Carol Emerson holds a 3rd degree black belt from the Ching Yi Kung Fu Association and is the highest ranking female in the association. She has over thirty years of personal practice and over fifteen years experience teaching Tai Chi.

Carol learned Tai Chi in the 1970’s from Michael Alan Brown, renowned martial artist and former president of the Ching Yi Kung Fu Association. For three years, she trained under his direct instruction – attending three hours of class five to six days a week. This instruction included Tai Chi, as well as the related ‘sister arts’ of Hsing Yi Ch’uan and Pa Kua Tsang. Together, these three styles comprise what are known as the Internal Kung Fu arts.

In addition to the physical forms, Carol learned a great deal about traditional Chinese medicine and cosmology upon which the internal arts are based. This included various ancient Ch’i Kung exercises from the Taoist and Buddhist Shaolin Temple traditions. Chi kung practice uses the mind and breath to increase the physical life-force in the body and is a critical component of internal martial arts. This knowledge allows Carol to bring great depth to her teaching beyond the physical movements.

Carol is honored to be a member of the Dao Li Jiao school of Taoism which was created by Dr. Her Yue Wong, Taoist Master and Founder-Director of the Ching Yi Kung Fu Association. The goal of the Dao Li Jiao is to improve both the physical and the spiritual quality of human life. Members of the Dao Li Jiao pursue a combined physical mental and spiritual regimen that includes practice of the traditional Chinese internal martial arts and the meditative and breathing exercises derived from the art of Ch’i Kung.

In addition to her martial arts expertise, Carol was initiated into Kriya Yoga in 1998 and completed a two year program of study and discipline culminating in ordination as a priest of the Kriya Yoga lineage in 2003. She has taught over one hundred people how to meditate and conducts spiritual growth classes in the Saddlebrooke community.