Resilient Community Qigong
Come Play Qigong
Life keeps changing, and some days it feels like chaos.Drawing on multiple Qigong traditions, we explore variations in movement and static postures, breath, and intention to learn about and engage our body-mind, support our health, and develop greater resilience to respond to life as we find it.
Qigong with Benefits
Rooted enough to pause. Free enough to move into what comes next.
Life keeps changing, and some days it feels like chaos.Resilient Community Qigong is a moving-meditation course that helps you stay healthy enough to respond: within change, finding a pause, and from that pause, the next step.Qigong won’t tell you what to do next. It gives you a steadier place to choose from. Practice reacquaints you with your own nervous system and body, so you can work with them to stay in balance, and many people find they come away feeling more alive.Come play with breath, body-mind, and spirit, and notice your energy shift in real time.No experience, flexibility, or belief required — just curiosity and a willing body.
What a Class Is Like
Each session moves through a five-phase arc — opening, dynamic movement, spontaneous flow, stillness, and a gentle return.We draw on accessible forms from several traditions, such as the Eight Silk Brocades, Tai Chi movements practiced as Qigong, and simple breathwork anyone can do, regardless of age or fitness level.Quiet standing roots you enough to pause; the flowing forms free you to move. And the pause isn’t only for you: practiced together, it’s the breath before helping someone, and a steadier presence for the people around you.Come play with breath, body-mind, and spirit, and notice your energy shift in real time.Sturdy chairs are always in the circle, for balance or for seated practice.No experience, flexibility, or belief required — just curiosity and a willing body.
Classes at Bodhi & Sage Wellness Community
1525 E. 55th St, 3rd Floor, Chicago[Days and times — confirm with Roger] · 60 minutesCost: Bodhi & Sage drop-in, class-pack, and membership rates, with senior and student discounts [confirm final rates]Pre-registration through Bodhi & Sage. Classes are limited to 20 participants. [registration link]
The 70% Rule
Do no more than 70% of your capacity, whether it is how far you stretch, how many repetitions you do, or how vigorously you engage.If you are not feeling well or are recovering, do no more than 30% of your capacity.Always keep enough energy in reserve for emergencies, recovery, and to support your immune system.
What Is Qi? And, What is Qigong?
Qi is a way of directing attention toward living processes as they happen. It points toward vital aliveness — sensation, presence, the felt quality of being in your body.A photograph shows what a river looks like, but not its current, its pull, or how it responds to what falls in. Qi points your attention toward the current.“Feeling the energy in your hands” isn’t a claim about physics, it is a claim about sensation– interoception and becoming aware of it.Qigong is a practice of working with our body-mind's energy through movement, breath, and directing attention.
What the Research Shows
Qigong has proven benefits. Research from integrative medicine centers worldwide, such as that presented at the 2026 National Qigong Association Conference by Peter Wayne, PhD, of Harvard’s Osher Center for Integrative Health, shows that regular practice reduces stress hormones, improves the nervous system’s flexibility, enhances balance, helps prevent falls, and supports immune function.What remains genuinely open is the full account of why.
About Charlie Havens
Charlie Havens didn’t set out to teach Qigong — he set out to understand his own body better.In 2022, following a blackout resulting in a major auto accident and after extensive medical assessment resulting in an unsatisfactory pathway to avoid a repeat, he sought additional understanding of his body. This led him to explore the notions of interoception and how Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tai Chi, and Qigong might make him more aware of what his mind-body was doing and needing.Charlie is not a certified Qigong instructor — yet. He is training in Yoga Farm Ithaca’s 12-week, 200-hour National Qigong Association (NQA)-approved Qigong teacher certification with lead educator Bryan Isacks, is enrolled in Anthony Korahais’s Flowing Zen 101–103 courses, and has studied courses by Mimi Kuo-Deemer and Chris Cinnamon. He has led a weekly Qigong group at University Church since February 2025, open to practitioners of all ages and backgrounds.He reads broadly across the traditions and the science. He offers the laboratory of his consistent daily practice, his curiosity about the practice, its traditions and uses, and his showing up week by week for participants who keep coming back.He returns to Qigong because the questions keep getting more interesting—because of the aliveness he feels when he practices it.
Contact Community Resilient Qigong
© 2026 Resilient Community Qigong courses by Adventurer LLC, Charlie Havens
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Medical Disclaimer:
Nothing shared orally or in writing through the Resilient Community Qigong courses constitutes medical advice. These sessions are offered for educational and wellness purposes only. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider before beginning any movement, breathing, or meditation practice, and bring any physical or emotional distress experienced during practice to a healthcare professional’s attention.