Class feedback

2023 feedback

I had to go hospital yesterday for a check up on my osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. They were very pleased with my progress and I was told I’m doing the right things.

( a first for me) I usually do the wrong things! Most of all he was very impressed with my Tai Chi, Shibashi and Qigong knowledge and participation. He said he wished all his patients were like me……..

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It has so far been very good for helping to heal our aches and pains and we are both very pleased to have found your class. 

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Thank you for opening the door to a route to Health and Peace.

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Another year gone by and another year enjoying Qigong.  I find it is helping more and more with my flexibility and body strength.  Most of all though, it helps my mind relax. 

Really recommend it to everyone. 

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The class really helps to loosen my muscles etc. which are sore and tight, due to having fibromyalgia.  Lincoln gives us clear variations of the exercises if some are too challenging, so that I always feel that I’m moving at the correct level for myself. 

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Although I’m a fairly new member to your Qigong classes, which I enjoy very much, I have found that it has also helped my dizziness.

I also find it very helpful the way you take time to explain the Qi Gong moves, also saying the names of the moves as we go along.

All in all it’s a very enjoyable class.

Thank you very much.

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Another year of Shibashi and Qigong.  These classes really help me with my lack of balance, mental health and physical health – and the type of Parkinson’s disease I have.  The classes are superb!

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Regarding an article on balance I circulated:

The projections about the effects of poor balance on fatal injuries are quite sobering.  However the beneficial gains from Tai Chi are encouraging.  I know from personal experience that my balance has definitely improved as a result of regular Qigong over the past five years.

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An article appearing in The Ems, October 2022 written by Dominic Joyeux

Reproducing the wording, so you can read it:

An article on the NHS Network website says that “Qigong and Tai Chi exercises feature coordinated body posture and movements, deep rhythmic breathing and mental focus that share many of the healing elements observed in mindfulness meditation.”

I am grateful to hear that healthcare professionals understand the fitness and well-being benefits of Qigong (pronounced chee-gung). I am 65 years old and new to this Chinese discipline. I know that my stiff shoulders and knees have freed up considerably since starting classes at St James’ Church Hall, last year.

Initially, I felt rather inhibited at the thought of ‘performing’ moves in front of classmates, but soon relaxed when I realised that they were concentrating on doing their own slow, graceful movements rather than watching the new boy.  Best of all is that Lincoln Allen, our teacher, is a calm, helpful and knowledgeable Australian who lives and breathes this ancient discipline.

You may have seen footage of Chinese folk of all ages, practicing their coordinated stretching out of doors in parks and other green spaces. In our timber-floored hall with doors and windows open, Lincoln shows us how the ‘Golden Dragon stretches its claws’, ‘the Lion Cub plays with a ball’ and the ‘Phoenix spreads its wings’.  For hundreds of years, millions of people have been doing these same gentle, flowing moves to improve their health and longevity.

Our class is equally divided between men and women, and we range in age from our thirties to our eighties. We notice how our ankles are getting stronger because we are encouraged to use them in balancing exercises and we flex these crucial parts of the anatomy. I am convinced that when I have tripped and nearly fallen in the past year, I have managed to regain my balance and save myself in the nick of time thanks in part to my Qigong classes with Lincoln.

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Apologies for not turning up on zoom today.  I have caught covid!  After all these months of taking care especially since autoimmune diagnosis at Christmas I catch it anyway.   I get out of bed every few hours and practice Shibashi to keep moving and breathing properly.  I think Shibashi very beneficial. 

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Really enjoyed the “posture” class. Would like a repeat sometime.

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I checked out some pre-hab exercises for knee replacement online and decided your classes provide everything suggested. We need to spread the word!  The surgery should be handing out flyers!  

The Shibashi 2 has been the best experience of my rather limited tai chi/ qigong career, and I’m so grateful for it.

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I would like to say a few positive words regarding Shibashi etc.  Please could you add these to your website.

I have been doing Tai Chi and now Shibashi for a few years now, with Lincoln.

I cannot praise him enough for his kindness, patience and understanding as I have recently been diagnosed with a type of Parkinsons’s disease and he has encouraged me so much.  I still regularly attend weekly Shibashi classes as it helps me both mentally and physically.  We are always greeted with a big smile and welcomes us by name!

Lincoln’s expertise in this art is amazing, he is exceptionally knowledgeable and relays this during his classes.

I am almost 82 and I would recommend this gentle exercise of mind and body to anyone willing to take the plunge…….it will help you so much. Do try it, it won’t take long before you reap the benefits.

Thank you, Lincoln, for boosting my confidence and making me feel so much better in many ways.

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Thank you for the gift of these classes, which are a joy to be part of each week. 

I really appreciate the detailed work you put into planning these sessions and the skill with which you teach. I find it challenging enough to do the practice myself, let alone to imagine  teaching it so empathetically and with such encouragement to others as you do.

I have noticed the following about my practice in the classes:

• I love the working of mind/body/spirit together and have found new strength and sense of being centred and grounded.

• I can be forgetful, and the practice and the lessons challenge and (I believe) encourage learning and memory, including muscle memory.

• My balance has definitely improved, and I can see that this is important in reducing the risk of trips and falls.

• For the time that I do Shibashi, I dwell in that moment (most of the time)! It is a time of contentedness and is liberating, yet contained.

• It has improved my chronic back problem, although if I am having a painful episode, I find it best to do shibashi seated in a chair or leave it for a week or two.

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So, Lincoln, three years after joining your weekly Qigong class, what improvements have I noticed to my wellbeing?  Stiff neck: gone (more like an owl’s neck now).  Creaking knees: silent as a lamb.  Aching back: no more twinges.  Balance: you should see me on a tightrope.  Posture: like a ballet dancer.  Serenity: move over Dalai Lama. I’m afraid you can’t have all the credit though.  I’ve also been adjusting my nutrition, weight, sleep patterns and lifestyle at the same time.  But Qigong is a huge part of my determination to repel the dark forces of decrepitude which creep up on us old folk when we’re not looking.  Qigong works!  Thank you for being my teacher.  See you again in class on Tuesday.

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After two years with Lincoln we continue to enjoy and feel the benefit from Qigong and Shibashi both physically and mentally.

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2021 was another mad and uncertain year.  The online classes certainly helped me in lockdown through both the exercises and through having a structure to my unstructured week.  Finally things reopened in the parish hall.  It was lovely performing the exercises together and back with the group once more.

2021 feedback

A bit of an update from me! After attending a 9 week Chronic Pain Clinic for extreme Spinal pain, I joined your Tai Chi for Health Group.  Over the past 3 years our joint efforts won high praise from a Senior NHS Musculoskletal Specialist. 

During my visit a number of her comments included … “Good insight into how your joints and muscles work”,  “amazing strength against pressure”,  “Wow, I have not seen anyone of your age squat as low in my whole career!!!!”.  She also tried to teach me Tai Chi Walking, we both had a good laugh.

Suffice to say Lincoln it is a big THANK YOU from me for all your teaching, and her final words were … “It has been a pleasure to meet you today, and you keep doing that Tai Chi”, which of course is a thank you from her also.

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I’m still enjoying the class and it’s nice that the fellow students offer encouragement.

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Thank you once more and for your warm welcome yesterday, I was a bit nervous as I hadn’t done it before but the venue and fellow students made it a pleasure.

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Just wanted to say thank you for a wonderful class yesterday.  Have just had my longest {migraine} symptom free period in ten years interrupted by a (hopefully!) brief relapse and after your class yesterday I felt completely relaxed and at peace.

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Five weeks after an introductory class with a local youth group I received a message from the leader, saying that you know when an activity has gone well when they keep talking about it, last night they were discussing what a great evening they had had doing Tai Chi.

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Lincoln, thank you for such a good lesson yesterday.  It certainly worked all my joints out, and this morning they feel freer than they have in a long time.  So THANKS a million.

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In January 2021 I wrote to the 40+ people who are attending my classes:

I have enjoyed my Qigong and Tai Chi in 2020.  It has given me a support, a purpose and an interest during these dull, dreary, repetitive, stay-at-home Covid-19 days and months.  I know that it has also been a support for many of you.

My Qigong has developed in a number of directions, deeper, and with new exercises and forms; I feel my teaching has also developed as I have worked out how to cope with Zoom, social distancing, hall closures and lockdowns. 

There are many other positives for me, including the development of my internet site, daily emails over lockdown, producing and sharing 130 videos with you all and the success of the Zoom Shibashi class.

There are also encouraging signs that Qigong and Tai Chi are becoming more mainstream, better known, better accepted – particularly by the NHS – and appreciated as an all-absorbing health exercise regime. 

The 2020 abiding memories for me were to see how absorbed you all are in Shibashi, and, something which I will always keep as a treasured memory of Covid-19  times, the garden Qigong classes in the summer, a deep, learning, peaceful, sharing Qigong experience.

I want to put a page up on my internet site of comments about what Qigong and Tai Chi mean to you all, what you get out of it and any memories of 2020 classes and daily (or not quite daily!) practice.  If you can, please let me have a sentence (or paragraph) or two – and any photos if you like.  All contributions will be nameless on the page.

I had these responses – they are unedited and include a few typos:

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I have very much enjoyed my qigong/shibashi classes this year.  They have given me a routine and sense of constancy and something to look forward to during all the changes and uncertainties fluctuating around us. The zoom classes have provided a safe and secure environment to maintain and develop individual practice whilst still feeling part of a wider group with a shared interest.  Thank you, and Valerie, for all your hard work.

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Lincoln, I have really enjoyed my classes during 2020, they have helped me no end, and I’ll always be grateful for the Zoom classes, nothing much on the diary, but the two lessons each week, in the garden and at home.  This is a remark that my son Martin made at the office.   One lady said she must get into doing some keep fit but didn’t quite now where to start, so son said try Tai Chi, response.   I couldn’t do that, son then said  well my mum who is………years old does it and she is probably the fittest person in the family.      Reaction from the lady, I’ll look into it then.

That remark certainly made me puff my chest out.  So thanks Lincoln for your classes.

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I just want to thank you for the Zoom weekly Shibashi sessions. They have been incredibly significant in my life as we continue through the pandemic.  I appreciate the work you put into the sessions; always punctual, and the content has obviously been meticulously planned.  I think you have the balance right of working through the form, and time for some discussion and verbal teaching as well as working through a few exercises in depth.  I have done many years of Tai Chi (on and off), and I find the Shibashi to be the gentlest, most balancing, graceful form I have done.  I love the simplicity and healing  of it.  Even if I have felt tired coming to the class, I always come away feeling refreshed, calmed and restored. I suffer with a chronic back problem, and the gently solidity and grace of the exercises has been very helpful.  I realise that most of the people there are local to Emsworth and will have attended your classes. That hasn’t stopped me feeling very much part of the class as we learn together.  Thank you so much for the gift of these classes.

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Having only done a few Tai Chi classes over about six months twenty years ago, I was a little apprehensive when I joined the class a few months ago.    I needn’t have been.    Lincoln is very professional and an excellent teacher.   Then lockdown came & the class moved on to Zoom which I had concerns about!   However, I needn’t have worried & have found it incredibly useful.   I find it so helpful to go through all the routines and then the moves in great detail.

I just love the Shibashi routine we’ve learned.    The two classes weekly are the only opportunity I give myself to ‘take time out’ in a really busy life, – even in lockdown!    It requires total concentration & I do really get absorbed in the routine(s) & trying to follow Lincoln’s every move (even in mirror image!).    It is therapeutic mentally as well as being good all round physical exercise which helps the body keep supple.

I am really enjoying the classes and positively look forward to them each week!    

Thank you to Lincoln and Valerie!

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I remember reading a statement by an eminent doctor advising that a long and happy life could be achieved by a healthy diet, regular physical and mental exercise, and choosing the right parents.

I am extremely lucky in my choice of parents and grandparents, all of whom showed bravery and positive attitude in extremely difficult circumstances. I was particularly fond of my maternal grandfather who survived the trenches of the Somme. Despite the hardships, and returning home with shell shock and injuries from gas, he said that it wasn’t too bad because he was with all his mates and their officer was a local gentlemen who was a good leader.

Tai Chi provides the physical and mental exercise we need; and the group provides the companionship and leadership which has encouraged me to do more and think positively. When the first shutdown started, Tai Chi was growing in importance to me, but rarely practiced outside class. Empty hours and daily messages, changed this to daily practice, and I am now starting feel the benefits and beginning to feel a few of the movements.

While there are many benefits and reasons for practicing TaiChi, my bottom line is that I enjoy it.

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Tai Chi in Lockdown

Now we have a level four, life could become a dreadful bore

How to fill the empty hours, count the petals on the flowers?

Just sitting in my chair, life begins to feel unfair

Getting through a book each day, running out of games to play

Christmas Bubble has just burst, that really feels the very worst

Then I go for a walk, see a friend but cannot talk

A glimmer of hope through the gloom, only 2 weeks and back to zoom

Lincoln leading us in line, for that hour, we’ll feel fine

Seeing familiar friendly faces, best attempts, in all cases

I feel so happy after class, even time for chat and laugh

Some movements are quite hard, at the end I do feel tired

Will I remember all we’ve done? from last week, and everyone

Thinking back to the daily e-mail, when starting to follow without fail

By the end I had missed a few, not sure exactly what to do

I will go back to the very start, learning each, off by heart

Will I get through them all?  Not long now, before the zoom call

Got to go now, so much to do, very best wishes and luck to you.

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Tai Chi first entered my psyche just over two years ago,  That painful year I was diagnosed with Spinal Osteoarthritis. Self-fused vertebrae found in Sacrum saddle and poor support across shoulder saddle and neck.  I was ‘firmly encouraged’ by my Doctor to attend a 9 week Chronic Pain Clinic, (humph, that won’t help … WRONG!) I learned a lot about mind and body awareness and Tai Chi was one of the self-help recommendations.

I heard of Tai Chi for Health starting up at Hewitt’s. I guess I could now say …. “and the rest is history” …. but it isn’t. It is my Past, my Present and my Future. Tai Chi has totally changed my life – mind, body and soul and it just keeps on giving. From debilitating Chronic Pain I am now able to do most things I did 10 – 15 years ago, obviously carefully and more measured. So many, many different ways I have learned how to care for every joint, muscle and the concentration of mind that blends it all together. Such fluid, joyful, gentle movements. Posture, breathing, memory, I could go on and on! 

I know for certain that had I not become aware of Tai Chi I would have been unable to celebrate my recent 80th birthday with the mental and physical mobility I did. Every day is a bonus and if I could be an ambassador for anything it would be ……. “scrub morning Assembly in schools and get out into the playground for 20 minutes Tai Chi every morning!”

Many, many thanks to you Lincoln for introducing something to me which has often helped with my ‘raison d’etre!’, also for the work that you put in for the Tai Chi groups, especially these past 9 months. We had a magic summer in your garden.

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I always enjoy the class, and live in hope that one day I’ll brush the correct knee! in Tai Chi.  I keep hoping that like driving it will suddenly click.

The Shibashi has been a revelation, thank you, much easier to practice in a small space..plus a little more two dimensional, thus easier to learn.  However I must remember to slow down a little… As you are seeing we all very much get into the zone.. It’s all good.

Thanks again for being a nice and endlessly patient teacher.

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Really enjoyed the qigong lesson today together with shibashi. I think regular practice has made a big difference to my health and I’m very lucky to have found your classes before restrictions and lockdowns started and be able to continue with the zoom sessions.  

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What a lovely email Lincoln.  Like you I have lovely memories of qigong in 2020.  It was a lovely routine in my upside down Covid world.  My favourite times were the magical sessions in your garden. Thanks to both you and Valerie for allowing us to come into the garden and practice during those beautiful summer days.

 

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Thank you very much for all your efforts.  It is very much appreciated by both of us.  Thank you also to Valerie.

You wanted to know our thoughts regarding the classes:-

I am really enjoying them and feel much more flexible as a result.  In addition I also find them calming and relaxing and like the way the movements seem to flow, especially when practising Shibashi.

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I  now appreciate more the movement of the body in the various exercises  and the overall calming affect it has on you.  Should have joined these classes years ago.

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Remember to breath properly.

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… want to let you know how much your persistence and hard work in keeping the classes going is appreciated.  Plus, how impressed I (and many others I’ve spoken to – socially distanced of course) are at your smooth transition to online classes/communication – nothing like as good as classes in person, and the cup of tea afterwards is just a distant memory, but great that you have kept the weekly classes going.  Thank you!

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Thank you for today it was good.

Thank you also to your wife Valerie, I have never met her but she has helped you so much on Zoom etc, and therefore has helped me too!

My comments re Tai Chi and Shibashi follows.

Tai Chi has made a real difference to my life and being over 80 has helped me with my* balance and coordination. It also relaxes me and lifts my mood. *No falls!

With Lincoln’s expert tuition & his kind consideration, it makes the whole experience very enjoyable

and knowing its doing me good is a bonus!

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Classes have been tremendously good in terms of physical and mental heath, not to mention enjoyable.

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An oasis in the mayhem that it our modern life.

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Relaxing calm and quiet, ‘me time’.

Improving my balance in body and mind.

Tai Chi sustains me for the week ahead giving me renewed energy both physically and mentally, in my very body life.

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Great session yesterday, despite my “back-stop” pains. I particularly enjoyed the first 10/15mins of physical continuity along with the verbal guidance, which helped concentration to reach the “zone” as I call it!! Looking forward to trying to be a butterfly when I can comfortably bend and stretch again! Mohammed Ali never floated as rhythmically as you did yesterday!!!!!😂😂