reSource Wellness Chi Gong Workshops Up and Running!
The first reSource Wellness Chi Gong workshop took place on Saturday, January 24, 2015, at my office at 809 Ridge, Wilmette. Eight lovely people attended, which made for slightly tight quarters, but we managed handsomely (it helped that four of the eight were young children, so they didn’t take up much room)! A good time was had by all, as you can see in the pic below. (Note the excellence of my students’ Draw the Bow to Shoot the Tiger pose!)
The second workshop took place on February 14. My friend Jennifer Schuman created a Winter Wellness event at the Evanston Women’s Club, featuring a number of informative, health-promoting workshops. We began with Tap Your Way to Wellness, in which trauma resolution specialist Carol Moss led us in a session of the Emotional Freedom Technique. Then we did a heart-pumping, booty-blasting workout with Isabelle Libmann, followed by a talk on The Neurology of Peace and Calm by Meggie Smith, DC. For the last session, I led about 10 women in a session of Eight Pieces of Brocade, leaving us all relaxed, energized, and ready to deal with the chilly winds outdoors.
As noted elsewhere on my website, Chi Gong is a form of moving meditation invented in China thousands of years ago. “Chi” is the life force; “gong means “to cultivate.” The purpose of Chi Gong is to calm the mind, balance the energies of the body, and encourage the free flow of the life force.
Chi Gong carries many benefits. As more people know about Chi Gong, more research goes on. Such research is showing that Chi Gong may help with high blood pressure, sense of balance, depression, arthritis, mental focus, stress, insomnia, circulatory problems, lack of energy, and debilitation. Chi Gong enhances flexibility, strengthens the body, and encourages a sense of calm.
I mentioned moving meditation above; one of the things Chi Gong has going for it is that it enables people to meditate without having to sit down and try to have a meditation session. For those who do well at actual meditation sessions, they can be a wonderful thing, but if you’re not put together that way, a sitting-still meditation session can be an immensely frustrating experience. When we practice Chi Gong, though, our minds have the movements of the form to occupy them. This gentle focus, along with the accompanying physical movement, can induce a lovely meditative state with no special meditation skills required.
I have found Chi Gong to be an amazing addition to my practice. Not only are my Wednesday night classes calming and revitalizing, but I am able to bring Chi Gong into other areas of my practice, as well. A 15-20 minute session of Chi Gong just before a biodynamic craniosacral session, for example, tends to produce profound results.