Here you can read some of the comments and experiences from previous participants in the Inner Fire 200 Hour Instructor Certification Program. There are some videos where you can listen to participants talk about different aspects of their experiences, and if you scroll down you can also find some written comments.
————————————————————
– Annabel Deans
————————————————————
– Jude Arnfield
————————————————————
– Debbie Potter-Wilson
————————————————————
– Alexandra Schultheiss
————————————————————
I just finished the Inner Fire Qigong Course. It is divided in three parts that work together to build your energy and strength in a way that I had never experienced before.
The first part, the Inner fire Breathwork, works on activating and building your energy, your inner fire, with powerful breathing techniques, including extensive breath theory and practice. I can use all this knowledge to create many different classes, courses and workshops. The exercises are very powerful and strong and you quickly start feeling a strong and warm sense of energy.
The second part is Wild Animal Play, we learn individual Wild Animal warm ups and Wild Animal play moves, all related to a different element, but together they strengthen and balance all the elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. You learn the moves and the theory in detail, how to combine them to create flows and how to use them as therapy, in your classes or courses. This practice will circulate your energy strongly in the body. The Wild Animal Play made me stronger, confident and more flexible than ever, doing moves that I did not know I was able to do. It also helped me to let go, have fun, be creative while playing outside being an Animal. These moves can also be used in many different ways, alone or combined with other Qigong practices, providing you with a wide repertoire of options for your classes or personal practice.
The last part is the Iron Shirt Qigong Practices, feeling an amazing sense of the energy flowing in the body, strong and balanced. We used a series of exercises that will fill the body with energy, distribute it and strengthen it from the inside out. I love this practice, it might be one of my favourite ones.
These three practices, combined together take your Qigong Journey to different level. In the course we also learned different ways to create workshops, drop in classes, courses and I got many new ideas and inspiration from it.
It has provided me with many different tools to teach, enhanced my career as an acupuncturist and my personal health. My breathing, body strength and flexibility have improved, my energy feels strong, flowing. I have learned to be aware of blockages in the body, allowing me to use different tools to remove those and direct the energy wherever I need it.
I now have new techniques to teach to my students, many options to create my own courses, classes or workshops. From breathwork, meditation, Qigong Flows, etc. I have more confidence to create flows for specific health conditions related or not to Chinese medicine.
I am very thankful for this course, I knew it was going to be good, but it surpassed my expectations. I highly recommend the Inner Fire Qigong Course to anyone who wants to teach Qigong or to use the knowledge for their personal journey. Thank you John.
– Sandra de Foucault
————————————————————
I started the Small Universe course in October 2021 and completed it in February 2022. The format and content of the course is in-depth with an incredible amount of learning and practice over the 15 weeks for you to really start to understand and delve deep into this profound practice of working with your qi , meridians, breath , movement and meditation. There is plenty of time to ask questions and live practice sessions to really build your own knowledge and practice and to grow in confidence . So much so that I decided to continue with my learning and joined the Inner fire course February 2022 completing it in May 2022 . It is the same incredible format but the course is breath work , animals , and iron shirt. I have learned so much from the 2 different types of practice but they compliment each other extremely well . I feel very privileged to have John as my Master teacher, his knowledge and wisdom of this ancient practice is second to none . John has created these in-depth, life changing courses for everyone whatever their ability and I would highly recommend everyone to do them . I look forward to future courses to add to my growing knowledge and practice.
The Inner Fire program from Long White Cloud Qigong is fantastic. From start to finish, each section is so well thought out and explained to give participants a vast working knowledge of Breathwork, selected Wild Animal Play and Iron Shirt Qigong. The written words and the videos cater to all types of students. The practice sessions and the Q&A are quite helpful and often very interesting. There are so many aspects of the course that strengthen the mind, body and abilities to work with energy. Inner Fire is a fascinating program that is highly enjoyable, challenging at times and often applicable to everyday life. It is extremely worthwhile.
The Inner Fire Qigong programme was superb – I loved it! I was able to build on and consolidate my previous practice and knowledge and has gone far beyond what I expected. I am more confident and competent in my practice and feel like “the qigong penny has finally dropped” – I really get it now. I understand much more about different aspects of qigong movement and breathwork with a plethora of material to master the art of, practice and teach. The knowledge, theory and practice came together. To learn the theory and then to profoundly experience it during practice has been astonishing. I have felt both my body and my emotions become more resilient (despite having a cracked rib and contracting covid during part of the course) I have had plenty of qigong tools to help me to recover. I enjoyed all the live zoom practice sessions and particularly appreciated that John Munro took the majority of these. I picked up on a few things that I had either missed or needed to recap on from the coursework, especially more instruction and hints on how to break down the animal movements. I also gained a lot from the twice weekly Q&A’s learning from other people’s questions and John’s comprehensive explanations.
The programme’s content is jam packed. I liked the way the course material ebbed and flowed in content, giving plenty of time to catch up and consolidate when needed. I gained a trust in myself that with practice I could achieve what I needed to. It was great the way each practice prepared for the next, and was empowering to experience how different aspects of my energy became stronger and more adaptable over time throughout the course. The programme challenged me but also often taught me that I can overcome challenges more easily than I would usually expect. Inner Fire Breathwork I felt the Inner Fire Breathwork build a foundation of strength within me and I learned how to direct my energy at a level that I didn’t even know was possible. I enjoyed the sequence of the breathwork practices which give a real focus to where the breath and energy are being directed. The breathwork practices have helped to reduce the occurrence and severity of chronic migraines that I have suffered from for many years. In general, all of the practices and particularly the fire safety practices have helped me learn how to release any pent up pressure from my head, neck and shoulders more easily. Also having a noticeably firmer root from the building the root practices, and therefore the ability to connect more to the earth, has helped to keep my energy anchored preventing it from rising problematically. I have found the bone breathing phenomenal! It quickly and unexpectedly cured an acute flare up of plantar fasciitis which has been a stubborn and painful condition for me.
Wild Animal Play
I fell in love with the energetic qualities and characteristics of the Wild Animal Play Qigong. I did find the practices challenging, particularly some of the tiger and snake movements, although I was surprised at how quickly with practice, my body started to adapt to the play. I enjoyed breaking down and practicing different parts of the animal play, learning how to really embody, and become each animal, moving, and acting just like the animal does. I found practicing and embodying the different characteristics of each animal over time, has helped me more easily and quickly transmute what could be challenging emotions into healthier ones. For example, finding flexibility, flow and strength through the snake and tiger play has at times helped to smooth and liberate any feelings of aimlessness and unease within me. After practicing the animals, I feel my body is more limber with greater endurance and my emotions better regulated. Wild animal play is also a fantastic workout!
Iron Shirt Qigong
I enjoyed all different aspects and the different sensations of energy involved in the Iron Shirt Qigong practice, especially putting the practices together and experiencing each layer of building the Iron Shirt. The feelings of strength and resilience that transpire along with the sense of balance and evenly spread energy throughout the body is marvelous. I particularly enjoy the forging practice using a stick over the whole body to evenly spread the flow of energy and release muscle tension. I feel amazing after an Iron Shirt practice session and it has helped me to understand my energy in quite a profound way.
Final thoughts… I wouldn’t hesitate to highly recommend the Inner Fire Qigong Programme with the Long White Cloud Academy to anyone interested.
I, an ordained Soto Zen Priest, am 76, almost 77 years old and have been studying with Long White Cloud since 2015. As of 2023 I have completed two instructor training programs: Small Universe Qigong and now, Inner Fire Qigong. These two courses are very different but each of them has had several positive effects on both my mental health and my physical health. Small Universe Qigong has inspired me to regular daily practice, increased my energy and I have learned so much about the Chinese Medicine view of health; and now, Inner Fire Qigong is doing the same. I am calmer, more centred, healthier, stronger and more flexible than I have ever been, in spite of long and diligent practice with yoga. Yoga and qigong approaches to health are both beneficial, but they are different.
I’ve been teaching Small Universe Qigong for a year, and am starting to build a local qigong community interested in learning more. Online training has been wonderful in many ways: I’ve been able to do these courses at my own pace; I’ve been able to review classes as often as I like, and I’ve had a sense of community with others all over the world as we practice together. In addition, I’ve had opportunities for one-on-one live training with senior instructors and a weekly Q&A with head instructor, John Munro. I’m so enthusiastic that I’ve already reserved a place in Long White Cloud’s next course. This training has been worth every penny of the course tuition and much more. It is time well spent.
The structure of the course is brilliant, allowing a lot of flexibility and at the same time ensuring the right level of support.
The Inner Fire Qigong instructor program was fun, challenging, inspiring, comforting, and healing. I really loved it!
The breath work is beneficial to do before the exercises as well as a way to aid in meditation. Building the Root is a great way to start a meditation session. I also found the kidney breathing to be a powerful practice that can be done before exercising or meditating.
The animal warmups for me where both fun and challenging. It is extremely helpful that each of the animal warm ups has an easy and more advanced version. I liked starting with the easy version, but found that accomplishing the advanced version to be more rewarding. Understanding that these warm-ups have many physical and emotional benefits is a major plus.
The Iron Shirt Qigong appeared at first to have more simple movements. However, it becomes clear rather quickly that doing some of these movements in a very slow manner can be quite challenging. It can actually take more endurance to be able to do these movements in a smooth and slow practice manner. At first the tree shaking part of this practice was very intimidating. Soon after starting to work on this part of the practice I was pleasantly surprised at how natural this came to me. I found the entire Iron Shirt Qigong practice to be physically, emotionally, and spiritually beneficial.
I truly loved the whole Inner Fire Qigong instructor program and would recommend it highly.
You can find the details of the Inner Fire Qigong program here.