Category Archives: Art

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BreatheStrong, and our battle with the Lance Armstrong Foundation


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We’ve read that Lance Armstrong is scheduled to do an in-depth, ‘no-holds barred,’ interview with Oprah Winfrey on January 17, 2013.

Here’s a question we’d like Oprah to ask Lance:

Why would you allow your nonprofit organization, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, to persecute and sue small nonprofits for ‘harming the brand LIVEstrong’ by their use of the words BarkStrong, PurrStrong and even, in our case, BreatheStrong (among other nonprofits using ‘strong’)? Many other organizations and companies have attached the word ‘strong’ to another word, with absolutely no damage to LIVEstrong, such as ElderStrong, HerbStrong, HealthStrong, etc.

According to the tax returns of the Lance Armstrong Foundation – the organization’s 990’s which are publicly available – the Lance Armstrong Foundation spent ten cents of every donated dollar on attorneys’ fees. That is a whopping percentage.

We have personal experience with this persecution.

In the situation of the Paul D. Pickens II Research Foundation, we created a ‘deep-breathing for health’ program that we named BreatheStrong. This name was chosen to represent the instantaneous, long-lasting, profound health benefits of deep, full, abdominal breathing. This type of breathing has been proven in the medical and scientific fields to be among the greatest self-administered therapies for maintaining and restoring health.

From our files: “BreatheStrong is a proactive system of self-care, incorporating time-tested deep breathing methods and life-style modifications.”

PDP II Research Foundation spent its donors’ hard-earned dollars on this important, life-changing program. PDP II built a beautiful website (BreatheStrong.org), researched and designed elegant jewelry that would vibrate at self-selected intervals to remind people to take deep breaths, and wrote and printed ‘The Extraordinary Breath’ book to educate the public on a time-proven system of stress relief, health restoration and life-enhancement. Some of our volunteers translated the word BreatheStrong into many languages, and some of our volunteers even helped Donald write a song for this program.

PDP II Research Foundation was accused by the attorneys for the Lance Armstrong Foundation of irrevocably harming the brand LIVEstrong, and told to to immediately abandon its trademark for the BreatheStrong vibrating jewelry, to delete the website BreatheStrong.org, and to cease and desist in all of our activities pertaining to helping the public maintain and regain their health through the BreatheStrong program.

We fought this unfair attack for as long as we could. Through the attorney PDP II Research Foundation was forced to hire, we explained that the target demographic for BreatheStrong were people in all walks of life, in all stages of health; healthy people as well as those who were dealing with ANY and ALL illnesses and diseases. Deep breathing techniques benefit everyone in the world, not just people with cancer.

After two years, when our organization could no longer afford to defend itself against the attorneys of the multi-million dollar Lance Armstrong Foundation, we sadly abandoned the BreatheStrong program.

Not long afterwards, deep breathing methods and techniques could be found on the Lance Armstrong Foundation website.

Although the Lance Armstrong Foundation succeeded in bullying this small health education nonprofit (that has had immense global impact) into shutting down a vital public health program, our spirits were uncrushed and we immediately morphed the program into The Extraordinary Breath.

PDP II Research Foundation released a free digital eBook, The Extraordinary Breath, which features the One Part Breath from the larger version of The Extraordinary Breath book. This free digital eBook has been translated into seven other languages, with more languages coming.

PDP II Research Foundation has also sponsored ‘The World Takes a Breath Day,’ an annual global health event with worldwide participation, millions breathing the Extraordinary Breath (intentional breathing for love, compassion, health, tolerance, joy and peace). December 12, 2012, was the third annual The World Takes a Breath Day.

You can visit http://www.ExtraordinaryBreath.com to see how not even one of the largest organizations in the country could keep PDP II Research Foundation from flourishing and growing in its mission to improve the health our global community.

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Let’s Honor our Differences and Embrace our Commonalities – 12.12.12 at 12:12 pm


Breathe Peace

Let’s Honor our Differences and Embrace our Commonalities

We want to remind you how important it is to honor our differences, and embrace what we have in common instead of fearing each other.

This is now the time for humanity to focus more on what we have in common, than to allow ourselves to continue to be divided by our differences.

The conflicts that we are witnessing, all over the world, have their origins in our perceiving others as different from ourselves. The struggles in the Middle East, in Egypt, in Syria, in Myanmar, even the recent election here in the United States, are rooted in allowing others to state the terms of whether we create cohesiveness or divisiveness in our societies.

Banner EB eNewsletter October 2012 C

We’ve noticed during our extensive travels the last few years, that although most people have good hearts and good intentions, so many are using both hands to hold their own lives together, holding up their own world, that they feel their burdens are so overwhelming they can’t extend a hand to help another in need for fear their problems will come crashing down around them.

Donald and I are here as Re-Minders, and as Donald likes to say,’ Many hands make light work.’

When we focus on our differences, it generates fear, and when we focus on the commonalities of humanity we can generate love. There are only two emotions, from which all other emotions arise: fear and love. Ask yourself, which state of being would you rather cultivate? We attract that which we focus on, and then that becomes our beingness.

Your mind is the fertile field in which these seeds take root, and the thoughts and emotions of fear, worry and doubt are the pesticides of your garden.

So be still, breathe and till the soil of your garden with love and plants the seeds of abundance: breathe peace, breathe tolerance, breathe happiness, breathe joy; for yourself, for your family, for your loved ones, for your community, for your nation, and for our world. You are the gardener of your life experience.

Uplift each and every person on this planet, with the same innate reflex as a flower stretching to reach the rays of the sun, expand yourself outward to include all, with the intention of love, peace, understanding, cooperation and abundance.

Create your future, one thought at a time.

“The underlying foundational structure of the human body is water, each person is an individual drop of water, and as we are an inseparable part of this vast ocean of humanity it is impossible to remove these drops from the ocean.” Bryan Singleton

Join us in creating a better world for all, on Wednesday, December 12, 2012, at 12:12 pm, WORLDWIDE, and take a meaningful breath with the intention of what you wish to experience in your next moment.

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Our Extraordinary Breath Campaign on Indiegogo!


In our ongoing quest to merge cutting-edge technology with ancient wisdom, we are delighted to find the popular, fast-growing online phenomenon of crowd-funding websites. In this time of economic uncertainty, crowd funding has become a way for people, start-ups, established businesses and nonprofits to get financial support to realize a wide variety of activities. You may recall the extraordinary success of the campaign to raise funds for a vacation for Karen Klein, the bullied school bus monitor. Although the intention of the person who created the campaign on Indiegogo.com was to give her a vacation, this Campaign highlighted the culture of bullying in our schools, and went on to change the conversation of bullying across America, even across the world.

Early on, we saw the trend toward the inevitability of a more digital world, and we were among the first to self-publish an eBook, The Extraordinary Breath, Making the Power of Deep Breathing Work for You, in 2007, while many others, including the publishing industry, were fighting against the tide of technological progress. Now, of course, the sales of eBooks totally eclipse printed books.

And so now we are taking it to the next level and have launched our own crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo.com.

We chose Indiegogo for three reasons, first, because of the cultural importance of the Karen Klein campaign, second, for their Flexible Funding option (which other sites don’t have), and lastly, for the future-forward philosophy of its founder, Danae Ringelmann.

Our goal, with this crowd-funding Extraordinary Breath Campaign, is to enhance the health and wellbeing of everyone, providing easy-to-use, future-forward tools and events to bring people back to automatic, full deep breathing.

Over a decade ago, we were inspiredto distill our (up to then) combined 60 years of experience in the martial, meditation and health and wellness fields into the Extraordinary Breath. It’s a simple, effective and instant method to achieve profound, long-lasting health benefits, and as we wrote above, we published The Extraordinary Breath in 2007. Then in 2008, during the devastating global financial collapse, we saw widespread suffering and the failure of the banking systems and the world’s economies, which created an atmosphere of collective fear and anxiety, which then contributed to stagnation and further collapse.

As human beings we always have choice, even in the darkest of times, and we chose to make a difference. We knew we had a time-proven, quick, self-administered way to alleviate the stress and fear that was paralyzing our world so we released the first chapter of our book as a free digital eBook. Our intention was to encourage hope, recovery, fearlessness and limitless expansion for humanity. To reach as many people as possible, our extraordinary volunteers have translated it into six additional languages, and more are coming.

An Extraordinary Breath: our intention and our breath are one.  Every long, deep and even breath consciously balances mind, body and spirit.

We’d love to have your support for this important Campaign. Please join our global movement to celebrate the profound health benefits of intentional deep breathing and unite communities in peace, love, health and harmony worldwide.

The Extraordinary Breath is different than other deep-breathing methods, this system is more than merely bringing a greater volume of air into your body; as you inhale and exhale, long, deep even breaths, your positive intentions are synchronized with your breathing.

Science has proven that every time you think a thought, feel an emotion, or perform an action, your neuro-circuitry changes. When you take charge of this process, through the Extraordinary Breath, the positive changes can become limitless!

We encourage people to find within themselves what we all have in common, and we chose the breath as a focal point because it is one of the most overlooked and underutilized superpowers in the human experience, and it is the most basic element of our existence. As Donald teaches, we (you, me, every human!) can live for weeks without food, and days without water, but only moments without breath. The Extraordinary Breath, intention merged with breath, connects the human race on the deepest level possible.

As visionaries, we know that mind body-medicine is the medicine of the future, and scientists are now creating models of treatment based on an individually tailored approach to curing illness and disease.

And as pioneers in the mind-body medicine field, we were among the first to bring complementary medicine (known now as mind-body medicine) practices into America’s hospitals. This was in 1994, and we had been invited by Leslie Davenport, the director of the Humanities Department at Marin General Hospital, to design and run a Wellness program. This successful program ran for thirteen years, and had a tremendous impact on the health and wellbeing of our community in Marin County.  We also worked with other Bay Area hospitals and HMOs and the V.A., helping them develop their own Wellness Programs.

In the early years, in order to dissolve the walls of resistance and fear put up by many doctors and powerful medical associations toward these new (to them!) holistic views of health and healing, we had to vibrate only in wisdom, knowledge, love, compassion and understanding. Although change came slowly, we were helped on this path by many brave, forward-thinking doctors, nurses and alternative care practitioners. Now every hospital and doctor’s office in the country offers a more holistic approach to caring for their patients.

“Donald’s presence and healing gifts have been a tremendous resource to many of our patients who have pursued complementary healing modalities along with conventional medical care. He is such an asset to the community.” — Leslie Davenport, MFT, Institute for Health and Healing, Marin General, Novato Community Hospitals, California Pacific Medical Center.

Letter of support from President Obama

We have dedicated our lives to making the world a better place for everyone, in our every moment; our work is our passion, our heart and our life. Our global health education nonprofit, The Paul D. Pickens II Research Foundation, has been in the forefront of positive change in the health and wellness fields since its founding in 1997. P.D.P. II Research Foundation is a 501 (C.) (3), founded by us in honor of Cheryl Lynne’s brother Paul, who passed away in 1995 from complications from HIV.

P.D. P. II Research Foundation’s mission is to improve health and elevate consciousness worldwide by raising awareness of the profound health benefits of ancient healing systems. We do this through teachings, eBooks, Youtube videos and DVD’s, and by creating global healing events, that give people the tools to take control of their health and their lives. As a nonprofit organization, we define success in terms of enriching people’s lives and building healthy communities. We believe in the power and potential of every person to control and direct their own free will, and we want to see everyone, everywhere thrive in a sustainable manner.

We need the help of everyone who reads this, and we ask that you forward this on to as many people as possible. We know our Vision for this Extraordinary Breath Campaign is on a grand scale, and we believe, with your support, it is achievable. And, although we are keeping our Goal amount at a reasonable level, we’d like to fund all of the areas of expansion listed in the Campaign. We hope that we raise more money than our target amount, and rest assured that we’ll put all of the funds into continuing to manifest these worthy Extraordinary Breath projects.

The inspiration for our work is every single person in the world, we continually strive for ever greater heights of accomplishment, for a healthy future for everyone.Let’s work together to give humanity the breath for hope, healing, love, understanding and peace.

Go here to for more information and to Contribute to the Extraordinary Breath Campaign

You can help boost our Gogofactor by ‘Liking’ the Campaign, and/or making a Contribution, of ANY amount. With your support, Indiegogo will feature the Campaign on their homepage, and interest the Press!

Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.

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How can your body and mind not be the embodiment of the Five Elements?


It seems that our article, “Tai Chi Ch’uan Inner Practices  – Embodying the Five Elements” which was adapted from our latest eBook, The Art and Mastery of Bio Energetic Healing, and posted on the Into Mountains, Over Streams online Taoist journal, has stirred up some controversy.

Peter Gilligan, a Tai Chi and Qigong teacher in Scotland, asked, “Your descriptions of your ‘felt sense’ of the wu xing does not correspond with any Chinese description that I am aware of. Have you made any attempt to correlate your experiential research with that of Chinese tradition and practitioners?”

Richard Ellis, a Tai Chi and Qigong teacher in Milan, Italy, wrote, “The article referred to (“Tai Chi Ch’uan Inner Practices – Embodying the Five Elements”) has an interesting take on the 13 postures, but originally, the 13 postures referred to the 8 techniques (Ward-off, Rollback, Press, Push, Shoulder, Elbow, Separate, Pulldown) and the 5 directions (forward, backward, right, left and the middle). Because these 8 techniques and 5 directions are the essence of all styles of Taijiquan, the term “13 Postures” is synonymous with ‘Taijiquan.’”

We appreciate the opportunity to dialogue with these esteemed teachers, and delighted to present a further clarification on our understanding of these profound truths from our decades of immersion, research, and experience in the Taoist arts.

How can your body and mind not be the Five Elements, and every movement in the Tai Chi Ch’uan form not incorporate the directions of the Five Elements? For those of the highest advanced levels, one realizes that there is more than one element (in fact all) being expressed in every single movement.

Let’s first examine Mr. Ellis’ statement. The 5 directions correspond to the Five Elements, you are always in the middle no matter where you are, middle (Center) is the Earth Element. Forward is in front, which, according to the Chinese compass, is North and the Water Element. Backward is behind you, South, the Fire Element, right is East, the Wood Element and left is West, the Metal Element.

The eight techniques, Ward Off, Roll Back, Press, Push, Shoulder, Elbow, Separate, Pull Down, upon close examination, all refer to the Five Elements and directions, and therefore have all of the qualities and embodied movements inherent in the Five Elements.

Tai Chi Ch’uan incorporates the theory of Yin Yang, after Wu Ji (emptiness) opposing movements are born (the two, Taiji) as I move down I also move up, as I move forward I also move back. And from the two comes ten thousand things, the Five Elements and the Eight Directions and everything that is within them.

Sifu Kuo Lien Ying taught us, “Be the movement, penetrate the movement. There is no movement before the one you are doing, and no movement to come after the movement you are doing.” So therefore, the movements within the form of Tai Chi Ch’uan are actually more than ‘felt-sensations,’ it is a beingness.

Mr. Gilligan, you are right, our descriptions of the felt sense of the wu xing might not correspond with any Chinese description that you are aware of. That, of course, does not invalidate the truth that we are not separate from the Five Elements. And as we are thinking, feeling beings, how can we not have a ‘felt-sense’ of what we are not separate from?

Let us direct your attention the chapter on A Mnemonic of Thirteen Tai-Chi Chuan Movements, in Tai-Chi Chuan in Theory and Practice, by Kuo Lien-Ying, North Atlantic Books, page 19, line 9:

“Remember to be mindful of every single movement by trying to feel its meaning.”

Page 20, lines 16 and 17:

“Carefully observe and investigate and convince yourself that

Your way of bending or straightening, your closing-in or throwing-open should never be as you will them to be, but as Nature wills.”

As when a particular philosophy, art, science or way of being from another country is planted in new soil (for example the internal arts of China brought to the United States many decades ago) the knowledge and skill grow in the minds of the new adherents and they become the future-forward advocates of this wisdom.

The information that was made available to the sages of ancient China, as they pondered the mysteries of man, the earth and the cosmos, is, wouldn’t you agree, still available to anyone who takes the time to enter into a state of all-encompassing awareness and connect to the same Source to which the ancient Chinese sages connected.

Donald has been studying and applying all of the knowledge that is available in the Classics to those who know how to search, and we have both studied extensively with pre-Cultural Revolution Chinese masters of the internal arts.

The deeper we delve, with open hearts and receptive minds, into the mysteries of the Tao, the more profound our knowingness of fundamental truths become an inseparable part of our bodies, minds and spirits.

As we have said for decades, from stillness comes awareness, from awareness comes sensitivity, and from stillness, awareness and sensitivity, arises wisdom.

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Donald and I reveal how to harness the infinite power of mind to access divine miraculous healing.


We are so excited to announce the release of our latest eBook, The Art and Mastery of Bio Energetic Healing – Rubbo Energy System of Transformation.

It is truly a labor of love, and it was a delight to write. Donald decided to pull out all the stops, he’d been asked for years to write about his methods of achieving the highest levels of healing in his clients, what others would call miracles. The words just flowed out of us, with ease and grace, and we knew that the Universe was guiding us, in fact prompting us to share this wisdom with the world.

Here are some excerpts:

“We have experienced this co-created healing effect time and time again in our private practice, our clients come to us with life-threatening illnesses, and through our work they transmute their illnesses and bodies into states of extraordinary good health, and transform their lives.  You can read an account of our client’s (Dan Reich) inspiring journey, from being diagnosed in 2002 with a brain tumor and told by his doctors that he had six months, to a life of full wellness, here:  http://www.danreichandfriends.com/Survival.html .

In 2001, Maria Rubbo (Donald’s mother) was told by her doctors that her body, according to numerous tests, was riddled with cancer that had begun in her uterus. Donald spent days at a time with her, in deep meditative healing practice, for almost a year, and immediately after surgery to remove Maria’s uterus, her doctor was stunned to find no evidence of cancer in Maria’s body.  She did not require radiation or chemotherapy, and Maria is cancer free to this day.”

and:

“We are proud to be pioneers in the Mind-Body Medicine field. In 1997, Leslie Davenport, then director of the Institute for Health and Healing at Marin General Hospital, approached us about starting a Wellness Program featuring Qigong at the hospital. Leslie knew about our work because Donald had been teaching Tai Chi Chuan, Shao Lin Chuan and Qigong in Marin since 1980, and at that time Leslie’s thirteen year old son Andrew had been studying with Donald for almost ten years. Leslie asked us to audition by leading a Qigong class for the decision makers at the Institute and invited guests.  She told us that the Institute was also going to audition other Qigong and Tai Chi Chuan teachers, including some from San Francisco. After our audition class, we didn’t hear anything for a couple of months, and then Leslie called us to say that our audition class had been the overwhelming favorite, and when could we start?”

Qigong for Wellness, 1999, Marin General Hospital

and:”Priming the practitioner’s mind: The frequency of the feeling of love is the highest vibration of thought/wave. We recommend love as the foundation of your healing intention, and as you become familiar with the exquisite frequency of love you can then create infinite layers and levels of intention.”

Check out the eBook at our website ASustainableBalance.com!

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“But what about the children who are born with deformities and illnesses, or get cancer?”


During a recent day-long teaching that we had been invited to present to a new community, we encountered an interesting but not uncommon situation, although it was one that we had rarely experienced in our over thirty years of teaching others how to access their innate healing abilities through ancient, effective self-directed transformative arts.   

After the morning session broke for lunch, two or three people posed some rhetorical questions to each other: “But what about the children that are born with deformities or illnesses, or who get cancer? How can what he is teaching really work, when there are people who die every day or suffer terribly from conditions beyond their control?”  

They were, and are, good questions, but it seemed that they didn’t really want the answer because they left after lunch. In their confused state, they rejected our message of hope, healing, love, generosity and self-empowerment. “Love is the answer,” Donald said, repeatedly, during the morning session.

Donald had been talking about the power of thought, how focused positive intention, over a period of time, can create good changes in one’s life, and the world, if the belief system is there to reinforce and maintain the changes. He led the group through profound deep-breathing exercises and meditation practices to get them in touch with universal energies and discover their own limitless potential.

They must not have liked hearing that they have the power, and the responsibility, to control and direct their own minds and in doing so, could reap limitless positive rewards, in their own lives, in the lives of their loved ones, and in the world. They may have preferred to stay, as Donald had pointed out that many in the world are,‘comfortably numb.’

And so, to prove to themselves that our message could not possibly be true, or work for anyone, they chose to leave. But for those who came to our teaching that day with open hearts and receptive minds, the benefits they received will have lasting, positive effects in their lives. They recognized the truth of it, and in that recognition they understood how to change the old programming (negative thoughts, behaviors and beliefs) that no longer served their highest will and good.   

Donald did address this question, quite eloquently and compassionately in his teachings later that afternoon, and I wish those who left could have heard it. Maybe they would have understood.

He said, “Some of you, during the lunch break, posed the question, well, what about children that get cancer, or other illnesses, and can’t use the power of their minds to heal themselves? I understand why you asked that. Please remember, I’m just a messenger here, I’m not God and there are some things that not even I can explain.  But in the last hundred years, there have been unthinkable advances in medical care, for example children that would have died at birth back then have the chance to live and to thrive. These breakthroughs come from the power of thought, from the minds of the doctors and scientists who say, there has to be a better way. So, yes, you ALL have the power to change your own reality, through controlling and directing your own minds.”

It is in the state of believing in ourselves that we create a positive future.  When we are in the state of doubt, we default back to dysfunctional programming.

John 20:29. Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

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Quantum Healing on a Global Level


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For a while now, we’ve felt called by the Universe to bring our wisdom and healing on a global level. We released a free eBook, The Extraordinary Breath, in six languages so far, and have had thousands of downloads from just about every country in the world. This free eBook has the One-Part Breath, which we took from our larger eBook Extraordinary Breath, to give people worldwide a simple, easy and effective deep breathing practice to reduce stress, increase health and promote community and global harmony.

Part of our vision also includes gathering people together, wherever we are, for free events, and co-creating a state of health, happiness, prosperity and empathy for them, their loved ones, their communities and the world, because we remind them that they are connected with the whole world, not separate from it, and whatever good they do creates more good for everyone, regardless of whether we perceive them as enemies or loved ones.  

In our workshops, which are fee-based, whatever we teach is always enhanced with connecting people to their higher selves, deepening their intuition, and developing their skills and talents to benefit not just themselves but all others as well.  

Donald also does private appointments (healings as well as forms work) wherever we go, with this same intention, of reminding people of their own innate healing abilities, and their connection to Universal energies, and that they have the power, and the responsibility, to control and direct their own lives.

All our work is done through our global health education nonprofit, the Paul D. Pickens II Research Foundation. This organization was founded in 1997, and named after Cheryl Lynne’s brother, who passed away from complications of AIDS in 1995. Paul was a talented martial artist, a student of Kuo Lien Ying, who bore the unknowable pain and indignities of his fatal illness with grace, charm and courage. Every single person that we’ve helped through our work, and there have been thousands so far, has given us the opportunity to thank the Universe for Paul’s influence and inspiration.

Here’s our travel schedule so far (more to be added!)

San Blas, Mexico:

Healing Begins in the Imagination – Free Healing Evening for the Community – April 27, 2012. The Rubbos present an inspiring evening of deep, joyful healing. Using transformational breathwork, meditation and movement, they will help you call in Divine energies for healing mind, body, spirit and planet. Connect to the Earth and the Heavens to bring about miraculous healings for you, your loved ones, your community, your country and our world. Donald and Cheryl Lynne’s mission is to awaken and inspire as many people as possible on the planet to the infinite potentials and limitless possibilities within each one of us.

Awakening Your Inner Nature Day-Long Workshop – April 29, 2012. Awaken all your senses and deepen your intuition. The Rubbos will help you to develop a felt-sensation of living continually in a higher vibrational state, which is the state for manifesting your heart’s desire: whether it is good health, abundant wealth, better living, better relationships or a deeper connection to the infinite universal energies and higher consciousness.

Boulder, Colorado:

Healing Begins in the Imagination – Free Healing Evening for the Community – June 2, 2012. The Rubbos present an inspiring evening of deep, joyful healing. Using transformational breathwork, meditation and movement, they will help you call in Divine energies for healing mind, body, spirit and planet. Connect to the Earth and the Heavens to bring about miraculous healings for you, your loved ones, your community, your country and our world. Donald and Cheryl Lynne’s mission is to awaken and inspire as many people as possible on the planet to the infinite potentials and limitless possibilities within each one of us.

Qigong Tui Na  – Increasing Intuition, Sensitivity and Ability through Directed Intention Workshop – June 9 & 10, 2012. Sponsored by James MacRitchie, L.Ac., Diplc. NCCAOM, and hosted by Adam Shapiro, L.Ac., MSTCM

Qigong Tui Na, as we learned it and as we teach it, is more than just physical manipulation of the patient’s body. The practitioner’s mind is the agent of change here, and the more time and effort you spend training your mind, the greater the heightening of your hyper-sensory awareness you will gain.   The advanced level of Tui Na practice involves all of the senses, and a calm, focused and directed mind. This requires more of a connection between the practitioner and the patient, quiet listening time, a felt-sensation of the energy flows of oneself, one’s patient and the environment, and a commanding of these energies, than might be usual for the practitioner.  But the rewards are so much greater as well, the potential for the practitioner’s intuition, diagnostic abilities and positive treatment results to expand are limitless, the more one engages in this type of bio -energetic medicine, the more one’s skills and certainty, and number of happy clients/patients, will grow.

New York City, NY:

Healing Begins in the Imagination – Free Healing Evening for the Community – July 7, 2012. Sponsored by Douglas Garn. The Rubbos present an inspiring evening of deep, joyful healing. Using transformational breathwork, meditation and movement, they will help you call in Divine energies for healing mind, body, spirit and planet. Connect to the Earth and the Heavens to bring about miraculous healings for you, your loved ones, your community, your country and our world. Donald and Cheryl Lynne’s mission is to awaken and inspire as many people as possible on the planet to the infinite potentials and limitless possibilities within each one of us.

Quantum Mind Power Day-long Workshop – July 14, 2012. Sponsored by Douglas Garn. Deepen your Intuition, Awaken your Third Eye, Engage all of your senses, Connect to the Source, Live stress and fear free. Transformational Breathwork: The Extraordinary Breath, deep breathing system based on ancient Chinese healing wisdom. Energybody Chakra Clearing: Cleansing and clearing your chakra system and strengthening  hyper-sensory awareness. Develop a felt-sense of the subtle energies of the universe, learn how to receive and send information.  Third Eye Opening: Modern meditation techniques to merge with one’s Higher Self; connecting the pituitary and pineal glands to awaken your superconscious. 

Scuol, Switzerland

Holistic Wellness Retreat  – July 22 to 27, 2012 – Our annual retreat, training body, mind and spirit in the pure mountain air of the Swiss Alps.

Check our website for more information!

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Healing others: is it a career or a calling?


Some people make logical, practical choices to pursue a career in healing, whether it’s a degree in medicine or psychology from a Western medical school, a Traditional Chinese Medicine school, a massage school or other modality. They look at all of the factors, and make rational decisions based on the amount of money they could make, the prestige of degrees in their field and the time and effort they will have to commit to in order to accomplish their goals.     

For others, it is so much a part of their nature that they are doing it before they really realize it, before they might consider pursuing training or degrees in order to learn more ways to effectively use their gifts to benefit the world. Their innate skills and talents push them toward this path.

And some people are able to make a career from their calling, they create their future because they are blessed with the ability to plan out how best to utilize what they were given at birth.    

Both paths  – career and calling – are absolutely praise-worthy. Healers are necessary, and however they are created, through a deliberate process of analysis of return on investment, or following one’s heart and prompting from this mysterious force some call the Divine, they are doing the good work and collectively helping to relieve the suffering of untold millions worldwide.   

However they come to this path, they are all co-creating healing with their patients, the process of healing one’s patient is a collaborative effort between practitioner and patient. We touched briefly on this phenomena, in our article ‘Physician as Placebo,’ which was posted on ‘Into Mountains, Over Streams,’ you can read it online here: http://imos-journal.net/?p=4623.  

We are presenting this work on Qigong Tui Na, in workshops and in our upcoming eBook,  because it is our desire to encourage physicians, TCM practitioners, physio-therapists, massage therapists, all hands-on bodyworkers, to deepen their understanding of higher-level Tui Na techniques, to enhance their skills, to develop and focus their minds for the greater benefit of their patients, and to increase their client base and thus their revenue stream by delivering superior results effortlessly and continuously.

Qigong Tui Na, as we learned it and as we teach it, is more than just physical manipulation of the patient’s body. The practitioner’s mind is the agent of change here, and the more time and effort you spend training your mind, the greater the heightening of your hyper-sensory awareness you will gain.   

The advanced level of Tui Na practice involves all of the senses, and a calm, focused and directed mind. This requires more of a connection between the practitioner and the patient, quiet listening time, a felt-sensation of the energy flows of oneself, one’s patient and the environment, and a commanding of these energies, than might be usual for the practitioner. 

But the rewards are so much greater as well, the potential for the practitioner’s intuition, diagnostic abilities and positive treatment results to expand are limitless, the more one engages in this type of bio-energetic medicine, the more one’s skills and certainty, and number of happy patients, will grow.

We look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming Qigong Tui Na workshops! Check out our Boulder teachings here: http://www.asustainablebalance.com/boulder-co-teachings.html

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Qigong Tui Na – Gentle techniqes and methods


We winced as we watched the patient on the video squirming in obvious discomfort while the practitioner applied force and torque to her torso and various limbs as she lay on the table. The voice-over of the practitioner was telling us about his method and the positive results he was achieving in this patient, and many others, with his forceful Tui Na techniques.

We saw this video at a Traditional Chinese Medicine conference, while we were presenting our Five Element Balancing Qigong workshop, and this was but one of several videos shown by different presenters. We noted that all the patients featured in these videos showed signs of mild to extreme discomfort. The practitioners who were showing these videos claimed 100% positive results by the use of force or violence from the afflictions suffered by their patients.

We’re not claiming that hard Tui Na techniques are not good, and shouldn’t be used, in fact some of our teachers did incorporate the more forceful applications along with the lighter-touch hand techniques.

However, our philosophy is to treat our patients as we would treat our mothers, or a baby. You can get the same, and sometimes even superior, results from the gentle, painless Tui Na methods, techniques and mind-training exercises in our soon-to-be published eBook.  These methods are based on our decades-long immersion in the martial, healing and meditation arts, and are time-tested and effective.

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Exercise, what’s really in it for you?


We all know that exercise is good for us, although there have been some scientific studies done recently that seemed to indicate the benefits from exercise weren’t that great.

But as we know from our own lives as athletes and as teachers, movement of any kind brings positive physiological changes to our bodies, releasing endorphins that elevate our moods, flushing toxins that get stuck in our bodies and increasing our endurance and strength.

Now, according to the Harvard Medical School, the secret to better health is, wait for it, exercise!

Regular exercise improves your mood, boosts your ability to fend off infection, and lowers your risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and colon cancer.  Today, hundreds of studies have demonstrated that exercise helps you feel better and live longer.

The secret to better health — exercise

Children, adults and senior all benefit from regular exercise, with discipline you can enhance your health and well-being at any age. But although many people understand that exercise is important to living a balanced life, it’s become too easy to put it off and sit around watching TV, surfing the Internet, or playing computer and video games.

The minimum threshold of activity for good health is burning at least 700 to 1,000 calories a week through physical pursuits. Experts are now saying that ‘decades of solid science confirm that exercise improves health and can extend your life.’ By adding a minimum of half an hour of moderately intense physical activity to your day will prevent many serious ailments  – heart disease, diabetes, depression, and several types of cancer, particularly breast and colon cancers.

According to these experts, regular exercise has been known to help you sleep better, reduce the symptoms of stress, help you control your weight, definitely brighten your mood, sharpen your mental functioning, and, as an extra bonus, improve your sex life!

Research shows that your balanced exercise program includes four types of exercises  – aerobic activity, strength training, flexibility training and balance exercises  –  and each component benefits your body in a different way.

First, Aerobic Exercise

 Aerobic exercise should be the centerpiece of your fitness program. Research shows the disease-fighting benefits of exercise revolves around cardiovascular activity – walking, jogging, swimming, and cycling. If you are just starting your new exercise regimen, you should begin by working out at moderate intensity when doing aerobic exercise  - we suggest brisk walking while doing the Extraordinary Breath. (To learn correct deep abdominal breathing, download our free eBook, Extraordinary Breath, available on our website http://www.extraordinarybreath.com/.) Moderate intensity exercising is safe for almost everyone and will give you the desired health benefits. As you build up strength and endurance, you can increase the intensity of your aerobic routine and enjoy even greater health benefits.

We’ve found that our Shao Lin Chuan martial arts routine (which we learned as teenagers) is a perfect aerobic exercise, from the envigorating warmups, the sinew-strengthening stretching exercises to the powerful forms themselves. Shao Lin Chuan is a dynamic, fluid, powerful system of martial arts developed by Buddhist monks in China to cultivate a philosophy of wellness, and strength, flexibility, balance, and endurance are developed through this practice.

Second, Strength Training

You can build muscle and protect your bones with strength or resistance training, such as elastic-band workouts and the use of weight machines or free weights.

It’s a fact that bones lose calcium and weaken with age and strength training can help slow or sometimes even reverse this trend. Strength training will make you look and feel better, and increase your endurance for everyday activities: climbing stairs, carrying groceries, and even better performance at your job. By strengthening your muscles your body will have better mobility and balance, with a lower risk of falling and injuring yourself. You can also control your weight with strength training, because each pound of muscle burns more calories than its equivalent in fat.

Tai Chi Chuan, and in particular the lively Guang Ping Yang Tai Chi Chuan that we teach, is excellent for improving your health. Regular practice of Tai Chi Chuan, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, has been shown to maintain and even increase bone density. Practicing Tai Chi Chuan on a daily basis has greater health benefits as well, among them improving balance and increasing musculoskeletal strength.

Third, Flexibility Exercises

Stretching or flexibility training is the third prong of a balanced exercise program. Muscles tend to shorten and weaken with age. Shorter, stiffer muscle fibers make you vulnerable to injuries, back pain, and stress. But regularly performing exercises that isolate and stretch the elastic fibers surrounding your muscles and tendons can counteract this process. And stretching improves your posture and balance.

For those with chronic back pain, doctors are now recommending daily exercises to ease the pain, keep the spine flexible and recover faster from the injury.

As some of you know, Donald suffered a severe back injury about twelve years ago, a frank injury that ruptured the disc between L4 and L5. You wouldn’t know it today by looking at him, though, because he used all of his wisdom and knowledge to avoid the surgery his doctors were insisting upon and brought himself to full recovery. Paramount to the robust spinal health he enjoys today is his intention-driven bio-energetic exercises.  

As you can see in this video from our 2011 summer retreat in the Swiss Alps, Donald has no difficulty demonstrating the demanding Chinese Pushups for our students (watch for it at the 1:14 mark).  

 

Fourth, Balance Exercises

In most people, balance slowly erodes over time, leaving people fearful and hesitant at home and in public places. Being fearful of falling while you are doing simple tasks and exercises is a very real concern, and stops you from enjoying your life to the fullest.

Thankfully, we’ve found that mindfully performing balance exercises is one of the best ways to protect yourself against falls that can lead to temporary or permanent disability, and we’ve helped many seniors regain their joy in life because they could resume beloved activities in their daily lives.

Doing your balance exercises will take only a few minutes a day, and you can easily incorporate them into the warm-up portion of your workout. According to the Harvard Medical School, many strength-training exercises also serve as balance exercises, and balance-enhancing movements may simply be woven into other forms of exercise, such as Tai Chi Chuan, yoga, and Pilates.

We have an excellent series of balance exercises that we teach in almost every one of our retreats, and the results in our older students (and even the younger ones!) have been phenomenal.

When you exercise on a regular basis, you will:

  • Reduce your chances of getting heart disease. For those who already have heart disease, exercise reduces the chances of dying from it.
  • Lower your risk of developing hypertension and diabetes.
  • Reduce your risk for colon cancer and some other forms of cancer.
  • Improve your mood and mental functioning.
  • Keep your bones strong and joints healthy.
  • Help you maintain a healthy weight.
  • Help you maintain your independence well into your later years.

And who wouldn’t want all those wonderful health and longevity benefits?

Source: Harvard Medical School.