Nei Gong Notes, February 24, 2026
I was visiting my parents for most of this week, and I did very little Nei Gong or Tai Chi while I was there, so not a ton to say.
Tuesday evening: no lesson; I mentioned last week that I did a late Anchoring the Breath, and I also did Shui Gong 2, and I think that one or the other of those (both of which felt quite strong) made it it hard for me to fall asleep.
Wednesday: No Nei Gong. And my sleep was messed up in an unusual way: I went to sleep fine but I woke up at like 5am and just could not get back to sleep. (And I was changing time zones, but in the other direction!)
Thursday: I did a bit of Wood Wu Xing in case that helped with the sleep problems I’d been having. (Feels like it matched the Tuesday problem but not the Wednesday one?) And my sleep was better the rest of the visit.
Friday: Sleep last night was good; I used nose strips for the first time in ages, clearly I should do that more often. I did the Chen Lao Jia first and second forms; it was quite windy outside, otherwise I would have done more. And I did the Du Stretch exercise. (I’ve been sitting down way too much this week, but hopefully that will help a little…)
Saturday: Travel day, I didn’t do any practice.
Sunday: I went to a Tai Chi marathon: I did the Lao Jia first form 6 times, and the Xin Jia first form 4 times. My Xin Jia wasn’t feeling that great and after an hour of Lao Jia and not starting from a super high energy level, I wasn’t really in the mood to focus on the Xin Jia properly; I need to get back to working on it again.
Monday: I went through Damo’s latest Foundations Zoom sessions. (The Being Present videos.) I should do the practice session again, I was half asleep during the first half of that video. Also, when talking to my acupuncturist that day, he was talking about patients who had gotten a lot better after retiring, which made me think that I’m running my life in too organized a way; and having a goal of two hours of Nei Gong a day plus significant amounts of Tai Chi four days a week is a sign of that. Not exactly sure where that leads me, I’ll probably have to write a post on my main blog so that I can think about it meore.
Tuesday: Reviewed Up to Seven Stars. I did a Continual Jin run-through of the 37 form, and a nice slow Xin Jia first form, it went much better than on Sunday. My torso is feeling weirdly warm; not sure if it’s allergies or the effect of the tension release from acupuncture yesterday or from the Zoom class or just the change in outside weather, but if I had to guess, maybe it’s the tension release? (It doesn’t feel super Ming Men localized.) And in the afternoon I did the Du Stretch, and I repeated the practice portion of that Zoom class that I went through yesterday. I got a pretty strong stretch in my spine at the end, and actually now I’m a little less sure that what I’m feeling isn’t Ming Fire related, who knows.