Classes
To Sign Up for Classes: (360) 398-7466, or email
Unless otherwise stated, all classes are at my studio near Bellingham, WA.
Winter 2012
8-Week Course: Simple Taiji Qigong Form, Session 2 and Taoist Yoga (18 Liangong Set)
Newcomers welcome
Jan 2 to Feb 24, 2012. Mondays and Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00; and Mondays from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. $80.
I am also offering this class at Body in Balance Studio near Lynden, WA on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 to 1:00, Jan 3 to Feb 23, 2012.
Between the two locations, You can come from 1 to 5 classes a week, all for the same price!
Simple Taiji is Advanced Movement
Many times I have heard from people who tried to learn Taiji (Tai Chi) that the moves were too complex and the form was too long to remember. Instead of using their class and practice time to learn healthy principles movement, they would mostly be overwhelmed. The Simple Taiji Form solves that problem. This form consists of just two postures repeated six times, plus some transitions. By investing a shorter time in learning the moves, you are able to explore many principles of Taiji Qigong. You aren’t spending all your efforts in remembering (and forgetting).
Accessible Taiji
The Simple Taiji Form is a fun and accessible introduction to the world of Taiji. One repetition of this Qi-building form can be done in only 3 or 4 minutes. This short sequence trains balance, builds strength, improves memory, promotes health, and increases physical stability. Once you learn it, the form has many levels of practice within the same moves: It is a trove of riches of innumerable lessons and blessings. Daily practice of this little form will make your life better, healthier and probably longer.
Simple Taiji is a Qigong Practice
The Simple Taiji form will 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.
I learned this sequence from Minke de Vos in 1997 and 1998. She learned it from her teacher Mantak Chia.
8-Week Course: Empowered Breathing
Jan 2 to Feb 24, 2012. Mondays and Fridays from 1:15 to 2:00. $60.
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 Course
- 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.
Workshop: Qigong for Insomnia
(Later start time so you can sleep in before class!)
Date: Saturday, Feb 18, 2012
Time: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Cost: $40
Location: 1095 East Axton Road, 98226.
This is a few miles north of Bellingham, WA. Please call or email if you need directions.
To Sign Up: (360) 398-7466, or rbbatesdc@comcast.net
Please bring a lunch or snacks for yourself.
The Insomnia Prescription
The Insomnia Prescription is a collection of Qigong movements that will help you quiet your brain, calm your emotions, settle your energy, release anxiety, and descend your Qi so you can sleep. It will energize your inner organs to improve your ability to go inward, away from excess thoughts. The prescription includes Kidney warming, Kidney charging, energetic centering, and energy descending methods. You will learn how to redirect the too-awake energy of insomnia into your internal self and down to your feet. This is much better than counting sheep or watching the Late, Late Show. This prescription has been successful for many people with insomnia.
In addition to the basic prescription, we will explore other aspects being able to deeply, and refreshingly sleep, including special healing sounds, sleep postures, and more.
8-Week Course: Simple Taiji Qigong Form, Session 3
and Healthy Joint Qigong
Newcomers welcome
March 5 to April 20, 2012. Mondays and Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00, and 6:00 to 7:00 pm on Monday evenings. $80.
Accessible Taiji
The Simple Taiji Form is a fun and accessible introduction to the world of Taiji. One repetition of this Qi-building form can be done in only 3 or 4 minutes. This short sequence trains balance, builds strength, improves memory, promotes health, and increases physical stability. Once you learn it, the form has many levels of practice within the same moves: It is a trove of riches of innumerable lessons and blessings. Daily practice of this little form will make your life better, healthier and probably longer.
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.
Spring 2012
Workshop Medley: Sat, April or 28, 2012 (all classes for $40)
Workshop: Five Flows Qigong, Set 2 10:00 to 12:00. $25.
Review or Preview: Taoist Yoga (18 Liangong Set). 12:30 to 1:30. $12.
Review or Preview: The Delightful Dozen. 1:45 to 2:45. $12.
8-Week Course: Simple Taiji Qigong Form, Session 4 and The Eight Brocades
Newcomers welcome
April 30 to June 22, 2012. Mondays and Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00. $80.
Workshop: The “Spiral” Form of Wild Goose Qigong
Sat and Sun, June 9 and 10. 10:00 to 5:00. $195.
Summer 2012
Free Qigong in the Gardens: July 2, 9, 16, and 23 in 2012. Free!
(Monday nights 6:00 to 7:00). Come to any or all of them. Five Flows and 6 Sounds.
Fall 2012
Workshop: Review and Refinement of Wild Goose Qigong’s “Spiral”
Sat, Sept 15, 2012. 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. $60.
12-Week Course: The Five Animal Frolics and Hun Yuan Qigong (to prevent colds & flu, & build Qi)
Sept 17 to Dec 10, 2012. Mondays and Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00. $120.
Workshop Medley: Sat, Oct 13, 2012 (all classes for $40)
Workshop: Five Flows Qigong, Set 2. 10:00 to 12:00. $25.
Review or Preview: Five Animal Frolics. 12:00 to 1:00. $12.
Review or Preview: Healthy Joint Qigong. 1:00 to 2:00. $12.
Workshop: Heal Others with Qigong: Part 1. Preparation and Clearing
Sat, Nov 12, 2012. 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. $60.
Workshop: Empowered Breathing
Sat, Dec 8, 2012. 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. $60.
Winter 2013
8-Week Course: 18-move Wuji Qigong style of Taoist Yoga
Jan 7 to March 1, 2013. Mondays and Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00. $80.
6-Month Course: Wild Goose Qigong’s “The First 64” Sequence
Jan 7 to June 21, 2013. Mondays and Fridays from 1:00 to 2:00. $240.
Workshop: Heal Others with Qigong: Part 2. Charging the Organs
Sat, Jan 19, 2013. 10:00 to 2:00. $60.