For two years, I practiced qigong almost entirely alone. I thought it was simply a part of my daily grounding routine – until it turned out to be preparation for a moment I’ll never forget.

When I sold my company last year, I thought my next chapter would be an online coaching business. I had offers, pricing, and landing pages, and I even hired a business coach to help me with positioning and marketing. But every plan I made felt wrong after a few days and got shelved for one reason or another.

What I couldn’t see was that something was happening underneath all my planning. My daily qigong practice—bare feet in the grass, ten to twenty minutes a day—was building a readiness I couldn’t have planned for.

Then in May, while attending a business retreat in Peru, I taught qigong outdoors in the Sacred Valley to a group of entrepreneurs I’d just met. They felt the energy I’d been cultivating alone for two years. For the first time, I felt the difference between practicing for a camera and practicing in community. I came home knowing my work wasn’t online—it was in person, in my neighborhood, in rooms I couldn’t yet see.

Then about a week after returning home, the teacher at a local qigong class I had signed up for didn’t show. Seven of us were waiting, when someone asked if I would lead the class. I said yes without hesitating, and after class the students paid me!

This is the story of how my qigong practice built the business I wasn’t planning—and what I’m building now in real life, in my neighborhood, with people who want to practice in community.

Chapters

• 0:00 An insane turn of events
• 0:27 The two years that made that magical moment possible
• 1:25 The online business I was trying to build
• 3:27 Showing up for myself: the practice underneath
• 5:58 Peru and the moment something cracked open
• 7:10 The Thursday I said yes
• 8:17 What I’m building now

Script, film, and edits by Amber Gray for the Dharma Artist Collective DAC Games Q2 2026 Submission.

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If this resonates, I share a weekly note called Fresh Qi — stories from my own life and practice, a short guided movement video, and something worth thinking about on focus, steady presence, and doing good work without losing yourself. Sign up here for emails on Tuesdays.