Before I discovered Dayan Qigong (DYQG), I was a self-described couch potato and fair-weather walker with minimal and inconsistent exercise experience. I had survived multiple injuries and resulting health challenges, and I was living a stress filled, high paced, multi-tasking lifestyle. I struggled with chronic migraines, tiredness, stiffness, depression, anxiety, and mood swings. In other words, I was a typical “functionally dysfunctional” American with less motivation than most, poor coordination, a low threshold for pain, and very little self-discipline.

Through the practice of Dayan Qigong I became more proactive and fully engaged in my own wellness and the well-being of others. More importantly, I am grateful for the ways that DYQG helped me to discover and learn how to live a life of balance—from my own center. The pulse of that profound lifestyle change truly began with my very first class with Master Hui Liu, at the Wen Wu School of Martial Arts, and it continues to deepen with each passing year.

I am continually amazed at the resilience of the human body and its capacity to be forgiving when we begin to care for it well. My greatest joy comes from making DYQG accessible to students in ways that help them personalize and embed what they learn into their everyday lives. Regardless of what brings students to class initially, their axis of engagement—like my own—expands and changes over time. The joy and privilege of teaching, for me, is helping students to form a new relationship to themselves and the ever-changing dynamic of the body, mind, and spirit.

I have been teaching 1st Set DYQG at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, in the Behavioral Health Education Department, and at the Wen Wu School of Martial Arts (WWS), in El Cerrito, since 1999. My work has expanded to include classes at several Kaiser Permanente medical facilities in the SF Bay Area (Oakland, Hayward, and Union City) now, and at the Castro Valley Adult & Career Education Center, the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) in San Francisco, and at The Neighborhood Center at All Saints Church in San Leandro, California. I have also taught classes in Mill Valley, Laguna Beach, and Irvine, California, and in Portland, Oregon.

I have been a WWS certified 1st Set DYQG teacher since 1999, and became a certified 2nd Set DYQG instructor in the fall of 2009. In addition to DYQG, I teach meditation, stress management, employee wellness and other health related classes, including two Parkinson’s and the Art of Moving classes (developed by John Argue) at Kaiser Permanente, in Hayward, California.