Our new season begins in October 2023! Join us for Tai Chi and Qigong at the Regent Centre on Locke Street South.

Upcoming Workshops: November and early December 2018

Note for email subscribers: If you wish to inquire about these workshops or about anything else, please don't hit reply to this message—your email will drop into the void! Make sure that my email address, smithmk2@gmail.com, is in the address line before you hit SEND.

I ask that you enroll ahead of time for workshops. It's easiest for me if you contact me by email so I can track attendance, but phone works too. Thanks!

In the club where I learned most of what I know, there was a strong tradition of monthly workshops. The idea was that these were days when we could put aside whatever else we would normally do on a Sunday, and spend a longer amount of time than we usually managed to take for practice. It always felt like an absolute luxury to me, to go much more slowly and deliberately through the steps to good practice on workshop days. With a longer amount of time to practice than we had in class, it was much easier to dig deeply into a topic or issue or correction, and really let it sink into our bones and sinews.

In the past few years I've continued that tradition with the workshops I offer at The Regent Centre. It is a remarkable boost to one's practice to be able to think deeply about a single topic related to Tai Chi, Qigong, or any of our other practices. In December, I'm offering a Tai Chi workshop, open to everyone at the Continuing or Intermediate levels, that I think will be a wonderful way to ease ourselves into the impending holiday season.

I've also started a new tradition with Spiritual Development Workshops. The Spiritual Development meetings are for the purpose of discussion and meditation. The goal is to help participants use the lessons we learn through Tai Chi and Qigong in our daily lives, to help us become less grumpy, more effective, and more peaceful. Lately, we've been working with Taoist chanting and some traditional Taoist teachings to help us on our way. The next workshop is coming up fast, this Sunday, November 18. Let me know if you'd like to attend either date!

More details follow.

Spiritual Development Workshop
Date: Sunday, November 18, 2018
Time: 1-4 pm
Cost: $15 suggested donation / person
Location: At my home—see below for instructions on how to attend.

Spiritual development workshops are for people who enjoy, or are curious about, the spiritual and esoteric aspects of Taoist practice, and who are also interested in working on themselves as spiritual seekers. While I personally don't plan to hand down spiritual truths or claim to know the answers, I have more than 25 years' experience working in Taoist and other spiritual frameworks, and am happy to help gently guide participants as they work to find answers for themselves.

Participants can expect to work with a variety of different techniques for connecting to Spirit, as well as time spent sharing individual experiences, as we work to bring fresh meaning and purpose to our life journeys.

You can read more about the philosophy behind the spiritual development workshop series here. This series will be run from my home. I need to know ahead of time if you plan to attend. Contact me at (905) 521-0043 or smithmk2@gmail.com. Even if you've attended in the past, I'd like to know if you plan to attend each workshop. Because these workshops represent a more advanced perspective on everything we do, I reserve the right to let you know if it would be inappropriate for you to attend.


Tai Chi Workshop
Date: Sunday, December 9, 2018
Time: 1-5pm
Cost: $60
Location: Regent Health Centre, 150 Locke St. South
Prerequisite: Open to Intermediate or Continuing Tai Chi Students

It's been a while since I ran a workshop that focuses on internal martial art through Tai Chi! Tai Chi is our core practice on the internal martial art side of things, and an excellent basis for your regular workout routine.

This workshop will focus on a key technique that will benefit all your internal martial arts practice: dropping the internals to connect with the ground. Whether you want to call this dropping your weight, dropping your centre of gravity, grounding, earthing, or connecting with the centre of the earth, this method is the key to achieving profound relaxation through your practice, improving mechanics, and completing each movement. It is extremely helpful for fall prevention, and on an energetic level helps nourish and replenish your entire system.

We'll be spending lots of time on physical practice, and will also learn to use guided visualization and meditation to facilitate a nice, deep drop for all participants.

It doesn't matter if you've been doing Tai Chi for just a little while or for years (or decades!) — learning how to drop your weight is something you can start anytime, and which could always use more work.

To attend, contact me at (905) 521-0043, or smithmk2@gmail.com.

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