Rebecca Noeline - Qigong and Creative Events

So curious! We had seen the turtle popping up and swimming in the late morning and then spent a bit of time swimming in a little lagoon/eddy. When it was time to come out, I nearly put my hand on the shell thinking it was a rock! Thankfully I didn't, and Thankfully some very cool photos and videos were taken instead!

Hi, I'm Rebecca, and this is the story of how a group of pre-Kindergarten kids changed my mind about movement making art.

I used to live in a different city, and in that city for about a year I ran the 2 year old to 5 year old "mommy and me" class in a church basement. I. Loved. It. We would sit in a circle,and everyone had INPUT. We'd sing the hits. London Bridge, Going on a Bear Hunt, The Rattling Bog. The alphabet. (The kids thought it was a joke when we got to the last letter of the alphabet and I would say Zed instead of Zee. Fully. We never got back on track. I never heard the end of it).

We'd always read a story, and it could be something I picked up from the library, a book a kid had brought, or something from the church basement. We'd read the hits. Swimmy. The Snowy Day. Counting on Community. The Last Stop on Market Street. We'd learn about jobs. We'd learn about the impact that we can have on each other. We'd talk about the ways that other people impact us.

And then we would create. We made our own fish to swim in a school like Swimmy. We traced our hands, and made every finger a different person in our community. We walked to the bus stop and talked about the people we saw along the way. We moved our bodies. We made art. We laughed, dreamed and sat with each other when it was hard.

This is some of the most rewarding work I've ever done, and I am so thankful that a Lutheran Church in Chicago gave me my first opportunity to see how movement and art can work in tandem.

I used to spend a lot of time sort of just floating around, where the only constant in my day was back and nerve pain. All of the movement options that were supposed to help with this pain felt really inaccessible to me.

Qigong and Tai Chi finally found me in the most unassuming, and inaccessible place. I was Yellowknife, Northwest Territories for work, I was walking with my friend and came across about 15 people doing a Tai Chi set, just outside the Ledge. I was feeling tenderness and inflammation in my lower back and my friend turned to me and said, "oh, maybe this is it".

Qigong hung out in my brain for a whole week and once in Winnipeg. I spent most of my downtime reintroducing myself to this pillar of Chinese Medicine. I had spent time with acupuncture which was enormously beneficial to my body, but a Movement practice had really eluded me. And it was there. In Yellowknife. In Winnipeg. And I needed nothing to get started.

I came home, and I started my Qigong practice. I built my Qigong practice into my creative practice. I deepened my practice at 💕 and Ji Hong Tai Chi, and online with and Kseny. Movement now isn't just about getting it done or feeling a certain way or performing in a certain way. My creative practice is my Qigong practice. My art and creativity is part of my movement. And it is such an important time of my day that I really want to share it with everyone.

This is it.

🎴 Spend a minute with me doing one qigong movement : Open the Energy Gates.

Wonderful movement that opens and closes the space in around your heart and your chest open the energy Gates is an invitation to begin.