In this article I will share some thoughts about:

• The value of Qi Gong in today’s busy, overstimulated, and disconnected world
• The how and why I developed the Soma Dao Qi Gong teacher and Medical Qi Gong therapist training programs
• And then I will describe the 200-hour initial Teacher Training program – step by step

The Value of Qi Gong in Modern Life

The most important experiences in your life are felt!

Ecstatic dancing is embodied freedom – the shift from constraint to freedom is felt. This alone can be life-changing.

Every chronic illness is felt, deeply, personally, and existentially.

Your instincts, intuition, and adaptability, are felt with every nerve, muscle, bone, and with every cell and fibre of your being.

Finding belonging, connection, and learning from your egoic self are felt – both emotionally and viscerally.

Your experience of all of those tangible and personal qualities of life, and your guiding authentic self, create the felt sense of your aliveness (or your Qi) – all day, every day.

Qi Gong is incredibly effective at bringing people into presence, calmness, and the perfect environment for exploring and expressing your felt sense, from bliss to existential pain.

Qi Gong practice helps people find the discernment, and personal accountability, to show up for themselves – the way you would for a friend in need. Or the way you would if you wanted to get some exercise, and in some ways, Qi Gong invites you to practice like you are going on a date, with your wounded self and your authentic self.

Making time to celebrate being present, feeling into your body, your energy, and your life.

Qi Gong also explores shifting your State of Being in unexpected ways by playfully and joyfully becoming your body, imitating animals, and exploring the Qi of the seasons and weather.

This inner generosity becomes even more noticeable when you practice in a class, seeing mirrors of your journey all around you.

Local availability of Qi Gong classes could bring this life-changing practice into every city and neighbourhood, and would give everyone a chance to directly experience the benefits of regular complete states of relaxation, states of release, states of flow, and moments of stillness and silence.

From a scientific perspective, the ability to shift your state from distress – to a calming hypnogogic state (a half-asleep and awake state), or into a completely engrossing and transcendent flow state, or a potentially life-changing liminal state – possibly the most powerful experience many people have ever had.

There is an abundance of clinical evidence that mindfulness, conscious breathwork, improving posture, muscle tone and pliability, embodied Somato-Emotional awareness, and conscious state shifting works as well or better than some of the most overprescribed drugs today.

And finally…

Historically, one of the best measures of the value and benefits of Qi Gong is that it was, and still is, practiced by warriors, monks, and healers.

For thousands of years, Qi Gong has been practiced to help people face the greatest challenges and opportunities of life.

A few years later I shifted my focus to include functional medicine and modern trauma therapy.

The biggest realization and affirmation that I experienced, was seeing right away that modern trauma therapy uses the same model as the oldest form of Dao Yin that I had learned when studying in an oral tradition that goes back 15 generations, focusing on the mental and emotional component of TCM.

No matter how you look at it, trauma affects every aspect of human health, and the healing process is very similar for most people. Also, modern life includes the internet, a device, and social media keeps you connected to some resources, and ten times more stressors, compulsions, and opportunities to feel worse about yourself and your life.

In 2004, I developed and began teaching a hands-on form of therapy that focused on trauma release and embodied awareness. This process included Qi Gong, Breathwork, Tui Na Massage and Medical Qi Gong therapy, interwoven with the leading-edge scientific research on the most effective tools and strategies for trauma release and addiction recovery.

In 2023 the Soma Dao program will have three phases.

Phase One– Become a Traditional Qi Gong Teacher. This prepares you to teach regular classes to the general public. The exercises and traditional forms are safe, they have worked for thousands of years.

Phase Two – Become a Professional Qi Gong Teacher and Consultant. This level of training and certification prepares you to teach many more aspects of Qi Gong, as well as prepare you to consult with individuals about applying more specific Qi Gong practices for their unique experiences and needs.

Phase Three – Become Medical Qi Gong Practitioner or Therapist. Now you can offer clinical treatments for almost any health condition, as well as all of the above.

Level One – Fundamentals of Embodied Awareness

Most Qi Gong practices involve standing with poise, good posture, active relaxation, rootedness, stillness, presence, agility, and connection – with your muscles, joints, bones, and fascia, as well as your emotions and hurts, the natural world, and the universe around and within you.

Module One – Qi Gong for Relaxation, Flexibility, and Inner Alignment – open your joints and meridians, your many layers of fascia, while toning and stretching all of your muscles.

Module Two – Cultivating Qi Awareness and Sensitivity. In the endeavours of healing, spiritual reunion, or developing physical power, a direct and tangible relationship with Qi is necessary.

Module Three – Seated Qi Gong, Breathwork, and Daoist Meditation. An important principle in Qi Gong is ‘Stillness in Motion.’ In life, sometimes the slower and more present you are, is what matters the most. Science has proven that calm and alert states of stillness and silence help your brain regenerate – physically.

Level Two – Traditional Forms – Applied Qi Gong Principles

Module four – Shaolin Yi Jin Jing and Dao Yin principles of movement, tone, and pliability. Balancing strength, flexibility, and relaxation is an essential quality of progressing along your Qi Gong journey.

Module Five – Traditional Forms for Contemporary Teachers.

We will be learning the famous Ba Duan Jin (Eight Pieces of Brocade), the classic Shaolin form called the Twelve Gestures of Wei Tuo, as well as a Daoist form called Tian Di He Yi Fa (Balancing Heaven and Earth (or Sky and Land).

Level Three – Internal Refinement

Module Six – Standing Meditation and introductory Nei Gong. Zhan Zhuang, or ‘standing like a post half buried in the ground,’ will improve every aspect of your physical, mental, and emotional adaptability and well-being.

Module Seven – Silk Reeling and Whole Body Connection. This aspect of Qi Gong is profoundly beneficial for coordination, self-expression, grace, and entering profound Flow States. If you are an athlete and/or martial artist, Silk Reeling is a game-changer!

Module Eight – Five Animal Qi Gong for Agility and Stress Release. One of the oldest forms of Qi Gong is playing like an animal. This opportunity to lose yourself while turning into a Panther, Bear, or Phoenix can connect you with deeper instincts and free you from feeling stuck.