Local Health Spotlight: Join Dr. Shannon Freeman for The Daily Container

Local Health Spotlight: Join Dr. Shannon Freeman for The Daily Container

An 8-Week Qigong Course in Bellingham’s Health & Wellness Community

Health and Exercise Prescriptions® shares local health and wellness resources to help you discover practitioners, educational opportunities, and complementary approaches available in our community.

Discover a Different Way to Practice Movement, Breath, and Awareness

Your health does not have to come from one practitioner, one exercise program, or one way of looking at the body.

Bellingham and Whatcom County are home to a wide range of health, movement, rehabilitation, and wellness professionals. Each brings a different set of skills, experiences, and traditions to the community.

Through our Local Health Spotlight, Health and Exercise Prescriptions® wants to help connect you with some of those practitioners and the opportunities they are creating.

This fall, Dr. Shannon Freeman, D.Ac., DCEM, of A Better Way Acupuncture & Energetic Medical Qigong, is offering an eight-week live Qigong course called The Daily Container.

If Qigong is something you have been curious about but have never experienced, the first week of the course is open to the public.

What Is The Daily Container?

The Daily Container is an eight-week course focused on what Dr. Freeman describes as energetic hygiene and foundational Qigong practice.

Rather than introducing Qigong during a single class, the eight-week format gives participants time to return to the practice repeatedly.

That can make a meaningful difference when learning any mind-body skill.

You have time to experience the movements, become more familiar with breathing and attention practices, ask questions, and gradually explore how Qigong might fit into your everyday life.

A practice becomes more useful when it can leave the classroom and become something you actually know how to use.

What Is Qigong?

Qigong is a traditional Chinese mind-body practice that can combine:

• Gentle movement

• Posture

• Breathing

• Focused attention

• Meditation

• Body awareness

There are many different styles and traditions.

Some Qigong practices involve flowing movement. Others may be quiet, slow, or nearly stationary.

You do not have to be particularly athletic or flexible to become curious about this type of practice.

At a very practical level, Qigong invites you to notice what is happening in your body.

How are you standing?

How are you breathing?

Where are you holding tension?

Are you rushing through movement without actually feeling it?

Can you slow down enough to notice the difference between effort and unnecessary effort?

These questions can be useful far beyond Qigong.

They can also show up in exercise, rehabilitation, yoga, meditation, massage, mobility work, breathing practices, and everyday movement.

Not Every Health Practice Has to Feel Like Exercise

At Health and Exercise Prescriptions®, much of our work involves helping people improve strength, mobility, movement capacity, recovery, and confidence in their bodies.

But health does not always require doing more.

Sometimes you need strength.

Sometimes you need cardiovascular conditioning.

Sometimes you need mobility.

And sometimes you may benefit from slowing your movements down enough to notice what your body is telling you.

Breathing differently, reducing unnecessary muscular tension, paying attention to posture, and becoming more aware of your body's responses can all become part of a broader approach to well-being.

Qigong offers one way to explore that conversation.

It does not need to replace exercise, rehabilitation, medical treatment, or other appropriate care.

It can simply be another practice available to you.

Learn more about our approach to movement and recovery at:

Health and Exercise Prescriptions®https://www.healthandexerciseprescriptions.com/

Why Eight Weeks?

A single class can introduce an idea.

Repeated practice gives you an opportunity to learn it.

Your body learns many things this way.

Coordination improves through repetition.

Strength develops through repeated exposure.

Breathing techniques become easier with practice.

Movement patterns become more familiar.

Even something as simple as noticing that your shoulders are constantly elevated can become easier once you have spent time intentionally paying attention to them.

An eight-week course gives participants an opportunity to experience a practice, return to it, refine it, and gradually build familiarity.

Instead of trying Qigong once and wondering whether you were doing it correctly, you have time to explore it.

Meet Dr. Shannon Freeman

Dr. Shannon Freeman practices locally at A Better Way Acupuncture & Energetic Medical Qigong in Bellingham.

Her work includes acupuncture and Energetic Medical Qigong, offering another approach within Bellingham's broader complementary health community.

Her practice is located in Fairhaven at:

A Better Way Acupuncture & Energetic Medical Qigong

1118 Finnegan Way, Suite 103, Bellingham, WA 98225

Phone:(360) 366-4216

Website:https://www.doctorshannonfreeman.com/

Appointments and Course Registration:https://doctorshannon.janeapp.com/

The Daily Container

An 8-Week Qigong Course in Energetic Hygiene and Foundational Practice

Instructor: Dr. Shannon Freeman, D.Ac., DCEM

Format: Live on Zoom

Day: Mondays

Time: 6:00–7:00 PM Pacific

Dates: October 12 – November 30, 2026

Week 1: Open to the public

Weeks 2–8: Closed-door training for participants continuing with the course

Register: https://doctorshannon.janeapp.com/

Curious About Qigong? Start With Week One

One of the most welcoming aspects of this offering is that Week 1 is open to the public.

You do not necessarily have to understand Qigong before attending.

That is what an introductory experience is for.

You can experience Dr. Freeman's teaching style, learn more about the practice, and decide whether continuing with the full course feels right for you.

Sometimes the easiest way to understand a new health practice is simply to experience it.

Health Is Bigger Than Any One Office

No practitioner has to provide every piece of your health care.

A physical therapist may help you recover after an injury or surgery.

Medical exercise may help you transition back into greater activity.

Massage and bodywork may support movement and recovery.

An acupuncturist may bring another perspective.

A counselor or mental-health professional may help address stress, relationships, or emotional health.

A nutrition professional may help you change what happens at the dinner table.

A Qigong, yoga, meditation, or movement teacher may introduce a practice that eventually becomes part of your daily life.

There can be room for many approaches when they are used thoughtfully and within an appropriate scope of practice.

At Health and Exercise Prescriptions®, our role is centered on helping people improve movement, function, recovery, strength, and long-term physical capacity.

You can learn more here:

Medical Exercise & Post-Rehabhttps://www.healthandexerciseprescriptions.com/medical-exercise-post-rehab

Massage & Integrated Bodyworkhttps://www.healthandexerciseprescriptions.com/orthopedic-massage-bellingham

Supporting Local Practitioners Helps Build a Healthier Community

There are knowledgeable practitioners doing interesting work throughout Bellingham and Whatcom County.

Sometimes people simply do not know those resources exist.

That is one reason we are creating the Health and Exercise Prescriptions® Local Health Spotlight.

When we learn about a local workshop, course, educational program, community event, or health-related opportunity that may be useful to our readers, we want to help people discover it.

Supporting another practitioner does not diminish what any of us provide.

A stronger network gives people more options.

And better connections between practitioners can make it easier for you to find the kind of support that fits where you are right now.

Are You a Local Health or Wellness Practitioner?

If you work in Bellingham or Whatcom County and have an upcoming workshop, educational event, class, community program, or other health-related offering, Health and Exercise Prescriptions® would like to hear about it.

Our Local Health Spotlight is designed to introduce our community to the people and resources working around us.

Your services do not need to duplicate ours.

In fact, that is part of the idea.

A healthy community benefits from many knowledgeable people doing different kinds of work well.

Author: Jaime Hernandez, LMT, MES, CPT

Thank you for your time and energy.

Be well.

Legal Disclaimer

This article is provided for educational and community-information purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Health and Exercise Prescriptions® is sharing this course as a local community resource. Inclusion of a practitioner, business, class, or health practice does not mean that a particular service or approach is appropriate for every individual.

Qigong and other complementary mind-body practices should not be used to delay or replace appropriate medical care, rehabilitation, or treatment.

If you have a medical condition, significant balance or mobility limitations, are recovering from injury or surgery, are pregnant, or have concerns about participating in a new physical practice, consult an appropriate healthcare professional and the course instructor when necessary.