The Northeast’s notorious Autumn colors lure people from all over and I can’t imagine anyone is disappointed. What’s on the ground is just as stunning as what is turning, loosening, and falling on warm wisps of air.

Letting go.

It’s happening all around us and we can take inspiration from the season to see how it’s happening inside of us. Letting go because you have cycles too, and winter requires special attention to keeping only the essential for winter.

On Saturday, October 12th from 5:15 – 6:15pm I’m offering an Intro to QiGong class as a part of the O+ Festival in Kingston, NY.

Come up to the third floor of St. Joseph’s School at the corner of Pearl and Wall Streets. It’s a part of a weekend of movement, sound, and wellness called EXPLo+RE – because there’s so many ways to do that. A three class series of Intro to QiGong begins just a few weeks later on Tuesday, October 29th at 6pm in the 2nd Floor Dance Studio of BSP on 323 Wall Street of Kingston.

My practice of QiGong began in 2006 with Roger Batchelor in Portland, Oregon. I had trained in Yoga and was an infrequent meditator at that time but I was ready to dive into QiGong. I felt it was my duty to practice QiGong because as a Chinese Medicine Practitioner I work with Qi. From then to now was a path of starts and stops and a steady increase in practice over time. What began as a sense of duty has become a nourishing well for be -ing and a part of my every day. Start your journey – everyone’s is unique.

Qi! So many ways to say something about it. I like a lot of what Jacob Godwin wrote in Acupuncture in Black & White: Qi, Yin-Yang, and the Cosmology of the Yijing:

“The Word ‘Qi’ is rather vague. It is primarily a way to refer to the ultimate medium of existence. This medium exists more fundamentally that the two states we call matter and energy because Qi can be both matter and energy just as water can be both hard and soft. The quality of the medium depends on which state it is in at the time of observation. We know now that matter and energy are, in fact, merely two aspects of one continuum. Einstein’s E=MC squared taught us that matter transforms to energy and vice versa. Just as energy and matter exist on a continuum, so do all other phenomena. Nothing is static here. Everything is on its way to being something else. Night is night becoming day, day is day becoming night, and so on.”

Among the many amazing things parents do: individualized immunity boosts.

” Kissing Your Baby – An Immune Connection

Rather remarkably, breastfeeding mothers can protect their babies by providing tailor-made antibodies to the bacteria and viruses with which their baby comes into contact.

As a mother, you will already have a plethora of antibodies that have been created throughout your own life to protect you against certain diseases. Many of these diseases will be irrelevant to your newborn baby, but others will give a vital boost to his immune system. When you kiss your baby’s cheek, you are effectively sampling the bacteria and viruses on his face that he is about to ingest. By transferring these bacteria to your own body, you stimulate your immune system to create specific antibodies to fight these pathogens (disease-causing microbes). You then pass the tailor-made antibodies back to your baby through your breast milk. What a miracle of nature!”

– Lucy Burney, Immunity Foods for Healthy Kids

You can be nourished by a mural, a music concert, an art installation – have you had that experience?

A particular melody or calligraphic line can align and resonate in a way that is healing.

Valuing artistic expression is how the O+ Festival came to be. It’s a weekend full of the art of medicine and the medicine of art, a barter-based exchange of wellness. From October 11 to the 13th there will be an abundance of bands playing, art, yoga, QiGong, dance, and healthcare resources shared in Kingston, New York.

http://kingston.opositivefestival.org/

and November 15th to the 17th a San Francisco exchange commences.

It’s incredible to feel the depth of caring we can share with each other and to explore the many pathways of health. Join in!