My Path with Qigong
My Qigong path is an ever-evolving journey of self-healing, study, practice, exploration, mentorship and apprenticeship. I developed systemic Epstein-Barr Virus in early childhood that plagued me with prolonged bouts of illness through the first forty-plus years of my life. I also accrued many injuries, many of which left me with chronic pain and alignment issues. I treated my illness and injuries first with western medicine, and then with acupuncture, naturopathy, homeopathy, and various self-healing modalities. Starting in my early twenties, I began studying and working with western herbs, nutrition, Yoga, Reiki, acupressure, Qigong meditations and practices, Buddhist meditation, and shamanic techniques.
By my late twenties, I had learned so much about healing through nature, Qi, and meditation that I felt called to teach and offer healing sessions to others. The bulk of my work with others involved channeling Qi through meridians, organs, and acu-points. At the time, I didn't know I had accidentally reinvented medical Qigong. It was simply how I was drawn to work as a Reiki practitioner.
There is another thread to this story. I had a lifelong draw towards martial arts, perhaps inherited from my grandfather. I studied fencing, Jeet Kune Do, and Aikido, but was uncomfortable with the inherent possibility of causing harm through fighting. I enjoyed Butoh dance, but did not continue with it when my teacher died. Yet the sense it gave me of channeling energy through movement stayed with me.
In my late thirties, I damaged a sacroiliac joint and a couple discs in a Yoga class. I couldn't practice almost any Yoga after that, so I turned more fully to Qigong. I deepened the practices I knew well, learned new forms, came upon and fell in love with Wild Goose Qigong. Through this deepening of my Qigong practice, not only did I mostly resolve the Yoga injuries (these resolved more thoroughly during my Anusara Yoga teacher training, when I learned how to work more effectively with the muscles, connective tissues, and joints of the body), but I also found that all of my symptoms related to Epstein-Barr had immensely improved. For the first time in my life, I wasn't sick and exhausted for 10 months of each year.
In 2018, I began studying with the late Dr. Bingkun Hu. It was a profound inspiration to work with a master of his level. His depth, knowledge, and power completely transformed my practice, and my sense of what is possible not just with Qigong, but with a human life. I made a commitment to be an inheritor of his approach to the Wild Goose tradition, which focuses on whole body movement, "3-D movement," and variations in rhythm. Dr. Hu called Wild Goose "the encyclopedia of Qigong," and indeed in this one form, I find the essence of all the other forms I've studied merged in centripetal motion.
On Dr. Hu's encouragement, I began teaching and healing with Qigong more, and have been deeply moved by witnessing the transformation that Qigong can bring to people's bodies, minds, hearts, and lives. Just as we have two feet for walking, I teach and heal with one foot, and study and practice with the other as I walk this path. I continue to study Wild Goose with Micheline Bogey, and am studying Chinese medicine with Dr. Edward Neal.
If you'd like to walk this path with me, please -
Schedule a Private Session or book a class online, or Contact me if you'd like weekly lessons at a custom time.
"The space between Heaven and Earth is a bellows;
Empty, yet inexhaustible.
The more it is pressed, the more pours out."
- Lao Tzu