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Movement Fundamentals - NEW DATE! -
Past experiences have shaped our current posture and movement patterns, including how we walk, sit, stand, and lie down. If you had a chance to change old patterns and develop a new relationship with your body, would you take it? In Movement Fundamentals, we relearn how to walk as the basis for shifting the way we move through the world. We begin on the floor, easing muscle tension and reawakening gentle movement within the spine. We then increase mobility by releasing and lubricating the hip and shoulder joints. We work our way up to standing and walking, rebuilding our experience of the body by learning to sense our core and rely on our instincts.
Organ Support Series: Liver
The Liver is large. It is the most substantial internal organ by mass and weight. Within a Chinese medical understanding, it’s also known to carry a big emotion: anger. Stagnation is one of the Liver’s most common imbalances, and it develops from putting artificial limits on this organ’s natural movement toward expression. Once you’ve moved out the gunk, a healthy, thriving Liver shows up in your life as creative acts and smooth transitions.
Being Human: Expanding Expression
In Expanding Expression, we will begin to bring our attention outward, investigating how the terrain of our inner landscape reflects our experiences in the external world. We’ll play with opening up our range of emotional expression and grounding deeply into a simple Qi Gong form that encapsulates the essence of being human in one elegant sequence. Oh, and there will likely be some drawing on large paper involved! No great artistry required — just show up ready to explore!
Organ Support Series: Heart
Every body is sovereign. We each have an inborn right to self-determination within a deeply interconnected ecology that sustains our lives. Within the ecosystem of the body, the Heart is the seat of that sovereign self. A clear Heart senses direction and where you need to go to find belonging. It allows you to exert agency in the world without losing yourself. Personal sovereignty evolves by learning to follow the internal compass of the Heart.
Movement Fundamentals
Past experiences have shaped our current posture and movement patterns, including how we walk, sit, stand, and lie down. If you had a chance to change old patterns and develop a new relationship with your body, would you take it? In Movement Fundamentals, we relearn how to walk as the basis for shifting the way we move through the world. We begin on the floor, easing muscle tension and reawakening gentle movement within the spine. We then increase mobility by releasing and lubricating the hip and shoulder joints. We work our way up to standing and walking, rebuilding our experience of the body by learning to sense our core and rely on our instincts.
Organ Support Series: Spleen
The Spleen nourishes us. Understood in Chinese medicine as an organ complex incorporating Spleen, Pancreas, and the closely related Stomach, this important triad governs digestion and our ability to hold on to what we need. There is a season for release, this is true. There is also a season for storing up, for stocking the pantry, for feeling full. Heading into late Summer, the brilliance of Spleen time is this opportunity for gathering, abundance, and satisfaction. Cultivating a sense of wholeness and completion, you can better discern what to give away.
Being Human: Working Boundaries
What is it to have functional boundaries? How does it feel in our bodies? What space does it open for new possibilities in relationship? In this class we’ll continue our exploration of Being Human with exercises that establish a physical experience of boundary and self-containment. Maintaining this sense of perimeter is critical to healthy relationships; only though boundary do we create the space we need to continue to be ourselves in the presence of other people and other beings.
Organ Support Series: Lungs
Life doesn’t get more simple than this: in-breath . . . out-breath . . . breathe in oxygen . . . exhale carbon dioxide. In this seasonal exploration of the body we’ll connect not just with breath, but the organ that makes it all possible: the Lungs. It’s easy to take life for granted, to lose touch with the basics. The Lungs bring us back to what is most essential, precisely because they require us to participate in the full cycle: filling and letting go, death and rebirth, moment after moment. When you know how to release, you also know how to make space for something new.
Movement Fundamentals
Past experiences have shaped our current posture and movement patterns, including how we walk, sit, stand, and lie down. If you had a chance to change old patterns and develop a new relationship with your body, would you take it? In Movement Fundamentals, we relearn how to walk as the basis for shifting the way we move through the world. We begin on the floor, easing muscle tension and reawakening gentle movement within the spine. We then increase mobility by releasing and lubricating the hip and shoulder joints. We work our way up to standing and walking, rebuilding our experience of the body by learning to sense our core and rely on our instincts.
Being Human: Creating Connection
Finally we settle down at the end of our class series to focus on connection. Sometimes the simplest thing feels so complicated or out of reach. Isolation is a real issue in the land of screens. Here in the realm of the body, however, connection is unavoidable. We are made of it and for it, and there’s no escaping the vast web of interrelationship between us and the rest of the world. So the question is how do we remember? What practices are available to remind us of our bonds to all other beings and all other times? We’ll explore kinship as a human need, and how to cultivate it on our own terms, by our own design, with the environment and people around us.
February Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Being Human: Following the Body
The first step in fully embodying our humanity is to connect to the body itself. In Following the Body, we’ll explore simple practices to reconnect isolated physical parts of ourselves back to a dynamic whole. You’ll also develop familiarity with a fundamental premise of self-healing: the ability to use the hands to connect to internal structures of the body and catalyze change.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
January Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
December Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Organ Support Series: Kidneys
Near the darkest moment of Winter, we have an opportunity to relax into what Chinese medicine considers the mother of all other organs, the Kidneys. These two small but crucial organs located in the mid-back not only filter fluid and remove wastes, but provide a home for deeply felt sensations related to identity and fear. By learning to support this organ you can balance what may be experienced as anxiety and isolation with a sense of connection to all those who came before you, and discover a greater reservoir of resilience.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
November Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
October Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
Introduction to Somatic Anatomy
At Linn-Benton Community College: Anatomy is not just for surgeons and physical therapists. We each live in a body, and learning to identify and connect to our bones, organs, muscles, and movement patterns can improve our quality of life in multiple ways. You can use this self-knowledge to prevent injury, better communicate with health care providers, increase your sense of confidence and agency, and find more appreciation for your physical self. The class will involve individual and partner exercises to develop somatic awareness and include instruction on safe touch.
Qi Gong Foundations
Come join us for weekly classes at Heart of the Valley Yoga! Qi Gong is based in Chinese medicine, and understanding this system distills down to one foundational idea: movement creates circulation and circulation enhances health. In Qi Gong Foundations we’ll work with this principle in innovative ways, learning a vocabulary of simple movement patterns that create the basis for many traditional forms. The broader application of Qi Gong is to promote the body’s natural self-healing capacity, and this class is designed to enhance your understanding of movement as medicine.
September Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Movement Fundamentals Mini-Retreat
In Movement Fundamentals, we explore how human bodies are naturally built to move, and shift our focus from “how we should be” to more of how we actually are. Gathering ourselves back home to live somatically in our bones and joints and muscles, we assess the inner landscape and tend to the health of our tissues. We use gentle, rhythmic movements to restore fluid circulation, and rebuild our experience of the body from the ground to our full height
August Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Clearing the Lungs: Qi Gong Support for Fire Season
At Linn-Benton Community College: With longer fire seasons and more smoke in the air, there are good reasons to be concerned about lung health. Qi Gong offers simple practices to aid our body's natural systems of detoxification, and includes exercises specific to supporting the lungs. Class will include instruction and practice time as well as introduction to a Chinese medicine perspective on organ health. Come prepared for gentle movements as well as listening and discussion.
July Full Moon Sutra Walk
Join us for a monthly full moon walk near Corvallis, Oregon. We will practice quiet hiking, sensory awareness, and group recitation of a nearly 800-year-old prose poem that asks us to understand mountains and waters from a more-than-human perspective. The walk consists of a 1.5 mile loop trail with moderate elevation gain, and will be paced for the needs of the group.
Professional Development: Boston, MA & Linz, Austria
I’m excited to announce I’ll be spending two months in Boston studying Resistance Flexibility and Strength Training at The Genius of Flexibility studio, followed by ten days in Austria continuing my Reiki Master candidacy with the current head of the Usui Shiki Ryoho lineage. I look forward to coming home with new skills and capacities to support your embodiment and self-healing!