Better practice this week than the last couple: my Wednesday / Friday Nei Gong sessions weren’t quite as long as I’d like, but they weren’t bad, and on Monday and Tuesday I had solid practice over lunch at work. So hopefully I’m on an upswing from the recent dip.

This week’s lesson in the Nei Gong class was on settling the shoulders. Which is something I’ve been thinking about recently, and feel like I’m doing pretty well at; there was one new idea in the lesson, but in general, much less new in that lesson than normal. In fact, for the first time maybe since I’ve started the course, I actually didn’t do the new exercise every day during the first week after the lesson: there was a full moon, so I wanted to work in that practice, and I didn’t always have time to do a second meditation practice.

At first, the full moon practice felt basically identical to how it felt when I’d done it a week or two before the full moon: same stretch inside the body. But then I kind of relaxed and it actually felt milder? Not sure if that different feeling meant that it was more effective or less effective or just different, and I’m also not sure if it was related to the full moon or just a coincidence. Anyways, I’ve rescheduled my reminder for next month.

In Damo’s Tai Chi course, we did Wu Song Shen Fa 2 – another exercise on using Song to generate movement. I haven’t practiced it much, hopefully I’ll be able to work it in a few times this week.

We had the Sunday class in my regular Tai Chi course this week; we started the Guan Dao. So now I’m learning two completely new forms (that plus the Hunyuan 48), and getting the spear form back into my memory; hopefully that won’t be too much? I can report that the Guan Dao is heavy; and that when reviewing even the small bit of it and the Hunyuan 48 that I’ve seen so far, I basically immediately forgot what I just learned. Fortunately, I have good movies of both of those (though the Hunyuan 48 video is only the beginning, I think), and I think after watching those videos enough, I’ve more or less gotten those bits into my memory? We’ll see.

I also noticed that my legs ached a bit on Monday; not sure if that was caused by the Guan Dao, but it might be. And my body felt different on Monday in a different way. When walking, I felt a little like my feet were sticking well to the ground, and movements through my hips / butt / kua were more present? And also my torso felt like it was sinking more. If I’m optimistic, it might be a sign that I’m finally starting to get to the stage of flesh separating from bone that Damo talks about? I will continue to monitor it.

Damo’s having a 9 day Nei Gong retreat in June, and I did manage to get signed up for that; I’m really looking forward to it. It’s in Maryland, so I’ll have to fly across the country, but maybe being isolated will make it more effective as a retreat? Anyways, not much I can do about that: he’s not coming to the Bay Area this year, I’m just glad to go to an event of his at all.

It gives me motivation to get stuff in order so I’m prepared well to benefit from the retreat. So I’ll have to think of ways in which I want to go on a diet, mentally and physically. Speaking of which, I happened to listen to an interesting interview on the Ezra Klein show, talking to Johann Hari; among other things, they talked about just having more time to have your mind wander. Which made me think that I should do that more, especially while walking; means I should wean myself off of FlipFlop Solitaire, though…

Not a lot to say about Nei Gong this week. The lesson was titled “Full Moon Practice”, and I assumed it would be something that I didn’t care about, but actually I liked it: it was about a seated practice for opening up the Chong Mai, and it felt pretty interesting even when practicing it this week when the moon isn’t full. Damo says that it’s more effective right around the full moon, and that you feel some of that effect even doing it at home during the day (but you get more when doing it outside at night in view of the moon); honestly, I’m dubious about that sort of linkage, but I’ll be glad enough to have an excuse to do this practice a couple of times a month, so I’ll probably follow that recommendation anyways.

Other than that, I probably did the least amount of Nei Gong practice this past week that I have over the last couple of months; partly because of a dentist appointment last Wednesday, but also I’ve just been more tired than I would like. Though I have sometimes been doing a second seated practice even on non Wednesdays/Fridays, because the practice from the previous week seemed important and it only takes 15 minutes.

Tai Chi went well, though. I’m continuing to feel my Dantian as being more present, and feeling connections from it to other parts of my body, so I think I’m finally starting to understand this whole Silk Reeling concept. And I think I’ve figured out some things as well. In the step forward in Jing Gang that I’ve been thinking about over the last month or so, I think my perception of a symptom last week was right but the fix wasn’t, and my fix from a few weeks back also wasn’t right: it’s not so much that I should close my left Kua, but instead I should open up my right Kua. That way, I get in the correct position before stepping, and I feel a lot more stable. And in Oblique Posture, I think that, when coming up while opening my arms, I should pivot my body from lower down than I had been, closer to the pelvis instead of the middle of the back. That way, my tailbone naturally goes under the body, instead of requiring me to tuck it after the fact.

We’ve started the Hunyuan 48 form; unsurprisingly, the beginning is just like the beginning of the Hunyuan Dao form. I’m glad we’re doing that, it’s an interesting experience, much more flowy. And I’m also enjoying the spear, it feels fun in a way that’s different from the other weapons forms that I’ve learned.

Interesting week. In the Nei Gong course, we covered an exercise connecting your Huiyin to your Dantian; seemed similar conceptually to one of the earlier bits of his sequence of Microcosmic Orbit lectures, so we do seem to be getting closer to that. (I kind of doubt I’m really prepared for it, but who knows.) One thing that surprised me about this lesson was that Damo was pretty explicit about only doing it for 15 minutes; not used to that kind of recommendation.

Also, the previous week I finished reading Anatomy Trains; I honestly mostly skimmed it after about the first third or so, but I’m glad I read it. Not sure if it’s coincidence or if the book has had an effect on my perception of my body, but I’m noticing stretching caused by relaxation in a bunch of places in my body now; that certainly seems to be a good thing?

Not great Nei Gong practice this week in general: I continue to be more tired than normal, I’m not sure why, so I didn’t put in as much time as normal. Because of the new seated exercise, I also didn’t do the concentration exercise every day; more disappointingly, I had a hard time keeping it going when I did do it, probably because of the tiredness? Not sure if I’ll keep up that exercise or not; I was thinking that I’d do it for a couple of months, but now I’m wondering if it would be better for me to go back to one exercise from the first year about choosing which mental seeds to water, because that certainly seems relevant. Though, thinking about it a bit more, the issue right now is I think mostly just that I’m tired, which would have an effect no matter which one of those I do, so I should probably work on that and try to spend time on the Concentration exercise when I have good days.

(And I think I’ll continue to work in this week’s new exercise fairly frequently from now on, too.)

In Damo’s Tai Chi course, we continued with the four energies drill, this time having our body movements coming from relaxing to generate release. Which is a pretty interesting way of doing things, and one that doesn’t seem familiar from my regular Tai Chi course? Which, in turn, raised the question of whether I should work it into my regular Tai Chi as well or if I should treat that as a Yang thing that isn’t applicable to Chen. In particular, I think Chen is more focused on everything coming from your Dantian.

Thinking about that a bit more, I got to wondering about Cover the Hand Punch in Chen: Tony sometimes talks about that going from your foot to your kua to your hand, which is potentially consistent with having it generated by release but isn’t so consistent with having it come from your Dantian. So I asked Tony about that; he said that, actually, that was just a beginner way of doing things, it really should originate from your Dantian, going down both your arm and foot. So that’s making me pretty sure that I should try to keep the Yang and Chen stuff separate, and that using release to initiate movements is on the Yang side of things.

The other thing I was noticing on Saturday was that my body felt different inside; maybe another side effect of reading Anatomy Trains? In particular, I really was noticing my Dantian, having it feel like a ball; that’s happened to me sometimes before, but it was more present and persistent this time. And there was also more of a feeling of direct connection between it and other parts of my body; maybe that’s the silk reeling stuff, reflecting fascial restructuring. Definitely something I want to keep on playing with.

Going through the spear, I’m realizing that the second circle on the right side of the Full Martial feels wrong. Playing around with that more on Sunday, I think I need to let go a bit and let the spear swing around more, I’m restricting my arms a bit. Something to work on.

And we’ve finished the Xin Jia first form now: I’m sure I’ve got details wrong but now I feel like I’ve at least learn all of it. Speaking of details, I feel like I’m skipping over a step (or combining two steps) right after the second Gao Tan Ma, so I need to figure that out.

And on Sunday I was going through the from while paying attention to the Dantian, and I noticed something feeling odd right at one of my regular trouble spots, when stepping forward in Jing Gang. Basically, it felt like my Dantian was kind of falling off the front? Experimenting, tucking my tailbone there seemed to help; honestly, seems like a slightly odd thing to do in that movement, but maybe it’s the right thing to do? Or maybe I can find a different way of moving that will make more sense. Something else to keep on playing with.

Not much to report in terms of Nei Gong this week? A theoretical lecture, on emotions; interesting enough, making the point that I should pay attention to the feel of emotions in the body instead of bypassing that by attaching labels. And in terms of my practice, it was okay, but not as good as most recent weeks.

As for Tai Chi, Tony went over my form this week. Notes there: In the transition from Grab and Tuck Robe to Six Sealing, I should sink more to the right. (Sinking into my kua in particular, when I try it out.) In Kick with Two Feet Up, make sure the right arm swings back, up, and over, instead of just slapping in front without coming from the back. In Golden Rooster, the leg doesn’t go up until my arm reaches my shoulder; in general, be crisper on that one, I’m a little sloppy. And in general, in movements that involve sudden movements (punches, flipping the arms, etc.), make sure I’m stable and can express the energy from my Dantian.

And we went over the very end of the Xin Jia first form. Which means that we skipped some bits compared to last week, and that I still haven’t learned the bit right after the Groin Punch. I think I’ve seen that part enough times that it’s starting to stick anyways, but I’ll try to ask about it this coming Saturday. Certainly nice to feel that I’m pretty much done with the basics on that one. (Good timing, too, given that I want to start learning the Hunyuan 48.)

This week’s lesson in Damo’s class was on Developing Yi Qi. The URL had it as one of the Qi mobilization exercises, but unlike the previous ones, it was based on one of the Wu Xing Qi Gong exercises instead of the Ji Ben Qi Gong. Specifically, you’re doing the Water exercise, but trying to pay attention to subtler sensations which track Qi movement, and eventually doing that to the extent that you’re kind of losing track of your body. And, in particular, you’re not supposed to work on maintaining good physical structure: if your body moves around as part of this, that’s okay.

At first, I was mostly tracking a tingling sensation, though there were some other different physical sensations, in particular some nausea when I went past my throat. As I practiced it more over the week, though, I felt more tugging deeper within my body; based on what I’ve seen in other talks, that sort of deeper level sensation is probably progress over the surface-level tingling, but there’s also deeper levels; I don’t really know if I was meeting the intent of the body.

I did eventually start feeling my body move on its own while I was moving past certain spots; I don’t think this is a Zi Fa Gong thing, more intentional guided Qi movement having an effect on the body. The other thing was that there were places along my spine where the sensations mostly disappeared; it makes me wonder if those were exactly the Clipping Passes. (One of them was my Ming Men, which kind of disappointed me: I’d been feeling like I’d made significant progress towards opening it up, but I guess I have a ways to go!) If I paused at those places, though, I could get the feeling back, and it would actually feel pretty strong.

At any rate, an interesting practice; I’ll probably pause on doing it every day, but I should still work it in once a week or so, maybe more frequently for the next few weeks. And I should probably try doing a long session, like 30-40 minutes instead of 10-20 minutes: I felt like I was still getting interesting new sensations after 20 minutes, so I should see what it’s like going deeper.

I also did the next lesson in Damo’s Tai Chi course; this was on a second version of Wu Song Shen Fa, where you focus on “Fang Song Gong” instead of loosening. In this one, you’re paying attention to how energy sinks from your shoulder down your torso and legs into your foot, and then comes back up on its own when you relax in the right way. I’ll have to work on it more, I honestly don’t know if I’m getting at the right feeling there or not.

In the Saturday Tai Chi class, we got back to the later bits of the Xin Jia first form; hopefully Tony will make a habit of that, so we’ll make it to the end? (And so I won’t regret having to leave the previous Sunday class early.) The bit that we did this time was a repeat of stuff we’d done on Sunday, though: we did through Swing the Leg. Still, good to be back to doing that. And we’ll start the Hunyuan 48 form from the beginning in a few weeks; I’ll try to learn that, I think I’m at a state where I can add in another new form.

In terms of my practice: a pretty solid week? Friday was good (my hoped for new norm of over three hours across two sessions); Wednesday was so-so because other stuff was going on; I’d hoped to get in an extra long practice on Monday because I had a holiday but I was kind of tired that morning so it only added up to maybe an hour and half of practice that day. (Made up for Wednesday, though, I guess?) I did get in a 57-minute session of Dantian Gong, which is 8 out of the 10 exercises; I could probably do all 10 if I forced it, and honestly I probably should, but at least the good news is that almost an hour of standing in a posture that, from the point of view of my legs, is like Wu Ji, is progress; so just getting to where that happened not infrequently would be progress, and I’ll eventually be able to go further as long as I keep that up.

I also had an interesting experience in the Taiyi standing at the end of the Dragons one time: at first it felt normal, but then I felt one part of my spine relaxing an unusual amount, and then a different part, and then a different part. So that was pretty cool, hopefully it’ll happen again.

The other new thing this week is that I started reading Anatomy Trains. That’s a really interesting book on the interplay of fascia and muscles as a complete system; seems like a similar way of looking at the body as I get in Nei Gong. And one of its points is that the body should be holding together via tensegrity; I’m trying to sense into parts in my body which give a tug that helps stabilize things. Also, one thing that I’ve noticed that is probably related to that: more often this week, I’m noticing a downward tug at the back of my neck in a way that’s holding my neck upright more easily? It even seems to be happening when I’m sitting down, so it’s not specifically related to sinking my tailbone.

This week’s lesson in Damo’s course was a theory lecture, on Direct Experience. Didn’t give me too much that stuck with me, though I should watch it again. I used the week to focus on the concentration exercise that I mentioned last time; a few interesting experiences, but I have more work to do. Though I was also thinking that, before I go into that, I should ask if there are any prerequisites to that exercise, since there are some potentially related exercises in year one that I haven’t gone deep into.

For Damo’s Tai Chi course, I rewatched the four energies video; I’ll move onto a new lesson this week.

My Nei Gong practice went quite well. I’d been thinking for a while that I’ve sort of fallen into a rut of doing one seated and one standing practice a day; on days off, they’re long practices, so it’s a good length of time, but still. I’d originally been thinking I’d do a morning practice and an afternoon practice, but I really just do not reliably have energy to do a long practice after lunch: my energy level falls after eating and takes quite a while to recover.

So on Friday I decided to get started earlier than I had been doing, beginning a practice at maybe 8:30? So I was doing Nei Gong from about 8:30 to 10:30, then something else from 10:30 to 11:30, and then I did another practice session until some time between 1pm and 1:30. And that went well; I’ll definitely want to try to keep up that model on Wednesdays as Fridays as much as possible. (Though, sadly, not tomorrow, since I have an unusual work meeting on Wednesday morning, from 8am to 10am.)

The other thing that I noticed is that I feel like my posture is getting better while doing seated meditation? I’m getting more sensitive to the right angle, and to having my spine not curving inappropriately in the middle. So it’s getting easier to feel like I’m sitting stably with a good posture without being too tense or using too much energy.

In terms of my regular Tai Chi class, practice wasn’t quite as good; I had to deal with some HOA stuff on Friday, so I couldn’t practice then, though I had a good practice on Wednesday. Class on Saturday was pretty good; I got reminded of one bit of foot positioning right before Oblique Posture in the Xin Jia first form. And there was Sunday class; unfortunately, I had to leave that one a bit early (more HOA stuff), so I didn’t get to see the new bits of the Xin Jia form. Hopefully that won’t bite me…

This week’s lesson in Damo’s course had us continuing with going deeper into the Ji Ben Qi Gong, this time doing the fifth one. Unlike the previous four, it’s not about setting up a pump; instead, it started with working the side branches (which is what is most accessible when you do the exercise normally), and then had me leaning forward in a way that caused the Dantian and Kua to get involved, in a way that Damo compared to Silk Reeling exercises. So that was pretty interesting; I don’t know that it’ll be my favorite exercise, but it was good to feel that connection, and also to feel the movement in my torso?

I also watched an annual predictions video from Damo which led me to watching his 2021 video; the second half of that previous one was presenting a seated exercise around developing concentration. And that was pretty interesting; I’d been thinking I should maybe spend some time working on seated exercises for mental training instead of energy building, so I think I’ll give that one a try?

In general, a good practice week; Wednesday was fine, I didn’t put in as much time on Friday as I normally do but still noticeable amounts on Friday and Sunday, and I did a long practice on Monday as well since I had that day off. And things were getting more active by the end of that; on Monday, in particular, I went through the five energies balancing exercises, and I had several bits where that felt more interesting than it had in the past. Nothing huge, or anything, but still, it felt like a bit of progress?

And I did the Jing Gong exercise a couple of times; not a strong feeling, but there was definitely something bouncing around in my Dantian. I rewatched the Jing Gong 1 video, and it sounds like the sensation should get stronger; I should make sure to keep on doing Dantian Gong, as per the recommendation of that video, but I’ll also keep at the Jing Gong. And I’ll probably watch the Jing Gong 2 video and experiment with adding that in.

I didn’t do any of my regular Tai Chi most of the week, because it was raining outside; I did watch the next video in Damo’s Tai Chi course, though. It was on the first half of his version of the eight energies drill; interesting stuff, among other things because it had me focusing a little more on what my Kua was doing. I’ll also have to be open to the possibility that his interpretation of those energies is different than what I’m used to?

Tai Chi class on Saturday was good; nothing particular to report there. And I did get in good practice on Sunday and Monday as well; on Monday, maybe because I was thinking about my Kua, I think I figured out one thing that had been bothering me. When stepping forward in Jing Gang Pounds Pestle, I often felt off balance; but what I noticed on Monday was that if I closed my left Kua more and made sure I was facing forward, I felt a lot more stable. Hopefully that will stick; if so, good to have it figured out.

I wrote a blog post about relaxing your shoulders; longer than I would have liked, but maybe there’s something useful there. It’s certainly useful to me, in particular thinking about how the shoulder blades affect things.

A wet week, with extra vacation days because of Christmas. I used the wetness as an excuse to not do Tai Chi much, and Christmas was on Saturday so no Tai Chi class, though I did at least do the exercises I’ve learned in Damo’s Tai Chi course most days I had off. In terms of Nei Gong, I used the holiday (plus not feeling 100%, maybe because of allergy experiments) as an excuse to not do as much Nei Gong as I could, but I did put in two and a half hours of practice on Monday, so it all balanced out to a pretty normal practice week. Nothing huge to report there, though when I did the exercise about standing and concentrating Qi in your Dantian, I felt a mild but, I think, real bouncing around in there. I’m going to try to get in the habit of doing that one twice a week to maintain it; if it gets stronger, then I’ll rewatch the second and third lessons for that one.

Another theoretical lesson in Damo’s course; on Feelings, nothing particular to report there.

Good week, now that we’re not a construction zone any more. Damo’s Nei Gong course continued with the Bellows Breathing / Hong mantra exercise, this time telling you to use the Bao Yuan mudra and giving more pointers on that mudra. Not much new in that mudra, though he did point out that you should spread open your Lao Gong while holding the mudra; not the most natural thing to do, I’ll have to work on that.

Anyways, it was good to be given more time to keep on working on that combo; I’m still not particularly good at that mantra, I could use extra practice. (The latest thing I want to try: not going so low in the pitch, staying closer to the middle of my range.) Also, he nudged us to keep up that exercise for longer, an hour or even two, alternating between Bellows Breathing and Hong as the mood took us. And I did put in a couple of hour-long sessions; I did the exercise for about 45 minutes but then I just felt like sitting for a bit, and it was another 15 minutes before I felt like I was done with that. I’ll want to keep all of that up this week; this week is another theory week, so I won’t have any new exercise to practice.

And on Wednesday I had a section that was probably around two and a half hours; I went through the full seated five elements exercise that I’d been doing, and I also did the standing exercise from the end of year one about gathering bouncy bits in your Dantian. Neither of those had me feeling stuff the way I have in the past; I’m chalking that down to not having practiced so much the previous couple of weeks and needing to get back into shape. And on Friday I had a good two hour session; I tried doing the whole standing Dantian Gong in a single session, and while I didn’t manage all of that, I did make it through 8 of the 10 exercises, whereas the most I’ve done before is 6. (Or maybe 7 once?) And my session on Sunday morning was a little over an hour and a half, which is longer than I normally manage on that day.

In Damo’s Tai Chi course, he covered Tai Yi standing; it’s a way of standing with your feet together, bringing attention to your spine. I’d seen a version of that before in the Nei Gong course, as part of the Dragon Dao Yin; significant differences here, though. I haven’t practiced it much yet, I’ll need to give it another week, and probably watch the video again.

In general, I didn’t do much Tai Chi this past week; I think it was raining on Wednesday, and on Friday afternoon, I got pulled into a work escalation, so I didn’t get to practice Tai Chi then either. And on Saturday, Tony was out, so it was a review day in class.

As expected, not much practice this week, because of the house construction; I kept up a minimal level of daily practice, but I didn’t have any long sessions, and I didn’t start any new lessons in either the Nei Gong or the Tai Chi course.

We had both Saturday and Sunday Tai Chi this week; but we were recording a video for some special celebration, so that ate into a fair amount of time on Saturday and a bit of time on Sunday. We did start the actual spear form on Saturday (we’d been doing just the isolated full marshal until then); the start of that form is a little odd. And on Sunday, we did go a little bit farther in Xin Jia, so now I’m more solid with the bit right after the second Gao Tan Ma; not sure if it’s one or two sessions left until we’re completely done, but hopefully in a couple of months we’ll be done? And it looks like they’re almost done with the Double Dao; one more month of that, but probably in February I’ll start learning the Guan Dao.