World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day begins a Life Journey
. . .
benefiting "MANY" women in the Kansas State Correctional Facility for Women



Linda Bower's amazing World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day story, is a CLASSIC example of the world altering potential of this health & healing event we have all created together.
                                               

. . . Eight years ago Nan Bowers, pictured right above, saw World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day Founder, Bill Douglas, on a television news program at 6 am in the morning on a fine Saturday morning in April. Bill was inviting everyone in the Kansas City area down to try out a free Tai Chi lesson and then participate by playing Tai Chi with a couple hundred people in a mass Tai Chi exhibition.

Bill's appeal worked in a bigger way than he'd dreamed. Not that over a dozen newspaper and television stations covered the event, or that CNN carried it worldwide, . . . but that Nan Bowers, watching on her television, would then encourage her daughter Linda (pictured above left) to attend the Kansas City Tai Chi Club's mass Tai Chi & Qigong educational event (which the next year would become "World Tai Chi & Qigong Day").

Linda knew almost from the day she began enjoying Tai Chi that she would be doing it for the rest of her life. Almost immediately Linda began to feel happier and more vibrant, but she also began to lose chronic pain and regain mobility from an accident years before that had almost taken her life when she was hit by a car while walking across the street. These profound benefits told Linda that she would need to learn Tai Chi well so that she could begin sharing it with others.

This road of personal discovery eventually led Linda to teach Tai Chi at the Kansas State Correctional Facility for Women in Topeka (see above photo). There she has taught dozens of women inmates the Guang Ping Yang Style Long Form, of about 20 minutes of continuous movements. This is no small feat, as the long form is too daunting a task for many people to learn, but Linda has so captured the imagination of women at the prison that she's inspired dozens, almost 40 women to completely learn the entire Long Form of Tai Chi.

Next week is a special week!! Today Linda gave copies of Certificates of Achievement to the Governor of Kansas at a meeting at the state capitol. The other copies will be presented to the newly certified teachers at the correctional facility. These two ladies are the first two of Linda's prison classes participants to become certified as Tai Chi Teachers. They are currently sharing their knowledge of Tai Chi and Qigong with other inmates, and perhaps one day may share it with many more people on the outside as professional Tai Chi & Qigong Teachers, who'll be able to speak from a powerful and authentic place from their own healing experiences with Tai Chi & Qigong.

Linda Bowers, now also teaches Tai Chi at two local community colleges, and other locations, and her work is a "CLASSIC EXAMPLE" of what your (our) work on World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day, and using the media tools and educational resources offered at www.worldtaichiday.org can do . . . this site, this event, coupled with your knowledge and good intentions can become a catalyst that can change the world for many people . . . and in the end for all of us . . . as we are ultimately all connected.