Last Tuesday’s lesson was Song Yi. (A Nei Gong one; they’ll all be Nei Gong ones for the next while, since I’m dialing down the amount of Tai Chi that I’m doing.)

Wednesday: 40m Song Breath 2; 15m Du Stretch. And I participated in Rick’s Zoom course.

Thursday: It was quite warm outside, so the only Tai Chi I did was the sword weapon forms and the Xinjia first form. 40m Song Yi; 70m Wu Ji; 50m Being Present / Ming Men sequence. And I watched the Mental Barriers lecture from Maryland 2023.

Friday: I didn’t feel like doing all that much; 10m Coiling Snake, 25m Dantian Gong, 10m Ji Ben 2, and 30m in total of Wu Ji mixed in around those various parts.

Saturday: 35m Song Breath 1. 20m Releasing the Feet. Regular Chen class. 15m going through all four Dragons.

Sunday: 20m Du Stretch, and the monthly advanced Chen class.

Monday: 45m Song Yi, following along with the video again because I (correctly!) suspected I’d missed a step when originally taking my notes. 25m Dragon 1, 20m Wu Ji, 30m standing Dantian Gong, 30m Earth Hui Chun.

Tuesday: 30m Dragon 3; 25m Lotus Dao Yin / Wu Ji; 30m Water Hui Chun; 30m Song Breath 1. I wasn’t planning to do three exercises that all affect the chest, but I guess having a theme isn’t a bad idea? Like last week, Dragon 3 was pretty interesting, affecting a good range of my torso during both the walking part and the standing part.

Last Tuesdays’s lesson was Taiji Standing 8 – Brush Knee.

Wednesday: 20m Du Stretch. 1h Wu Ji; 15m Ji Ben 3 and 5m more Wu Ji. 40m Calm Abiding.

Thursday: 40m Song Breath 2. Rewatched the Releasing the Feet for Taiji video, because that feels important for me to work on. Busy morning, so no weapon practice today; 15m Releasing the Feet, 10m Taiji Standing 8, went through the 37 form and the Xinjia first form. (The latter of which felt good, more than normal going on inside my body.) 20m of Wu Ji and 10m of Coiling Snake; I think I should have stretched more before doing that, my lower back was surprisingly unhappy. Went through the Reverse Abdominal Breathing / Wood Wu Xing zoom class; that version of the Wood Wu Xing is very different from my memory of how it was presented in year 1! Reviewed the Hunyuan 48; honestly, I’m getting tired of doing that on my Thursday evenings, but I think rather than stop the correct thing would be to push through and actually learn the form, instead of half-assing too much of it the way I am now… (Update: actually, I think I am going to pause: learning it might the correct thing but I don’t feel motivated enough in practice to actually do it, so no sense constantly feeling guilty about that.) Watched Maryland 2022 Qigong Cultivation 5 lecture.

Friday: 25m Du Stretch, 30m Wu Ji, 30m standing Dantian Gong, 40m Earth Hui Chun.

Saturday: 35m Song Breath 1. 20m Releasing the Feet. Regular Chen class, trying to work Releasing the Feet into my form. 30m Dragon Dao Yins, going through all four. And I’ve been noticing the last couple of days that my spine is hanging wrong and I’m doing less well at figuring out how to fix it than last week. Also I’m not sinking into my left Kua properly.

Sunday: 40m Song Breath 2. 75m Push Hands. 25m Dragon 2.

Monday: 25m Du Stretch; 30m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; 10m Lotus Dao Yin / Wu Ji. Was planning to do longer on that latter, but my bowels had a different opinion; not sure if I was just a little off or if I’d moved stuff around wrong during Dantian Gong…

Tuesday: 40m Song Breath 1. Chen pole weapons. 20m (slightly iffy) Sinking the Feet; 15m Taiji Standing 8. 37 form, Laojia first and second forms. 30m Dragon 3; emphasized the chest part more than normal in the walk, and during one of the standing sections there was a lot more stuff moving around in my chest than normal, helping get it open. Went through the recording of Rick’s September 5 Zoom course; good to have a second Wood Wu Xing refresher in close succession.

Also, I’m thinking I’m going to dial back my Tai Chi practice. I’m feeling like I don’t have enough unscheduled time during my weeks, and also I’m not getting as much programming done as I’d like, so I think I’m spending too much time on internal arts. And right now I’m making more progress in Nei Gong than in Tai Chi, and I’ve got teachers that I’m learning more from in Nei Gong than in Tai Chi; that latter might change next year once the Foundations weekends end and I potentially start taking a push hands course, but for now dialing down Tai Chi seems right.

Concretely, I think I’ll stop doing Tai Chi on Tuesday mornings, and pause the IAA Taiji course. And I might go to Saturday class and Sunday push hands a little less often, but those are good for me for social reasons as well, so I think what I’ll do instead is continue going to them by default but I won’t feel guilty if I’ve got a reason to skip them on one particular week.

And it’s possible I’ll try to free up all of my mornings: switch my Thursday Tai Chi practice to the afternoon and only do a little bit of Nei Gong those days? We’ll see.

Ths week’s lesson was a Nei Gong one, Song Breath 2. More different from 1 than I expected; I’ve been swapping some of my morning breathing exercises for them, they’re both useful for me now, though finding time for 35 or 40 minutes is different than finding time for 15 minutes, so we’ll see how long that lasts…

Wednesday: 25m Dragon 3. 40m Wu Ji, mostly focusing on physical hip / spine / head alignment; about 35 minutes in, I got a line in my body to actually feel like it was lining up with my spine (as opposed to either not feeling it or feeling it a little to the left of my spine), which feels really useful, hopefully I can recapture that in the future. 50m seated Dantian Gong (and a bit of thickening); first time I’d done that seated for a while, glad I did that, though, it’s interestingly different, maybe more substantial?

Thursday: 40m Song Breath 2. 20m each Peng Separation and WSSF1; interesting slight buzzing going up my legs during the last few minutes of the latter. Went through the 37 form and the Laojia first form. Longer stretching set; 25m Wu Ji, 20m Coiling Snake; 25m (somewhat sleepy) Full Moon practice, 40m Earth Hui Chun. Watched Qigong Cultivation 4 from Maryland 2022.

Friday: Travel day. 20m Du Stretch, 35m Song Breath 1, 25m Calm Abiding. Hope I can find time to do Calm Abiding more often…. Played around with spine and neck positioning while sitting for hours on the plane. 10m Wu Ji / Wood Wu Xing.

Saturday: Foundations workshop.

Sunday: Foundations workshop. When doing breathing exercises on the flight home, my chest was expanding more than normal; not sure if that was the workshop or the Song Breath 1 that I’d been doing the last few weeks or what.

Monday: 45m Song Breath 2; supposed to be 40m, not sure what I did extra! 20m Du Stretch, 40m Wu Ji / Lotus Dao Yin, 35m Earth Hui Chun. Feeling a little off; hopefully I’m purging instead of getting sick normally.

Tuesday: 35m Song Breath 1. Sword weapon forms; 20m each Peng Separation and WSSF3; 37 form, Laojia first and second forms. 30m Dragon 3; went through Rick’s August 15 Zoom course. (And fortunately I’m not feeling any worse off today than yesterday.)