Taichi-Qigong & Body Awareness Classes

Body Electric – Qigong Tune Up!

May 13 and 20, 2024

Come join a rejuvenating taichi-qigong practice at the Stage Door Studio in Cranbrook. Cara is back with bells on, from two months in New Zealand – offering a two week ‘tune-up’ for the existing qigong group, AND beginners are welcome too.

Register Here: Qigong Tune Up

Channels of Life: Studying Your Body-Mind

January 8-Feb 26, 2024

In this practical, fun course, we will study the body-mind through the lens of Chinese Medicine’s 12 meridians. Divided into three families of life principles, each set of four channels gives us insight into how we can have fuller embodiment in our own lives, and greater freedom amidst life’s inevitable struggles.

Class content:
We will study two ‘paired’ meridians each week – content is based on Shiatsu practitioner Mike Mandl’s excellent book, Meridians: Maps of the Soul. The book is recommended as a companion and pre-study will also be uploaded to a virtual online platform each week.

During each class we will review the material and deeper embody it through discussion, reflection, meditation and taichi-qigong exercises.

What we will cover each week:

Week One: Meridian Life Principles & Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Week Two: Lung & Large Intestine channels (Basic Needs)
Week Three: Stomach & Spleen channels (Basic Needs)
Week Four: Heart & Small Intestine (Individuation)
Week Five: Bladder & Kidneys (Individuation)
Week Six: Pericardium & Triple Heater (Self-Actualization)
Week Seven: Liver & Gallblader (Self-Actualization)
Week Eight: Review & Integration

Registration: Channels of Life

Taichi-Qigong & Meditation Classes  

By experiencing the body, breath, posture and sensations as they are, we can come to listen to our body-mind experience more closely. This allows us to let go of what no longer serves and to nurture the positive in our lives. It helps us re-inhabit the natural flow of awareness and vitality innate in us.

Some of what we will practice:

• Learn and practice eighteen simple taichi-qigong movements. These ‘Taichi Qigong Shibashi’ movements were developed for health, by Professor Lin Housheng at the Shanghai Qigong Institute.
• Breathing easy? Learn about and practice optimal breathing anatomy and posture.
• How do I meditate? Learn breathing meditation, in four postures from the centuries old (ie. tried and true) Buddhist meditation tradition.
• Learn exercises to coming home to your body. If we can rest peacefully in the experience of our body, as it is, we can understand and release armouring, tension and patterns of anxiety or depression.