About

ARMAND VAN MIDDENDORP

"Demystifying the Internal Process — when the steps are clear, the path to Mastery opens."

My internal path opened the day I awoke with a shock and realized that whatever I wanted to achieve in life would depend on one thing: the skill to work with myself.
I was constantly in my own way: intense emotional swings, a nervous system that was always on, overthinking, over-controlling, forcing. Even my happiness was tied to performance.

Within just a few weeks, three experiences unfolded that would change the course of my life.

The first was Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now. It described exactly what I was struggling with and reawakened a sense of stillness and inner presence I had known as a child, but lost over time. It also made one thing clear: reading alone would not be enough — it would require real inner work.

The second was meeting Didi. From the very first moment, there was deep recognition. She became not only my life partner, but also my partner on the internal path.

The third came during a visit to York, England, where I had my first experience with Tai Chi and recognized the same stillness and presence I had experienced before.

Back in the Netherlands, I began searching for Tai Chi as a complete internal martial art, determined to study it in its full depth. That search led me to Roel Jansen in The Hague, who taught a combination of Tit Khun (Kuntao) and Yang-style Tai Chi, supported by Chi Kung training.

What followed was eleven years of dedicated training in a small, committed school. I went all in.

As my inner sensitivity developed, I started experiencing myself — and life — in a completely different way. Deeper questions began to surface, which got me interested in Taoism, specifically Internal Alchemy — the transformation and cultivation of energy and the cultivation of stillness.

I had already begun exploring Internal Alchemy on my own, but I knew I needed guidance. That was when I met Sifu Mark Rasmus and began training with him in Thailand. Through Hermetics, I found the structure I had been missing — a system that helped me reconnect with my full essence and gave me the mental, energetic, and physical tools to dissolve deeper layers of stagnation, patterns, and inner mechanisms.

I discovered the missing link: I am energy — not something I have, but something I am.

I came to understand that how my energy expresses itself — my state, how I feel in the present moment — is what matters most. And that I could consciously influence this state with the skills I was learning. Navigating my energy from moment to moment, in every situation, became a continuous 24-hour training, using the methods as a living practice far beyond the training floor.

This shift also transformed the way I taught — Several years earlier, I had earned my teaching degree with Roel Jansen and begun teaching locally — As my own skills deepened, students began coming to me with more profound questions, sharing the underlying motivations behind their internal training — questions I recognized immediately from my own path.

Nowadays my role is to help connect the dots, translate what is abstract or multi-layered, and make the internal map practical, accessible, and unmistakably clear. Every student arrives with their own history, conditioning, and potential. My work is to meet them exactly where they are, and without wasting time, guide them beyond methods into a true living practice.

DIDI VLAAR

"I help people reconnect with what nourishes them—physically, energetically & mentally, so they can choose what truly supports their life."

In my early thirties, I thought I was eating healthily—mostly organic, following the latest trends—but my body told a different story. I felt tired, physically cold, and disconnected from myself. Nothing seemed to truly nourish me.

It was through food that I found my way back to myself—back to feeling grounded, energized, and back in charge of my own life. Food might seem like a simple or surface-level entry point, but it’s a foundation for everything: your energy, your focus, your mood, your health, your sense of mindfulness, and even the rhythm of your day. And because we eat (and drink) every single day, the impact is deep and constant.

One of the most important decisions I made at the time was to study Traditional Chinese Medicine—first focusing on traditional nutrition (based on the 5-elements), and later on herbs. Everything I learned, I applied immediately at home.

At the same time, Armand was fully immersed in his Chi Kung journey, and I absorbed everything he was learning. This brought my studies to life. The theory was all about Chi, and now I could actually feel it. It stopped being just intellectual—it became a tangible, embodied experience.

There was a synergy between Chi Kung and nutrition that accelerated everything. The combination created a feedback loop: the more I trained energetically, the more I could feel the effects of food—and the more I adjusted my nutrition, the deeper I could go in my training — and the better results I saw. The growth became exponential.

Over the years, I learned to fully trust my body and my energy. The wisdom was already there. And from the merging of energetic training and deep nutritional work, Nutritional Chi Kung was born.

Just like in the traditional food systems I had studied, the focus is on the direct experience of food. What does this food do in your system—does it warm you, energize you, calm you down, or leave you feeling heavy? And how do you want to feel after eating—not just in the moment, but throughout the day?

For many of us, the mind has been in charge for a long time, choosing to control, to explain, to analyze.

My mission now is to help you reverse those roles:
Let the body feel first. Then let the mind learn to trust what the body already knows.

That is the heart of Nutritional Chi Kung: learning to feel what truly nourishes you—physically, energetically, and mentally—so you can come back to the helm of your own life.

Chi Skills Private Mentoring Programs

Energy Skills for life.
3 or 6 months of Private Mentoring.

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Core Essentials Chi Kung Course

Your Journey into the Internal starts here!
Online Self-Guided Course

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Nutritional Chi Kung Course

Turn nutrition into your daily Chi Kung practice.
Online Self-Guided Course