The worldview behind Heart Repair Meditation for Nei Gong is simple – heart, mind and body are one. This means that strong emotions like sorrow or joy have a physical impact, which can be long-lasting, and can also affect the flow of qi around the body. When we train internal arts like Tai Chi and Qi Gong, we open and soften physical blockages and this means softening emotional blockages too. That internal practice does this is something all the Masters know, and it’s why the first stage of training Taoist arts is called ‘heart repair’.

This is something that happens quietly in the background for Tai Chi and Qi Gong practitioners. The Heart Repair Meditation retreat highlights this aspect and catalyses it over the course of a week through combining different meditation styles and Standing Stake. For me, the benefits of doing this are increased peace of mind, clarity, physical comfort and a boost to all aspects of internal training. You can read about the impact on my students here.

At the core of the Heart Repair Sequence is a Buddhist meditation style called Touch and Go which releases emotions by being with them one breath at a time. This, combined with Standing Stake, was the initial practice which saw me through times of ongoing personal challenge. Standing Stake is made much easier if you calm the heartmind and open the body through meditation beforehand. Furthermore, life is made much easier if you power up for the day with Standing Stake!

The other components that go with this core have arisen through teaching and natural development. The first Heart Repair Retreat made me aware that years of Tai Chi practice had made certain skills automatic for me, these needed to be made conscious again and shared, and that’s when Taoist Observation meditation was added to the mix. It’s a basic concentration meditation that refines the use of the breath as a relaxation tool.

For the upcoming retreat in November 2024 I’m adding the Central Channel Scan, this was an important stage where I focussed on persistently blocked areas and found connections between them. I ended up clearing out much of the Central Channel, which has multiple uses, including building martial power and expelling bad qi. There will be more on this in the retreat.

The Heart Repair Sequence is something I still train regularly, and it was one I submitted in order to acquire my Wudang Masters in 2023. Underpinning the system is the idea that from stress, or difficulty, one can also derive benefit. It is possible to turn emotional lead into gold. And in so doing, one finds a centre that can navigate all life’s offerings with equanimity.

It is like a guiding light, and when the nights grow long is a good time to turn towards it, so these online retreats run shortly after clocks go back in the UK, in the mornings before work. For more details on timing, cost and booking, click here. If you have any questions about this journey within, feel free to get in touch.