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When we talk about healing it is never just us. The Daoists have understood long before that it will be very difficult to heal if you just think about yourself. To be clear, I don't mean being altruistic, it is not a matter of saying: 'I don't care for myself, I don't want to heal myself, I want to heal the whole world, I just want everybody else to get better'- no. You can be very egoistic, which is okay, you can say: 'I just want to heal myself'. You cannot attempt to heal yourself without bringing awareness to the healing of the collective.

The Chinese New Year has already arrived, bringing the power of the Year of the Wood Dragon. It is a time full of symbolism, tradition, and deep philosophy that soothes our souls, leads our thoughts to new horizons, and invokes the spirit of renewal and the possibility of transformation.

There is a Chinese saying, amongst people doing Qi Gong and the Arts: “Health comes from the legs”. Circle walking, the practice of Bagua, is medicine and is sacred. It not only heals the body, the physical, but also the mind and the spirit. By the practice of walking we try to awaken the power of the legs, as legs are naturally strong and the power of the legs gives you stamina.

In class, you often hear me say: “Don’t do Yoga, don’t do sport!”. Yoga is a very popular practice in the West, coming from the East - so whenever people want to do Qi Gong, they might have done Yoga before and then they come to my class and expect to do Qi Gong the way they have done Yoga. As for sport, people know it from physical education classes and the gym and when they come to Qi Gong they have no other background. They have only one idea of how to exercise. How can you do something differently if you have never done it another way?

We talk about a very ancient practice, present around the globe throughout different cultures and across different religious beliefs. It’s been practiced knowingly and consciously, as well as unknowingly and unconsciously. It seems to be something that is within the human realm, natural to being human and human beings. Practice can connect us with our being. This is why it plays a crucial role in our school...

Let's face it - the world we live in today is very demanding. Increasing urbanization, technology and digital overload, financial and relationship problems, haste, consumerism are causing most people to be far more stressed and under far more pressure than ever, and our delicate physiological mechanisms to become out of balance. This results in people's disconnection from nature, overemphasis on the thinking mind and misalignment with the energies of the seasons. 

The concept of the key energies yin yang and jing, qi and shen (translated as essence, vitality, spirit or heart-mind) has formed the basis of the rich Chinese culture and its many traditions, mythology, medicine, arts, crafts and various aspects of daily life for centuries. All these areas are related to the path of heaven and earth (yin and yang). The ancient Daoists believed that man exists inseparably between heaven and earth and that there is a mutual relationship between these three (heaven, earth, man). To live in the Dao therefore means to live in harmony with the energies of heaven (yang) and earth (yin). 

Exercises that incorporate twisting, turning, screwing, whirling, bending, undulating, sinking down and rising up, wiggling etc. are often associated with the natural movements of snakes, serpents and thus dragons. Many Qigong forms, sets and specific Qigong movements have been called "Dragon" forms , sets or exercises.

In Chinese thought and as understood by Daoists, the invisible life force, qi, pervades the entire universe, Heaven and Earth, and everything is interconnected by it. As the key attribute of nature is changeability, or transformation, so the flow and change of qi takes place according to the changes occurring between the two seemingly opposite but complementary energies, Yin and Yang.

Being the people of the so-called Western world, we live in a world of dualisms that entail judgments and evaluations, followed by our reactions. Active - passive, strong - vulnerable, success - failure, generous - selfish, black - white. In every situation, if one thing represents good for us - then the other represents evil.