This week’s lesson was a Taiji one, on Peng Separation. An interesting one; I liked the Zhang Zhuang series so it’s good to see a moving lesson building on that.

Wednesday: 20m Dragon 3; 35m Song Breath 1; 35m Water Hui Chun.

Thursday: Read some more Practical Tai Chi; went through the Chen sword forms; did 15m Peng Separation, 20m WSSF3; went through the 37 form, the Xinjia first form, and the Hunyuan 48. I did the Du Stretch; I feel like doing that once a week isn’t really helping much, I should either do it more often or less often. Honestly, if I want the hamstring benefit, maybe I should do it daily, but I think for now I’ll try doing it every two or three days, and try to do something spine-related (a Dragon or Coiling Snake or something like that) on days when I’m not doing it, so at least I get regular somewhat intense spine work. (I do throw in some spine waves multiple times a day, but that alone doesn’t seem to be making a difference for me.) 45m Wu Ji, 20m Jing Gong 1; I did the Wu Ji in a room with a mirror on the side, I’m leaning forward a lot, when I fixed that I got a surprising amount of stretch on the lower third (maybe a bit more even) of my back. 40m Earth Hui Chun. And I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 in the evening.

Friday: A longer stretching session than normal; 30m Dragon 2; 30m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong. 5m of closing down at the end, to see if that helps with sleep, because my sleep had been off the last few days.

Saturday: 35m Song Breath 1. Went to my regular Chen course; more stuff moving around than normal, maybe Peng Separation knocked something loose? Went through the four Dragons.

Sunday: I woke up with a stiff back (but I slept extremely well; you win some, you lose some, I guess), probably because I was cold overnight. Did the Du Stretch, though not as well as normal because my lower back muscles were fighting. 20m Wu Ji / Lotus Dao Yin, but then I decided I’d rather sit on a sofa with a heating pad instead of doing a Hui Chun.

Monday: 25m Dragon 1. 30m Wu Ji, 30m standing Dantian Gong, 20m Wu Ji / Ji Ben 1 combo. 40m Earth Hui Chun.

Tuesday: A dishwasher delivery and achy back (better than it was on Sunday but still definitely not healed) meant I didn’t do as much Tai Chi as normal, but I did (quickly) go through the 37 form and the Xin Jia first form. 35m Song Breath 1, 60m Spinal Dao Yin, 40m Wood Hui Chun; good practice session, I felt unusally focused. (And from watching myself in the mirror: when I threw out my back, my hips started wanted to go really far to the right, instead of their traditional slight bias to the right.) Finished reading Practical Tai Chi Training; I can’t say I’d recommend it, I think the authors are probably quite good at Tai Chi and at teaching in person (I’ve learned a lot about push hands from one of them!) but there’s too much in the book and it’s material that’s hard to convey in book form.

Tuesday’s lesson was a Nei Gong one, Song Breath 1. Which works well with my general feeling that I should relax my upper chest more, so I’ve been continuing to work on that ambiently this week, too.

Wednesday: 45m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; and I reviewed the Jing Gong 1 lesson from IAA year 1, since I should try mixing that in sometimes to see if it helps with activating my Dantian. Haven’t gotten around to actually mixing it in yet, though.

Thursday: 20m each Taiji Standing 7 and Zhan Zhuang 3. Went through the Chen sword weapon forms, the 37 form, the Xinjia first form, and the Hunyuan 48 form. For Nei Gong, I did 20m Dragon 3 and went through the sequence from the Being Present / Ming Men zoom. In the evening I reviewed the Hunyuan 48, watched the Qi Deepening video from Assorted Nei Gong Talks, and watched a couple of other random Tai Chi-related videos.

Friday: Prompted by one of those videos, I paid attention to sinking in the insides of my body while walking; that was interesting, I continued to do that for the rest of the week. And I did 35m Song Breath 1; 20m Wu Ji; 25m standing Dantian Gong; 40m Earth Hui Chun.

Saturday: Things came up that led to me skipping Tai Chi today. So just 20m of a Wu Ji / Lotus Dao Yin combo.

Sunday: 25m Wu Ji / Ji Ben 4 combo. 20m Zhan Zhuang 3, 10m Taiji Standing 7, 80m of some push hands while being told about a push hands class that one of the other people in that push hands group was starting. His class actually sounds really useful for me; I think I’m too busy right now to do the fall iteration, but if there’s an iteration of it early next year I’ll seriously consider doing it then. And I wrote about changes in my energy levels on my other blog.

Monday: 35m Song Breath 1. 30m Wu Ji, 30m standing Dantian Gong, 10m Wood Wu Xing. 35m Earth Hui Chun. Decided I should walk more, so I went on a 45 minute pretty brisk walk today, ideally I’d be able to replace naps with that. (I did in fact do a 60 minute walk instead of a nap on Tuesday, but as a result I was pretty sleepy during the first part of that day’s Nei Gong session…)

Tuesday: Read some more of Practical Tai Chi Training. Went through the Chen pole weapon forms. Did 20m each of Zhan Zhuang 3 and Taiji Standing 7. Went through the 37 form and the Lao Jia first and second forms. In the afternoon, I followed along with the recent Fire Wu Xing zoom class; and I added on 10m of Coiling Snake plus some Wu Ji at the end. And then I went to my Chen teacher’s push hands class; continuing to be basic, it’s pleasant enough helping beginners but I’m not actively interested in that enough right now to take away my Tuesday dinner time, so I’m going to stop after this week.

Tuesday evening was a Taiji lesson, Taiji Standing 7 – White Crane. And I also watched the Qigong Cultivation 3 lecture from Maryland 2022.

Wednesday: 25m Dragon 3; a longer stretching set than normal; 20m Wu Ji; 25m Dantian Gong; 35m Earth Hui Chun.

Thursday: I went up to San Francisco, so not much practice today. 15m Taiji Standing 7; 50m Calm Abiding. During the Calm Abiding I played around a bit with spine positioning / the sideways tilt of my torso; interesting how much of a difference that makes when there’s a good amount of Qi making its presence known. Hunyuan 48 review.

Friday: 30m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; 55m misc standing stuff (10m each Ji Ben 1/2, 15m Lotus Dao Yin, bits of Wu Ji.) I finished reading On the Way to the Far Shore; not completely irrelevant to the importance of attention in Nei Gong.

Saturday: 35m Earth Hui Chun, 20m Zhan Zhuang 3. Attended the regular Chen class. Did the four Dragons.

Sunday: 20m Wu Ji / Coiling Snake. Attended the monthly Sunday Chen class.

Monday: I noticed while walking my dogs this morning that my shoulders are resting farther back than they used to. (Which, honestly, surprises me.) And also I worked on Songing my upper chest during that walk, seems like a good thing to ambiently try to make progress on. The only Nei Gong I did today was some Du Stretch, there was unfortunately something else that came up during my Nei Gong time.

Tuesday: A late start, so not as much Tai Chi as normal, but I did 20m Taiji Standing 7 and went through the 37 form and the Lao Jia first and second forms. For the 37 form and the Lao Jia first form, I went through them quite slowly, letting Qi settle and paying attention to how Jin was moving. I followed through the video of Rick’s August 1 zoom course, and did 35m Earth Hui Chun. And my Tai Chi teacher is giving a push hands class this summer; I skipped the first two weeks but I decided to go today. (I was mostly helping with beginners; pleasant enough, though it would have been nice to have had a bit more time with experienced people too.)

It’s been an interesting week. I feel like my upper chest is starting to relax more in a way that lets it spread a bit (or at least not feel so tight), and maybe even shirts are hanging a little differently on me? And also I’ve been sweating more than normal during Nei Gong sessions; not sure if that’s because my body is working harder in good ways or because I’m inappropriately using muscle strength or just because it’s been in the mid to upper 80s and I’m practicing on the second floor of a house without air conditioning. (So the sweat could also explain why shirts feel different, my body might actually not be changing shape…)

Also, on some days, I feel like my perception is changing, like it’s being dragged down to the inside of my body more easily. It’s enough of a difference that I’m worried that I’m turning my head down, but I’m actually doing a good job of maintaining my head position, I think my body’s default head position is improving. (My spine and pelvis, too.) Not sure if I’m turning my eyes down or not, but I think it’s mostly about my attention rather than my eyes?

Still no change in my Dantian activation, it’s at the “pretty sure it’s real but it’s faint” stage it’s been at ever since Utah. But I feel like I’m building more Qi than normal in my Nei Gong sessions, so I’m optimistic that things are to be improving along other dimensions.

Anyways, back to the regular weekly report:

Tuesday evening was a Nei Gong lesson, on Yin Breathing. Which turned out to be the exercise I’d been doing five days a week since the Utah workshop, where you pause after exhalation. So I didn’t really need to do that one; the next lesson, Yang Breathing, was already unlocked, so I went through that on Wednesday morning, that was the variant that I do the other two days, where you pause after inhalation. I also watched the Qigong Cultivation 1 video from Maryland 2022 on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday: Du Stretch; 45m Wu Ji; 30m Standing Dantian Gong; 25m of the Full Moon exercise.

Thursday: I had an eye doctor appointment in the morning so there was less time for Tai Chi than normal; 20m Zhan Zhuang 3, and I went through the 37 form, the Hunyuan 48, and the Xinjia first form. 25m Dragon 2; 50m Spinal Dao Yin; 40m Earth Hui Chun. Hunyuan 48 review in the evening; and I watched the Qigong Cultivation 2 video from Maryland 2022. An interesting bit at the end of that, talking about how the quality of your attention is reflected in the way in which your Dantian moves around if it’s activated. (Better attention means smoother movement, basically.)

Friday: 40m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; 15m Lotus Dao Yin; 40m Water Hui Chun.

Saturday: I was getting together with a friend, so no regular Chen class. 40m Wood Hui Chun; 20m Zhan Zhuang 3; and I went through the sword weapon forms and the Laojia and Xinjia first forms.

Sunday: 35m Earth Hui Chun; 20m Zhan Zhuang 2; 90m Push Hands; 20m Wu Ji + Coiling Snake. And I wrote a post on my main blog about about why you might want to do push hands.

Monday: Du Stretch; 45m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; 25m Hou Tian Qi 2.

Tuesday: I went through the pole weapon forms. 20m each of Zhan Zhuang 2 and WSSF3; the latter started off mild but ended up surprisingly powerful, a more substantial feeling of Qi moving than I think I’ve ever had in a Tai Chi exercise. (I still don’t think I’m getting the release from the foot right, though.) I went through the 37 form, the Laojia first and second forms, and the Xinjia first form. 25m Dragon 1; and then went through Zoom class on Gathering and Moving, there was a surprisingly powerful Golden Orb session in that. My chest in particular really wanted to open up sideways much more than it normally does, it felt like Qi wanted to move and push on it. It was actually doing that when the teacher had us raise our arms, even before I realized that it was Golden Orb, so my mind wasn’t even priming my body to expect that I was going to spread out my arms next; I just felt like my chest wanted to widen out. So I guess there’s something natural about that sequence of movements!