Ilchi Lee

Shim Sung, or “Awakening True Self”, is a Brain Education System Training (BEST) workshop developed by Ilchi Lee. Usually it is offered through Dahn Yoga centers. But for the first time in February 2008, the Roots to Wings yoga studio in Byfield, Massachusetts offered Shim Sung for 20 of its students.

The Shim Sung was led by Chun Shim, a Shim Sung and Dahn Yoga trainer from Boston, MA who has led the workshop for over 5 years. The center manager of the Beacon Hill Dahn Yoga Center in Boston assisted the training, as well as Wendy Hall, the owner and head instructor of Roots to Wings, and eight Dahn Yoga Healers from the greater Boston area.

Offering Shim Sung at the Byfield studio north of Boston offers residents of northern Massachusetts and southern Maine and New Hampshire the opportunity to participate in the workshop in a more convenient and accessible location. Hall will continue to offer certain Dahn Yoga workshops to her students. She will hold an Initial Awakening workshop at her studio in April 2008, with another Shim Sung to follow the weekend of May 17th and 18th.

Shim Sung takes participants through mental, physical, and social exercises that allow them to uncover their true inner identity. Through these exercises they examine the thought patterns and emotional habits that inhibit their experience of joy in their life.

The Roots to Wings Studio (see photo above) opened in February 2004 and offers classes in Hatha Yoga, combining styles based on Iyengar, Anusara, Donna Farhi and now Brain Education. It currently has 150 students, with 120 to 130 attending regularly.

Hall attended Shim Sung herself in March 2007. She went on to take more advanced Dahn Yoga training, including attending Dahn Healing System at the Sedona Mago Retreat Center in Sedona, AZ.

In September 2007 she designed and launched a class entitled "Energy Body and Meditation". Twenty-three people attended the 8- week course in which she taught and practiced the energy principles and methods of Dahn Yoga. For the seventh class, Hall invited Chun Shim. Together they led a Heart Opening Workshop with 42 people attending. She offered this class again in January 2008. The course offered a good introduction for the fifteen students who later also attended the February Shim Sung, although it was not required.

The first Shim Sung was offered on November 1, 1992 in Korea. It came to the United States in 1998, with the first held in New York. The trainer was Byuk Woon, a Dahn Master who was one of Ilchi Lee’s early students and one of the first to come to the United States. Since then, thousands of Americans have participated in the workshop.

The Roots to Wings Shim Sung offers a successful example for introducing Shim Sung to people who do not attend classes at Dahn Yoga centers.

2 Comments

brainapple April 21, 2008 71.32.106.187 Votes: +1	I have taken this workshop, and it made such a difference in my life. I felt like I could finally live the life of my inner self, from inner direction versus outer direction. I found such amazing power and joy inside of me, and I can still tap into it, even years later!! report abuse vote down vote up
evcohen April 22, 2008 69.117.65.174 Votes: +1	This is a wonderful thing - to spread to the world the way to find your true self - amazing! How did the participants feel about it? Was there any follow up? Let's keep growing!!! report abuse vote down vote up