The K'ai Men Gallery
An open door for an open mind
The answer to life, the universe and everything.
Could be a joke right, but then it might not be!

What does this question mean? what is it we're asking ourselves.

"The answer to life",
We all wish we knew what would make us happy and content, what would make us healthier and even wealthier.

"The answer to the universe and everything",
Now that's a big one, or is it, could we ever learn what makes the universe tick, not very likely as what makes the universe tick (the Tao) is way beyond the comprehension of humans.

But.
Knowledge isn't all its cracked up to be, sometimes we don't actually need knowledge, just understanding.
If we could understand, and truly feel apart of our universe, then we may come to know it, and to be at one with it.
We may then find the answers we're looking for, or simply realise that we were looking for the wrong things.

Follow this simple six point plan. It will help you to find the answers to your questions and learn to understand your life and the Tao.
 
1:- Diet.
Start the Ch'ang Ming diet as soon as possible. (You can start here)
 
2:- Exorcise.
Take up Tai chi (preferably a Yin Yang, Balanced style, nothing too extreme either way), take regular gentle exorcise. (You can start here)
Or yoga.
Try to avoid exorcises that create shock to the joints, like tennis and badminton.
Good examples are cycling and swimming.

3:- Control your thoughts.
We all spend an unimaginable amount of time thinking negative, unpleasant or unnecessary thoughts, we may make up scenario's in our mind to prepare ourselves to deal with things things that have not yet happened.
You will find that those odd moments or two of negative thought, add up.
If we can reduce or eliminate the time we spend worrying or churning things over in our heads then our lives could be instantly better.

You can do this by choosing a simple saying to replace them with, like, "I only want to think positive thoughts", or "I don't want to think that , so I won't.
Its simply a mental confirmation that you no longer want to allow your brain to wonder.

Every time you find your self thinking negative thoughts or if you're simply winding yourself up by churning things over in your head then stop, and think your chosen saying, do not return to your previous thought, if you do, repeat your saying or choose to think on something else.

We all understand when athlete's talk about muscle memory ( the way our muscle's remember movements we do regularly, making them easier the next time we need them), what we don't appreciate is that the brain is a muscle too, by allowing it to wonder and think on negative things, your brain remembers how easy this is and returns to it whenever it gets board, you might say that your brain gets used to thinking negative thoughts, whether you like it or not.
By repeating your chosen saying you can train your brain to use its board times to better ends.
By using meditation and Tai Chi, you can stop your brain getting board at all.

The more you do this is the less negativity will fill your day, the better you will feel.
 

4:-A face lift.
Remember the muscle memory mentioned earlier, if your unsure what this means, Ill explain, when a muscle repeats the same action over and over again, the muscle remembers this movement and allows you to access it quicker and easier (almost like a RAM cache in a computer).
This benefit's athlete's because, by training their bodies over and over again their bodies become accustomed to the movement, remembers it and allows them to access that movement easier and with greater control.

Remember this always, because when we walk down the road our faces learn too.
If we walk through our lives scowling then that's all we will be able to do.

Smiling not only makes us feel better it actually makes us better. Changes in the brain produce chemicals that effect the way we feel, as such the chemicals produced when smiling are far more beneficial than those produced by a grimace.

A smiling friendly face can have untold benefit's, if we see a person walking down the street smiling we all smile back, so smile therapy can be shared across the world.

Give yourself a face lift, smile at someone today.

 
5:- Reaction Therapy.
Reaction therapy is all about being in control of the way we react to each other.
There are millions of people arguing unnecessarily at this very moment.

The problem is that over the generations we have al become to dependent on the spoken word and unfortunately language is a very inefficient way of communicating.

From the day humans received conscious thought we have been reacting to the body language of those around us, we formed the bases for our relationships on body language not the spoken word, humans didn't have a complex language then, but we still formed relationships.

Although the human brain has learnt much since then, it still has trouble not reacting to body language.

Men are especially susceptible to tones and body language, in most arguments between men and woman the man can hardly remember what started or caused the argument in the first place.
This is usually because they weren't listening as such, they're minds have prioritised and have switched from the spoken word (which women are much better at) to tones and body language.

These misunderstanding's are a regular occurrence with the stresses of the modern world.

How to avoid this.
Make the conscious affect to step back, look at your situation from outside of your emotional anger, do not react to what you think you may have heard.

If necessary remove yourself from the situation and then come back to it with a clear mind later.
All problems, relationship based or not really do need dealing with, if not they will grow.
What we don't need, is to deal with them whilst in a negative frame of mind.

Learn to listen to your tone of voice, recording an argument and listening to it to later will allow you to hear tones you really were not aware of.

You will find that not reacting to those around us in a negative way, will change the attitude of the person we're dealing with, and may solve the problem altogether.
This is very difficult to do, but by trying your best at every opportunity, you will become more aware of the things you react to the most, this will help you to understand them and not to react to them.

 

6:- Spiritual growth.
Look further into the Tao and your own spirituality, you have the chance to make your life happier and healthier, now its up to you.
 

Good Journey

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