Mike & Beth in front of Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Center
Last week in Part I ‘Pre-yoga Daze’, Mike
Houlihan shared the beginning of the journey that lead him and his wife to take over management of the highly successful ‘Roots to Wings’ Yoga Studio, a hybrid Hatha and Dahn Yoga studio, where over 130 graduated from the Shim Sung ‘Finding True Self’ Workshop in two years.
At the end of part I, Mike had just started taking Yoga Classes at Roots to Wings.
Around the time that I was discovering yoga for the first time, Wendy Hall, owner and teacher at Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Center was discovering Dahn Yoga for the first time. She had recently taken the Shim Sung (Finding True Self) workshop offered by Dahn Yoga, and immediately felt the practice offered her the next step in her growth. She set about practicing and taking private sessions with Chun Shim Park, a Dahn Yoga trainer, and was soon experimenting how to incorporate the ‘energy body’ practices she was learning into her Hatha Yoga classes. She started having us do Sleeping Tiger for about 5 minutes at the end of some classes and gradually, I began to feel energy in my Dahn Jon. I started practicing harder. Wendy also encouraged others to take the Shim Sung workshop and Beth, my wife, travelled to Boston to participate. She immediately started bugging me to go. I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about, but was loving yoga and if I could dedicate two days to doing it that’d be fine. With this mind, I eventually signed up. Fortunately, by the time I had an opportunity to go, Shim Sung actually came to Roots to Wings, thanks to the hard work of Wendy and Chun Shim nim. (nim is a term of respect in Korean, often used at the end of a person’s name/title).
By the time Shim Sung rolled around, I was feeling pretty healthy. I’d lost about 20 pounds, was calmer some of the time, and could see the benefits of regular yoga and energy practice. However, I was still unprepared for Shim Sung. I was unable to see the connection between my thoughts and my physical and spiritual bodies. I didn’t appreciate the interconnection of the three bodies. Shim Sung was like getting a new set of glasses to look at myself through. I began to see more clearly who I was and how I’d been limiting myself. I often tell people that I’d experienced the rapture of being alive on my wedding day and during the birth of our four children; a moment where time really stood still. I experienced the rapture again in Shim Sung. However, the weekend also scared me, because I realized how sick my body really was. At the end, I did not want it to be over. I walked up to Chun Shim nim with a pleading look in my eyes, saying “Help!” She compassionately pushed a couple of meridian points on me. ‘You need to heal’ she said. Deep down inside, I knew she was right. I needed more help.
That was the beginning of the journey that brought me here, to this point in my life, ready to teach others in the same way that Wendy and Chun Shim nim taught me. This
journey has started, but hasn’t stopped yet. I don’t have the words to describe how sincerely grateful I am to have had the opportunity to be guided by Chun Shim nim. It has been the opportunity of many lifetimes. She helped me save my life by helping me see in myself what is inside all of us and helped me develop the confidence to be who I truly am.
Part III – Fruits of ‘Su Haeng’ Training, Family, and Future
Su Haeng means ‘training to recover your original spirit’. Scores of private sessions and peak experiences later, across staffing multiple Shim Sungs, beyond many Dahn Yoga trainings- Master Healer School, Healing Chakra, Advanced Shim Sung, Tao Masters training, BMC School, and countless hours of practice with Wendy nim and Chun Shim nim, it comes down to this. In the last three and a half years:
- I am lighter, but not just physically. I have gone from 212 to 172 pounds (even though I never thought I could weigh less than 185 at 6 feet tall), but my lightness is different than that.
- My mind is clearer almost all the time, extremely clear some of the time, and less clear very infrequently.
- I am not constrained by upper and lower back pain like I was since my mid 20s.
- My perennial allergies have virtually disappeared. I used to wake up sneezing 30 plus times a night
- My musical tastes have changed completely from hard rock/heavy metal to yoga and healing music. I’ve also started to teach myself to play guitar.
- I have begun to let go of attachments and have realized that I am not Mike the Chief Information Officer, Father, Husband, champion golfer, hockey player blah blah blah. I am much more than that
- I am calmer and more present with my wife, children, friends and co-workers. Getting hooked on emotions is more an exception than the norm.
- I have changed the information I live my life by. I don’t read the paper much. I don’t watch the news. I watch much less TV. I spend my time with people who are healthy for me
- I have re-learned what to eat, how to eat it, and when. I am more conscious of what I put in my body. I have not taken a pill of any kind in almost 4 years (with the exception of 1 course of antibiotics when I had lyme disease after a tick bite). I have not used alcohol in almost 3 years. I have not had refined sugar in 8 months. I don’t drink coffee and I don’t smoke. I do enjoy an occasional pizza and I do eat meat although I do not crave meat like I used to.
- I understand that I am 100% responsible for everything that happens in my life and I accept full responsibility for that
- I understand that I will continue to repeat lessons until I learn them. I am not in control
- I have realized that I am separate from nothing. I trust CJKU.
- I can feel my Dahn Jon (lower energy center) even when I am not doing Yeon Don (still postures to accumulate energy). Not always, but more of the time
- I have the confidence to heal myself and others
- I understand that to better heal myself and others I must teach, share, and practice
- I believe I can make a difference in the world. I am making a difference in the world. I am going to make a difference in the world because I am 100% responsible for doing so.
The teaching team at Roots to Wings, all trained in Dahn Yoga and Hatha Yoga
Wendy Hall, as the founder of Roots to Wings, created the amazing energy field that is here with her own love, compassion, will and determination to make a better world. She brought Dahn Yoga to us and to Roots to Wings. Roots to Wings is a very special place. What has happened here is a testament that Hong ik (‘living in a way that widely benefits all’) is alive and well in America. Wendy Hall’s, now Wendy Hall Sabumnim ‘s,(a dahn yoga master instructor) success at incorporating Dahn Yoga principles with her already successful yoga and healing studio brought her an invite to manage CGI Holistic Fitness in Closter, NJ. She pursued this for her growth and for her vision of world peace, and her absence required us to grow to fill her spot.
My main lesson from BMC (Brain Management Consultant) training was that believing something and living something are two different things. To me the essence of Dahn Yoga is the practice of living consciously. All the great wisdom traditions tell us this and we get it intellectually. Dahn Yoga training has helped me feel this in the fiber of my being. It’s real and tangible. I also believe there are many maps that can we can use to practice living consciously, but as Joseph Campbell said it is best not to confuse the map with the territory, and if you find a map that works, stick with it.
While it was a very difficult decision to leave the corporate world and become a’ full-time’ earth citizen by operating a yoga and healing center, it is something I know I must do to make the most of this chance, this lifetime. I decided to dive in with both feet because I believe in’ Hong Ik’, living beneficially for all, and the power of transformation. If I can change, anybody can. I feel that a life based on healing and helping others is a life well lived and the best lesson we can give our children. The rest is up to Chun Ji Ki Un (Cosmic Energy), and I think I am in good hands.
Mike Houlihan operates Roots to Wings Yoga and Healing Studio in Newburyport, MA, with his wife Beth.
For more information please visit http://www.rootstowings.com.
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