Super sleepy this week, which is disappointing; maybe pollen allergies? I ended up having to take naps sometimes during the day; if I didn’t, my Nei Gong didn’t go well.

Though, on days when I did take a nap, my Nei Gong at least did okay after that? Not making any particular breakthroughs or anything, but I feel like I’m doing a good job of having a feeling go down the bones of my legs which I think is a good thing, probably what they’re talking about in terms of feeling weight sink through my body. I’m not 100% sure yet it’s really sinking down to my feet, but it’s sinking further? Though, actually, maybe the feeling that it’s going through bones should make me nervous, I’m not sure I’m getting getting enough of the feeling of flesh sinking off of my bones.

When I was doing Tai Chi over the weekend, I was also feeling a little more connection across my arms; I’m going to try to lean into that a bit and see if it takes me anywhere interesting.

The lesson this week in Damo’s course was a further refinement of the one from last week; so I didn’t spend much time on it, because I’m still not ready for the one from last week. I did at least manage to go through Dantian Gong twice this week instead of once, hopefully I can keep that up.

Back to being more tired than I’d like; not horrible, but still, it’s getting old, I would have liked it if the allergy tweak had worked. Still, I got a decent amount done while practicing this week.

This week’s lesson in Damo’s class was about a technique for consolidating qi that’s in your Dantian. I practiced it every day like I always do with new techniques, and only felt something nontrivial on one day, and even that day I didn’t feel all that much. So I think I’m not ready for that one; which is actually something that Damo says is entirely likely at that stage. And, if you’re in that situation, that means that you should focus on Dantian Gong.

Which I’ve been going through once a week (over two days), and feeling something while doing that, so I feel like I’m making progress when I do that? But clearly I should do it more. Which, fortunately, dovetails with the thought that I’d had that I should try to work in an extra bit of practice over lunch; I’d been thinking that that would mean that I’d do my standard half-hour whatever I was working on plus some Dao Yin or something, but now I’m thinking that that means that I should do Dantian Gong basically every day, and move my Ji Ben practice to the second half. (Which still leaves me with other days when I can do Dao Yins, fortunately.) So I’ve started to give that a try; hopefully I’ll be able to make it through the Dantian Gong twice a week, and maybe I’ll even manage three times a week, we’ll see.

Good week; tweaking my allergy treatment regimen seems to have helped, so I definitely slept better than other weeks. Lots of days with solid practice; the weekend was a little off, my Wu Ji didn’t feel right on Saturday so I bailed after 30 minutes, and partly because of that, I only did a light practice on Sunday, but in general practice went well, and I’m managing to do a little more practice on weekdays. I want to bump things up there still more — I’m doing seated meditation in the morning, something that takes maybe 30 minutes over lunch, and maybe 15-20 minutes of standing work at the end of the afternoon, and I want to try to regularly add in another 15-20 minute segment to the lunch part, so I can work more stuff (random Dao Yins and what not) into the once-a-week routine, but still, it’s enough for me to do the core exercises I’m doing (Dantian Gong, Ji Ben Qi Gong, some longer Wu Ji sessions) plus whatever the new thing is plus the occasional other exercise, which is good.

For the seated meditation part, I’m alternating between Calm Abiding, Anchoring the Breath, and Song Breathing; still not really feeling like I’m getting the predicted effects of Song Breathing, but I think Anchoring the Breath is helping me breathe more deeply, at least? And I’m actually feeling like I’m sometimes starting to slip into reverse breathing while doing these exercises, which is probably progress.

Also, while my Wu Ji didn’t feel right on Saturday, on Sunday I tried standing a little higher, and I felt a much stronger connection with my legs while doing that, with lines going down them. And I’ve been able to repeat that the last couple of days, too: start a little higher, feel what seems like a productive sense of connection, and then end up sitting back and down a little more while maintaining a good feeling. So hopefully that’s a sign of moving in the right direction.

This week’s lesson in Damo’s course was on the Lotus Dao Yin, continuing the theme of freeing up the heart center. I didn’t feel nearly as strong a connection while doing this one as I did during the previous week’s seated exercise, so I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to keep it in my practice routine for the time being.

This week’s lesson from Damo was some exercises to get more room around your heart center. Interesting enough because it really was just moving your hands around in front of your chest and/or holding your hands stable in certain configurations in front of your chest; I wouldn’t have thought before doing Tai Chi that that would lead to me feeling much of anything, but it really does. Not a super intense feeling or anything, but still: absolutely noticeable.

Part of me feels like I’ve been feeling things a little less intently inside recently. But, actually, I’m not sure that’s at all true: e.g. when going through the Ji Ben Qi Gong, Flying Dragon feels pretty intense, which I’m pretty sure is relatively new. So hopefully I’m making progress?

Anyways, pretty good week. My back started to ache a bit in midweek, which was honestly kind of weird: I hadn’t been doing as much Coiling the Snake the last few days, but I’d kept up with my Tai Chi, and even after I did both of those, it still wasn’t feeling great the next day? Never horrible, though, and it faded over the next few days. Hopefully I’m not getting sensitive to weather changes; I’ll deal with it if I am, though.

I did 45 minutes of Wu Ji on Saturday, and honestly I thought I was at more like the 30 minute or maybe 35 minute mark when the timer went off for 45. So that was nice. Probably still means that I’m still sitting a little high, though I do notice that I’m settling to a lower position as I get into more of a sitting position instead of squatting. And I also was feeling fairly soon after the beginning like there were lines of connection going down the top of my legs; I suspect that’s a good sign.

On Sunday I gave up after 25 minutes; I chalk that up to not having gotten quite enough sleep the previous night, and while I thought it was okay when I started practice, it became clear pretty quickly that I was sleepier than I’d thought and would have done better getting back to sleep and trying to practice later. Ah well, live and learn; in general, though, the week has been fine for sleep, hopefully a change in my allergy routine has helped.

Good to get back to Calm Abiding as a meditation practice; I’d missed that, and I’m feeling out of shape with it. For now I’m trying to do a three day rotation, Calm Abiding / Anchoring the Breath / Song Breathing, but I might actually switch to four days, with Calm Abiding every other day?