Qigong with Cris Caivano: July 28 - Aug 31 , 2025
Two more classes, then a summer break
Innisfree Garden
This will be the last newsletter for a few weeks, while I take my annual August break from teaching. I always have mixed feelings about this break: on one hand, it’s a good time to absorb the lessons I’ve learned in the past months and incubate new ones, much the way farmers around here leave fields to lay fallow, allowing time to rebuild the soil’s energy. On the other hand, like many of you, I miss the fellowship of practicing together, online and in person. Here are a few ways I plan to keep my qi calm, centered, strong, and flowing, until our classes resume in September.
1) Breathe the air of trees each day. Doing this first thing in the morning makes a big difference in my day. I’d live in a tree if it were practical but, in the meantime, standing near a tree and feeling its strong, rooted, calming presence always uplifts and reassures me. It helps me feel my own roots, and be inspired by the canopy above, growing up and out towards the sky. Trees are a great model for the powerful energy within apparent stillness.
2) Walk in the morning and listen to the birds. This is something I’ve learned from the summer heat waves. If I go for a walk before 10 AM, I am treated to a chorus of bird song. It’s great motivation to get moving, and gather qi from nature before the day becomes too hot.
3) Do spontaneous Qigong. This is just what it sounds like. I get out of my teacher/planning mind and tune into wherever (and how ever) the energy in my body is asking to move. Often it’s my back, shoulders, and toes that want to move, but I usually don’t know until I begin. I try not to pre-think the movements, but allow them to bubble up spontaneously. Spontaneous Qigong means listening to your body, and having a conversation with it by moving in ways that feel good. You may even invent a new form!
4) I can’t wait to dig into Robert Tangora’s fascinating and very technical book The Internal Structure of Cloud Hands. Robert was a true Renaissance man, who combined an appreciation for the metaphorical suggestions in Qigong/Taichi with a deep understanding of how energy moves in and through the body.
Additionally, if you live nearby, on Saturday, August 30th I will be at Innisfree Gardens in Millbrook, NY, teaching five acupressure points for stress relief. This is going to be great. I’ll choose a beautiful spot somewhere under the trees and we’ll use a few powerful and easy to reach acupressure points help to open “pressure valves” within our mindbody, allowing the stuck energy to flow freely, washing away tension, worry, and distraction. This practice is especially powerful during late summer, the season when the Earth element supports grounding, centering, and clear-mindedness. I’ll send out an announcement a few weeks before, in hope that you can join me there.
Meanwhile, please feel free to contact me any time you have a question, thought, inspiration, or suggestion for what you’d like to learn more about when we resume classes in September. I teach Qigong because I love to teach Qigong, and that’s mostly due to your curiosity and enthusiasm. So don’t be shy. :~)
This past year has been especially fruitful for me, largely because I've had the pleasure and privilege to work ongoingly with many of you for several years now. I learn so much from you. We're building trust and understanding, as connections grow within ourselves and among us as a community. There’s a large measure of mystery and magic to this. It’s powerful! So, thanks so much for helping me keep the good energy flowing.
Have a happy, healthy, qi-full August, everyone! As it says in Verse 28 of the Tao Te Ching, “Become the streambed of the world. Becoming the streambed of the world, constant inner power will not leave.”
Schedule Notes:
We ARE meeting for two more Zoom classes, tomorrow, Tuesday July 29 and on Thursday, July 31. Classes will resume in early September after Labor Day.
Millbrook Library Qigong classes are also on hiatus in August. We will resume on Friday, September 5th.