Seven Mountains Tai Chi, Wellness, & The Taoist Arts TAI CHI, KUNG FU, QIGONG, & SWORDSMANSHIP IN CENTRE COUNTY, PA, USA

NEW SCHOOL FOR 2025

We are so excited to announce that we have a new dedicated location to call home! It's been great working with Cynthia & Tempest Studios, but we have grown so much in this last year, that it is time we find a place to call our own. At this new location, we will be offering classes 6-7 days a week, along with more open training time, and a variety of regular weekend events.

We've signed the lease, but there is a big issue... We are required to get a state licensed architect to submit our plans to to the city. These architects are not offered by the city services, and set their prices themselves. So far, we have not found an architect that doesn't want to charge us 6-9 months of rent to approve our school's plans.

Because of this, we are forced to ask for a little extra support from our community. I have been living off off less than $1,000/month, and now that money is going towards the expenses of having the space. I eat once or twice a day at most, and am doing all I can to get the space ready. I will be doing all the cleaning and labor myself, and had planned to be able to afford this endeavor out of pocket. But I had no idea I would need to spend $8,000 or more on an architect's stamp of approval.

WAYS TO HELP

PREPAY 50% TUITION

For current students that would like to secure their current prices for the new year, we are offering current students the option to prepay 50% of a month's tuition ($50), for starting in 2025. So if you prepay $300, you will only have to pay $50 (instead of $100) January through June of 2025. Each multiple of $50 received will count towards one month of reduced tuition in the new location.

If prepaying your tuition is more comfortable for you, please visit our Wudang Swordsmen Academy PayPal donation page (https://paypal.me/wudang), and write how many months you are prepaying for, so I know it is a prepayment and not a general donation.

FUNDRAISER DONATION

For current students, friends, family, and those that support the arts, we also offering a crowdfunding option for general donations. We started a GoFundMe, and you can donate any value in any amount. All the proceeds from the Fundraiser will go towards our architect requirements fees. Any remaining balance will go toward the construction and repair costs at the facility.

If you would like to just offer a donation, big or small, we would be so appreciative! The easiest way to donate would be to visit our GoFundMe campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-seven-mountains-tai-chi-build-a-new-home) and donating online there. Thank you so much for your generosity and your faith in our vision.

WELLNESS or FITNESS?

The ideas of wellness and fitness can sometimes be confused or treated as the same thing. But they are both unique from one another. As aspects of health, wellness can be consider yin, while fitness is considered yang. What does this mean?

Yin is about turning inward, introspection, and reinforcing what you have. Building the small muscles groups & tendons, our wellness training allows someone to reach their maximum health. Maintaining one's health to prevent the declines of age, laziness, and dealing with pass injuries, are all qualities of one's wellness. Getting through day to day life becomes easier as you refine your wellness. Your ability to stand or walk for extended periods of time, using all your joints, core strength, and a focused mind are all aspects of wellness.

Fitness on the other hand, is the yang idea of health. Fitness includes cardio, strength, flexibility, & expanding one's ability to interact with the world around them. While wellness increases the quality within, fitness increases the qualities to interact outward. Your ability to lift more, run faster, wrestle stronger, touch your toes are all aspects of fitness.

All training is both! If you practice wellness skills, you will gradually become stronger, better cardio, etc. And when you lift weights or run, your gains will be noticeable faster, but you will be more prone to injury without practices that also develop the supportive structures for sustainability.

Many martial arts sacrifice wellness for fitness. This is true about many practices. Even yoga has these two polarities in the different styles! In the Wudang & Daoist arts, we have both practices. Younger students are recommended to train 70% fitness & 30% wellness. As you age, you will want to preserve the benefits you gained with your fitness practice, and prevent injury. To do, over the lifetime of your training, you will begin to switch their balance to 70% wellness. Those that are dealing with injuries, getting over sickness, or are starting physical activities late in life should focus mostly on wellness until they feel comfortable with all the primary skills for healing & protecting the body.

• Tai Chi - Tai Chi (or Taijiquan, traditionally) is one of the most prestigious martial arts in the world. The most practiced martial art in the world, tai chi has developed over the past 100 years into something completely new. With a focus on wellness & health, many martial artists in their old age will transition into more internal and softer martial arts, as a way to preserve the body & prevent injuries. As the art grew into a health program instead of a martial skillset, Taijiquan become what we call Tai Chi. Here at 7MWMA, our tai chi programs are based on Xia's completely redesigned approach to tai chi for health. Life Nourishing Tai Chi extracts those key principles that have been lost over the years as people practiced only the dance (the choreographed form of all the movements), and lose the qualities. In this program, the basic mechanics are discovered, and put into the body. Life Nourishing Tai Chi amazes all students when even after the first class, they begin seeing their body and interactions with the world in a new way. If there is one health program Xia would recommend, it would be the LNTC program.
• Qigong - Qigong is a term we use in the west that blankets a wide array of wellness practices. The umbrella called Yang Sheng Gong (Life Nourishing Arts) includes all practices that focus on health and development. When you do fitness, this is body work. When you coordinate breath and action with the focus on a health benefit, this is Qigong, or effort/energy work. When you practice internal body awareness and traversing intention, you are now practicing spirit/intention work. All of our health arts are a combination & a variety of these practices. Qigong is the term that is most familiar for these types of awareness development, moving the joints, & stretching the body while doing breathing meditations.
• Meditation – Meditation is the cornerstone of spirit practices. Not spirit in a magical sense, but as a collective term for willpower, intention, perseverance, focus, & the other mental and personality traits. Meditation is not about seeing who can sit still the longest (only in the kids class). Meditation is not about achieving some mystical skill or clairvoyance. If you can practice meditation, you are enhancing your mental flexibility & constitution in all situations. By being able to return to a meditative mind throughout your day will bring both health and energy benefits through out your day. Our meditation exercises are all from our Daoist lineages, as Xia has structured the program to develop the skills & abilities, instead of just mimicking an image, idealization, or misconception of what meditation is.