Weekly Five Day Scientific Fasting and Meditation Retreat

While research is ongoing as to what makes this diet so effective, it has been demonstrated to clear dampness in the body, reduce inflammation,  and rebuild the essential microbiome system that has received so much attention from the health community recently.

For those struggling with acute health issues, here are some specific clinical results from the USCresearch led by Dr. Valter Longo:

https://prolonfmd.com/clinical-results/

Specially targeted foods are available through health practitioners if you are currently undergoing treatments, such as radiation therapy. 

 

 

 

Fasting is a thousand year tradition in China.  While qigong,taichi, and meditationare integral toitsmental health practice, fasting is integral to itsmedicine practice. Some fasting can last many days or months, including water-only regimens, as well as restricted diet fasts, such as rice soup (porridge) and apples. Some Chinese masters use herb formulas to do more cleansing at the beginning of the fast. [And we will explore some of these as well.]

http://www.natureandhealth.com.au/health/therapeutic-fasting

Scientific verification of fasting benefits is not new.  150 years ago, German doctor and scientist Arnold Ehretdid extensive research on fasting.  His book Mucusless Diet Healing System: Scientific Method of Eating Your Way to Healthencouragedpeople to use fasting as part of their maintenance for mental (clarity) and physical health.

​At this year’s annual A4M anti-aging congress conference, attendanceby doctors doubled comparedto last year.  Most of these doctors, who came from around the world, practice what is known as functional medicine, which is based on finding the underlying cause of a health problem, and focuses on lifestyle changes, such as diet, exercise, sleep and meditation. Research on fasting was one of the main topics of this year’s conference.  Many of the doctors jumped on the Fasting Mimic Diet wagon, and will be implementing it with their patients. 

Come join this exciting revolution in personal health care, and learn how to prepare these delicious, nutrient-packed Semi-fasting meals at home.

Meditation and Fasting have been practiced together for thousands of years in Asia. This week, we shall do the same, practicing different forms of meditation as we set out on a healthy fasting journey.

Why Meditation with Fasting?  Fasting is a physical cleansing.  Meditation is a cleansing of the mind.  From birth, we are conditioned by society along specific guidelines, whose limited perspectives can narrow and confuse the mind.  Just as shown in this picture.

Meditation, as Paul Puddicombe said in his new book “The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness”, creates mindspace, enabling us to see with clarity from a wider perspective. While striving and achieving are inherent to our nature, meditation enables us to realize that our most lasting happiness and joy is not found in the goals we set for ourselves.  This realization helps us to live a life of ease, confidence and freedom in the face of life’s obstacles, heartbreaks and inevitable setbacks.

Between meals morning and afternoon, we will practice the Standing Post Meditation. One of the most potent of all meditations, Standing Post not only calms our mind, it tones our muscles from head to toe, opens our chest, and strengthens our kidneys. With respect to just muscle toning alone, 15 minutes of Standing Post Meditation is the equivalent of one hour of Aerobic exercise.

Other meditations will include:

The Union of Three Hearts.   Practiced sitting on mats on the floor, this key Sheng Zhen meditation, grounded in earth energy and accessing heart energy, enables us to connect to universal healing energy. In addition, as with all mat-sitting meditations, it keeps our spine and neck straight and stretches our pelvic floor, increasing both flexibility to our hips and blood circulation to our reproductive system.

Chair Meditation.  A combination of Vipassana (mindfulness) meditation and Sheng Zhen healing meditation.  Sheng Zhen healing meditation is very age-friendly, with simple, graceful movements that activate healing energy throughout the body. Vipassana meditation is designed to allow the mind to escape its habitually chaotic, mindless, flow by training it to be fully present to each arising moment, beginning with the ever- arising movement of the breath throughout the otherwise stilled body.  The practice has been compared to taming a wild elephant by tying it to a post. At first the elephant constantly fights against its restriction, but gradually it comes to accept it, so that even if the rope is untied from the post the elephant does not wander off.  So too, as mindfulness develops, you do not feel yourself to be controlling the mind, so much as settling into a relaxed, but alert, awareness, called “bare awareness,” whether such bare awareness remains fully with the breath or on the thoughts or feelings that inevitably still arise.  Done as a daily practice, Vipassana eases our worries and anxieties. Our heart becomes settled as our mind, habitually attuned to each arising moment, gains a liberating clarity.

Nine Turns Lying Down Meditation.  This meditation came to Master Li Junfeng in a dream in which he felt  himself being instructed by Lao Tzu. It is especially effective for dealing with insomnia.  The meditation begins by tracing the energy coursing through our acupoint channels. The rush of this fast-moving energy reflects the rush and chaos of the mind. By simply witnessing the movement of energy through the channels, the movement slows down and the mind becomes quiet. Many find they then drift into a very deep sleep. Some have reported experiencing lucid dreaming, which can also be a potent tool for self-healing.