to be that, I will be the first to report. Indeed I am in the beginning of it, but I have been learning about other people relatively long term experiences of it. Because I am careful of quick fixes and dogmas I started researching about mentioned possible relationship of seasons and optimal carbohydrate intake. Some doctors/nutritionists suggest to get more carbohydrates in summer and less in winter. It works in my humble experience.
Great elephant! One of the reasons I shared is because I am inspired by all the sharing, especially by you and Steven, which helps me identify my own issues.
Thing about going into full ketosis and becoming fat adapted is REALLY restricting carbohydrates. Opinions differ, but general guideline is no more than 25-30g of carbohydrates. From the carbohydrates of vegetables I’ve read that you count the carbohydrates by taking out the fiber content. So:
vegetable ch = total ch – fiber
So as soon as you limit the ch to 25g-30g, you start really producing ketones, and they stay in your organism. At some point you get to mild ketosis, and after a while into full ketosis. Some people measure the amount of ketones in blood, but its not really necessary if you simply understand the concept and have some body awareness.The goal of ketogenic diet is to get to ketosis and stay in it. And that is where magic happens. Its only magic because in modern life we have blocked this natural ability of the body. Its arguable but I think it is the natural diet of winter. One of indicators for me is that I am enjoying the cold much better. Another indicator that points in the direction that ketosis is a natural diet (at least in some point of the day or seasons) is that pregnant women get in mild ketosis in some part of the day even if they eat carbohydrates.
So its not really complicated, as a general guideline you can eat the following foods without restriction:
– Vegetables
– Fats
– Nuts and seeds (in moderation)
– Dairy with small amount of carbohydrates
– Eggs
– Seafood
Foods you cannot eat:
– Fruits (Lemon is allowed. Also some berries, but only if you want to count the carbohydrates in your food, so maybe you can eliminate for simplicity)
– All grains
– Dairy with carbohydrates
If you want to count ch and eat in the allowed amount it is recommended in the bulletproof diet to eat it in the evening.I believe you can make it work as combination with other diets e.g. taoist.
Some examples of other diets that can easily be ketogenic are: paleolithic diet, bulletproof diet, epi paleo rx etc…You can make it vegetarian or vegan. I am doing a vegetarian version. My diet is seasonal vegetables and eggs with occasional random thing to add.
Ketogenic diet by itself doesn’t mean is healthy. Things that you might be careful are eating too much omega-6 (all vegetable oils), food sensitivities (many people are sensitive to dairy and don’t know it). So you need to find what is good for you. For people who have many food sensitivities and other autoimmune issues more restrictive ketogenic diets like bulletproof or paleo would be better.Now the beauty of the bulletproof coffee (or tea, or cacao) is that it catalyzes the process of going ketogenic. For me it took only two days. This doesn’t mean that I am fat adapted, but I got many of the benefits of the diet.
Actually it doesn’t need to be bulletproof. Bulletproof is just an enterprise that popularized the concept. The idea is that you can have this drink in the morning, once or second time anytime until 2 pm. The ingredients are:
– Drink (tea, coffee, cacao or even water
– MCT oil (first time you start with 1 tsp and gradually increase to 2 tbsp)
– Some other fat (like butter or coconut oil)
And just blend it. There are some benefits in doing it with coffee or cacao and then also grassfed butter. But the real benefit is the MCT which catalyzes the process of going into ketosis, so you can add the MCT in your breakfast. The recipe is actually inspired by the tibetans who drink tea with yak butter. So that is the original traditional recipe. I can only guess that they are in ketosis. So if you want to shorten the time of the process of getting into ketosis add some MCT (keep the amounts in mind). MCT is an extract from coconut oil or palm oil. If you don’t like an extract then coconut oil has some MCT in it. Bulletproof blog is good source for info about MCT and bulletproof coffee itself.I learn a lot from this conversations. I also have problems with liver -> heart conversion, and although I sensed it intuitively by practicing the sounds I left it for later. I am not practicing lately, because I needed to focus differently on my progress and I have some results. Will share soon.
Qieers!
