CommuniTEA and Qi Gong with Claudia Cahalane: Episode 112 of Soles to Soul Care for Trauma and AuDHD with Eve Menezes Cunningham

I lived in a like a semi-Buddhist community in Brighton for about eight months where we did daily tea meditation for quite a few hours often and that is something that felt very comfortable and natural to me and kind of quite you know stabilising and really good.

Hi, you’re listening to Soles to Soul Care for Trauma and AuDHD. Learn to love and care for all your parts from the soles of your feet to your soul.

I’m your host Eve Menezes Cunningham. This is Mighty Meadbh. I’m a senior accredited supervisor, senior accredited counsellor and therapeutic coach where I integrate all my offerings including psychosynthesis counselling, the trauma-informed therapies, the neurodivergent-affirming therapies, AuDHD coaching, yoga, breathwork, meditation, crystals, EFT.

I’m a senior yoga teacher and EFT international advanced EFT practitioner and mentor and an NLP master practitioner. I’m also the author of 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-Care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing, a columnist for Platinum magazine where I answer readers’ questions every month using the Feel. Love. Heal. framework that I use in these episodes.

So the focus is on self-care and connecting with that highest, wisest, truest part of yourself and community care, collective care, the Feel. Love. Heal. framework and there are new episodes every Tuesday so you can subscribe wherever you watch or listen and you can also access older episodes, free resources, more information at solestosoul.ie/podcast.

Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome Claudia Cahalane! Thank you for joining me.

Hi Eve, lovely to see you. Thanks for having me on.

Yes. It’s a bit of a classic I think kind of like ADHD trying to fit in. You were passing through the station, I was passing through, we’re like let’s try and meet for a 10 minutes or coffee.

It was literally, oh my god, so that was when I was finishing my trauma-informed yoga therapy training, we had to do a silent retreat and I say we had to do a silent retreat, everyone else was like yay silent retreat and I was like oh my god and it was semi-silent. I think my longest stretch was 36 hours but at the time that was very not friendly for me and I had no idea about my neurodivergence and I found it torturous and also amazing but you were really interested in that thinking that it sounded, this thing I had to do to pass the course to like qualify, you were like oh that sounds really interesting but because you lived in that part of Wales or near it was like oh I wonder if, because I hadn’t seen you for years since you’d moved out of London or Brighton.

OK. Yeah but yeah fantastic, yeah thank you. And I’d love for you to tell people what you’re up to now with the Qi Gong and where people can find you online.

It will all be in the show notes but just in case people are listening while driving. Yeah sure, OK. So yeah since lockdown I’ve pretty much been doing most of my classes online and also I moved location to live with partner so I have now have like five classes a week online.

They’re all beginner friendly, some people have been coming for a long time, some people kind of have only joined recently and yeah I try and make the classes as accessible as I can to, you know, people using a chair, neurodiversities, inclusion. I have an LGBT class on a Tuesday morning, I have a seasonal Qi Gong class on a Wednesday which, you know, changes throughout the year depending on different Qi Gong practices for each season and then I have a couple of the classic sets like the eight brocades which is really popular and really well studied for all its benefits on a Monday morning and then the shabashi which again is a really popular 18-set movement that kind of covers every part of the body and the organ system on a Friday. So there’s a whole range of different classes people can do and I will occasionally do an in-person event mainly in Brighton which is where I originally started my classes. I might do a summer Qi Gong day or something or a winter meditation day or something like that. Yeah so I’m on Instagram @vitalityqigong or my website vitalityqigong.org and that’s the main places to find me.

I moved to Brighton and I was, my life was kind of quite hectic, still doing the full-time journalism, pulling all-nighters or into the night regularly, early 30s, and I think I’ve noticed for a lot of women it just starts at that age and you can’t sustain it, so I just thought I’m just, I’m seeing people, I’m filling up my diary for like, and I don’t want, and I was like I still like, I feel like it’s forced commitments, and I was kind of like I really want to just be and slow down.

It was a completely new concept to me. It’s very chatty, very sociable person, quite extrovert I thought, and I thought oh this is a silent retreat idea, I wonder if I can find one of those, so I’m wondering if like you may have mentioned.

I remember you saying that you loved the idea, yeah, because I was like I don’t know how I’m going to survive this, and you were like really intrigued and you were acting like you wanted to research it, and I think you then did the Vipassana.

I did later, yeah, I did some others first, so yeah I’d also had a friend who did the Vipassana silent retreat as well, and I was like what is that, you know, it’s another world. At that time I’d never explored any of this stuff, but I found these silent retreats in Wales that were like less intense. The Vipassana sounded too intense for me, so these are seven day silent retreats and you were kind of silent for five and a half days.

Yeah, I thought that is just what I, I just want to just sit down and do nothing and stare out of a window, yeah, and there was no reading, no writing, no anything other than meditation and you know sleeping, having your meals, and anyway so I went, and straight away I was like what a relief, what a relief to not have to talk, to not have to like, I don’t have a diagnosis of neurodivergence, I have like CPTSD trauma background and just probably like you know the masking thing that people talk about or just having to like be on all the time, and it was just like to let all that go and just not have to do it. It was like oh this is incredibly amazing, I love it, and I love the silence, I could have gone on for weeks.

At the end of the week I was just like I don’t want to talk to anyone, I don’t want to switch my phone on, but so the magic was I’d never meditated in my life and here we were meditating six or seven hours a day, yeah, but every morning we did Qi Gong. I’ve never heard of it before, yeah, and I was like wow, like this is just, it’s completely natural, instinctive.

I was very, always been very energetic, like did a marathon a couple years before that, I’d done like a cycle trip across Europe, lots of swimming, you know I’d go to swim like 100, 100 lengths or 200 lengths, but this was much more like I guess like easy, like it’s a lot of like just letting the body hang and flop and just being and just throwing your arms around and just act like all the instinctive movements that you kind of would do if you sort of knew about them or you, you know, you’ve not been taught to like be a bit buttoned up and yeah be a certain way.

Yeah, that’s wonderful.

That’s a long story.

But that’s incredible, I love that, because I know a lot of people on the one I went on it was semi-silent and everyone but me seemed really enthusiastic, whereas I felt I had to perform, I couldn’t relax around other people, and I felt really, it was basically like I filled two diaries, we were allowed to write, and it, it was so like, it was, I’d had years of therapy as part of my psychosynthesis training, but it was just really like oh wow, getting that kind of feedback, whereas it sounds like you were able to really drop in immediately and connect with, that’s going to lead on to one of the questions actually.

Yeah, yeah, I most, I mostly was. There was that I remember like say at meal times felt very tricky, very weird for, because I went, I went on, ended up going on five of those retreats and then on a vipassana one as well, which I left after eight days, I didn’t feel comfortable, it was the right time for me to go on that, yeah, but then yeah the meal stuff was very awkward. I found it, I would, there was a big dining room and then there was a smaller one with a few tables, and I would like try and squeeze in there with, hopefully no one else would join me, because there’s just sitting there in silence, like looking at people eating, it just felt so awkward, but I just, by the end of like going on those retreats, I did it over like five years, I felt it was completely comfortable, and it’s really, it’s definitely helped me to feel like a little bit, a tiny bit less needing to perform in everyday life. I still definitely have that, but yeah, and there’s a little bit like on the first one, yeah, you know you, you kind of, you are sort of thinking like oh you know, oh how do I look, right, you know, you know, you are still sort of thinking about yourself, and it’s not total, total freedom, but I think it got like better over the different retreats.

Yeah, yeah, and just you know not knowing, you can’t pick up a book, you can’t do anything, just being able to sit and look out of the window for hours and drink multiple cups of tea, which is my favourite thing to do, like, like constantly, I was just like oh this is bliss, absolute bliss, yeah, yeah, loved it. And also that, yeah, the routine of the day really helped with you know probable difficulty, you know I’ve got difficulties to like you know organise myself and yeah my day, so it’s just lovely to have that all set out, you know you’ve got a lovely breakfast there for you and you meditate for a bit, you do Qi Gong, you go for a long walk, drink loads of tea, and then you have a nice dinner, it’s just like love it, yeah.

Anyway carry on, next question.

That’s amazing. So I ask about ideal and actual self-care because I love talking to people who’s, they’re your professionals, I’m a professional. We all know the things we’d love to be doing, that we feel we should be doing, even though there are no shoulds, and I ask around my Feel. Love. Heal. framework.

So the Feel bit is the things when you’ve got the bandwidth, say to do some Qi Gong or to meditate or to go for a walk or something active, something that helps regulate, something that helps you feel better.

The Love bit is that we’re all part of the divine, we’re all part of nature, there’s no need to do anything in order to improve yourself, it’s that allowing things to just drop away, fall away, and remember it’s all good, but we have, I say we have to, I find that more challenging than the feel bit, so there are lots of practices I do that help me get more into that state where I can be more connected to that like uppercase Self, that highest, wisest, truest, most joyful, brilliant, miraculous part of yourself, and then the Heal bit is the collective care, the community, the co-regulation.

So with the Feel bit, what would you do in an ideal world when you have the bandwidth to do all the things that help you regulate, that help you feel better?

Are we talking about like my ideal day or week or something?

Ideal practices, so it might be daily, it might be annual, whatever, like what would you like to be?

OK, I mean yeah being on the retreat and that sort of structure of the day is something that would appeal to me to do, you know, to live kind of almost like that, and I lived in a like a semi-Buddhist community in Brighton for about eight months where we did like daily tea meditation for quite a few hours often, and that is something that felt very comfortable and natural to me and kind of quite, you know, stabilising and really good, so I think yeah there’s kind of probably lots of different ways that I could live that I’d like to live, and some of them would definitely be a bit more like monk-like, and just quite simple, and in terms of like my actual life and how it is now I live with a partner and our cat, and yeah it’s, I guess it changes, but you know in an ideal day I, OK so this is like my dream life I’m talking about.

Yeah, dream life.

So dream life would be doing quite a lot of music, so I’m yeah, I quite, I’m dabbling a little bit of like music and singing with different bands, different people, with myself, so I would be like having more music tuition, I would be playing music more, I’d be writing music more, I’d be singing more, and I would be doing the tea meditation that I love, I do tea ceremonies and stuff with other people because that really helps me feel kind of like stable and grounded and calm, lots of usually lots of movement, and actually I was just listening to, when I listened to one of your podcasts a while ago, and someone was talking about the 20 minutes movement in the morning rather than like later in the day, and I’ve never been that prescriptive about when I do my exercise.

It kind of comes through the day, I do quite a lot, but since then I have been trying to, or I have been exercising quite a bit in the mornings, just going for like a 20 minute walk, and it’s made a lot of difference, or like a 20 minute swim or half hour swim, and so switching it a bit more to the mornings, and it’s when I’ve done it it’s made a real difference to my day.

So I guess in an ideal world, yeah, I would kind of, I’d have a really good sleep, I’d get to bed really early, which I’ve always struggled with, but living with a partner who keeps a good routine has been amazing and just helps me so much, so that is, that’s really good. We don’t always get to bed at a decent time, but mostly, and so having a good sleep, waking up naturally without an alarm, getting straight out into the light for a walk with my cup of peppermint tea, that’s essential in the morning, and then I would, you know, spend time with friends and family.

I would probably, yeah, do some kind of more instinctive Qi Gong, which is what I do a bit on my own, rather than the prescriptive routines. Sometimes I’d do those if I know that, oh, that routine will work well for this, but I would rather just make it a bit more flowing, just move in a way that feels kind of comfortable and expressive for me, looks a bit more like kind of dancing I suppose, yeah. I would go to gigs, more gigs, I just love the feeling of kind of being absorbed in music, and I really like sound healing, you know, sound baths, the gongs, and just being absorbed in that, and yeah ideally I would have regular times with good friends and family and community, and feel part and belonging to a loving community.

It’s that sort of thing.

I’ve meant to say you’re, you’re…

That’s amazing.

Yeah, also I forgot, I do, I love swimming obviously like you and any swimming I can do several times a week and saunas are a huge part of my life. I’ve always loved saunas since I was like 14.

Yeah, yeah.

I always feel the need to clarify because I adore being in the sea, but like the other day it might have been like five strokes because I was so cold.

Oh yeah.

It just doesn’t matter how long, like having a proper swim, I then went to the heated pool to have my proper swim.

Best of both worlds.

Absolutely, yeah, but people are like you’re so brave, it’s like nope, I’m very much connected with what feels good, and I get enormous benefit even at this time of year.

Yeah, same, same.

If you could just pick one thing, or if you’re traveling or if you’re ill, if your bandwidth is low, what is an essential self-care?

I mean if we go really, really basic then I drink pints almost of mint tea, yeah, just that helps me. I just, I just, I don’t know, I just feel like, you know, it’s good, obviously feel hydrated and helps me feel kind of calm, so that’s always what I look for if I’m ill or traveling. It’s just the first thing in the morning, I make myself a huge vat of peppermint tea.

I love it.

Yeah, and if I could have a number two, I always look for saunas wherever I go, it’s my number one.

Yeah, number two or…

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That’s fantastic.

So moving into the Love bit, that kind of supportive, accepting, there’s nothing to change, nothing to do, you’re part of the divine, part of nature. What helps you feel that in an ideal world and what’s an essential that you need to connect with that as much as possible? I’ve been doing this for years and years and years, decades and I still feel like the self-love, it’s an advanced practice sometimes, but I think there are things that can help us get into that reminder. What helps?

Yeah, I mean the obvious, it’s something to sort of think about more, but the obvious thing would be just meditation, and that would be just simple breathing meditation or body awareness meditation, but my favourite is to do the tea meditation, which I’ll do on my own or with a group or with some old tea buddies online I used to live with when we lived in the tea house together.

But quite often, yeah, if I need that sense of kind of maybe like hugging myself or wrapping myself in some kind of, then doing, I’ll go out into the garden. My partner has an amazing garden and so I’ll take my meditation cushion and I’ll take a little stove and my tea and my tray and my cups and all my kind of little ritual, yeah, and I’ll sit there for like an hour or two hours and just drink multiple cups of tea, just look at the garden, just be and I always, always, always feel so good after it.

Yeah, like just so…

Is that the kind of thing you mean?

That’s lovely.

Absolutely, it’s that.

Yeah, it, yeah, wonderful.

It makes me, yeah, I guess get into a space of more presence, yeah, and more like kindness for myself, and yeah I feel like if I can, and I do mostly try and have, I do have quite calm mornings usually. I try not to organise too many things, so having that space for myself feels very good and it just helps me feel very peaceful and like as if I am, like you say, part of the whole. I am connected to the divine, the universe.

And the tea meditation, we use often tea, and I find it very clarifying and focusing, and very much helps me feel like I’m part of this vast amazingness, and that I’ll be OK, things will be OK. I can spend a lot of my day thinking things aren’t OK, they’re not going to be OK, very stressy, so when I’m there after one or two cups of tea I’m like everything’s OK, I’ll be OK, and that’s just a nice feeling.

And what got you into tea ceremony? Where does it come from in the world? You said you lived in a tea house, which sounds amazing.

Yeah, it was, it was… yeah, it’s lots of traditions that do tea meditation. Obviously the Japanese matcha tea ceremony is probably one of the most well known and in the Chinese tea culture I believe it’s much more casual, whereas the matcha tea ceremony in Japan will be silent and there’ll be a lot of training and ritual and it’s like a high level art, people go through decades of training for.

And the Chinese, my understanding is, is more casual, friends meet up for tea, different tea tastings, they have all the nice tea, where it’s more of a social thing. And so I went to live in a tea meditation house in Brighton and it was, I guess, a mixture of different traditions. There was a casualness to it, but we were silent, we did different tea tastings, and it was just absolutely fantastic to sit down every morning, to know that you’ve got this thing to go to every morning with other people.

Someone is serving you this lovely tea, it’s soft and really high quality, and it just feels so blessed and wonderful to be sat there with other people, and we sat in our cozy cabin in the garden on the hill in Brighton, wrapped in blankets, the kettle going. It just really connects you to this sort of primal feeling of being around the fire together in ancient times and it felt like you could tap into that ancient ritual of just drinking tea.

And I’m quite into the fact that I’ve always loved tea, even as a kid, which is not necessarily common, but it’s that sort of… some people have their dependencies, and tea is one of the not bad ones, but it has been almost a little bit of a, I’ve got my tea, I’ve got my tea. And to take the moment with the tea and the calmness with the tea, I really sank into doing that in the tea house, learned how to serve it myself, and then started introducing it at the end of some of my Qi Gong classes, particularly over the winter.

It was like, if we didn’t want to do much active Qi Gong, sort of right in together, and some people really, really love it. I’ve got a group of people now and we will do online a bit as well. Recently I did a solstice one online and sent people out tea, and we just got together and drank it.

And then now I’ve got really into it more, and I went to a Japanese tea ceremony exhibition at the British Museum the other week, which was fantastic, and I’m going to go to a Chinese tea tasting at an Asian supermarket where I live this weekend, and that’s one of my special interests.

I’m thinking chi and tea.

Exactly.

Yeah, I love it.

I need to use that somewhere.

My friend bought the website address years ago for some reason, she doesn’t do Qi Gong or tea ceremony, but she was like you can have it, so I’d take that over at some point.

Amazing.

I was thinking potential episode title for this.

Yeah, I like it.

So that kind of moves us into the heal part, the collective part, sorry, the collective care part, the co-working, how we’re wired to heal from trauma, to heal from daily life in community. You hold community for others, it’s so lovely to hear you receiving that community holding as well, but what would you say, I know you’ve kind of alluded to a lot of it, but your ideal and actual community, collective care?

Yeah, yeah, this is a deep one, isn’t it, and I have thought a lot about it the last few years, particularly with moving from my community in Brighton, where I’d been for like 12 years. There’s obviously a strong LGBT community, LGBTQIA plus community there, and I felt very at home, but I also struggled with working enough, earning enough and stuff and so it was tricky managing rent.

It sort of came at a time where I’d been with my partner for a few years and we had wanted to live together at some point and so my place I was renting got sold and I moved to be with my partner, which has been absolutely wonderful and was a really good move, I was really happy, but there was also this very much like sense of being bereft of, yeah, missing community, friends, not being able to just pop and meet a friend for a coffee, which I’d done all the time.

How far are you from Brighton now?

I was a couple of hours on the train.

OK, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I’ve been on a huge journey about learning about community over the last few years. If I don’t know how long we have, want to talk about it a bit more or to just get to the point…

Yeah, yeah, you’re brilliant.

Oh thank you.

You’re brilliant.

OK, fantastic, but yeah, gosh, it was… I had a bit more therapy around that time, some more EMDR and stuff, because I heard this from other women who are a bit older than me a few years ago, saying that friendship groups and community and stuff seems to disappear a bit as you get older.

Yeah.

And I remember one woman I knew in Brighton talking to me about that and I thought oh I don’t really get it, I’ve got lots of people around, I’ve always had lots of friends kind of thing. I couldn’t quite relate to it, and then with moving it really brings everything into focus, like OK, who have I got, who are my community, who am I now going to make the effort for that I’m further away, and who’s going to make the effort for me now I’m further away.

And at the same time I had some major life stuff, which, so this is quite deep, quite serious, but my estranged dad died just as I moved and another very close family member was sectioned, and it was huge, and it was such a bad time. I was crying a lot and I’d just be out for a walk and get on my knees and I’d be crying and feel so awful. It’s just all these things hit at once.

And yeah, I thought community was drifting away and I really did start to see… I don’t want to be so… trying who your friends are, it’s such a sort of cliché to say, you say who your friends are and it’s not as simple as I thought that, you know, when people say oh you find out who your friends are when times are difficult, it is a two-way street, I know and it’s like also who do I want to connect with.

But sort of seeing people’s reactions and who got it, particularly with the close family member going to hospital, which really kind of brought me to my knees, and I reached out to a few people and was met with different responses and there were some lifelong friends and really good friends who just didn’t get it or didn’t respond, and I was just a bit like whoa, OK, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do.

I felt like I had my partner, who was amazing, my mum’s amazing and they were… and then there were a few people who were amazing and as people often say in the cliché, it’s not always who you expect, yeah, and it was like ah, right, OK.

And it sort of sent me on that journey of really starting to think about community more and I know it’s going on in the collective a lot at the same time, a lot of people are thinking more about that and we have to, especially now, especially now and with having to just… we’re the generation that’s having to work much harder on it, with often moving away from different groups, whereas maybe in the past people wouldn’t have moved as much or lost their communities or have to work harder to keep them.

It’s something I have thought about a lot and I meet people easily, I’ve met friends here, but I am now taking a much more deep view on who are the people that I really want to make the effort for and I would like them to make the effort for me and sort of how to do that and what that involves.

And yeah, I’m still finding, I’m still finding really and honing, for want of a better word, who that is, how different people fit into my life.

I would love to be part of, say, your witchy lunar group if I lived more locally, or that is something I’d like to do. I have been to women’s circles and there is a bit of a thing around being gay, being queer and even in Brighton still feeling that you’re not necessarily part of that group if it’s like a women’s circle or sisterhood.

Well this is the first one where I’m having it as a women’s, because I started it, I trained as a women’s Celtic circle facilitator.

Right.

But the circles I was doing, it was all genders welcome and then in the last one the guidance I got was actually I think it is for women, obviously including trans women as well, but I thought oh God, I’m letting everyone down because I wanted to be so inclusive and the people who were there were like yes, we thought she’ll come to it in her own time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Definitely, definitely, it’s… you know, we want a bit of everything. It’d be good to have men’s only, women’s only, mixed, non-binary groups, etc.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I think it would be lovely to be part of a women’s or more non-binary kind of circle, something like that. I quite like the aspect of something a bit more spiritual or witchy or something, but also some of these groups can be vastly different and no disrespect to people setting them up, everyone is doing it because they want to help themselves and other people.

But I think I’m looking for a specific thing, a specific type of group, which is a bit more trauma-informed and very inclusive and isn’t just a kind of let’s all hang out together, has a bit more to it.

So you might do it yourself, you might create what you’ve been seeking.

Amazing.

I’ve been looking for that exact kind of circle.

Yeah, yeah, no, maybe, maybe, yeah, no you’re right, you’re right. It could be something I do. I do find it quite… I even find this in my Qi Gong groups, I find it quite exhausting to speak in front of people and to run things. I think that’s probably quite normal.

But I’m clear with mine, they’re non-hierarchical, I’m facilitating. It’s really about helping people connect with their own inner wisdom. I want to get out of the way as much as possible, because it’s ultimately what you even said about when you were on your knees crying in the field, it’s that connection with nature as well, our community with the earth, and you were in that time able to connect with that.

I’m not articulating it very well.

No, no, I think I get what you mean. You mean feeling that nature is your community, you’re part of nature.

Yeah, you’re part of nature.

Yeah, take your tears to the field rather than in a concrete block.

Yes, yes, definitely. And I do get a lot from hugging a tree or my bare feet on the land and that lovely feeling in tea meditation where I do feel like the birds are my family, the trees are part of my support.

And this is another part of my journey with finding community, is finding a bit more independence in myself and finding the right community, but not in a dependent way.

So I’ll try and keep developing that and obviously being connected with nature is a really good way to do that, to feel yourself as part of the wider universe and that that is your home and your belonging and getting support from that.

And I think with meditation and tea meditation that helps me connect more to that and then finding the right community from that, rather than… and I think this is another lesson I’ve learned, is how I’ve easily made friends, easily connect with people, but are they the right people and now trying to hone that ability to love myself, feel my connection to nature and know the right people.

And I’m also very proud that I have an amazing, lovely relationship with somebody who’s very stable and I want to take that into my friendships, finding people who really respect each other and want to be stable for each other.

And with that, I am trying to facilitate and support community with the tea groups and I always try to add in a social element. We met for a start of spring or Chinese New Year, we did a tea meditation with some nice Chinese tea and afterwards we went out for lunch and chatted.

I have a few different age groups in my Qi Gong groups, different genders and sexualities, so this is a nice opportunity for people to get together and have that community.

There’s an older guy who comes to my groups who’s had a very difficult life and has found qigong massively helpful and it’s really lovely to spend more time with people after the groups and develop that connection.

So yeah, I’ve tried to do that.

Yeah, I mean community, I do use that, I love the word puns.

We’re both writers and journalists.

I love that.

And I do say join community with the tea at the end and also relieve your anxiety.

I love all of it.

So you’ve been a delight, as I expected. If you could, before we go, send some love, some care, some wisdom, some guidance to a younger you at any age or ages, what would that be?

Probably, maybe embrace your quirkiness.

Yeah, I’m thinking of myself at like maybe eight or nine, seven, eight, nine kind of thing. Embrace your quirkiness.

And some wisdom… I’m struggling a bit on that.

There’s things I would like to say to my younger self, but in terms of wisdom, don’t put pressure on yourself.

What you’ve said, embrace quirkiness, can you imagine how different life would be if we let ourselves be ourselves instead of trying to fit in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know it would be.

I try to encourage that for myself and other people now.

Yeah, yeah.

So thank you so much. Do you want to say again, it will be in the show notes, but do you want to say again where people can find you, your website, Instagram etc?

Yeah, so my website is vitalityqigong.org, you can read how I got into Qi Gong, all about what classes I’ve got and lots of reports on the benefits of qigong and on my Instagram @vitalityqigong I will post sometimes demonstrations or like seasonal tips because I’m quite into the seasonal qigong and different practices for different times of the year, so spring supporting the liver and the gallbladder through certain movements, some summer supporting the heart and the small intestine through other movements, so I’ll… and then also the lifestyle stuff that could go with that to improve your health through the seasons according to the Qi Gong theory, so that kind of stuff goes on the Instagram.

Yeah, wonderful, wonderful, thank you.

Thank you and an absolute pleasure, thank you so, so much, it was wonderful. I’ll chat much longer, so I know if I didn’t have a time it would be like this would be a much longer episode. You’ve gone so deep, it’s been so gorgeous, thank you so much.

Thank you for the space, Eve and your lovely welcoming presence and so easy to talk to. It’s really, really nice. It’s no minimal effort, like I find it quite difficult sometimes to chat in these situations, but I found it like an absolute joy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Before you get on with something else, I’m going to encourage you to pause for a moment and scan your whole being from the soles of your feet to your soul and the crown of your head and notice what you’re aware of. Notice any physical sensations, pleasant, unpleasant, warm, tingly, whatever it may be, just being curious about what you’re feeling as you’ve listened to this episode, making a note, asking what those sensations might be trying to help you with and what you might benefit from doing for your body right now, being aware of your thoughts, noticing any feelings that feel more prominent as a result of listening to today and any intuitions, any insights, anything that you can actually schedule to ground and improve your life in some way.

So let me know how you get on, make a note, doodle, journal, whatever feels good for you, and thank you for listening.

This episode, like all of them, was produced by me, your host Eve Menezes Cunningham, and I look forward to sharing more next week. You can find out more, access old episodes, and free resources and more information at solestosoul.ie/podcast.

See you next week.