Ilchi Lee

Whenever I travel, I bring this stick with me. It is my hiking staff, and also my musical instrument. In this video you can see and hear the beautiful simplicity of this stick.

Many elders think new endeavors, projects, and studies are not for them, or believe their brain functioning will only decline from now on.

My new book, In Full Bloom, co-authored with Dr. Jessie Jones, is my way of giving hope to people over 50 years old who no longer look forward to their life.

We all have hope because actually our potential to do and create is greater than most people think. Scientific research has shown that, while overall we may lose brain matter over our lifetime, new cells and new connections between the cells can be made throughout our whole lifespan. Our brains can become more efficient as we get older if we exercise our bodies and our minds.

What really matters is that we choose to use our potential in a way that inspires our true self and makes us feel alive. Real hope comes from believing in your potential and taking action to live it, one step at a time.

What inspires you to make the choice and take the action to use your brain’s potential? What do you want to learn or accomplish? What do you want to share with others? Believe in yourself and then make a plan and take action today. Do something today that inspires you and puts a smile on your face!

Last month, I had finished my long lecture in the United States and was about to head to the airport to fly to Japan for another series of events.

At the airport, it was early dawn and dark clouds filled the sky. Moments later a vivid rainbow appeared among the clouds. It was amazingly beautiful. In contrast to dark clouds, a rainbow seems even more beautiful.

Similarly, hope is more necessary to those who are feeling despair, having a difficult time, and lacking awareness of their life's purpose.

When one has hope in spite of knowing that life is suffering and challenging, the feeling of hope is a lot more meaningful and precious. It's like a rainbow among dark clouds being more beautiful.

To create something in life while suffering and facing obstacles, we need hope. When we possess it, our lives truly become beautiful.

Hope is not something one can learn. Hope cannot be taught. But it can be shared.

So far, I have lived my life with hope. All I have achieved has been possible because also my students and members have had hope.

Let's make flowers of hope bloom in our hearts. And share them with those around us.

My new book with Dr. Jessie Jones, In Full Bloom: A Brain Education Guide for Successful Aging, explains how you can keep your brain fit well past 50 years of age.

It's a matter of choice to continue to grow, or, in other words, to remain young in body and brain.

I am delighted to share this video clip Discover You(th), which tells how to establish a brain-enhancing lifestyle for successful aging. Relax and enjoy it, and freely forward it to the people you love and want to stay young and healthy.

We are affected by our environment. We see a person we love, and good brain waves and positive emotions fill us with happy hormones.

Next, we run into a person who we dislike intensely, and erratic brain waves and negative emotions unleash angry and/or fearful hormones. Like these examples, our brain waves and emotions are endlessly influenced by our environments. However, this is only half the story.

Our brain actually has the ability to create an emotion regardless of environment. How? By producing brain waves and hormones. What influences brain waves and hormones? Information. We have the power to choose the information we want so that we can create the emotions we want, no matter what the environment is throwing at us.

We can learn to do this with the support of these three things:

1. Inspirational music ­from Bach and Mozart to Secret Garden and Kitaro.
2. Regular actions (especially brain wave vibration exercises).
3. Positive messages – love, joy, peace, freedom, power, harmony, success, hope and the like.

Your brain longs to be healthy, happy and peaceful. It wants your love and attention, and will respond positively when it receives them. If your brain feels lonely, then instead of waiting for somebody else to love it, shower it with your love, smiling, uplifting music, laughter, and dancing. When you get to know your brain – not your mind, which has all sorts of information in it – you will know yourself. And you will know your power and potential to live life well. You are the master of your brain and thus you can create the life that you really want. So, choose wisely, every minute.

I once came across the true story of a man who worked in a warehouse with a very large freezer room.

Near closing time, he entered the room to get some work done quickly, leaving the door slightly open. A security guard passing by noticed the open door, so he shut and locked it. Soon after, the man inside finished his work and tried to leave, only to find that he could not open the door. He shouted at the top of his lungs and made a variety of loud noises, but no one was close enough to hear him. Having worked there for a long time, he knew the temperature inside was -50 degrees Fahrenheit, and what effect it would have on his body if he had to spend all night inside the chamber. His fear went into high gear.

In the morning, someone opened the locked door to find the man inside. He was dead. Surprisingly, however, it was not cold: the power cord of the freezer had been unplugged all night. If he had known this fact, he could have had a good night’s sleep. What happened to the man in the refrigerated room overnight? His body was not frozen, but his brain had believed that he would not survive the night, and so he had died of fear. Thoughts and emotions like fear affect our body far more than suffering and pain itself.

Such is the incredible power of our brains. The information they take in and accept becomes our reality. The brain focusing on negative information then creates unstable brain waves and releases stress hormones that adversely affect physical and mental functions. Or, starting with positive information, we end up in a good body-mind state.

Thus, the presence or absence of life’s suffering and pain is a matter of the information path we choose to go down. So, with all your brain power, choose -- and choose well.

On February 19, I went to Los Angeles for an important meeting. It was still winter in Arizona, but in LA spring had already come.

On my way to California State University in Fullerton, I noticed that the purple magnolias were in full bloom, and reminding me of the title of my new book with Jessie Jones, Ph.D.

Dr. Jones and I co-hosted a luncheon to share information about Brain Education programs with her Cal State colleagues. My colleagues and I enjoyed giving presentations regarding Brain Education. Drawing on my life experiences so far, I've realized that everything we experience now is the result of choices made by the human brain. I truly believe we must begin educating the brain, not just for intellectual pursuits, but also to make better choices to create a better world.

Roberta Rikli (Dean), me and Jessie Jones sharing smiles

I feel really grateful to Dr. Jones and her colleagues for their sincere interest in Brain Education programs. Through discussion with scholars in the front line of higher education and research, I could feel hope for Brain Education's bright future. Also I felt the expanded responsibility that goes with dialogue and real-world application of ideas.

I want to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Jones for giving my associates and I the special opportunity to share Brain Education. The golden roses in full bloom, with which she had decorated the meeting room, were symbolic to me of the vast potential of educating brains to make a more healthy, happy and peaceful world.

On February 17, I had a great time with around 120 Sedona residents sharing my philosophy and methods of successful aging.

Today [Feb. 16], I had the opportunity to give a lecture to the Sedona Dahn Yoga Center’s members, in Sedona, Arizona.

Since I live in Sedona myself, it was a great pleasure to meet people who practice Brain Education program in the same city.