I appreciate all of your condolences regarding my Mother's passing. I will continue to practice daily as it calms me and guides me in remaining focused and at peace. Through all of this I am so grateful to have this practice. It would have been harder to get through without it.🙏

Have a great practice and a great day EVERYONE...

Good morning to everyone. I'm grateful to have participated in daily chats with this community since signing on at the beginning phases of "Rooted Alchemy" and committing my time daily in supporting this awesome and amazing platform. I am experiencing the loss and the grief of my Mother as she passed away this past Wednesday, March 18th. I have much to do and will need to step away for a brief period. I plan to continue practicing weekly Zoom classes but will not be participating in daily posts. I hope to return for full participation when I'm able to focus and feel up to it. Stay rooted and strong 🌱🌳

A big thanks to all involved for the new layout and organization of our classroom portal. Makes it all so much easier to identify exactly what each is seeking, and go after the particulars of the training each of us like to focus on.

From the Xin Qi Shen Newsletter Archive. Originally published spring 2005. Shared with express permission of the author. Moving Beyond Form Xin Qi Shen - Body Energy Spirit Qi Xin Shen - Energy Body Spirit Shen Qi Xin - Spirit Energy Body ⸻ The wonders of the internal arts, for the dedicated practitioner, move far beyond the mere exercise of the movements and attending classes one or more times a week. These arts are the physical manifestation of the Taoist philosophy. They are a series of hand-on exercises we can practice to understand the Tao. How to practice non- action, harmonizing with nature, understanding our own nature, nurturing a non-fighting mind, merging with the flow of the universe. “To flow with the universe is to find peace and contentment, to resist the flow is to fight and find difficulty.” ⸻ This all takes study, practice, and work to arrive at understaing, knowledge, and non- action. In all fields of art or skill there are the basics to master. Just as pianists must practice their scales in order to develop physical coordination, flow, and an understanding of the piano, our solo forms do exactly the same. Looking at an accomplished piano player as well as a Taiji practitioner it all looks so easy. This easy, or non-action/non-effort they exhibit all comes from years of disciplined and mindful practice. You just don’t sit down at the piano as a beginner and play Jazz. ⸻ Xin is the first level of our practice. This is not only learning the physical movements but studying the body mechanics and structure they require and teach. Once the basics are somewhat understood we need to move past the technical to the flow, to the energy, to the coordination of the physical elements. ⸻ Qi is energy. This can also mean flow. In our forms this also translates as studying the transitions of the movements since the art is more than the postures. Everything becomes a transition. In our forms this could be the continuous flow of the ripple of power moving up from our legs to be