Moving through life feeling expansive - that, to me, is wellness.

Within us there is an innate capacity to restore and renew. This is the nature of all living things - continual transformation. Each of us has a responsibility to ourselves and to our community to be our best self. Everyday life is challenging physically, mentally, emotionally. When we feel self - directed, strong, and clear headed we are able to be present to ourselves and to others, and meet stressful situations more productively.

Over the centuries people have sought ways to develop and nurture a sense of wholeness, radiance, connection, and vitality through many disciplines - physical activity, breath awareness training, and various forms of meditation as well as sound diet and life-style choices. Taking it upon yourself to learn and practice self-care techniques is a great gift to yourself and to the world around you.

Practices that you can learn to do yourself to optimize your health include exercises that develop and improve:

• Physical: strength, flexibility, alignment, fluid circulation, breathing capacity, overall functional integrity
• Mental: clarity, focus, motivation, organization, creativity
• Emotional: calm, direction, perspective, awareness, resilience
• Ethereal/Spiritual: not necessarily a religious definition (these practices allow for individual interpretation), a sense of being whole while also part of a larger system connected to nature and/or religious tenets and/or a universal, complex mystery

Wellness Practices

As with my practice of Asian Bodywork, I have learned a few different forms and choose from a number of approaches when working therapeutically.

For small groups, I offer classes that vary in emphasis and can be chosen according to your personal interests and goals. I also enjoy customizing workshops and on-going classes. For those who gather a group of their own to work on a wellness topic of choice together, I am happy to put together a suitable program. Practicing with a group that shares common intentions encourages and strengthens everyone involved.

Classes Offered

In every class there is attention paid to opening the whole person, body/mind functional exercises, internal/external balance, and vitality practices. Different classes vary in their emphasis as follows:

A Few Words About Qigong

Qigong is a set of practices that in translation means "energy cultivation". Qigong activities are an integration of physical postures, self-acupressure, movement exercises, breathing techniques and clarity of intention. While the focus of Qigong may be martial, medical, or spiritual (the nature of spiritual pursuit may be according to the personal beliefs of the practitioner), the core principle is to develop maximal health, a calm center, and a sense of self empowerment. Just like with Yoga, there are many "schools" and "forms".

The Qigong that I teach to groups and use in my one-on-one therapeutic sessions falls mostly within the category of medical Qigong in that the intention is good health maintenance and self care. I do work with a few Qigong forms that highlight the spiritual dimensions of the practice as well.