Tag: mindfulness

LIVE ONLINE DROP IN QÌ GŌNG: SPRING SEMESTER SCHEDULE

by kathyyep

WHEN: TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, SUNDAYS

8 A.M. – 8:30 A.M PT (movement practice)

8:30 – 8:45 PT (reflection) optional

WHERE: For the live online sessions, click here or go to https://pitzer.zoom.us/j/513664738

I was fortunate to start learning dayan/wild goose over 30 years ago.. Lately, I have been teaching small pieces of dayan/wild goose. Join us! This is a demo video of set 1.

The journey of healing from the mild traumatic brain injury continues. It has been 13 months since the car accident and about 9 months since I fell and hit my head after the accident. I am still doing rehab daily and hoping to get back to teaching, research, and life more fully. I still experience pain when I read, write, and think at the work level of a professor after an hour. Qì gōng and mindful walking have been grounding, healing, and connective.

I continue with qì gōng because it is nourishing. I find joy in moving mindfully with community and carrying forward this tradition of 1000+years in the the Yang Mei Jun lineage via the late Dr. Hu and Paul Li. My dad practices every day and he loves hearing about our practice on zoom.

Join us in practice! All abilities and bodies are welcome. No experience necessary. Offered in the spirit of generosity.

Donations accepted for community partner, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity. No amount is too small or too big. All are welcome regardless of funds donated.  (Make offerings to where and how you wish for or food, water, medicine, medical care, shelter, clothes.)

Suggested donations: sliding scale $5- $20 per session. No one turned away for lack of funds.  

At the end of month donate directly to the organizations or send check or offerings to: K. Yep, P.O. Box 1313, Monterey Park, CA 91754 for the number of sessions you attended. People have sent poems, seeds, cards, quotes, art and offerings.

All levels are welcome. Bring open heart, cultural humility, and water. Come early or late. Leave early if needed.  As Liz says: “Come as you are.”

We are learning and practicing with a form that is over a 1000 years old. We are meeting the movements and the form rooted in a tradition with who we are and who we are becoming from our specific social locations. It is an invitation of continuity and accompanying our selves, each other, and all beings with relaxed awareness.

As Debbie says: “Connect to playfulness”. As Simone says “Receive it as care and release the struggle.” As Penny says: “Try different ways of moving — inside to out, outside to in, from the bones, from the muscle, from the air)

WHERE: For the live online sessions, click here or go to https://pitzer.zoom.us/j/513664738

JOIN THE EMAIL LIST : To receive updates and more information about qì gōng

follow kathyyep.com or click bottom right & hit subscribe

May we be well. May we be truly happy. May we be relieved of suffering.

From 7/19 on:practice sessions 6 a.m. HT/ 9 a.m. PT/ noon ET

by kathyyep

Hello, community of practitioners…. Our practice group will continue to meet on zoom at the new time 6 a.m. HT/ 9 a.m. PT/ noon ET for 30 minutes of practice and then some folks stay and talk and share experiences with practice.

Today insights from Kuwa Jasiri, Debbie, Bonnie, Liz, Simone, Pati we’re shared and they orbited in different ways about returning home whether a physical place, to the body as it needs to move or unable to move, to the present moment at this age with a sense of temporality.

With our collective reflections on home today, coming home to my body and brain is not just when it feels good. The cycle of head pain and then ease has returned. New insights and remembering about listening to the present moment —- the different birds at sunrise and the coqui frogs at sunset, my head when it starts to feel pain and cognitive fatigue sets in after a short time, my mind and its critique of cognitive fatigue, and when needing to rest the brain.

I am reminded that one can not run away or numb out. That qì gōng or contemplative practice is an invitation to be with the present moment. It is a practice of being present with and being awake to what this is in the present moment and what is here. — even with all the contradictions and the cycles.

So this is brain relaxing and feeling joyous after a swim in the ocean AND the pulsating pain of cognitive fatigue after talking with someone on the phone for 40 minutes and after 8 months of rehab after a car ran a red light and hit my car. This is the present moment of tourists streaming off of a cruise ship to drink Kona coffee AND ICE coming to a rural, small town and abducting several people who were fleeing violence and having been kidnapped in their home country who pick the coffee as workers. This is awakening to the possibility that my brain may not heal in time to return to teaching full time in a month for the academic year AND being hopeful for continued healing.

As I finish writing this, a rainbow on the horizon has appeared amid the different bird sounds of the morning. And, my head is beginning to throb from cognitive fatigue of writing for 20 minutes. I am learning to hold both with tenderness. Breathing in, I feel the physical pain. Breathing out, I smile at the rainbow and the physical pain.

Be well, Kathy

A new month brings spring…

by kathyyep

Hello, We are ending a joyous month of practice and beginning a new month. There is some schedule changes in March and it is listed above.

I hope to see you at our practice sessions: Generally, Tu, Th, Sa, Su, 8 – 8:30 a.m. PT.
All are welcome. Open and suitable to all. Come as you are. Come late, leave early. Furry family are welcome to join on screen. No reservation necessary. Drop in.

Zoom link: https://pitzer.zoom.us/j/513664738

I offer this in the spirit of generosity.  If you have time and capacity consider one of the following related to nourishing dignity and respect for all: 

* Donating to folks on the ground in Gaza for food, clean water, medical treatment: Middle Eastern Children Alliance (MECA). 

* Donating to our community partner Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity 

* Donating to our community partner Women for Genuine Security 

* Take an action of your own choice to support treating all with dignity and respect.  

No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

Poems, drawings, photos, seeds, a letter are welcome as an option.  Send to kathyyep@yahoo.com or to K. Yep, PO Box 1313 Monterey Park CA 91754. 

Thank you for your donations and offerings. 

May our qì gōng practice for the benefit of all so all beings do no harm and be free from harm.  May we imagine and create the qì conditions  — where all may live from a place of abundance and interconnectedness.

Be well,
Kathy

Free Drop-In classes: Jan- May 2021

by kathyyep

WHAT: Free Drop-In Qi Gong Class    

Qi Gong (pronounced chee-gong) is an ancient and contemporary Chinese exercise that combines movement, breathing, awareness, and body posture.

The goal is to learn simple practices to help people grappling with hard situations (e.g. COVID19, illness, natural disasters, chronic stress, violence, loss, imprisonment, inequities, etc).

WHO:  Open to all. No experience necessary. This is a gentle class for folks of all bodies and abilities. You do not have to experience insomnia to take the class.

WHEN: First Wednesdays, 5:45 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. PDT and Third Thursdays, 12:15 – 1 p.m. PDT (from Jan. through end of May, 2021)

WHERE: Click here or go to https://pitzer.zoom.us/j/513664738

COST: The sessions are offered in the spirit of generosity.  All are welcome regardless of funds.

JOIN THE QI GONG EMAIL LIST

TEACHER BIO: In addition to being a researcher and a tenured Full Professor at Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges, I have practiced and taught qi gong for 25 plus years under the mentorship of Paul Li and Bingkun Hu, who learned from dayan qi gong lineage holder Yang Mei Jun. I am also a certified mindfulness facilitator and certified to teach Mindful Awareness Practices-1 from UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Behavior.

COMMUNITY PARTNER: From policy and advocacy to direct services and popular education, IM4HI is a statewide California organization that manifests the framework that “all humans are sacred across borders and bars” into reality.

CLASS CONTENT: As part of a pilot online health equity curriculum, I teach select movements from wild goose (da yan) qi gong. It is intended to be calming and nourishing according to traditional Chinese medicine. It is intended to address the ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up rested. (Irwin et. al 2017).

I also teach some qi gong movements that engage with compassion according to traditional Chinese medicine. Research suggests a connection between compassion exercises and nourishing parts of your brain that impact decision making. (Neff et. al., Singer & Klimecki 2014) This is significant in the context of health equity. It is a simple practice to nourish us from the wear and tear of challenging circumstances (e.g. hypertension, violence, incarceration, racial profiling, national disasters, etc.)

I invite you to utilize any or all of the resources: live sessions, free videos, or written instructions available in over 25 languages via Capacitar.

NOTE: This qi gong class is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.