Tai Chi & Qigong Surrey

07/06/2026

Our in-person classes will be on break from 8 - 28 June while I travel to support a family member. Thanks for your patience during this time.

During this time I will be running a series of 3, 1 hour, online introduction to qigong and meditation classes. Videos will be made available for 2 weeks. (£10 each or £27 if you pay for the 3 up front). Please contact me on [email protected] if you're interested.

In-person classes restart as follows:

+ Qigong - Wednesday morning 10-11, Reigate - from 1 July
+ Tai chi (mixed ability) - Wednesday morning 11.30-12.30 or evening 6.30-7.45, Reigate - from 1 July
+ Tai chi (beginners) - Thursday morning 10-11, Reigate - from 2 July

If you are a new student please contact me before attending to ensure there is space available.

I will be able to respond to emails while away so please do get in touch if you need to at [email protected]

07/06/2026

Jing — Your Deepest Resource 🌱

Last week I introduced the idea of internal alchemy — a framework for understanding and refining the energies that make us who we are. This week I want to look at the first and most foundational of the three: jing.

Jing is often translated as essence. Think of it as your deepest biological and energetic reserve — the stuff you were born with, and the stuff that sustains you at the most fundamental level.

You inherit a certain amount of jing from your parents — this is called pre-heaven jing, and it's essentially your constitutional inheritance. Your baseline vitality. Some people are born with more, some with less. In Chinese medicine this is just an honest observation about human variation, not a judgement.

You can't top up your pre-heaven jing. But you can stop burning through it unnecessarily.

Because jing depletes. And modern life is exceptionally good at depleting it. Chronic stress. Overwork. Poor sleep. Not enough genuine rest and recovery. Burning the candle relentlessly at both ends. In Chinese medicine, the signs of jing depletion show up as premature ageing, exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix, low back weakness, poor recovery, and a general sense of having less to draw on than you once did.

Sound familiar?

The good news is that alongside your inherited jing, you're constantly producing post-heaven jing — refined from the food you eat, the air you breathe, and the quality of your rest and recovery. And there's quite a lot you can do to support this. Your qigong and tai chi practice plays a direct role — slow, rooted, conscious movement helps gather and consolidate jing rather than scatter it. Stillness practice even more so.

Acupuncture can also help here — supporting the systems responsible for producing and distributing post-heaven jing, improving how efficiently your body uses the energy it generates, and essentially helping you make the most of what you have.

In the internal alchemy framework, jing is the raw material — the starting point for the whole refining process. You can't transform what you haven't first gathered and conserved.

So before anything else: notice where you're leaking energy. Move slowly and with full attention. Treat your vitality as the finite and precious resource it actually is.

Jing doesn't shout. It's quiet, deep and slow. And in a world that rewards constant output, learning to honour it might be one of the most radical things you can do. 🌿

05/06/2026

**The form is the first teacher and sharing it allows students to access the wisdom that lies within it and within themselves**

And like all good teachers, it doesn't give you everything at once. It's treasures emerge over time.

*Step one: learn the form.*

The sequence, the postures, the timing. This stage asks for patience and repetition. You show up, you follow, you try to get it right. It can feel mechanical at first — and that's fine. You're building the vessel. Good technical teaching matters enormously here. Without a solid foundation, the best steps have nothing to build upon.

*Step two: let the form teach you how to feel it.*

This is where I mostly live. Still working on this one — probably will be for a while and that's fine, I'm learning a lot and changing a lot!

Once the sequence is in your body, something softens. You stop counting moves and start truly experiencing them. The form begins to ask different questions — can you find ease inside the effort? Can you stay rooted when something pushes you? Can you yield without collapsing? And slowly, quietly, those questions stop being about the practice and start being about everything else too. The steadiness you find in stillness turns up when someone raises their voice. The softness you cultivate in movement becomes available in moments that used to make you brace.

This is where technique becomes something more like wisdom.

*Step three: let the practice become a mirror.*

I won't pretend I live here. But I have glimpses.

For me, they come in two places, mostly. One is when I'm studying with my own teacher — something in that transmission opens a layer I can't access alone. A clearer view into where I am and what I need.

The other, perhaps surprisingly, is when I'm teaching. Not the busy, technical part of teaching, but the moments when I get out of my own way. Those moments give me a clearer picture of what is possible in myself and for myself. I see myself and my struggles mirrored in the students. I hear myself giving advice and guidance that applies as much to me as it does to them.

Most of us find different teachers for different stages. But the form itself is always there — patient, unhurried, ready to take you deeper.

Stay curious. See what it has to say to you.

31/05/2026

What is Internal Alchemy? 🔥

I've been exploring spagyrics recently — a Western alchemical tradition of working with plant medicines that goes back to Paracelsus and is still very much alive today.

At its heart is a beautiful idea: that within every plant there are three levels of being — soul, spirit and body — and that through a careful process of separation, purification and recombination, the plant's deepest nature can be liberated and offered as medicine.

The moment I came across this I felt an immediate recognition.

Because this is the same conversation that Chinese medicine and Taoist philosophy have been having for thousands of years — just from the inside rather than the outside.
Where spagyrics works with plants to reveal what is most essential, neidan — internal alchemy — works with the human being. The idea is the same: that within us something luminous exists. The work isn't to add anything. It's to clear and refine, so that what's already present can emerge.

In this frameworre made of three fundamental substances — jing (essence, your body's deepest reserves), qi (vital energy, the living current that animates everything you do), and shen (spirit — the quality and clarity of your awareness). These map onto those three alchemical principles with striking elegance.

And just as spagyrics sees the plant as a bridge between earth and cosmos, Taoist philosophy sees the human being as a conduit between Heaven and Earth — able, when clear and open, to embody that connection fully - clearing the path for us to manifest ad share that luminous quality.

The key words there are clear and open.
Most of us aren't running on a clear system. Jing depleted by stress and overwork. Qi stagnant from years of rushing, suppressing, not stopping. Shen scattered by the relentless noise of modern life.

The qigong I teach focuses primarily on clearing — releasing stagnant and pathogenic qi (we call it binqi) from the energy system so the body's true nature can reassert itself. Not forcing. Not adding. Just creating the conditions for what's already true to become available again.

This is internal alchemy in its most practical form. Not esoteric knowledge for advanced practitioners, but an invitation open to anyone willing to slow down and pay attention.

Over the coming weeks I'll be exploring jing, qi and shen in more depth — and some of the principles behind this ancient and surprisingly relevant map of what it means to be human.

I'm not teaching this as a formal neidan system — I'm sharing it as a framework that has genuinely shaped my own practice, and that I hope might open some doors for you too. 🌿

Picture of our fabulous spagyrics lecture today at The Healing Garden.

26/05/2026

Tending the Fire starts at the wrist

We're moving into Fire season now, and in the Fire Horse year that shift carries extra charge. Brilliant energy, yes — but also a lot of stimulation, a lot of noise, a lot of heat looking for somewhere to go.

In both qigong and tai chi, the wrists are gateways. And right now, one of the most important gates to open is on the inner wrist — at the little finger edge, in the soft hollow just inside the tendon at the wrist crease.

This is the location of Heart 7, Shen Men — the Spirit Gate.

Before practice, take a moment here. Rotate each wrist slowly in both directions — no hurry, no forcing. Let the movement be gentle enough that you could almost fall asleep doing it. Flex and extend through the full easy range, then let the wrist go heavy and soft. Finally, rest the opposite thumb in that small hollow at the inner wrist crease and stay there for a few slow breaths. You're not just loosening a joint — you're inviting the Heart channel to open, creating the conditions for something softer to come through into the whole practice.

Then notice how that quality carries into the movement itself.

In cloud hands, the wrists lead — that continuous, unhurried turning asks the Heart channel to stay open all the way through. When the wrists are truly soft, cloud hands stops being a technique and becomes something closer to listening.

In silk pulling, the quality of the thread lives in the wrist. Too much tension and the silk breaks. When the channel is open and flowing, that sense of continuous, yielding connection becomes available — you feel it rather than just doing it.

Tend the Fire gently. 🔥

25/05/2026

Weekend training with Master Shen Jin — going deeper into Buqi healing

This weekend I trained with my teacher Master Shen Jin (a master who resists being called a master), learning more about the buqi healing system — how to create different energy fields and how they support health.

Buqi works with the body's own natural energy. It's subtle, practical work that takes time to develop — which is why I keep going back to train, despite having been immersed in this work for almost 20 years already... there are always more gems to discover..

A highlight for me thos weekend was using the pulling silk (or silk reeling) technique — one I teach regularly in class — and finding that it also helps build stronger healing forces in buqi practice. I love it when things connect like that.

I'm continuing to develop these skills for the benefit of my tai chi and qigong students and my acupuncture patients. The more these different parts of my practice talk to each other, the better.

21/05/2026

I've been talking a bit about this in class this week.

THE YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE — THREE MONTHS IN

When we wrote about the Fire Horse in February, it felt theoretical. Now we can see it.

Look around.

The UK is already heading into its first heatwave of 2026 — temperatures forecast to reach 30°C by late May, potentially making it official before June has even begun. ( Source - Your Weather)

The Met Office has forecast that 2026 will be the fourth year in succession to exceed 1.4°C above pre-industrial levels — something that had never happened before this run began. (Source - Met Office)

Scientists have named what's happening "climate whiplash" — rapid swings between extremes. After one of the rainiest winters on record in parts of the UK, early summer is now forecast to be drier than average with an elevated risk of extreme heat. (Source - PreventionWeb)

The Met Office's own three-month outlook notes increasing chances of El Niño developing by early summer, with an increased likelihood of heatwaves as a result. (Source - Met Office)

And it's not only the weather. Globally, the sense of instability feels relentless — ongoing conflicts, shifting alliances, economic uncertainty, the fracturing of institutions many people assumed were permanent. The news cycle itself has become a source of low-grade dysregulation for many people, even those not directly affected. There is a particular quality to this moment: things feel like they are moving too fast, too hot, with not enough stillness at the centre.

This is Fire energy without Water to contain it.

**What does that mean in the body?**

In Chinese medicine, Fire governs the Heart and its associated functions: the mind (Shen), sleep, emotional regulation and the capacity to feel connected rather than overwhelmed.

When Fire blazes unanchored — as it does in a world of constant news, conflict, and heat — we tend to see:
* Difficulty sleeping, especially waking between 11pm and 3am
* Restlessness, scattered thinking, inability to settle
* Palpitations or a sense of pressure in the chest
* Feeling "wired but tired" — depleted but unable to switch off
* Heightened anxiety or emotional reactivity with no clear cause
* Skin flare-ups (Fire rising to the surface)
* Dry mouth, thirst, or a sensation of internal heat

None of these need a dramatic personal trigger. The ambient Fire of the collective moment is enough.

In clinic I'm already seeing it — more neck tension and headaches as yang rises and fails to descend, more digestive disruption (particularly acid reflux) as emotional heat affects the middle jiao. The body reflects the season.

**Summer as the season of Fire**

We're moving into summer — Fire's own season — which amplifies all of this. In Chinese medicine, summer is when the Heart is most active and most vulnerable.

The tendency is to push outward: more socialising, more doing, more stimulation. That's natural. But if Water (rest, quiet, depth) is already low, summer can tip the balance.

This is not about retreating from life. It's about resourcing yourself within it.

**What actually helps?**

There are many ways to support the Heart-Water balance that don't require a clinic appointment. Here are some worth considering:

* Move slowly, at least once a day. Tai chi and qigong are specifically designed to circulate qi without generating heat — the slow, rooted movement settles the nervous system and draws energy downward. But any slow, mindful movement works: a morning walk without headphones, gentle yoga, swimming. The key is presence, not performance.

* Sit still. Meditation — whether breath-based, open awareness, or a more structured practice like mindfulness or loving-kindness — has a measurable cooling effect on the nervous system. Even 10 minutes. The research on anxiety and heart rate variability is clear. You don't need a tradition or a teacher to start; apps like Insight Timer or Calm offer accessible entry points.

* Protect your screen hours. Social media, news feeds and short video are made of Fire — fast, bright, stimulating. In a Fire year, they amplify exactly what's already running high. Morning and evening are the most important times to guard. Many people find this is the single most impactful change they make.

*Support the Water element physically. This means adequate sleep (prioritised, not just hoped for), staying hydrated, and not pushing through exhaustion. The kidneys — Water's organ — are depleted by chronic stress, overwork and worry. They need actual rest, not just distraction.

* Bodywork and breath. Whether that's acupuncture, reflexology, craniosacral therapy or massage — hands-on work that involves stillness and regulated touch has a qualitatively different effect to exercise or talking. It works through the body's own nervous system. Many people notice their sleep shifts after a session even when that wasn't the presenting concern.

**For those who want more structure**

If you're drawn to working more directly with qi, both tai chi/qigong classes and acupuncture offer a framework for this kind of seasonal recalibration. They work differently — one through movement and practice, one through specific treatment — but both are rooted in the same understanding of how the body regulates itself.

Summer is actually a good time to start either. Not because something is wrong, but because you're already more open and more sensitive. The body responds well.

You can find out more at www.acupuncture-surrey.co.uk or Acupuncture Surrey or search Tai Chi & Qigong Surrey or email [email protected] for info on classes.

18/05/2026

Tai chi — building strength, not just balance

Tai chi asks your legs to work constantly — shifting weight, sinking into stances, moving slowly with control. Slow, actually, is harder than it sounds. It requires your muscles to stay engaged rather than relying on momentum, which is exactly how functional strength gets built.

Unlike repetitive exercises that load the same muscles the same way, tai chi is always changing. The continuous transitions between postures — turning, rising, sinking, extending — recruit different muscle groups throughout, building balanced strength across the whole body rather than isolating one area.

And because there's no impact and no strain on the joints, it's a practice the body can sustain long-term. Whether you're in your thirties or your seventies, it meets you where you are.

But the strength benefits depend on doing it well. Sloppy alignment doesn't just reduce the gains — it can create the very strain tai chi is meant to avoid. A good teacher will keep returning your attention to the fundamentals: knees tracking correctly, weight fully transferred before you move, the spine upright and free. These aren't small details. They're what makes the practice work.

14/05/2026

💧 Small steps don’t feel like much… until they change everything.

“One drop of clear water added to a cup of tea will change neither its color nor its taste.
Two drops will do little more, but if drop by drop we continue to add water, both the color and the flavor will alter.”
- Koichi Tohei

Practice is progress.

Tai Chi works the same way.
One session may feel small… but over time, those small efforts transform your body, your mind, and your energy.

✨ Keep going. Stay consistent. Trust the process.

💬 What signs tell you you’re making progress in your practice? Share in the comments!

13/05/2026

In almost every qigong lesson and many tai chi lessons I ask my students to notice if there is tension in the jaw and to work on releasing it. This is why.