The pause that the coronavirus pandemic made many people take put disease prevention and finding fulfillment top of mind. Many of us are no longer willing to settle for the status quo. Indeed, we can't. So we are looking for activities and employment that not only sustain us but allow us to thrive.
Part of that search can lead us back to ourselves and our own innate processes and strengths. We have our own technology, what I call a
human technology, that we can use anytime. Rather than relying on institutions and machines for the skills for creating a healthy, happy, and fulfilled life, we can rely on the skills built into our body and brain. Using this technology can lead to greater self-mastery and authentic living.
It can also help us recover our power for self-reliance. While the proliferation of increasingly complex artificial technologies has made life more convenient, it’s also made society more specialized and systemized. There is so much information and division, it’s easier for us to rely on experts to navigate it. But this reliance on experts can take us away from ourselves, and we may end up adjusting our lives to suit the systems instead of the systems truly serving people’s needs.
In the end, however, there is no greater expert on our own lives than ourselves. We can get help from people with more experience and help others in our turn, but, ultimately, each of us is the specialist of our own lives. We have the capacity to find our own answers and solutions and to design our own future. Human technology is about having the knowledge and skills to do it.
The knowledge I’m referring to is having a basic understanding of energy principles and of how the “software” of our brain works. It’s getting a sense of our natural healing power, wisdom, and creativity. The skills are the exercises and meditations that change our energy and let us use our brain to its full potential.
Some of the Tools of Human Technology
- 1. Meridian Exercise
Stretching, tapping, postures, and repetitive movements combined with focus and intentional breathing enhance energy flow through the body’s energy channels, or meridians, and energy points. This stimulates and energizes the body and breath, leading to a deeper meditation experience.
Try one posture Ilchi Lee developed to balance your whole body ►
- 2. Brain Wave Vibration
Shaking and other rhythmic movements slow down brain waves and release muscle, joint, and abdominal tension. This technique is a meditation itself that powerfully purifies energy.
Learn how to do it here ►
- 3. Acupressure/Moxibustion
Stimulating specific energy points on the body encourages and balances energy flow. Acupressure involves pressing and rubbing with fingers or a tool. Moxibustion is the practice of burning small, tightly rolled dried cones of mugwort on the energy points. These techniques affects the balance of fire (moxibustion) and water (acupressure) elements in the body. Although these treatments, and acupuncture, can become complex when studied professionally, simple stimulation of major points can be useful for treating minor conditions or preventing the development of disease.
Here are common acupressure points you can stimulate in your daily life ►
- 4. Breathing Meditation
Breathwork can be as simple as breathing intentionally at least once a day: watching and focusing on our breathing, following along with its natural rhythms, causing our breathing to deepen automatically. The lower abdomen rises for the inhale and falls for the exhale.
Try this breathing exercise for relaxation ►
- 5. Bowing Meditation
A moving meditation that involves prostration of the whole body. Bowing meditation is a cycle of surrendering and accepting ourselves and then refilling ourselves with pure energy. It grounds us while making it easier to feel our heart and be clear-headed. It also strengthens and warms the entire body. Bowing meditation is also a good meridian exercise that generates Water Up, Fire Down energy circulation.
Learn how to do Bowing Meditation ►
- 6. Energy Sensitivity Meditation
In this meditation, we feel the sensations of subtle life energy, particularly on our hands. The simplest exercise involves moving the palms toward and away from each other in the same rhythm as our breath. This practice trains our mind to feel energy, which is the first step to our mind being able to use it with intention in our life.
Follow this video to practice Energy Sensitivity Meditation ►
Using these tools to heal our bodies, strengthen our self-reliance, and make changes in our lives requires becoming deeply connected with ourselves. They have limited use unless we become more deeply aware of our body, energy, and true being. I suggest these steps for activating our human technology.
How to Apply Human Technology
- 1. Become sensitive to signals from the body and brain.
When we are sensitive and responsive to the signs and rhythms of our body, we are more deeply connected to the rich, wonderful texture of all life experience. Signals from the body—a butterfly in the stomach, a tingling in the toes, or even pain or discomfort—can take on meaning related to creative urges or spiritual growth. These sensations may even alert us to the state of our relationship with the earth itself. This kind of meaningfulness of our body sensations is difficult or impossible if our sensory abilities have been dulled by apathy or medication dependence. All of the human technology tools include focusing on the feelings in the body. They will help train our mind to be aware of the body even when we’re not doing the exercises.
- 2. Regularly clear our energy, thoughts, and emotions until we achieve a no-self (muah) state.
Life begins with emptying ourselves—we cry out and exhale when we are born. The rhythm of life begins when we have emptied ourselves and then allow that empty space to be filled. In a state of emptiness, we are free of the confines of our past and our ego; we’ve gone beyond the selves we knew. Then, our destination and how to get there become clear and infinite possibilities become open to us. Energy Sensitivity Meditation, especially after doing exercises that stir up energy and then Breathing Meditation, helps us enter a no-self state.
- 3. Discover what our body needs and our heart wants.
When our energy is clear and our mind deeply calm, we can more easily hear what’s in our hearts. We can ask ourselves, “Who am I? Why am I here? What do I need to do?” We can ask any other question as well, but these questions form the basis of all the answers to what we need for a meaningful life full of vitality.
- 4. Change our energy to meet those needs and desires.
The answers we receive from our hearts may give us specific things to do for ourselves or other people in our lives. Acting on these messages right away will help generate a vortex of energy toward making what our hearts want come to life. Some of these actions can involve adjusting our own energy so that it’s in alignment with or resonates with those outcomes. We may need to remove energy blocks or simply make our energy brighter and stronger. We may have to make Water Up, Fire Down energy flow in our bodies if we don’t have it. This kind of energy flow will sustain our bodies and minds and help us feel free and happy.
We are each, as individuals, uniquely responsible for our choices. We may not be able to create or control all of the events that impact our lives, but we can create and control our responses to everything we experience. Knowing this does not mean that everyone is proactively creating their own life experience; in fact, too often the opposite is true. I believe this is because many of us do not understand or use the principles and skills that would allow us to resolve our most basic life issues successfully. I believe this is an unintended and unrealized consequence of our overdependence on outside sources.
Through these tools, which are the basic exercises of my Brain Education and Body & Brain methods, I hope we can
own our health and our lives. I hope they let us experience the natural power we all have inside.
For more human technology tools and how to use them, you can visit my
YouTube channel here.