Free Download:
Click here to download your free Oral Tradition MP3, "Awareness."
Attend a Class
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays - All Ongoing.
Please click here to see the full schedule of classes, or give us a call and we will be happy to answer your questions.
Senior Instructor Michael Vasquez, 30+ Yrs Exp.
Please contact at (541)201-8101 and visit him on the web at Transformationarts.org
Tao Te Ching
Look, and it can't be seen.
Listen, and it can't be heard.
Reach, and it can't be grasped.
Above, it isn't bright.
Below, it isn't dark.
Seamless, un-namable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can't know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
Famous Quotes
"Human Life flows within boundaries
But there are no boundaries to wisdom.
To use what has boundaries to pursue what is limitless is folly.
Knowing this, and continuing the way,
Will certainly exhaust your qi...
Hold to the Center as Constant:
This is the way to stay whole.
Sustain your body,
care for your original qi,
And you can live out your allotted years..." --- Zhuangzi
"My words are easy to understand and easy to put into practice.
Yet few people in the world can understand them,
And fewer still put them to practice.
My words have a view,
And my practice has precedent.
If you do not apply the view and the practice
It is difficult to understand me.
Those who understand are rare
And those who practice are rare, indeed.
Yet, it is by these few
That we can measure the greatness of the Way.
The adept practioner shows an unrefined appearance,
But conceals a precious jade." -- Laozi / Daodejing
Resources
For more information on the Benefits of Internal Arts; Tai Chi/QiGong/Yoga, please visit our science-Based Research and Clinical Trial Site AT: TaiChiUniversity.net
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February Newsletter, 2011
Interview of Michael on RVTV
Click above to see the interview, or click this link. If you have any problems viewing it, please let us know as we're giving this video hosting service a trial run.
Circulation Therapies;
Life Style Diseases / Compounded Imbalances / Prevention and Systemic Balance
by Michael Vasquez
Circulation Therapies have been used by every culture and are rooted in our common sense. The core of circulation maintenance is understanding that our bodies are a series of circulation systems that are inter-connected. When a particular system is “off-line”, the basic ability to sense or feel can provide diagnosis and identify the quality of the imbalance. Simple diagnostic ability is all that is required to begin this deeper relationship with ourselves. For example, I can learn to feel if my system is “sluggish” or running in a weak fashion. Like-wise, I can recognize when my systems or system is “racing” or running uncomfortably fast. I can also learn to feel when senses tell me that one (or more) of my systems are a-rhythmic, or out of sync with each other. These are easy things to learn to feel and are the bodies communication or warning systems that tell us that an “adjustment” or change is in order.
Circulation Therapies include:
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Internal Arts- Tai Chi Qigong practices
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Breath practice / Sitting (brain & blood circulation)
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Sauna
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Cupping
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Gua Sha / Moxa
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Bodywork / tui na
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Foot care / Weight distribution
Circulation Supports (Life Style circulation routines)
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Herbs / spices
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Teas
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Korean Scrubbing (best method;exfoliation)
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Study Food medicine / seasonal eating / organ clock / constitution reference / 5 Element/5 flavor
Circulation Consciousness (Qualities that effect circulation)
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Care and make time for yourself everyday- Routine Health care
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Sincerity
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Cultivate in-sight, through openness & reflection, sensory-training precision (Tai Chi/ Qigong)
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Identify- Stagnation, blockage, limitation as symptoms and create a “remedy-habit/ possibilities”
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Service- cause & effect circulation with family /community
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connection to self; Study body rhythms- inner rhythms, outer rhythms, sensitivity cultivation
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Rhythm adaptivity (willingness); study harmonizing, study discord, master flexibility
We are all born with an innate survival instinct that has the potential to be a very sophisticated self-care and diagnostic radar system; capable of reading everything on the inside, correcting imbalance, adjusting to external factors and maintaining life-support systems. So how do Circulation therapies, Life Style Diseases, Compound imbalances ans Balance/Prevention all fit together?
Let's start with a few definitions:
What are Life Style Diseases?
A disease associated with the way a person or group of people lives. Lifestyle diseases include atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke; obesity and type 2 diabetes; and diseases associated with smoking and alcohol and drug abuse. Regular physical activity helps prevent obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, colon cancer, and premature mortality. Such diseases are a result of an inappropriate relationship between people, environment and/or habitual behaviors that become excessive or exclusionary of basic needs, in essence, the loss of common sense and basic self-discipline.
What are Compound conditions or imbalances?
While these two are closely related and often confused, we can say that compound conditions are associated with long-term or chronic imbalance; essentially, Life Style habits that have joined together or created compounded degenerating conditions. It is important to respond to the “symptoms” as they are the bodies way of warning us, the same as the warning lights in a car tell us to check fluids, get fuel, regulate temperature etc. Failure to respond has its own natural consequences- as we all know. Why we don't respond to our internal warning lights has to do with a core imbalance: like and dis-like interfering with our common senses, common knowing of ourselves and needs; our knowing that we need to respond.
Prevention and Systemic Balance- We can understand that some of the examples given as Circulation Therapies may be unfamiliar to us, but some are not. There is a inter-connected-ness with our development in this type of education as we begin to realize our day to day living is the classroom for our deeper learning. Tai Chi and QiGong Classes provide a context for connecting our personal circulation therapies and healing, with alternatives to degenerating habits / patterns and our ability to change, in the face of daily challenges. New life-supporting patterns emerge as we learn to pre-empt states, conditions, habits and patterns, that lead to imbalance, bringing harmony to limitations that once blocked or stagnated us. Systemic sensory perception (how we feel from moment to moment) becomes our measure as we learn to negotiate any and all things that seem to “nock us off-center, out of balance, weaken us or create fear”. We learn to see the signs and we can learn the remedies for returning balance, awakening prevention awareness and developing our internal knowledge of circulations. This comes from the perspective of: inside feelings, from inside to outside and from inside to far beyond our physical bodies; layers of extension and perception working together.
In conclusion, Circulation Therapies are the foundation to illness and injury prevention, compound & chronic conditions and Life Style dis-eases. They are a new standard for us, they contain principles and concepts that relate and consider the many factors that make up our lives and they are user-friendly in our day to day living. Practical, adaptable and powerful beyond our current measures, the Internal Arts and practices of Tai Chi and QiGong are the top-shelf medicines of our times and effect ALL conditions or neglect, excess, imbalance and limitations....that is a fact!
**** Our Pure Whole-Leaf Teas are in and we have a small but excellent selection of White, Green, Oolong, Black and Pu-erh teas. Stay tuned for up-coming Tea-teachings in and around the Rogue Valley as we expose the origin and social customs related to the Gung Fu Tea Ceremony; quite different than the Japanese version of tea ceremony! As part of the tea -teachings, we share how to use the different teas, effects on bodily systems, best times for each tea to support Health, flavor profiles and varieties and long-term benefits. Tea use is part of the Lineage teachings of the original method/Life-studies of Tai Chi and the Life Style Change Arts.
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