“I’m freaking out!” she said. “My heart is in my throat!”

This was a Facebook audio message so I could clearly hear the anxiety in her voice.

I’m receiving a ton of messages, emails, and phone calls like this right now. People who don’t normally experience anxiety are suddenly feeling it. If we could magically diagnose everyone in the United States, would we find that 80% of the population is now experiencing some sort of anxiety disorder? I wouldn’t be surprised.

Meanwhile, those of us who have been battling anxiety for years are struggling too. Although it’s true that we have more experience with anxiety, we’re also facing challenges that we’ve never seen before.

I mean, I’ve successfully battled anxiety for nearly 3 decades, but I still find myself in unknown territory. I’ve never gone through a global, once-in-a-century pandemic either!

So what can we do?

Well, obviously I’m a big believer in the power of qigong. It saved my life, and it has helped thousands of my students all over the world. So it goes without saying that I recommend qigong.

If you haven’t seen my free online qigong course that specifically addresses the issues of COVID-19, then check it out here:

[COVID-19 Support] Learn Qigong Online from Me for Free During the Crisis

However, there’s something else that you can do, and it might even be more important than practicing qigong. I don’t say that lightly.

What I’m talking about is the single-best antidote to the stress and anxiety that we’re feeling during this crazy time. I’m talking about gratitude, of course, but…

An Attitude of Gratitude?

It’s important that you understand that gratitude is a practice, not just an attitude.

In the free program above, I include a guided meditation on gratitude. I hope you’ll try it to get a feel for what I’m talking about. (Make sure to go through the roadmap. Don’t just skip to the meditation.)

Many people talk about having an “attitude of gratitude.” This rhymes and it sounds good on social media. It’s also a big fat lie.

Over the years, I’ve actually confronted dozens of people who use this phrase, both on social media and in my classes.

What I found was that the vast majority of people who talk about having an attitude of gratitude don’t actually practice. On some level, they sincerely believe in the power of gratitude, but they don’t take any action. They just parrot the phrase.

In Brene Brown’s amazing audiobook The Power of Vulnerability she talks specifically about the difference between having an attitude of gratitude and PRACTICING gratitude, drawing a parallel to a yoga practice:

“I have a yoga attitude. I have yoga clothes. I live in yoga pants actually. I have yoga shoes. Somewhere in my house I think I have a yoga mat. But I do not practice yoga. So if you ask me to do something up here [on stage], how far do you think my attitude of yoga will take me?”

How You Get to Carnegie Hall

I’m the son of 2 professional musicians. I was raised as a classical violinist. I practiced for hours every day long before I was allowed to vote.

I’ve even played in Carnegie Hall. Okay, yes, it was with a youth orchestra, but hey — have YOU played in Carnegie Hall? Well okay then.

(To my music friends who have actually played in Carnegie Hall — don’t you dare mess up my joke here!)

My point is that I know what it’s like to practice deeply. I started with the violin. Later, I put the same perseverance into karate, and then qigong.

If you want to change your life — and you do because life is totally crazy right now — then you have to practice. There’s no way around it.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” – Melody Beattie

The good news is that…

• you don’t need to practice gratitude for hours every day
• gratitude practice is enjoyable
• gratitude practice is easy
• gratitude practice shows fast results

Practicing Gratitude Every Day

I recommend that you practice gratitude every day without fail for 30 days.

You can use the guided meditation in my free program to get the hang of it. (Make sure you follow the instructions and go through the program. If you just skip to the guided meditation, it won’t make sense.)

But you can also practice gratitude throughout your day. In fact, now is the PERFECT time to practice gratitude because let’s be honest — you’ve got nothing else to do!

For example, all around the United States, toilet paper is hard to find. This is a perfect time to practice gratitude for the toilet paper that you currently have. Or, if you’re out (yikes!), then boy are you going to feel grateful when you get your hands on some more, right?

Toilet paper is one of those things that we don’t normally notice. We take it for granted. Toilet paper as we know it was invented 1857. Somehow, humans survived without it for eons. (I’m not actually sure how they did it — and I’m not sure I want to know.)

I’m guessing that you’ve never practiced gratitude for toilet paper. Well, there’s no time like the present. Shine some gratitude on the nearest roll!

Here are a few more examples to help you:

• Groceries: Many staple grocery items are hard to find. When they come back in stock, make sure to practice gratitude for them.
• Hunger: Hopefully, most of you are not going hungry during the pandemic. Practice gratitude as you put that first bite of food into your mouth. Savor it. Maybe it’s not the food you prefer — but it’s still food!
• Coffee: If you’re like me and you love coffee, you might take it for granted. Take a moment to imagine this pandemic without coffee. Unimaginable? I agree — which is why I drink my morning coffee mindfully and gratefully.
• Artists: Binge watching “Tiger King” on Netflix? Browsing The Met or MOMA online? Taking advantage of free books? Show some gratitude toward the artists who produced these materials. What would this pandemic be like without them!? Yikes!
• Family: Tensions may be high because of the close quarters. Many families haven’t spent this much time together since…well…ever. And yet, what are we doing all this for if not for friends and family? Underneath the social distancing is a desire for people to be well. Shine some gratitude on your loved ones, whether they’re blood or not.

Why Gratitude?

Practicing gratitude often throughout the day is like taking your medicine. Even during normal, non-pandemic times life can be incredibly stressful. Now things are even worse.

Stress levels are high. I don’t know about you, but I wake up every morning and wonder what kind of crazy news I’m going to find in the paper.

When you experience stress, your nervous system flips into fight-or-flight mode. This is the Sympathetic Nervous System. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is released and your body directs all of its energy (and blood) away from the internal organs and into the muscles and cardiovascular system.

If that’s happening all day long, if you’re never flipping back to the Parasympathetic Nervous System (i.e. rest-and-restore mode), then is it any wonder that your body is a wreck? Your body only heals when it’s in rest-and-restore mode, not during fight-or-flight mode.

Frequent bouts of gratitude flip us back into rest-and-restore mode which in turn gets the healing juices flowing.

The Gratitude Game

Remember when you were a kid on a road trip and played the “I Spy” game? I spy with my little eye something beginning with…

Gratitude works the same way. You’re walking through the road of life and you’re looking for opportunities to practice gratitude all day long.

This applies to the food that you eat, the shelter that you live in, your vehicle, the people you encounter, and whatever else pops up in the present moment.

Can you breathe and take a moment to feel grateful for…whatever that thing is?

The Key to Taming Anxiety with Gratitude

When using gratitude for taming anxiety it’s critical that you actually FEEL grateful.

You don’t just want to think about it; you don’t want this to be in your head. You really want it to be in your body. You want to feel a visceral reaction to this gratitude practice.

It may take some practice to get the hang of it. I speak from experience. I struggled with feeling gratitude in the beginning. I get it. I understand that this can be hard, but you need to keep practicing anyway.

One of the most important things you need to do is tame what we call the Monkey Mind. The Monkey Mind will often pop in and say, “What the hell do I have to be grateful for? Look at all these terrible things in my life! The pandemic is ruining everything!”

You have to be mindful of those thoughts. As you practice gratitude those thoughts will naturally creep in. That’s fine, but you have to convince yourself that no matter what your situation in life might be, you still have things to be grateful for.

If you don’t believe me, read Victor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning.

Victor Frankl was a prisoner in Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp. I strongly suggest that you read the book, but long story short, he talks about maintaining meaning, gratitude, humanity, and compassion — even while in one of the most difficult, austere, and challenging conditions known to man.

People have been in situations worse than yours and still managed to find gratitude. This is good news. It means it’s within your grasp too.

So don’t allow your Monkey Mind to trick you into thinking “Oh, unless I have all these things, I can’t possibly be grateful!”

That’s not how it works. You can find things to be grateful for. Always.

In the end, what we’re really aiming for is to simply be grateful for life itself! This is the most advanced level of gratitude practice.

“You don’t have a life, you are life.” – Eckhart Tolle.

You are alive and you are life! And with practice you can start to feel gratitude for life itself regardless of life’s circumstances.

Even if you’ve run out of toilet paper.

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post How to Beat Anxiety During this Pandemic appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Like many depressives, I have a secret. It terrifies me to do this, but I’m going to share that secret with you now.

My secret is that I’m depressive.

Of course, this isn’t news. I’ve been open about my depression since I started teaching in 2005. It’s all over my website.

But you don’t know the whole story. I hid some of it.

And now I’m done hiding.

Why Depressives Hide

First, I need to talk about why I hid in the first place.

Hiding is how depressives survive in this world. It’s not that we’re liars. We’re not. It’s not that we want to hide. We don’t.

We hide because 50% of Americans think that clinical depression is a character flaw rather than an illness.

We hide because, statistically, every other person that we meet thinks that we are weak, not sick.

In other words, half of you probably think that I am weak.

I Am Not Weak

I am depressive, yes, but I am not weak.

Please understand that I am not being arrogant here. Not by a long shot.

Arrogance is actually uncharacteristic of depressives. We put on a good show of normalcy, but underneath, we feel worthless most of the time.

And yet, here I am, saying that I am not weak. This is not arrogance, and it’s not me putting on a show.

This is me being raw and honest.

When I say that I’m not weak, it’s because I’ve learned it the hard way. The battles that I’ve fought, and the scars that I have earned, have forced me to acknowledge my own strength.

Most importantly, if you think that I’m weak, then I’m afraid that you’ll miss my message about depression.

I hope you don’t miss this because you definitely know people who are depressive. And I want you to help them.

Depression is Invisible

I’m certain that you know people who are depressive — friends, family, colleagues. But unless they’ve told you, then you don’t know who they are.

I run a support group for my qigong and tai chi students who are also depressive. Out of curiosity, I asked them how many people had ever witnessed one of their depressive episodes.

For most of them, the answer was 1-5 people. My answer was the same.

Depression is an illness that has shaped, influenced, and scarred me deeply, and yet only a handful of people have ever seen me in an episode.

You may have seen me depressed. That’s what normal people experience. But you haven’t seen me during an episode.

And those episodes are what depression is really about.

Feeling Like A Failure

Since starting this support group for depressives, I’ve learned that some of my students feel guilty that they haven’t yet cured their depression with qigong and tai chi.

As a result, they feel weak. They feel like a failure.

This is heartbreaking for me because I desperately want them to understand that they are not weak.

Some of this misunderstanding is my fault. For years, I spoke about my depression in the past tense. I’ve even been guilty of using the word “cure”.

I simply cannot abide the idea that I might be causing my fellow depressives any additional suffering. I’m here to relieve suffering, not add to it.

And that’s why I’m done hiding.

The Back Story

For those who are new to Flowing Zen, you need to know some of the backstory.

My ex-teacher, Sifu Wong, is all about “curing the incurable” with qigong. It’s his core message, and it should be no surprise that this message sells well. Sick people are desperate to believe in something.

I was one of those people.

This isn’t why I left Sifu Wong. I broke with him in December, 2014 because of a sexual abuse scandal, perpetrated by one of his certified instructors. I believe that Sifu Wong’s behavior was unethical and that his leadership perpetuates an environment where abuse is condoned.

I left because I do not condone abuse. Period.

Distancing myself from his “curing the incurable” message was not my reason for leaving. In fact, I had already been distancing myself from that message for years.

Getting medical training in acupuncture is what first showed me that his message was problematic. “Cure” is a tricky word, not just legally, but psychologically. And when it comes to depressives, the word “cure” can actually do damage.

Setting the Record Straight

Many of my depressive students were also students of Sifu Wong who sided with me during the “divorce”. So it’s understandable that they might still have vestiges of his “cure the incurable” message.

My teaching on this issue changed gradually over time, but I regret that I never made a public statement. I would like to set the record straight now.

To the depressives reading this — If I led you to believe that you had to fully cure your depression in order to be a success, then I’m sorry.

Truly. I apologize from the deepest part of my spirit.

And let me be clear: I am not cured of depression, and I don’t believe that I ever will be.

I’m Not Cured, But I’m Still Alive

Now that I’ve set the record straight, I need to straighten it even further.

Qigong and tai chi haven’t cured my depression, but they saved my life.

These arts are my medicine. They not only saved my life back in my 20s, but have kept me alive — and healthy — into my mid 40s.

When I say that these arts saved my life, I mean it literally, not figuratively. Depression is the 10th leading cause of death in America. It would have killed me had I not found qigong and tai chi.

The Odds are Against Me

Apparently, I have a 99% chance of having another depressive episode in my life.

This is because people who’ve had 3 or more episodes of major depression have a 99% rate of recurrence.

Well shit, I had 3 episodes before I even hit 30! So the odds are definitely against me.

What this statistic doesn’t convey is that depression is highly treatable. A growing body of research shows that mindfulness training is a terrific treatment for depression. (And yes, qigong and tai chi count as mindfulness training.)

When depression is managed well, a recurrence is not such a big deal.

And vice versa — when depression is not managed well, the episodes are a big deal. A huge deal.

Unmanaged depression kills.

I still have episodes, and they suck. But they are manageable, thanks to qigong and tai chi.

Medicine That Works

I believe that talking about “curing” depression only distracts us from a more important conversation. Here’s what we should be talking about, discussing, and celebrating:

When it comes to depression, qigong and tai chi work AT LEAST as well as any medicine or therapy on the planet.

This statement is true for me. It’s true for many of my students. And I believe it could be true for millions of depressives.

The best antidepressant? Qigong and tai chi can compete with that.

The world’s best therapist? Qigong and tai chi can compete with her.

The ultimate, depression-healing environment? Qigong and tai chi can compete with that place.

Sounds pretty good to me!

Isn’t all of this a strong enough selling point? Do we really need to talk about curing depression?

I Am a Success Story

As I said earlier, I need to make it clear that you don’t need to cure depression to be a success.

The same is true for me.

I am still a success story even though I am not cured.

For example, I went over 8 years without a major depressive episode. That is a big deal. That’s a success. A big success.

Instead of feeling like a failure because I had an episode after 8 years, I should feel like a success for having such a good run.

And my good run only ended because of extreme circumstances.

The Year That Could Have Killed Me

Many of you know that 2015 was the year from hell for me and my wife. It wasn’t just stressful: it was the kind of stress that kills people.

Here’s a sampling of some of the major stressors I faced in 2015: Heartbreak over my divorce from Sifu Wong after a 17-year discipleship; hate mail and death threats from Sifu Wong’s followers; a flood in our new house; a cancer scare for my wife; an injury to my psoas muscle that limited my mobility; financial stress connected to leaving Sifu Wong; and the death of my dear, dear grandmother.

And let’s not forget the cumulative stress of running a small business. I’ve been working 60-hour weeks since 2008 to keep the lights on in my studio (and at home). That stress didn’t stop in 2015.

The kind of stress I endured in 2015 was so severe that I know it could spark illness in a normal person.

I am not a normal person. I am a depressive.

The level of stress that I endured in 2015 would have killed many depressives. It certainly would have killed me in 1996, before I learned qigong and tai chi.

And I believe it would have killed me had I not been practicing qigong and tai chi all these years.

Again, let me reiterate that tooting my own horn like this is decidedly uncharacteristic of depressives. I’m mentioning all of this to frame things, and to demonstrate that I am — still — a success story.

In fact, that’s another sign of success – that I can see my own success.

High Functioning Depressive?

“But Sifu, you don’t seem depressive. You get so much done!”

It’s true. I get shit done.

I work like crazy. I’m what is known as a “high-functioning depressive.”

But this term can be misleading.

I am, first and foremost, a depressive. The “high-functioning” part came later, thanks to qigong and tai chi. Before these arts, I was a low-functioning depressive.

My Spiritual Growth

Qigong and tai chi helped me to stay alive, and they also helped me be highly functional.

But these arts also helped me with something far more important.

In spite of my depression — or perhaps even because of it — I have grown spiritually.

It has been said that deep suffering can induce profound spiritual growth. I now know that to be true.

The growth I’ve experienced, especially the last 2 years, is not yet something that I can describe. It’s still too new, too profound. I don’t have the words.

One day, I will write more about it. A book perhaps.

But the important lesson here is this: It was precisely because of qigong and tai chi that I was able to transmute my deep suffering into spiritual growth.

Without these arts, rather than growing spiritually, I would be dead.

I’d say that’s another sign of success, wouldn’t you?

Losing Students

Look, I’m not naive. I know that, in publishing this article, I will lose students.

Some people just don’t want to learn from a person who battles depression.

If that is you, then I wish you well on your journey.

Ironically, I was like that once. I desperately wanted to believe that my teacher, my hero, my leader was perfect. That he was superhuman.

He’s not. He’s human. I learned that the hard way.

Unfortunately, he encourages his students to view him as superhuman.

I won’t do that to my students.

I am not perfect, and I won’t try to hide that fact.

Either I’m enough, warts and all, or you should go find another teacher.

Realistic Expectations

For those who choose to stay with me, I believe it’s important for us to be realistic with our expectations.

Expecting qigong and tai chi to fully and permanently cure clinical depression is setting our expectations too high. We are doomed to failure.

Cure implies 100%. Perfection. And for depressives, perfectionism is the enemy,

But expecting amazing results – results that save lives, results that put many of the orthodox treatments to shame – that’s a realistic expectation.

My mission is to bring these arts into the 21st century.

In these arts,  I see an amazing form of medicine, a viable and affordable option for depressives all over the world, a realistic option for relieving the massive health care burden of depression and anxiety, and a way to turn hopelessness into hope.

So let’s stop talking about curing depression, and instead talk about healing from it.

Thanks to these arts, I’m not only alive, but I’ve grown spiritually. I’m also able to help thousands of depressives all around the world to live healthier, happier, and more meaningful lives.

You don’t need to be cured to be successful with these arts.

And neither do I.

Edit: Your response to this article was so heartwarming and inspiring that I created an online course to show you exactly how I beat depression with qigong. Click here to check out the online course. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Why I Will No Longer Hide My Depression appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Four years ago, one of my tai chi students asked me a question that really made me think.

“I’ve got $1500 to spend on my health. Should I go to your retreat in Costa Rica, or sign up for a year of unlimited classes in your studio?”

(At the time, both options cost roughly the same amount.)

It’s tempting to assume that a full year of unlimited classes in my tai chi studio would be the more powerful healing option.

But I thought long and hard before I gave her my answer.

Three days later, I told her that the Costa Rica retreat was the more powerful option for healing.

Why?

Based on a decade of experience as a teacher and a healer, I wholeheartedly believe that a weeklong retreat in Costa Rica is more powerful medicine than a year’s worth of instruction in my studio.

In fact, I believe that a mindfulness retreat – whether it’s qigong, tai chi, meditation, or yoga – might just save your life.

I may have saved this woman’s life. Based on what I know about her health, I believe it’s entirely possible that the deep healing of the retreat in Costa Rica allowed her to avoid a potentially life-threatening health complication.

We’ll never know, of course. That’s the beauty of preventative medicine. We don’t get to see the terrible things that might have happened.

And that’s how you want it, right?

Here’s are 7 reasons why a mindfulness retreat might just save your life:

1. Stress is the Real Killer

Stress kills. Stress – whether it is mental, emotional, or physical — is the real cause of what ails us. Stress suppresses the immune system, blocks the flow of energy, and makes your life less enjoyable.

We all know that smoking is bad for us. But did you know that quitting smoking is LESS important than quitting stressing?

Yep. A 10 year long study concluded that emotional stress was more predictive of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease than smoking.

Mindfulness retreats can bring you to a stress free state that isn’t possible anywhere else.

You simply cannot experience that kind of relaxation any other way – not with a vacation, not with weekly massage, and not even with daily tai chi classes.

Speaking of vacations…

2. Normal Vacations Are Anything But Relaxing

According to a Gallup poll, most Americans don’t feel rested after they return from vacation.

Vacation is stressful! Going on vacation involves packing (usually the night before), waking up ridiculously early to get to where you’re going, the stress of travel, sleep problems once you’re on vacation, and the stress of having to “do” things while on your vacation, not to mention working harder than usual just to get time off in the first place.

Mindfulness retreats are different. As soon as you arrive at the retreat center, you begin unraveling all the stress. This is something that just doesn’t happen with normal vacations.

The result is clear. Normal vacations leave you exhausted. Mindfulness retreats leave you well rested, recharged, and restored.

3. Your Diet is Killing You

Look, food matters.

My wife and I run into this problem all the time with our shared clients. (She’s an acupuncture physician, and we have shared hundreds of clients over the years.)

Getting people to eat well is difficult.

The best method for helping people eat better is as follows: serve them 3 delicious, organic, locally sourced, lovingly prepared meals every day for 7 days.

And 2 snacks.

And organic coffee.

Does eating well, not worrying about what’s for dinner, and not stressing about cooking contribute to healing and restoring while on retreat?

You bet it does.

Ask yourself this: when is the last time you ate 21 healthy meals in a row!

The answer, for most Americans, is never. Not ever.

No wonder a weeklong retreat can be so healing.

4. You Don’t Practice 5 Hours A Day

Ask yourself another question: when was the last time you practiced mindfulness for 5 hours a day?

On my retreats, we do 5 hours of qigong and tai chi per day – four in the morning, plus an hour in the evening.

There are lots of breaks, including snack time. But my point is the same – we do a lot of mindfulness.

And it’s not just the practice sessions. Walking along mountain trails lined with more flowers than a botanical garden, gazing over million-dollar vistas, and just sitting silently with friends while watching the fire dance – these are all forms of mindfulness practice.

A heavy dose of mindfulness changes how you see the world. It also changes your biochemistry, your neural activity, and your blood pressure.

5. Wifi Isn’t Making You Feel More Connected

There is no wifi at our retreat center.

Cell phone signals are notoriously weak. (There is a magic rock where you must stand to get a signal.)

Did I just lose your interest? Are you unable to even imagine a week without wifi? If so, then I hope you’ll keep reading because you really need this message.

There is Internet access at the retreat, but you have to hike to the office, and log on using an older computer with a Spanish keyboard.

You’d be amazed at how quickly your mindless internet usage decreases as a result of this.

The irony is that with less connectivity, you’ll feel more connected – to nature, to your classmates, to your own spirit. You probably haven’t felt so connected since you were a kid.

What are we doing with this precious thing called life if we’re not working on feeling more connected?

6. You Are Desperate To Reinvent Yourself

You know that voice in your head, the ceaseless chatter that constantly overthinks, makes useless comments, and generally worries about things that will never improve by worrying?

In the Zen tradition, we call that the Monkey Mind. Running around in your head is a crazed monkey.

When you quiet the Monkey Mind, you start to find your true self. This isn’t New Age mumbo jumbo. It’s neuroscience.

The voice in your head comes from your prefrontal cortex. And that, my friends, is only the tiniest part of your larger consciousness.

The deeper parts of your consciousness lay behind and beneath the monkey mind. Once you quiet this part of your brain, you suddenly have access to more powerful states of consciousness.

The result is a unique ability to reinvent yourself.

The happiest, most profound, most fulfilling moments of your life were done from this state. That’s where you’ve made your best decisions, when you’ve contributed the most to the world, and when you’ve been your highest self.

Want to create better lifestyles habits? Be more disciplined? Commit to wellness?

That stuff doesn’t happen from the monkey mind. Until you quiet the monkey mind sufficiently, you simply CANNOT access this part of your mind.

It’s there.  Deep in your mind. And the only way to dig down there is to go on a mindfulness retreat.

7. You Can Take Mindfulness Home With You

When you leave the retreat, you are not only refreshed and recharged — you bring new tools back home with you. Powerful tools to keep that mindfulness momentum going.

This is a game changer.

Even if you couldn’t take anything home with you, even if you just got the benefits of a weeklong mindfulness retreat — that might save your life.

But being able to take the arts home with you? That’s just priceless.

Here’s the thing about doing arts like qigong and tai chi on a retreat — you understand them on a different level. Even if you’ve been practicing for 20 years, you’ll learn something new on retreat.

I’m sure I speak for all retreat leaders when I say — you won’t learn it from me. You’ll learn it from the mountain, or the beach, or the sky. I’m just the there to facilitate your connection to something larger.

When I teach students at our retreat in Costa Rica, it’s not really me teaching. It’s the Cosmos.

My Retreat

I wrote this article about all mindfulness retreats because I strongly believe that they are powerful, and I want to help convince people to experience them.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention some details about my own retreat.

Qigong and tai chi saved my life, and I am passionate about sharing these arts with the world. My retreat in Costa Rica is — by far — the best way for me to share these arts.

Our annual retreat in Costa Rica is a special event. My wife and I absolutely adore the retreat center, and we take good care of everyone who attends. (She also does acupuncture in the afternoons, for those who are interested.)

Meanwhile, the owners of this retreat are our good friends, and they will take such good care of you that you’ll be amazed. You haven’t been so well taken care of in ages.

Join us. You won’t be disappointed. I promise.

Click here for details galore about our retreat. Feel free to contact me with your questions. I am happy to help you make one of the best decisions of your life. Or, if you’d like to get a good feel for our retreat center, watch this amazing video:

The post 7 Ways a Mindfulness Retreat Might Save Your Life appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Originally published: March 3rd, 2016

I haven’t had a cigarette in 10 years. Not one puff.

Today is a big milestone for me. I like to write, so this post is my way of celebrating. You can celebrate with me by reading along.

In 2013, I published a post entitled, Why You Shouldn’t Quit Smoking. It is one of my most popular posts of all time. I checked the stats, and 28,285 people have read that post. Wow.

I think it’s time for a sequel.

Today, I’d like to share 10 Zen lessons I’ve learned after 10 years an an ex-smoker.

For the smokers — please don’t worry. I’m not going shame you or try to guilt you into quitting. I hate that kind of shit just as much as you do.

If anything, I’m going to convince you NOT to quit, just like I’ve done with dozens of people over the last 10 years.

Let’s get started.

1. The grass is always greener…on my side.

“I can’t even imagine a life without cigarettes,” I said to a friend. This was maybe 15 years ago.

It was an existential problem for me at the time. All sorts of questions came up when I thought about quitting.

How would I drink my morning coffee without a smoke? What about meeting a friend for a beer in a bar? And what about that post-meal cigarette?!?

Now, I actually feel the same way – but flipped. It’s exactly the same feeling, except that now I can’t imagine life WITH cigarettes.

For example, I love my morning coffee so much that I can’t imagine dulling the rich aromas and subtle flavors with a cigarette.

I guess it’s sort of a “grass is always greener” conundrum – except that the grass is greener on whichever side I’m on.

I’m content where I am, without cigarettes. The grass is nice and green here, just like it was when I was a smoker.

2. Stop and smell the damn roses.

You’ve probably heard that your sense of smell returns after you quit smoking. In my case, my sense of smell not only returned; it turned into a super power.

Olfaction Man!

Okay, maybe I’m not a superhero, but for some reason, I now have a better sense of smell than people who never smoked.

I don’t know if some of this is because of qigong and tai chi. It might be. Whatever happened, I love it.

Imagine being given a new sense. That’s how I feel, and it’s one of the things I’m most grateful for 10 years later.

Olfaction has become one of my most profound ways of interacting with the world.

Food is a totally different experience with strong olfaction. And coffee. And bourbon.

You’ve heard the phrase “stop and smell the roses.” It’s a cliche, of course. Take time out of your busy schedule to stop and enjoy life, right?

These days, I take the cliche literally. There are roses all over Florida, and I stop to smell them as often as I can.

And they smell amazing, dammit. I can’t get over how good roses smell. They smell like nirvana.

Today, I go through life a bit more like my dogs — nose first. I have a better idea of how dogs experience the world, and it’s pretty amazing.

Speaking of dogs, I love the way mine smell.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a good smell. I live in the country, and my dogs run around outside chasing birds and squirrels all day.

They smell like dirty dog. But I love it. The odor is somehow directly linked to how I feel about my dogs. And I love my dogs. When I smell them, it’s as if I’m inhaling love.

3. I don’t miss my ex.

I honestly thought that I would miss smoking. You know, like you miss your ex a few months after the big breakup.

I don’t. I don’t miss cigarettes. I don’t think about them. And if they come into my awareness, at a bar for example, there’s no allure.

I guess the Buddhists would call this non-attachment. I find the Chinese term for this fascinating:

wú niàn
無   念

This literally translates to “no thought,” but actually means “not affected by thought”.

Not affected by thoughts of cigarettes. Yes. That’s exactly what I experience now.

4. I do miss the darkness.

I won’t lie. I lost some of the darker, bad-boy aspects of my personality when I quit smoking.

The dark side has an allure, right? Otherwise, Yoda wouldn’t need to caution us against it all the time!

Being alive is hard. And you know what? Sometimes, death and darkness can be kind of sexy.

Not suicide. I know all about suicide, but I’m talking about something different.

None of us are getting out of this thing alive. We’re all dying slowly. Some of us just die slower than others.

And yet, how often do you actually feel your mortality?

Smoking helped me get in touch with my mortality, with the primordial darkness in my soul. I knew cigarettes were killing me – but I also knew that life itself was killing me.

Ironically, killing myself a little faster made me feel more alive. At the time, when I was battling an unknown demon in my early 20s (that demon turned out to be major depression), feeling alive was a big deal.

I miss that feeling. Luckily, I found a replacement in the most unlikely of places.

5. I found my original face.

A koan (gongan, 公案) is a tool that Zen teachers use to test a student’s progress. Here’s a famous example:

“Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born.”

(#23 from the the Wumenguan, or Gateless Gate.)

It’s pretty trippy stuff, right?

Becoming a ex-smoker was like a Zen koan for me, and I found my original face. Or at least a new face.

After I quit, I felt like my entire consciousness was up for renegotiation. Talk about a zen moment!

Maybe that’s why quitting smoking is so hard – because it’s not just about changing habits. It’s about changing identity.

All is impermanent, as the Buddhists say. Now I understand what they mean. I see that even my face, my self-identity, is impermanent.

5. I’m no longer afraid.

Actually, that’s not true. I’m scared shitless all the time.

I was afraid to quit smoking, afraid to live a life without cigarettes. But I quit. And it taught me something.

I learned that Mark Twain was absolutely right, that courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s mastery over your fear.

Or as John Wayne put it:

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” 

Life is scary for most people. And for me too.

But something changed a few years after I quit smoking. Fear gradually had less and less of an effect on me.

It wasn’t just quitting that changed me. I think it was the combination of facing fears while simultaneously practicing meditative arts like qigong and tai chi.

Meditation gives you the ability to observe your thoughts rather than just get swept away by them.

I still feel fear. But I’m able to sit with the fear, to just notice it and observe it I can’t say that I am able to control my fear, but one thing is for sure: fear no longer controls me.

6. I slayed a dragon.

This one probably sounds cliche. I’m sorry. It’s still the truth.

Cliche or not, I feel like I can do just about anything now. That feeling started a few years after I quit smoking.

I slayed a dragon when I quit smoking. It was kind of epic.

Maybe you’re thinking that I’m different somehow. Maybe you think that I’m brimming with self confidence.

I’m not. I’m full of self doubt, even today.

Self-doubt and self-criticism are common features of major depression, and I’ve wrestled with these feelings my entire adult life.

And yet, I quit smoking. Ten years ago. I did that. It actually happened.

Reminding myself of this fact helps me to continue to slay my internal dragons, especially those nasty dragons of self-doubt.

7. Smoking was a spiritual tool.

Smoking brought out the worst in me – the bad habits, the darkness, not to mention the coughing.

But it also brought out some of the best aspects, even before I quit.

The desire to quit, even after multiple failures, for example. That’s something beautiful.

“Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb

I kept trying to quit, but kept failing. Back then, I didn’t understand willpower, or how it gets depleted.

That stubbornness, that persistence, the fact that I kept trying – that’s the human spirit at work.

It’s odd to think about smoking as a spiritual tool. But that’s exactly what it was for me. Smoking was a catalyst for my own spiritual grown. No doubt about it.

8. Shame is a problem for us.

The world has changed. Smoking isn’t like it used to be.

I remember smoking in cafes in New York. My favorite spot was The Hungarian Pastry Shop near Columbia University. Smokers sat on one side of the cafe, and non-smokers on the other.

Good times! At least for smokers.

Things started changing in NYC even before I moved to Florida in 2004. People began shaming smokers. Once, a complete stranger actually yelled at me for smoking on the street. On the street!

The topic of shame wasn’t on my radar until a few years ago. Honestly, I didn’t think it applied to me.

Then I read Brene Brown’s books. I read them reluctantly at first, mainly because my wife recommended them.

(If you’re curious, Daring Greatly is a good place to start, or you can try her free TED talk on shame.)

Having read all of Brene Brown’s books, I can now admit that I had WAY more shame about smoking than I thought.

I still have shame about it. I feel shame right now writing this.

What I’ve learned is that shame can’t stand the light. It thrives in darkness. Talking about your shame is a great way to start bringing it into the light.

You see what I’m doing here by writing this? Please do the same thing for yourself. Please start bringing your shame into the light.

(Note: If you are communicating with someone about their shame, then please learn how to use empathy correctly. Otherwise, you might make them feel worse. Brene Brown’s books are a great resource for this.) 

9. Smoking was a mindfulness practice.

Smoking was meditative for me.

I smoked mindfully while drinking my coffee. I stared at the sky, mindfully, while taking a smoke break at work.

I was lucky. I was practicing mindfulness arts like qigong and tai chi long before I quit smoking.

When I finally quit, I quickly realized that some of my cravings were actually mindfulness cravings. I was craving a moment of zen, not just cigarettes.

Now I just breathe instead of smoking. I read somewhere that a typical cigarette last about 14 drags. So now I take Fourteen Breath Breaks. Breathing is amazing.

I think it’s important for smokers to keep their mindfulness habits, and transfer them somewhere else. Find whatever works for you, but recognize when you’re craving nicotine, and when you’re craving zen.

Quit smoking if you’re ready, but don’t quit mindfulness.

10. You Shouldn’t Quit

Over the last 8 years, I’ve helped about 2 dozen people to quit smoking.

And you know what? Most of them weren’t ready to quit when they came to me.

So my old article still applies. In fact, that article is what helped them to quit later.

Keyword: later.

I’m not saying that my method is the only way. But I know that it works, and not just for me.

It also happens to be a very zen approach.

I can just imagine the Zen master in the temple saying:

“Grasshopper, to quit smoking, first quit quitting.”

Final Thoughts

What do you think? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. And don’t forget to practice empathy, not just toward me, but toward everyone!

Also, you should congratulate me. I’m celebrating. Smoke a cigarette for me, and make sure you enjoy the hell out of it. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post 10 Zen Lessons I Learned From 10 Years Without Cigarettes appeared first on Flowing Zen.

I haven’t published anything in a long time. I’m sorry.

I missed you.

Despite my silence, I’ve been pretty busy behind the scenes.

I’m back now, and I’m ready to tell you all about the things I’ve been up to this year, as well as the exciting things I’ve got planned for next year.

So here’s what I’ve been doing…

1. I’ve Been Healing

I won’t sugar-coat the truth. I’ve had a rough year.

From leaving my master of 17 years, to a cancer scare with my wife (she’s clear!) , to the death of my beloved grandmother — it has been one of the most stressful years of my life.

Recently, I took a few online stress tests (like this one). My score was off the charts.

According to one of these tests, people with a score over 300 have an 80% chance of a significant illness or accident.

I scored 879 on that one. Yikes! That’s 579 points over 300.

So it guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I strained my right psoas muscle (located in the inner thigh and groin) earlier this year.

Even with all of my qigong and tai chi practice, I crossed my stress threshold, plain and simple.

The psoas is sometimes referred to as “the muscle of the soul”.

That sounds true to me. Considering everything I’ve been through this past year, I’m not surprised that my “soul muscle” got strained.

All year, I’ve been working on healing my soul and my psoas.  I’m happy to say that my soul is about 95% healed, and so is my psoas.

2. I’ve Been Blossoming

I didn’t leave my former master to be free from the hierarchy of a traditional Chinese master/disciple relationship.

But that turned out to be a nice bonus.

I now understand why they say that apprentices can only blossom as artists after they break free from their master.

I’m free now, and I’m blossoming as an artist.

My understanding of my craft has never been deeper. In that regard, I’m actually grateful for all my struggles because they have led me to the path that I’m on now.

And I love this path.

3. I’ve Been Training Teachers

In October, I launched an intensive, 100-hour teacher certification program.

I believe that a strict certification process is important as we bring these arts into the 21st century.

When I was in acupuncture school, I had to study things like ethics, appropriate touch, and medical terminology.

I believe that qigong and tai chi teachers should absolutely learn these things as well.

I honestly think that my certified teachers will be among the best trained in the world. I’ve got an amazing group of 28 people from all walks of life — acupuncturists, licensed massage therapists, MDs, registered nurses, biologists, physical therapists, lawyers, martial artists — all of whom have 2-20 years prior experience with qigong.

My first class of certified instructors will graduate in May 2016. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about them soon!

4. I’ve Been Mourning

In June, my beloved Grandmother Mary died peacefully in her sleep. It was 3 days before her 102nd birthday.

Mary was the matriarch of my family, and an amazingly strong woman. Her husband, my namesake, died when she was only 48 years old, leaving her to care for 3 sons. 

Despite having zero experience with the working world, she went out and started a career. She was so successful that she lived, to the end of her life, off her own money.

In her later years, Mary showed inspiring resiliency after breaking both hips, the first one in her 80s, and the other in her 90s. Each time, she stubbornly refused to be confined to a wheelchair, and worked hard to regain her mobility. And she succeeded, both times.

Perhaps you can begin to see why I and many others mourned her loss so deeply.

Some of you knew her personally. Others knew of her through my posts, pictures, and stories. Some of you have eaten her famous cookies.

I’d like to share that famous cookie recipe with you. (Click on the image above to enlarge.)

May you enjoy these cookies and taste some of my grandmother’s wonderful sweetness.

5. I’ve Been Sitting

As you can probably guess, I typically use qigong and tai chi for my personal healing.

But my psoas injury limited my mobility, thus preventing me from using qigong the way I normally would.

A Catch-22 if I’ve ever seen one.

I’m all about solutions though. So I started sitting. Sitting meditation, that is.

I first learned sitting meditation back in 1992. Luckily for you, I was terrible at it.

I say that because it was my struggle with sitting meditation that eventually led me to qigong (and later to tai chi).

Now I’ve come full circle. After 20 years of practicing standing and moving meditation, I now find sitting meditation to be incredibly powerful.

I absolutely love it. I love it so much that you will be hearing a lot about sitting meditation from me in the future.

6. I’ve Been To Costa Rica

In July, I led 34 people to the mountains of Costa Rica for our annual qigong retreat.

It was the best group I’ve ever had the honor of leading.

You can see some pictures from the retreat by clicking here.

One of the students made a funny joke during the retreat.

“I’m glad you got this place in the divorce” she said.

In case there was any confusion, my relationship with The Blue Mountain retreat center has never been stronger. I look forward to leading retreats there for many, many years to come.

7. I’ve Been Getting Hacked!

Last month, my website got hacked.

Don’t worry. No personal information was compromised. All of that information is safely stored on a secure, 3rd party site.

Mostly, the hack was just a pain in my ass, and disrupted some of my plans.

I did, however, lose a lot of emails in the process. If you’ve been waiting 2 months for a reply, you might want to resend it.

I hired some pros, and the website is all fixed now! And believe it or not, I’m grateful to the hackers for helping me to raise the security level of my website.

Flowingzen.com is now highly secure, which is great because I have have big plans for this website!

8. I’ve Been Blogging

Blogging is a lot of work, but but it’s a labor of love.

Once upon a time, I faithfully published a blog post every week. I hate that I haven’t been able to stick to that schedule in 2015.

I’ve been writing lots of draft posts. That’s why I say I’ve been blogging even though I haven’t been publishing.

I’d like to renew my commitment for 2016. I’m committing to a new post a week, without fail, in 2016. Please hold me to it!

9. I’ve Been Innovating

Now that I’m free from that master/disciple hierarchy, I’m free to innovate, especially in the world of online learning.

After lots of trial and error, I believe I’ve figured out what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to teaching qigong and tai chi online.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn from me live, soon you’ll get a chance to do exactly that — and from the comfort and privacy of your own home!

If you want updates about this and other awesome digital projects, then stay on my email list (or get on it here).

The post I’m Back, I Missed You, and Here Are 9 Things I’ve Been Up To appeared first on Flowing Zen.

People often talk about stress.  Myself included.  But stress isn’t what it used to be.

If you want to experience real stress — the way it used to be — then try the following:

1. Stand 10 feet away from a man holding a heavy, razor-sharp sword in his hand.
2. Make sure that you choose a man who has trained with said sword daily for at least a decade.  (Bonus points if he has some ugly battle scars on his face.)
3. Hold a sword in your own hand. Or don’t. It probably won’t matter.
4. Make sure that you have your back to a wall, and that you can’t escape.
5. Ready? Now insult the man’s mother. Or spit on him.  Your choice.

I’m joking, of course. But do try to imagine the incredible stress of a real sword fight.  Imagine your blood pressure soaring, your hands sweating, your mind darting around.  Imagine battling all that in addition to battling the enraged man in front of you.

Now that’s real stress!

I don’t get into very many sword fights these days. Even battle-axe and spear fights seem to be on the decline. Be that as it may, I still find it exceedingly useful to train as though I’m going to be in a sword fight someday soon.

Here’s why.

We Are Big Wimps

In the old days, Kung Fu masters (including Tai Chi masters) would face life-or-death combat on a regular basis. Luckily for us, we don’t often face life-or-death stress like that.

Or is it lucky?

Compared to our ancestors, we live pretty cushy lives here in 21st century America. Most of us don’t face life-or-death situations very often. Most of us have enough to eat (or too much), warm beds, indoor toilets, and Netflix.

Life is good.

Meanwhile, we get stressed out by the smallest things. More than any other culture in the history of culture, we sweat the small stuff. 

And it’s not just in our heads. Our reactions are physiological!  High-blood pressure, insulin resistance, high levels of cortisol — all of these things are symptoms of real stress.

This stress takes its toll on us. It eats us alive, ruining not only our quality of life, but our health.

Of course, we can practice Qigong to relieve this stress.  And we should. But wouldn’t it be nice to prevent this stress rather than just relieve it?

Stress Inoculation

Is there a way to train your mind and your nervous system to *not* overreact in times of extreme stress.

Yes.  It’s called “stress inoculation,” and it’s one of the reasons that I love the martial arts.

Any martial art that includes two-person drills or sparring, whether these are done empty-handed, or with weapons, will offer some sort of stress inoculation. But not all martial arts will do it holistically.

For example, while I was testing for my black belt in Goju-Ryu Karate, I had my nose broken by a 5th Degree Black Belt.

Blood everywhere, hurt like hell, I had a black eye for a week, and my nose has never been quite the same.

Sure, that experience toughened me up. But it wasn’t a healthy way to inoculate me against stress.

Certainly, it wasn’t healthy for my nose.

Push Me!

I spent almost a decade looking for a holistic, healthy way to train stress inoculation. And I finally found what I was looking for in Tai Chi.  (Remember that Tai Chi is a martial art!)

For me, the missing piece of the puzzle was a drill called Tui Shou, which translates to “Pushing Hands”.

There are many different versions of Pushing Hands, but the idea is always the same. Basically, it’s a form of gentle, upright wrestling where you try to push, off-balance, or throw your partner.

But you do this using softness, not with brute strength.

Here’s the amazing thing about Pushing Hands.

Even when it’s super gentle, even when you’re partnering with a sweet, 60-year-old woman, here’s what’s going to happen as soon as she tries to push you: You’re going to freak out and tense up.

It’s a nervous system thing. It happens whether you like it or not. And it happens to the best of us.

But something magical happens as you start to practice Pushing Hands.  Gradually,  your nervous system starts to relax under the “pressure”.  (Pushing Hands is actually a lot of fun, and typically involves plenty of laughter and smiling.  Nevertheless, the nervous system still perceives it as “pressure”.)

Pushing Hands is just a drill. It’s definitely not fighting. It’s not even real sparring. But the inoculation that you receive from Pushing Hands is incredibly valuable — and not just for fighting.

For example, I’ve found that the stress inoculation from Pushing Hands translates beautifully to driving.  And let’s be honest — the most dangerous part of your day is probably when you get into your car, especially considering the prevalence of texting and driving. (Is it me, or are there more and more Zombies driving cars these days?)

When someone suddenly swerves out of their lane, or if they’re approaching you too fast from behind and about to rear-end you — you’ll be able to stay calm, and you’ll be able to do what’s necessary to avoid the accident.

Bring On The Zombies!

Speaking of Zombies — I also enjoy training with the various Kung Fu weapons, like the sword, staff, and spear.  There’s some measure of practicality to this in the case of a Zombie Apocalypse. If the undead start to walk the earth, you definitely want me on your team.

Zombies aside, Kung Fu weapons are also heavier than you’d think, which makes for an excellent form of strength training.

But the main reason I like to train with Kung Fu weapons is that it’s another form of stress inoculation.

In my own training, some of the most profound glimpses I’ve had into the deeper levels of the art of Kung Fu have come from training with weapons.  The Kung Fu solo weapons forms are beautiful to watch.  But the applications of the traditional forms are even more amazing.

Here’s an impromptu video that a student recently took while I was answering a question about the Kung Fu weapons.

The level of concentration required when using weapons is much, much higher. And the margin of error is much lower. On top of all that — you have to remain totally relaxed. If you tense up, if your mind wanders for a split second, then the flick of your opponent’s wrist would be the end in a real fight.

And that’s why Kung Fu masters were so interested in stress inoculation. It was a matter of life and death.

A Warrior, Not a Worrier

Stress inoculation is a wonderful thing. It’s almost like a drug. The world starts to feel different. You walk around with a changed perspective.

You become a warrior, not a worrier.  You start to recognize the small stuff for what it is — small.  And so you don’t sweat it.

Unfortunately, the concept of the warrior is a tricky one in the 21st century.  The word “warrior” doesn’t have the same connotations that it once had. So there’s a lot of confusion.

What does it mean to be a warrior, in the Kung Fu tradition?

It means that you constantly strive to master your body, your mind, and your spirit.  It means that you develop the courage to face dying so that you also have the courage to face living.  It means that you have an inner confidence that remains impervious to external factors.  It means that, in those rare moments when you might have to defend yourself or a loved one — that you are able to rise to the challenge, whether that means swerving in traffic, standing up for something that you believe in, or defending an innocent person from physical violence — yourself included.

(Since I have so many female students, I’d like to add that there have been many examples of woman warriors in the Kung Fu tradition. In fact, one of the greatest warriors of all time was an elderly Shaolin nun named Ng Mui.)

What do you folks think about this subject?  Does it interest you?  Would you like me to write more about the concept of the warrior, and how it applies to the 21st century? Go ahead and leave me a comment below.

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Stressed Out? Then Pick Up A Sword! appeared first on Flowing Zen.

[Note:  This article was originally written on September 11, 2012, but was updated and revised on September 11, 2013.]

Like most Americans, I watched the towers falling on TV.  Unlike most Americans, I could see the smoke from the top of my roof in NYC.

That terrible day changed me.  I didn’t realize this for many years.  But now, I can look back and see how much I learned as a result of 9/11. Here are the biggest lessons:

1. Life is Fragile.

I had already learned this lesson during my battle with depression.  But I needed a reminder, and I got a big one on 9/11.  This time, the lesson stuck.  

Not long after 9/11, I made the decision to quit my job as a computer engineer, and commit full time to being a teacher. 

Life is fragile.  That thing you’ve been meaning to do with your life? You should go do it.  Now.

2. Gratitude Matters

I plan to live to the ripe old age of 120, but things don’t always go as planned.  My life could end an hour from now.  So could yours.  You don’t know.  I don’t know. 

After 9/11, I got in the habit of taking a moment to feel grateful when I wake up each morning. It’s a good habit.  You should try it tomorrow morning. Don’t let another day go by without being grateful. 

That stuff you’re worrying about right now — it probably doesn’t matter.  Gratitude does.

This is what Zen teaches.  Be present.  Be happy. Right here.  Right now.  The present moment is all we have.   

3. Keep Calm and Qigong On.

During the first few minutes of the attack, we didn’t know what was happening.   We didn’t know if this was the beginning of an all-out war on the US, if it was going to get worse, or if it was over.

Not knowing can be incredibly hard on the psyche. 

Honestly, it was torture for me.  I didn’t know what to do.  Leave?  Try to walk to Jersey?  Find a basement?  Overwhelmed, I eventually went and did the 2-Minute Drill.  It was amazing how much it helped.  Just breathing and moving made such a difference.  Suddenly, I could think clearly again. 

Maybe that’s one reason I love qigong and tai chi.  Every day, I enjoy relaxing, letting go, and calming my nervous system.  With tai chi, you even learn to stay calm while someone is trying to push you or attack you.  It’s an important skill to have. Not that people try to push you very often, but because life does.

4. People Die. 

When the first tower fell, all I could think was:  People just died.   Just a few miles from me.   They died in a matter of seconds. 

Later, I would find out that I knew some of those people, albeit distantly.

I was several miles away from the towers on 9/11, but somehow, I could feel the death, the sudden transition of all those souls.  I can’t explain it, although I suspect that lots of New Yorkers know what I’m talking about.  

For me, it was a wake up call.  I feel like, on that terrible morning, I suddenly stopped being naive about death.   And life.

5. Never Buy Fake Swords. 

During the first few hours, we were overwhelmed with fear and confusion.  We were waiting for news of more attacks, and many of us in NYC wondered if there would be crime, riots, or heck, even a terrorist invasion.     Out of paranoia, I started looking around my apartment for a weapon to defend myself, just in case.

Many years ago, my teacher’s teacher, Sigung Ho Fatt Nam, defended his family from a mob of race rioters in Malaysia.  They came to his house with axes and shovels and torches, prepared to kill him and his family.  In a time of complete lawlessness, he used his trusty spear to fight off the attackers and protect his family.  Amazingly, he managed to scare them away without hurting anyone, which is truly remarkable.

And me? Well, the best I could find in may apartment was a fake Tai Chi sword.  I had been training martial arts for nearly a decade, and I was pretty good with the sword.  At least in theory.  But this particular sword was just a replica.

I remember laughing out loud at the situation.  I had the necessary skills, and here I was in an emergency situation — but my sword was fake.  Oh, the irony.

That day forever changed how I train the martial arts. Today, I still train with Tai Chi swords and other weapons.  But my training is deadly serious.  My swords, literally and figuratively, are razor sharp.  If the Zombies come, I’m ready.

The amazing thing about training martial arts with this kind of intensity is that you don’t become more violent.  The opposite.   It’s a paradox that those who don’t practice martial arts will never understand — that by preparing yourself for violence, you become more peaceful. 

6. Be Prepared. 

New Yorkers aren’t known for their disaster preparedness, especially 29-year-old bachelors.  After the towers fell, I looked in my fridge.  I had some leftover Chinese food, some eggs, and some milk.  Oh, and ketchup.  Can’t forget the ketchup. 

Then I looked at my Britta filter, and it hit me.  Water!  What if the water goes out?   What do I do?

After 9/11, I stopped taking things like food and water for granted.  People thought I was crazy to store a week’s worth of food and water in my apartment — until Katrina.   After that, people started to see the sense in being prepared. 

In 2003, roughly 2 years after 9/11, the big blackout hit NYC.  This time, I was prepared.  I had food and water.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have batteries.  Live and learn.  (Perhaps now my wife will understand why I have so many rechargeable batteries, flashlights, and solar chargers.)

7. Heroes Still Exist

There were heroes that day in NYC.  Real, honest-to-goodness heroes.

NYPD.  FDNY.  Thousands of unsung heroes.  They rose to the occasion.  I saw random heroes on the street, like the young man offering his taxi (they were impossible to find because the subway was closed) to an older lady.  I saw with my own eyes how people are capable of pulling together.  It was beautiful to watch. 

If you look, you’ll always find heroes in a crisis, big or small.  That was an important lesson.

8. Radios Are Amazing. 

When you can’t get news via the Internet or your cell phone, a handheld radio is a godsend.  I mean, the news just flies through the air, no matter what else is happening!  Isn’t that amazing?  

9. Fear Makes People Crazy. 

A few days later, a colleague said to me: “We should just kill all the Muslims!”  I was shocked.  Even today, it amazes me that someone could say that.  “But there are a billion of them,” I responded.  The so-called “conversation” that ensued was absolute madness. 

That’s when I first learned that fear turns people into crazy Zombies and blocks all rational thought.  When someone gets like this, there’s nothing you can say.  Logic is useless.  Facts are meaningless. 

And that is a scary thing.

10. Always Quit Smoking BEFORE A Terrorist Attack. 

Okay, so I didn’t actually quit smoking that morning.  But I was trying my best not to smoke.  That lasted, oh, about five milliseconds into the news.  (I walked downstairs, bought a pack, walked halfway back upstairs, then went back down and bought two more.  Just in case.  At least I was prepared for smoking!)

11. Friends Matter. 

Having a close group of trusted friends matters, especially in a crisis.  That evening, a bunch of us gathered at a friend’s house.  It was tribal.  We didn’t need to say much.  We were just happy to be connected to each other.  I won’t soon forget that feeling.

12. We Should Be Talking About Peace

I may take heat for this, possibly from people who were nowhere near NYC but somehow think that they have a monopoly on patriotism, but so be it.  My opinion, after watching the horrors on 9/11, and then the invasion of Afghanistan, then Iraq, and now possibly Iran (Edit: and now Syria in 2013) — is that we as a species desperately need to cultivate peace.  I  think that our survival probably depends on it.

The war machine has grown and grown over the past 100 years.  When will it stop?  When will we try something different?  When will peace be something that is taken seriously?

13. Karma is Powerful.

Karma means cause and effect.  For every effect, there is something that caused it.  And for every cause, there is an effect that happens later. It’s an inescapable natural law. 

After 9/11, many people wanted revenge.  They also wanted  to simplify a complex situation.  The easy solution was to blame Islam (the cause) for 9/11 (the effect). 

I know that’s not true. And I hope you know too.  I hope that by now every American knows that “Islamic” militancy didn’t begin on 9/11. (I put “Islamic” in quotes because I don’t think that Al Qaeda represents Islam any more than David Koresh represents Christianity.)

I’m not saying that we deserved it.  No one deserves that.  But what were the causes that led to us being attacked?  And how did we respond?  What karma have we created since 9/11?  What causes have we initiated, and what will the effects be years down the road?

14. Gandhi Was Right

Gandhi was right.  We must be the change that we want to see in the world.  If we want peace, we must first become peaceful.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes.  It’s from a famous Zen master named Thich Nhat Hanh:

I want to be solid, calm, and without fear, and so I practice qigong, tai chi, and meditation every day.  I tell my students that, if they want to change the world, they should practice every day too.  This way, they’ll become solid, calm, and without fear too. Gradually, day by day, as we transform ourselves, we also transform the world.

I’ve changed since 9/11. In these 11 years, I’ve healed myself, taught thousands of students, and found my soul mate.  And I see that others are changing too.   And that’s wonderful, because the world needs it.  Because even though it’s been years since 9/11, I think that we have less peace in the world, not more. [Edit:  In 2013, with the possibility of World World 3 looming in Syria, the world is even less peaceful.]

On this anniversary of a terrible day, let’s be peaceful.  Let’s meditate, and flow, and heal our wounds.  Let’s be happy and grateful.  Let’s be good.   Let’s be the change that this world so desperately needs.

The post 14 Things I Learned on 9/11 [Updated] appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Stop kidding yourself. You’re not ready to quit.

And that’s okay. The sooner you admit that you’re not ready, the sooner you’ll be able to quit once and for all.

I smoked for over 10 years. A pack a day for most of that time.

I tried to quit 14 times. Some attempts lasted a few days. Others lasted as long as 9 months.

But all 14 attempts had one thing in common — I wasn’t ready.

“It’s easy to quit smoking.  I’ve done it hundreds of times.” – Mark Twain

Not convinced?  Still think you’re ready? Fine.  Then answer this question:

Right now, this very instant, can you honestly say that you are ready to never take another drag from a cigarette?  Not a single drag.  Not ever.   Starting right now.

If your answer was “no,” or if you found yourself arguing with the question, then you’re not ready.  But I already knew your answer.  How did I know?  Because you’re reading this article.

I’ve helped dozens of students to successfully quit smoking.  If you follow the steps below, then you’ll succeed too.  And you won’t have to fail 14 times like I did.

Step 1: Admit It

You’re an addict. There’s no shame in admitting that. I am an addict too. And I quit smoking years ago!

So why do I still call myself an addict? Once an addict, always an addict. Especially with nicotine, the king of addictions.

During one attempted quit, let’s call it attempt #5, I actually picked up someone’s half-smoked cigarette from the ground. It was surreal, as if I wasn’t in control of my actions. I stopped myself midway, as if waking from a nightmare, but wow — that’s addiction!

I can admit that I’m an addict. Can you?

Step 2: Know Thy Enemy

Nicotine is powerful stuff. It crosses the blood-brain barrier and messes with your dopamine pathways. After years of smoking, those pathways get altered. In other words, smoking physically changes your brain.

If you’ve been smoking for a few years, then your brain has been conditioned to responded to nicotine. Think about how many cigarettes, day in and day out, you’ve smoked. That’s a lot of training. No wonder your brain changed.

Can those dopamine pathways heal? Probably. I agree with Dr. Rankin that there is “no such thing as an incurable illness”, and I’ve seen the incredible power of self-healing in myself and thousands of students.

But when it comes to nicotine, it can take years to heal those pathways. So it’s a conundrum. By the time your dopamine pathways heal, by the time you MIGHT be able to take a drag without getting addicted, you’ll no longer have any desire to do so.

Step 3: Know Thyself

I can sit in a bar, surrounded by smokers, and have zero desire to smoke. If someone offers me a cigarette, I say “I don’t smoke” without hesitation, and without a second thought. Even when major stresses come into my life, I still don’t feel any urge to go buy a pack.

So I’m “cured” of smoking, right? Yes. But you know what? Even after all these years without a cigarette, even with my daily Qigong and Tai Chi practice, even with all the acupuncture I’ve received — I’m still not sure if my dopamine pathways are 100% back to normal.

And it doesn’t matter. Because I’m not going to find out. Even after all these years as an ex-smoker, I believe that a single drag might be enough to reignite the dopamine pathways and send me right back into addiction. That belief, whether it’s true or not, serves me well. It helps me in my mission to remain smoke free.

I’m an addict, and I understand the addictive nature of nicotine. I’ll never take another puff in my life. I won’t risk it. Period.

Step 4: Make Peace

Are you bargaining in your mind? Are you trying to rationalize a future where you can smoke cigarettes now and then? If so — forget it. That’s the addiction talking.  Once you break the addiction, you’ll think much more clearly.

You don’t have to quit now (we’ll get to that part soon). But once you do, you can’t smoke ever again. Make peace with that. You don’t have to like this advice, but for your own sake, you should make peace with it.

If you do the research, you’ll find that all ex-smokers agree on this issue.  All of us have one thing in common — we’re completely done with smoking.  That chapter is over.

What about those people who can just smoke on weekends?  Personally, I think they may be aliens in disguise. I’m not sure that they’re human.  Certainly, they are not addicted like you are, or like I was.   They aren’t REAL smokers.

I desperately wanted to believe that I could be like them, and I tried really hard to do it.  But it didn’t work.   At least 8 of my quit attempts failed because I tried to smoke “just now and then”.

It doesn’t work.  Ask any ex-smoker.  The next time you quit, it’s got to be forever.

Step 5: Quit Quitting.

Now for the fun part.  If you’ve been stressed out thinking about never smoking again, then relax.  You’re not quitting now. In fact, I want you to quit quitting.

The next time you quit will be the last.  Until then, you’re  going to continue smoking — and you’re going to do it completely guilt free.

Right now, there are too many negative emotions surrounding the act of smoking.  Guilt, shame, anger, worry, fear.  In the world of Chinese medicine, those emotions represent energy blockages.  You need to start clearing those blockages BEFORE you try to quit smoking.

If you’re constantly trying to quit, and constantly failing, then there’s never a chance to clear those blockages.  You’re spinning your tires in the mud.  You’re just reinforcing negative emotions, and making it harder and harder to actually quit.

Quitting smoking is stressful. Of course, smoking is also your way of de-stressing. If you quit too many times, you’re creating more stress than you’re eliminating. You may actually be lowering your stress threshold rather than raising it.

Step 6: Enjoy Smoking

If you’re reading this article, then you’ve probably gotten to the point where you hardly enjoy smoking any more. You smoke because you’re addicted, because of the habit, because you would feel terrible if you didn’t smoke.  Gone are the days when you truly enjoy smoking.

We need to reclaim that. I know it’s counter-intuitive. But if hating smoking made it easier to quit smoking, you would have quit already, right?

So I’m giving you a free pass. For the next 3-12 months, you’re going to smoke guilt free.  In fact, you’re NOT ALLOWED to quit smoking for at least 3 months.  If anyone questions you, tell them that Sifu Anthony said so, and they should take it up with me. (Don’t worry. I know Kung Fu.)

For 3 months, I want you to savor each cigarette. Be present. Smile from the heart. (Click here to learn how.)  Be here and now.  Notice the cigarette, the color of the cherry, the feel of the drag, the shape of the smoke. That’s Zen.

Here’s what’s NOT Zen.  Lighting a cigarette and smoking half of it without hardly noticing.  And then needing to smoke another one immediately after because you missed the first one.

It’s critical that you don’t feel guilty. Guilt just creates a negative loop.  You feel bad, and then you want to smoke more, and then you feel worse, so you smoke more.  You need to break the cycle, and the way to do that is by feeling good.

Step 7: Add Good Habits

In this online course, I talk about why most people fail with their New Year’s Resolutions.  They fail because they try to subtract bad habits rather than adding good one. Don’t make the same mistake.

Don’t take anything away. Add good habits first.

The course above gives you everything you need to change your life using 2 minutes a day of qigong as your gateway habit.

Learn qigong ASAP.  If you’re not going to learn it right this instant, then schedule a time to learn it.  I’m serious. If you finish this article without scheduling a time, then no matter how good your intentions, you won’t do it. So put it on your calendar right now.

You first goal is to do 2-Minutes once a day. That’s harder than it sounds.  You’ll probably be okay for a few days, but then you’ll forget.  Keep trying until you succeed in doing it every day for 30 days.

Step 8: Set a Date

Keep smoking, and enjoying yourself, until you have made a strong habit of doing 2 minutes a day of qigong. 

All of that enthusiasm and energy you periodically have toward quitting — put all of it into your daily qigong. It’s not time to quit yet.

Once you’ve managed to do 30 days of qigong (and not before), then you can think about setting a quit date. There’s never a perfect time. You’re going to be an absolute mess for a few weeks after you quit. But you’ve got to do it sooner or later.

Remember, this next attempt at quitting is going to be your last one ever. No more trying. Do or do not.

Set the date far enough in advance that you can continue to do two things for a few more months — enjoy smoking, and practice qigong for 2 minutes a day.

So let’s say that you’ve successfully done 2 minutes a day for 30 days. You decide to set your quit day 3 months down the road. Until that day, you’re going to continue enjoying your cigarettes (a Zen exercise), and also doing 2 minutes at least once a day (and preferably twice).

Step 9: Get Ready

With your quit date set, you have time to get yourself ready. Gradually start to arrange things for that day. For example, collect all of the ashtrays in your house, and throw out all but one. Tell people that you’re going to quit.  Obviously, you’ll also need to get rid of all your extra cigarettes.

I’m a big fan of the acupuncture protocol called NADA (National Acupuncture Detoxification Association). If you’re in Gainesville, my wife offers it at her clinic.  You should start doing this roughly 1-2 weeks BEFORE your quit day.  (If you’re not in Gainesville, then look for a NADA practitioner near you.)  This will help you to get ready for the big day.

But most importantly, get your heart and mind ready for the big day.  You’re gradually psyching yourself up, reminding yourself of all the reasons you want to quit.

Step 10: Say Goodbye

So the big day is approaching. You’ve told all your friends so that they can support you (and not tempt you, if they’re smokers). You’ve gotten the house ready. You’ve gotten rid of all but a few cigarettes.

This is a personal choice, but I’m a big believer in the power of ritual. I still remember the last cigarette that I smoked. I made a little ritual out of it, and said goodbye, as if saying goodbye at a funeral.

I recommend that you smoke your last cigarette at night. That way, you can wake up the next morning and start fresh.  And that’s exactly what you’re going to get — a fresh start on life.

Step 11: Go Cold Turkey

Forget the patch.  Forget the gum.  Cold turkey is the only way to go.   Again, just ask ex-smokers, and the successful ones all agree — go cold turkey.

I’m not going to sugar-coat it for you. It’s going be rough for a few weeks. You’re going to go through withdrawal from one of the most addictive substances known to man. But that’s a necessary part of the process.

The suffering that you experience during the withdrawal is part of the equation. Don’t wimp out of this step with the patch or something similar.  Going through the hell of withdrawal is necessary.  A few months down the road, when you’re craving a cigarette, you’ll remember how awful it was when you went cold turkey.  Because of that memory, you’ll be less likely to go backward, and more likely to go forward.

Use your tools, especially the 2-Minute Drill. It will be your life vest.  It will also help you to detox faster. During the first 2 weeks, you may need to do it 10 times a day, or even more.

Don’t expect the 2-Minute Drill to make everything okay. You won’t be okay. You’ll probably be miserable. But the 2-Minute Drill will make it tolerable, and give you the strength to get through.

(A small percentage of people don’t experience the hell of withdrawal. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it’s easier to quit. The disadvantage is that it’s easier to start up again. If you’re one of these people, then you need to stay vigilant, especially 3-6 months after you quit.)

Step 12: Visualize the Future

Maybe I should have started with this part.  Do you start with the good news, or the bad news? In this case, I started with the bad news. So here’s the good news.

Once you make peace with never taking another puff, and once you get through those first few months, once you quit for good — life becomes beautiful.

[Click here to read an article I wrote after going 10 years without a single puff from a cigarette.)

All those little things that you’re worrying about now — how you’ll drink coffee without a cigarette, how you’ll go to a bar, what you’ll do after a meal — all of that stuff will seem trivial once you’ve broken the cycle of addiction.

Take it from me — it’s worth it. You haven’t felt so alive in years. 

I know that, from where you’re standing, it’s hard to imagine life without cigarettes.  But from where I’m standing, it’s hard to imagine life WITH cigarettes.

Like I said, that chapter is over for me. My life is so much fuller and richer now that there’s absolutely no need for me to smoke again. Not ever. Not even one puff.

Let’s use the comments below as a community support group. Those of you who have already quit, please post your stories below.  And those of you who are getting ready to quit — come back to this article and post your thoughts, questions, and concerns whenever you need a little help.  I’m here for you. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post Why You Shouldn’t Quit Smoking appeared first on Flowing Zen.

It’s that time of year again!  Time to gather with family, relax, enjoy good food and conversation, and leave all of your stress behind. Right? If that’s not how you typically experience the holiday season, if you need some help staying Zen, then here are 5 tips that you can start using immediately:

1. Learn the Art of Qigong

Imagine that it’s Christmas Day.  Imagine that you’re stressed out.  (Ah, but I repeat myself.)  Now imagine sneaking into a quiet bedroom and using your secret weapon to banish stress in as little as 2 minutes.

Teaching the self-healing art of Qigong is what I do for a living, and I’m passionate about it, so you can’t really blame me for putting this at the top of the list.  To me, there’s no better way to deal with stress – and not just during the holidays – than to practice this amazing art.  The results I’ve seen in myself and my students are simply astounding.

What is it?  Qigong (pronounced “chee gung”) is an ancient Chinese self-healing art that uses flowing movements and gentle breathing techniques. My students describe it as meditation in motion, hence the name of my school, Flowing Zen.  It’s similar to Tai Chi, except that it’s much, much easier to learn, requires zero athleticism, and can be practiced in as little as 2 minutes as day.

Of course, you have to find a good teacher, but the results are worth it.  Once you learn this art, you have a stress management system not just for the upcoming holidays, but for every holiday for the rest of your life!

In the meantime, you can get a taste of this art right now by learning a wonderful exercise called Lifting The Sky.

2.  Enjoy Your Food

Eating can be meditation. That’s the art of Zen.

If you feel yourself getting stressed at the table, then force yourself to come back to the food.  Look at the color of it.  Smell the aroma as you pass dishes around the table. Savor the different combinations of flavors. Put your fork down and chew each bite thoroughly.

It’s ironic that people spend so much time preparing food for the holidays, but are too stressed out to enjoy it.  Don’t be one of them.  Every time you feel stressed, every time someone at the table starts talking politics, just come back to the food.  That’s Zen.

3. Keep Your Mouth Gently Open

Not when you’re chewing, silly!  But the rest of the time, keep the mouth gently open with the jaw relaxed.  By relaxing the jaw, you actually relax your entire nervous system.  This is something that Zen masters have known for centuries, and is now being confirmed by modern science.

Whenever you feel stressed, check your jaw.  Is it tense?  Of course it is!  Now relax your jaw and breathe out through the mouth with a gentle sighing sound.  You’ll feel the difference immediately.  The sighing sound not only forces you to relax your jaw, but helps to release negative emotions.

4. Forgive

During the holidays, chances are high that you’re going to be forced to see someone who you feel wronged you in the past.  And they probably did.

Forgive them. If you cling to resentment and anger, then you are affecting your energy, your biochemistry, and your health. In other words, you’re just hurting yourself with that stuff. Even the Mayo Clinic recognizes the connection between health and forgiveness.

It is critical to understand that forgiving someone doesn’t mean that you condone what they did.  That’s not what forgiveness means.  We can forgive someone and still hold them responsible.  In fact, if they weren’t responsible, you probably wouldn’t need to forgive them in the first place.

In my experience, the best way to practice forgiveness is in a relaxed, meditative state. Stand upright, close your eyes, and relax from head to toe. Breathe out gently through the mouth with a sighing sound as described above. In a meditative state, it’s easier to let go of the negativity.  Keep the mouth open and the jaw relaxed as you practice forgiveness.

It also helps to take baby steps.  Don’t try to forgive 100% in one session.  Just do 1%.  That’s enough.  In fact, it’s a lot.

5. Be Grateful

When you’re stressed out, it’s difficult to practice gratitude.  And yet gratitude is the antidote to stress.

Are you worried that the turkey will be overcooked?  Be grateful that you have plenty of food to eat, unlike billions of other people on this planet.  Are you upset because someone is talking politics?  Be grateful that we have the freedom to disagree.  Are you stressed out because of the holiday traffic?  Be grateful that you have a car, not a bicycle, to take you where you’re going.

The secret is to feel it.  If you don’t feel it, then you’re not doing it right. It doesn’t matter what you use to spark the feeling.  What are you grateful for?  A pair of shoes?  A TV show?  A food or beverage?  Start there.

I can’t overemphasize the importance of gratitude.  If you can use it — and it’s not easy — then you’ll stay Zen not just during the holidays, but through the entire year.

It has become cliché to say “Happy Holidays”, but I mean it — really try to be happy this holiday season.  You can do it!  Put these tips into action, and you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to make the holidays happy.  You can also share these tips with friends and family.  Imagine everyone at the table keeping their jaw relaxed and their mouth gently open.  Now that’s happiness!

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

The post 5 Ways to Stay Zen During the Holidays [Updated] appeared first on Flowing Zen.

Once upon a time, a nice woman named Susan walked into her doctor’s office looking for a solution to her terrible back pain.  While there, she also asked the doctor about her anxiety, which was getting worse and worse.  “You’ll have to see a psychiatrist for that,” he said.

Back pain and the emotions are unrelated.  Or at least that’s how Western medicine sees it.  They’re separate — so separate that they require different doctors, different appointments, and different treatments.

If this approach worked, it would be one thing.  But it doesn’t work.  Not for millions of people.

The story about Susan is true, by the way.  It actually happened to one of my students before she came to learn from me.  The doctor couldn’t heal Susan’s back pain, nor was the psychiatrist able to cure her anxiety.  That’s why she came to me.

I’m happy to say that I helped her with both problems.  Today, she is not only pain free, but she no longer suffers from anxiety. So how did I do it?

Well, for starters, I didn’t separate between physical pain and the emotions.

Chinese Medicine, Pain, and the Emotions

Here’s an interesting fact:  Despite its 4000-year history, Chinese medicine never developed a branch of psychiatry.

Why not? It’s because psychiatry is included in every branch of Chinese medicine!

With Chinese medicine, you don’t deal with physical pain only, or emotional problems only.  A Chinese physician would never expect to heal physical pain without also dealing with the emotions — because they are two sides of the same coin.

When we talk about Chinese medicine, remember that we’re also talking about Qigong and Tai Chi.  Traditionally, Chinese medicine has several different branches:

• Qigong (and Tai Chi)
• Acupuncture
• Moxibustion
• Herbal medicine
• Massage (Tui Na)
• Nutrition
• Traumatology (Die Da)
• Cupping Therapy

Qigong is the best of Chinese medicine.  It requires no pills, no doctor, and when done right, it is more powerful than all of the other branches.  And one reason it’s so powerful is because it is supremely effective at smoothing out the emotions.

It’s Not Just Physical!

Students are often surprised when I ask about their emotions.  “Sifu, it’s my back that hurts!  This is a physical problem!” It’s not true.  Your back pain has an emotional component.  I guarantee it.  If you don’t deal with the emotional component, you won’t get rid of your back pain.

I used to have terrible low back pain that started about the same time as my depression.  At the time, it never occurred to me that the two could be linked.  Now I know that if I hadn’t dealt with the emotional aspects of depression, then I never would have gotten rid of my back pain.

Did you know that back pain will affect 8 out of 10 Americans?  That’s 250 million people!  That’s all the proof I need to know that back pain isn’t just physical.  If it were, then Western doctors would be able to do a better job of fixing it.

But they can’t.  Despite their space-age surgery techniques, the most powerful pharmaceuticals, steroids, or the best physical therapy — Western medicine is largely ineffective when it comes to back pain.  (And please don’t get me started on the side effects of these options!)  Western doctors don’t have a solution, and that’s because they’re looking in the wrong place.

Chinese medicine does have an affordable and effective solution.  Obviously, I’m a big fan of Qigong and Tai Chi, and I’ve had amazing success using it to treat back pain in myself and my students.  But I’ve also seen people heal back pain with acupuncture and herbal medicine. That’s because both are forms of Chinese medicine, and both methods recognize the emotional factors in dealing with back pan.

In other words, we’re looking in the right places.

Emotions and Western medicine

Everyone knows that heart disease has an emotional component, right?  People accept that stress and the emotions are involved, even though it would be easy to view heart disease as a purely physical issue.  But when it comes to back pain, no one wants to talk about the emotions. Why is that?

Western medicine is still very young and hasn’t worked out all of the kinks (ahem, including those little kinks that make it the 5th leading cause of death in the US).  Often, it is inconsistent in its views.  For example, Western medicine recognizes the placebo — which is concrete scientific proof of the power of the mind — and yet prefers to sweep it aside rather than investigate it.  Similarly, Western medicine recognizes emotional factors in certain diseases, but not others.

Back pain is still viewed by most doctors and patients as “physical”. The emotions, according to both doctor and patient, aren’t involved.  In fact, most doctors prefer not to deal with the emotions at all.  They prefer to leave that stuff to psychiatrists and psychologists.

You maybe also be interested in reading my trilogy on chronic pain:

1. What Big Pharma Doesn’t Want You to Know About Pain

2. Why Your Chronic Pain Is All In Your Head

3. Why You Need Qigong If You Struggle with Chronic Pain

Back Pain and the Emotions 

So how does it work?  How do the emotions affect your back? The simple answer is that emotions block the flow of energy (or Qi) in the body.  When the energy gets blocked, there is pain.  And that’s a good thing.  Pain is good!

Pain is a signal.  It tells you that something is wrong.  In the case of back pain, it tells you that your emotions are stuck.  Stifled.  Repressed.  They are so repressed that, even now, you’re probably resisting the idea that your back pain could be anything more than physical.  Talk about stubbornness!

Accept that your emotions are part of the equation.  They are blocking your energy, and that energy is causing pain.  The problem MUST be energetic!

I know what you’re thinking.  Already, you’re slipping back into “It’s just physical!” mode.  Let me ask you a question.  How is that type of thinking working for you?  How is it working for the 250 million Americans who suffer from back pain?

It’s Not Working!

There is a strange phenomenon in the world today.  Alternative forms of medicine, like acupuncture and Qigong, get criticized as being unscientific (which, by the way, is completely untrue) even though they are clearly effective.  Meanwhile, the so-called “scientific” stuff sometimes isn’t effective.  In other words, it’s “scientific” to keep spending billions of dollars on methods that don’t work, while criticizing methods that do!

This is dogma, not science.  Unfortunately, it’s rampant in the medical world.  What’s worse is that there are some frightening stats in the world of medicine that are just getting ignored.

For example, did you know that half of the methods used by Western medicine aren’t even based on scientific evidence?  Yes, you read that right.   Don’t believe me? Then read Dr. Makary’s excellent book, Unaccountable, for more on this subject (and some terrifying stories about hospitals!).

When I make arguments like this, people sometimes accuse me of criticizing Western medicine.  And that’s a bad thing how?  I thought that it was supposed to be peer-reviewed and evidence based?  Sorry, but when it comes to dealing with back pain, Western medicine gets a bad review from me (and 250 million other Americans).

If someone were trying to present Qigong as an excellent solution for emergency medicine, I would criticize it myself.  It’s not! Go to the emergency room!

In other words, let’s recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each type of medicine.

What Works

If you’re ready to try something that works, if you’re ready to actually heal your back pain, then Chinese medicine provides excellent solutions.  Here are my best recommendations, in order of effectiveness:

1. Learn Qigong

This is my number one recommendation.   I’ve seen Qigong get results where surgery, pharmaceuticals, and even acupuncture were ineffective.  But it has to be real Qigong, and you have to learn it face-to-face from a master. In the meantime, you can start right now with a free online course.

2. Get Acupuncture

Finding a good acupuncturist is hard, but it’s arguably easier than finding a good Qigong master. Ideally, find someone who is crazy busy, who sees 80-100 patients per week. It’s just like a busy restaurant — it’s busy because the food is good. Bad restaurants (and bad acupuncturists) don’t get that busy because they don’t get results. (An exception would be someone who recently graduated from acupuncture school.)

3.  Get N.E.T.

The Neuro-Emotional Technique (or N.E.T.), which is based on the principles of Chinese medicine, is amazingly effective at resolving emotional blockages, and thus healing physical pain. Click here to find a practitioner near you.

4. Relax

You desperately need to learn to relax your nervous system.  When you relax your nervous system, the emotions are able to flow again, and pain starts to release.  This is the basis of meditation, as well as Qigong. My free audio lesson is a good place to start.

5. Master Your Fear

Fear is huge when it comes to back pain.  According to Chinese medical theory, the Kidney Meridians correspond to all fear-based emotions.  It’s not easy, but you need to master your fear. In the Zen tradition, this is called “dying before you die.”  If you allow yourself to face and experience the things that you’re afraid of, back pain will often melt away, sometimes instantly.

Conclusion

Back pain is not just physical.  The sooner you recognize this, the sooner you can start to heal. I’m guessing that, if you’ve read this far, it’s because the orthodox treatments have already failed you.   Luckily, there are other, more effective options.  I know how painful back pain can be, and I also know that you don’t have to live that way.  I speak from experience when I say that you absolutely can get rid of your back pain — as soon as you start to admit that it’s not just physical!

Do you know someone with back pain?  Then please share this article using the buttons below.  Or drop me a comment if you have questions. And if you haven’t already gotten your free online qigong course, then make sure to get it here. 

From the heart,
Sifu Anthony

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