Nei Gong Notes, February 9, 2021

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.