Self Managing Chronic Illness Your Guide to Self Care “I’m not interested in competing with anyone. I hope we all make it.” By Erica Cook. This article looks at the impact of chronic health conditions on every day life and offers suggestions for ways to self manage outside of Western medical treatment. I myself as…
Hibernating Bear Patreon Movement & Stillness for Chronic Illness My Hibernating Bear programme is now on Patreon. Learn to live gracefully with your baseline through online movement classes, relaxation sessions, natural health resources and connection with others. A private community group to support those living with chronic health, degenerative illness or a different health baseline…
Self Managing EDS Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Support Here are a collection of natural resources for people living with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, hypermobility joint syndrome and hypermobility spectrum disorder. All are genetic collagen defects that have an affect on every aspect of life not only the physical body. As an invisible condition most have been misunderstood,…
Nourish Through Breath Part 1 Learn to Breathe Better for Health Welcome to my breath work programme, helping you breathe better for optimum health. Breathing can be done anytime, anywhere, by anyone, in fact you are doing it right now. Except are you breathing properly? Does your breathing support your health? The aim of this…
Chronic Health Tai Chi Livestream Online Group Class UK Join our Tai Chi, Qigong and meditation online class for relaxation and health. Open to all abilities, the lessons include seated and standing movements, guiding you through gentle tension relief, physical relaxation and meditation techniques. Anyone can join in, whether living with chronic illness, chronic pain…
Chronic Health Warrior I’d like to introduce you all to Ren, a young man with complex health needs who has channelled his experience into song writing and music. I’ve not been blown away by new music for a while. Ren has released a song called “Hi Ren”, which details his inner conflict over living with…
The Art of Pacing What does pacing mean and how can it benefit you as a life philosophy? Pacing is generally the opposite of how we have been conditioned and brought up. We live in an ever increasing fast paced and demanding world. It’s no wonder stress is one of the most silent and untreated…
Slowing Down in a Fast World If you consider your daily routine, what tasks and activities do you do at speed? I don’t mean sports where you deliberately train fast for aerobic exercise and strength and conditioning training. I mean everything from chores to work, to speaking and movement. If you observe your pace, you…
Tai Chi for Spine Health The spine is key to health. One of my teachers once said that Tai Chi and Qigong all focus on spinal health. We use the phrase ‘structural integrity’ when talking about the Tai Chi and Qigong posture. This means the posture is aligned correctly, to hold your weight appropriately, to…
Ways to Relieve Stress I would go as far as saying that stress is one of the most silent health disorders of our modern times. Managing stress is often overlooked and seen as trivial. There is growing pressure on everyone, to go faster, be more productive, achieve more, do more and so on. Before we look…
Self Managing Chronic Pain For those living with chronic pain who would like to be active in their self care management, read over my collection of resources that aim to naturally and holistically support you. Explore gentle and powerful methods for both mind and body to change your pain experience. I understand personally the impact…
How Do You Do What You Do? This questions was posed to me by one of my students who lives with chronic health. She was aware of my health baseline, and asked how I do what I do as a Tai Chi and Qigong instructor. This is a great question. Delving deeper into her question,…
Chronic Pain Course ReMap Course Summary – March to June 2019 Wednesday 12 June 2019 saw the completion of the 12 week ReMap course, a movement and stillness class for those living with chronic pain. Over the duration I introduced the students to ‘Hibernating Bear Tai Chi’, covering a variety of Qigong, Chen Tai Chi and…
Health Baselines Learning to Take Care of Yourself In my classes I often talk about exercising and training gracefully to your own physical baseline. This phrase comes from my teacher Casey Kochmer, from Personal Tao. Read his article on baselines here. We all have a unique health baseline, that changes with the ebb and flow…
Tai Chi Qigong for Ehlers Danlos Tai Chi and Qigong as dynamic movement practices to aid the genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Hello everyone, I’m Nicola, a Tai Chi, Qigong and meditation instructor and I live with hypermobility EDS. This article explores how mindful dynamic movements can support the symptoms of…