Everyone has taken their seats for the  Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences  new acupuncture student orientation 2014 in Oakland, Ca. A tall 6′ 4″  man stoically walks into the room with long black hair neatly pulled back accompanied by a woman with a massive mane of dark brown curls reaching past her hips.  He takes a seat with the administration in front of us, their perspective students, and she sits silently off to the side. The program begins and each administrator stood and presented their information about the school in turn and the tall man sitting in the middle of the presenters stood, introduced himself as David Wei and presented the “Ba Gua” or “The Eight Directions” of basic movement. He explained how Qigong is beneficial for long-term wellness. It was very impressive, I only knew of ‘Ba Gua’ to be a martial arts style from China, I didn’t realize it was also cardinal spinal directions — forward, backward, bend left, bend right, compress, expand, twist left, twist right. Little did I know that this day marked the beginning of a beautiful relationship with  David Wei 魏 资 容, Wei Zi Rong, “Wayfarer of Vast Capacity” , Najia Kaddoura, and the  Wudang West Cultural Heritage Center.

David was my Tai Chi instructor for the following term at ACCHS. I soon joined his 7:30am morning Qigong gathering that happens six days a week (which I still regularly attend). Because I practice Qigong daily, I have found my massage practice has flourished. I focus on the use of Tuina Chinese Medical Massage with Eastern and Western bodywork styles from the National Holistic Institute 900-hour Core curriculum. David has a through understanding of what I call “Master-Key Movements” that Tuina offers and successfully integrates Qigong from morning class to the massage table. He has shared with us this skill as a community via a four section workshop held February 2016 and in morning class we do partnered exercises that utilize the five basic tools of Tuina: brush, grab, press, rub, pat or tui, na, an, mo, pai.

Wudang West Cultural Heritage Center is not a place for learning Chinese fighting techniques, it is a place to find a wellness community that believes that the Chinese way of health integration into cultural lifestyle is capable of combating many of the illnesses that occur more often in the standard American life we are accustom to. Appropriate movement and nutrition based on personal constitution, the seasons, and the environment leads to a smoother road in life. Not pushing back and going with resistance in order to maintain integrity, sincerity, and humility provides space to make decisions in life rather than just reactions so that when we reflect on our experiences, we know we chose rather than reacted. we may not agree with the outcomes but at least there was a choice in the matter overall. Orcanit borrows many of these principles found in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Wudang West philosophy to improve personal quality of life and build lasting relationships with like minded people every morning.

I encourage anyone seeking a rewarding personal practice to checkout Wudang West: Mornings, 7:30am, at 2121 Harrison St. Oakland Ca, 94612 EXCEPT Sunday. Look for the group of people standing in a circle and feel free to join in!!