elmer

I really liked their saying..."neurons that fire together, stay together." so much of what we do in meditation and tai chi is deconstructing hard wired sympathetic responses and hard wiring new parasympathetic ones...once that happens, conditioned responses weaken and we can actually react to our environment.

Qigong movements and characteristics are found throughout many internal martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine practices for health. What's interesting to me is that per his website, he also offers, " telecommunication healing" (via phone) for those who are too busy or can't make the trip to his NY office...

I agree with mal, about really experiencing our emotions rather than passively receiving them. Your gut is highly receptive to changes in sympathetic/parasympathetic changes, stress levels, etc... Thus, the phrase "gut feeling," or the queasiness and shallowness of breath before big events. I used to get the "butterflies in the belly" before high school wrestling matches or when I'm stressed out about something. Both the tension and reason was pretty obvious. Unless it's something you ate beforehand, I'd use that sensation as a tool to guide you in your practice. good luck!

"The self-help superstar who teaches people about financial and spiritual wealth uses free seminars to recruit followers to more expensive events." Isn't it misleading, yet provocatively marketable, to be a guru that promises not only spiritual, but financial wealth? Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but one can easily see how the attachment to financial wealth might negatively influence one's spiritual "wealth"...

i'm in richmond... i haven't yet attended, but the meditation/mindfulness group in richmond (meets in maymont park many times) seems like a good start for you. you can find them at the meetups.com site, just type in "meditation" for richmond, va. also, i may start teaching tai chi again (probably around byrd park/carytown area)- in a couple of months when it gets warmer. there's a couple of other tai chi instructors around- one formal group that teaches wu style, and another guy or two that teach yang. i've never met them (the latter two), so i'm not sure of the quality/content, but at least it's a start. if you can't find them online, i'll see if i can dig up there contact info.

Can't wait to learn and share from others here.

neichuan, what are the major problems you are referring to? besides the metaphysical and the micro/macro orbit connections that are commonly referred to, you should also realize that by placing the tip of the tongue to the upper palate, you are triggering a physical reaction. when lightly placing the tongue to the upper palate, you allow/encourage saliva to pool under the tongue. when you meditate or perform internal arts, you "quiet" the sympathetic system of the body and encourage a parasympathetic response. coincidentally, a parasympathetic response increases saliva production. funny how that works, huh?