Peabody, MA —   Chi gong seems to encompass everything Western life doesn’t. Gold medal winning teacher Lisa Kirshon describes it as “learning how to be slow, still and in the moment. It is flowing on your posture. It puts you in the relaxation state.”
Kirshon of Peabody has been practicing Chinese martial arts and healing arts for 18 years and has been teaching and competing for 16 years. This year she won three gold and two silver medals at the USA Wushu Kungfu Federation National Championships at Eastern Connecticut State University.
In local senior centers, JCCs, hospitals and temples, she teaches both chi gong and tai chai, Chinese forms of healing that are centuries old.
In the West, Chinese forms of healing arts are viewed as outside of the mainstream. In China, however, chi gong is one of the main branches of Chinese medicine, Kirshon said.
“No matter what physical condition you are in, you can do chi gong and tai chi,” said Kirshon of Peabody. “We have got to learn to slow down and keep 25 percent of our energy on reserve. We build up strength from the inside out.”
The Malden-raised youthful looking mother of two teenaged daughters laughed, recalling that a 90-year-old man in one of her JCC classes told her he was quitting.
“It’s too slow,” he complained.
The expectation is different from the reality, she mused.
“Tai chi is choreographed movements. It doesn’t matter if you don’t [remember] them. You are focused in the moment. You are not thinking about pain, like when you are in prayer,” she said. “I keep my classes light, humorous, and make people feel comfortable. It is a stress reducer. I make it work for everybody.”
Rowena Winik, who turns 72 next week, is a walking advertisement for Kirshon. Winik, retired CFO of Hebrew College, said she has had many chi gong and tai chi instructors but Kirshon’s unique methods are the best by far.
“There’s a quality in Lisa — she understands what these forms do for you emotionally and physically,” Winik said. “I think you have to be on my side of the floor to watch how she teaches her classes to understand what makes Lisa a champion. She’s a gold medal winner and you can see when you work with her long enough how that happens.”
One must do it regularly to learn the form, but once the movements become second nature it “puts you in a mood that is calming and at the same time exhilarating,” Winik said.
Class members tell Kirshon what they want to work on that day. Some say they have back pain, or they want to work on kidney or liver function. Kirshon will demonstrate which forms will massage certain organs.
“It’s all done in the most graceful and glorious movements,” Winik said. “I’m lifted out of myself, in both chi gong and tai chi, but chi gong addresses the medical issues.”
Winik is also a tap dancer with Senior Moments Tap Group at the Marblehead Senior Center, led by Anne McCue. It’s another endeavor that keeps her feeling fit.
Winik takes medications for what she calls “the big three,” cholesterol, hypothyroid and hypertension. Her doctor tells her they are well under control. She credits her dancing with bringing her cholesterol down 100 points.
Marvin Sterman, 80, had a stroke two years ago. He practiced chi gong with Kirshon both before and after the stroke.
“For me it was balancing that’s important, and I can still do it,” Sterman said. “There were a lot of people around me. I had people working with me, doing it alongside me and I could hold positions for a long time. Overall it helped me feel good.”
Sterman, who uses a cane only when he goes for walks outdoors, works three days a week at the Saugus Trader Joe’s. His positive attitude, said his wife Shirley, has helped him rehabilitate after his stroke.
“The movements are very slow,” said Shirley, who declined to give her age. “It’s very pretty. Each movement has its own name. I wasn’t anywhere near as good at it as Marvin. If Lisa was going to be late for a class, she’d leave a message for Marvin to lead it.”
Chi gong has helped Shirley with her concentration and memory; and when she was taking classes, she always left with a sense of accomplishment.
Kirshon, who teaches all over the North Shore, noted that the New Year is a time for cleansing, purifying and replenishing the body and mind.
Our minds are filled with preconceived notions that need to be emptied, she said. “Chi gong is always emptying to fill up again.”
She compared meditation that is done with these forms of Chinese healing postures with davening (praying) in temple. “You are not in thought when davening. It’s like chi gong. You are cultivating a skill.”
Despite her affection for Chinese martial arts, Kirshon has not become a Buddhist. She is a practicing Jew and became a bat mitzvah in her hometown Malden shul, Temple Tifereth Israel.