The BalanceHER Book
The BalanceHER Journey
The complete foundation book behind BalanceHER
The BalanceHER Journey is where the whole idea first came together.
Women’s wellness.
Yuan Qi Qigong.
Harmony Flow Wellness Practices.
Feet stamping, breathing, and Inner Silence.
Hormonal change, body awareness, aging, and the Second Spring.
The book holds the roots, the philosophy, and the wonderfully real-life thinking behind the BalanceHER program.
It is not a small introduction.
It is the complete foundation.
THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL
This is the root system
The first edition of The BalanceHER Journey introduced the complete vision behind BalanceHER.
It brings together more than three decades of my experience in Yuan Qi Qigong, Shaolin Kung Fu, Health Qigong, movement teaching, and women’s wellbeing.
It also carries the influence of the South African rhythms, women, and lived experiences that helped shape the work.
This is not a quick-fix wellness book.
It is a generous, layered guide for women who want to understand the body through movement, rhythm, breath, energy awareness, and everyday self-care.
The online guidance grows from it.
MapMeHealthy unpacks selected parts of it.
But the book is where the full world of BalanceHER lives.
WHY THIS BOOK MATTERS
It looks at the whole woman
Women do not experience well-being in neat little boxes.
The body does not separate stress from sleep.
Hormonal change from emotion.
Posture from breath.
Food from energy.
Ageing from identity.
The BalanceHER Journey looks at how these parts of a woman’s life meet inside one body.
It explores wellness through:
- movement and rhythm;
- breath and Inner Silence;
- body and energy awareness;
- menstruation and hormonal change;
- perimenopause and menopause;
- breast, abdominal and pelvic self-awareness;
- food and everyday nourishment;
- emotional steadiness;
- culture, ageing and identity;
- and the small practices that help us return to ourselves.
It does not ask women to become perfect.
It asks them to pay attention.
YUAN QI QIGONG AT THE HEART
The women-centred root of the work
More than 30 years ago, I was taught Yuan Qi Qigong by Lin Xiaomei, an elder from Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
The practice was quieter and more internally focused than the modern, standardised Health Qigong system.
It worked with Original Qi, natural movement, breath, stillness, and the lower centre.
The traditional routines could take several hours.
Beautiful—but not particularly realistic for a woman answering messages, preparing supper, caring for family, running a business, and wondering when she last went to the bathroom.
Over the years, I began adapting the principles into shorter, practical ways of working.
Not to strip away the depth.
To help the knowledge survive inside modern life.
These adaptations became Harmony Flow Wellness Practices and the 90-second BalanceHER concepts.
WHAT YOU WILL FIND INSIDE
A complete journey through women’s wellness
The BalanceHER Foundation
Why balance is not a straight line.
Why women need rhythm as much as routine.
Why movement, breathing, and stillness belong together.
Yuan Qi Qigong and Harmony Flow
The roots of the practice and how the original principles developed into Harmony Flow Wellness Practices.
This includes gentle movement, grounding, breathing, Inner Silence, self-acupressure, and everyday nourishment.
Women’s Cycles and Life Stages
Girlhood.
Menstruation.
The reproductive years.
Motherhood and caregiving.
Perimenopause.
Menopause.
Second Spring and mature womanhood.
The book honours the fact that the same woman may need a different practice at different stages of her life.
Feet Stamping and Grounding Rhythm
Feet stamping is explored as a practical way to feel the ground, reconnect with the body and interrupt the feeling of being scattered or stuck inside the head.
The book also shares the relationship between Yuan Qi Qigong, martial stance work and the grounding rhythms that inspired BalanceHER in South Africa.
Inner Silence and Emotional Life
Restoration is not only about movement.
The book explores quietness, breath, emotional listening, mental overload, and the need to create a small inner pause before the world rushes in again.
Second Spring
Menopause is not presented as the end of womanhood.
It is another season.
A season that can bring changing energy, stronger boundaries, restored purpose, and a different relationship with the body.
Body and Energy Awareness
The book introduces the idea that the body communicates through tension, posture, breath, fatigue, sensation, and repeated patterns.
This is not a clinical diagnosis.
It is body literacy.
Learning to listen.
Learning to respond.
Learning when to move—and when to rest.
THE 90-SECOND CONCEPT
Small enough to use. Deep enough to matter.
The 90-second rituals grew from one practical problem:
Most women do not have several uninterrupted hours available every day.
A long practice may be wonderful.
But it is not the only practice that counts.
The book shows how small actions can become part of ordinary life:
A stamping rhythm.
A conscious sigh.
A moment of stillness.
A short tapping practice.
Feeling the feet before responding.
Placing the hands on the body with attention.
Ninety seconds is not a magical cure.
It is a doorway.
A moment in which you can interrupt the rush, notice yourself, and choose what happens next.
NOT A PERFECT WELLNESS MANUAL
Real women were never the problem
The BalanceHER Journey is not written for the imaginary woman who wakes at five, drinks something green, meditates for an hour, and never loses her temper.
It is for real women.
Women with responsibilities.
Women with changing bodies.
Women who become tired, cross, overwhelmed, distracted and occasionally eat biscuits for supper.
The book is thoughtful, practical, and unapologetically full.
It carries stories, ideas, movement knowledge, cultural roots, advice, and a fair amount of real-life chaos.
That is part of its value.
It does not reduce women’s wellbeing to a tidy list of instructions.
It recognises that balance itself is always moving.
THE COMPLETE FOUNDATION EDITION
The original first edition
The first edition is the most complete expression of the BalanceHER vision.
It contains the fuller philosophy, wider wellness discussions, cultural connections, practices, and original ideas from which the rest of the BalanceHER ecosystem grew.
Choose this edition when you want:
- the complete BalanceHER foundation;
- the fuller story behind the practices;
- the original depth and breadth of the work;
- a book you can return to at different life stages;
- and a guide that is not afraid to explore beyond one narrow wellness topic.
This is the key BalanceHER book.
It will remain the foundation even as shorter editions and online pathways are developed.
THE REFRESHED READER’S EDITION
A different doorway into the same work
A refreshed author-published edition is being prepared for Amazon.
It will have:
- a new cover;
- cleaner editing;
- improved formatting;
- shorter reading sections;
- easier navigation;
- and a clearer path into the online guidance.
This edition is being created for women who prefer a lighter, more accessible reading experience.
It does not replace the original foundation edition.
It does not contain “better wisdom”.
It offers a different doorway.
The foundation edition holds the complete landscape.
The refreshed edition will help more women find a comfortable place to enter it.
FROM THE BOOK TO MAPMEHEALTHY
The book holds the world. Online guidance helps you use it.
The BalanceHER Journey gives you the philosophy, context, and full foundation.
Harmony Flow Wellness Practices gives you the practical method.
MapMeHealthy unpacks selected concepts into shorter online guidance.
This may include:
- 90-second practices;
- body-map pathways;
- short videos and audio;
- everyday reminders;
- seasonal guidance;
- and practical ways to apply the ideas.
MapMeHealthy does not replace the book.
It helps bring pieces of the book into daily life.
BEGIN WITH THE FOUNDATION
Read it your way
Begin at the first page.
Open the section your body is asking for.
Read one chapter.
Listen to a small piece.
Return six months later and discover that a completely different part now speaks to you.
The BalanceHER Journey was not created to be rushed through and completed.
It was created to travel with you.