An early post today – I’m visiting my parents, and now is when I happen to have free time.

Tuesday’s lesson was a Taiji one, Zhan Zhuang 3; surprisingly strong, I’ll add that into the regular rotation instead of stopping after two weeks. And I also watched the Jing lecture from Maryland 2019.

Wednesday: Du Stretch; 20m Wu Ji; the Breathwork Practice video from Maryland 2019 (basically a long Anchoring the Breath session); and35m Earth Hui Chun.

Thursday: I was distracted by needing to go to the bank so I accidentally skipped the pole weapons forms; oops. 20m each Zhan Zhuang 3 and WSSF 1. I did the 37 form, trying to sink my mind into my body more; nothing nearly as strong as the Zhan Zhuang exercises, though. I went through the Chen Laojia and Xinjia first forms. I tried to do the Hunyuan 48 from memory for the first time in a while (as opposed to just following along in the Saturday class or from a video on Thursday evenings); it did not go well! I decided I felt like doing some Calm Abiding so I sat in the church and did 55m of that; not great but okay, I should probably do that more. In the afternoon, I did a longer stretch than normal; 25m Dragon 3; I went through a Maryland 2022 practice session video (no longer in the library but the direct link still works) that has a quite long Dantian Gong / Qi Thickening session; 15m Dealing With Counterflow. I’m getting better at seating for longer periods; those last two added up to a two hour seated session, and while it wasn’t entirely pleasant at the end, it was also fine, I could have gone longer. In the evening I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 and watched the Process of Qigong video from Maryland 2022.

Friday: It took a while to transition from nap to Nei Gong, but once I got started, my Dantian was feeling noticeably more intense than normal. (Presumably because of the long session the previous day.) 30m Wu Ji, 30m standing Dantian Gong, 30m Ji Ben 2/4 (interspersed with Wu Ji). And my back was weirdly stiff; not entirely sure what all caused that.

Saturday: I was still stiff a the start of the day; hopefully the silk reeling during class will help with that. (I think it did.) 40m Earth Hui Chun. 20m Zhan Zhuang 3. The regular Saturday Chen Tai Chi class. 15m Coiling Snake.

Sunday: A travel day; 20m Wu Ji, 20m Dealing With Counterflow.

Monday: Du Stretch; 20m Wu Ji.

Tuesday: Nothing as of this writing (other than my 15 minute daily breathing exercise that I’ve been doing since the Utah workshop), though hopefully I’ll get in an Earth Hui Chun session this evening.

It’s been a good week. I’d been happy how my energy level had been after the workshop, but when it started to go down again a couple of weeks later, I thought that probably it was just the temporary effects of the workshop. But actually my energy level this week has been as good as it’s ever been; lots of practice sessions around two hours, and today went longer than that. And, while I’m still needing to take a nap every afternoon, I’m finding it easier to transition from napping to Nei Gong relatively quickly, instead of spending an hour or more goofing off after the nap and still finding it hard to get started with Nei Gong. Not entirely sure what’s caused the change in energy levels (I’ve got some ideas, but I don’t know which one it is or whether it’s a combinatior or something else), but whatever the cause it’s a good outcome.

Also, I put up a long post on my main blog yesterday about trying to understand the inside of my body; probably will seem pretty basic to people here (both because honestly my body doesn’t do as much weird stuff as some Nei Gong folks’ and because I’m trying to studiously avoid going into details about LNG/IAA stuff), but I figured I might as well mention it.

On to the regular day by day reports:

Wednesday: I went through the Nei Gong lesson on Dealing with Counterflow. (I had friends over on Tuesday, so no lesson on Tuesday evening.) And I went through the recent zoom class on Wuji and Dantian Gong.

Thursday: I went through all the Chen pole weapon forms. I did 20m each Zhan Zhuang 2 and WSSF 1. I went through the 37 form twice; Chen Lao Jia first form, focusing on using my lower back as a bow in punches and similar moves; and the Xin Jia first form. Went for a stroll, but there was work going on inside the church I sometimes go to after the walk so no doing a sit there. Then for Nei Gong I did 30m Dragon 3 (I am liking that Dragon more and more), I went through the recent Earth Hui Chun zoom class, and 20m Wu Ji / Lotus Dao Yin. In the evening I did some Hunyuan 48 review; I watched the Breathwork in Qigong video from Assorted Nei Gong Talks; and I watched some more pushing hands videos (Swing Arms 1/2, Rollback 1/2, Press and Suppression) just to declare victory on them, not planning to do anything with those. Good practice day, I’m quite happy with it.

Friday: 35m Wu Ji, 25m Dantian Gong, 10m Opening the Chest, 20m Dealing With Counterflow. My day was busy so I got started later than normal and didn’t have as much time as I’d have liked, but it was a good session, I wish I’d had time to go longer.

Saturday: 40m Wood Hui Chun; 20m Zhan Zhuang 2; and I went to my regular Chen class but I had to leave early.

Sunday: 35m Earth Hui Chun, 15m Coiling Snake, 10m Zhan Zhuang 2. And, instead of push hands, I went to my monthly Sunday Chen class.

Monday: 20m Dragon 1; 30m Wu Ji; 50m Being Present / Ming Men, and 15m Dealing with Counterflow.

Tuesday: I read a bit more of Practical Tai Chi Training. I went through the Chen sword weapon forms. I did 20m each of Zhan Zhuang 2 and WSSF 3. And I did the 37 form twice, the Lao Jia first and second forms, and the Xin Jia first form. For Nei Gong I did 1h Wu Ji, 25m standing Dantian Gong, 15m Lotus Dao Yin (being a little more forceful with the chest stretch than normal, that continues to feel like an area of the body that’s particularly tight, hopefully Dragon 3 will help with that too), and 40m Water Hui Chun.

Tuesday’s lesson was Zhan Zhuang 2. Which is a Taiji lesson but I think it’s actually really useful for me to be encountering this right now for Nei Gong purposes: for either art I want to be sinking flesh off the bone and getting my mind in the resulting space. And I also watched the talk The Fire System from Assorted Nei Gong Talks.

Wednesday: 25m Wu Ji, 10m Ji Ben 1, 30m standing Dantian Gong.

Thursday: Chen pole weapon forms; 20m each Zhan Zhuang 2, WSSF 3 (with my Dantian being surprisingly active in the latter); 37 form x2, Chen Lao Jia and Xin Jia first forms once each. In the afternoon I did 25m Dragon 3 and 55m Spinal Dao Yin. And I watched the talk on The Dan Tian from Maryland 2019 (USA Events) in the evening.

Friday: 30m Dragon 2; I was feeling weirdly sluggish so I decided I needed a walk after that more than doing more Nei Gong.

Saturday: 25m Hou Tian Qi 2, 20m Zhan Zhuang 2. Regular Chen class; my teacher reviewed my form, I should store / use my lower back more when punching, but otherwise he was happy with how I was doing things.

Sunday: Our carpets needed steam cleaning that morning, so I skipped Push Hands. And I did 40m Earth Hui Chun, 20m Wu Ji.

Monday: 20m Wu Ji, 10m Coiling Snake. Which is not a lot! Partrly in response to that, I deleted some time wasters off of my iPad, I want to be bored more.

Tuesday: I went through the Chen sword weapon forms, but then I decided that I’d slept badly enough that I needed a nap more than to do the rest of my Tai Chi. In the afternoon I did a long regular stretching sequence, the Du Stretch, 45m Wu Ji, 25m Hou Tian Qi 2, and 10m Wood Wu Xing.

Too many low energy days, but hopefully getting my sleep a little better (through pillow changes, the Wood Wu Xing, and general hygiene) and reducing the amount devices sap my energy will help; we’ll see.