Beach Retreat in Costa Rica

Retreat, Rejuvenate and Enhance your practice

with an intensive training

at

Blue Spirit Retreat Center

March 23-30, 2013

For more information contact Summer

Register now to reserve your choice accommodations.

Family Discounts are available.

Children 12 and under are half price!

Body Balance Academy At the Beach

 Come experience the ancient wisdom of Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and Kung Fu  as  an intensive  training with Shih Fu Eileen Hancock.  Harmonize the internal and external body with traditional practices for self healing, cultivation and self defense. Heighten your awareness and fully embody your potential as you receive the profound, unique and reserved teachings of martial arts. 

Throughout your retreat there will be time to explore the surrounding area. You will have the opportunity to cross train in various activities, if you choose, such as Yoga, swimming, stand up paddle boarding, surfing, scuba diving and more as you integrate the secrets for lifelong health.

BLUE SPIRIT COSTA RICA

Blue Spirit is a retreat center located in Nosara, on the Northern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Blue Spirit sits atop of a hillside overlooking a three-mile-long white sand beach along the Pacific Ocean. Guiones beach is home to a turtle refuge, which preserves the flora and fauna along the entire length; building is not permitted. The north and mid sections of Guiones beach offer great surfing to beginners and advanced alike. Blue Spirit is located at the quiet South end of the beach, where swimming is easy, thanks to the gentle current. The 700 foot walk (220 meters) from Blue Spirit to the beach transverses lush grounds full of mango trees and coconut palms.

Our purpose is to provide full retreat facilities with high quality accommodations. Providing  beautiful spaces for workshops, movement, yoga, meditation, personal trans- formation, and holistic health. Each year world-renowned teachers choose this beachfront facility for their retreats and programs – allowing the pristine nature, the subtropical climate, the healing energy of the land, and Blue Spirit’s dedicated staff to provide a deeply nurturing setting. The gourmet vegetarian cuisine (fish optional), holistic Spa & Longevity services, elegant classrooms, graceful accommodations, and diverse excursions, can cater to all ages and taste.

We would be delighted to host you on this retreat, and to assist you in making it an unforgettable experience! 

Holiday Class Schedule Nov 2012 - January 2013

Body Balance Academy will be closed on:

November 22 and 23

December  24 and 25

January 1

There will be No Kung Fu class New Year's Eve Day December 31.

Stay tuned for news of a combined Tai Chi class on December 31.
This will most likely be an 11:00am class that is open to all levels.

Riding the Wave of Tai Chi

"Surfing brings us right up against this Spirit and, when we get it right, when we open our minds, when all the elements come together and we merge with the sea, a door opens and for a few moments we enter God’s home and are one with that great flow of Consciousness. It is then we burst open to something bigger and more expansive, that our deepest desire is satisfied. We stop the search and settle into pure being. We feel peace, rather than anxiety. It is when we tap into this place that the money, time and efforts we spent to go surfing truly pay off." 

"It took myself almost 15 years of dedicated practice before I was able to reconnect to the essence of what I had experienced in my time spent surfing in the ocean. This came through the practice of a unique system of tai chi, which I came upon in China and have been studying ever since. The system is based on the study of nature with the main emphasis being on the way energy and gravity move through the water, manifesting into waves and whirlpools, rising and falling, concentrating and expanding; a constant natural recycling process, nature at work.

This is the true essence of tai chi, and one of which we are all part of from birth to death. Every moment of your lives, you are constantly flowing, changing, and transforming.

This understanding underpins the tai chi system. Asking you to transform yourself into a water type quality, dissolving all the tight contracted areas of the body using wave type motions until a sense of the contracted linear-self has disappeared and is replaced by an expansive flowing, changing, non-linear self, which merges with the outside energetic and natural environment." 

Read more of this post from two tai chi and yoga practitioners who find common ground in the experience of riding waves.

http://www.transformyogaandtaichi.co.uk/surfing_and_waves.html

Tao-Te King, Chapter 49

The adept has no heart of her own.
She makes the heart of the people her own.

To the good ones I am good.
To the no-good ones I am good, too.
Because life is goodness.

To the faithful ones I am faithful.
To the unfaithful ones I am faithful, too.
Because life is faith.

The adept lives in the world in stillness
and opens her heart for the world.
People watch her and listen to her.
And she treats them all with cheerful kindness.

Tao-Te King
Guidance from the Eternal
-translation by Matthias Schossig

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

Rick Hanson, author of Buddha's Brain (one of Shih Fu Eileen's recommended readings) is hosting a free 7-part video series called "The Compassionate Brain" with extraordinary guests that will talk about effective ways to change your brain and heart and life.

Beginning Monday, October 8, 2012, on seven Monday nights, 5-6 pm Pacific time, Hanson will interview a world-class scholar/teacher (in order):

Richie Davidson,
Dan Siegel,
Tara Brach,
Dacher Keltner,
Kelly McGonigal,
Kristin Neff, and
Jean Houston.

Each week, they'll discuss different ways to use the power of neuro-plasticity - how the mind can change the brain to transform the mind - to open the heart, build courage, find compassion, forgive oneself and others, speak and act from both kindness and strength, and heal the world.

You can watch live or see the archived videos if you miss a session. These unique conversations with first-rate experts are freely offered - along with their  practical tools for cooperation, empathy, and kindness. 

It's interesting, solid, practical, convenient, and free.

Here's a link to the series:
http://live.soundstrue.com/compassionatebrain 
and a brief video of Rick talking about the series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyrnZMsVslM&feature=youtu.be

Kung Fu and Tai Chi Performance & Promotion - Friday Sept 21 6pm

September 21st at 6:00pm
Live Music, Food and beverages
$7 at the door
Invite friends and family to this exciting event!
A Fundraiser for the 2013 International Kung Fu tournament in Baltimore 

100% of proceeds go for our competition team

The Art and Spirit of Push Hands

Enjoy this excerpt of a longer article by Marilyn Cooper at Pushing For Peace :

T’ai Chi forms adhere to the laws of physics and human nature. The postures are relaxed, stable, and connected to earth, freeing up the mind and nerves to sense and experience force. Over time and with experience, the T’ai Chi devotee is able to feel increasingly subtle levels of energy, thought and force.

Very deliberately, the mind moves the body in space while energy moves within the body frame. The slow pace gives the mind’s eye time to synchronize many small details, from the top of the head to the bottoms of the feet. Inner strength and awareness is developed slowly but surely – and safely.

“True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” (Leo Tolstoy)

Push Hands has various structured drills that stimulate internal energy and can evolve into spontaneous style or natural boxing. Players learn how to relax and lower their center of gravity, to meet hard (Yang) with soft (Yin), and to image an opponent during solo form practice. When based on the actual experience of doing forms with a training partner, imagination and memory are both engaged.

The more receptive and relaxed you are, the more you move with the force being delivered, and the harder it is for your partner to find your center. This is because you are responding to her or his searching rather than initiating. Push Hands helps you to become more centered and relaxed, one who stays calm, aware and patient, no matter how great the stress.

T’ai Chi develops sensitivity; the ability to listen to energy. Listening energy trains the ability to feel force as it materializes, which is the first step towards being able to neutralize that force. Before it is fully realized, by sticking (constant adhering) to the ground-swell, force can be received within ones frame and effortlessly recycled back at the giver of that force.

The mind should be empty and the body in a state of non-rigid readiness. This is no different from most sports — except that the poised, aware state is the entire modus operandi of T’ai Chi and Push Hands. A lapse in awareness, a moment of distraction will be felt by the more alert player, and is an opportunity for a gentle push, pull or combination of the two.