It’s been an interesting week. I feel like my upper chest is starting to relax more in a way that lets it spread a bit (or at least not feel so tight), and maybe even shirts are hanging a little differently on me? And also I’ve been sweating more than normal during Nei Gong sessions; not sure if that’s because my body is working harder in good ways or because I’m inappropriately using muscle strength or just because it’s been in the mid to upper 80s and I’m practicing on the second floor of a house without air conditioning. (So the sweat could also explain why shirts feel different, my body might actually not be changing shape…)

Also, on some days, I feel like my perception is changing, like it’s being dragged down to the inside of my body more easily. It’s enough of a difference that I’m worried that I’m turning my head down, but I’m actually doing a good job of maintaining my head position, I think my body’s default head position is improving. (My spine and pelvis, too.) Not sure if I’m turning my eyes down or not, but I think it’s mostly about my attention rather than my eyes?

Still no change in my Dantian activation, it’s at the “pretty sure it’s real but it’s faint” stage it’s been at ever since Utah. But I feel like I’m building more Qi than normal in my Nei Gong sessions, so I’m optimistic that things are to be improving along other dimensions.

Anyways, back to the regular weekly report:

Tuesday evening was a Nei Gong lesson, on Yin Breathing. Which turned out to be the exercise I’d been doing five days a week since the Utah workshop, where you pause after exhalation. So I didn’t really need to do that one; the next lesson, Yang Breathing, was already unlocked, so I went through that on Wednesday morning, that was the variant that I do the other two days, where you pause after inhalation. I also watched the Qigong Cultivation 1 video from Maryland 2022 on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday: Du Stretch; 45m Wu Ji; 30m Standing Dantian Gong; 25m of the Full Moon exercise.

Thursday: I had an eye doctor appointment in the morning so there was less time for Tai Chi than normal; 20m Zhan Zhuang 3, and I went through the 37 form, the Hunyuan 48, and the Xinjia first form. 25m Dragon 2; 50m Spinal Dao Yin; 40m Earth Hui Chun. Hunyuan 48 review in the evening; and I watched the Qigong Cultivation 2 video from Maryland 2022. An interesting bit at the end of that, talking about how the quality of your attention is reflected in the way in which your Dantian moves around if it’s activated. (Better attention means smoother movement, basically.)

Friday: 40m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; 15m Lotus Dao Yin; 40m Water Hui Chun.

Saturday: I was getting together with a friend, so no regular Chen class. 40m Wood Hui Chun; 20m Zhan Zhuang 3; and I went through the sword weapon forms and the Laojia and Xinjia first forms.

Sunday: 35m Earth Hui Chun; 20m Zhan Zhuang 2; 90m Push Hands; 20m Wu Ji + Coiling Snake. And I wrote a post on my main blog about about why you might want to do push hands.

Monday: Du Stretch; 45m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; 25m Hou Tian Qi 2.

Tuesday: I went through the pole weapon forms. 20m each of Zhan Zhuang 2 and WSSF3; the latter started off mild but ended up surprisingly powerful, a more substantial feeling of Qi moving than I think I’ve ever had in a Tai Chi exercise. (I still don’t think I’m getting the release from the foot right, though.) I went through the 37 form, the Laojia first and second forms, and the Xinjia first form. 25m Dragon 1; and then went through Zoom class on Gathering and Moving, there was a surprisingly powerful Golden Orb session in that. My chest in particular really wanted to open up sideways much more than it normally does, it felt like Qi wanted to move and push on it. It was actually doing that when the teacher had us raise our arms, even before I realized that it was Golden Orb, so my mind wasn’t even priming my body to expect that I was going to spread out my arms next; I just felt like my chest wanted to widen out. So I guess there’s something natural about that sequence of movements!

I was on a trip for much of the week, so no lesson on Tuesday evening. And my sleep was really crappy during the trip, enough so that I didn’t do anything on Wednesday, Thursday, or Saturday (the last of which was when I traveled home); on Friday, I did 35m of Earth Hui Chun. My current theory is that the room that I was staying in had enough of a dust mite load to mess with my sleep; my congestion didn’t seem that bad during the day, but still. At any rate, a little disturbing that my sleep can be pushed over the edge so easily.

Sunday: One random thing that I’m noticing is that my head tilts back a lot. Presumably largely as a countertilt to hunching forward; hopefully being more aware of that will help me correct my posture more quickly. At any rate, I did 15m Wu Ji (and I’m stiffer than normal, I should frontload Dao Yins and extra stretching this week) and 20m Dealing With Counterflow. And my sleep was at least better than on the trip.

Monday: 20m Wu Ji / Coiling Snake; 35m Earth Hui Chun. I had allergy shots that day, otherwise I would have done more, I was mostly back to feeling fine. Not as good as before I went on the trip, though, hopefully I can get back to that unusually good level.

Tuesday: Sleep last night was good, yay. My chest is feeling warm, hopefully that’s a good sign? In the morning I read some more of Practical Tai Chi Training; ment through the Chen pole weapon forms; did 20m each Zhan Zhuang 3 and WSSF 1; and went through the 37 form and the Chen Laojia first and second forms. In the afternoon I did 25m Dragon 3; the Seated Wuji zoom course from a few months back (which included some Ji Ben 3, the chest opening of that exercise worked well with having done Dragon 3); and 30m Full Moon Practice.

An early post today – I’m visiting my parents, and now is when I happen to have free time.

Tuesday’s lesson was a Taiji one, Zhan Zhuang 3; surprisingly strong, I’ll add that into the regular rotation instead of stopping after two weeks. And I also watched the Jing lecture from Maryland 2019.

Wednesday: Du Stretch; 20m Wu Ji; the Breathwork Practice video from Maryland 2019 (basically a long Anchoring the Breath session); and35m Earth Hui Chun.

Thursday: I was distracted by needing to go to the bank so I accidentally skipped the pole weapons forms; oops. 20m each Zhan Zhuang 3 and WSSF 1. I did the 37 form, trying to sink my mind into my body more; nothing nearly as strong as the Zhan Zhuang exercises, though. I went through the Chen Laojia and Xinjia first forms. I tried to do the Hunyuan 48 from memory for the first time in a while (as opposed to just following along in the Saturday class or from a video on Thursday evenings); it did not go well! I decided I felt like doing some Calm Abiding so I sat in the church and did 55m of that; not great but okay, I should probably do that more. In the afternoon, I did a longer stretch than normal; 25m Dragon 3; I went through a Maryland 2022 practice session video (no longer in the library but the direct link still works) that has a quite long Dantian Gong / Qi Thickening session; 15m Dealing With Counterflow. I’m getting better at seating for longer periods; those last two added up to a two hour seated session, and while it wasn’t entirely pleasant at the end, it was also fine, I could have gone longer. In the evening I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 and watched the Process of Qigong video from Maryland 2022.

Friday: It took a while to transition from nap to Nei Gong, but once I got started, my Dantian was feeling noticeably more intense than normal. (Presumably because of the long session the previous day.) 30m Wu Ji, 30m standing Dantian Gong, 30m Ji Ben 2/4 (interspersed with Wu Ji). And my back was weirdly stiff; not entirely sure what all caused that.

Saturday: I was still stiff a the start of the day; hopefully the silk reeling during class will help with that. (I think it did.) 40m Earth Hui Chun. 20m Zhan Zhuang 3. The regular Saturday Chen Tai Chi class. 15m Coiling Snake.

Sunday: A travel day; 20m Wu Ji, 20m Dealing With Counterflow.

Monday: Du Stretch; 20m Wu Ji.

Tuesday: Nothing as of this writing (other than my 15 minute daily breathing exercise that I’ve been doing since the Utah workshop), though hopefully I’ll get in an Earth Hui Chun session this evening.

It’s been a good week. I’d been happy how my energy level had been after the workshop, but when it started to go down again a couple of weeks later, I thought that probably it was just the temporary effects of the workshop. But actually my energy level this week has been as good as it’s ever been; lots of practice sessions around two hours, and today went longer than that. And, while I’m still needing to take a nap every afternoon, I’m finding it easier to transition from napping to Nei Gong relatively quickly, instead of spending an hour or more goofing off after the nap and still finding it hard to get started with Nei Gong. Not entirely sure what’s caused the change in energy levels (I’ve got some ideas, but I don’t know which one it is or whether it’s a combinatior or something else), but whatever the cause it’s a good outcome.

Also, I put up a long post on my main blog yesterday about trying to understand the inside of my body; probably will seem pretty basic to people here (both because honestly my body doesn’t do as much weird stuff as some Nei Gong folks’ and because I’m trying to studiously avoid going into details about LNG/IAA stuff), but I figured I might as well mention it.

On to the regular day by day reports:

Wednesday: I went through the Nei Gong lesson on Dealing with Counterflow. (I had friends over on Tuesday, so no lesson on Tuesday evening.) And I went through the recent zoom class on Wuji and Dantian Gong.

Thursday: I went through all the Chen pole weapon forms. I did 20m each Zhan Zhuang 2 and WSSF 1. I went through the 37 form twice; Chen Lao Jia first form, focusing on using my lower back as a bow in punches and similar moves; and the Xin Jia first form. Went for a stroll, but there was work going on inside the church I sometimes go to after the walk so no doing a sit there. Then for Nei Gong I did 30m Dragon 3 (I am liking that Dragon more and more), I went through the recent Earth Hui Chun zoom class, and 20m Wu Ji / Lotus Dao Yin. In the evening I did some Hunyuan 48 review; I watched the Breathwork in Qigong video from Assorted Nei Gong Talks; and I watched some more pushing hands videos (Swing Arms 1/2, Rollback 1/2, Press and Suppression) just to declare victory on them, not planning to do anything with those. Good practice day, I’m quite happy with it.

Friday: 35m Wu Ji, 25m Dantian Gong, 10m Opening the Chest, 20m Dealing With Counterflow. My day was busy so I got started later than normal and didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked, but it was a good session, I wish I’d had time to go longer.

Saturday: 40m Wood Hui Chun; 20m Zhan Zhuang 2; and I went to my regular Chen class but I had to leave early.

Sunday: 35m Earth Hui Chun, 15m Coiling Snake, 10m Zhan Zhuang 2. And, instead of push hands, I went to my monthly Sunday Chen class.

Monday: 20m Dragon 1; 30m Wu Ji; 50m Being Present / Ming Men, and 15m Dealing with Counterflow.

Tuesday: I read a bit more of Practical Tai Chi Training. I went through the Chen sword weapon forms. I did 20m each of Zhan Zhuang 2 and WSSF 3. And I did the 37 form twice, the Lao Jia first and second forms, and the Xin Jia first form. For Nei Gong I did 1h Wu Ji, 25m standing Dantian Gong, 15m Lotus Dao Yin (being a little more forceful with the chest stretch than normal, that continues to feel like an area of the body that’s particularly tight, hopefully Dragon 3 will help with that too), and 40m Water Hui Chun.

Tuesday’s lesson was Zhan Zhuang 2. Which is a Taiji lesson but I think it’s actually really useful for me to be encountering this right now for Nei Gong purposes: for either art I want to be sinking flesh off the bone and getting my mind in the resulting space. And I also watched the talk The Fire System from Assorted Nei Gong Talks.

Wednesday: 25m Wu Ji, 10m Ji Ben 1, 30m standing Dantian Gong.

Thursday: Chen pole weapon forms; 20m each Zhan Zhuang 2, WSSF 3 (with my Dantian being surprisingly active in the latter); 37 form x2, Chen Lao Jia and Xin Jia first forms once each. In the afternoon I did 25m Dragon 3 and 55m Spinal Dao Yin. And I watched the talk on The Dan Tian from Maryland 2019 (USA Events) in the evening.

Friday: 30m Dragon 2; I was feeling weirdly sluggish so I decided I needed a walk after that more than doing more Nei Gong.

Saturday: 25m Hou Tian Qi 2, 20m Zhan Zhuang 2. Regular Chen class; my teacher reviewed my form, I should store / use my lower back more when punching, but otherwise he was happy with how I was doing things.

Sunday: Our carpets needed steam cleaning that morning, so I skipped Push Hands. And I did 40m Earth Hui Chun, 20m Wu Ji.

Monday: 20m Wu Ji, 10m Coiling Snake. Which is not a lot! Partrly in response to that, I deleted some time wasters off of my iPad, I want to be bored more.

Tuesday: I went through the Chen sword weapon forms, but then I decided that I’d slept badly enough that I needed a nap more than to do the rest of my Tai Chi. In the afternoon I did a long regular stretching sequence, the Du Stretch, 45m Wu Ji, 25m Hou Tian Qi 2, and 10m Wood Wu Xing.

Too many low energy days, but hopefully getting my sleep a little better (through pillow changes, the Wood Wu Xing, and general hygiene) and reducing the amount devices sap my energy will help; we’ll see.

Last Tuesday’s lesson was a Nei Gong one, Just Be. I don’t think I’ll do it much as an isolated exercise, but I am trying to ask that question at random points during the day. And I also watched The Wuji Posture from Assorted Nei Gong Talks.

Wednesday: Du Stretch, and a zoom course with Rick.

Thursday: An unexpectedly pleasant time with my mind more in body than normal while driving. I went through the Chen pole weapon forms; did 20m each Zhan Zhuang 1 and WSSF 1; the 37 form, Chen Laojia first form, Chen Xinjia first form. (I was afraid the latter would go badly since it had been a while, but it was fine.) 25m Dragon 1 (I felt a stronger than normal connection through to my palms), 50m of the sequence from the Being Present / Ming Men zoom (the bit where I was working on the upper lumbar felt quite a bit stronger than normal), 20m Wu Ji / Lotus Dao Yin, and 40m Earth Hui Chun. And, in the evening, Hunyuan 48 review, and I watched the Water System video from Assorted Nei Gong Talks.

Friday: 20m Dragon 3; 20m Wu Ji; 1h Microcosmic Orbit attempt. I (yet again) didn’t direct things properly to my spine; at some point I should figure that out but honestly I think right now my priority should be on activating my Dantian rather than working on the Microcosmic Orbit, so I think I’ll pause on the latter for now.

Saturday: 40m Water Hui Chun. 30m Zhan Zhuang 1. I attended my regular Chen class, and I led the Silk Reeling at the start. Four Dragons, 5m Wood Wu Xing, and 25m Hou Tian Qi 2.

Sunday: 40m Earth Hui Chun. 2h push hands.

Monday: Du Stretch; 30m Wu Ji; 30m seated Dantian Gong. I was feeling unusually tight that day, so I stretched a little more than normal and spent more of my Wu Ji time than normal actively working on opening up my body.

Tuesday: I read a little bit more of Practical Tai Chi Training. I went through the Chen sword weapon forms; did 20m Zhan Zhuang 1; and went through the 37 form and the Lao Jia first and second forms. And then I did 40m Wu Ji, 10m Coiling Snake, 10m Lotus Dao Yin, and 45m Calm Abiding.

Really solid week last week, the highs from after the workshop were definitely continuing. But this week is much more back to normal; the good side of normal, it’s fine, but also hopefully if I take that as a sign to make sure to work on body opening and to put in a good amount of work in general, I can get back to a better level? Though it’s not like I wasn’t doing those things last week…

Wednesday and Thursday were the last two days of the workshop. My most concrete takeaways are that I should spend more time opening the body (especially opening my torso laterally), that the next milestone should be to get my Dantian activated, and that I should do more Wu Ji and more standing Dantian Gong to that end. (Wu Ji is good for body opening, too; I think I’ll try to spend the first 10 minutes of each Wu Ji session actively opening more and then try to more ambiently maintain a more open shape during the rest of the session.) And Damo also showed us a breathing exercise that I’m going to try to do for 15 minutes a day: I’d been thinking for a while that my breathing could use improvement, and that seems like something tractable to do that might help with my fatigue. (Though Damo said that I wasn’t actually doing too bad with regard to either of the symptoms that the exercise is designed to target, so who knows; he also encouraged me to do the Spleen Hui Chun more often.) So you can just pretend that each of these notes has an extra 15 minutes of breathing exercise added to it every day.

Also on a health note: I’m going to pause seeing my current TCM doctor. He’s tried out a bunch of things, and none of them have solved my fatigue issues (or gotten them significantly past my baseline of last summer). I actually wasn’t too tired during the workshop; maybe the last thing my doctor tried (some herbs) helped, but if I had to guess, it’s a combination of the energized environment and the body opening. And I’ve been a little less tired than I expected since the workshop, too? So I’ll try taking Nei Gong in general and some of the stuff from the workshop more seriously; Nei Gong is supposed to help with your health, maybe I’m close to getting to a stage where that can happen. And, even if I don’t, I will appreciate not having both the financial cost and the time cost of my current TCM doctor. (The time cost really is starting to eat at me: I’m getting more enthusastic about doing various things, I want to lean into that, not spending time driving to doctor’s appointments!)

Anyways, here are the notes since the workshop:

Friday: Mostly a travel day, but I did also do 25m of Hou Tian Qi 2.

Saturday: I skipped my regular Chen class because of a doctor’s appointment. 25m Dragon 3; it felt like my hands were driving my spine movement, that experience was actually reminiscent of some of the Silk Reeling exercises I do. And 25m Hou Tian Qi 2.

Sunday: 25m Hou Tian Qi 2, 20m Zhan Zhuang 1, 90m Push Hands.

Monday: 40m Wu Ji, 30m Standing Dantian Gong, 40m Spleen Hui Chun; a pleasantly solid session overall.

Tuesday: 25m Hou Tian Qi 2, 25m Wu Ji / Coiling Snake. (A little less Nei Gong than normal, but actually more than I normally get done on days where I’m getting allergy shots, this is a sign that my fatigue is doing a little better since the workshop.) I went through the Chen sword forms; Double Dao continues to need review. And 20m Zhan Zhuang 1, 37 form x1, Chen Laojia first form x2 (it felt good), Laojia second form x1.

I’ve been at a Nei Gong workshop with Damo all week, so no report this week. Though I guess I will say I’ve felt my Dantian activate a little more than it had before, so hopefully I can build on that.

Tuesday lesson was Zhan Zhuang 1, from the Taiji course. Good timing, given that I’d been starting to finally get sinking flesh off the bone and should be spending more time practicing that.

Wednesday: 30m Dragon 2, 25m Hou Tian Qi 2, and Rick’s Zoom class. Did those in two separate parts (the first two together and then the Zoom class later); that worked well, I should experiment with that more. Maybe do some stuff in the morning, assuming I’m not too tired?

Thursday: I went through a section in Practical Tai Chi Training on the organs. (Didn’t get a ton out of it, alas.) I did the Chen sword forms; they actually went pretty well, I need to work more on the Double Dao but that’s nothing new. And I did 20m Zhan Zhuang 1, 37 form, and the Lao Jia first and second forms. For Nei Gong, I did 60m Spinal Dao Yin, 25m Hou Tian Qi 2; I tried to do Calm Abiding but I was too sleepy so I gave up after 10 minutes. I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 in the evening, and watched the Qi and Mind talk from Maryland 2019.

Friday: 20m Dragon 1; 30m Wu Ji; 25m Hou Tian Qi 2; 40m Dantian Gong.

Saturday: 25m Hou Tian Qi 2; 20m Zhan Zhuang 1. Regular Chen class. Went through all four Dragons.

Sunday: 2h push hands; 25m Hou Tuan Qi 2. My torso was feeling surprisingly active that afternoon / evening; not sure if it was because of the push hands or because of an accumulation of benefits. (Practice during last week or so felt like it was going rather well.)

Monday: A travel day, and my sleep was bad the previous night so I skipped today.

Tuesday: The first day of Damo’s USA summer workshop.

No lesson on Tuesday evening (bad time management), but I did the Hou Tian Qi 2 lesson from the Nei Gong course on Wednesday.

Wednesday: Du Stretch; went through the Hou Tian Qi 2 lesson; 15m Dragon 3.

Thursday: 20m Taiji Standing 6, 20m Wu Song Shen Fa 3. It’s been too long since I’ve done that latter one, I should probably rewatch the video to make sure I’m doing it right. The base of my palms were weirdly tingly during it, not sure if that was caused by the Taiji Standing or something else or just a coincidence. I went through the 37 form and the Chen Lao Jia first form. In the afternoon, I did a longer stretching sequence than normal; 25m Hou Tian Qi 2; and 50m Being Present / Ming Men exercise.

Friday: 25m Wu Ji / Coiling Snake; 25m Hou Tian Qi 2.

Saturday: 25m Hou Tian Qi 2; my regular Chen class. Felt better than last week, though I’m still a little off.

Sunday: I had to skip push hands, alas. For Nei Gong I did 25m Hou Tian Qi 2 and 20m Full Moon.

Monday: 40m Wu Ji, my first decent length Wu Ji in ages. It went well; I’m getting better at having flesh sinking from the bones and getting a feeling of energy being produced from that. But I definitely still need to be relaxed more, so I can be in that state more often and so that I can get to what Adam described recently. At any rate, yay for getting back to this. And then 25m of Hou Tian Qi 2 and 55m of Dantian Gong + Qi thickening; those were good too, my lower back was getting tingly during the Dantian Gong much more than I expected. So a very solid session, I’m quite happy with that.

Thursday: 20m Taiji Standing 6; 37 form. Du Stretch; 25m Hou Tian Qi 2; 35m Wood Hui Chun.