I’ve been missing Sedona a lot lately. I haven’t missed her this much since I moved away. I think it means my energy needs more support from its wonderful vortexes. Although I physically can’t go there today, time and space don’t matter in the energy world, so I will go there in my mind and heart.

Here is a little Sedona love for you all.

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Welcome everyone to June. The best month of the year . . . because it’s my birthday month. I have the greatest thing to tell you about. It’s called Belly Button Healing. You have to try it. Ilchi Lee invented it, because he was looking for better ways to heal himself when he didn’t feel well or was injured. He had an instinct about the belly button, and started exploring its capabilities in his usual way, testing various ways of pressing and massaging it and observing what it did to his body.

Over time, he learned more and more about the belly button and all of the things it’s connected to or on top of in the body. Because of his interest in the brain, he was especially interested in the fact that it lies over what has been called the “second brain.” The second brain is another term for the enteric nervous system, the network of nerves that manages the digestive tract, as well as helper organs such as the spleen and gall bladder. This network can do its very important job of getting important nutrients and other substances from the outside world while protecting the body from outside things that would harm it, without micromanagement from the brain. The brain does help coordinate its actions with the rest of what is going on in the body and gets lots of information from the enteric nervous system. They are closely connected via important nerves, especially the vagus nerve, which is a cranial nerve that bypasses the spinal cord and goes right to the brainstem.

Another important feature of the gut in terms of our overall health is that it makes a lot of hormones that not only affect digestion, but also the brain and emotion. The gut makes about 90% of the serotonin in the body, the “happiness hormone,” and 50% of the dopamine, the “joy hormone.” For this reason, and perhaps more, the condition of our gut is often affect by, or in turn, affects, the condition of the brain. It has been linked to conditions such as depression, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, and ADHD.

The belly button is also important in the body’s network of fascia. Through this network, it’s connected to many different parts of the body, even as far away as the shoulders, neck, hips, and knees. You can release tension and pain in your body by pressing on your belly button, which lies approximately at the center.

Inside the abdominal cavity, important organs, blood vessels, and lymph nodes sit. About 30% of the body’s blood can be found there at any given time. But if the abdomen is cool and/or stiff, the blood, lymph, and food don’t move through the abdomen well. Belly Button Healing warms the abdomen and gets everything inside it moving. It’s a simple, pointed, and focused kind of abdominal massage that gives your organs a workout.

Ilchi Lee is always looking for new ways to empower people to connect to and be responsible for the health of their body, mind, and spirit. Belly Button Healing is the latest way he is sharing widely. While this method has immediate effects—people have demonstrated larger range of motion and pain relief from doing it just one time—it is not a magical cure-all. It takes ongoing practice to feel its full force and to use it to improve and maintain your health. Ilchi Lee recommends doing it three times a day for one to three minutes. With a steady practice of Belly Button Healing, any immediate effects will be enhanced and new improvements will appear.

I have been doing it sporadically myself—about once a day. I can feel my brain waves slowing down and energy releasing from my solar plexus, throat, and ears. My shoulders relax and my belly gets warm. The movements also stimulate some kind of pleasure center. I will keep exploring the potential of this practice.

We just published Ilchi Lee’s book, Belly Button Healing: Unlocking Your Second Brain for Your Healthy Life. For more information about Belly Button Healing, you can go to BellyButtonHealing.com.

What kind of person are you? What kind of person do you want to be? After meeting don Miguel Ruiz, who has serious health issues, and seeing his attitude toward life, Ilchi Lee was inspired to suggest six qualities a spiritual leader of good character should embody.

6 Points for Recovering Human Character (Message of the Warrior) 

1. One that smiles at the face of death.
2. One that sings in front of death.
3. One that is enraged by death’s appearance and speaks of the Law that shocks death.
4. True courage is the strength to get back up on your feet in the face of huge fear.
5. One who is generous and kind to the weak. One that doesn’t cower in front of injustice—that person is a righteous person.
6. One who is like a lion in the face of injustice and a lamb in front of goodwill. Become a person who is very wise like an ox in front of difficulty and hardship.

I’m posting this here so that I remember these points. I want to fully incorporate them into my mind, understand them, and enact them.

Today I remembered that anything I know how to do came from hours of practice. I never miraculously did something well the first time (that I can remember . . . except maybe eye bleeding a rat, but I think that was beginner’s luck, because it wasn’t so smooth and easy the second time). I’ve also never had a special talent that stood apart from other abilities, although there are things that I’m not so good at such as team sports and physics. But even with the things I’m not so good at, with practice, I’ve gotten better, even to the point where I can enjoy them even when I’m not doing them well.

Right now, my job is editing and writing. This activity forces me to look deep into myself and move a lot of energy. In the process, I feel greater connection to my true self and to divinity.

Part of that process, however, is having the will to keep going despite the self-doubt, frustration, or downright anger I often feel as I get deeper into a piece of writing. These emotions are just one layer out of many that I have inside, but they can be so strong that they can seem like the ultimate truth in the moment I am facing them. It’s always helpful for me to remember, “Oh, right. I’ve been through this before. I just have to keep going until I get to the other side.”

On the other side is greater clarity and hope. I won’t suddenly become an amazing, award-winning writer if I take that one more step needed in order to be clear of that negative block of emotions. That will take a lot more practice. But I might find meaning and inspiration in my work, and perhaps a way to express what I would like to communicate in a way that resonates with people—or at least makes sense.

BEFORE

AFTER

I am writing down all of the things my ego keeps telling me today in the hope that when it is expressed, those voices will shut up.

I am right. I am always right, and everyone else is wrong. If I’m wrong, it’s too painful, and I can’t deal with that pain right now. My tailbone is a little painful, I’m craving sugar and caffeine, and I’m ready to snap at anyone about anything.

I’m supposed to have practiced Brain Education for the past 10 years, but where have I gotten? Am I really practicing it? Do I even know how to practice it? Who the hell am I to be telling other people how to live? How can I help?

I know how to have hope, and I know how to encourage myself, but I don’t really feel like it. I just want to dig in my heals, cross my arms over my chest, and whine, whine, whine. I love the sound of my own voice, even in my head.

I am ugly. I can’t talk. My thought processes are simplistic. I’ll believe anything that feels good. I don’t have discipline. I haven’t learned Korean yet. My posture is horrible. I don’t worry enough, yet, at the same time, I worry too much: Am I focusing on the right things? How can I be right? How can people like me, or at least, still give me work to do and pay me a salary so that I can eat all the food I want?

Wow, that actually worked. After a while I felt better, then deeper stuff came out, and now I’m just tired of complaining. I don’t care about my complaints. I am free!

Now I will use that energy to just be happy within myself and do my job.

Happy day!

I started to brainstorm or free-write about Ilchi Lee and who he is for the sake of a branding meeting we are having today. I wanted to tease out my own thoughts on the topic and clarify them. Because I like the energy of them and where they flowed from, I’d like to share them here.

Ilchi Lee has a big dream. He wants to everyone on earth to recognize their infinite value, and in doing so, feel the connections between themselves, others, and the earth. He wants everyone to feel love for the earth and love for humanity, and express that as stewards of the earth, as Earth Citizens. For that, he developed what is now called Brain Education, so people can realize the same thing for themselves. Brain Education is education that is not education. It’s self-realization. But we need education for it because this ability has been mostly lost in modern culture. Ancient peoples, like those in Korea, had this wisdom. It was infused in every part of the culture. Now Ilchi Lee is bringing that wisdom back. That wisdom is in all of us, and it’s in nature. Simply being in nature, and letting our minds and emotions become free and empty—muah in Korean—will bring us the realization of our true value that we need in order to be truly healthy, happy, peaceful, and of benefit to all others and the earth.

I share this dream with Ilchi Lee. That’s why I work on his website and his books. This work opens my peace and joy, and for that, I am grateful.

Yesterday, Ilchi Lee posted an inspirational message that I decided to share in abbreviated form. It’s another call to be great by changing the way we look at the world and live our lives.

Unlike the cloistered St. Therese, however, Ilchi Lee asks us to go out into the world and share, share, share. His approach is the opposite of being alone in your spiritual devotion. Personally, I find that when I reach out and share my heart, I discover great peace and satisfaction. So I follow Ilchi Lee’s approach.

In this treatise, he talks about these modern times. Honestly, I don’t know whether the people are any worse than we were thousands of years ago. I think the difference is that there are more of us, and we have more technology, so we have greater impact. Another difference is that we have more of a chance to effect real change in ourselves and in the world. So I think we should take it. Now is the time to embody that change. . . I’m working on it.

I believe in the power of the dreams that people cherish in their hearts. A great and beautiful dream makes a person great and beautiful. Just as individuals have dreams and corporations have dreams, a country must have a dream and humankind also has to have a dream. Dreams turn wandering into adventure, change apathy into passion, and bring separated hearts together as one.

It has been 16 years since all of the Earth Humans ushered in the new millennium with fire in their hearts. The world we’re living in, however, is growing increasingly distant from hope and happiness. With problems that include military disputes over national borders, economic turmoil, and environmental issues that grow more serious with each passing day, there is deepening conflict and anxiety, and it is difficult to find new hope and vision.

No country can be seen taking on a genuine leadership role in this era. There is not a true model nation that shows, through the practice of its government and the lives of its citizens, how humankind should move forward. Though there are superpowers, there is not a true leading nation that regards as its business the peace and happiness of the earth and humankind as a whole, and gives this its concerted effort and consideration. They’re simply too busy negotiating and fighting just to be even a little better off than other countries; there is no country that dreams a great dream for the sake of humanity.

Where can we find new hope? Who will direct humankind toward a new dream and vision? What I’m suggesting now, is that the United States and the American citizens—we the People—rise to the occasion and fulfill this role and responsibility that humankind so desperately and urgently needs. And I propose that such a dream must be cherished and shared by at least 100 million Earth Citizens.

It’s hard to become the hope for humankind in this era right now with economic power or the power of national defense alone. If America truly intends to inspire and set the example for humankind, we must have a philosophy and vision, and we have to show it concretely through the aspect of our daily lives as we make actual contributions to the earth and humankind.

The fastest way to bring about real change to the earth is for every member of humankind to recover the true human spirit that lives in their heart. America was established on a foundation of creativity and a pioneering spirit, as well as the values of freedom, justice, and equality. On a foundation of true human spirit, America must now rise up with the great dream of unfolding a new future for the earth together. This dream must go beyond the level of protecting the national interests of the US alone to developing a great spirit and movement that inspires people to feel limitless responsibility for the earth and humankind. Rather than regarding ourselves as a member of only one country, we must think of ourselves as Earth Citizens who practice true love for the earth and love for humankind; that is the Earth Citizen Movement that must spread.

The Earth Citizen Movement awakens the true human spirit in all people. It’s a movement for recovering natural healing power to create one’s own health and happiness and to live a life of actualizing the beautiful and noble qualities that human beings possess. It’s a movement that promotes finding one’s dream and value, and pursuing harmony and the actualization of internal value over competition and external growth, in order to create a healthy and sustainable earth. This kind of movement must take place through individuals, families, schools, workplaces, and all areas of society. There must be 100 million people who have the Earth Citizen spirit by the year 2020 in order for human civilization to be able to make the shift from destruction to hope at the crossroads where we stand.

An increase in the number of people who have true human spirit is the way to prepare new hope for humankind. Spirit does not end as spirit. When spirit gathers, energy forms and matter forms. In the same way, when the minds and hearts of those who are sincerely concerned for the future of the earth and of humankind come together, we can make truly great accomplishments.

Every school on earth must cultivate Earth Citizens, every family must raise Earth Citizens, and the goal of every workplace, social group, discipline, country, and the UN must be to strive toward recovering the beauty of the earth’s natural environment, reviving human character, and establishing human peace. If a great and beautiful revolution of consciousness that would develop Earth Citizens, who go beyond their individual and selfish consciousness to be helpful to human beings and the world, could arise in a huge way in the year 2016, it would be a miracle and a joy that would long be remembered throughout human history.

I hope with all my heart that many people will participate in this historic effort to create human peace. I hope that five years from now, in the year 2020, we can look on together as a new Earth Village is born through the power of 100 million Earth Citizens.

I also found these quotes from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux on Wikipedia. They remind me of Eastern approaches to spirituality. I also like simple approaches myself.

Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd of illusions, my poor little mind quickly tires. I close the learned book which is breaking my head and drying up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a single word uncovers for my soul infinite horizons; perfection seems simple; I see that it is enough to recognize one’s nothingness and to abandon oneself, like a child, into God’s arms. Leaving to great souls, to great minds, the beautiful books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet.

Here is what she said about her approach to prayer:

For me, prayer is a movement of the heart; it is a simple glance toward Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and love in times of trial as well as in times of joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus…I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayers…I do like a child who does not know how to read; I say very simply to God what I want to say, and He always understands me.