{"id":7513,"date":"2012-03-15T00:31:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T04:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=7513"},"modified":"2012-03-19T14:28:19","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T18:28:19","slug":"staying-motivated-in-a-bodymindspirit-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yang-sheng.com\/?p=7513","title":{"rendered":"Staying Motivated in a Body\/Mind\/Spirit Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Ask Dr. Lu]
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Staying Motivated in a Body\/Mind\/Spirit Practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

by Nan Lu, OMD, L.Ac.
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Question<\/strong>: I have been practicing Qigong for almost half a year. At the beginning, I was very motivated, but now I feel it\u2019s getting repetitive\u2014I do the same postures and movements day after day, month after month. I know Qigong can do some pretty amazing things for my health, yet sometimes I really don\u2019t feel like practicing and have to force myself. What is your advice on keeping motivated to do this kind of practice?<\/span><\/p>\n

Answer<\/strong>: How can you continue to wash the same body\u2014your body\u2014for thirty or forty years? Why do you brush the same teeth day after day? It\u2019s the same concept: it\u2019s for yourself; it\u2019s for your health. Doing these things help maintain your health. However, with Qigong, if you don\u2019t go to the next level, then you are just doing the same maintenance day after day. If you don\u2019t find the benefit, then you won\u2019t do it. So the key question is, Do you get a benefit? If you don\u2019t see a benefit then you have to ask yourself this: Do you practice Qigong well enough?<\/span><\/p>\n

You think Qigong is good, but bottom line, you don\u2019t want to do the homework. What the Chinese call \u201cKung Fu\u201d means discipline and time. You need to have discipline; you need to have time, an accumulation of time. Discipline and effort\u2014doing the practice long enough so you might catch something.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just like fishermen\u2014they go fishing. Yet just because they go fishing, doesn\u2019t mean they catch something every time. Every day you take a shower. It doesn\u2019t mean that you have to meet someone afterwards\u2014it\u2019s for yourself, so you are clean. With some things, you see the result immediately; with some things you don\u2019t see the result immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, if you don\u2019t see the result, it doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t have a result. It just doesn\u2019t have the result you expected. Because you think Qigong is something miraculous, you expect that because you practice a miracle thing you have to show a miracle result. However, a miracle result has to meet the miracle requirement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Universal is always true. Everything has a requirement. If you want to buy a mansion, you have to give a big down payment. If you want to go to the best school, your SAT scores have to be high. Everything has a minimum requirement that has to be met. A miracle has a miracle requirement. Prevention has a prevention requirement. To heal a health problem, there is a requirement to heal that problem that has to be met. If we talk about the physical level, everything is about energy. Different conditions require different amounts of energy to heal. Then how much energy can you create? How much energy can you save? People never look at things this way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything goes back to the same principle. The basic principle is this: you use Qigong for what purpose? There\u2019s always purpose. When you are practicing Qigong, what is your purpose? You have to ask yourself: When I am doing this, what is my purpose? Just like you sign up for a membership at a gym. You sign up for a purpose. Is the purpose to look good? Or is the purpose to find a new friend? Or to have a conversation with someone because you feel bored. There can be different purposes. With a different purpose, your effort will be different, and the result will be different.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do people sign up to exercise at a gym? That\u2019s more boring! How can you do the treadmill for forty-five minutes? Every day you are running on a machine! It\u2019s much more boring. Think of this concept. The most boring thing is to be willing to allow a machine to train you. Why are you willing to challenge your physical body and not willing to challenge your crazy mind? It\u2019s simple. You have to ask yourself, what are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to achieve something on the outside\u2014visible reality\u2014or do you want to challenge your inner peace? It\u2019s all about the purpose. When people ask these kinds of questions, you have to ask what the purpose is. Why do you do this? For what purpose? Once you know the purpose, the question has an answer. Qigong can create a miracle result; however, a miracle result has to meet the miracle requirement. Can you meet this requirement at the body-mind-spirit level?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Also, you have to understand what you are doing when you practice Qigong. You are doing energy exercise. But don\u2019t think of energy exercise\u2014let\u2019s change the model to a business model. Let\u2019s say you are starting a new business. Think of this concept: You start a new business, and this business might help you make tons of money. However, at the end, the profit is based on your expenses, on how much investment you make, and also on how much debt you have. It\u2019s a simple business concept. Right away, people think, O.K., I\u2019m starting to make money. But making money doesn\u2019t mean you have net profit. For net profit, you have to take out your expenses\u2014maybe there\u2019s a loan you owe. If you have a lot of debt, you have to pay it off, so you don\u2019t really have a profit. Maybe the first couple of years of the business you have no profit because you have a lot of debt. This is a simple concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you are doing Qigong, energy exercise, you are building up energy\u2014that\u2019s true\u2014but you also have debt for your own body. You carry a lot of debt. This debt is your original condition and also how off-balance your body is. That\u2019s what you have to deal with. Everybody has debt, just different levels of debt. Why? Because we\u2019re all getting older. \u201cGetting older\u201d means you have some kind of debt. Otherwise, you would be forever young. It\u2019s a simple concept. Also, you have to look at your daily expenses: your emotional expense, your physical expense. That\u2019s energy expense. All of these things you have to look at. The basic thing is you are doing Qigong to build energy. It\u2019s the same thing as a basic business model. This business will help you make money, but you have to look at your skill, how you are running your business, and your business achievement. And in addition, you have to look at how much debt you have.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then you have to look at how much effort you really put into making energy\u2014to make money in our business model\u2014and try to pay back debt. Look at the money model to understand. Even with the best model of business, you still have to put in the effort; you still have to work hard. Let\u2019s say you have a bagel business. Think about it: Generally speaking, with a bagel business you always see people start early in the morning. At 5:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. you already have opened the store. You don\u2019t open the store at 10:00 a.m.! With pizza, you can open at 10:00, but a bagel business you have to open earlier. It\u2019s a basic concept. A different kind of business has a different kind of requirement.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Qigong, a miracle can happen. Yet even Qigong is not the best; God is the best. God has unconditional love. How can Qigong compare to God? How can Qigong compare to the sun, compare to the moon, compare to the ocean? It cannot! They have more power. Why is it, when the full moon is out, you don\u2019t get the total energy of the full moon? It would be much easier. You wouldn\u2019t have to practice; you\u2019d only need to wait for that evening, once a month. It\u2019s the requirement, see? You have to meet the requirement to connect to the moon. Therefore, even though the moon has that kind of power, you wouldn\u2019t get it. The moon, once a month, can make 70 percent of the Earth change: 70 percent of the Earth is ocean\u2014water. The full moon makes the tide change, all the water change, the whole Earth change. With the huge power from the moon to effect water and taking into consideration that your body is around 60 percent water; why don\u2019t you get all that power once a month from the full moon? You do, a little bit. If you were really open, you could increase the amount of energy you could take from the full moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a certain level, it\u2019s not even about debt; it\u2019s about how much you can really open, how much you can meet the requirement of the connection. In essence, it\u2019s the requirement of the connection. If you have a good connection, you can connect to incredible things, and you\u2019ll wipe out all your debt. All you need to find is a good connection. Talk about business, talk about money\u2014it\u2019s nothing to do with how much you can make, it\u2019s about how much you have a good connection. If you connect to a really rich guy, he will pay all the debt, right? One connection\u2014boom!\u2014it\u2019s done. It\u2019s the same concept. The \u201cconnection\u201d meaning that at the body-mind-spirit level, you match the requirement 100 percent. That\u2019s it! Then you have a miracle.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Dr. Nan Lu, OMD, LAc, <\/span>is the founding director of Traditional Chinese Medicine World Foundation and its sister organization, Tao of Healing, both based in New York City. He is clinical associate professor at the School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr. Lu holds a doctorate from Hubei College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hubei, China, and is a New York State-licensed acupuncturist. Classically and university trained, he is a master herbalist as well as an internationally recognized Taiji expert and Qigong master, and is a best-selling author of three TCM books published by Harper Collins. Dr. Lu’s specialties include women’s health, cancer and immune system disorders and he frequently partners with doctors of Western medicine using a complementary approach. He advises and lectures extensively on TCM, preventive and integrative medicine and has been an invited speaker at major conferences, including\u00a0 American Academy of Pain Management, Integrative Symposium, Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology, among others. (www.tcmworld.org<\/a>; www.tcmconference.org<\/a>; www.breastcancer.com<\/a>). <\/p>\n<\/address>\n
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