Nei Gong Notes, August 19, 2025
This week was a Taiji lesson on Sinking the Qi; kind of interesting, at first it felt to me like a bit of an overlap with other lessons (e.g. the earlier one about sinking into the ground, maybe it was Releasing the Feet for Taiji?) but it built on that in an interesting way, and also I was happy to have a nudge to return to that. Though I do kind of have too many isolated exercises to work on right now… And I watched about half of the Medical Qigong lecture from Sweden 2025.
Wednesday: I went through the Spine Spa class again. Nothing much to report about that this time.
Thursday: I rewatched Taiji Standing 1 (Ward Off Left); honestly I’m not sure if I should do Taiji Standing 4 more times, but I figure I’ve been doing it for something like 4 weeks (only twice a week, admittedly) so changing postures seemed plausible. I rewatched Play Pipa; good back stretch on that one. (And I’m getting close to the end of the first road in my review, so I ordered a phone tripod, I think I’ll record myself to ask for feedback on the first road soon.) I went through the Chen sword forms, through the 37 form four times; the Xin Jia form; and I took a walk. In the afternoon I went through Rick’s July 16 Zoom; I was feeling a little off so I didn’t end up doing any sitting work after that. I did my regular Hunyuan 48 review in the evening and I finished watching the Medical Qigong lecture.
Friday: It’s continuing to be a little hard to get started; not sure why, maybe I’m a little more tired than normal but I’m not convinced? Though the inside of my body feels quietly more active than normal. 1h Wu Ji (with some unusually scattered listening inside); 65m seated stuff, leading to an MCO attempt, my mind was being noticeably more stable than normal during this seated work, and my Qi was actually getting about as thick as I’ve ever felt it during the thickening, and it felt kind of like my Qi/muscles were feeling kind of rippling as they were moving around during the rotating part of MCO prep. Pretty standard MCO attempt, made it halfway up my back (or, honestly, probably a little less, above my diaphragm I think but not by much). Not sure if it’s not enough juice, if there’s a clipping pass that I need to work on, or both?
Saturday: 35m of sleepy Advanced Dantian Gong; 20m of Zhan Zhuang; and long Silk Reeling was Kua Circling Out With a Kick. Which was a little annoying, and I didn’t end up feeling the Silk particularly; though I’m honestly not sure if that’s because it’s not actually a very silk-reely exercise or if it is but I need to be more stable? And of course the standard Saturday Chen Tai Chi class.
Sunday: 20m Wu Ji; I went through the Chen pole forms and all of the empty hand forms; I took a brisk walk; and I did 50m seated work aiming at Scholar Breathing. I got some hints of a contraction during that and then later hints of a vibration, so I still feel like I’m not too far off from that turning into something useful?
Monday: My Kua muscles were aching a bit, I think it’s the walk? Also, FWIW I’m starting to pay more attention to the feel (both mental and physical) of distractions like wanting to use my phone; hopefully by being attentive to that I’ll be able to find a way to reduce the tug, or at least resist it better? I did 65m Wu Ji and 30m of seated stuff.
Tuesday: I reviewed the Chen sword forms (and I did the Jian one 3 times), and I did the Xin Jia form two times. No Yang stuff or isolated work, though, I had a meeting that ate into my Tai Chi time. I did an hour of standing, a mixture of Wu Ji, Ji Ben 1, Ji Ben 2, and Wood Wu Xing, and an hour of okayish Calm Abiding, it wasn’t very strong but at least I wasn’t sleepy. And I went for a walk.