Tuesday Lesson: Forgiveness 2. Which I decided not to spend time on over the rest of the week; I’m actually having a hard time thinking of people that I’m the right level of being annoyed at for that practice. I also did Shui Gong 3 at night; didn’t seem like it was going well, I certainly wasn’t having the claimed effect, but I did sleep unusually soundly, so that’s good. My wife was out of town all week, so I’ll do a lot of that. (Didn’t end up leading anywhere, unfortunately; even sleeping unusually soundly only happened the one time..)

Good timing for me to have put a pause on doing new Taiji lessons, I seem to be hitting a streak of Nei Gong lessons that I don’t want to spend two weeks on…

Wednesday: 30m Dragon 3; 20m Wu Ji; 25m standing Dantian Gong. Shui Gong 3; more normal sleep, no particular effect.

Thursday: Chen sword weapon forms; Laojia first form; 37 form. 20m Du Stretch; went through Rick’s October 10 class; 20m Song Breath 1.

Friday: Rewatched some of the Dragon 4 videos. 30m Dragon 2, 20m Wu Ji, 40m Water Hui Chun. Shui Gong 3.

Saturday: 20m Four Dragons; 15m Lotus Dao Yin; 30m Song Breath 1. Shui Gong 3.

Sunday: 40m Earth Hui Chun, 15m Du Stretch. Shui Gong 3.

Monday: 25m Wu Ji; 30m standing Dantian Gong; 20m Coiling Snake; 30m Song Breath 1.

Tuesday: 55m Spinal Dao Yin; 35m of (pretty bad) Calm Abiding.

Tuesday’s lesson: Shui Gong 4. I still want to keep at Advancing the Dantian Gong for another week, but Shui Gong 4 is a nighttime practice, so the two don’t interfere, and my wife will be out of town the next two weeks, so it’s a good time to do it. Except that it turns out that Shui Gong 4 isn’t a general purpose exercise, so I might not have a reason to do it; what I’ll probably do is review Shui Gong 3 and try that while she’s out of town, since I never really gave that one a fair shake. Also watched Fire in Alchemy from Assorted Nei Gong Talks.

Wednesday: 35m Song Breath 1. 20m Du Stretch, 40m Wu Ji, 30m Advancing the Dantian Gong.

Thursday: Chen pole weapon forms; 37 form; Xinjia first form, Laojia second form. 25m Dragon 3; went through Warm Up – Making Space from Maryland 2023. 35m Wood Hui Chun.

Friday: 20m Du Stretch; 30m Song Breath 1; 30m Wu Ji with an unusually wide chest; 30m standing Dantian Gong with maybe a bit more bouncing around than normal in my Dantian at the end.

Saturday: 25m Four Dragons. I did a better job of being forceful during the fourth walk than I normally do; I should watch videos of that to pick up more details, though. 30m Advancing the Dantian Gong.

Sunday: monthly Chen class. 15m Dragon 1.

Monday: I distracted myself today (and have something I’m doing regularly on the end of Monday afternoons these days, so not as much practice time as normal) so just 5m Wu Ji, 15m Coiling Snake, 40m Earth Hui Chun. Surprisingly powerful, though, even that little bit of Wu Ji had much more going on in my body than normal.

Tuesday: 20m Du Stretch, 35m Advancing the Dantian Gong, 30m Song Breath 1; more than normal for an allergy shot day, so that’s something. I don’t think I’ll do Advancing the Dantian Gong frequently, but it was interesting enough today that I’ll try to do it once or twice a month.

This week’s lesson was Advancing the Dan Tian Gong. I also watched the Microcosmic Orbit lecture from Maryland 2023 on Tuesday evening.

A random note on something I’ve bene noticing this week: I feel like my torso, especially my lower back, is getting warmer; hopefully that’s a sign that my Ming Fire is progressing?

Wednesday: My sleep is still off; hopefully stopping Seal Leakages will help, I’ll also do some extra closing down. 35m Song Breath 1; 25m Dragon 3; 20m Wu Ji; 25m standing Dantian Gong; 10m Wood Wu Xing; 25m Earth Hui Chun.

Thursday: Chen sword forms; 20m WSSF 1; 37 form; Xinjia first form. 35m Wu Ji / Coiling Snake, 35m Advancing the Dantian Gong, 40m Water Hui Chun.

Friday: More distracted than normal today. 15m Du Stretch, 35m Wu Ji, 35m seated Dantian Gong.

Saturday: 35m Song Breath 1. Regular Saturday Tai Chi class; I did 40m of Oblique Circles during Silk Reeling. 20m four Dragons.

Sunday: 20m Du Stretch, 40m Advancing the Dantian Gong. 90m Push Hands.

Monday: 30m Wu Ji (with my body being surprisingly interested in widening); 25m standing Dantian Gong; 20m Coiling Snake. I’ve started sometimes playing games with friends at the end of Monday afternoons, so my Monday sessions are frequently shorter than would be ideal.

Tuesday: 70m Calm Abiding; the first half of the session was distracted (I was sitting quietly in a church but then people started showing up to prep for a memorial service, so I ended up moving outside about halfway through), and in general I wasn’t doing a super wonderful job of Songing but I was at least hanging out in my body in a somewhat effective way? 25m Wu Ji, 10m Lotus Dao Yin; I feel like I’m not getting much out of Lotus Dao Yin, either I should take it out of the rotation or do it more seriously. (I guess I’ll start with the latter: bump it up to 20m and get more serious about the connections it works onin my body.) 50m Being Present / Ming Men set, it felt like it was doing a particularly good job with my spine this time. 40m Earth Hui Chun.