GreytoWhite

Humble, as someone who has experienced TBI and also stroke I would recommend avoiding supplementation until you are able to effectively ground whatever energy may be going to your head or process emotionally traumatic incidents. I have had more flashbacks than I would care to ever go through again. As Taomeow says from her experience, I agree from my own, supplementation can be like opening a door with a crowbar. I would recommend removing inflammatory sources from your diet and taking a very careful approach. Your brain is your engine, fuel additives can be good in small amounts but if you overdo it you can blow the whole thing and lose whatever progress you've made. Remember, food is medicine you take every time you eat, it can also be poison. http://thetaobums.co..._48#entry292355 Also, another thing to keep in mind is that science is ever progressing and many of today's supplements are found to be harmful tomorrow when scientists "discover" a synergistic relationship between systems or learn how something actually works as opposed to theoretical basis for treatment. Neuroplasticity is a wonderful subject and it helps explain why meditation works. I would recommend going with a body up approach. Massage, moving and sitting meditation with focus on developing the body, diet, and proper exercise will be of much assistance. Try to cultivate contentedness and focus of intent.

I used to have a pink elephant Puffalump. I loved that thing as a kid.

I would also recommend more zhan zhuang to develop the rooting. The "bounce" you talk about came naturally to me after about 3 months of standing.

I wish I knew enough people here in Arizona to bring Michael in for a workshop. The winters are wonderful here.

Forgive me, I'm hyperlexic so I can read faster than most. I think the biggest hurdle I had was going from a Western paradigm to Eastern. Thomas Myers' Anatomy Trains and Clair Davies' trigger point workbook helped me understand what role the fascia plays in the body and how some of it correlates to Chinese medicine. http://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-Trains-Myofascial-Meridians-Therapists/dp/044310283X http://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1572243759 Ken Gullette's DVDs were also really good reminders for how to practice. I now disagree with his opinion about there not being anything mystical about the exercises but for incredibly clear and well communicated instruction on video Ken is very good. The Internal Strength DVD contains Mike Patterson's "ground path" stuff which is great for developing root. http://www.kungfu4u.com/internal-dvds.html Rich Marantz has some wonderful videos on eHow that were great reminders and addenda to what my friend taught me. http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_7702_tai-chi-stretching.html http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_7710_tai-chi-concepts-principles.html http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_7704_tai-chi-senior-citizens.html The Polish Yiquan guys wrote a great eBook on zhan zhuang that cleared up a lot of things for me. http://www.scribd.com/doc/44686995/Zhan-Zhuang-Qigong-You-can-feel-it Jarek Szymanski has a great site with many interviews with martial arts masters on it as well as his own research. I found so many tidbits that made certain things click for me I highly recommend his site to anyone studying martial arts. http://www.chinafrominside.com/ While B.K. Frantzis' material didn't really appeal to me at first I am coming to appreciate the Water tradition methods since my issues last year. Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body is a book I wish I had still but my friend's wife needed it more after her thyroid was removed. Another friend of mine studied with Kumar in the late '80s and the '90s and he had a lot of helpful information regarding the dissolving work and how to safely store qi in the dantian again after dissolving downward. http://www.amazon.com/Opening-Energy-Gates-Your-Body/dp/1556431643 http://www.amazon.com/Relaxing-into-Your-Being-Meditation/dp/1556434073 http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Stillness-Method-Meditation/dp/1556434081 Chunyi Lin's Spring Forest Qigong is great but not my cup of tea. I did learn a lot from his work though. http://www.springforestqigong.com/index.php/getting-started Daniel Ingram made a wonderful book about Vipassana that really opened my eyes about Buddhist meditation, it's also not my cup of tea and I don't practice it but again, I learned a lot from the book. I really like his Dharma Overground community, some very honest people, I just wish it were more active. http://www.interactivebuddha.com/mctb.shtml I still read and reread Jerry Alan Johnson's Chinese medicine text book. Wish I could afford the new ones but this gets me through for now. http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-medical-Qigong-therapy-comprehensive/dp/1885246080 Also, this board is a wonderful resource. I would caution anyone starting on a path of study to always consider context of what is posted here. Many of the practitioners here are rather advanced and talk about things a beginner should not even be thinking of yet. Please build a solid foundation friends, qi deviation is a bitch to address sometimes.

I feel that long hair and a beard are right for me. I experience more than physical pain every time I shave. I recently cut the hair from my head and received compliments from a lot of people on my appearance, this motivated me to grow it right back out.

My little sister experienced this when she was in Venezuela. She broke her forearm quite badly. Their guide took her to three curanderas in a nearby village and with 4 hours she couldn't tell it was broken, within a week she had no pain.

http://traditionalstudies.org/education/54-free-online-videos-education/free-online-videos/98-tangible-qi-lecture I recommend watching that lecture in its entirety.

More living proof that qigong works. Here is my story. I'm a recovering heart attack and stroke patient. At 22 I was in a phase 3 federal drug trial for agomelatine. One should never combine agomelatine with alcohol. I had a minor heart attack and it caused a "permanent" arrhythmia. About six months after that I started having horrible migraines that I came to find out later were TIAs. I finally had a full stroke about 4 years ago, the hospital released me approximately 8 hours after I was admitted because I didn't have insurance and I was able to speak again after everything they pumped into me. I was sent home with a recommendation to stay hydrated and stress free. The whole left side of my body went to shit along with losing 4 spoken languages, and my previously eidetic memory. It didn't help that I got depressed and tried to drink myself to death for a year afterward. The main issues that effected my daily life were sciatica and neuropathic pain. I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and scoliosis and wasn't given much hope for either condition. After the stroke I blew out both my knees, my left hip and should both subluxate regularly, and both my hands used to lock up for a day or two at a time. Incontinence was a daily struggle because many times I couldn't crawl or hobble from my bed to the toilet quickly enough. Anyway, a friend of mine lit a fire under my ass and started teaching me according to my needs about three years ago. He would show me something one week, ask me where I had been feeling pain or was most useless and give me a new exercise or change the focus of an already taught exercise. The corrections were minute and painstaking every time. Luckily we had a very relaxed training environment (his cigar factory) and could sit back and enjoy the finer things (a cigar older than myself, a bit of xtabentun or aged rum, and some telenovelas) after he'd kick my ass for as long as I could handle it. Believe me friends, fine tobacco can be medicinal when it is properly cured, fermented, aged and then blended and rolled by a true a master. He started me off doing Chen (Chen Xiaowang lineage) style positive circle silk reeling whilst seated because I couldn't stand for more than about 3 minutes without a cane. After about three weeks my LDT came alive one night, ripped my abdominal muscles from the top of my rib cage and my lower back popped so hard I thought my box spring had collapsed. After that the cane was not as necessary except when my bad knees were really bothering me. About three months after that my abdominal muscles "clicked" back into my xyphoid process and that really helped with "wave motion" as I was only able to rotate my waist, couldn't really send anything up my spine. After I was able to stand for more than a few minutes at a time unassisted he taught me certain zhan zhuang stances, mainly hunyuan variations. Typically I would hold a stance for 10-15 minutes at a time. My roommate would always be perplexed but he saw the results of my practice. I was told to ignore the silk reeling for a while and he taught me the Nine Temple and Eight Brocades qigong sets. Then the silk reeling was introduced again. I was also practicing James MacRitchie's Eight Extraordinary Meridians program and the Spring Forest Level 1 from the videos. My friend would provide me with insights and recommendations based on my experiences. He would also tell me of what his Mayan grandfather taught him, he would translate the poetry and philosophy of his people and we would discuss. I found many similarities between the remaining fragments of Mayan practice and Taoism. Once I regained some more strength he taught me Siu Nim Tau (Yip Man lineage). That really helped me regain flexibility and strength in my forearms, wrists, and hands. I didn't much like anything from wing chun, even when I was a kid I didn't like it. I don't really practice any wing chun at all any more now that my wrists are more functional. I did pick up some Feldenkrais practice and found it to be incredibly beneficial to regaining awareness of certain areas of my body. The trigger point self-massage book from Davies helped me out a lot, especially when I combined it with the principles from Myers' Anatomy Trains. Diet played a huge role in helping me lose weight and feel less pain. I went gluten free, dairy free, and red meat free for about a year but I made the mistake of a self-directed nootropics regimen in conjunction with meditation and had some serious "qi deviation" issues. My third eye was activated way too soon and with my MDT as fucked up as it is I went "crazy" for a few months. Went back to a more normal diet and dropped the nootropics and any sort of meditation that goes into my head. I've regained a good amount of weight but not to a point where I am unhealthy or uncomfortable. Now I mainly focus on stance transitions and loosening my thoracic spine. The degenerative disc disease isn't nearly as bad as it once was and the scoliosis is slowly getting better. I've regained much of my former strength and 2" of height. I went from 5'9" to 5'5". Now I'm at 5'7". Unfortunately I can't see my friend as often as I would like as he is now in Scottsdale and I don't drive. It's 2 hours each way on the bus. I've gone to a few closer local instructors, tried to explain what I need as far as instruction goes and was largely ignored, even by the instructors who offer TCM treatment. I can't waste my time with exercises I know I can't do anywhere close to properly yet. It cracks me up how much the "internals" are said to be great for health but I think it was the instructors' proper teaching more than the arts themselves that really help the patient. One cannot perform surgery with a shotgun. Private message me if you want some recommendations on materials, I have LOTS of books and videos.

Nicotinic receptors are very important for regulation of the social function of the brain. Smoking often provides the person with a feeling of relaxed interaction with others.

I would posit from my own experience that the foundation is very important and the third eye should largely be ignored until one is energetically stable. Edit: For clarification.

I never bought a device but found that digital stimulation of the prostate was more than enough to "awaken" that particular gland. The finger stroking visualization can also assist with the requirement of "lifting the grain path" so that it is closed like the wink of an eye.

Definitely spend some more time in horse stance. Try a lot of slow, low kicks. Walking meditation helps me ground as well.

Definitely not too old and probably more fit than when I started. I started at the age of 24 a year after a minor stroke. Chen taiji single hand positive silk reeling exercises whilst seated was my first lesson because I didn't have the strength to stand for extended periods. It's a journey that's for sure, you're definitely not too old to start.

I follow several comics but none of what you have posted so far. http://www.topwebcomics.com/ That is a great place to find more comics and the list changes as people vote. I follow a few comics, forgive me if I can't link them all, can't always remember which ones I still actually read. http://www.questionablecontent.net/ http://www.leasticoulddo.com/ http://www.oglaf.com/ http://www.lfgcomic.com/ http://www.xkcd.com/ http://www.codenamehunter.com/ http://tmi-comic.com/ http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ http://www.superredundant.com/ THIS ONE RIGHT FUCKING HERE IS A MUST READ - http://www.drmcninja.com/ http://www.underlingcomic.com/ http://www.unsoundedcomic.com/ http://www.agirlandherfed.com/ http://www.dream-scar.net/ http://www.supernormalstep.com/ http://www.otherworldcomic.com/ Finished Comics That Are Awesome: Phoenix Requiem Digger

Welcome to TTB. If you wouldn't mind posting about your experiences with jing when transitioning genders in the General Discussion board I would be greatly appreciative. I have a transgender friend who still has the rod but no tackle and I'm thinking the hormone replacement has to be wonky as can be.

The tattoo on my forearm is pretty much the exact same symbol as seen on the tabs for each page here.

Sammo has been my favorite for years. I used to watch this monster. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163949/

Regarding relaxing your shoulders whilst doing the movement a helpful hint I learned was to think as if your shoulder blades are inserted into your back pockets.

This is kind of upsetting my balance right now. I think I found my father on Facebook and I found his PO box address online as well. I'm writing a letter to him at the moment. It will probably go through about three or four drafts. My father's abandonment of my family was really hard to deal with and it's only as an adult that I came to see why he would leave, I can't stand my mother either. I don't have much in the way of expectations and I'm prepared not to receive any response whatsoever. I'm treading on unknown territory here and if anyone has any advice they can provide in regards to processing this emotionally and spiritually I would be greatly appreciative.

A little background, my father left when I was 3 and my sister might have been 2 at the time. I have about four memories of him. One was when my mom's car blew up when I was about 16 months old. The next was him sitting in the chair smoking a cigarette and being very angry. After he left I only ever saw him twice, once at a truck stop because he was driving through town and once at my home. I have very little information about him except what little my mom and grandfather told me. My grandfather was highly unreliable though and my mom usually acted like he never existed. Ultimately I would like a medical history and some idea of his ethnic heritage other than that he's Mexican/Native American. I would also like to get a list of my half siblings, I only know of three from the woman he was married to before my mom and only talked to my older half sister once when I was 6. I'm sure there are more siblings out there.

Scotty you may want to contact your ISP about some alternate DNS settings.

I like it.

As far as pain goes it has been my greatest teacher. It is what finally got me to start practicing. I had a heart attack at the age of 22 (almost four years ago now) and I did nothing about my lifestyle at the time. After my grandfather died I made it worse, in my depression and confusion I started drinking and smoking more and ended up having a mild stroke. It was recovery from the stroke that made it necessary for me to learn. I was in worse shape than all the old timers at the cigar shop and I was 1/3 their age. My body is in better shape than before but my daily existence is incredibly painful in comparison to most Americans' daily lives. My tolerance for pain is incredible and on those few good days I confuse the shit out of my friends with how happy I am on the outside.