Nei Gong Notes, July 5, 2022

Still having a hard time getting the Microcosmic Orbit going; if anything, this week was worse than the previous week. As before, on Wednesday I did a thickening exercise, and I felt like it went well; and then I did an MCO exercise on Friday, and unlike the previous week, I was alert during the exercise, so I hoped it would go well. And it seemed like it was going well through most of it, until I got to the bit where I was setting up a rotation within the Dantian; that rotation was very weak, and when I tried to kick off the MCO itself, almost nothing went up my spine.

I felt like, in the past, I’d had a much more self-sustaining rotation when I’d done it right after doing a bit with my hands where I drag Qi through my tailbone / spine / diaphragm / front muscles: those two steps are part of the thickening sequence I’ve been doing, and I think one of the times in the workshop they were together in the MCO practice? So I thought I might try it that way; but then on Sunday I decided to do the thickening exercise again, and this time, the rotation wasn’t strong.

So my conclusion for now is that I probably just need to build up Qi in my Dantian: probably the workshop built it up a lot, and now it’s drained down to more or less the level it was right before the workshop. Which isn’t anything, but which also isn’t enough. Who knows; I’ll keep on chipping away and see if it slowly builds up further.

(Speaking of the workshop, one of the people there mentioned that he read this blog; that was a pleasant surprise, I literally wasn’t sure if anybody was reading it. So hi there! I’m bad at names, so I will take a stab at saying “hi, Boris”, but I apologize in advance if I’ve misremembered your name.)

This week’s lesson in Damo’s online course was on the Qi mobilization version of the seventh Ji Ben Qi Gong. This one is about moving the Yin Qi field, and is pretty subtle, I’m honestly not completely sure if I’m feeling what it’s talking about. But I think I might be; I kind of get a feeling of something right around the surface of my body (but not on my skin, so hopefully it’s not Yang Qi tingling), which twists in a kind of interesting way when I do the exercise.

In terms of Tai Qi: Tony went over my form. He talked about me stretching more in Golden Rooster, which got me to think that I should work on feeling lines of connection through my body during the form. (I’ve been doing that during Silk Reeling, but not as much during the form.) So I’ve been trying that, it’s been a good experiment. And I’m rushing Flash the Back a bit, I should turn (at least my torso, not sure about my feet) before doing the flip with my hands.

I’ve given up on trying to learn the Hunyuan 48, but I actually really enjoy doing it in class: it feels pretty strongly like moving Qigong in a way that other Tai Chi forms don’t to me. So hopefully I’ll be able to learn it for real the next time through. I am back to being caught up with the spear, and I’m caught up (or even a little ahead, I think?) with the Guan Dao as well. Which is good, because I’ll be away visiting relatives for the next two weekends, including one Sunday class.

The acupuncture is going okay; helping some, but I’m still more tired than I would like. My doctor says that my Kidney Qi is improving, but that there’s still noticeable room for further improvement; hopefully the improvement will continue. (I’m a little worried that the improvement so far might to some extent have also been caused by the Nei Gong workshop and might be going away; hope not…)