Resident leads Healing Waters Qigong group at Lake Hiawatha

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By TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN When Standish-Ericsson resident Emily Jarrett Hughes was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in 2006, she turned to Spring Forest Qigong to complement her doctor’s treatments. “I was willing to try anything,” recalled Jarrett Hughes. The meditation practices she learned helped her sleep and relax. After treatment, she went into remission. When she had a recurrence of cancer in 2009, she amped up the support she was receiving from qigong (pronounced “chee gong”). “Then I had a break-through experience and I got hooked,” said Jarrett Hughes. The peace and energy she experienced through qigong practices were an important part of her recovery from cancer. “It was the most meaningful part of my healing process,” observed Jarrett Hughes. Qigong at HiawathaHealing Waters group meets at Lake Hiawatha She began taking classes at Qigong Master Chunyi Lin’s Spring Forest Qigong facility in Eden Prairie in 2009. Jarrett Hughes has nearly completed her certification as a master healer. In April 2015, Jarrett Hughes began leading the Healing Waters Spring Forest Qigong Practice Group at Lake Hiawatha Park on Wednesdays. During the summer, the class will meet from 9-10am among the pines overlooking the lake near Minnehaha Pkwy. and 27th Ave. S. In September, the group will resume meeting from 3:30-4:30pm in the recreation center.  The suggested donation is $5 per class. No experience is necessary. Exercises are simple and are easy to learn, said Jarrett Hughes. Participate while either seated or standing. She welcomes beginners, monkey minds, and fidgeters. “They leave looking brighter in their faces and more energized,” said Jarrett Hughes. The group’s name, “Healing Waters,” is multi-faceted. Not only does Jarrett Hughes believe that the lake generates a sense of peacefulness and connection for practice group attendees, but they turn around and pass that energy through the lake to benefit others. “It’s just restorative to come to the lake,” observed Jarrett Hughes. What is qigong? Qigong is a way of working (gong) with the energy of life (qi). Spring Forest Qigong is based on the understanding that everything in the universe is energy. While many people think of energy as being only electricity or gasoline, qigong recognizes that everything in the universe is a form of energy. As explained on Jarrett Hughes’ website, http://www.wisdomdances.com: “Everything is energy. Albert Einstein is famous for his elegant formula e=mc2, which describes how any matter has an energy equivalent. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.” Jarrett Hughes does not believe that there is good or bad energy—only energy that is in or out of balance. A flood or drought is a symptom of an energy imbalance. Aches and pains or illnesses are also energy imbalances. There are many types of qigong, but Spring Forest Qigong focuses on health. “The purpose of it is to teach movement and meditation practices that can help people feel more calm, balanced and relaxed,” explained Jarrett Hughes. She added, “It’s something you can do yourself. You can go to a healer, but you can also learn these things and take care of your own health.” A life that is “more than” Jarrett Hughes begins each qigong session by explaining what it is. Next come active exercises —gentle motions that help balance the body. These slow, meditative movements are similar to Tai Chi. She guides participants through a meditation. Often, in a class that includes meditation people are told to sit in silence for 20 minutes. “That’s hard,” acknowledges Jarrett Hughes. Recently, an attendee praised the meditation at a Healing Waters session as the best she’d ever had, which Jarrett Hughes credits to it being guided. She pointed out that guided meditations help build a sense of inner peace. At the end of each session, there is a group healing. Each attendee focuses on another. Most people see results; perhaps the headache or back pain they came with is gone, or they feel a sense of love, said Jarrett Hughes. “Everybody is born a healer,” remarked Jarrett Hughes. “Everyone can learn to heal themselves and can help others learn to heal.” Jarrett Hughes feels that her qigong practices have strengthened her other spiritual practices, but she points out it does not require any specific spiritual beliefs. In addition to leading the practice group, Jarrett Hughes also offers one-on-one healing sessions. “What I love about my healing work is that people start living a life that is more than,” remarked Jarrett Hughes. Through qigong, Jarrett Hughes is developing who she is and what she wants to do with her life. “I’m really living my sense of purpose, and I find never-ending joy in that,” she stated. She and spouse, Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, practice qigong with their six-year-old daughter. They frequently do five minutes of qigong active exercises before bedtime.

“It’s a calming we can do together as a family,” explained Jarrett Hughes. QigongDance as meditation In addition to qigong, Jarrett Hughes also teaches dance classes. The Hive and the Well group meets every other Tuesday night to dance on a beautiful garden labyrinth in Corcoran. A dancer who began studying ballet as a young child, Jarrett Hughes had to stop because of tendinitis in her legs. The loss of dancing was devastating.

In college, she studied dance composition and then spent two years learning world dances with international teacher Laura Shannon. Her search for a style of dance she could do led Jarrett Hughes to the traditional village dances of the Balkans and Asia Minor. These dances come from a culture where people worked hard and lived hard lives, she explained. Done in a circle, they are a way to help people connect with each other. They are dances the young and the old and everybody in between could do. Although her heritage is Western European and is marked by Roman Catholicism, Jarrett Hughes says she connects with those traditions found in Eastern European Orthodox churches. “I see them as close cultural cousins,” she observed. As with qigong, Jarrett Hughes finds energy and vitality in these traditional dances. They sweep the dancer away, as well, and take on a meditative quality. One Balkan dance is inspired by the honey bee, which used to be the only source of the sweetener they had. In the spring, the young women went from house to house dancing and honoring the honey bees living at each home. The Hive and the Well group recalls this tradition. Jarrett Hughes will also be sharing her Bee Love dances and activities during the Greenway Glow and Powderhorn Independence Day celebration.

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