Bodymind Healing Doorway to Products:
“My philosophy is that psychological issues and bodily disease are “divina afflictios” (divine afflictions) giving us opportunities for psycho-spiritual growth, soul-making, and finding the source of healing.”
Dr. Michael Mayer
You are, and have always been, on the path to becoming a Qigong master— whether you’re conscious of it or not! Qigong is perhaps the best-known formalized pathway of cultivating the energy of life. Every time you’ve not indulged in that second helping of food, you intuitively knew that momentary pleasure would make your energy crash or feel heavier a few hours later. When you’ve given of yourself lovingly to another, it’s given you a warm hearted, open, energetic feeling. When you made love and had an orgasm you resided in a pool of divine energy, enjoying it but perhaps not questioning enough what that energy is and from whence it came. When you’ve touched yourself when injured, ill, or feeling sad, or you had another touch you, that soothing healing energy you felt is Qi, the loving energy of life which has created us all. What is your earliest memory of being aware of that energy, and doing something to activate, honor, or cultivate it, even if you have never heard the word “Qigong?”
Online Bodymind Healing Training Programs, Books, Videos, Articles and Free Stuff (Research, etc.)
I’m so glad that you found your way to this website page where you can find the culmination of my four decade journey into the land where “two rivers become one” — the ruling image of my childhood where I often sat at my favorite getaway place where two rivers became one. There I felt a stillness, a relaxed energy, that helped me to escape from the conflicts of every day life. An old shamanic belief is that the places in nature which draw us in our childhood hold a key to our destinies. This certainly proved true for me as my later life became joining various streams— psychotherapy and Qigong, and ancient and modern methods of healing the bodymind. From the offerings on this website, you are about to learn about and experience the joining of Qigong and Cross-cultural Wisdom Traditions. What was your favorite place in nature in your childhood, and what does that say about your life path? Here’s a secret… that can be a beginning place for finding your Medicine Animal Name? (More about that can be found in my Reluctant Metaphysician...book where I tell the story of my 40 night Vision Quest and how I found my Medicine Animal Name, a key to discovering one’s Yuan Chi (primordial chi) and Ming (Life’s destiny).
As I saw and felt as a child, there is deep pool that is created at the junction of two streams which has the power to help in healing the bodymind. On this site you’ll be able to follow my fifty year journey and learn how to navigate a tried and true pathway to bodymind healing.
In answer to the question I posed to you about, “What is your earliest memory of being aware of ‘energy,'” synchronistically, an earlier element of this path of “two rivers becoming one” came when at a six year old child I had a hernia operation. There was no physical therapy given afterwards, and I noticed that one side of my body was more blocked than the other for many years, turning me into an out-of-balance kid. So, every night when going to sleep I would play with imagining the energy of my body flowing down one side of my body and then up the leg on the other side until the block released and I found a felt sense of relaxation and more balance. This “energetic streaming sensation” and the pool of relaxation I felt at the end of my exhalation helped me enter into the sought after world of sleep. It was much later in my life that I learned that the experience of energy I felt as a six-year old is called qi (also spelled chi) in Chinese, which is the focus for a practice of cultivating the energy of life for healing in the Chinese medical system of Qigong. I also found out that the awareness of energy moving up and down is called “the raising and sinking of the Qi;” and the pool of relaxation at the end of my exhalation had a Taoist name, “the sea of elixir.” Many other aspects of my experience as a child, I was later to find had corollaries in the Chinese internal healing and martial arts: The use of intention to direct qi is called yi; and in Qigong, it is said, “the yi leads the qi.” I tell a longer version of this childhood energy block story in another part of this website, but for now it’s important to say that the energetic blocks in our bodies and lives, whether they are from surgical operations, relationship issues, or our psychological blockages, can initiate us into the path of “the wounded healer.” On that path, the joining of the rivers of qigong and psychotherapy lead to a journey of discovering healing elements deriving from the waters of life. On this site I’ll be sharing what I’ve discovered in fifty years of that journey. You’ll see and experience how the books I’ve written, videos, and online training programs offered here can give you tools to become your own wounded healer for your physical, mental, and emotional issues. Welcome to my dharmic legacy project:
What is Qigong?
Qigong is a many-thousand-year-old method of cultivating the energy of life through breath, movement, sound, touch, imagery, and awareness. It is one of the five branches of Chinese Medicine, and an age old longevity practice for living younger longer, (as is explored further in my book, Secrets to Living Younger Longer; The Self-healing Path of Qigong, Standing Meditation, and Tai Chi).Tai Chi is perhaps the best-known method of Qigong. Each tradition of Qigong may have different focuses including spiritual, medical, mind-body healing, martial, and psychological. For example, it has long been practiced to improve flexibility, balance, relaxation, center oneself, limber joints, and optimize energy flow. From a psychospiritual perspective it can help in cultivating equanimity, reversing sympathetic nervous system dysregulation, and establishing a cohesive center to help you stay grounded in the midst of the cross currents of life. {To see some of the research on how Qigong and Chinese Medicine can be of help with various diseases and disorders, please click the free research page on my website.}
“The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi” (Wayne & Fuerst, 1991) says: “regular practice leads to more vigor and flexibility, better balance and mobility, and a sense of well-being. Cutting-edge research from Harvard Medical School also supports the long-standing claims that Tai Chi also has a beneficial impact on the health of the heart, bones, nerves and muscles, immune system, and the mind.”
What is Bodymind Healing Qigong?
BMHQ is an integral Qigong tradition developed from my 40 years of training with various Qigong masters. Though I was trained classically in many forms of Qigong, I integrate Qigong with my background in researching, writing and teaching about cross-cultural wisdom traditions. Using story-telling, mythopoetic imagination, and classical teachings, participants will experience how Qigong and Tai Chi (the best-known system of Qigong) have four dimensions of purpose: self-healing, spiritual unfoldment, self-defense and changing one’s life stance psychologically.
Though BMHQ is based in traditional Qigong training it branches out from these roots with:
• Creative, mytho-poetic, and Imaginal interpretations of movements
• Associations from Wider Cross-cultural wisdom traditions, which may not be part of classical qigong teaching
Two Streams Below
Bodymind Healing Qigong:
Pathway to Online Qigong Training Programs
Overview: How to Approach the Training Programs
Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy
Ancient Pathways to Modern Health
Books and Online Training Programs
Click links above to learn more about each training module
More Learnings from the Pool where Two Rivers Join as One
(Ancient & Modern, Qigong & Psychotherapy, etc)
It is probably true that, in general, the most fertile developments in the history of human thought are born at the intersection of two currents of ideas. These currents may originate in the midst of totally different cultural conditions, in diverse epochs and places. But from the time that they effectively meet and maintain a relationship sufficient for a real interaction to take place, one can hope for new and interesting developments to occur.
~ Werner Heisenberg
Books From
Dr. Michael Mayer
You’ll learn practical Qigong, Tai Chi, and bodymind tools to reduce stress,
support healing, and become more resilient.
The Mythic Journey Process
Article by Dr. Michael Mayer
An Experiential Journey into the Integration of Gendlin’s Focusing, Archetypal Psychology, and Qigong.
Free Articles, Research,
and Videos
Explore free videos, audio talks, and articles to learn
practical Bodymind Healing tools.
Meet Dr. Michael Mayer
Michael Mayer, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist, and Qigong/Tai Chi teacher who specializes in giving his patients self-healing methods for health problems. He pioneered the integration of Tai Chi/Qigong and psychotherapy, and presents his approach to bodymind healing at professional conferences, national/international workshops, universities, and hospitals; and he is a keynote speaker. Michael is certified as a master Tai Chi instructor by the American Tai Chi and Qigong Association.
BLOG
Tai Chi Chuan: A Postmodern Metaphysical Point of View, Tai Chi Chuan & Oriental Arts, Summer, 2012
This controversial article addressed the critique by classicists that Tai Chi is a complete tradition in itself and one does not need to incorporate any other spiritual tradition.
What others are saying about Dr. Michael Mayer’s Work
Disclaimer: I am not a medical Doctor. Any of the methods or practices on this site should not be considered to be medical advice. Please consult with your medical doctor and associate medical professionals before doing the practices suggested herein. Also, as you are engaging in the suggested practices, you are agreeing to listen to your body to follow its wisdom and advice. Less is more, don’t overdo, and feel free to ask me or other Qigong or health professionals about any pain or issues that arise.
Classes
Saturday Morning Zoom Tai Chi / Qigong Classes for Troubled Times
Each Saturday we’ll focus on one or two Tai Chi movements as well as immune enhancing, resiliency building (wei chi), parasympathetic nervous system enhancing elements from Bodymind Healing Qigong.
Self Healing
Learn self-healing methods for your health issues: anxiety, chronic pain, hypertension, insomnia, trauma, etc. Dr Michael has developed an integral, complementary approach, which can be integrated with your doctors and health team.
Books
The Path of the Reluctant Metaphysician: Stories and Practices for Troubled Times
- Ben Franklin Award, from the Independent Book Publisher’s Association, Silver Medal in the Body, Mind & Spirit category.
- New England Book Festival, honorable mention in the Spiritual Books category.
Chronic Pain
Qi Magazine: The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health, 1996.
New: Integrating Psychological Methods and Tai Chi/Qigong: A Holistic Approach to Healing,
American Tai Chi & Qigong Association, Feb 23, 2024.
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