July 2020 | Program Host: Vicki Dello Joio
Located in New Jersey, less than an hour from New York City, Laura’s suburban town was engulfed by the corona virus epidemic in March of 2020. By April, Laura’s county had become one of the nation’s hottest COVID-19 hot-spots.
A caregiver to a diagnostically high-risk elderly husband, as well as having tended both her parents through their difficult final years of life, Laura has been using all the tools in her accumulated qigong repertoire to maintain calm, insight and perspective.
In this program, we will be talking about the value of routine in the daily practice of centering. Laura will describe how she incorporates breathwork with nature imagery. While in motion with her favorite qigong forms, she opens her heart and mind for insights, lifting fears to the universe, hoping for the grace of gratitude and the courage to carry on.
LAURA BERZOFSKY began her daily qigong journey in 1992, after a serious experience with cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City. Her doctors suggested tai chi as one of a number of healthful post-treatment modalities with potential to optimize outcomes. She switched from tai chi to qigong after a magical experience practicing outdoors, in nature, with an elder Chinese gentleman who had survived tremendous ordeals during Mao’s Communist Revolution.
Nine years later, Laura’s training as a certified professional qigong teacher in New York and New Jersey began literally on 9/11. She has been teaching continuously for nineteen years, incorporating nature imagery into every move. A passionate volunteer for a number of worthy causes, Laura has developed a unique format: Her qigong classes operate as fundraisers for charity, promoting local teachers and NQA resources to the general public.
Immensely thankful for the many teachers and practices she has been lucky to study with and learn from, Laura is also grateful for the beauty of nature surrounding her tiny suburban back stoop: a refuge in the world of self-quarantine and social distance.
