Body Balance's own jazz man, Bill Douglass

Bill Douglass studies tai chi at Body Balance Academy. He plays live music at our Tai Chi with Tea events on the second Saturday of each month. He often brings other local musicians to accompany him. Joe Fajen and Kit Bailey are regulars.

Last weekend, Bill was interviewed by Tom Kellar for The Prospector Magazine. Read the article, and you'll learn a lot about the Bay Area jazz scene. We are fortunate to have such a fine musician in our community.

Reposting from The Prospector:

Local jazz bassist Bill Douglass is yet another example of the incredible musical talent that populates Nevada County.
A jazz mainstay in the San Francisco Bay Area for nearly four decades, he has shared the stage or recording studio with the likes of Marian McPartland, Tom Waits, Bobby McFerrin and Mose Allison.
Douglass moved back to this area 15 years ago and along with continuing to play shows in the region with folks like John Girton, Steven Holland and Motoshi Kosako, he is also the artistic director for the Sierra Jazz Camp, which takes place July 16-20 at the Nevada City School of the Arts.
For more information about the camp, go to sierrajazzsociety.com or call Registrar Julia Glasse at 530-273-0568

          Read more about Bill's musical career.
http://www.theunion.com/news/11148018-113/jazz-area-tom-bay

Health benefits of green tea

Each cup of green tea is a healthy brew of vitamins, anti-oxidants and alkaloids.  Besides plain old H20, green tea is thought to be the best drink for longevity.

Green tea contains vitamins A, B, B5, C, D, E, H and K, magnesium, zinc, chromium and selenium.

The plentiful polyphenols in green tea are free-radical zapping antioxidants. One cup of tea offers better antioxidant effects than a serving of broccoli, strawberries, spinach or carrots.  (But please DO eat your colorful veggies!)

Drinking green tea provides mental clarity and protection against heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer.

Want to learn more about the benefits of green tea? Here is an article by Dr. Joseph Mercola that includes tips, recipes and more health facts.

Taoist Teachings from Derek Lisiming

Xie xie to Master Derek Li Si Ming for a wonderful taoist philosophy workshop on Saturday April 19 at Body Balance Academy. What a treat to sit and learn from him and from other students as we meditated and moved together and learned about the three treasures of Essence, Energy, Spirit.

Visit Derek's website to learn more about his Daoist, Buddhist and Confucionist teachings at lisiming.com

Taoist Meditation Workshop with Master Lisiming of China April 19

Some typical Qi sensations that you may be feeling

--from The Healing Promise of Qi by Roger Jahnke, O.M.D.

Through your practice you will learn to feel the Qi within your own body. It is a sensation that is unique to each person. Here are a few of the sensations that are typical:

• tingling in the hands, feet, cheeks
• feeling fluffy internally like clouds moving inside
• a sense of flowing or circulating
• feeling radiant or luminescent
• feeling that the surface of the body is porous
• spreading warmth in either the limbs or torso
• the feeling of being tipsy on wine
• energy moving in the belly
• release of tension in shoulders or neck
• decrease of pain
• sensation of a magnetic field between the hands
• sensation of heat coming from the hands as they pass over the face or body parts
• the urge to cry or the release of tears
• a sense of reconnecting with a lost part of oneself
• a sense of the transcendental or spiritual
• a feeling of coming home
• a feeling of ecstacy or bliss

There is no correct way to experience the Qi sensation. If you are fully awake and attentive in the experience you will probably ask, "What is that sensation?" Most of us have these experiences bu then fail to take the time to investigate them.

Guided Meditation in Open Awareness by Tara Brach

“Inner Space: Gateway to Open Awareness” is a 19-minute audio guided meditation (adapted from Open Focus Meditations led by Les Fehmi, Ph.D.) by psychotherapist and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC, Tara Brach.

Tara Brach’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. The result is a distinctive voice in Western Buddhism, one that offers a wise and caring approach to freeing ourselves and society from suffering. -- from the website

In the preface to this guided meditation in her book True Refuge, Tara writes,

As we move through life we need a flexible attention, one tha tis capable of a narrow focus on objects or experience, as well as an open focus that perceives the presence of space. Learning to attend to inner space cultivates the flexiblity: We become familiar with the formless, impersonal ground of all experience. Eve at times when the lens narrows, we a re less inclined to focus and react with grasping or resisting.

No subscription or fee is necessary to listen to or download this audio.  http://www.tarabrach.com/audio/2011-08-13-Meditation--InnerSpace-TaraBrach.mp3