This week was a Taiji lesson on Sinking the Qi; kind of interesting, at first it felt to me like a bit of an overlap with other lessons (e.g. the earlier one about sinking into the ground, maybe it was Releasing the Feet for Taiji?) but it built on that in an interesting way, and also I was happy to have a nudge to return to that. Though I do kind of have too many isolated exercises to work on right now… And I watched about half of the Medical Qigong lecture from Sweden 2025.

Wednesday: I went through the Spine Spa class again. Nothing much to report about that this time.

Thursday: I rewatched Taiji Standing 1 (Ward Off Left); honestly I’m not sure if I should do Taiji Standing 4 more times, but I figure I’ve been doing it for something like 4 weeks (only twice a week, admittedly) so changing postures seemed plausible. I rewatched Play Pipa; good back stretch on that one. (And I’m getting close to the end of the first road in my review, so I ordered a phone tripod, I think I’ll record myself to ask for feedback on the first road soon.) I went through the Chen sword forms, through the 37 form four times; the Xin Jia form; and I took a walk. In the afternoon I went through Rick’s July 16 Zoom; I was feeling a little off so I didn’t end up doing any sitting work after that. I did my regular Hunyuan 48 review in the evening and I finished watching the Medical Qigong lecture.

Friday: It’s continuing to be a little hard to get started; not sure why, maybe I’m a little more tired than normal but I’m not convinced? Though the inside of my body feels quietly more active than normal. 1h Wu Ji (with some unusually scattered listening inside); 65m seated stuff, leading to an MCO attempt, my mind was being noticeably more stable than normal during this seated work, and my Qi was actually getting about as thick as I’ve ever felt it during the thickening, and it felt kind of like my Qi/muscles were feeling kind of rippling as they were moving around during the rotating part of MCO prep. Pretty standard MCO attempt, made it halfway up my back (or, honestly, probably a little less, above my diaphragm I think but not by much). Not sure if it’s not enough juice, if there’s a clipping pass that I need to work on, or both?

Saturday: 35m of sleepy Advanced Dantian Gong; 20m of Zhan Zhuang; and long Silk Reeling was Kua Circling Out With a Kick. Which was a little annoying, and I didn’t end up feeling the Silk particularly; though I’m honestly not sure if that’s because it’s not actually a very silk-reely exercise or if it is but I need to be more stable? And of course the standard Saturday Chen Tai Chi class.

Sunday: 20m Wu Ji; I went through the Chen pole forms and all of the empty hand forms; I took a brisk walk; and I did 50m seated work aiming at Scholar Breathing. I got some hints of a contraction during that and then later hints of a vibration, so I still feel like I’m not too far off from that turning into something useful?

Monday: My Kua muscles were aching a bit, I think it’s the walk? Also, FWIW I’m starting to pay more attention to the feel (both mental and physical) of distractions like wanting to use my phone; hopefully by being attentive to that I’ll be able to find a way to reduce the tug, or at least resist it better? I did 65m Wu Ji and 30m of seated stuff.

Tuesday: I reviewed the Chen sword forms (and I did the Jian one 3 times), and I did the Xin Jia form two times. No Yang stuff or isolated work, though, I had a meeting that ate into my Tai Chi time. I did an hour of standing, a mixture of Wu Ji, Ji Ben 1, Ji Ben 2, and Wood Wu Xing, and an hour of okayish Calm Abiding, it wasn’t very strong but at least I wasn’t sleepy. And I went for a walk.

Good week. I’m spending more time stretching my back, calves, and hamstrings (mostly through isolated stretches during the day, but also Wu Ji is helping with my back) and also going on brisk walks more often, and I feel like it’s making a difference – my back in particular seems happier in ways that helps with Nei Gong. So hopefully if I keep at that it will make a difference. Still need to get my sleep in order, but I’ll see a sleep doctor soon and probably get a CPAP soon after, hopefully that will help. (And hopefully it will help with my energy levels, not just with my quantity of sleep.)

Anyways: a Nei Gong lesson this week, on Listening Inside. Pleasant enough, and I imagine that I’ll keep on doing it if for no other reason that it’s easy to spend five minutes on in the middle of a long Wu Ji session.

Wednesday: 50m Dantian Gong / Thickening; and I took Rick’s Zoom class (live, I’d been catching up on recorded ones but hadn’t done any live ones yet), mostly spent on the snowman / gourd exercise. Which was interesting, I’ve seen that before but I’d forgotten what he does to set up your body before doing the hand movements. Glad to be doing that, going forward I’ll try to participate in the Wednesday ones live, though I think I’ll watch the Saturday ones after the fact.

Thursday: I rewatched the Brush Knee and Press video; did Taiji Standing 4 (Push), some Taiyi Standing, and Wu Song Shen Fa 2; went through the 37 form 5 times (twice with video, 3 on my own); and went through the Xin Jia first form twice. And I took a walk after that. IN the afternoon, I did 25m Wu Ji / Coiling Snake, 35m of breathing practice, 5m listening inside, and 30m Calm Abiding. Not sure why I wasn’t feeling it on Calm Abiding; my back ached some but I’m not convinced that was the only reason why I didn’t last longer. In the evening, I did some Hunyuan 48 review and watched the second Texas 2025 talk.

Friday: 1h Wu Ji, my lower back got noticeably warm, which is unusual. Glad to see it, because in one of the videos I watched over the last few weeks, that was called out as being more or less necessary for something, I think maybe Microcosmic Orbit work? 1h10m of listening inside / Dantian Gong / thickening / MCO attempt; when I first tried kicking off the MCO, Qi went too far to the front of my spine, I didn’t send it into the sacrum at the right place I think. In the second time it went in the right place, went maybe halfway up my spine? Farther than the previous week, at any rate, and it had a different texture. Took a walk.

Saturday: 30m Full Moon practice (plus some listening inside) and 30m Zhan Zhuang. And I continued my long Silk Reeling with Hip Rotations; unsurprisingly, that didn’t do anything special, honestly I was just glad that it didn’t strain my back because doing it for longer than the standard (minimal) amount has had that effect in the past. And of course my regular Chen Tai Chi class.

Sunday: 30m Zhan Zhuang, 10m Side Channel Rolling, the once a month Sunday Tai Chi class, and a sleepy 30m Kidney Hui Chun.

Monday: 90m Wu Ji (with a little bit of listening inside); 50m seated stuff, more heavily weighted towards Dantian Gong than normal.

Tuesday: 25m Wu Ji, 10m Coiling Snake, 1h Calm Abiding. Chen pole weapon forms, Hunyuan 48.

Last week’s lesson was on Kua Development, from the Taiji course. I’ll wait for a while to do the exercise because of the ankle problems I’m having, but the principle is useful. (Maybe more useful than the specific exercise, honestly, I’ve been doing other Kua exercises for a while.)

On Wednesday I did 1 hour of Spinal Dao Yin and 1 hour of Dantian Gong / Qi thickening.

On Thursday I’d had bad sleep overnight and termite inspection during the middle of the day, so the only Tai Chi I did in the morning was going through the Xin Jia form a couple of times. And I didn’t do much Nei Gong in the afternoon either, just 40 minutes of Water Hui Chun and 10 minutes of Wu Ji. And I did my regular Hunyuan 48 review in the evening, and I also watched the first Texas 2025 talk.

On Friday I did an hour of Wu Ji and an hour of Dantian Gong / Qi thickening / trying to kick off the Microcosmic Orbit. Things were more juddery than normal when thickening, so it felt like stuff was thickening noticeably. But the MCO attempt was less successful than in the previous week: it didn’t go very far up my back, I mostly needed more juice, but it also felt like some resistance in the middle of my back wasn’t helping. And I went on a brisk walk for a while.

Also sometime around then (maybe starting Thursday evening), I noted that I’d had abnormally bad sleep for a little over a week, and that coincided with an experiment I was doing with some pillows. My standard had been one thick pillow and one thin pillow; then I’d experimented with adding in a third (thick) pillow into the mix, which seemed fine from a sleep point of view and helped things drain more. But for the last week I’d been experimenting with two thick and no thin pillows, and that lined up with the bad sleep; I think what’s going on there is that puts a bend in my neck at a location where my airway can constrict a bit. So I’ve gone back to the three pillow configuration, and it’s working better (the bend is further down my throat in a place less vulnerable to constriction); I’ll probably switch back to the thick plus thin two pillow configuration soon so I can compare that again.

On Saturday I did 30 minutes of Advanced Dantian Gong, and I got back to the long versions of the Silk Reeling exercises, this time doing a Four Energies drill. (Which worked decently well in the long form – in particular, that specific drill has a reverse direction part where the extra time helps with the silk. And of course I had my regular Chen Tai Chi class.

On Sunday I did 25 minutes of Long Loops, 40 minutes of Spleen Hui Chun, and 10 minutes of Wood Wu Xing; and for Tai Chi practice I went through the Chen pole weapons and through the first and second Lao Jia forms.

On Monday I did 75 minutes of Wu Ji; it went well, I got a good Song on my lower back that turned into a good stretch, my lower spine actually started to get a hint of a taffy feeling. I remember getting a similar feeling (with a different exercise) when I was working on my shoulders, hopefully it’s a sign that my spine is starting to get unbound in a meaningful way? And I did an hour of Dantian Gong / thickening.

Today I rewatched the 37 Form – Lifting Hands into White Crane video; I went through the Yang 37 form four times (twice with video, twice without); I went through my Chen sword weapon forms and the Hunyuan 48, and I did 20 minutes each of Taji Standing 4 Push and Wu Song Shen Fa 3. And I decided to restart acupuncture, so I had my first appointment today. My doctor tried out something different and he was pleased with the difference in my Kidney before/after readings, but we’ll see if that holds up and makes a difference. And I did an hour of Calm Abiding after that; fine, nothing special, but also I wasn’t sleepy so that made it better than any attempt at that over the previous week.

An overall note around aches in my body: my right Achilles tendon has been aching ever so slightly for a few weeks. Doesn’t seem to be getting worse; I’ve started taking some ibuprofen, icing it, and stretching it a little more, it might be helping though I’m not yet convinced that it’s really on the road to recovery yet. (Though it’s itching right now, which can sometimes be associated with healing, so maybe something is changing??) Also, my knees have been aching for a while in a different way than normal, I’m feeling stress on them sometimes on the top of the knee (on the lower thigh above the kneecap). Not doing anything about that one yet other than not sinking so low in a few situations.

Anyways, last week’s lesson was a Nei Gong one, another one of the Hunyuan lessons, on Large Loops. Pleasant enough.

Wednesday: I did 50 minutes of Wu Ji and an hour of Dantian Gong / Qi thickening. And I went on a walk without the dogs at the end of the afternoon; I felt like it was useful, and also as I was paying attention to my body during the walk, I feel like most of my body was decently loose and I could get my mind in there but I was having a hard time paying attention actually inside the spine? It kind of felt like there was this whole tube there that my mind doesn’t want to get into; I feel like that’s a sign that there’s probably a lot of loosening to be done there. But hey, hopefully being aware of that is a start.

Thursday: I was extra sleepy, so I did a little less Tai Chi than my recent norm: 20 minutes of Taiji Standing 4, I went through Yang 37 twice with the video and three times without it, and I did the Hunyuan 48 and the Lao Jia first/second forms twice. (Though, admittedly, that’s still more than I’d been doing before the last month or so!) And I took inspiration from the previous day and had a pleasant walk after that. In the afternoon I did an hour of Calm Abiding (but being sleepy meant it was quite a bit less effective than on Tuesday), and I went through the recording of Rick’s July 2 class, my notes are that it was quite good but I can’t remember why I noted that. And I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 in the evening.

Friday: I did an hour of Wu Ji; it went well, the lower part of my body was actually about as connected as it had ever been, my Yong Quan and inside of my thighs definitely had interesting stuff going on. And my back was tingling right at the start, not in a “tons of Qi” way but in a way that I think came from having done a couple of good walks on Wednesday and Thursday, that got things loosened up and moving through there better. And then I did a little more than an hour of Dantian Gong / Qi thickening / trying to kick off the Microcosmic Orbit. (My first attempt at the later since the summer workshop.) I didn’t succeed in kicking it off, Qi only went about halfway or two thirds of the way up my back; it felt more like I didn’t have enough juice rather than a clipping pass problem.

Saturday: when I was walking one of my dogs in the morning, I felt like I was doing a pretty good job of keeping my Ming Men open, so that was nice. Other than that, I did the Long Loops exercise and went through the Dragons, and of course I had my regular Chen Tai Chi class.

Sunday: I did a little over 30 minutes of Hunyuan stuff (Large Loops, Side Channel Rolling); I went through my Tai Chi sword weapons forms; and I did 50 minutes of Bellows Breathing / attempting Scholar Breathing / Calm Abiding. I made progress on Scholar Breathing: I could definitely feel the Ming Line and I also got a sense of how the front of it might want to pull in. So I didn’t actually kick off Scholar Breathing but I also felt like my body was moving in that direction. I was a little tired so I didn’t do as much Calm Abiding as I would have liked.

Monday: I did 75 minutes of Wu Ji; I was planning to do an hour but about 45 minutes in, my abdomen inflated in interesting ways, and then my armpits inflated a bit after that, so I kept going even after the one hour bell. And I did 50 minutes of Dantian Gong and Qi thickening.

Tuesday: I did Taiji Standing 4 and Wu Song Shen Fa 1; the part of the latter where stuff is going down was more interesting in my arms and torso than normal, it actually felt like I was getting Yi Jin Jing-style effects of Qi affecting my body’s tissues as it moved through them. And I went through the 37 form three times and the Lao Jia 1st/2nd forms once. In the afternoon, I watched Rick’s July 12 Zoom class; and then I did 35 minutes of Calm Abiding, but I was too sleepy to keep going. Which, if you’re keeping count, happened to me every time this week; I’d been happy that, for a while, it felt like my energy levels were good in the afternoon (and I was also stabilizing my mind well inside my body during Calm Abiding) but now, unfortunately, I’m back to being sleepy enough that it’s a problem with that exercise. Not sure if it’s random fluctuation or if there’s something I was accidentally doing right for a little while that I’ve stopped doing…

I was visiting my parents for most of the week, so no new lesson and not a ton of practice most days. And, unfortunately, I think I probably sat around too much and/or sat around in a less-than-ideal position, because my back is feeling not super great? Nothing horrible, just a little achy / weak.

Anyways, as to the days:

Wednesday: 30 minutes of Wu Ji, 25 minutes of breathing practice. Also, I was noticing that my shoulders not infrequently want to expand, I think the opening work really has had an effect. And I read some random article online that day which got me thinking that maybe I’ve been logy after my afternoon naps recently because I slept too long and went into a deeper sleep phase, so I was thinking I should set an alarm for 45 minutes; I’ve been putting that into practice since I got back, I think it’s helped.

Thursday: 50 minutes of Spine Shoulder Dao Yin, 20 minutes observing the breath.

Friday: 20 minutes Wu Ji, 40 minutes Kidney Hui Chun.

Saturday: 30 minutes Ji Ben 4, 25 minutes of Spleen Hui Chun, and I also went through the Chen Xinjia first form. (That was the only Tai Chi I did while on vacation.)

Sunday: 15 minutes Wu Ji, 40 minutes of just sitting, 20 minutes of Yin Yang breathing. (The latter two of which I did on the way home, good to be home.)

Monday: 45 minutes of Wu Ji; like I said, my back wasn’t feeling great, so I didn’t go a full hour. Though I didn’t feel like the Wu Ji was compressing it, I actually felt like the Wu Ji was stretching it out, so hopefully that will start helping? And I did an hour of Dantian Gong plus thickening.

Tuesday: in the morning, I reviewed Single Whip, I went through the Yang 37 twice with a video and twice on my own, I did 20 minutes each of Taji Standing 4 (Push) and the Four Energies exercise, and I went through the Chen pole-like weapons. (Guan Dao, staff, spear.) In the afternoon, I did 60 minutes of Calm Abiding; I wasn’t hanging out as easily in my body as I had the previous week, my body felt kind of tight? But I attention was pretty stable, so I kept at in, and as I relaxed my body I made it in there further. And I got some pretty good mental Song, too. So, all in all, it felt like a rather good session; and I’d actually been feeling more monkey-mind-ish than normal recently, so I was glad to be in a good mental state that time. And then I watched a video of a class that Rick gave at the end of June – I’ve decided that I want to start attending his classes going forward (at least the ones on Wednesdays, Saturdays are a less good time so I’ll probably do those via the recording), so I decided to go through the four ones from June / July. Interesting class, I’m glad I watched it; good Golden Orb practice, in a way that I got different things from than from Damo’s class a few months back.

Last Tuesday’s lesson was Taiji Standing 4 – Push. Which is actually good timing – I’d been vaguely wondering if I should spend more time on the Taji Standing exercises, and some of the general discussion in that lesson combined with some discussion in the IAA forum makes me think that it’s worth experimenting with: it seems like those exercises might be a useful complement to exercises that actually move Jin? So I think I’d like to find time on those; the next question is when / how, though, because there aren’t any exercises that I want to dial back on…

On Wednesday, I did 90m of Wu Ji; the last 15 minutes was hard but I made it. And 30m of the Full Moon practice.

Thursday was another good Tai Chi morning, and actually a good practice day in general. I reviewed the Ba Men 2 – Release video, I went through the Chen Jian form 5 times, I did 20 minutes each of Taiji Standing 4 and Wu Song Shen Fa 3, I went through the Yang 37 form 3 times alone and 2 times with the video, and I had one good-feeling round of the Xin Jia first form. And in the afternoon I did an hour of the Yellow Court stretch, since I’d heard that Rick was mentioning that and it had been a while since I’d done it; an hour of Calm Abiding (probably the time doing that where I’ve felt most like I was hanging out in my body; not as strong a Song as I’ve gotten before but the hanging out part is definitely progress); and 20m of Full Moon. And I felt good after practice, not sure what all contributed to that but yay. And I reviewed the Hunyuan 48 in the evening.

On Friday, I decided I should experiment with doing some of the Nei Gong in the morning, to avoid after-nap weirdness. (My naps have gotten sounder recently, so I’m a little logy when I wake up.) And I think I should probably stretch more too – I was doing that more regularly at the start of my maybe-retirement schedule, and it felt good, but I’ve been slacking on that as well. Dogs kept me up for a while in the previous night (though I slept soundly after that) so I wasn’t 100%, but I did 20m stretching and 1h of Wu Ji in the morning, and 1h of Dantian Gong plus thickening in the afternoon. I had good Shen Up during that hour, my attention felt really clear, my body was inflating more than normal at the start of the DTG.

On Saturday, I did 30 minutes of Zhan Zhuang; I felt like I was doing an okay job of turning sinking into expansion, maybe because of the four energies practice? And my Chen teacher reviewed my Jian, I got some useful advice out of that. Unfortunately, that (plus the regular Chen Saturday class stuff) was all I did – one of my dogs was really worked up overnight so my sleep was crap.

Sunday was the once-a-month extra Chen class. I did 20 minutes of Zhan Zhuang before the start; a little sleepy so I chickened out, but actually it was pretty good, and I noticed during class that my lower spine was feeling better than normal, like it wanted to push up some, so maybe my body is starting to learn to keep the Ming Men full? That would be really useful if it is the case. And I did a little bit of breathing practice; some just sitting and watching (and mostly notice that I was surprisingly tense), and some box breathing.

On Monday, I went through the Spine Spa video. I wasn’t really looking forward to that: was spending two hours on that the right thing to do? But past me had thought that I should do that once a month or so, so I gave it another shot. And I’ll chalk that up as a win for past me, glad I did that, I’ve now set up a recurring reminder for that. The rotating the cage bit felt surprisingly strong; maybe that’s because of the Dantian pulsing that we did before that, I’m not sure, I’ll have to try out the Dantian pulsing in other similar contexts. And the bit about pulling with your pinkies was pretty interesting, there’s one bit in the middle of my spine that I kept on coming back to while doing that, hopefully I got that a bit unstuck but who knows.

I’m visiting my parents the rest of the week, so today was a travel day. I did sit on the plane for about 50 minutes and did a decent job of getting my mind in my body again, but I did almost no Song. But I’ll still treat that as a victory, doing anything like that on an economy-class seat in a plane is hard.

I feel good about the week – that’s now a few good Tai Chi days in a row, and there were some good signs over on the Nei Gong side, too. We’l see how much practice I do this week, but visiting my parents is important, so if the answer is “not much”, that’s fine. Not sure what was up with my younger dog’s sleep patterns at the end of the week, hopefully that was a transient thing, I’ve got enough sleep/fatigue issues that I don’t need my dog making it worse. (He was getting better on Sunday and Monday night, though, so I’ll be optimistic.)

A Nei Gong lesson week, on Dan Tian Governance. I didn’t really get that one; feels like something to return to if I start making progress with Scholar / Martial Breathing.

Anyways, the middle of the week was good (as Tuesday had been); I think it’s because sleep was going better? I had a hypothesis there that something I was doing was getting me to breathe more deeply with my diaphragm while sleeping and that was helping things (not fixing things, but maybe if I could work on that, it would); unfortunately, my sleep and energy levels were back to a so-so level after that, so maybe it’s just random variation. I do want to push on that, though, I’m no longer as convinced as I was that obstructive sleep apnea is all that’s going on.

Anyways, on Wednesday I did 1h Wu Ji, 1h Dantian Gong plus Thickening the Qi. Both went well – 1h was totally fine for the Wu Ji, my mind felt back in shape for the first time since I got a little sick after the workshop, and my body is aching in ways that, if I’m optimistic, might mean that things are expanding inside? And my body was doing some interesting “bump bump bump” movements during the DTG instead of letting my hands move smoothly.

On Thursday, I had another good Tai Chi day: I reviewed the Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail lesson(though I should probably go back to review the Ba Men lesson); did Jian form 6 times; 20m each Taiyi Standing and WSSF2; went through 37 form 4 times (once with video, three on my own); and the Lao Jia first form three times. For Nei Gong, I did 1h of Spine / Shoulder Dao Yin and 45m Calm Abiding. In the evening, I reviewed the 48 form, watched the Qi Connects Body lecture in the Foundations set, and skimmed a couple more sections of the Audio Guide.

On Friday we had friends over, so not much time for Nei Gong: 20m Wu Ji, 15m breathing exercises, but that’s all.

On Saturday I lead Silk Reeling in my Chen Tai Chi class, and did the other normal stuff in that class; for Nei Gong I did 10m Pushing the Tides, 20m Dragons, and 30m ADTG.

On Sunday, I rewatched Lotus Dao Yin video and I did 1h Bellows Breathing / Scholar attempt / Calm Abiding. That latter did not go well; what with the workshop there had been a several week gap since the last time I tried it, and that turned out to be enough that I didn’t feel confident that I was doing the exercises correctly. So I might have to review those videos again. (Or, of course, decide to stop pushing on that.) And I did half my Tai Chi forms.

On Monday, I did 1h Wu Ji, 35m breathing exercises. A little disappointing: I was hoping to do 90m of Wu Ji but, for whatever reason, I didn’t. This is actually a theme: the attentive reader will notice that my Nei Gong times have almost never added up to two hours since the workshop, even though that’s my goal. Some of that is fatigue, but also something’s off with the timing of my afternoon maps, which is having the effect of me not leaving enough time for Nei Gong and/or not wanting to do Nei Gong? (I still do do Nei Gong, I just goof off more before starting and give up more easily.) That latter could also be related to fatigue, but I think that I also need to spend less time getting distracted by pointless stuff; it might be a good idea for me to delete all the puzzle apps off of my iPad, for example.

And in my Tai Chi session this morning, I did 20m each of the four energies and WSSF1; my feet ached more than normal towards the end of that, which I’ll take as a good sign. And I finished going through the different Tai Chi forms, and I went through the Jian 3 times. In the afternoon, I did 45m Spinal Dao Yin, 30m Calm Abiding (bad planning there, I was doing it in a central part of the house because I expected my wife to be out longer than she actually was, whoops), 10m Wood Wu Xing.

I was feeling a little sick in the middle of the week, so no lesson last Tuesday evening and no practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Apparently many people got sick after the workshop, don’t know if something was going around or if it was something more esoteric.

On Thursday I was starting to feel better, so I finished my Tai Chi forms for the week, and I did 15m of Side Channel Rolling and 40m of Kidney Hui Chun. Also one thing that I noted that day was that my Yellow Court was feeling more active than normal; it had been doing that since the workshop, clearly the workshop had an effect. (Mostly calmed down as of this writing, though.) And I watched the Shen Up, Qi Down video that was posted to the Foundations course; glad I did, it stuck in a way that previous presentations of that material haven’t, it managed to get me in a mental state that really does feel different inside.

On Friday I hadn’t slept well (I’m trying out an apnea treatment that, honestly, isn’t going great), so all I did was 20m Wu Ji and 25m Spleen Hui Chun.

On Saturday, I started doing Advanced Dantian Gong but it quickly became clear that a nap would be more useful then too, so I stopped after 15 minutes. I went to my regular Chen Tai Chi class, and went through the Dragon Dao Yins.

On Sunday I did half of my Tai Chi forms, 20m Wu Ji, 10m Coiling Snake, and an hour of Calm Abiding.

On Monday, I did a 25m stretching session (I should do that more often, but certainly right now I’m feeling that my body has regressed in a bunch of ways since the workshop, so stretching seemed called for), 1h of Wu Ji, and 25m on Kidney Hui Chun.

And today was a rather good day. I reviewed the Ward off Left video in the 37 form, I went through the rest of my Tai Chi forms (and I actually decided to go through the Jian form six times, because I’ve decided that it’ll be the form that I show to my teacher later this month), and I also did 20m each of the four energies exercise, Wu Song Shen Fa 1, and Wu Song Shen Fa 3. So lots of Tai Chi in the morning; and, in the afternoon, a solid Nei Gong session, with an hour of a mix of Wu Ji, Spine Waves, and Ji Ben 4, followed by an hour of Calm Abiding. I did need a decent nap in the middle of it, so it’s not like my energy problems had disappeared, but also my sleep was better than average last night, I think. (Possibly due to Shui Gong 2, I did that last night and I think it made a difference.)

Most of the last week was the workshop. Lots of good stuff; and my body was feeling like it had had a pretty good workout by the end of it!

Which meant that I still felt what I thought was pleasantly exhausted (in a kind of unusual, more internal way) on Sunday; unfortunately, on Monday, I crashed hard at my normal nap time, and I’m feeling worse today. Not sure if I came down with something in the airport or if the lack of sleep Saturday night (caused by a flight getting me home at 1am and my dogs waking me up at a normal time) was too much sleep debt, or what; at any rate, I’m taking it easy now, certainly not doing a lesson tonight. (I did at least get a decent amount of Tai Chi in on Sunday, plus a bit of Calm Abiding.)

And I have some thinking to do about how to change my practice mix in light of the workshop. Probably work in a bit more seated gathering / thickening, and some occasional Microcosmic Orbit attempts? And I should spend more time doing active standing work with my mind inside my body, using it in different ways.

This week’s lesson was 37 Form – Full Sequence. A good one for a short week, since it’s just front and back videos of the sequence, so there’s nothing new I need to learn. And I also watched a new interview with Damo on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, I had a short practice, only 30m Wu Ji and 25m Full Moon: partly that was me getting distracted and partly it was needing time to pack for the workshop. Though actually the Wu Ji started out amazing; but then my brother called and I needed to talk to him, and when I got back to it, the magic was going. I can’t even remember any more exactly how it was amazing, but something really interesting was going on in my body, hopefully that will come back…

Thursday was a travel day; I did 20m of Wu Ji and a bit of Yin Yang breathing on the plane.

And I’ve been at the workshop since then. I’m not going to write about the details of that, though maybe next week I’ll write about what changes to my practice routine I might make in response to the workshop? We’ll see.