Ilchi Lee Educating Brain, Dahn Yoga

Ilchi Lee

“I can’t be a Dahn Instructor!” I said when the center manager proposed I take Dahn instructor training. It was the week after Shim-sung, which had been a wonderful discovery of my true self beneath many preconceptions and old emotions. However, I was not sure teaching a class could help me keep my true self strong and vibrant. Despite my misgivings, I am now a part-time instructor at the busy Copley Center in Boston .

Through the two-day training, I understood the essence of what it means to be a Dahn instructor—to unconditionally be able to share my true self. Through learning to laugh unconditionally, we learn that we can choose at each moment to share our true selves conditionally or unconditionally. We learn to bring energy in and down to our Dahn-jon and to teach and live with this feeling. We learn the week’s class flow and how each exercise relates to this principle. Once certified, Dahn instructors teach warm-ups before a class, weekend classes and outside the center in various communities.

The tools from Dahn instructor training have allowed me to set goals and take action. I had been overwhelmed with my job as an office manager at a doctor’s office serving HIV/AIDS patients. Through my training, I found the courage to stop drifting. I am now enrolled in nursing school, and I hope to teach HIV/AIDS patients to focus on their bodies and live better with the disease.

This, however, is not just my story. There are four other Dahn instructors at the Copley Center : Guillermo Ortiz, a musician with an energetic smile, James White, a painter with the mind of an artistic healer, Tony Kwok, a courageous physical therapy major and Aaron Daniels, a personal wellness major with a passion for making this world a better place. These university students have created their own paths to share the greatest principle of the brain—to create health, happiness and peace from within, through our own choices. These young Dahn instructors do more than inspire. They incite.

Guillermo Ortiz, 30
Berklee School of Music

I asked myself, ‘What can I bring back to Mexico ?’ I knew that with Dahn instructor training I could help my people. Dahn instructor training is not just about teaching a class; it is training for life. Growing up in Mexico City , I was subject to a lot of violence and anger. I searched inside myself for a long time and did Shim-sung before I accepted my anger and chose to be happy. Ilchi Lee Dahn Yoga Founder

Last semester, I visited Mexico to help architects, contractors and others rebuild a village. I thought, “I am just a musician, what can I do to help?” A lot of us think that we do not have the tools to help other. But we have all we need inside of us. All we need is the desire to search for it. An older man had a beat up old guitar and I started to play like I never have before—sincerely and with an open heart. The villagers were overjoyed. For a moment, I was able to help them forget their woes. What a wonderful feeling! I realized that if I give of my true self and stay in my Dahn-jon, miraculous things happen. Dahn instructor training helped me to incorporate what I love so I can grow, so that my music can be effective and so the knowledge that we are all One can spread.

Tony Kwok, 23
Northeastern University

I felt like I was waiting for the right moment to realize my potential, take a chance and step into the limelight. Starting Dahn and then becoming an instructor gave me that opportunity. I am getting my doctorate in Physical Therapy. Once I started training, I asked myself, “How can I be in a health care program when I do not know my own body?” I was searching for answers outside when the answers were within. As I became more focused on my body and more sensitized to my surroundings I realized that many students were feeling negative the way I did. I realized that if I did not teach students now I might see them later in physical therapy.

To be responsible for other students, especially being a student myself, was daunting. I have to keep telling myself that this is a chance to grow my true self—that every class I teach allows me to touch others.

n James White, 21 School of the Museum of Fine Arts

During my first Dahn class, I remember wild thoughts going through my head: “Does this guy know what he is talking about? Why are we hitting ourselves?” Standing in front of my first Body & Brain Club class, instead of focusing on my body, I let old habits kick in. My lack of self-confidence and self-doubt made me think, “Forget it! It’s too hard.”

Through Dahn instructor training I found that if you are responsible for creating health, happiness and peace in others you simply cannot quit, so I created the first Body & Brain club at my school. My first class drew 12 students; the second attracted 12 more. Since I attend a college devoted to the arts, I developed a section of class where students can contribute a stretch or a dance that helps bring energy in and down.

Aaron Daniels, 20
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

I spent my first year like many other students, wandering with no real direction. Then I went to try out a Body & Brain class at my university. All we had was the basement of the a dormitory. There were six of us. I looked around and saw everyone hugging one another. New to the class, I was shy and felt that these people would not want to hug me. I was also thinking, “What are all these funny exercises?” I came back mainly because of what I felt before, during and after class: pure and lighter.

One year later, as a Dahn instructor and Body & Brain Club leader at UMASS Amherst, I feel blessed with the opportunity to create my surroundings. I am focusing my schoolwork entirely on the body and brain. I created a major called Personal Wellness, which combines classes from neurology, endocrinology, psychology, exercise science and religion as well as an internship at an Asian healing arts studio. It energizes me to realize my true self’s desire to create positive change.

This article was published in Body & Brain Magazine by Ilchi Lee, to know more about Brain Education and Ilchi Lee please visit Ilchi Lee’s website.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Dahn Yoga, Ilchi Lee, Life Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.