September 2010 to August 2011

Each class series will have as a foundation some practice and training in the Five Flows Set. For overviews and detailed descriptions of the Five Flows Set, please refer to the pages section to the right of this text.

Classes Are Held

• Mondays from noon to 1:00                   
• Mondays from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
• Fridays from noon to 1:00

 Prices come out to about $80 per 8-week series.

Come to one, two or three classes a week for the same price!

The Eight Brocades

Sept-Oct 2010

Monday, September 6th to Friday, October 29

Price: $80

These famous and widespread Qigong exercises are about 800 years old. They are used for gently training the intrinsic health of the muscles, joints, connective tissues, digestion, the spine, and more. The Eight Brocades engage the physical body wholly, bringing flowing, resilient, flexible, strength.

Preventing Colds and Flu

(Six Healing Sounds and Hun Yuan Qigong)

Nov-Dec 2010

Monday, November 01 to Friday, December 17 (no class Friday, Nov 26)

Price: $70

The Six Healing sounds clear the organs and tissues of stagnant Qi, open blocked Qi channels and reinvigorate sluggish lymph. Passageways are opened so fresh energy can then enter, circulate and be refined. Hun Yuan Qigong consists of slow, gentle movements that move the Qi. This set is a marvelous way to stave off getting sick Whenever I start to feel rundown—maybe on the verge of getting sick—I practice the slow motion Hun Yuan set for about 30-40 minutes. By the end of the practice I can feel a pulsing, whole-body empowerment. I get a strong sense that the healing forces in my body have been renewed and reinvigorated.

Taoist Yoga and Healthy Breathing

Jan-Feb 2011

Monday January 03 to Friday, February 25

Price: $80

Taoist Yoga is a term often used to describe the many and varied stretching practices found in the vast cornucopia known as Qigong. Taoist Yoga—rather than being long-held postures—is always in motion. Stretches are expressed, then released after a breath or two. It is Qigong stretching. Taoist Yoga puts emphasis on growing flexible strength in the joints, ligaments, tendons and fascia than the more muscle-focused Indian Yoga. Breathing Practices are some of the most powerful and all-effecting healing exercises you can do. Our focus will be on building the all important belly breath, then working up to full-vase breathing.

Healthy Joint Qigong

March-April 2011

Monday, February 28 to Friday April 22

Price: $80

In Healthy Joint Qigong you will learn:

• Joint Rotation exercises for clearing the joints and increasing range of motion
• Joint Expansion practices for increasing the space between bones
• Joint Pulsing practices for building Qi in your joints
• Joint Strengthening exercises to add more resilience to your joints
• Joint Massage techniques for bringing blood, Qi, and lymph through joints
• Bone Breathing meditations for clearing the joints and charging them up

Simple Taiji

(Taoist Five Yin, Taoist Five Yang, and Johnsonian Purging)

May-June 2011

Monday, May 02 to Friday, June 24

Price: $80

These movements are great for improving the health and strength of your internal organs, especially the essential five that Chinese Medicine focuses on. Simple Taiji will also strengthen your whole body, lower your blood pressure (if needed), improve the health of your spine, replenish your energy resources, improve your breathing, aid your digestion and elimination, and release tension.

Qigong in the Gardens

July 2011

Monday nights only: July 04, 11, 18, 25

Price: Free!

Free classes offered to the greater Whatcom community. This will be the eighth annual series. These Qigong classes are introductory. For those who haven’t done any Qigong before, it is a chance to experience a little of its joyful, internal healing power. For everybody it is an opportunity to practice, refine your skills and to share a healing experience with others in a beautiful garden setting amidst nature.

Summer Break

August 2011

No scheduled Qigong classes

This Summer will be the seventh year I have offered free Summer Qigong classes. The first year I held them in Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham. Every Summer since I have held them at the glorious garden space of my home. 

These classes are open to anyone intrigued or entranced by Qigong, whether new to the art or a seasoned practitioner.  

Free Qigong in the Gardens

Summer 2010 

When:     Each Monday in July (July 5, 12, 19, and 26) 

Time:     6:00 pm to 7:00 pm 

Cost:      None  

Where:   1095 East Axton Road 

Who:      Anyone interested; and whoever they invite  as well.  

Directions and Confirmations

There is no need to confirm you are coming. Just show up. However if you need directions, please contact me directly and I will send them to you. 

Come to any of the classes you can get to, or to all of them. 

Contact Robert Bates to get directions 

2010 Free Qigong in the Gardens whole page

2010 Free Qigong Classes postcards (multiple copies)

Qigong is an Investment

Qigong (“Chee Gung”) is the art, science, and philosophy of natural healing and personal energy management. Qigong is extremely effective in increasing wellness, ensuring longevity, and curing many ailments. Qigong is remarkably effective as a significant health care approach, yet amazingly inexpensive (especially this particular series of classes). Practicing Qigong is a superb investment for both building wellness and saving money by staving off current or future health problems. Someday Qigong may be a primary part of American healthcare. The way the medical money tide is growing and insurance avalanche is going, that day may come soon. Start learning it soon so you will be ready. 

Gentle Exercises for Grand Results

This summer’s focus will be on The Five Flows Set, and on specific Qigong Prescriptions. The Five Flows Set is a satisfying set of slow and gentle exercises that brings great balance to the body and calmness to the mind. Prescriptions are specific exercises designed to help particular health conditions. The Qigong Prescriptions will include exercises for several common problems, including colds and allergies, insomnia, hot flashes, heart issues, and nausea. We will start each class with the basic Five Flows Qigong. Then I’ll lead people through particular Medical Qigong Prescriptions. 

When:         Saturday, June 5, 2010

Time:         10:00 to 2:00

Cost:          Only $40

Location:    Robert’s beautiful healing studio at

                  1095 East Axton Road, North of Bellingham.

Sign Up:     (360) 398-7466, or rbbatesdc@comcast.net

Breathe Bigger, Better and Easier

Breath Practices are some of the most powerful healing exercises you can do. You can insert conscious breathing into just about any part of your day and be better off for it. You can benefit from conscious breathing practices virtually your entire life. Any amount of good breathing you do adds to your health.

With These Breathing Practices You Will

•  Massage the internal organs for greater all around health
•  Keep the head clear and promote mental clarity
•  Help move the lymph throughout the body, increasing immunity function
•  Increase your energy
•  Calm your emotions
•  Increase your lifespan
•  Decrease tension
•  Sleep deeper
•  And much, much more

 What We Will Cover in This Workshop

• Qigong breathing practices, each with different health goals
• Simple tests to assess how well you are breathing
• Easy ways to integrate vastly more quality breathing into your   everyday life
• The Framingham Study: How your breath capacity can accurately predict your lifespan; and how to definitely increase your lifespan with breathing practices

 Breathing Exercises We Will Practice

Follow the Breath. Just watch. Notice how you are actually breathing. You can learn a lot about yourself this way.

Graduated Quiet Breathing Meditation. Build awareness and sink into a relaxed, healing mode of being as you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, coordinate your consciousness and balance your brain

Abdominal Breathing. The foundation of proper breathing. Breathe into and out of your abdomen, letting it expand with the inhale and flatten with exhaling.

Belly Book Breathing. Re-teach yourself how to use your diaphragm to pull air into your body by expanding your abdomen, instead of lifting your shoulders to bring air in.

Pelvic Breathing. Sometimes breathe low into your pelvis to build power and prevent many problems.

Low Back and Kidney Breathing. Drawing the air into the lower back to expand that area and fill the Kidney’s with Qi.

Filling the Vase. Fill your torso with breath like pouring water into a vase; the water fills up the lower parts first before working up. Empty your breath in reverse.

Gentle Breath Holding. Holding the breath for a short time—repeatedly—to help relax tensions in the breathing apparatus.

Plus

The Remembering Breath. Put up green dot stickers. Every time you see the dot, take a deep breath. This will give you many deep breaths each day.

10 Percent More. Add just a little to the size or seconds of each breath.

Breathing Awareness Set (to take home.) Begin to take more control of your daily breathing habits.

Learn Taiji Qigong (Tai Chi Chi Kung)

Gentle Exercise Series with Robert Bates 

May and June, 2010  

Three Times

• Mondays 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm.   
• Mondays 6:00 to 7:00 pm.                 
• Fridays 12:00 to 1:00 pm.

Dates: May 3 through June 25 

Cost:   Only $80 for the entire series                      

Location: 1095 East Axton Road. This is a few miles north of Bellingham. 

Graceful Relaxation and Gentle Strengthening

Taiji Qigong is a set of graceful, meditative exercises based on the healing martial art of Taiji. This 18-movement set is also known as Shibashi. The movements are easy to learn and practice and have many healing benefits. Taiji Qigong is great for those wanting some of the grace, beauty and health benefits of Taiji Chuan but aren’t ready to commit to 10 years of difficult training. 

Taiji Qigong

Taiji Qigong is effective in opening major acupuncture points, balancing the brain and body, and improving the strength and flexibility of the spine. You will develop smooth coordination, gain more body awareness and you will attain a peaceful sense of empowerment. 

With Taiji Qigong You Will Also

• Gather energy
• Heal chronic injuries
• Become more relaxed and calm
• Clear the fog from your brain
• Enhance your immune system
• Improve Posture
• Feel better
• Strengthen internal organs

To Sign Up for Classes: (360) 398-7466, or email

Days: Mondays and Fridays. Take one or both days for the same price.

Dates: March 8 through April 16

Time: 12:00 to 1:00

Cost: $60 for the 6-week series

Location: Robert’s Healing Studio: 1095 E. Axton Road, Bellingham, WA 98226

In Healthy Joint Qigong You Will Learn

• Joint Rotation exercises for clearing the joints and increasing range of motion
• Joint Expansion practices for increasing the space between bones
• Joint Pulsing practices for building Qi in your joints
• Joint Strengthening exercises to add more resilience to your joints
• Joint Massage techniques for bringing blood, Qi, and lymph through joints
• Bone Breathing meditations for clearing the joints and charging them up

Joint Motion Exercises Can

• Lubricate the Joints through motion
• Help you feel better. Joint exercises can decrease arthritic and creaky pain
• Decrease calcium and other mineral buildup
• Help you stand and be taller: Expand the body, rather than be compacted
• Decrease the chance of injuries
• Be used as a wake up in the morning
• Be used as a warm up before being physically active
• Increase your flexibility
• Restore much lost joint health

Some Reasons for Qigong Joint Exercises

Health is movement and movement leads to health. Stagnation, in contrast, leads to illness. Impaired joints decrease the amount and types of movement you can do. While it is important to stretch and exercise the muscles and soft tissues of the body, the joints also need to be “stretched” and exercised. As a general rule, gently and frequently moving them in through their natural range of motion, helps them heal, helps them reconfigure closer to the way they were meant to work. If we exercise our joints we will be healthier and feel better. The joints have no blood flow, so they depend upon your movement to pump the synovial fluid through, and the toxins and detritus out.

Monthly Wild Goose Qigong Workshops

Once a month on Saturdays, Robert Bates will be teaching 2-hour Wild Goose Qigong Workshops. The workshops will be for both beginners and continuing students. Everyone will work on the First 64 form. Continuing students then can stay with the First 64 practice or work on Spiral, Soft Palms, or Slapping Healthy.

Time: 10:00 to 12:00

Dates: February 20, March 20, April 17, May 15 and June 19

Cost: $80 for the 5-class series or $20 per class

Location: Robert’s Healing Studio: 1095 E. Axton Road, Bellingham, WA 98226

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gain Greater Health and Have Fun Doing it

Wild Goose Qigong exercises are Chinese longevity exercises that originated in the Taoist tradition in the Kunlun mountains of Western China, many centuries ago. Long a secret, Wild Goose Qigong became widely practiced in China in the last few decades. The exercises represent the daily routine of a wild goose—a bird of longevity and high energy. Wild Goose Qigong is effective at helping treat disease, increase energy, improve mental clarity and brain functions, and maintain general fitness.

The Fabulous, Famous, Fantastic “First 64”

The “First 64” is one of the most well known Qigong sequences in the world. It is usually the one first taught in the Wild Goose system. It consists of 64 named moves of great variety that are performed in succession along a specific stepping pattern, much like a Tai Chi Sequence is done. Each of the moves has particular benefits for health, wellness, and healing. The movements flow together in a flowing, active tapestry. The “First 64” is a lot of fun to practice and has many unexpected and unusual moves. The form includes turning, twisting, stretching, leg strengthening, balance building, and spinal strengthening. There are moves to eliminate old, stuck and toxic energy from your body and fill yourself with fresh new energy.

These classes are moderately vigorous and will include warming up, stretching, Qigong drills, and instruction in the profound and fun movements of the of the long sequences.

Taoist Yoga

Mondays and Fridays from noon to 1:00 will be Introduction to Taoist Yoga: Stretch your muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints using the principles of Chinese movement.

The cost for this course is $80. You can take it once or twice for the same price.

Prevent Colds and Flu

Mondays and Fridays from 1:00 to 2:00 will be Qigong to Prevent Colds and Flu. Use vibrating healing sounds and slow, rhythmic, repeating movements to knock an incipient sickness off it’s trajectory.

The cost for this course is $80. You can take it once or twice for the same price.

Expanding and Contracting the Rings

Here are photos of one of the Qi-refining exercises that will build the strength of your immune system.

Pull Qi up from the Ground

Flow Qi over the Head

Descend Qi into the Earth

• Five Flows Qigong Set: Two-hour workshop
• Qigong to Prevent Colds and Flu: Two or four-hour workshop
• The Delightful Dozen: Four-hour workshop
• Healthy Joint Qigong: Two, four, or six-hour workshop
• Empower Your Breathing: Four-hour workshop
• Six Healing Sounds with Color Radiation: Four-hour workshop
• Qigong Self-Massage: Two or four-hour workshop
• Swimming Dragon: Four-hour Workshop
• Taij Qigong (Tai Chi Chi Kung): Four-hour workshop
• Chakra Tuning and Auric Butterfly: Four-hour workshop
• Five Animal Frolics Qigong: Two or four-hour workshop
• 36-Movement Snake Qigong Set: Taught in a pair of four-hour workshops
• Introduction to Medical Qigong Therapy: One-day or two-day workshop

Qigong has earned a reputation for being a powerful illness-prevention practice. Qigong can and often does prevent many acute illnesses from arising. While there is no guarantee you won’t get sick if you practice Qigong, your body will stand a much better chance of fighting off sickness. In my experience, there is something even more than prevention that sometimes goes on: The oncoming illness is waylaid, knocked out like a boxer with a glass jaw.

Qigong Workshop

On November 14, which is a Saturday, I will offer a 4-hour workshop on Qigong methods that can prevent acute sickness from taking effect in your body.

Workshop Details

When:              Saturday, November 14 , 2009
Time:               10:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Bring a Lunch.
Cost:                $60. 
Location: 1095 East Axton Road, a few miles north of Bellingham, WA.
To Sign Up: (360) 398-7466, or rbbatesdc@comcast.net

First Clear the Organs with the Six Healing Sounds

First we will warm the body up and begin the purging of stagnation. The Six Healing Sounds clear the organs, tissues and cells of stagnant Qi; open blocked Qi channels; and reinvigorate sluggish lymph.

Then Engage in Slow, Gentle Movements that Move the Qi

For this we will practice the set known as Hun Yuan Qigong. I find this set to be a marvelous way to stave off getting sick.

Move Qi Stagnation

My Own Experiences with Vaulting Past Colds and Flu

Over the past two or three long, cold, wet Washington State winters, whenever I start to feel run down—maybe on the verge of getting sick—I practice the slow motion Hun Yuan set for about 30 to 40 minutes. By the end of the practice I can feel a pulsing, whole-body empowerment. There is a balanced magnetic warmth in my hands, ease in my breathing, and calmness in my heart and mind. I get a strong sense that the healing forces in my body have been renewed and reinvigorated.

So far, it has worked and I haven’t gotten ill when engaging in my preventive Qigong practice. This idea of staving off illness is a very common one in the Qigong literature, a universal notion of the value of the art.

Proved Once Again

Again,there is no guarantee, but I proved to myself just the today that it works. I’ve been very busy lately, with little down time. I thrive on a certain minimum of time off to rest my mind and body. Last night I began to get fatigued-feeling and overly-sweaty. I went to bed early and slept in, feeling even more tired in the morning.

Over the day I practiced 20 to 30 minutes of the above type of Qigong three times. After the second practice–in the early afternoon–I began to feel a definite shift toward energy and strength. Hours later, I feel pretty good over all.

On Thursday October 15, I will be teaching a Five Flows Qigong workshop at the Palm Desert  Chiropractic office and Qigong studio of my colleague Robert Haberkorn.

Five Animal Frolics in Monrovia, CA

On Saturday, October 17, I will be teaching a workshop on Five Animal Frolics workshop at Monrovia studio of my long-time friend Tom Hould.