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Susan A. Matthews, M.S.
Shanti School of Internal Martial Arts
An Institute of Research and Education
Southwestern Colorado, USA
970-903-5723
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New DVD!

Brain Workshop™
Exercises for a New Brain-
Use Mind Power and Movement to Change Your Brain

Web site Design: Susan Matthews
© 2003-2008
all rights reserved
No part of this web site may be reproduced without expressed permission.

Brain Workshop™ Programs are presented in Seminars offered nationally. You can also access this information Online as a part of several Special Topics in the Ten Minute Tai Chi Program. If you would like to sponsor a Brain Workshop seminar with Susan Matthews please email Susan at mail@susanamatthews.com.

Get the Ultimate Training for the Brain and Nervous System Strength, Flexibility, Freedom

Get Started Now with Lesson One Qi Circles (basics for building and moving qi). Watch this free introductory video now. Lesson One QiCircles™- basics for building and moving qi. (Special Introductory rate online only $5.) You can also Complete the FREE custom program questionnaire to identify your specific needs, physical condition and goals. Get Started Questionnaire Submit and receive a customized action plan to reach your goals: Purchase individual lessons, DVDs, private consultation, seminars according to your plan.

Watch a web lesson sample now! video

Brain Workshop™ ─ Program Details

Brain Workshop™

1 Blood Circulation and Relaxation for Nervous System and Cardiovascular Health (more)

2 Balance and Posture (more)

3 Biomechanics (more)

4 Bone and Joint

5 Senior Health and Longevity

6 Advanced Meditation and Mind Training Techniques

7 Advanced Taiji Principles
8 Women’s Health and Empowerment

9 Brain Workshop™ Clinic for Neurological Rehabilitation, Caregivers Included, Advanced Training for Therapists (more)

Brain Workshop™ 1 Blood Circulation and Relaxation for Nervous System and Cardiovascular Health

Reduce Stress • Improve Cardiopulmonary Fitness, Circulation
The powerful internal energy and breathing exercises of qigong improve blood circulation and lymph in all tissues. Blood vessels open as the practice acts directly on the parasympathetic nervous system to control blood pressure and heart rate, induce relaxation, increase production of digestive enzymes and peristalsis, and to heavily oxygenate blood and cells of the body. Unhealthy tension and stress are profoundly neutralized by qigong. Super-relaxation techniques and slow, meditative, dance-like movements make this the perfect exercise for cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. Qigong also stimulates blood flow to the brain. It contains many postures similar to "cross crawl" activities. These activities stimulate coordination between hemispheres of the cerebral cortex, and they bring balance and communication between the left and right sides of the body. This corresponds to balance and communication with the yin and yang of the "inner self" and to harmony with nature’s cycles.

"I had blown a disc at L-1 which left me in chronic pain. When I started taijiquan and qigong 7 years ago I was on heavy doses of pain killers, my blood pressure was sky high, and severe allergies caused massive outbreaks of hives. None of those conditions exist anymore." —C. Hughes, R.N. Cardiac Care

Workshop and Lesson Contents:

 QiCircles™

“If I could teach only one exercise, it would be QiCircles™. I believe they are the most powerful longevity exercise available.”

Benefits:
Abdominal rotations and trunk loosening increase blood circulation to the spinal cord and internal organs: kidneys, liver, intestines, pelvic organs, bladder, lungs, and heart.
Increased blood circulation, relaxation and focus increases Qi. Builds qi in the dantien (abdomen).
Techniques train mental focus and your ability to move Qi with the mind.
QiCircles™ transform the spine into a supple willow.
Improve digestion
Improve sexual function, bladder control, prostate health
Basic gross anatomy of the abdomen, thorax, spinal dynamics, and hip anatomy are taught to improve visualization and movement skills.
Qigong Practice DVD available to supplement home practice. (more)

 Qi Breathing™ - Qi Filling Breath Meditation

Enhanced Abdominal Breathing
Increases blood and qi circulation of the brain, head and neck, internal organs of entire body.
Builds qi in the dantien (abdomen).
Fill with the bright white light of spirit
Ground the body with high frequency spiritual energy and lower frequency earth energy
Reduce Fear/Anxiety, Stress

 Sinking/Rooting practice.

Create balance, physical stability, and relaxation by learning how to first gather energy inward in order to project yourself outward. Take conscious control of minute aspects of your body and every aspect of the self by practicing exercises of looking inward and grounding to the earth both physically and energetically.
Stabilize and open the low back. 

Mindful Massage^™

Head and Neck Massage relaxes tension and increases blood circulation to the brain.
Learn Techniques to alleviate chronic headache and migraines.
Learn to focus mind intention and qi into internal anatomical structures for self healing.

 Eight Pieces of Brocade Qigong- Ba Duan Jin

Learn one of the oldest known forms of qigong ("CHEE gong") that originated in China some 800 years ago. Qigong means to "cultivate energy" and has been shown to improve overall health and feelings of well-being. It is ideal for beginner tai chi and qigong practitioners. The postures are simple to learn; doing them regularly and correctly is key to feeling their profound effects.
Each of the Ba Duan Jin exercises intensifies the flow of energy along the full length of specific meridians and thus the complete set of exercises benefits the whole network, including the internal organs through which that energy passes.
The Eight Pieces of Brocade DVD is available to supplement home practice.(more)

 Cultivate Dantien Energy Power

For the advanced taiji practitioner, Dantien (abdominal) rotation creates fluidity in movement, and movement in which the body or torso moving at the center generates all movement of the extremities.

Brain Workshop™ 2 Balance and Posture

Improve Balance and Reflexes 
These exercises promote mechanical changes to the deep tissue that "wake up" nerve and muscle elements involved in balance and reflex. In a massive combination study sponsored by the National Institute on Aging and published in the Journal of American Medical Assn., taijiquan was the only exercise/activity to show a statistically significant decrease in the number of falls among the elderly study participants. The practitioners recorded a 25% decrease in injuries from falls. In another landmark study, involving 200 people age 70 and over, the Taijiquan exercise group cut their risk of multiple falls by a striking 47.5 percent. Moreover, this effect persists for an average of 1.5 years.

Improve Posture • Rehabilitate Injury
Integrated improvement in skeletal alignment, tendon function, and joint flexibility; i.e., restructuring or realigning the spine, hips, shoulders, arms, legs and feet, can relieve back and shoulder strain, repair damaged knees and ankles, and allow the joints to work the way they were originally designed. Bones and cartilage are malleable, alive, and change shape according to the stresses put upon them. Thus, to rehabilitate injuries we need to correct the initial postural problem which caused knees or other structures to "fail" or "break" when stressed. This realigning allows the skeletal structure to work more efficiently in gravity. It supports maximum functioning of the internal organs and true relaxation, and supplies the connectivity needed for the body to act as a conduit for the flow of energy.

"I had chronic back pain and terrible sciatica on both sides. I had been wearing a heel lift for a year. After only four months of taijiquan, my leg had changed so much the doctor said get rid of the heel lift. I started experiencing relief since the very first time I learned to open the pelvis in the back, and now I’m pain free." —K. Stange, D.V.M.

Workshop and Lesson Contents:

 Zhong Ding or Central Equilibrium Training

This training explores the concept of developing a straight spine with an energetic central “plumb line.”
Develop Energy in the Spine: Zhong Ding Jin suspends the spine between Heaven and Earth. Gather and release from this energetic core.
Energy transmission from heaven and earth through the heart is an expression of the creative spirit of the individual, beautiful, wise and full of love. 

Anatomical Structure and Biomechanics of the Spine, Shoulder and Hip

Redefine your relationship of neck and shoulder to hip through the spine and down to the feet.
Learn how to use relaxation and hip stretch to realign structure.  

Yin Yang dynamics of the Zhong Ding

Apply Yin-Yang Theory to the movements of Daily Life to increase energy and efficiency and decrease pain and fatigue. Energetically and physically: left/right, up/down, in/out, forward/backward, solid/empty, lifting/sinking.

Yi-Qi Walking

Learn effortless walking using yi-mind intent, Qi-energy movement, bones, and gravity.

Sinking/Rooting practice

Moving energy in and across the Zhong Ding in relationship to energy in the legs and feet.
Biomechanics of Rooting: A strong root is obtained with understanding postural alignment in gravity, lowering the center of balance, and the mechanics of transferring weight and awareness to the feet.

Whole Body Postural Corrections

You will learn how to gradually correct your posture and realign your entire skeleton from the feet to the top of the head.
These powerful exercises focus on loosening, yet strengthening, deep muscles, tendons and ligaments as well as improving blood and energy circulation. The practitioner gets strong from the inside out by learning to move differently to exercise deep calorie-burning muscles throughout the day. It is common to regain energy and strength at the same time the body changes shape significantly.

 Zhong Ding in Wu Style Taijiquan Form

Learn to practice and incorporate workshop principles in a short Wu Style Set or in your favorite taiji form. 

Brain Workshop™ 3 Biomechanics

Internal martial arts can be described in terms of physical biomechanical movement, visualization of movement of internal energy, and mental or spiritual intent. All of these components must be integrated with each other to create effective, relaxed, whole-body movement, full of power which can be gathered and released, and also contain the potential for healing the body and promoting spiritual development.

The principles of mind, energy movement, and biomechanics used in Tai Chi can applied to skiing and other sports and, as we have found, can enhance performance of both novices and veterans of any sport. Many levels of integration can be developed over time and we believe these qualities have value in every aspect of life, in every movement we make, and in every breath of energy we take.

My approach in teaching these principles as Spiral Anatomy™ is unique because it provides a model and a language for understanding this universal mechanical and energetic movement: a pattern, which generates efficient, relaxed, effortless movement, using less muscle and more spiraling bone strength. By universal I mean it is based on spirals (and later waves) which are found in all living, growing things in nature including the way fish swim, snakes slither, birds fly, and even inherent in why trees and seashells grow in spirals. If you twist or rotate, need balance, strength, endurance, focus or speed, then you can improve that motion through spiral training and the other elements in internal martial arts. 

Get Strong and Supple
Powerful basic training exercises and taiji form presented in this seminar focus on strengthening on three levels. Change physically using deep muscles, tendons and ligaments as well as improving blood and energy circulation. Build the energy of the body, the qi. Build tin jin, sensitivity or listening power. Learn to use yi, mental coordination of the qi with intent and non-use of physical strength for superior power (neijin). 

"Better body mechanics, along with postural corrections which improved my hip joint mobility, have had a phenomenal impact on my skiing and other sports. The most direct application, however, has been in skiing. I have skied since I was a kid. My dad was a ski instructor. I skied most every weekend in high school then took a good many years off while living in Austin, TX. I got back on skis and started tai chi with Susan Matthews last year. After one season I have reached a whole new level by incorporating the ‘backwards bicycle’ and ‘spiraling’ throughout the entire body. Instead of using a great deal of energy and strength, I can easily relax into my skiing groove with solid carving turns." —Tracy Henderson, 2002. Tracy is 36 years old, has 25 years experience as a skier, ten years as a martial artist, and is a mountain bike enthusiast.

Strength Training and Sports Performance

Sports and activities as diverse as skiing, boating, running, climbing, dressage, and golf require a highly developed, centered movement and communication between body parts. As the exercises specifically increase bone density, joint flexibility, tissue elasticity and plasticity, joints function better and are less likely to fail when falls do occur, or when the body is pushed to the "extreme."

"My skiing had plateaued for about three years, and after only 7 weeks of taijiquan, I rip. The change is awesome, like night and day. Now I move with more relaxation and efficiency—it’s effortless, like water." —Todd Swanson, 1999

Workshop Contents:

Spiral Anatomy™ Theory and Training

Advanced Biomechanics and Mind-Movement Integration Training: Postural Correction, Strength Training, Skiing and other Sports Performance

Learn Waist/Hip Mechanics: Stable, rotational hip mechanics; sacrum, tailbone function in transmitting movement through the spine.

Learn revolutionary biomechanical and internal movement principles involved in synchronicity, rhythmicity, and bilaterality. Participants are encouraged to explore application of the mind-movement principles in their own form of exercise, sport, dance, manual therapy, walking, balance therapy, energy practice, or martial-art form. Exercises are perfectly adaptable to sitting and slow movement, yet still provide high-quality content and results for neurorehabilitation after stroke, movement disorders (parkinsonism), and movement and mental dysfunction that result from aging.

Chan Ssu Chin Basic Training Set

Learn the Biomechanics of Spiraling Bones. Chan Ssu Chin, Silk Reeling, practice strengthens and connects all the joints and tendons into one continuous, energized, flexible "snake." Physical strength with plasticity, fluidity, and relaxation can be increased through the use of integrated "bone" power rather than through reliance on muscular strength. Later, spiraling contains and generates a "jin/chin/jing" or force. 

Whole Body One Unit Synchronicity

Use Whole Back and Waist Power: The waist includes the dantien in front and ming men and kidneys in the back. Sinking the shoulders into the dantien and the low back transfers shoulder power to the more powerful hips and legs.

Training the mind to direct energy, or training energy to move to accomplish any action, added to the mechanical, enhances strength even more. Intent, energy and physical integration produces maximum power. 

Power Stretch

Power Stretch is a technique to connect the back to the waist as well as energize bone/tendon/ligament throughout the body.

Brain Workshop™ 9 Brain Workshop™ Clinic for Neural Rehabilitation, Caregivers Included, Advanced Training for Therapists

This special seminar contains elements of Brain Workshop training for speeding neural repair and plasticity in patients with movement disability such as those who are recovering from stroke, brain injury, or who have progressive neurological symptoms as seen in Parkinson's Disease.

This seminar also contains tools and specific movement principles for therapists to use to aid in learning and memory acquisition. For example, speech and reading therapists can incorporate rhythmic movement as a right-brain activity to facilitate left-brain repatterning.

Similarly, this mind-body integration training uses movement synchronization and rhythm coupled with mental practice that effects both physical and mental balance. For mental health, Brain Workshop technique is like EMDR therapy using the whole body.

Workshop and Lesson Contents: 

Introductory Information: Upon registration each participant will receive the DVD "Training Your Mind & Movement to Change your Brain" as an excellent introduction to five aspects in her workshops central in her approach to movement, tai chi, and brain health. She explores them in class and works with participants to understand their meaning and how they may be incorporated into any modality:

First, movement with synchronicity, rhythmicity, and symmetry has been linked to brain activation during memory acquisition, states of consciousness, locomotion, neural repair, and rehabilitation.

Second, mental practice, including visualization and movement imagery, are receiving greater significance for treatment potential. New imaging techniques show that when you visualize going over movement in your mind (imagery), neuronal (nerve cell) activity in the brain actually mirrors that movement. This capacity of the nervous system is just beginning to be explored in brain injury research and treatment. Tai Chi and other ‘internal’ martial arts training tools greatly enhance mental agility by tapping into the mind connection between visualization of internal energy (qi) and movement.

Third, balanced, integrated, left- and right-sided movement is accompanied by balanced brain activity. Such movement activates the motor and sensory neural circuitry of the whole brain. Balance is accomplished by using two major components of training: 1) “central equilibrium training,” and; 2) mechanical spiraling in the joints.

Fourth, engaging and integrating multiple sensory systems both physically and with mind intention, wakes up the entire body and brain, and can speed up the healing process. These systems include visual, kinesthetic, the sense of gravity and position, muscle load, stretching and contracting, sensors in the skin, and the sensation of qi (vital energy).

Fifth, using these techniques and others to train the mind achieves three levels of adaptation. First, increased awareness of the sensation of internal qi energy flowing in the body. Second, the ability to direct internal energy and physical movement to flow in harmony. Finally, the training cultivates awareness of, and harmony with, the energetic movement in the space surrounding the body.

Part 1- Dynamics of the Spine

Central Equilibrium Training. This training explores the concept of developing a straight spine with an energetic central “plumb line.”

Anatomical Structure of the Spine, Shoulder and Hip. Redefine the relationship of neck and shoulder to hip through the spine and down to the feet. Learn how to use relaxation and hip stretch to realign structure. Learn what is meant by the "art of the body."

Hip and Spine Biomechanics.  Apply Chinese Yin-Yang Theory to the movements of Daily Life to increase energy and efficiency and decrease pain and fatigue. Energetically and physically: left/right, up/down, in/out, forward/backward, solid/empty, lifting/sinking.

Part 2- Mental Practice

Sinking/Rooting: A strong root and balance is obtained with understanding postural alignment in gravity, lowering the center of balance, and the mechanics of transferring weight and awareness to the feet.

Mind-Energy Walking ("Chi Walking"). Learn effortless walking using yi or mind intent, visualization of Qi or energy movement, central equilibrium, and gravity.

Part 3- Whole Body One Unit Synchronicity

Learn revolutionary biomechanical and internal movement principles involved in synchronicity, rhythmicity, and bilaterality. Participants are encouraged to explore application of the mind-movement principles in their own form of exercise, sport, dance, manual therapy, walking, balance therapy, energy practice, or martial-art form. Exercises are perfectly adaptable to sitting and slow movement, yet still provide high-quality content and results for neurorehabilitation after stroke, movement disorders (parkinsonism), and movement and mental dysfunction that result from aging.

Learn Waist/Hip Mechanics: Stable, rotational hip mechanics; sacrum, tailbone function in transmitting movement through the spine.

Using Back and Waist Power: Unifying the back and waist stabilizes the low back and transfers shoulder power to the more powerful hips and legs.

Brain Workshop™ Neural Rehabilitation Training includes instruction and individual feedback in a set of ten specific exercises that incorporate the essential components of the training described above.

Throughout the workshop references to the relevant scientific literature supporting the theories presented will be discussed.

Times: Morning Session- 9:00am - Noon; Lunch Break; Afternoon Session 1:30 - 4:30pm

Tuition: $125.00 full-day of lecture and training plus registration and payment of tuition includes the DVD "Training Your Mind & Movement to Change your Brain." Registrants are expected to view this 60 minute video in preparation for the course. Under certain circumstances registration for half-day may be possible. Patient + Caregiver Package Price- $175.00.

For additional support outside of class two bonus DVDs are provided at a substantial discount off the regular price for only $25 ($55.00 value): Qigong Practice: Blood Circulation and Energy Gathering Qigong and Eight Pieces of Brocade Qigong.

Participants receive Certification for Brain Workshop™ Clinic for Neural Rehabilitation and are eligible for CE Hours (7).

Specialty Programs

Qi Skiing™, Qi Swimming™, Qi Biking™

Regardless of the level of internal energy skills (neigong and neijing) one develops, certain movement patterns, use of force, and principles of whole, integrated body mechanics can be quickly understood and applied. This is especially true with Tai Chi practitioners or with athletes who are already proficient in their sport.

Southwest Colorado and the Four Corners Area is beautiful for its distinct seasons and outdoor recreational opportunities. Each workshop includes applications to specific sports depending on the season or regional events.

In Durango, Colorado where we love outdoor recreation, I have taught and tested the above elements of Tai Chi training with skiers, mountain bikers, equestrians, hikers, rock climbers, golfers, kayakers, runners, tennis players, a ski jumper/aerialist and skate boarders. These students report getting better, having more fun, and having fewer injuries. Training for superior strength and power in Tai Chi does not include training for the biggest muscles but does include mind, energy, and sophisticated biomechanics.

Hi Susan. I just went skiing for the first time today since taking your class. I mean I figured it would help my skiing, but I can’t even believe how much this has helped my skiing. It’s another world. The whole time I was skiing I was just imagining the line of qi all the way from the central sun (all the way down) into the earth, through the middle of the earth, and it’s all I had to think about. I didn’t have to think about anything else. It was just perfect, it was just perfect. I can’t believe it. My friend that I ski with is blown away. He can’t even believe it either. It was just amazing. I was going faster than him for the first time ever. He didn’t know where I was because I was always in front. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I’ll see you soon. And I think I’ve talked him to taking your class too. Sue Tilley