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Good morning all,
I'm wondering if anyone else is interested in meditation, reiki, acupuncture, yoga etc... to assist them in their weight-loss efforts and for well being as a whole?

I have started studying Meditation and had my first reiki session yesterday.
I would welcome any pointers or experiences from my fellow Fitday members.

Namaste, Beth W.

iceland77

Beth,

I was going to reply to you in our wino's conversation, but I'll do it here instead since other people might be interested in it.

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Regarding Yoga (I posted this before in the 30lb club):
I wholeheartedly recommend Richard Hittleman's 28 Day Plan for Yoga (found at BN, Borders, Walden Books). It starts you off slow (3 poses) and progressively works you up. It's an oldie, but a goodie.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg

It's not a crazy yoga workout program, it's more about how to incorporate yoga principles and asanas into your daily life. He does mention how the poses whittle your waist, or encourage slimness through the thighs, but its not the point. I recommend you preview it on amazon.

**
For meditation, I recommend you get this book "Beginning Mindfulness". It's also a build up program over 10 weeks. Very nice as well, you can also preview it on amazon as well.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg

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And finally, Reiki. I'm a certified Reiki practitioner. We send reiki to the areas that need help, in order to try and encourage whole body health. I like to think of it as a metaphysical massage. The practitioners are rubbing out your knots while smoothing over the rest. For weightloss, not so sure. For balancing, grounding and relaxation -- yes, definitely.

Reiki also disregards time as well; the past, present and future are intertwined along the same continuum and are all together at each point in our linear time progression. Am I making sense? At any given temporal time (say this minute right now), you represent your past, present, and future self. For example, at this moment, the person you are carries the influences from your past, incorporates your energy and the situation you are in right now. All of this combined will determine the next (and future) choices/decisions/courses of action you make (thereby determining your future self).

Reiki practitioners work with your bodily energies to help alleviate past blockages, correct and balance your current self, in order to improve your future path.

**
I hope I explained it well. If you have any questions, please ask, and I'll try to answer them.

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Thanks for all the great information, and yes, you did a great job of explaining yourself. I am just beginning my journey into this. I can't wait to check out the links you posted!
Starting off slow and building up is exactly what I'm looking for.

Tonight however, Sake is in order at my favorite chinese restaurant. Please join me in spirit!!

[email protected]

I forgot to ask, where do you practice Reiki? I googled Beginning Mindfulness and it took me to a great website called the DailyOm. Very cool. Thanks again.

iceland77

I'm glad I could be of some help. I practice Reiki in MA. I'm kind of an independent contractor, and I'm considering expanding my current clientele base.

PS I did join you in spirit - cucumber soju. Good stuff. Ahh, but the weekend is over for me.

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One of these days I'm going to have a weekend. The restaurant biz is 7 days a week. Taking five days off next month tho and going to Indiana for a friends daughters wedding. Hopefully I won't sabotage the diet too bad. I really don't care tho, I'm going to eat, drink, and be as merry as possible!

If you have any other thoughts or suggestions on Reiki, meditation, etc... I'm always eager to listen!

iceland77

OOh, weddings! Have fun, and let go. Seriously. I am all about moderation, and what's a diet good for if it restricts your good times? Obviously, I'm not too much into restriction on diets because if the diet prevents you from the occasional enjoyment, then it fails the practicality test. Not even fitness pros expect to stay on a restricted diet for more than 12-18 weeks (competition season).

Also, about other stuff you might enjoy...

Creative Visualization -- there was this awesome book out in the early 80's, but I can't seem to find it on Amazon. It's more of a sans-religious affiliation, and down to the nitty gritty practical applications of creative visualization. There's one out there by Shakti Gawain, but I haven't checked it out. It's a best seller though. All sorts of athletes, lifestyle gurus, personal coaches, and average joes use these techniques to improve their game, life, body, etc. One classic example would be the average skill golfer who went to jail for a while, practiced visualization during his time in jail, and came out swinging below par. Same stuff.

One other. Taoist Dissolving Meditation. (This is one of the meditations that I use. But, then again, once you get down the basics of meditation (i.e. being able to sit/lay still for at least 5 mins without falling asleep), you'll find out which meditations work for you, your favorites, and some that just don't work at all.) Okay, so I went out and bought this book called "The Tao of Letting Go -- Meditation for Modern Living", by Bruce Frantzis. Good book, but it's supposed to be used with a practice tape/cd. His Dissolving Meditation is tops. He discusses body scanning and four types of blockages present within the body. The Dissolving Meditation is a full body scan looking for these blockages and releasing them, and you imagine that these are pieces of ice -- turning into water -- turning into steam/gas -- and being released out of your energy fields. He discusses the blockage types and how to recognize them (first couple of chapters), then he tells you how to release them.

Very interesting really. You can preview the whole book on google books : Tao of Letting Go: Meditation for ... - Google Books

Within Taoism, there is the water method and the fire method. I haven't checked out the fire method, so I can't say anything about that one. Water just resonated with me.


Regarding eastern religion and philosophy in general... I'm more attracted to this type of thought; I believe that the integration between the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual bodies is the way to go about life in general. I'm not buddhist (because I don't believe, nor operate, off of the basic premise that life is suffering), and I'm not Taoist (I am not looking to cultivate attained ignorance, although I like the idea of keeping a child like perspective and using the KISS method). I'm more of an eclectic connoisseur of techniques and beliefs found within different Eastern philosophies. I go through periods of trying out/studying new religions (not only Eastern) to see if they strike a chord with me. lol. I sometimes feel as if I'm shopping for a new religion. Haha. But, none strike a chord with me completely, so I kind of put a bunch of things together and follow my heart.

Let me know if you find anything interesting.

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Dang Woman, you are a fountain of great information. I'm so glad we've connected!
I'm going to look into the Taoist Dissolving meditation.... Sounds facinating!
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that takes a little of this and a little of that when it comes to spirituality. Actually, that's kind of how I approach my life.
On my bookshelf, I have everything from the Bible to Buddhism to Wiccan. I guess I believe in the universialty of all belief systems and that a broad understanding makes us more tolerant overall.
I'll keep you posted!! Thanks again!

iceland77

Beth,

I know!! I love religion; I love studying religion, belief systems, and practices. I also have a collection of primary texts from all sorts. I believe that there are many routes to become enlightened, wise, commune with God, commune with nature, etc. Whatever path one takes is completely up to the individual. I believe that we are all interconnected regardless of our path, or even non-paths (i.e. atheists). My biggest turnoff when it comes to organized religion is strict dogmas that exclude people who follow different paths.

Find anything good yet?

Lizzycritter

If you don't mind me chiming in, I find this thread fascinating. It's nice to find kindred spirits out there. I work in veterinary medicine (this SN is short for my email Lizzycritternurse@yahoo) and went to Michigan State for that, so I have a good grasp of western medicine. I don't discount the holistic stuff outright, but I do like to have some scientific research to back up claims. As far as eastern medicine goes, well they've been practicing for centuries and I'm sure they've figured out some good stuff along the way. There is scientific data to back up acupuncture, aromatherapy, relaxation and the mind/body connection. To me treating the whole person (or animal) just makes sense, because the body wants to stay in balance (homeostasis) and you can't alter one organ or body function without affecting other areas to maintain that balance. I'm also "shopping around" for a good religion, haven't found one that fits just right yet, but the journey is more important than the destination anyway. I do believe there's some sort of higher power or something bigger than our individual selves, not sure if it's god or just a collective consciousness. Not a big fan of organized religion either, on one hand it can provide structure and a sense of belonging, but when you don't fit the dogma there's nothing more miserable than being on the outside. Finding my own path may be harder and a lot more confusing, but it's a lot more satisfying. At the end of the day, I think my convictions are stronger too, because I'm the one who decided what values are important in life.

Wow, that went from a simple hello to a novel in a hurry lol!