For me, Tai Ji, yoga and meditation are a wonder-filled lifelong inner adventure. My enthusiasm grows as the experience of pilgrimage within this dynamic bodymind temple continues to unfold. The gift of these BodyArts is to celebrate and to remember who we are in daily life.
I have been a yoga practitioner for almost forty years. In the 1970’s I was privileged to have studied with numerous world-renown yoga masters including Iyengar, Lilias Folan, Jyoti, Lee Chrystal and Pujashree Chitrabhanuji and just last March, with Amrit Desai and Chandrakant Heister aboard the Vegan Holistic Holiday at Sea.
I have taught both Tai Ji and yoga to populations with a wide range of capacities, ages, and nationalities. Over the years I developed one-on-one and couples BodyArts prescriptives usually presented in the clients’ own home as well as community classes in the Greater Pittsburgh area. Every corporate wellness program, wellness consult or massage/acupressure tablework session with individuals includes Chi Gong, Four Jewels Hatha yoga, aka The YeSSS Method of Restorative Yoga and pranayama (breathing techniques) with self-care homework.
Chi Gong, Hatha yoga, and Jain Meditation form the foundation of my career as a Certified Wellness Personal Trainer/Corporate Consultant, and guided me in the study of numerous body mind systems, often with the pioneering leaders of the fields. Each of my presentations of yoga and Tai Ji are informed by Energy medicine and psychology, Chi Gong (Chinese Yoga) as well as acupressure.
I was introduced to Tai Chi in the 1980’s after having studied Women’ s self-defense external martial arts. Working with yoga students opened me to more hands-on energy systems of massage, reflexology and polarity. Eventually, I was guided to study acupressure systems in the 1990’s while living in Berkeley Springs West Virginia. Much to my surprise, the integration of the two self-care systems I was personally discovering were already known in the world as a hybrid hatha practice called Acu-Yoga.
Soon, I was regularly practicing and teaching The Chi Gong Eight Silken Standing Exercises that were presented to me as a self-care centering system for Jin Shin Do acupressure practitioners and their clients. Along with acu-yoga poses I often end classes with a guided self-acupressure sequence to balance and harmonize all meridians (pathways of energy).
In midlife, my 21st Century BodyArts practice continues to evolve. Most recently, I have been studying in- depth practices of Energy Psychology, Medical Chi Gong and Tai Chi for Health systems including forms geared to arthritis, diabetes and kids. My most recent certifications as Tai Chi instructor are through Dr. Paul Lam. And with Medical Chi Gong, I am certified and mentored by Dr. Ted Cibik. In the 1980’s I was most inspired through my studies with George Young of NYC and Chungliang Al Huang.
As I described in the previous post, I currently incorporate Laughter Yoga in my Tai Ji programs as well as in the YeSSS Method of Restorative Yoga sessions. I continue to collect and share therapeutic music, song and chants that complement both practices. Now, more deeply than ever, I explore these ancient self-care systems as joyfilled moving meditation with the most gentle and effective postures suitable for every body. Often props are incorporated in the yoga classes to support the body so that participants comfortably maintain and rest in very subtle stretches . These postures are drawn from the system of Restorative Yoga.
Today, the entire moving meditation practice cultivates the state of yoga nidra: expanding the capacity of one-pointed concentration, cultivating, maintaining and returning to the present moment. This practice brings forth and strengthens the observer mind and the practice and blessing of letting go. The intuitive self grows, the joy of movement and experience of oneness – calm, unity and integration becomes readily accessible.
With the practice of The YeSSS Method of Restorative Yoga, and Chinese Yoga (Chi Gong with Tai Ji) the glimpses of tapping into the source of infinite potentialities builds our reserves of prana/chi/lifeforce, builds our healing capacity and capacity for discernment. Over time, becoming more and more at home with inner harmony and balance, we organically seek to resonate with harmony and balance in daily life, making life-affirming choices and reaping both immediate and long-term benefits.
This week-end students of Jain Meditation and the philosophy of reverence for all life are enjoying these guided practices with me at The Lighthouse Center in Whitmore Lake, Michigan where orders are being taken for the soon to be released CD series of the basics of Celebrating the Inner Healer Volume I. A photo album was already prepared: http://lighthousecenterblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/3rd-annual-lighthouse-center-retreat.html
Thank you, Mukta Dean!
Reservations for an August week-end retreat have also begun and already include a Mother-daughter + friend trio from Ann Arbor as well as folks from Baltimore and Pittsburgh -- all to congregate at my special Wellness Getaway home of Berkeley Springs West Virginia -- a few rooms are still available for this first Celebration of the Inner Healer -- and a very special Spirit Drumming guide has also indicated interest in joining us for our evening celebration.
Many Species...One Planet...One Future
Yours in Wellness, Gratitude, and Joyfull Reverence for All Life,
Suzen Sharda Segall
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Suzen Sharda Segall, Wellness Personal Trainer/Consultant, designer and facilitator of BodyArts Therapeutics, has provided an integrated approach to health and wellness for a wide variety of populations, internationally,for over thirty-five years
Posted by Suzen Sharda Segall at 8:55 AM
