Soma Dao Qi Gong Courses – 2024

Learning Online – The “Make Fun of Me” Story.

49 Days of Embodied Spiritual Practice

Begins March 18, 2024

(Open Webinar March 11)

If you are new to Conscious Embodiment practices, welcome home to your birthright of awareness, acceptance, and a nearly endless resource of learning, Healing, and Play!

We all have some good habits and not-so-good habits. It seems obvious to say, but habits are just things we do often. A 49 Day Rite of Passage is a chance to choose some new habits by cultivating new approaches and skills every day.

Why 49 Days?

Many ancient traditions, including Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, and others all use either 100 days or 49 days for specific rites, rituals, or as ways to navigate certain times of the year. It is said that the Buddha became enlightened after sitting in meditation for 49 days non-stop, and in Tibetan Buddhism, it is understood that the soul takes 49 days after death to complete the journey of a human life.

A 49-day commitment to practice can be seen as a Rite of Passage or an Initiation. Depending on the traditions and practices you may follow, the specifics of the process, and the next stage of your life you are initiating yourself (or being initiated) into, will be unique.

Regardless of the specifics, something that is common to us all is the need for growth and change. Anyone can get stuck being the person they remember themselves to be. Until something new and redefining happens, there are no new memories or experiences to show us that we have grown.

Beginning Your Qi Gong Journey 

10 Weeks – Begins March 26, 2024

Qì Gōng is a lot like Dancing.

Imagine learning a simple dance move to some fun and meaningful music that you love.

Imagine, somehow, that you give yourself permission to feel your body, to play with momentum, to be shy, and to be a rock star – all at the same time.

That is what Qì Gōng feels like. Coming home to your body, your sensual experience, feeling all of the good stuff, feeling where you hold any distress and trauma, feeling into your deepest places, while becoming centered, grounded, patient, and a conscious witness to whatever arises.

Ancient healing traditions and modern science agree, that stress can be held in the body, like you are flinching imperceptibly in all of your nerves and muscles – all of the time. This ‘chronic flinch’ not only creates physical tension, but it also manifests as changes in qualities of your Aliveness, or your Qì. Sometimes this physical and energetic stiffness creates a lot of stagnation or constraint, and sometimes it creates a feeling of collapse.

There are many different forms and styles of Qì Gōng. Each one has a specific focus and benefit, or a specific dance to move your in just the right way.

Tai Chi Shibashi Qi Gong

10 Weeks – Begins March 26, 2024

This is a form of gentle Qigong exercises, that are practiced in a soft, fluid, and continuous manner.

The Shibashi practice was originally a template of exercises that were suggested for traditional Tai Chi (taijiquan) teachers to help those recovering from chronic poor health.

These gentle, beautiful, and flowing Qigong exercises are very relaxing at first. As you progress into the more advanced practices, you will explore different footwork and breathwork, as well as more dynamic gestures.

I initially learned this pattern of exercises as a warm-up with the renowned Xu Gong Wei.

A few years later, I was asked to collaborate with a Qi Gong teacher who did not study Tai Chi. They had asked about breathwork options, martial applications, and more advanced footwork. And thus was born the version I now teach.

In this version of Shibashi, there are three Passes, or levels to each of the classic eighteen gestures. This approach allows people to progress safely and consistently into more advanced expressions of this beautiful series of almost hypnotic Tai Chi like exercises.

200-Hour Traditional Qi Gong Teacher Training

1 – 2 Years 

Begins April 8 2024

(1 – 2 Years)

This course is for those who want to go in-depth into the Foundations of Qi Gong and want to become a Traditional Qi Gong Instructor.

If you are looking to train for a new career, learning to teach Qi Gong is a great choice. Qi Gong focuses on connecting with your Qi, or your ‘sensations of Aliveness’, entering deep states of meditation, instinctual readiness, emotional acceptance, and Spiritual reunion. Skills that almost everyone needs more of today.

Here is your homework…

Practice Awareness, Adaptability, Flow, Resiliance, Release, and Stillness.

It is an instinct to live a long, fit, and fun life.

If you have always wanted to commit to a Rite of Passage, take this chance to commit your willingness to some discernment, discipline, Self-Love, and Self-Care.

Discover the freedom of redefining what is a yes or a no.

Boost Your Vitality, 

Reset Your Metabolism,

While Cleansing and Rejuvenating Your Whole Body.

Reawaken Your Authentic Self,

while Learning the Essentials of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine.

If you want to get in better shape while learning the most efficient forms of exercise, fat loss, and stretching, then jump on board. Jumping is great exercise!

If you are suffering from a chronic illness, this course will guide you through a gradual and consistent process that you can follow anytime you have a flare-up.

Let’s find out what 8 weeks of healthy habits feels like, together!

Tuesdays @ 6:00 – 8:00 pm.
March 26 – May 14

Shaolin Strength and Longevity Qi Gong is a very effective and enjoyable way to strengthen your muscles, nerves, fascia, and bones, as well as ensure you do not lose your muscle mass as you age.

Although most Qi Gong exercises look very relaxed and effortless, they can still improve your fitness because they activate, stretch, and tone almost every muscle and membrane in your body. If you think of your Qi and Meridians like electricity and the thickness of a wire, the more abundant your ‘wires’ are the stronger the Qi you can experience.

Rearranging and restoring the structure and function of all of your connective tissues and circulation, and all of your meridians is like building a city. From the ground up. These practices are demanding, very high level, and are only taught when people are ready for this degree of Mind, Body, Meridian, Jing, Connective Tissue (Jin), and Breathwork transformation.

Here is a series of Articles on Yi Jin Jing Theory and Practice 

Article One – The Meaning and Process of the Yi Jin Jing Practice

Article Two – Cultivating Strength and Longevity – the Yi Jin Jing Process

The Yi Jin Jing and Bone Marrow Washing – Part Three

Healing is a need for everyone – at some point, in some way.

Sometimes, we need support from others, and most of the time we need to find it within ourselves to commit to our own healing.

If you would like to learn some gentle exercises, meditation techniques, personalized breathwork practices, and Self-Healing Qi Gong skills, then you will need to learn some Therapeutic Qi Gong.

Or, if you feel called to help others, become a certified Qi Gong Therapist.

This course is meant for those with some Qi Gong experience, especially clinicians, therapists, and other health care professionals.

There are thousands of forms of Qi Gong, all focusing on Vitality, Healing, Fertility, and Longevity.

After decades of experience and exploration of many different styles and lineages, Dr. Michael Smith is offering this ten-month program of discovery and refinement to the general public and online for the first time. Most of the practices taught in this course have been reserved for monasteries, Daoist lineages, martial arts lineages, and those taught in the oral traditions of Qi Gong and Traditional Chinese medicine for the last 2,000 years.

This program will take you on a ‘deep dive’ into the most potent and practical aspects of one of the oldest intact Healing Traditions on Earth.

Enhancing Your Qi Gong Healing Abilities

8 Months – – Begins May 28, 2024

The primary focus at this level of Qi Gong training is to strengthen your Mind’s and your Body’s innate abilities to conduct and maintain a connection with increased Qi activity for hours at a time.

The content of this course has always been reserved for Monks, Martial Artists, and Healers. At this level of training, a certain part of your capacity resides in an awareness of Qi, but most of your capacity resides in your deeper energy systems and structures that ‘hold’ and express all of that energy throughout the day – especially a long day of treating patients.

This level of practice primarily exists to prepare people for a career as a Medical Qi Gong Therapist, a Monastic, an Ascetic, and/or as a professional Martial Artist. Many people also learn these practices for personal Healing and Longevity, as well as the unique opportunity to experience the Shaman/Doctor/Healer/Scholar level of Qi Gong, Dao Yin, Nei Yang Gong, Dian Gong, and Nei Gong practice.

It is always an honor to guide Qi Gong adventurers who want to see how far down the ‘rabbit hole’ this ancient practice goes.

More Courses Coming Soon

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2024 Courses with Dr. Michael Smith

Beginning April 8, 2024

Learn the skills, practices, and principles necessary to safely and successfully guide others through several kinds of Qi Gong Classes.

The 200 Hour program includes three levels:

One- Embodied Awareness

Two – Traditional Forms and Applied Principles

Three – Inner Refinement

Welcome to the 200-Hour Qi Gong Teacher Training Program

  • Becoming an Experienced and confident Qi Gong teacher takes a few years. You will have access to the content for life, so you can always review the exercises when you need to. When you feel that you have the experience, expertise, and clarity with the content to begin teaching, then Welcome to the team! Once you have completed your 350 hours of training, you will be a Fertility and Longevity Qi Gong Instructor. People with this level of training usually teach at Integrative Medicine Clinics, Chinese Medicine Colleges, and Retreat Centers. It would be easy to build an online brand as a Qi Gong for Fat Loss, Fertility, and/or Longevity expert. You could consistently fill up specialized weekend seminars, with this level of knowledge. The Shaolin Qi Gong is highly sought after in many martial arts schools.
  • Becoming an Experienced and confident Qi Gong teacher takes a few years. You will have access to the content for life, so you can always review the exercises when you need to. When you feel that you have the experience, expertise, and clarity with the content to begin teaching, then Welcome to the team! Once you have completed your 350 hours of training, you will be a Fertility and Longevity Qi Gong Instructor. People with this level of training usually teach at Integrative Medicine Clinics, Chinese Medicine Colleges, and Retreat Centers. It would be easy to build an online brand as a Qi Gong for Fat Loss, Fertility, and/or Longevity expert. You could consistently fill up specialized weekend seminars, with this level of knowledge. The Shaolin Qi Gong is highly sought after in many martial arts schools.
  • Becoming an Experienced and confident Qi Gong teacher takes a few years. You will have access to the content for life, so you can always review the exercises when you need to. When you feel that you have the experience, expertise, and clarity with the content to begin teaching, then Welcome to the team! Once you have completed your 350 hours of training, you will be a Fertility and Longevity Qi Gong Instructor. People with this level of training usually teach at Integrative Medicine Clinics, Chinese Medicine Colleges, and Retreat Centers. It would be easy to build an online brand as a Qi Gong for Fat Loss, Fertility, and/or Longevity expert. You could consistently fill up specialized weekend seminars, with this level of knowledge. The Shaolin Qi Gong is highly sought after in many martial arts schools.
  • Shaolin Strength and Longevity Qi Gong is a very effective and enjoyable way to strengthen your muscles, nerves, fascia, and bones, as well as ensure you do not lose your muscle mass as you age. Although most Qi Gong exercises look very relaxed and effortless, they can still improve your fitness because they activate, stretch, and tone almost every muscle and membrane in your body. If you think of your Qi and Meridians like electricity and the thickness of a wire, the more abundant your ‘wires’ are the stronger the Qi you can experience. This is especially true if you are a Martial Artist or Healer. Your meridians are made of and do many things. The vaster amount of what your meridians physically become, and what limits their function, is your muscles, tendons, blood vessels, interstitial fibres and fluids, as well as your many layers of fascia. Lengthening and strengthening all of these tissues equally and simultaneously is one of the most efficient and effective forms of Qi Gong for the health of the structural aspects of all of your meridians.
    Level Six Includes:
    • The Muscle Tendon Change Theory and Principles (Yi Jin Jing)
    • The Twelve Gestures of Wei Tuo (Yi Jin Jing Form)
    • Shaolin Strength and Longevity Training 
    • Stone Lock (Shi Suo 石锁) Circuit Training
    • Restore Your Core Qi Gong
    • Daoist Heavy Hands Qi Gong
    • Bone Marrow Washing Principles and Practices (Xi Sui Jing) 
    • Shaolin and Daoist Breathwork 
    • 49-Day Chan (Zen) Seated Practice.
  • Shaolin Strength and Longevity Qi Gong is a very effective and enjoyable way to strengthen your muscles, nerves, fascia, and bones, as well as ensure you do not lose your muscle mass as you age. Although most Qi Gong exercises look very relaxed and effortless, they can still improve your fitness because they activate, stretch, and tone almost every muscle and membrane in your body. If you think of your Qi and Meridians like electricity and the thickness of a wire, the more abundant your ‘wires’ are the stronger the Qi you can experience. This is especially true if you are a Martial Artist or Healer. Your meridians are made of and do many things. The vaster amount of what your meridians physically become, and what limits their function, is your muscles, tendons, blood vessels, interstitial fibres and fluids, as well as your many layers of fascia. Lengthening and strengthening all of these tissues equally and simultaneously is one of the most efficient and effective forms of Qi Gong for the health of the structural aspects of all of your meridians.
    Level Six Includes:
    • The Muscle Tendon Change Theory and Principles (Yi Jin Jing)
    • The Twelve Gestures of Wei Tuo (Yi Jin Jing Form)
    • Shaolin Strength and Longevity Training 
    • Stone Lock (Shi Suo 石锁) Circuit Training
    • Restore Your Core Qi Gong
    • Daoist Heavy Hands Qi Gong
    • Bone Marrow Washing Principles and Practices (Xi Sui Jing) 
    • Shaolin and Daoist Breathwork 
    • 49-Day Chan (Zen) Seated Practice.
  • Becoming an Experienced and confident Qi Gong teacher takes a few years. You will have access to the content for life, so you can always review the exercises when you need to. When you feel that you have the experience, expertise, and clarity with the content to begin teaching, then Welcome to the team! Once you have completed your 350 hours of training, you will be a Fertility and Longevity Qi Gong Instructor. People with this level of training usually teach at Integrative Medicine Clinics, Chinese Medicine Colleges, and Retreat Centers. It would be easy to build an online brand as a Qi Gong for Fat Loss, Fertility, and/or Longevity expert. You could consistently fill up specialized weekend seminars, with this level of knowledge. The Shaolin Qi Gong is highly sought after in many martial arts schools.
  • Becoming an Experienced and confident Qi Gong teacher takes a few years. You will have access to the content for life, so you can always review the exercises when you need to. When you feel that you have the experience, expertise, and clarity with the content to begin teaching, then Welcome to the team! Once you have completed your 350 hours of training, you will be a Fertility and Longevity Qi Gong Instructor. People with this level of training usually teach at Integrative Medicine Clinics, Chinese Medicine Colleges, and Retreat Centers. It would be easy to build an online brand as a Qi Gong for Fat Loss, Fertility, and/or Longevity expert. You could consistently fill up specialized weekend seminars, with this level of knowledge. The Shaolin Qi Gong is highly sought after in many martial arts schools.
  • Becoming an Experienced and confident Qi Gong teacher takes a few years. You will have access to the content for life, so you can always review the exercises when you need to. When you feel that you have the experience, expertise, and clarity with the content to begin teaching, then Welcome to the team! Once you have completed your 350 hours of training, you will be a Fertility and Longevity Qi Gong Instructor. People with this level of training usually teach at Integrative Medicine Clinics, Chinese Medicine Colleges, and Retreat Centers. It would be easy to build an online brand as a Qi Gong for Fat Loss, Fertility, and/or Longevity expert. You could consistently fill up specialized weekend seminars, with this level of knowledge. The Shaolin Qi Gong is highly sought after in many martial arts schools.
  • Full payment of $3,888.00

  • Daoist Embodied Meditation

    Nei Gong – Cultivating Inner Awareness

    This Course is Level Seven of the Soma Dao Qi Gong Teacher Training

    Dates:

    Wed. Nov 1st, 2023 – 6:00 PM (PST) – March 20th, 2024 – 6:00 PM (PST)
    Daoist Cultivation (Xiū Dào 修道) involves several practices that focus on Embodied Meditation. The two oldest, most comprehensive, and most common forms of meditation still practiced today are Chan/Zen (禪) and Nèi Gōng 内功. In the Yi Dao Huan Yuantradition of Daoist Cultivation that I have learned and now teach, any committed meditation journey begins with the study of both, but with an initial dedication to the somatic, instinctual, visceral, and existential renewal of Nèi Gōng 内功. A contemporary Nèi Gōng practice begins with learning about and embodying your meridians, exploring subtle aspects of Qi circulation, Qi wounds, and Self Healing (Nei Yang Gong),as well as connecting with your Energy Centers (Dān Tián 丹田), all while opening your Microcosmic Orbit and Energy Gates/Portals/Apertures (Qiào ), and becoming very skillful in several forms of Shaolin and Daoist Breathwork. As these skills come together, you will learn how to ‘induct’ a refined state of embodied harmony and stillness – allowing you to enter into the Mystery Gate of Daoist Meditation. This opening is available to everyone, and is found through immersive states of profound coherence, tranquillity, stillness, and resolve. While sharing these traditional skills and methods, I also like to include some clinical evidence on what is happening on the levels of physiology, hormonal and neurotransmitter balance, as well as the tone and resilience of your fascia, your immune system, and your nervous system.

    Become a Medical Qi Gong Therapist

    Additional 500 Hours

    (over 1 – 2 years)
    Welcome to the final phase of your Qi Gong training.
    You do not have to teach large Qi Gong classes to be a Medical Qi Gong therapist. You will, however, need to be comfortable teaching your clients the exercises, forms, meditations, and breathwork to improve their inner vitality. You will also need to have a regular, in-depth, and very well-balanced Qi Gong practice to be a grounded and effective Qi Gong Healer. I am going to take a moment and speak to the Qi Gong ‘experience’ and its potential. I will imagine that I am speaking to a person who is interested in going very deep into the Qi Gong Universe, and who has recently invested a great deal of time and effort in becoming embodied, aligned, and playful, while opening to vulnerability, personal healing, and conscious transformation. If you have:
    • Opened your joints and can actively repair your body,
    • Learned to assess, assist, and replenish your internal organs and meridians,
    • Cultivated a connection with Qi awareness, energy centers, and energy gates,
    • Found a seasonal balance with strength, flexibility, feasting, and fasting,
    • Restored the innate structure of your bones and marrow.
    • Learned to meditate like a Shaolin monk,
    • Practiced Consciousness expanding breathwork, while being guided through your Inner Landscape and Innate Minds,
    • Committed at least one Rite of Passage to a Shamanic Qi Gong practice for a Reunion with Nature,
    • Learned how to release Embodied Trauma,
    • Restored your innate internal circulation through the Microcosmic Orbit,
    • and have explored Shaolin and Daoist Meditation, Breathwork, and Spiritual Practice or already participate in a Wisdom tradition,
    …it is likely you will live a longer, healthier, and happier life. Also, after all of that deep Healing and Spiritual work, you are probably capable of experiencing and conducting a great deal of ‘aliveness’ and vitality, or Qi. It is usually at this point that Qi Gong practitioners make a deeply personal decision. Continue your journey and flow with life as you have and become an excellent Qi Gong teacher, or become a hermit or a monk and ‘Return to the Source’, or become a Healer and help reawaken this capacity in others.

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