The Live Online Qigong Classes have been running for six months now, and when I launched the subscription back in May, I knew it was something I wanted to do, but I wasn’t quite sure how easy it would be to maintain a regular schedule. I have been travelling a lot this year, with retreats, trainings and other teaching commitments taking me to various parts of the world.
But six months in, I’m pleased to say that we have managed to keep the classes going — with at least one live qigong session every week, and usually more.
So I thought it would be a good time to look back at what we’ve been doing, and some of the ways the subscription has developed over these first six months.
Qigong From Around the World
Over the past six months, sessions have been delivered from Airbnbs, retreat centres and other venues from countries around the world. I have particularly enjoyed when the sessions have been delivered from outdoors on occasion. It is so nice to practise qigong in a natural environment. I try to do that as much as possible in my personal practice, so it has been nice to do that from time to time in the group practices as well.
The travelling does present some practical challenges, though…
I now travel with a satellite internet receiver so that I can have a reasonable degree of confidence that I’ll be able to run the sessions wherever I happen to be. And I’m very glad I have it, because there have been a few occasions when it has been needed!
So while the locations may change, the classes have continued.
59 Live Qigong Sessions — and Counting
So far, we have completed 59 live qigong sessions, and every one has been different.
This has given us the opportunity to explore a wide range of qigong practices and approaches over the past six months.
Some sessions have focused on quite specific individual practices or principles, while others have brought together groups of practices to harmonize and balance many different aspects of our energy system within the session. We have explored movement, breath, awareness and energy in a wide variety of different ways.
One of the things I like about this format is the ability to explore things over time. You don’t have to take everything in at once, you can start with just a taste of a practice, and then develop your understanding little by little as we revisit practices again and again over time, naturally drawing out different details within the sessions.
And because all of the sessions are recorded, the work we do together is beginning to accumulate into a substantial library of practices.
A Growing Library of Qigong Practices
This growing collection of recordings is one of the things I think will become increasingly valuable within the subscription.
The live classes provide the opportunity to practise together, ask questions and receive guidance in real time. But you don’t have to be available every time a particular session takes place.
You can come back to the recordings whenever you like.
Perhaps there is a particular set of practices that you want to work with regularly. Or perhaps you are interested in a particular aspect of qigong and want to explore several sessions that relate to it.
Over time, the library gives you the ability to choose practices according to what you want or need at a particular time.
Going Deeper Into Particular Practices
We’ve also experimented with some more structured series of sessions.
So far there have been two four-week series, where we have used the sessions to explore the fundamentals of particular sets of qigong practices in more depth.
This gives us a little more continuity from one session to the next, and provides enough time to develop a good understanding of the practices so that people can continue working with them in their own practice.
Responding to Requests From the Community
Another thing that has become a regular part of the classes is sessions focused on requests from members.
This has led to sessions on a diverse range of topics.
We’ve had sessions on topics like Qigong for Hip Pain, Qigong for Depleted Energy, and Qigong for Lymphatic Flow, as well as sessions of a more theoretical nature such as Understanding the Different Circulations of the Microcosmic Orbit.
I think this is a really valuable part of the subscription as it gives the opportunity to take practices and principles you may already be familiar with, and see how they can be applied to areas of immediate interest to yourself or others around you.
It also means that we can sometimes explore subjects and practices that wouldn’t necessarily fit naturally into one of the more structured courses.
Practising Together
Of course, the subscription isn’t only about the content of the sessions.
One of the things I’ve particularly enjoyed over the past six months is the sense of community that has developed around the classes.
It is really nice to see familiar faces appearing regularly on the screen, and to know that there are people in different parts of the world taking time out of their day to practise qigong together.
There is something really nice about practising live with one another.
Even though we may be sitting or standing in completely different locations around the world, there is still a sense that we are sharing the practice together.
At the same time, the subscription is deliberately flexible.
You don’t need to attend every live session. Sometimes you will be able to join us live, sometimes you won’t. The recordings are there so that you can continue your practice when the timing of the live sessions doesn’t work for you.
Shorter Sessions
We’ve also recently started experimenting with some shorter practice sessions.
Most of the live classes are around an hour, but we are trying some 30-minute qigong sessions as well.
Sometimes you simply don’t have an hour available.
And sometimes, even when you do have the time, half an hour of focused practice is exactly what you feel like doing.
A shorter session can be enough to settle yourself, bring your energy into balance and get things flowing again without needing to make a major commitment of time.
We’ll continue experimenting with this over the next couple of months and see how useful people find the shorter format.
Exploring Seated Qigong Practice
Another recent experiment has been sessions where all of the practices are done in a seated position.
This is partly to make the sessions more accessible for people who may need to sit because of health or mobility considerations. But there is also another reason I wanted to explore this.
Even when we are perfectly capable of doing a practice standing, changing our position can sometimes change our experience of the practice.
Doing qigong seated can reveal different things about how a movement works, how our energy moves, and what the practices are actually doing.
So these sessions aren’t just an “easier” version of standing practice. They also give us an opportunity to explore what happens when we approach familiar practices from a different physical position.
Six Months In
So, six months in, I’m very happy with how the Live Online Qigong Classes are developing.
The original intention was to create a regular opportunity for people to practise qigong together, explore a wide range of practices over time, ask questions and receive guidance, and gradually build a substantial library of recordings.
That is beginning to happen.
And I’m looking forward to see how it continues to develop.
There are plenty more practices to explore, more requested topics to focus, and more ways that we can experiment with the format to make the classes as useful as possible for the people who are taking part.
We’ll continue to develop and fine-tune the subscription as we go, while keeping the basic idea quite simple:
Come and practise qigong with us.
Join us live when you can. Use the recordings when that suits you. Explore different practices. Ask questions. Take your time. And gradually develop your own qigong practice.
If you would like to join us for the Live Online Qigong Classes, you can find all the details here: Live Online Qigong Classes.