Monthly online yangsheng class exploring the 24 solar nodes through Chinese medicine teachings, seasonal recipes, and gentle qi gong.
What does it mean to live in rhythm with the world?
A class with Anne Shelton Crute & Tara Bianca Rado.
Classical Chinese medicine describes the year not as a static calendar, but as a living sequence of qi transformations. The 24 solar nodes mark the subtle shifts in climate, light, and movement that shape our bodies, emotions, and spirit throughout the year.
Yangsheng—“nurturing life”—is the art of aligning ourselves with these changes. It is not about fixing symptoms or optimizing performance. It is about learning to live well within the unfolding patterns of Heaven and Earth. In many ways, this is the home and daily-life expression of what we do in the acupuncture clinic with needles.
This monthly class offers a steady, practical way to study and embody the seasonal qi through:
Teachings on the solar nodes and their cosmological meaning
Simple seasonal recipes and food practices
Gentle qi gong and breathwork appropriate to the time of year
Reflection on how to use our energy when it is not consumed by obligation or strain
Over time, the class becomes a kind of living almanac—a place to return each month to recalibrate, nourish the body, and remember the larger rhythms we belong to.
No prior experience is required. This class is open to patients, students, and anyone interested in Chinese medicine as a lived philosophy.
Format & Structure
Course begins after the Chinese New Year in March 2026
Meets monthly for 10 months each year, over a two-year cycle
Participation for the full two years is not required
Classes meet live on Zoom
Recordings are sent a few days later if you miss the live session
Zoom link is emailed before each class
Cost: $65 per month. Payable via Zelle, Venmo, or PayPal
Proposed 2026 Spring Dates: to be confirmed soon
All classes at 1 pm Eastern / 10 am Pacific
March 1
April 5
May 17
About the Teachers
Anne Shelton Crute, LAc, DAOM
Anne is the founder of Ritual Health Acupuncture & Herbalism in Berkeley, California, a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and a Chinese Polestar astrologer. She is a published author and educator, with a chapter in A Ring Without End: Reflections on Classical Chinese Medicine Mind/Body Mapping, and serves as an editor on several Chinese medicine and astrology texts, including her teacher Liu Ming’s forthcoming book on Chinese Polestar astrology. Anne has been in clinical practice for more than fifteen years and has trained through private apprenticeships in Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Tibetan herbalism, and astrology in the U.S., Japan, and India. Her work focuses on chronic illness, nervous system regulation, life transitions, and reconnecting patients with their innate sense of spirit.
Tara Bianca Rado, LAc
Tara is the founder and lead acupuncturist of Durham Integrative Health and Acupuncture Center, a nonprofit sliding-scale clinic in Durham, North Carolina. She began studying traditional healing arts in the mid-1990s through Asian bodywork, qi gong, meditation, and community-based Western and native herbalism, and worked for nearly two decades as a massage therapist specializing in shiatsu and tui na. She later completed formal training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, earning her master’s degree from the Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in Medical Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Tara’s clinical work integrates acupuncture, herbal medicine, and bodywork, with a focus on accessibility, partnership, and cultivating resilience, connection, and joy in the healing process. She continues to deepen her studies in Classical acupuncture and Daoist healing, and also practices Chinese Polestar astrology.