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Cultivation is a word rooted in agriculture. It means preparing the soil, sowing, nourishing, pruning and caring for what wants to grow. Growth cannot be forced. What we can do is create the conditions in which something can unfold in its own time.
Inner cultivation works in much the same way. We tend our own soil: the body we inhabit, the patterns we have formed and the way we meet what life brings us. The question is not whether life shapes us, but what kind of soil takes shape as a result. Does it become increasingly hard and depleted, or looser, richer and more nourishing?
The five elements reveal movements we need along the way. Wood opens space and gives the impulse for growth. Fire warms, inspires and sets us in motion. Metal brings order and distinguishes what is essential. Water reconnects us with our rhythm and essence, teaching us to move with life without losing ourselves. Earth receives, digests and allows our experiences to settle into the body and into life.
What I took from the Metal module is how discipline naturally changes its charge through practice. At first, it can still feel hard and iron-like: practising when we do not feel like it, returning when we would rather turn away. Yet through repetition, that discipline condenses into crystalline clarity. What first takes effort gradually becomes an embodied structure from which we can discern and act with precision.
That clarity only acquires meaning when it settles into our own soil. Otherwise, it remains an insight or a beautiful experience, without truly becoming part of who we are and how we live. Cultivation is therefore not only about what we experience during our practice, but about making our own soil increasingly receptive and nourishing.
We may meditate, practise Chi Kung or strengthen our core for one hour each day. But that still leaves twenty-three hours. If we practise for two hours, twenty-two remain. How do we eat, work and rest during those hours? How do we speak with others? Where is our attention? And how do we respond when things do not go as hoped?
The quality of our cultivation does not reveal itself only in the quiet of the practice room, but especially when life touches us. Practice is where we learn to recognise, nourish and refine something. Life itself is where it becomes embodied.
Gradually, cultivation becomes less something we do for an hour each day and more a way of inhabiting our lives. Just as fertile soil is not created by a single abundant rainfall, inner richness does not arise from one insight or intense experience. It grows through attention, rhythm, nourishment, boundaries, rest and time — by caring for what gives life and letting go of what no longer serves the soil.
Warmly,
Gonnie |
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ALCHEMY OF LIFE YEAR TRAINING
Because we want to encourage circular learning, you get a 30% repeat discount if you have already done this training!
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Dates: (Brussels time)
10/10/2026 09:30 - 17:30
21/11/2026 09:30 - 17:30
12/12/2026 09:30 - 17:30
09/01/2027 09:30 - 17:30
27/02/2027 09:30 - 17:30
13/03/2027 09:30 - 17:30
10/04/2027 09:30 - 17:30
01/05/2027 09:30 - 17:30
29/05/2027 09:30 - 17:30
26/06/2027 09:30 - 17:30
Teachers: Dirk Oellibrandt, Mieke Van Zon, Elke Wilssens
Location: Hamme
On October 10th, our Alchemy of Life year training begins.
Over the course of 9 Saturdays, approximately one per month, Dirk, Mieke, and Elke will guide you on a powerful and profound journey to the core of who you are. Hundreds of people have already taken part in this training, experiencing lasting changes in their consciousness, relationships, and lives.
The foundation is simple: coming back into your body. Opening, strengthening, and inhabiting your body again. From there, your life force can begin to flow freely again, and the natural qualities of your soul become clear.
We go inward, moving through your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual layers.
We discover the 5 elements within you and explore how they are at work in your life.
We connect with the spirits that support and guide you on your path, and learn to listen again to what your body and your deeper nature are telling you.
We explore your elementals: the thought patterns that dominate your life, influence your behaviour, and block your potential. By making these patterns visible and releasing them, the way you see, feel, choose, and act begins to change.
And from there, you can begin to connect with your Life Project: what truly wants to be lived and expressed through you?
You reclaim your place in your own life, as the king or queen on your own throne.
We work with meditation, self-massage, bodywork, 5-element yoga, Meridian Chi Kung, Life Force Ritual, inner alchemy, and much more. It is a practical and experiential training that brings together all the different aspects of the Life Projects offering.
Because we come together every month, you have the time and the invitation not only to experience what you discover, but also to truly integrate and cultivate it.
After each session, you receive concrete exercises and themes to explore and deepen in your daily life.
This means the training does not stop when you go home. What you learn has the opportunity to continue working through your body, your consciousness, and your everyday life.
More info & registration: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/alchemie-van-leven-jaartraining-2026-2027/ |
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ALCHEMY OF BODYWORK ESSENTIALS
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Dates (Brussels time):
15/10/2026 09:30 - 17:30
16/10/2026 09:30 - 17:30
Teacher: Dirk Oellibrandt
Location: Hamme
During the Alchemy of Bodywork – Essentials you learn to feel the different elements and depths of energy from a ‘beginner’s mind’ . This is highly recommended for those who want to become a bodyworkeror want to better understand the connection between the different bodywork modules.
The ‘Alchemy of Bodywork’ method uses the intelligence of the five elements in response to the specific needs of the client at that time. It is a dynamic, living method whereby the offered program is never taught twice in the same way, and yet it is based on the unchangeable cosmic laws. The strength of the method is the infinite potential in its application possibilities. The challenge is to combine the different elements in an alchemic bath and treatment flow. That requires practice and also guidance.
More info & registration: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/alchemy-of-bodywork-essentials-oktober-2026/ |
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MERIDIAN CHI KING ESSENTIALS IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS
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Dates (Brussels time) & Locations:
Hamme: 23 October 2026, 09:30 - 17:30
Den Bosch: 24 October 2026, 09:30 - 17:30
Teacher: Dirk Oellibrandt
The content of this introductory day connects directly to the free introduction lecture of 23 September (see above in the newsletter). It is highly recommended as a preparation for this day. During this day, you will mainly experience the different components of Meridian Chi Kung yourself: opening, activating, energy flow, cleansing, strengthening, and increasing awareness. This allows you to feel the effects immediately. Once you can sink back into the intelligence of the body, the connection with the field of life and nature opens again, and all kinds of physical, emotional, mental, and worldly problems begin to dissolve. I have witnessed this thousands of times. This makes the day a perfect introduction to Meridian Chi Kung for both beginners and advanced practitioners.
Meridian Chi Kung is more than conscious movement. It is part of the Life Projects Alchemy method—a complete method to unlock your true potential, bring it together into one energy/consciousness source, and learn to use it to manifest your life project. Within this system, Meridian Chi Kung represents learning to contain and precisely apply energy. Movement and bodywork show us very directly what often appears vague or unclear through thinking and emotions. I want to use this day to give each participant insight into where they currently stand in their life. It is therefore important that you come to this day with an open mind and a willingness to truly look at yourself.
More info & registration:
Hamme: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/meridian-chi-kung-essentials-hamme-2026/
Den Bosch: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/meridian-chi-kung-essentials-netherlands-2026/
Also mark your calendars: Meridian Chi Kung Advanced training in December, for anyone who knows the 6 basic movements, practices regularly, and is motivated! Welcome if you ready for a challenging, fulfilling time with the necessary humor and laughter!
Topics we will cover and explore through individual and partner exercises:
- Clarifying MCK basic principles.
- Developing and strengthening the dantien field.
- Moving chi, mind, and breath together.
- Opening the leg and arm channels.
- Developing fascia strength.
- Storing more qi inside.
- A vision for further MCK development.
More info & registration: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/meridiaan-chi-kung-3-day-advanced-training-2026/ |
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ALCHEMY OF BODYWORK FULL BODY TREATMENT IN THE NETHERLANDS
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Dates (Brussels time):
06/11/2026 09:30 - 17:30
07/11/2026 09:30 - 17:30
08/11/2026 09:30 - 17:30
Teachers: Mieke Van Zon, Elke Wilssens
Location: Den Bosch
In this workshop, you will learn how to perform a complete, structured body treatment. Almost without exception, everyone is always very enthusiastic about the effectiveness of this treatment and the natural way it is performed.
This form incorporates all five elements in a fluid, easy-to-apply format. The wide variety of touch qualities, speeds, and depths ensures that you immediately experience what “Alchemy of Bodywork” is all about. It works through the various dimensions of being human and reawakens the recipient’s life force. This results in greater vitality, purification, and transformation.
The effects of this treatment are profound and immediately noticeable. You can safely use this treatment on the people around you, and as a professional bodyworker, you can also use it to enhance your treatments.
This workshop is a great choice if you want to get acquainted with Alchemy of Bodywork, or if you want to learn a framework within which you can integrate the various elements.
More info & registration: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/alchemy-of-bodywork-full-body-treatment-netherlands-2026/ |
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INNER ALCHEMY 1 - ACTIVATING YOUR LIFE CORE
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Dates:
13/11/2026 09:30 - 17:30
14/11/2026 09:30 - 17:30
15/11/2026 09:30 - 17:30
Teacher:
Dirk Oellibrandt
Location:
Hamme
When you start with Inner Alchemy, it’s best to begin by taking this first module. It’s the best way to get acquainted with the method.
However, the first module is much more than just a “beginner’s level.” It’s the foundation upon which you build the alchemical process, and that remains true throughout all the other modules.
Module 1 is about building a strong core in your lower tantien (energy center), your abdomen. It is the “place of origin” where enormous life potential resides. It is your place of origin, your “small bang” within yourself.
When you can awaken this place, you will feel a powerful shift in your energy and quality of life.
More info & registration: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/inner-alchemy-consciousness-training-module-1-2026/ |
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ALCHEMY OF CREATION - THE 8 CORE PRINCIPLES
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Date:
09/11/2026 15:00 - 18:00
Teacher:
Dirk Oellibrandt
Location:
Online
Alchemy of Creation: the treasure people seem least drawn to
If we are completely honest, of our three treasures, Alchemy of Creation – the 8 Core Principles seems to be the training people are least immediately drawn to.
Students are often deeply drawn to the intimate nature of Alchemical Bodywork and touched by the beauty of the Life Force Ritual. The value of the 8 Core Principles may be less immediately visible. And yet, some of the most profound changes in day-to-day life come from learning how to apply them in practice.
Perhaps because the name seems, at first, to appeal primarily to the mind. It may evoke familiar models, methods and structures—the very structures through which much of our world is organised, and in which many of us feel less and less at home.
Dirk once explained all eight principles on a beer mat in five minutes. If the thinking mind understands them, that is a good start. But their apparent simplicity contains many layers and dimensions. Integrating them asks for circular learning: returning to and bathing in the same field of intelligence until the principles become deeply integrated and begin to express themselves naturally through the way we live and act.
The 8 Core Principles are not another human-made system placed over life. They reveal how life itself creates—how something that exists as a possibility gradually takes form. From an atom to a human being, an organisation or a life project, the same underlying principles are at work.
Alchemy of Creation is neither an extension of personal development nor a conventional leadership programme. Although it has profound implications for how we live and lead, it does not begin with competencies, performance, influence or becoming a better version of yourself. It begins with sensing from within what wants to emerge from the core and learning to give it form in alignment with the larger whole.
“Life as it is meant to be manifests naturally from the core, while holding the cosmic human idea in awareness.”
When we begin to sense these principles from within, there is less pushing, pulling and controlling, and more coherence, attunement and attention to what genuinely wants to come into being. Not effortless because nothing needs to be done, but because less energy is lost by moving against the movement of life.
“The 8 Core Principles are the map I have used to shape my life for decades.”
— Dirk Oellibrandt
This workshop is also a meaningful foundation for Alchemy of Creation in Practice: The 8 Core Principles into Practice in 2027, where you explore more deeply how the principles can take form within your own life project or organisation.
More info & registration: https://lifeprojects.be/en/life_projects_events/alchemie-van-creatie-8-kernprincipes-online-november-2026/ |
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