Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi — Local services in Decatur

I recently retired and have joined Body & Brain Yoga Tai Chi. I am enjoying it so much because it is the answer to helping me strengthen my "core" body and feel better overall. Each session is designed to open up trapped energy throughout the body with stretching, breathing, energetic movements and relaxed concentration. Also, Master ChunMu is an extraordinary and resourceful teacher. The results of her personal touch to the Body & Brain "water up, fire down" approach to multidimensional healing has had immediate effects on my overall sense of well-being. At 71, I feel very relaxed and renewed after each session.Come join us! Will Coleman, Ph.D.

This is a more recent and updated review:

6-25-25 Heart Healing “Body and Brain” Testimony I am a 71 years young retired professor. 56 years ago, at the age of 15, I was diagnosed as having a “heart murmur.” At that time, I had participated in track and field in junior high school. I stopped. Over the decades, I paced myself and life style according to my initial diagnosis. Periodic examinations modified the diagnosis to “septum wall anomaly.” Last year, during my annual physical in August, my primary care health professional noticed that my EKG was abnormal and recommended that I see a heart specialist. I did not do so immediately. During my mid-year assessment in February, my blood pressure had raised significantly and as erratic. I went to the specialist and underwent a series of examinations during a four months period (March – June): EKG, heart echo, thread-mill stress test, nuclear stress test, coradic artery echo. In early March, I joined Body and Brain Yoga Tai Chi at the Decatur Center with Master ChunMu. I began practicing everyday, sometimes twice a day: “core and intestine work, flexibility and breath work, tai chi and qi gong and energy flow.” Plus, I would do my “homework” assignments both online and on my own. During a conversation with my heart specialist in May, I was surprised and stunned when he reported to me that my heart is “normal and strong.” I asked him to repeat what he had said because I had been carrying the opposite in my own “body and brain” for 56 years, including as a result of my most recent EKG with my primary care health professional. The heart specialist repeated what he had said and added that there were no restrictions to the type of exercises I could do. Likewise, my arteries had no significant plaque accumulation or blockages. My next visits are scheduled for 6 months and 1 year from that conversation. Otherwise, the case is closed with a 56 years verdict reversed. Subsequently, I had a televisit with my primary health care physician. We have a great conversation about the results and progress of my overall well-being. Also, I told her about my “Body and Brain” experience and practices. She said, “Keep doing it. These practices are thousands of years old and now science verifies their value. Also, it is good for stress management. Stay with it and I will see you in August.” So, the techniques of “Body and Brain Yoga Tai Chi” have given me this heart healing testimony. And my teacher, Master ChunMu, is great. Come join us in downtown Decatur, Ga. Will...

I feel compelled to add my negative experience despite the many five star reviews. I hope to prevent others from investing in an expensive annual membership and then feel trapped in a program you don't enjoy. Master Chunmun is knowledgeable and attentive, however, her teaching style is unlike any of the 33 years of yoga practice I've done. She is very brusque in her instructions and just when I'd feel relaxed and in my own comfort zone, she frequently calls on an individual to tell how you feel or after a period of time in the practice yell out, "do you feel that?" and reprimand the class if everyone doesn't respond. (Of course we feel it. We're moving our bodies.) This practice style happened EVERY time I attended class. I've seen her laugh when a student couldn't achieve the pose or movement she had instructed. It was very annoying and stressful to attend class in such an environment. I'm a public school teacher with 31 years of experience, and I know what good teaching looks like. Another downside of the practice is the sharing at the end of class. Masher Chun claimed it was the most important part of class once when I rolled up my mat to leave before this part of the class. I found it to be like group therapy in which I didn't want to hear or share, and I didn't appreciate being shamed for leaving when the practice was finished. Some times the sharing could extend class for15-20 minutes, which I found inconsiderate of my time only to hear how the practice benefitted each person in class that day. Furthermore, if you are looking for Tai Chi instruction, as I was, this is not the practice for you. There is only one day a week in which Tai Chi in the traditional method with the Tai Chi poses are taught. The other classes are a lot of stretching and tapping your body, which is okay but it's not Tai Chi or Quigong. I would suggest asking for a free trial class before you get locked into a one year membership only to find you don't care for the instruction, which was my experience. Additionally, when other instructors taught the class as substitutes for Master Chun,...

I really dislike writing negative reviews, however I feel this one is necessary because classes like these are costly and because I believe it is important to find instruction that is trustworthy for such a personal and spiritual practice. My introductory session went so well and I was hopeful and looking forward to my classes here. After the intro, I signed on for a month (the lowest starter level possible). After my first class, I know now this place is unsuited to me. I strongly feel that a practice such as this one should happen in a place where you feel safe to share and in a trusting, nonjudgmental environment. While I enjoyed the exercise and being with the group there, we did not, I believe, actually learn Tai Chi. I dislike some of the instructor's methods enough to decide returning would be too distressing to me. During the end of the first class he invited each of us to share our thoughts about the class. One young woman asked why we shook during the class. He asked her what her goals were for this class and she responded, "Strength, flexibility, and clarity of mind." He then said, "How does that question help you to meet your goals?" He told her she could google it. I felt this response during a time in which we had been invited to ask questions and share thoughts was especially rude and belittling. The instructor also asked me before class to share my experience of meditation with him and I told him what forms of meditation I practiced. He interrupted me at one point and told me that I was not grounded enough to do the form I was describing. I have been meditating now for several decades and I choose the forms of meditation enjoyable to me and that work for me. I am also a well grounded person. One of the goals I had set at the beginning of class with him was that I wanted to increase my confidence by taking Tai Chi. I fail to see how the critical nature of this class can assist me in achieving that goal. I also came to this class to learn Tai Chi rather than overhaul my own spiritual and personal practices or to have an assessment...