Fall Fundamentals series starting soon!

       Welcome Late Summer Early Autumn!

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful summer with lots of happiness, joy and delight in enjoying the warm weather, sunshine, abundance of nature. I had a great time planting a garden this spring and in the last few weeks have been harvesting tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. I do love fresh vegetable grown by your own hands and the magic of Mother Nature. There’s nothing like being able to step outside and pluck them from the vines. It’s truly amazing to watch the things you’ve planted take off grow, flourish and thrive with just the help of sun and rain, ok and maybe a little organic fertilizer.

         Spring is the time for planting, Summer the time for nourishing and then we have Late Summer and Fall, the time of year for harvesting, preparing and storing

away our harvest for the lean times of winter. I personally love this time of year. There’s a magic in the air as the light begins to shift and illuminate the landscape in rich golden hues. Days are warmer but the nights are cool and great for sleeping. I can feel the changes in Nature and myself, the Yang energy descending, a slipping away of the hectic energy of summer, a slowing down, a deepening as the Yin energy rises. It’s not a time of death but of rest and renewal!

This is a good time of the year to begin a practice with the long nights of winter ahead. With not much going on outside we can feel good about being

indoors and spending time studying and practicing our Qi Gong and Meditations. The rising Yin helps up dig deeper, explore further, sink into the womb of limitless potential. It is up to you. Do you want to reap a harvest of health, vitality, balanced emotions, continual joy and acceptance? How about looking forward to a new year with a source for healing, rejuvenation, and a timeless gift over thousands of years old. A practice that is easy and fun and so very effective? If so please read on! 

This series will cover the first three levels of the fundamental meditations and basic Qi Gong of the Healing Tao system

You will learn the Inner Smile, Six Healing Sounds, and the famous thousands of years old Microcosmic Orbit. You will also learn basic Qi Gong movements along with stretches and exercises to help strengthen the physical body and get your chi flowing!

Starting Sunday August 25th Level 1: The Inner Smile

Inner Smile begins to teach us how to cultivate our chi (energy) as a deep act of self-love. The internal (Yin)practice helps us to love and appreciate our body and it’s amazing internal universe composed of tissues, organs, systems and to begin to dissolve past energy patterns (positive and negative) that unconsciously shape our reality. The external(Yang) practice teaches us to radiate a loving Inner Smile out to our friends, family, community and Nature. The Inner Smile is the simplest and most profound body-centered Tao practice to grow our sense of love, balance, and acceptance. It strengthens our inner virtues (moral compass) and integrates outer life with inner meditation and delivers true peace to our soul. This meditation is a treasure that you will love to practice for the rest of your life. It feels so good! 1pm-5pm Cost $40

Level 2: September 29th: The Six Healing Sounds and Five Animals Qi Gong

Learn how simple sounds and arm movements can create quick healing. Transform negative, stagnant and toxic chi into positive, fresh and healing energy using simple sounds. You will also learn the Five Animals Qi Gong, part of a famous set of Qi Gong movements practiced by Taoist for over 3 thousand years. We integrate the six healing sounds along with the Five Animals movements to create a super chi charged practiced capable of healing many health and emotional issues such as digestive disorders, insomnia, stress headaches, addictions, anger, fear, lack of motivation, and depression. This is the natural progression from the Inner Smile. First we love ourselves and then we can begin to heal. 1pm-4pm Cost $30

Level 3: October 27th: The Microcosmic Orbit

You will learn the Microcosmic Orbit, a meditation mentioned in texts 2000 years old. Get Chi flowing up your spine and down your chest. These two powerful “master” acupuncture channels control the vital balance of ALL your body’s meridians and vital organs - the hidden key to good health. Opening these two channels will allow you to create a powerful energy field around you that will help protect from harmful and toxic energy. It’s the key to deep inner balance and helps stop obsessive behavior Feel amazing, full of vitality, and connected! Cost $30

I strongly advice attending all three sessions as this will allow you to get the entire benefit from the system as each level builds on the next. The cost for the entire series is only $100! To register for the series or a single intensive please let me know ASAP. There is only room for 5-6 people.
All intensives come with materials to take home, snacks and tea.

Happy Autumn!

Happy Autumn Equinox! Ok, ok that was last weekend but you can still celebrate the season in your own special way! Eat some fall foods, plant a tree or bush, take a walk and appreciate the weather and quality of light. The weather is awesome and it's time to start turning within and thinking about yourself and what you want to accomplish during the upcoming Yin days of winter.
 
This is also an auspicious time to release resistance to something you've always wanted or to let go of someone thing that just keeps hanging on.
Here's an easy way to honor this time of year and bring in the energy to help in your life.
1. Sit down in a special/sacred place and focus on something on letting go of that resistance,
remembeing

ring to ask your guides and ancestors to help you with the process. Be SPECIFIC it's for you! Focus on one Thing at a time. Use NOW language.
3. Connect with the Chi field intentionally.
You can do some Qigong, Tai Chi, you could also just move spontaneously. Remember to face West first and then go in a circle to honor all directions and end in the West(season of Autumn) Light a candle or burn incense. Make it special!
4. Release the intention of what you want to let go into the Yuan field with all the willpower and chi you can muster. Just let go.
5 Accept the change!
Make Space for that to happen. Change is not just external -- it must be matched by internal changes. Change might cause a loss of comfort that you are used to. Be prepared!
Nature now knows EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED has an easy path with little resistance to delivering what you truly need.

Many Many blessings to you during this wonderful fall season! May you have the will power, and chi to digest and accept the change you want to happen.

 

Ahhh Fall! I want to be wherever this is!

 

Glorious Summer and My Teacher Training Experience with Master Chia in NYC

Greetings Everyone! I sincerely hope you are enjoying these Yang filled days of summer. I certainly am. Plenty of pool time and getting out for walks after the sun goes down has been my strategy for beating the heat this year. But I also really enjoy soaking up the heat as I am a snake and do enjoy being warm much more than being cold. Enjoy this magnificent energy because before you know it we'll all be shivering again when winter blows through the country.

 I realized I haven't wrote in awhile and really need to tell you all about my experience in NYC with Master Chia. Well let me tell you, it was one of the most intense two weeks of my life! I have never spent more time working with energy and testing my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual  bodies as I did in those weeks with Master Chia.  Everyday went from 7am- 9pm with early morning Qigong to warm up the physical and energetic bodies to prepare you for the morning and afternoon session of intense Qigong and Tai Chi.  The days were broken down into the first three levels or formulas of the Healing Tao System. Each of these practices within the formula is usually taught in a one week class so you can imagine the intensity at which we worked to comprehend and learn these practices in one day! Whoa is right. Most of the senior teachers I met during those two weeks were great! I didn't vibe with all of them but even that was a learning experience as it taught me who I would feel comfortable learning with and who I wouldn't be comfortable with learning from. I have to say I felt very blessed that the teachers I started with, to me, where some of the best senior instructors and I am so glad that I was able to learn this wonderful system with them first. When learning anything new is really does depend on the teacher and I am glad I learned with the best! So Thank You to Karin Sorvik, Marie Favorito and Michael Winn for such an awesome introduction to this world of Taoism, chi cultivation and human evolution!

Master Chia in middle, Marie left end in black jacket and Michael on right end

Early morning Qigong at Madison Square Park. This Park was close to out classroom and we sought out it's many old trees and beautiful greenery almost every afternoon for rejuvenation and grounding.

The first week class!

  The first week was a little hard getting used to.  Just getting up early and having to travel through Manhattan to reach your destination was a challenge with the Subway, mass people and finding all the locations on time. Also jumping into day long energy work was exhilarating, energizing, draining and sometimes frustrating. During that week we learned(or reviewed) The First Formula which is The Inner Smile, Six Healing Sounds and The Microcosmic Orbit which usually takes one or two weeks to learn and we learned it in two days! Luckily I teach those so that first two days wasn't hard for me and more like a review. However I was in for a challenge for the next 4 days As we learned Iron Shirt 1, Fusion 1 and a Tai Chi short form which normally take a week each! I found myself on a daily roller coaster from low to high energy and emotions. Fighting against not always feeling chi how I wanted or expected to feel and my own personal issues with expectations and perfectionism was a constant dark companion. I found my self every minute it seemed, challenged to stay positive and in an open, receptive trusting state. We were told we would not be able to absorb it all so try to relax and get the gist, but it's hard when you always want to be on top of something!  But Thanks to my spiritual guides and helpers, good friends who were also in the same boat as me and the appearance and encouragement of my teacher Karin I made it through that first week ok and ready for the second week. Oh I also turned 35 on June 13th of that first week so it really was a great treat and gift from the universe.

Master Chia teaching us Yang Style Tai Chi short form

   The Second week was much better for me. I felt like I had gained some momentum and knew where all the class locations where so I could get places easier and quicker. Healing Love practices started off that week and I am glad to say I really got that practice. Working with Ching(jing) energy in a more yin style of sitting meditation is something I am good at as opposed to the strenuous  standing postures and Chi packing techniques we learned in Iron shirt.  Healing Love brought me closer to the Goddess energy within and without me and empowered my feminine energy and confidence. I walked out of those classes feeling powerful and beautiful. However working with sexual energy in a room full of men and women felt strange to me which gave me a test to not let my conservative ideas upbringing of "sex is bad" get in the way of generating very potent healing energy! Master Chia's reminders that sex is dirty only if we think it is along with everything in life engages in intercourse of some kind really helped me to settle and not feel uncomfortable. Yin and Yang are always combining to create the thousand myriad things! Harnessing God and Goddess energy also helped me to keep the process holy and sacred.    Fusion 2 &3 were great and I really felt the Shamanic aspects in the Taoist practices of working with the elements and the eight directions of the Pa' kua (Ba' gua). Some of the more complex ideas were a bit difficult to comprehend with Master Chia's more eastern way of teaching and I was glad I had learned a bit of Fusion with Michael before. My friend Joe also helped to fill me in on the details during breaks. Tendon Neigong and Stem Cell Qigong were the last two days. Stem Cell Qigong included packing chi into your organs and then hitting the body with a bamboo whisk to stimulate new cell growth and cleanse out the damaged cells. I get the idea and how it works but not my favorite thing. Tendon Nei gong was very cool. We learned about Tendon lines and chains in the body and how they are connected, why Tendon health is important and how to move Chi with/through the tendons. We learned postures and exercises that stretched and strengthened the Tendons and as I really enjoy tendon exercises I enjoyed this practice. Stretching tendons really gets a lots of circulation and chi flowing in the limbs. One can really feel the chi flowing after you've worked on a certain area. The week ended well with me passing my Tao Yin test of certification! So Now I am also certified officially to tech Tao yin! Yay!

Yoland, Karin Sorvik, me and Heather. Karin was the sen. instructor with whom I first learned the Healing Tao and Tao Yin. I am very grateful for her presence in my life.

   Last bit not least Master Chia was an awesome and challenging teacher. He really pushed you to try your best and to reach deep for more chi and determination. During meditations you could sense him sending energy to everyone in the room to help with their experience and energy work. He would walk around and help us to open energy centers into our body and took us through a re-birthing ceremony, initiating each one of us into a new spiritual life. He also helped us extend our spiritual antennae into the heavens so that we could talk to the Heavens better and have our request heard clearer. It is amazing to think that thanks to him we all have this opportunity to learn an amazing system of human evolution, a practical approach and clear guidelines for gaining immortality in this lifetime! Thanks to his willingness to share and desire to help those who help themselves the amazing concepts developed thousands of years ago by the Taoist female and male sages are not lost to time and are available to everyone!  The time went fast as it always does when you're having a great time. I met so many nice people and had a great time hanging with and strengthening bonds with my friends in the Tao. I met some great seniors instructors as well and made solid business connections.
Thanks goes out to Tynne, Yolanda, my girls and Andrew and Joe; great guy friends who always had my back.

My pals! Great folks and friends!

Master Chia and I at the closing dinner.

   I am so thankful that the Spirit provided help and events worked out to help me go on this retreat. I had a wonderful time and learned so much. I achieved my Full instructor certificate and am now (on paper) certified to teach Tao Yin as well. Give thanks to everyone who helped me to get there, stay there and persevere. I can't wait to share with my students and pass along the amazing Chi passed down from the ancients through Master Chia down to me. It was a unique, amazing, exciting and hard experience and one which I will not forget!

Teacher Training class of 2012. We made it!