Amy Pattee Colvin
Somatic teacher, author, and qigong practitioner helping you release stored tension, quiet mental chatter, and get out of your head and into your body.
Learn How to Listen to Your Body
I’ve always been drawn to helping others and have enjoyed service-oriented work for most of my life. However, like many capable and reliable people, I learned a hard lesson firsthand—when your instinct is to hold everything together for everyone else, your body eventually pays the price.
Chronic shoulder tension, a constantly racing mind, an upset digestive system, and that “wired-but-tired” feeling are not personal shortcomings. Instead, they are physiological symptoms of a nervous system that has forgotten how to reset.
You can’t think or discipline your way into true calm and ease, and you really don’t need to feel pressured by another exhausting self-improvement project. Sometimes relief begins with rest or self-awareness. When you allow your nervous system the space and time to settle, clarity and natural stamina return on their own.
I’m an unshakable optimist, but I’m also a pragmatist. Sustainable resilience doesn’t arise from positive thinking or other rigid routines; it emerges when you learn how to listen to the physical signals your body has been sending you all along.
Bridging Body Wisdom and Modern Neuroscience
My curiosity about the mind-body connection began in childhood. Whenever I had scrapes or bruises, my dad would use simple imagery and hypnotic techniques to help my body settle and heal. That early experience left me fascinated by how directly the mind and body communicate.
Over the past three decades, my work has woven together three distinct foundations:
1. Thirty Years of Somatic & Qigong Lineage
Since the mid-1990s, I have practiced Sum Faht®, a blend of seated and moving meditation taught by Leong Tan. This tradition showed me that energy isn’t something manipulated through willpower; rather, it’s uncovered by settling into the self, clearing physical resistance, and letting the body align with its natural state.
2. The High-Pressure Corporate Reality
I understand what cognitive overload and chronic workplace pressure look like. In 2011, I began teaching weekly qigong and meditation classes at Google’s Washington campus, streaming live to teams across 16 cities worldwide. Guiding analytical, fast-paced engineers helped me realize the importance of stripping away mystical jargon and providing direct, practical tools that can calm an overstimulated nervous system in real time.
3. The Science of Compassion
I wanted to understand the neuroscience behind why these practices worked and how to articulate them cleanly to a Western mind. In 2013, I trained through Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) to become a certified teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT). This secular, evidence-based method anchors my belief that physical ease is built on a foundation of self-compassion.
How We Can Work Together
I don’t teach from a mountaintop, and I don’t believe in guru culture. I teach as a companion walking beside you—someone who makes mistakes, navigates daily stresses, and relies on these exact somatic tools to stay grounded.
Today, that work takes shape in three straightforward ways:
- Small-Group Somatic Tours: Uplifting international travel that explores off-the-beaten-path landscapes and cultures, incorporating daily qigong practices to help you reconnect with your body and step out of your mind.
- Free Monday Morning Qigong: A weekly live gathering to help you release tension, clear your mind, and reset your nervous system as you prepare for the week ahead.
- Books & Somatic Tools: Practical guides, including Embodying the Tao, that translate ancient body-first principles into daily life, and Cultivating Compassion to help you incorporate compassion for self and others into daily life.
Settle Into Your Body
If you are tired of pushing or striving and want practical tools to regulate your nervous system, start with my free somatic tool kit. It offers 15 simple, physical practices you can do anywhere to release tension and clear mental static.
No marketing hype or spam. Just tools to help you feel at home in your body.