What is Zen Yoga®?
For the past 5,000 years, masters have closely guarded their secrets of health, 
healing and longevity. With the spirit of sharing prevalent today, now you can learn these age-old practices and realize their long-term benefits. The Zen Yoga®, course is a study of the ancient arts of Chi Gong and Yoga. This unique combination allows those who have been living an inactive lifestyle to gently develop the ability to participate in the more dynamic eastern yoga techniques. This healing and longevity art helps restore youthfulness, increase vital energy, and relieve harmful stress, maximizing the quality of your life. Join us in a journey of healing and transformation.
Zen Yoga is a proprietary system taught by Zen Wellness. Zen Yoga is a revolutionary yoga system that combines elements of Taoist Yoga, Hatha Yoga and Qigong. Zen Yoga synthesizes the 5 Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine with the 8 Trigrams of the I Ching, “the Book of Changes” and the asanas of traditional yoga into one cutting edge system.Around the time of 527AD, an Indian monk named Da Mo, or Bodidharma traveled to China from India and brought yoga to the Chinese monks. This informed the already present practice of qigong in China and the two fused together into the system of qigong that is passed along today.
Zen Wellness has brought these two popular ancient yet modern longevity systems together and created the Zen Yoga program which synthesizes the profound usefulness of yoga, the energetic anatomy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, movements and techniques from Taoist Immortality Yoga and body wisdom and mind intention of Qigong.One main principle in Zen Yoga is the “Water Wheel” teaching where you learn how to cool the head and warm the abdomen. In TCM, many ills are experienced because we have excess heat in the head and heart (heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure are examples.) You will notice the water wheel teachings throughout this book and corresponding video. You will also notice elements from the I Ching relating to the postures of yoga. These are just a couple ways that our Zen Yoga system is a unique blend of harmonious ancient arts.
Why Practice Zen Yoga?
There are many benefits to living the Zen Yoga lifestyle. Daily practice of Zen Yoga reduces stress by calming the mind, improves physical health, increases mental clarity, vitality and promotes inner peace. The Zen Yoga philosophy works to heal the mind and body from the inside out. It is about being in the moment and being in touch with the here and now.
Yoga is based on harmonizing mind and body through the balance of the five elements:
- Mental Clarity — Reduce stress through mental focus and meditation.
- Physical Wellness — The practice of static postures, stretching, spa and herbal therapies and breathing.
- Emotional Serenity — Unlocking the secrets to accepting the now versus the future or past.
- Inner Peace — By stopping the mind you remove inner-conflict.
- Greater Vitality — Circulation is achieved through deep breathing, physical movement and herbology.
Photographs from the Zen Wellness Sun City West Yoga Hike
Why is Zen Yoga Important?
Three are three main reasons a holistic approach to wellness is achieved through Zen Yoga:
- Stress related diseases is the number one cause of death in Western civilization. An increasingly sedentary lifestyle in modern culture is prompting more Americans to seek mind / body physical health. Zen Yoga combines physical movement with mind awareness to create a complete mind / body wellness program.
- Life expectancy is growing. People are living today than ever before. Western science has been successful with increasing the length of life, but not the quality. By applying the Zen Yoga Lifestyles, you can enhance the quality of that life.
- There is growing evidence that focusing holistically on wellness can reduce health-care costs by emphasizing prevention over treatment. More Americans are taking wellness into their own hands. Rather than focusing on physical fitness, Americans are seeking a complete health, healing and wellness approach for longevity.