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When your Center Manager encourages you to sign up for the Shim Sung Workshop, RUN, don’t walk, grab a pen and do it! This is such a valuable training. It will change your life. It did mine.
I am a middle-aged product of the modern day success system. I grew up in New York City, went to all the best schools, received a wonderful education with a multitude of opportunities to grow myself. I did very well in school, achieved a lot.
I am very disciplined and know how to study diligently. There were some subjects I enjoyed more than others–English, History, Philosophy, Psychology but to be honest I enjoyed learning because I always had an inquisitive mind.
However, this society puts a lot of pressure on the individual for results and it is important to do well from Kindergarten onwards. Parents stress as soon as their babies are born about sending them to the best schools, etc. I always had an artistic bent and looked to nurturing this part of me through music (I play classical piano), singing, creative writing and acting. I suppose this was my way to express myself and connect with the world safely.
Much time passed living life within the norms, trying to fit into the various plans and options of lifestyle available. I even tried to merge two options to please each side of myself. I married a German film director. I was supposed to get married. I was an actress. Ah ha, put the two together and see how that works. Was I “successful?” To a certain degree. Was I happy? Not really. I could never truly feel myself inside of all this activity. There was a disconnect but I didn’t know why or how this came to be? Or, for that matter, what to do for it.
There came a point where I would shout to the heavens and demand some response. I didn’t know why I was on earth and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I had all this talents, all this energy, but I didn’t have a purpose. Something that fired up my heart. Everything I thought would do the trick just seemed to satisfy my ego and you know what happens with that. Easy come, easy go. You’re up one minute, and down the next.
I came to Dahn Yoga to improve my physical flexibility but deep inside I had a desperate mind to find answers to the bigger questions. I had no idea that Dahn Yoga would address that. I thought it would be exercises, maybe a little meditation, you know the regular yoga routine. As soon as I started, however, it became very apparent that this was a special yoga. I knew this practice. I could feel it in my body. And as my body started to awaken and feel more open and I started to experience energy and understand the mind/body connection. I began to feel better. Happier.
Shim Sung is where it really took off. Shim Sung is a two-day workshop which offers a way to reconnect to your inner self. In Korean “Shim” means “mind” or “self.” “Sung” means “true” or “root.” Studying Shim Sung brings you closer to the true, root self that is so easily lost in today’s world. For good reason we do not describe the elements of this two-day training. We don’t want to compromise your experience with preconceptions.
It has nothing to do with your intellectualized self. It offers experiential opportunities to truly feel yourself getting in touch with your inner nature. Most workshops involve a lot of talking. This experience differs greatly from workshops that only talk about the true self. There is nothing compared to the feeling of reconnecting to the inner, true mind.
Recently I helped staff the Shim Sung at Union Square Center.
The members who participated entered from the outside coming from their homes with their “personas” in tact. Some of them looked stressed, some inquisitive, others excited. Staff and trainers immediately sent a lot of energy and love to them. It is a big journey on which they were embarking. An important journey. Maybe the most important in their life. A most extraordinary thing happened at this Shim Sung. It was like a wave of energy passed over and we became the waters of the sea. Staff and participants together swirling in an ocean of energy. The head trainer guided us through a remarkable journey.
There was no way to escape immersion. At times the waters were stormy, at other times, calm. The beauty of the experience was that we were all together, swirling with one purpose. And when we closed we washed up on the shore as new beings. Our original beings.
