With the exception of Gestational diabetes which usually rectifies itself when the affected pregnant mother gives birth, type 1 and type 2 diabetes are chronic and no cure is as yet known. This leaves patients only with the option of managing their conditions properly. Most doctors agree that the best way to manage diabetes is self management. This means that each patient must be the expert of their own condition and manage it well.
Like for all other chronic conditions, the use of drugs is usually the last option and doctors will always make efforts to put off this for as long as possible. The reason for this is that drugs are chemicals and their usage put a strain on the liver and kidneys. When this strain is over a prolonged period as in the case of chronic conditions, the likelihood of these vital organs failing is high. Many diabetes patients are put on drugs not because their condition warrants this but because as many doctors would agree, they have failed to adhere to their initially prescribed therapies. The most common areas where the patients fail is dietary requirements and physical exercises.
For patients wanting to avoid this pitfall in order to live longer and healthier lifestyles, the need for identifying what works cannot be over emphasized. The most ideal way to go is to train the mind and body to support your efforts to manage the condition. The mind can be trained through meditation and other exercises. This has the benefits of helping an individual come to better terms with self. This process is key because it helps increase self worth and motivation to stay health. It also helps the mind develop better control of the body both in terms of resisting temptations to go outside prescribed diets and deal with laziness to exercises.
Physical exercise on the other hand has several benefits: It helps the increase the rate of movement of glucose in the cells thereby reducing blood sugar; it reduces body weight; improves blood circulation; it reduces stress. All these are known goals of diabetes treatment. When an individual learns to manage their condition in this way, there is not need for any use of drugs. Besides managing diabetes, patients who use the mind-body therapies also avoid many side effects of diabetes drugs. These include diarrhoea, crumps, pain, headaches, anaemia and high blood cholesterol. Of course there is also the benefit of avoiding the cost of medication.
It is possible to get a one-stop “shop” that focuses on both the mind and body exercise. This is found in yoga sessions. A good example of this is Dahn Yoga which combines mental meditation and stretching and body posturing exercises. If there is a Dahn Yoga Centre in your area, you also stand to benefit from group support.
There is no question that stress is an underlying cause of so many health problems in today’s world. Release from the vicious cycle of stress and tension is at the root of all healing experienced through Brain Wave Vibration. Even if stress-related health problems have not yet appeared, many people report feeling more relaxed and less stressed.
When I started doing Brain Wave Vibration, I wondered if it was just a gimmick. How could something so easy create long-term benefits? After experiencing it just a few times. I changed my opinion. It has helped me manage my chronic pain, increase my energy level, and improve my attitude about life in general. In just a short time, my quality of life has improved, and I know it will continue to improve as I progress in my training.
Starting the day this way is a special gift to my body, mind, and soul. Through Brain Wave Vibration—moving my body, following my rhythm, and stopping my busy mind—I am able to connect and heal my body and mind. It is absolutely one of the most effective techniques I’ve experienced for purifying my whole body, clearing my mind, and nurturing the spirit. It’s simple to do and allows me to deeply connect within, listen to my body choose, create, and achieve what I want. Amazing!
Ilchi Lee says that the work that he does is meant to provide people with three essential elements: health, happiness, and peace. Brain Wave Vibration is especially notable among the hundreds of techniques that he has developed because of its profound simplicity and surprising level of effectiveness. For that reason, he has traveled widely, teaching the technique to people in Korea, Japan, and the United States.
Thousands of people worldwide have benefited from Brain Wave Vibration, and many inspiring stories have emerged—enough to fill a book on their own. People have found relief for everything from chronic diseases to personal relationship problems. In the next few pages, you will meet some of the people making physical, mental, and spiritual changes in their lives with the help of Brain Wave Vibration.
My own healing process lead to the creation of a method called Jangsaeng Walking (see page 152), which utilizes proper alignment of the body and stimulation of the Yong-chun energy point on the ball of the foot. Numerous studies have already confirmed the health benefits of walking, and I believe that part of the healing results from the vibrations inherent to the act of walking. Jangsaeng Walking is meant to further accentuate the healthy attributes of this activity. As each footstep comes in con-tact with the Earth, vibrations run through our bodies, opening us up to the healing energy our bodies provide. The human body is designed for walking, and it is unfortunate that modern life offers fewer opportunities for this natural healing method. Walking, like the vibrations it produces, is part of the natural wisdom of the human body, and perhaps the most natural form of Brain Wave Vibration.
Returning to the Long-Lost Wisdom
Bradford Kceney has traveled the world seeking understand¬ing of primitive healing customs. His conclusion, .like mine, is that healing can be found through vibration, what he refers to as “shaking medicine.”
Soon, much sooner than anyone thought possible, I was up and walking again. As I took my first feeble steps, I remained acutely aware of the effects of vibration in my body. What before had seemed like a horrible accident now seemed like a great blessing; the painful process of healing seemed to have heightened my ability to perceive and understand the nature of vibration in my body.
As I taught myself to walk again, I discovered that even very small adjustments in body position could make a big difference in how vibrations flowed through my body. As I adjusted my gait and posture for maximum healing benefit, I corrected bad habits I had fallen into long before the accident happened. As it turned out, I had been walking like an old man for quite a while without even realizing it. I began to observe how people walk, and I noticed that, for the most part, younger people walk with a spring in their step that fully utilizes vibratory energy in the body. Older people, on the other hand, tend to take a walk¬ing posture that stagnates the natural vibrations of walking, ulti-mately compromising their own energetic vitality.
He goes on to say that this integration allows “unconscious or preconscious primary information processing functions and outputs to be integrated into the operations of the frontal cortex.” In other words, the rational, conscious part of the brain is able to harmonize with the brain stem, the part of the brain dictating the subconscious operations of the body.
More recently, vibration has become popular as a means to develop bone density in older people. By simply standing on an oscillating platform, subjects who were otherwise limited in mobility were able to achieve effects similar to those achieved through vigorous physical exercise (Olaf).
In another study at Boston University, older men were given vibrating insoles for their shoes. Researchers found that the men’s balance improved and accidental falls dropped to well be¬low the normal rate.
Why, if we have been able to conquer polio, smallpox, and other deadly contagion, have we not been able to conquer this thing called stress? The answer lies in how we relate to the world from the inside out, not in how the outside world relates to us. When a doctor controls a bacterial infection with an antibiotic, he or she is attacking an invader that came from outside the body. But in the case of stress, the effects are largely self-inflicted.
It would be nice if we could simply eliminate stress in our lives with a pill, but that is not the case. Neither is it likely that you will reach a point where you have fixed all of your problems and have no challenging situations to trace. You may say that people or events in your life are stressful, but really stress is something you generate yourself within your own mind. Controlling the effects of stress will require understanding yourself better, not changing your outside environment.
Consider, for example, two young men taking a graduate school entrance exam. Imagine they are taking the same exam and that both arc equally prepared, but one person arrives at the classroom with sweaty palms and a racing heartbeat, while the other remains perfectly calm and relaxed. What really makes the difference here?
For the sake of your own health and happiness, as well as that of so many others around you, please pay attention to the quality of your thoughts. People spend many hours honing the shapes of their bodies through weight lifting, aerobic exercise, and other athletic endeavors. I believe people should pay equal, if not more, attention to the fitness of their brain waves. I believe that behind almost every illness and every relationship problem lies some habit related to unhealthy brain waves. Healthier brain waves translate into healthier emotional states, which in turn create stronger bodies and happier lives.
Coming Full Circle
The shamans of the past, and perhaps those existing in the present, were essentially brain wave doctors. They did not have the scientific understanding of brain waves that we possess, but it is clear that their healing system was designed to stimulate healing power from within the ailing individual. Often this involved vigorously shaking the body or dancing frenetically until a deep state of trance was achieved.
Excitement, heightened emotional state method by which subjects are trained to control various biological functions, can be used to help people with alcoholism overcome their addiction. Through biofeedback, these people were able to increase lower frequency alpha and theta brain waves, which are associated with a peaceful, meditative state of mind, while controlling higher frequency beta waves. This ability resulted in less depression and fewer cravings for alcohol among the subjects.
One of my students, in fact, is a researcher in the area ot bio-feedback, specializing in measuring brain activity through EEG machines. He was very skeptical about the claimed benefits oi Brain Wave Vibration, like many other scientists might be. But he gave it a try anyway because he was suffering trom a number of ailments and wanted to find a quick stress-reliet exercise that could fit his schedule. After a few weeks of practice, his focus improved, his headaches disappeared, and his shoulder pain subsided. He is now thoroughly convinced that brain waves can be influenced through movement of the body.
It is also clear that even the kinds of thoughts we have can greatly affect our physical health. Scientists demonstrated the effect of the mind on the body more than a hundred years ago.