Lighthouse Tai Chi®

This month we have another guest blog:  The 5 Elements Theory  is by our esteemed colleague and friend Heather Reade (MFHT) .  Heather has been teaching Tai Chi and Qigong since 1999 in England and the US and provides courses for the NHS, in addition to Active West Lancs, MacMillan Cancer Care; the U3A; Twinkle House Sensory and Wellness Centre and primary schools in Liverpool and Lancashire.  In 2009, she created Water Lotus Qigong, a hydrotherapy, which has been used in the US and UK for the alleviation of pain, arthritis, and fibromyalgia. She is also, a qualified Sports Therapist, and Ear Acupuncturist.  To find out more about Heather and to request any further information, please visit website  Heather Reade School of Tai Chi and QiGong The 5 Elements, or Wu Xing (woo sshing), is a system used to categorise and explain patterns of transformation in the universe.  Wu Xing 五行  Wu = five  Xing = movement, transformation, phase Dating back almost 4,700 years ago, the 5 Elements wer

Be Consistent To acquire a skill or to remember a process or action takes time and practice.  When we begin to learn a new skill or pastime it is important to invest time if we want to progress and improve our understanding or skill. Tai Chi and Qigong are no different.  Consistency in practice takes many forms: being present and attending, understanding and engage with learning, home practice and research. Turn up regularly. Life tends to get in the way of what you really want to pursue, so turn up to your lesson every week. Repetition is the key to reinforcing a new habit/skill/movement, and you will need to have corrections to keep you on the right track. If you leave long gaps between your practice, you will not remember much, if anything from the previous session, so you will always be relearning the postures at the same level and will not progress. Treating the session as a workout, just following, and copying, and not engaging with actually learning to do it for yourself, wi

Guest blog this month  Instructor Ashley Cheeseman, who teaches in Orpington, Kent.  We have invited him to tell you about the wonderful Tai Chi Caledonia event held in July every year, in Stirling, Scotland.  Read on and discover new possibilities and perhaps 2022 is the year to go along and find out for yourself. " For anyone that’s never been heard about Tai Chi Caledonia, I will let you in on a great weekend /week of Tai Chi and related arts taught by some of Europe’s finest instructors as well as a home team as well. 2015 The official line is, Tai Chi Caledonia offers high-quality teaching of Tai Chi Chuan, Qigong and other Chinese Internal Arts, here in the beautiful, natural environment of Stirling University Campus in the heart of Scotland. This is an understatement, as we found out, its mind blowing, happy, no holds barred teaching. We have been on three occasions now and each time it just gets better, on my last trip in 2018, twelve of us went and its smashing fun

The weather is improving and Spring is coming with the Equinox.  Pendle Hill is glorious. This is the view from upstairs at the back of our house. Pendle Hill changes mood and sometimes seems very close, at other times far away. It has a mystical quality; disappearing into the mists then energizing the landscape on a sunny day. A follow up to our last blog I made this video at the end of Day 9   Day 10 A perfect day to finish laying the Patio tiles. The porcelain tiles are now setting.  We extended the area to avoid cutting tiles, so it is now 9 tiles by 10. It looks like a chessboard but will be more in keeping with the rest of the garden design once the fences are painted and the cross fence in place.  We're not allowed on it yet as it is not grouted. The fence at the back is almost completed and the roof is secure and ready. Day 11 - The back fence is completed and the posts for the cross fence are set in.  A red stain rather than paint will allow it to fade a little and not nee

Day 1: Tuesday 2nd February 2021 we broke ground.  Exciting times ahead as all the preparation work is now started and the weather gods have been kind. Seb Wilcock and his crew have been with us bright and early to move the plants we wanted to save, check over the design plans, make any adjustments and get started. The first job was to get the old paving stones removed and move the plants. They found even older paving stones underneath. We made this short video to help document the progress Day 2: The Digger On Wednesday, t he digger arrived to get the tree stumps and roots out of the garden and level the ground.  Next door's littlest is celebrating his birthday and him and his big brother were very excited about the digging and machines.  As we live on a slope the red line is showing where we now need to fill to even off the ground. We had erosion towards the oak stump.  There were some fabulous roots unearthed but yet to find any archaeology or Saxon Gold.  The area is a moorland