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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.
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!
April 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.
Nothing to Fix
It’s so tempting to just want our problems resolved, our pain eliminated, our shortcomings perfected. That’s natural. What’s also natural is how we currently exist. We reach for our desired future state from who and where we are. What if we extend toward that new possibility out of longing, rather than the belief there’s something wrong with us now?
Finding Sinuous Spine
Our spines are sinuous, sharing structural elements with all other vertebrates that originated with our common evolutionary ancestor, the fish. Learning to deconstruct stories that separate us from other life forms and reinhabit the full functional movement potential of our own spines is a revolutionary act.
March 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
So much of our attention is focused outward. Gathering ourselves back home to live somatically in our bones and joints and tissues, we will explore how human bodies are naturally built to move and the relief that comes from spending a few hours letting go of all those external expectations.
Sensory System Support Group
Does your nervous system feel . . . nervous? Our common name for this complex neurobiological network prioritizes the fight-flight-freeze response, neglecting its greater function: sensation. This group holds space for redefining and re-experiencing your sensory-nervous system and restoring capacity for sensation, integration, and aliveness.
Qi Gong First Aid: Digestion, Balancing, Prevention
Good health requires good digestion, and good digestion requires a resilient sensory-nervous system. When you start feeling “off,” having an easy go-to practice to bring yourself into balance can be the difference between a downward cascade and an easy bounce-back.
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.
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.