My workshop in Gubbio, Italy was called “How to cultivate your personal Mogadao practice and improve your health through the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine”, with Anneli Arpolahti, a talented MogaDao guide who lives in Gubbio. This is a group of serious student practitioners with much experience in Qigong and Yoga. Anneli and I spent a week planning the 3-day workshop and choosing the Qigong sequences. Our goal was to assist people to deepen and design their home practice through self-observation.
We began each day with a Yoga practice led by Anneli, with a specific awareness of the 5-Elements. In Qigong, we performed the Equinox ritual with Yang and Yin and Tonifying forms. We studied the 5 Elements system. Over the course of 3 days we practiced every single Mogadao Qigong form, including Morning Medical Qigong, all the standard forms, and others. Handouts showed the Qigong forms for each element and organ. I presented my book, The Cosmology of Qigong. I introduced classic tools for deepening self-observation, such as the Five Cosmic Messages, Yin Yang Brain Balancing, the Top 6 Acupressure Points, the Microcosmic Journal, and a Qigong Series for Wei Qi. Many of these topics are my web posts. Click on the links below for details.
- My Book, The Cosmology of Qigong
- Introduction to the Chinese Five Element System
- Are You Getting Your Five Cosmic Messages?
- Do Emotions Cause Disease? Chinese Medicine Says “Yes”
- The Emotions Wheel in 4 Steps to Raise Your Emotional IQ
- Yin Yang Qigong, Brain Balancing
- Should You Keep a Microcosmic Journal?
- The 20 Meridians and their Consciousness
- Top 6 Acupressure Points to Start Your Day
- Could Your Bone Marrow Health be the Secret to Rejuvenation?
- What’s Protective Wei Qi? How Can I Build it?
I created mock situations in daily life and asked the class to suggest the best forms to balance particular emotions. We discussed healthy foods for each element, grains, sugars, dairy, and the problems with processed foods. We talked about the harmful effects of sugars and flours as a root cause of disease. (However I’m not sure I made much headway telling them to eliminate pasta, pizza and bread from their lives.)
We alternated Qigong practice with discussions and games. At the end of the weekend, the final game was to write an entry in your personal Microcosmic Journal with a realistic situation in your life, using the self-observation tools learned in the workshop to create a morning practice. Both Anneli and I were amazed at the brilliant synthesis people were able to do, each one totally unique, which we shared at the closing of the workshop. I hope people will be able to carry on and deepen what we learned. Overall it was a delightful experience for me. It was a huge test for my Italian, and it challenged me to deepen my communication and teaching skills.
I want to thank Anneli Arpolahti, all the participants, and especially Antonella Nardi, President of Mogadao Europe who organized the workshop.