As we come to the end of the year, it is an annual tradition for me to look back at what has happened within the Long White Cloud Qigong school and wider community over the course of the year, and also look forward to our plans for the coming year. I think it is a worthwhile tradition, it gives that moment to pause and reflect and get a wider view of what has been accomplished and where things are headed. Sometimes when we are busy working, we become so immersed in the process of doing what needs to be done that it is easy for us to lose sight of where we have been and where we are going next. Taking that moment to reflect helps us to truly appreciate the good things that have happened and helps us to steer more effectively towards our desired destination in the future. This report also helps each member of our Long White Cloud Qigong community to stay connected to Long White Cloud Qigong happenings all over the world.
Well… what a year it has been to review. Sometimes as part of this review I will look back at the review from the previous year to see how well the events of the current year fit with the goals and direction set at the end of the previous year. Looking back at the 2019 year in review I was quite surprised to find that even with all the disruptions of 2020 – we have still made a lot of progress on most of the areas charted out for the year. The big deviation from the plan for 2020 has been not being able to run the live intensive 200 hour qigong instructor training program in Thailand that was planned, or to run other retreats and workshops at various locations around the world – for obvious reasons. But in most other areas there was significant progress, including in a few areas that weren’t even mentioned in the 2019 report.
So what were the main developments in 2020?
Building Community
A big theme for 2019 was building community, and that has continued into 2020. The big developments in 2020 have been the establishment of the new Qigong Instructor Community and weekly live streaming qigong classes.
Qigong Instructor Community
The Qigong Instructor Community provides an opportunity for certified Long White Cloud Qigong instructors to meet up and ask questions, share experiences and ideas, and generally receive support in their ongoing qigong practice and teaching. Inside the community there is access to monthly meetup and q&a sessions, in depth articles on topics related to teaching or suitable for more experienced qigong practitioners, and other additional resources to support teaching. This has been something I have wanted to provide for quite awhile – so that people finishing certification courses have an avenue to continue to receive support as they take their first steps in transitioning from being a student to being a teacher, and also for more experienced teachers to be able discuss and address different issues they may face within their practice.
So far in the community we have had discussion on a wide array of topics, from how to structure qigong classes you are teaching, to insurance issues, to technical questions about different qigong practices. The community is a work in progress, and I look forward to many more resources being added to it in the future, and the connection and collaboration between instructors in different parts of the world continuing to develop.
Live Streaming Qigong Classes
As the world went into lockdown early in 2020, for many people our options of what we could do and where we could go became greatly restricted. To help people through this time I started to run some live streaming qigong sessions. Practicing qigong has many benefits in maintaining our physical and mental health, and the opportunity to connect and share with other people is also valuable. Again, this type of classes is something I had been wanting to do for quite some time, as I think they can be a great ongoing way to continue to develop in your practice and connect with one another, but until this year I had not been able to put things together in the way I wanted to in order to run the classes. The restrictions of the lockdowns encouraged me to just go ahead and do what I could rather than wait until I was able to get everything lined up the way I would ideally like to.
Running the classes was challenging at first… if you go back and look at some of the recordings of the earliest live streaming sessions you will notice that I do things like turn to the side to rotate my shoulders – that was because at that time I was required to isolate in a very small space where I had relocated to at very short notice due to travel disruption. The space I could use for teaching was so small that fully extending my arms and legs was not possible without turning my body sideways. I could also only make the sessions work by using the very wide angle camera on my cellphone. With anything else I had available I would be too close to the camera and would not be able to demonstrate qigong exercises. I didn’t have an option to go anywhere else to run the qigong sessions, and I was not able to obtain any additional equipment for running them either (New Zealand’s first lockdown was very strict – even online stores were not allowed to operate). So I had to make do with what I had.
I’m glad that I did. I have received feedback from quite a few people that those sessions helped them to get through the lockdowns, or that those sessions inspired them and helped them to see how they could run their own live streaming sessions to connect with people in their communities through qigong practice. Later things became a bit easier as I was able to start running the sessions in a larger space, and also able to get some more equipment to improve the quality of some aspects of the sessions. There is still a lot of room for improvement, and I plan to further develop the format of the sessions as well as making technical improvements to the recording quality etc in the future.
We are currently on a break from these sessions over the holiday period, but you can see recordings of many of the sessions here, and details of when the next sessions will run will be posted on that same page.
New Online Learning Platform and Syllabus Restructure
In April of 2020 we started the process of moving Long White Cloud Qigong’s online learning resources to a new platform. This new platform makes accessing the course materials much easier than the previous system hosted on the main website. We have also begun the process of restructuring the courses to make the training more comprehensive and interactive. The feedback on all of the new course materials and the platform itself has been really positive, and it has been wonderful to see the first group of participants in the first of the newly restructured certification programs graduate recently. You can see some of their comments on both the Small Universe Qigong 200 Hour Instructor Certification program, and their experience learning online here. We will be running the Small Universe Qigong program again starting in February 2021.
Articles and Vlogs
I started the year with a renewed commitment to writing articles and recording vlogs to share with our Long White Cloud Qigong community. They are a great way to explore some interesting and relevant details of qigong practice, as well as to give glimpses inside Long White Cloud Qigong events when they occur all over the world. These got disrupted a bit as none of the live Long White Cloud Qigong events were able to go ahead this year, and also just from dealing with the challenges of adapting to the changing world situation. But looking back at the year I was pleasantly surprised to see that even with the disruptions 14 new articles and 37 new vlogs were published this year. These covered diverse topics ranging from the very nature of qi through to Qigong and Bioluminescence.
It has also been interesting writing some more in depth articles for the new Qigong Instructor Community on topics that previously there has not been a suitable forum for. There are so many aspects of qigong to explore that touch every aspect of our lives, and I look forward to continuing to delve into these with you.
Spanish Edition of Between Heaven and Earth Book
Another big milestone in 2020 was the publication of the first ever foreign language edition of one of the Long White Cloud Qigong books. The Spanish edition of Between Heaven and Earth was published on January 5th 2020. It is great to be able to share this resource with Spanish speakers in their own language so that they can more easily understand and gain the benefits of this powerful qigong practice. A huge amount of work goes into translating and preparing a book like this for publication – so I want to give special thanks and acknowledgement to Jorgelina Perez for all of her time and effort in working on the Between Heaven and Earth Qigong translation.
Developments in the Wider Long White Cloud Qigong Community
It has been great to see many Long White Cloud Qigong instructors continuing to develop and expand their sharing of qigong with the world, each in their own individual way. A few notable mentions on this front:
During the year Katie Brindle in the UK has founded Hayo’u Fit, and it is wonderful to see the success they are having with their small team of Long White Cloud Qigong certified instructors raising the profile of qigong and bringing it to a wider public audience there. They were even recently featured in Vogue magazine.
Clayton Crosley in the US continues to work extensively teaching qigong to military veterans through the veteran’s administration there, and this year has been instrumental in helping a number of other qigong instructors to also start working with veterans.
Several Long White Cloud Qigong instructors are now integrating Qigong Healing alongside other therapies they offer with great success, and it is great to see people benefiting from these skills which take dedication to develop.
Looking Forward to 2021
There is still a lot of uncertainty about how things will develop in the current world situation this coming year, and this will impact many of Long White Cloud Qigong’s activities, but here is some of what you can look forward to from Long White Cloud Qigong in 2021.
Syllabus Development
This is probably the biggest one. A lot of work goes into planning and preparing the material for each of the Long White Cloud Qigong courses and programs, so at the moment there are only a few of the new restructured courses available on the new platform, but we look forward to adding to these further in 2021. Specifically we are hoping to have the Inner Fire Qigong 200 Hour Instructor Certification Program available early in the year. This program will focus on some of the more active qigong practices including Wild Animal Play, Iron Shirt Qigong, and dynamic breathing practices. These are relatively more physically challenging than many other qigong practices and work with some of the more yang characteristics of our energy. They are great for those seeking to enhance physical and mental performance, as well as giving many health benefits and providing a way to effectively develop and express yang energy in harmony with more yin methods. Dates are not confirmed yet as there is still a LOT of work to be done to get this program ready, but if you think you might be interested in the program – let us know and we will put you on a waiting list to receive updates on when it will be available as soon as we have them.
We also look forward to releasing several short courses applying qigong to a variety of different issues in a similar format to the Qigong for Immunity course that is already on the new platform, and I am really looking forward to sharing with you the practices that will be included in the Elemental Alchemy Qigong program. This program will focus on the progression from Wuji (Primordial), to Taiji (Yin and Yang), and on to Wuxing (Five Elements or Phases). These powerful practices have deep effects on every aspect of our lives. There is application to our physical health, emotions, environment, food, and even our relationships. Ideally I would like to have this available late 2021, but realistically I suspect it may not be ready until the following year. I guess we will see at the next annual review if I am being too cautious in my projections…
Community Building
We’ve made a great start with the Qigong Instructor Community, and the Live Streaming Qigong Sessions this year, and I look forward to developing both of these further to become even more valuable resources for connecting qigong practitioners around the world and supporting them in their practice. So you can look forward to some significant developments in these during 2021.
Articles and Vlogs
I really enjoy being able to share and discuss different aspects of qigong and how it relates to many aspects of our lives through the articles on the Long White Cloud Qigong website, and the vlogs on the Qi Life Youtube channel. I am not the fount of all knowledge though… so one thing that I think can make these even better in 2021 is to invite some other authors and teachers to also participate as guests on these forums.
If you have something qigong related that you would like to write an article about, or perhaps to appear in one of the vlogs – get in touch and we’ll see what we can work out.
Travel, workshops, and retreats?
As mentioned, there is still a lot of uncertainty at this stage about how 2021 will unfold. But I, like many of you, really look forward to being able to meet together in person again for qigong workshops and retreats. At this stage we just need to wait and see, but it is possible that if things settle down enough we may be able to start sharing some of these experiences again before the end of next year.
Conclusion
2020 has been a really hard year for many of us – myself included. Reading through this report it may sound like 2020 has been a massive success for Long White Cloud Qigong – that is because the report is focused on the positives. While a lot has been accomplished in 2020, it is actually far less than was planned, and there have been many struggles and challenges along the way. Sometimes just managing to keep going is a success in itself – and honestly, that is how a lot of 2020 has been for me personally. But despite all the frustrations and challenges of the year, it is still good to look back to recognize and celebrate whatever successes there have been.
I hope as you look back at your year you are also able to find many positives. If just keeping on going is the only success you can find – then I encourage you to celebrate that! We have a tendency to move towards what we focus on, so focusing on the positive will help us all to move towards a brighter 2021 ????
I look forward to continuing to support you in your qigong journey in the coming year, and hearing each of your successes in 2021 as you continue with your qigong practice!
Yours in qi!
John Munro
Founder – Long White Cloud Qigong
1 Comment. Leave new
Thank you John for sharing 2020. Love and light MXC