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Balance and Ease: Qigong and Meditation for the Earth Phase

Live Online Course

With Mimi Kuo-Deemer

September 13th, 2026 - October 4th, 2026

Discover how to meet life’s demands from a place of centered resilience

How do we stay grounded when so much around us is shifting?

As the summer eases towards its end, we arrive at Late Summer – a time of year known as the “Earth Phase” in Chinese medicine and qigong.

This is a pivotal time of transition and centering, both in nature and within us. Earth, which also governs the transitional times between the other four seasons, teaches us how to find stability amidst life’s constant changes, whether navigating seasonal shifts, personal transitions, or the daily balancing act of our responsibilities.

Join meditation, movement, and internal martial arts teacher Mimi Kuo-Deemer for a month-long deep dive into qigong and mindfulness practices rooted in the wisdom of Earth’s energies. Together, we’ll draw from classical Chinese medicine, Buddhist wisdom and Daoist traditions to learn how to cultivate balance, ease, and nourishing presence.

Through gentle movement forms, standing meditations, and discussions, we’ll explore how to work with the energy of the Spleen and Stomach – the organs of Earth – to transform worry into grounded trust and overthinking into steady, compassionate awareness.

Join this 4-week guided journey with Mimi to receive:

  • An understanding of the Earth energy’s role in qigong as a stabilizing, centering force for all seasons and life’s transitions.
  • Practical tools, through movement and meditation, to transform worry and overthinking into grounded presence and trust.
  • A daily home practice for cultivating balance, serving as a steadying complement to any existing mindfulness routine.

Module 1 - Grounded and Steady: The Centering Energy of Earth

We begin by introducing the Earth Phase as the centre and stabiliser of the seasonal cycle.

Through a short talk and guided practice, we will explore foundational standing meditation (Zhan Zhuang) and simple, repetitive qigong movements designed to cultivate a physical and energetic sense of being grounded and centred, establishing a steady base for the weeks ahead.

Module 2 - Receive and Transform: Nourishing the Spleen and Stomach

This week delves into the Earth organs: the Spleen, which governs transformation and thought, and the Stomach, which receives and processes.

We’ll learn how both over- and under-nourishment – of food, but also of stimulation, emotion, and activity – can deplete these systems.

Our guided qigong practice will focus on gentle, twisting and spiraling movements that massage the core, support digestion (of food and experience), and help to settle a busy, “knotted” mind into a state of easier flow.

Module 3 - Settled and Sure: From Worry to Trust

Building on our physical foundation, we explore the emotional landscape of Earth.

We’ll discuss how its challenging emotion of pensiveness and overthinking can be transformed into its virtue: a deep, embodied sense of trust and faith.

The practice will integrate rhythmic, balancing forms and meditation, using the breath and somatic awareness to release cyclical thinking and cultivate a reliable inner steadiness.

Module 4 - Whole and Balanced: Integration and the Middle Path

In our final session, we weave our explorations together.

We focus on the Earth Phase’s wisdom of balance – the Middle Path – avoiding extremes of effort and indulgence.

The culminating qigong sequence will emphasise smooth, mindful transitions between postures, integrating all themes into a cohesive “home practice” ritual that supports regularity, ease, and resilience through all of life’s transitions.

Praise for Mimi's Teachings

“Mimi’s is articulate and superb with her language and imagery as she is teaching qigong – it becomes almost magical as you listen to her calming voice while you are doing the movements. She creates an almost meditative background to your practice, which becomes very conducive to learning it well.”

“I can’t express enough gratitude to Mimi. In her classes, I’ve rediscovered a spiritual centre, a springboard out of hopelessness.”

“Mimi’ classes are keeping me together when everything goes apart. I feel much more calm and more energetic from them, and they’ve given me strength to go further, even if it’s a bad day ahead. It’s hard to describe exactly what they’re doing, it’s just beyond words. But it leaves a visible print in my actions and my life.”

“I have never felt better physically or better equipped to calmly and steadily handle life since starting classes with Mimi. Her manner is clear, calming and fun. It is also deeply knowledgeable. I scribble lots of notes each week when listening to the recordings so that I can go back and slowly absorb things later. I feel that I have a lifetime of nuance and deepening.”

Live Online Course Details

Live Interactive Sessions

Every Sunday, Mimi will guide our live sessions where we'll come together to learn about this ancient Chinese art and how to develop a nourishing, inspired home movement practice. Each week’s content will build on the previous week’s teachings, yet also emphasise a different aspect of Earth’s energy of Late Summer.

Daily Qigong Practices

Each week, Mimi will offer a new set of daily qigong practices, journaling and reflecting exercises to continue developing the techniques learned in that module, to be practiced for 20 minutes every day. By the end of this course, you will have a home practice you can continue exploring and refining.

Total Accessibility

All ages and experience levels are welcome, including beginners and first-timers. Options will be given for those who wish to do the practices seated. For those with injuries, suggestions will also be offered on how to best work safely and mindfully.

Lifetime Access

All teachings, meditations and Q&A's will be recorded, published and archived on our interactive course platform. Video recordings will be permanently available for you to come back to as many times as you like in the future.

Schedule

Photo - Alarm Clock - Schedule

Dates & Times

Module 1: Sunday, Sep 13, 2026 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 2: Sunday, Sep 20, 2026 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 3: Sunday, Sep 27, 2026 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 4: Sunday, Oct 4, 2026 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Replays will be posted in the days afterwards for those who cannot attend live.

About Mimi Kuo-Deemer

Mimi Kuo-Deemer is an author and teacher of meditation, qigong, and internal martial arts (6th generation Baguazhang). She champions a balance of playfulness and precision, and never underestimates the value of wise, goofy people. A long-time dharma student of Sangha Live’s founding teacher, Martin Aylward, she also co-leads retreats with him at the Moulin de Chaves. 

Born in upstate New York, Mimi has lived most of her adult life overseas, in Beijing, London, and now Oxfordshire, where she lives with her husband and their dog, three cats, 8 chickens and 60,000 bees. She enjoys writing – her two books include Qigong and the Tai Chi Axis (2018), and Xiu Yang: The Ancient Chinese Art of Self-Cultivation for a Healthier, Happier, More Balanced Life (2019) – and creating online qigong practice videos and DVDs.

Her teachings draw inspiration from nature, the Dao, and the wisdom of Buddha Dharma. She particularly enjoys discovering and sharing ways we can nourish and support our vitality for our own welfare, and the welfare of all life. Click here to learn more about Mimi Kuo-Deemer.