October 4, 2008
Takoma Park, Maryland USA
Eating Well For Exercise, Stamina & Longevity
Eating healthy foods greatly benefits wellness. But eating well plus exercise will create dynamic health. There are different kinds of exercises, what Chinese call “inner” vs. “outer”, such as tai chi vs. jogging.
We will compare their benefits and disadvantages. Often when someone adds regular exercise they have more difficulties with eating, especially by craving excessive sweets, liquids or alcohol. This lecture will explore key ways that healthy eating can complement exercise, including how to schedule meals and snacks appropriately. Overall, by including regular exercise we can improve vitality, stamina and benefit our prospects of a longer, healthier life.
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November 14-17, 2008
London, England
Basic Alchemy—Macrobiotics & Oriental Healing
Basic Alchemy
This intensive workshop is both educational and interactive. The goal is to bring new clarity to each person's understanding of health and healing. By exploring new ways of seeing the true harmony of the body, mind and spirit we can uncover subtle ways to tune in and continue on a committed path of conscious self healing. We will go beyond the popular fear-based views of disease and sickness and beyond the escapist ideas of thinking your way to wellness or merely hoping that medical science will create a magic bullet cure for our modern diseases. This program will take you from curiosity to knowledge by combining Western understanding of the body with Oriental medicine's profound energetic insights of body/mind.
Health is our birthright. Our culture’s view of disease, disability, depression, decline and death is not a necessary reality. We can change our personal destiny and embrace life’s changes. This course will explore ways to embrace life’s changes, how sickness can lead to greater health and where confusion can lead to greater clarity.
This program is a gateway for personal change through an understanding of the essentials of Oriental medicine and macrobiotic principles. These insights are easily understood and usable by everyone.
Macrobiotics & Oriental Healing
This intensive 4-day study program is designed for everyone interested in being more self-confident in caring for themselves or others.
Oriental healing is over 3,000 years old. Tested and refined through the ages, it now offers the West insights and new paradigms for healing.
We will combine essential teachings from Oriental philosophy and healing along with vital macrobiotic teachings updated for a contemporary western interpretation. The material is easy to learn and will open new doors of personal understanding.
Modern Western medical beliefs and “science” have indoctrinated us at a deep level. We will examine our views of the body, sickness, healing and health. We will challenge popular assumptions such as inheriting disease, and the belief that aging brings only decline, dementia and death by disease.
Further, we will explore the body-mind-spirit connection in ways that expand our understanding and give direct tools for experiencing their unity.
This course is a 4-day intensive, led by Michael Rossoff, L.Ac.
Blueprint for Health & Remaking of the Self
- Way of Perception I: Yin Yang Principles (Duality, Harmony, Paradox)
Yin-yang way of thinking is a dynamic way of perceiving the world that takes us beyond dualism of good-bad and into the world of harmony and paradox.
- Way of Perception II: Five Phase Energetics (Dynamics of Life)
The Five Phases is an ancient tool for seeing the interplay of the forces of nature. This can be a profound way of seeing the interconnections of body, mind and spirit, and how foods can be used in healing.
- Constitution: Ancestors, Parents, Prenatal Origins, Birth, & Babyhood
Our constitution is the foundation for our life. This is a power stored within the body, called Jing (Essence) in Chinese medicine. What comprises this power, how to assess its strengths and how do we use and misuse it?
- Outline of the Energy Body: Meridians, Points
The meridians are the energy maps of the body. They, along with the points located on them, represent the pathways of our everyday energies. They are the main, external means we have for influencing our internal energies and functions. We will learn these main pathways and meanings of key power points on these meridians.
- Blood & Ki (Qi): Wellspring of Physical & Energy Life
The sustaining of life requires both Blood and Qi (energy). We will explore there intertwined relationships and see how we create more of each.
- Anatomy: Western and Eastern
It is useful to know the basics of body anatomy, where the Eastern understanding of organ functions is much different and dynamic than in the West.
- Energetics of Food
All food has nutrients and even more importantly, all food has specific energy natures. We will explore this concept by Yin-Yang, the Five Elements which include assessment by color, taste and seasons, as well as where and how individual foods grow.
- Power of Digestion
We will examine digestion and assimilation—from an energetic and nutritional standpoint. We will study digestive problems such as acid reflux, nausea, bloating, constipation and diarrhea. Using yin-yang, we will explore which foods weaken or strengthen digestion. This power is primal for creating blood and maintaining immunity.
- Power of the Mind in Health & Healing
An exploration into the connections between mind-body and spirit-body natures. The mind can be a healer and the spirit can be a savior.
- Diagnosis 101: Body Messages
This is an introduction into Oriental diagnosis. Why do things appear as they do? Why does someone have one shoulder higher than another? Why are some fingernails brittle? Why does someone's voice have a groaning sound? And much more.
- Sickness & Disease: Understanding Cause, Approaches for Healing
True healing can only come from a clear understanding of causative factors.
- Food for Daily Wellbeing--Food for Healing
We will discuss the best ways for selecting and preparing foods for overall wellness. This will involve more vegetable than animal and more cooked than raw and more seasonal and local. In order to use foods for healing specific conditions, we will analyze various major health problems look at key foods that can perpetuate or heal these conditions.
- Methods for Tension Release
Physical and mental tensions go together. By learning simple ways for releasing physical tensions, our mind can relax and calm down. We will learn simple massage techniques, acupressure points, qigong and breathing practices that can create deep change.
- Acupressure Points: Key Points for Wellness
We will study the 20 most powerful acupressure points, how to locate and stimulate them properly, as well as why and when to use them.
- Special Way for Creating Emotional & Spiritual Balance
We all seek emotional calm and spiritual clarity. There are many appropriate methods towards achieving these goals. We will look at some simple, yet profound ways that can benefit everyone.
- Power of Mind & Spirit in Healing
Thoughts and actions must be in accord for natural health. Learn how to use our mental capacities as a tool rather than a hindrance for our spiritual healing.
- Breath Work & Qigong
The power of breathing and special movement exercises and enhance everyone's wellbeing.
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November 21-24, 2008
London, England
Woman & Man’s Health:
The Key to Harmony & Happiness
As man or woman, it is our individual responsibility to maintain our health. Through greater health, we will open ourselves to others and be capable of receiving love and caring. Sexual health is connected to personal health in physical, emotional and spiritual ways. Sexual contentment hinges on the ability to surrender and the sensitivity to receive. Yet these aspects are diminished by imbalanced health, whether it is called fibroids, enlarged prostate or called fears and inhibitions. Sexual health is directly connected with personal wellbeing, which must embrace physical stamina, mental calm, emotional stability and spiritual openness.
The goal of the course is to re-establish a connection to the roots of life, our connection to our primal birthright. We will examine the core energies which provide the force for development from infant to adult, and for the power of sexuality. Many years of imbalanced living, whether lifestyle, toxic air, water or foods distort and weaken these core energies. We will learn powerful ways for rebalancing and enhancing our energies. The outcome will be more secure health, a greater sense of self and an ability to bring intimacy and loving kindness back into our relationships.
This 4-day intensive, is taught by Michael Rossoff, L.Ac.
- Blood & Ki (Qi): The Difference Between Woman & Man
Our human existence depends of Blood and Qi. Women are dominated more by Blood and men are dominated more by Qi. Therefore their problems and needs differ. We will explore this.
- Form & Function: Western and Eastern Anatomy
A brief look at the anatomy of the reproductive systems of man and woman, then we will explore how Oriental healing understands the energetics of these same systems.
- Women’s Health: From Childhood to Post-Menopause
In the medical classics of the Orient, women are on seven-year cycles. We will follow a normal lifetime based on these cycles, and their potentials for wellness and aging.
- Men’s Health: From Childhood to Old Age
Men are on eight-year cycles. We will follow a normal lifetime based on these cycles and their implications for wellness and aging.
- Sexual Health for Men & Women: Where Heaven Meets Earth
We will explore how men and women's reproductive health effects their sexual capacity and enjoyment. Each person has different needs that will be studied by yin-yang, key meridian energies and specific foods. Some Taoist sexual practices will be discussed.
- Energetics of Food & Breath for Healing
All healing depends on renewal of energies. The two primary sources of natural energy are from food and air. These two will be studied in-depth as principle means of true healing.
- Major Health Problems of Men & Women: Causes and Healing
We will study key health problems of women such as common menstrual problems, menopause issues, and will briefly cover other problems, for example, breast cysts, fibroid tumors and cervical dysplasia. Male health issues such as prostate problems and impotence will be studied. Lack of sexual interest and vitality for both women and men will be discussed.
- Food for Daily Wellbeing; Food for Healing
Among the healing approaches, most central is the use of foods. We will explore the choices people make with their daily eating, and ways to improve habits and selection of foods. The impact can be immense.
- Special Way for Creating Emotional & Spiritual Balance
Emotional wellbeing can be the gateway for spirit harmony. We will find ways to be more in touch and techniques for freeing ourselves from our emotional knots.
- Power of Mind & Spirit in Healing
This is an exploration into the connections between mind-body and spirit-body natures: the mind as healer and the spirit as savior.
- Aging and the Age of Wisdom
How to age gracefully and healthfully? This is the art of longevity. And finally there can be the blessing of a natural death.
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