Home2012 CoursesQigong + Bagua, Kentish Town

Breathing, Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua Classes | London NW5

Saturday Internal Arts Courses in Kentish Town with Paul Cavel

neigong_exercisesPaul's one-day courses are designed to teach ever-deeper layers of internal power-genrating techniques (neigong) from several perspectives, including applications in your form of choice.

Beginners welcome (read Paul's article "What Beginners Learn at Live Courses")

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Developing Internal Power for Health + Meditation

Select the course you would like to learn more about:

Since each course introduces or upgrades specific neigong component(s), designed to awaken or refine specific chi practices, each teaching is complete unto itself. There is no obligation to attend all classes, but ultimately they will build a powerful synergy that forms the critical aspects of the internal martial arts—whether you train for health, meditation or to achieve high-performance results of any kind.

Energy Arts Qigong + Bagua Zhang Level 2 Instructor Pete Jenkins will assist Paul in most neigong courses, and provide more personal feedback and support for those who are new toour system. Learn more about Pete and his qualifications on his website: www.BrightonBagua.co.uk.

Each course will offer a tai chi track, but may also may include qigong, bagua, standing or breathing practices, depending on the flavour of neigong being presented. In this way, Paul hopes to give you the best opportunity to experience the many potential benefits of internal exercise in body-mind-chi.


Bending + Stretching in Gods Qigong + Tai Chi

gods_qigong

Foundation Methods for Pulling Silk

Saturday, 25 February 2012, 11 am-6 pm (2-hour lunch)

SORRY, THIS COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED. Email us to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellation.

Bending and stretching ranges from the most basic internal content to some of the more advanced neigong techniques. In this course, Paul will start by introducing exercises for working with the long muscles to release muscular tension and relax the nervous system. For those who have the capacity and subtle control of their body’s tissues, he will also teach techniques for delving deeper into the ligaments to supercharge the results of your practice.

Once bending and stretching exercises are online, the chi work begins. Here, Paul will teach material in the direction of “Pulling Silk” for which tai chi is famous. The purpose is to develop incredibly light yet powerful chi.

The primary practice will Gods Qigong to build the foundation and specific flavour of this chi work. Once you have it, Paul will explain how techniques are adapted to tai chi and bagua palm changes for serious tai chi and bagua practitioners.

For those who don't already know Gods Qigong, Paul (or his assistant Pete Jenkins, a fellow Certified Energy Arts Gods Qigong Instructor) will teach you movement 6, which is particularly effective for realising the potential of these techniques. This is a great opportunity to receive an introduction to Gods Playing in the Clouds Qigong, a high-level and mutli-dimensional healing exercise system.


Advanced Pulsing in Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua

qigong-healingMelt Your Nerves + Awaken Your Chi

Saturday, 24 March 2012, 11 am-6 pm (2-hour lunch)

SORRY, THIS COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED. Email us to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellation.

Taught through Tai Chi Circling Hands, then choose your form.

Advanced opening-closing methods are all about taking the pulse into the internal arts (e.g., qigong, tai chi and bagua) in a balanced and complete way. Tai Chi Circling Hands is an ideal platform to embody pulsing as it includes motion on all three planes (horizontal, vertical and coronal), and serves as a bridge to more complex exercises, such as high-level qigong sets, tai chi forms and bagua walking methods and plam changes.

Paul will provide a short introduction on how to pulse to help beginners get started, and warm up and  refine the technique of experienced practitioners before delving into the whole-body pulse.

  • Beginners will learn how to pulse and some of the choreography of Tai Chi Circling Hands to go home with a practice that can deliver some real health benefits.
  • Existing practitioners will learn how to take the pulse into their chosen form to create balance, deep relaxation and unification of body-mind-chi.

Pulsing is one of the best techniques to integrate into your form to embody softness, achieve relaxed flow and ignite the deeper health benefits for which the internal arts are well-known. If you haven't experienced pulsing before, this seminar will give you a real taste of what separates modern exercise programmes from the ancient science that underlies all internal arts forms. My long-term students will learn a couple new tricks for linking and amplifying the pulse throughout the body.—Paul


Longevity Breathing with QIGONG, Tai Chi + bAGUA Applications

cardio-heart-beatTherapeutic Techniques for Healing the Body + Focusing the Mind’s Intent

Saturday, 14 April 2012, 11 am-6 pm (2-hour lunch)

SORRY, THIS COURSE IS FULLY BOOKED. Email us to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellation.

Longevity Breathing is meant to do exactly what it says—give you techniques for harnessing longevity. The results you gain from your chi practice (whatever style or form), in large part depend upon the presence and focus of your mind.

Paul will begin teaching simple breathing techniques to engage and circulate chi, and progress to techniques to help you focus your intent. Ultimately, it will be your intent that allows you to weave together neigong (internal power) threads into one synergistic whole, where the totality of your practice becomes greater than all of the individual components. This is where the range of potential health benefits can be realised.

A classic application of neigong training is to take a simple metronome (in this case, breathing) to tie together all the aspects you have developed individually. So the breath will become the means for concentrating the energy of the mind, and keep it from swinging around like a monkey going from tree to tree.

Internal Arts Applications (Qigong, Tai Chi or Bagua): Once Paul introduces the breathing theory and guides students through the methodology, the group will practice stabilising the breathing techniques taught. Then, you will have an opportunity to apply what you have learned to the moving practice of your choice--a qigong set, tai chi form or Bagua Circle Walking (movement forms from all systems are welcome).

Note: This course will provide a solid foundation for the deeper work of contacting and balancing emotional content with breathing techniques that Paul will teach in the 30 June 2012 Longevity Breathing course (scroll down to read the course description).


Standing Qigong + the Outer Dissolving Method

brain-exercisesFundamental Practices for Qigong, Tai Chi + Bagua

Saturday, 19 May 2012, 11 am-5:30 pm (1.5-hour lunch)

Limit 28 students, register below to reserve your place.

Initially, the Outer Dissolving Method will be taught as a standing qigong practice. In the afternoon, Paul will offer an applications lesson for those who train qigong or tai chi, allowing time for practice.

Dissolving forms the foundation of the Water method practices. Besides ensuring that energetic development is cultivated in a safe, contained and progressive manner, dissolving also increases the ability to control chi as well as sensitivity to feel chi, your life-force energy.

Standing qigong and dissolving form the absolute bedrock of any moving practice in the Water method. The most experienced of internal arts practitioners and new students alike can benefit from feedback and micro-adjustments to improve biomechanical alignments, where your form is either powered up or downgraded before any other threads even come into play. I will offer personal corrections for everyone in the class, and will teach in the flavour of tai chi, favouring softeness, yielding, relaxation and let go (equally beneficial for qigong + bagua practitioners). —Paul

This is an excellent course for beginners to learn the basic alignments and other fundamentals of our system for exercise therapy and high-performance results. For those who attended the first standing qigong and outer dissolving course, Paul will offer a quick review of sinking and then pick up where we left off by deepening your outer dissolving technique.

  REGISTER FOR MAY COURSE  

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Longevity Breathing Techniques for Balancing Your emotions

cardio-heart-beat

Learn How to Engage, Massage + Balance
Your Internal Organs for Emotional Well-being

Saturday, 30 June 2012, 11 am-5:30 pm (1.5-hour lunch)

Limit 28 students, register below to reserve your place.

This course has just been added!

This seminar will focus on the physical breath to engage, massage and balance the internal organs using a variety of effective Longevity Breathing techniques developed over millennia to:

  • Release generalised and accumulated tension in mind-body-chi
  • Increase the flexibility of the diaphragm and lung capacity
  • Improve blood flow and thereby delivery of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body
  • Safely and gently contact and expel stored emotional content
  • Relax the nerves and supercharge chi flow

When the organ base becomes tense, condensed and stagnant, overall health and well-being diminishes, which thereby downgrades the function of every immune function in the body. Optimal functioning of the internal organs is what gives rise to incredible vitality in mind-body-chi.

In Chinese medicine, each internal organ is associated with and plays a critical role in balancing the emotions:

  • Liver—gives the power to achieve, but can cause anger or frustration when imbalanced.
  • Kidneys—are the door to the life force, but can cause fear or depression when imbalanced.
  • Heart—allows for the experience of joy, but can cause anxiety, stress or nervous tension when imbalanced.
  • Lungs—can ignite the power to do with enthusiasm and increased brain and mental functioning, but can cause sadness or grief when imbalanced.
  • Spleen—is the organ of integration, allowing a sense of stability and well-being, but can cause a lack of focus, splintering of the mind and dissociation.

Paul will teach Longevity Breathing exercises specifically designed to counter the negative downward spiral caused by illness, injury, stress, anxiety and aging. Since we must breathe all day, every day to stay alive, learning how to guide your breath at will gives you the power to shift your state of mind and reinvigorate bodily systems whenever you choose. These simple yet powerfully effective techniques will give you tools to dramatically upgrade your current state of health and sense of peace inside yourself.

Note: You are encouraged to bring a yoga mat, towel or blanket for some of the sitting or lying down practices. However, you will not be required to sit or lie down on the ground if these positions would be physically challenging for you.

  REGISTER FOR JUNE COURSE  

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Wu Style Tai Chi + Bagua Single Palm Change

wu_tai_chiForm + Content Upgrade—Freestyle!

Saturday, 7 July 2012, 11 am-5:30 pm (1.5-hour lunch)

Limit 20 students, register below to reserve your place.

Prerequisite: Must know a tai chi/bagua form; all stylists from all schools welcome!

This freestyle training is geared towards personal feedback plus form and content upgrades for existing bagua and tai chi practitioners.

Paul plans to give short, precise teachings to elevate the overall practice level of those present, including:

  • Form corrections
  • Filling in any gaps of understanding
  • Upgrading the quality of internal content in your form
  • How to create balance in your practice.

Paul will observe you as you practice and give you feedback for overcoming your personal sticky points and balancing your form. This is a rare course where individual training goals are emphasised and the main driver of the curriculum, allowing Paul to craft material specifically geared to your current skill level.

After a brief introduction, Paul will oscillate between the tai chi and bagua groups, offering brief lessons and personal input in each group.

The class will be limited to 20 students to ensure all students receive hands-on corrections from Paul.

  REGISTER FOR JULY COURSE  

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Circularity in Wu Style Tai Chi Short Form + Bagua Zhang

bagua_palm_changeSaturday, 18 August 2012, 11 am-5:30 pm (1.5-hour lunch)

Limit 20 students, register below to reserve your place.

Beginners will learn fundamental internal techniques through Tai Chi Circling Hands Qigong.
Experienced internal artists will learn techniques in Tai Chi Circling Hands Qigong, and then apply them in their form of choice.

Circularity is a major aspect of internal arts practice—so much so that it is impossible to advance your practice to a high level without incorporating its principles in every form movement.

Circularity is not only for the hands, but also the quality of motion and the continuous fluidity necessary to knit together all the various moves of a form or set. So, as you progress from one movement to the next, it is the circular nature of your movements that allows you to supercharge (or downgrade) your form.

Circularity can be incorporated into any transition:

  • From bend to stretch and stretch to bend;
  • From an open to a close or a close to an open;
  • From up to down or down to up;
  • From forwards to backwards or backwards to forwards; or
  • From left to right or right to left.

When you achieve true circularity in your practice, you can begin to delve deep into your body, mind and chi. Soft, repetitive circular movements coaxes the nerves into a relaxed state, thereby releasing embedded stress and tension lodged in the body. As the body becomes unbound, chi naturally circulates more powerfully, flooding and nourishing your system with energy down to the cellular level. The mind can let go and become content just being rather than needing to go somewhere or accomplish something.

Paul will teach various aspects of circularity, starting with the gross and working towards the subtle, where the real health and healing benefits can flourish.

  REGISTER FOR AUGUST COURSE  


Schedule + Venue

Expressions Studios
Linton House
Studio 3
39-51 Highgate Road
London NW5 1 RT

Look for the "Expressions Studios" sign above the door.

Scroll down for travel + accommodation information + links.

 

Starting January 2012:
11 am-6 pm
2-hour lunch break for 25 February, 24 March + 14 April courses (class ends at 6:00 pm);
1.5-hour lunch break starting 19 May 2012 to end class at 5:30 pm


REGISTER

£65 per course for 19 May + 30 June 2012. Limit 28 students.

£75 per course for 7 July + 18 August 2012. Limit 20 students.

Payment

Choose one of three payment options--

  • Send funds by bank transfer, download instructions by clicking here .
  • Cash or cheque (returning students only) in pounds when we see you at an earlier course.
  • Pay with a credit/bank card via Paypal:

  REGISTER FOR COURSES  

Which course would you like to attend?

Travelling to London

Directions to Expressions Studios:

  • From Kings Cross, Euston, Waterloo, Charing Cross or London Bridge take the Northern line tube northbound towards High Barnet, alight at Kentish Town.
  • From Paddington take the Circle line tube eastbound and change at Kings Cross for the Northern line northbound towards High Barnet, alight at Kentish Town.
  • From Victoria take the Victoria line tube northbound and change at Kings Cross for the Northern line northbound towards High Barnet, alight at Kentish Town.
  • From Liverpool Street take either the Circle Line, Metropolitan Line or Hammersmith & City Line westbound and change at Kings Cross for the Northern line northbound towards High Barnet, alight at Kentish Town.

Map of Area around Expressions Studios:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=528813&y=185463&z=0&sv=nw5+1rt&st=2&pc=nw5+1rt&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

Plan Your Journey:
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk

Places to Stay in London:

www.offtolondon.com/where_to_stay
www.visitlondon.com
www.londontown.com/hotels

Train Times and Prices:
www.thetrainline.com