I was visiting my parents for a few days, so a slightly late update.

I did Wu Ji as normal on Thursday, and did the Animal Frolics for the first time in a while. And I also set up Streaks on my phone to prompt me to do Wu Ji every day: I’m not yet committing to doing it daily, but I want to at least consider doing it every day. Which worked on Friday, I did Wu Ji then as well.

Unfortunately, on Friday evening, I started sneezing and having a runny nose like crazy, like my cold was having a resurgence. I’d had an allergy shot that morning, so I’m pretty sure it was the shot, but it was a quite bad reaction. So on Saturday I mostly skipped Tai Chi class – I showed up near the end to learn the next Jian move and to see if we were going to learn any new Xinjia moves (we didn’t), but I didn’t feel up for the whole thing.

On Sunday I traveled to my parents, and on Monday I was having coffee with a former teacher of mine downtown and decided I was feeling good enough after that to do some Tai Chi; I ended up going through the full Silk Reeling Exercises and going through the form twice, and then after lunch I did some Wu Ji. And I was actually feeling diligent enough that, at the end of the evening, I did a bit of Wu Ji and some meditation before going to bed.

Unfortunately, my stomach really wasn’t feeling great the next day; almost positive that it was just mucous rather than anything associated to what I was doing, but at any rate I skipped practice on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Other than Dantian Rotations; which, thinking about it now, might be a mistake, my stomach muscles actually don’t feel great because of all the coughing, so maybe that’s what I should be skipping.) But I’m feeling better today, so I decided to do a bit of Wu Ji; ended up only doing 10 minutes instead of my current goal of 19 minutes, but hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the saddle pretty quickly.

And I decided to go to a local Lotus course in a couple of weeks, so hopefully I won’t have the same allergy problems before that happens! I’ll want to dial down the dose next week, to increase the chance of that. I’d been thinking I would skip the local Lotus courses for now, just going to courses when Damo Mitchell is visiting, but the next course is a three-day one (Saturday-Monday) on standing postures, so I’d only have to miss one day of work and it’s a topic that I’m interested in. A pity that it’s only a couple of weeks after getting back from vacation, but not much I can do about that…

The main event for this week was the number of times I did Wu Ji. I finished something at work at 4:45 on Wednesday, decided I didn’t have anything super productive to do for the next 25 minutes, so I did a last e-mail scan and went outside and did 15 minutes of Wu Ji. On Thursday there was a team lunch, so I didn’t have my normal lunchtime practice, but I again found some time in the afternoon. And basically I kept that up, sometimes doing Wu Ji when I got home, sometimes at work, and sometimes in my normal practice times, and I ended up doing it 7 days in a row and counting.

They weren’t, admittedly, always the best practice sessions: on a couple of them I bailed noticeably early and on one or two I bailed a little early. But still, doing it every day made me happy, and my body felt better after that.

I’m also trying to tweak my posture: I was reading a collection of articles called Daoist Reflections from Scholar Sage and one of them mentioned not having your knees past your toes, and also not having your pressure on the balls of your feet. (It’s supposed to be over your Yong Quan, but that’s a little further back.) So I’ve been trying to alter my posture to follow that, which also seems to me like it should fit with the idea of acting like you’re about to sit on a barstool instead of down into a chair? Good that this fits together, though it doesn’t actually feel like it’s making things any easier, in fact frequently the practice has been feeling more strenuous since I’ve made that change, so I’m not actually sure that I’m doing things more correctly.

I’m also starting to feel like I have a better notion of how far down I’m supposed to go: in particular, if I go far enough, I definitely feel that my center of gravity is too low. So that’s good. And I’ve been working on sinking my qi, both when doing Wu Ji and when doing seated meditation, and I feel like I’ve been able to do that more reliably; hopefully I’ll be able to build on that. (Sometimes I then do some reverse breathing after I feel I have my qi in the right place, not much coming of that yet.)

Not much to say about Tai Chi. This weekend we had the Sunday class, and some more people were taking the teacher training test; some of this is probably seeing flaws in others while not noticing the flaws in yourself, but I felt like I can do the first form better than three of the four people showed? So I should probably take that test at some point; maybe I’ll do it next year. The potential blocks are making sure I can do one of the weapon forms, and the fact that my teacher has a preference for people having done a competition first; I’m not 100% sure I’ll feel like doing a competition next year. But I could work on the Lao Jia Dao form for the weapons form, that should be okay, I think. Still, I might target two years from now instead of next year?

My cold is being very stubborn; probably a sinus infection?

On Thursday, I bailed fairly early on in Wu Ji, but at least I did some, and a round of Qi Gong.

On Saturday, I went to class like normal; not doing great, but I made it through. One thing I noticed while watching my teacher doing the form: you don’t look to the right for as long as I thought during Grab and Tuck Robe, you want to stay looking to the right when you cross your hands but you look left when you start circling your right arm out.

On Sunday I did 40 minutes of meditation lying down and 40 minutes sitting, good to be getting back in form for that. I wasn’t feeling great, though, so I didn’t do any Tai Chi in the afternoon, but I went through some Silk Reeling and some Wu Ji. Only 10 minutes of Wu Ji, but that was the first time since I got sick that I at least didn’t bail before my timer went off, and actually I was surprised when it went off.

And today I did 15 minutes over lunch, plus some Qi Gong (I’m holding off on the Frolics until I went better), and I went to most of the Tuesday class.

I definitely would like to feel better, but at least I’m staying somewhat in practice, and I’m not feeling completely out of touch with what it means to relax…

Last week was spent fighting the cold. I was starting to get better by the end of the week, so I did go to Tai Chi class on Saturday; didn’t feel great, my lower back was tight and hurting, and in general I didn’t feel the normal body sensations (energy, sinking, relaxing). I could sort of tell that those sensations were available on the fringes, just hard to access.

Because of the tightness, I went through the full silk reeling series on Sunday as well. I only did the first form three times, but that felt like a reasonable victory given the time I spent on Silk Reeling and given my energy level. I tried to do some Lotus Wu Ji later in the afternoon, but I just couldn’t get into it; I probably should have pushed through, I wasn’t actually hurting particularly (and in particular, my lower back actually wasn’t causing problems for that), I just didn’t have the mental fortitude for it.

Unfortunately, the cold refused to go away; I actually felt kind of lousy yesterday (and was coughing a ton), so I worked from home today, didn’t do Wu Ji over lunch, didn’t go to Tai Chi class. I did at least put in 20 minutes of sitting meditation; a little distracted by coughing at the start, but that actually got better as the session went on, it was a surprisingly successful session. (Which reminds me, I did 30 minutes of lying down meditation on Sunday; that was less successful, though not a complete loss.)

Hopefully this cold will end soon and I’ll be able to start working on getting my body back in shape, but who knows when…

My Lotus Wu Ji went great on Thursday: 21 minutes, no significant pain. Not sure whether I’m accidentally making it inappropriately easy on myself, whether I’m doing something right, or whether it depends on something non-obvious in the state of my body; if it’s the first of those, then great.

And I had a free moment in the middle of the afternoon that day, so I went for a stroll, and after that I found a quiet spot that I hadn’t previously been aware of quite a bit closer to work, so I did another 15 minutes of Wu Ji. That made me happy, it might make it realistic for me to start working in practice on Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays as well.

Unfortunately, on Friday I also had a few spare minutes, but I had a real headache, so I decided practicing wasn’t a good idea. And, more unfortunately, that was a sign that I was coming down with a cold, and a pretty nasty one: I was not only out of commission Saturday and Sunday, but I ended up taking sick days Monday and Tuesday as well. (I think I’ll be up for working for home tomorrow, at least: today was better than yesterday.) So no Tai Chi class on Saturday or today, no Wu Ji today, no practicing on Sunday.

On Thursday, my Lotus Wu Ji as by far the easiest it’s been in ages: 20 minutes with no serious discomfort. No idea what was going on there: did I accidentally get my form right, or was my weight too high, or was it something else?

Nothing particular that I remember about Saturday. We had the monthly class on Sunday; we went over Jade Lady, and it turns out that, at the start, I was collapsing my elbow too much: I should spiral in more and fold less. Also, when going over Xin Jia, in Swing the Leg, Drop, and Split, there’s some place where I’m supposed to have both palms down where I only have one palm down. Or maybe it’s in Golden Rooster? I can’t quite remember which move, though…

Partly because of that and because of other distractions, I didn’t do Lotus Neigong stuff on Sunday, but when I realized that and had a break in the middle of the afternoon, I ducked out of work to do 20 minutes of Wu Ji. (But just Wu Ji, no Frolics or Qigong.) Back to its normal level of pain, but I made it through it. And I bumped it up to 21 minutes today (again, painful but I managed), plus Frolics. And in Tai Chi class tonight, I realized that, when you step to the right in Grab and Tuck Robe, you’re supposed to be looking right, whereas I’m normally looking left.

This Saturday, my teacher reviewed my form. Notes from that:

• At end of Oblique Posture, my right arm was a little far back.
• When doing Reverse with Spiraling Forearms, have my hand circle back more.
• Always look where I’m kicking. (I was looking away during Kick with the Left Heel.)
• My arms are going too high when doing the two blocks in Flash the Back.
• I should work even more on connecting my movements.

And we started the Jian on Saturday; we’ll see if the whole thing sticks this time, it didn’t the last time I tried to learn it. But I also feel like I need to rearrange my Sunday practice time if I’m really going to keep all these forms in my head; and I’m not at all sure whether I should do that or try to learn the Lao Jia First Form plus one other form and let the others fall to the side or just spend almost all my time on the Lao Jia First Form. Though I’m pretty sure the real answer is that my main problem is that I don’t practice Tai Chi enough times during the week…

I ran into an interesting article from the Gokhale folks about cultural differences leading to physical differences in sitting meditation. I’ve been doing that more, and I don’t feel great about my lower back there, so I bought a meditation pillow on Monday; we’ll see if that helps.

Okay Lotus practice on Sunday and Monday; up to 19 minutes of Wu Ji again, I’ll try 20 on Thursday. Though I was also listening to a podcast episode of Damo’s on Monday where he mentioned that even doing Wu Ji an hour a day is only the beginning, so I should keep on cranking it up! But hey, if I can increase my duration a minute each week, then a year from now, I’ll be at the hour mark; more motivation to just keep chipping away.

Not as much energy as normal during Tai Chi class this evening, and my knees felt a little off; not sure why. Also I was noticing that my hands are a little low when stepping back during the initial Jin Gang, and also I should probably turn out my right foot more there.

I was busy evenings this week, so late notes! I’m not going to talk about today, I’ll put that in next Tuesday’s notes.

On Thursday, I did Wu Ji like normal (well, almost like normal, it was later in the afternoon than normal), with Ji Ben Qi Gong after that. And, for whatever reason, I felt different (more energy popping up in my body) for something like two days after that? Which was good news: I’d kind of been feeling like I was on a downward trajectory since the seminar ended, so it’s good to know that I can have sustained upward bits too.

The next question is: how can I do that again? Might have been a fluke, might have been doing Ji Ben Qi Gong instead of Animal Frolics, might have been something less obvious (the time of day??). For now I’m going to switch to alternating Ji Ben Qi Gong with Animal Frolics, instead of doing two-thirds Frolics and one third Qi Gong.

On Saturday, it was my turn to lead Silk Reeling and the first time through the form. I think it went well? One of the senior students mentioned after that that, when doing the block with my left hand in Flash the Back, my elbow is above my hand, so that’s something to work on.

On Sunday, when practicing, I started to feel not so great about about how I do Thrust the Right / Left Foot: I’m not really putting in energy in either the push or the kick. So I’ll work on putting more force into both of those.

On Monday (I think, maybe it was Friday?), I was listening to an episode of Mitchell’s podcast and I decided to practice sinking my Qi while walking around, and I think I’m getting to where I can fairly quickly and reliably sink it to about the height of my bottom of my sternum? Whereas, once it hits that level I can sink it further, but that’s quite a bit slower and less reliable. And, perceptually, it kind of feels like there’s a V shape going down, so I should aim at reliably drilling it down further? Not actually sure that what’s going on there is really the same thing as sinking the Qi, I should try paying attention in other circumstances where I have a slightly better feel for the latter. So it might just be physical relaxation of muscles inside my body; or maybe that’s all that sinking the Qi is… But I think it’s probably a good thing either way – even if it’s just relaxing, being able to easily get relaxed that way seems good, and working on improving that also seems useful.

On Tuesday, it was my next time to do Ji Ben Qi Gong after Thursday; and, unfortunately I didn’t have the same persistent experience. So, whatever’s going on, it’s not as simple as Ji Ben Qi Gong reliably triggering that. The one interesting thing that happened then was that Compressing the Pearl felt quite a bit more physical than it normally does, like there was real resistance there; I feel like I’ve experienced that in a class but not during my normal practice. And, incidentally, I’m definitely glad that I’ve stuck in bits of Wu Ji between each of the exercises there, that feels helpful.

I skipped Tai Chi class on Tuesday evening, because of other stuff that was going on. And I skipped Wu Ji on Thursday, because I was super sleepy and was almost positive that I wouldn’t be able to put in anything like a productive session…

On Thursday, Wu Ji practice started rough, but it got easier maybe five minutes in, and stayed fine after that. Not sure what happened, whether I changed my positioning or something, and, if so, whether I changed it in a good way or in a bad way! And, jumping ahead, on Sunday it was actually basically fine the whole time. I was experimenting a little bit, and maybe I did a better job of lowering myself down like I was sitting on a stool instead of on a chair?

On the Saturday class, I asked about opening your live gate, and my teacher confirmed that you’re supposed to open it in all directions, sideways as well as up and down. Which was what I’d thought from the Damo Mitchell course, whereas before that I’d been thinking it was more just an up and down thing. I also asked about the move right at the end where you lowered my hands: it reminded me of cleansing, but that’s not the intention, the energy is supposed to end in your hands and feet instead of going out of your body. (And it doesn’t start as high, either, it starts at your collarbone instead of the top of / above your head.)

When moving back to the right after Protecting the Heart Fist, I noticed my teacher raising the toe of his left foot but then putting it down in the same orientation. He said that, if you want to do a wider or narrower kick after that, you could turn your foot a little out or in, but in general doing a weight shift off and back onto that foot and then having it end up in the same position is fine.

Not as long a Tai Chi practice on Sunday as would be ideal, but the Lotus practice was good. And doing an hour of meditation in the morning (40 minutes lying down, 20 minutes sitting) helped too.

I’ve been spending some of the week working on neck positioning, having it further back (and hopefully going up more) than I have been. And I’m experimenting with actively stretching it up a bit; not 100% sure if that’s a good idea, and even if it is, I want to balance that against having my pelvis weighting it down, so I don’t get uprooted. In general, I’m trying to spend more time actively maintaining a good (but still relaxed!) position, so I can preserve energy better, since it’s continuing to go away…

I was really sleepy today, so I napped over lunch instead of doing my Neigong practice; I think that was the right choice (or rather, the wrong choice was going to bed late the previous night), it did give me enough energy for the afternoon and for Tai Chi class that night. It was a between-semester week for Tai Chi, so we were out in the courtyard; I decided to spend the first 20 minutes doing Wu Ji in the style of my Tai Chi teacher instead of the Lotus Neigong style. I didn’t feel so much energy, and there was more tension on my calf; maybe the latter is a side effect of being higher? (Whereas if I’m lower, the strain is on my thighs.) Not sure.

The immediate physical aftereffects of the Nei Gong seminar have, sadly, basically completely disappeared by now. I’m not entirely sure what the implications of that are: worst case would be that going was a no-op, but hopefully there’s knowledge, behavioral, and physical restructuring which are still having an effect?

Speaking of behavior, I’ve tried to change my start-of-the-morning schedule to replace 10 minutes of reading Twitter with 10 minutes of meditation; that’s probably a good change straight up (honestly, replacing Twitter with almost anything is probably good…), but I do feel physically different after the meditation, and those effects are lasting for several hours after the meditation itself: e.g. I feel different walking from the train station to work. So that’s something to build on. And sometimes I’m meditating longer; that gives me more of the physical sensations through my torso and limbs (Yang Qi?) but not yet as much as I’d like in my Dantian.

I’m still feeling like my thighs need a bit of a break, so I’m back to doing Lotus Wu Ji three times a week (Sunday / Tuesday / Thursday). Hopefully I’ll be able to work that in more days, though, as I get stronger. I am trying to work in more meditation sessions on other days, though.

In terms of Tai Chi stuff, one note from the Saturday class: In sweep after Two Feet Up, move your right foot forward a bit so that, when doing Protect the Heart Fist, you have space between the two feet to make it easier to turn the waist when striking. (At least that’s what one of the relatively advanced students told me.) And, in that strike, you strike with the right arm turned so the back side is in the striking direction.

We’re getting near the end of the spear form; I’ve missed enough classes recently that I’m not super optimistic that I’ll be able to reliably do the whole form after we’re done. We’ll see; hopefully at least it will be something to build on. On which note we’ll be doing the Jian form next; that one was really hard to learn the first time, and I more or less gave up about two thirds of the way through, we’ll see how it goes the second time.

Today was rough; I normally do allergy shots on Wednesdays but this week I did it today instead, and maybe because of that I had a really hard time doing Wu Ji over lunch. And almost certainly because of that I was very tired when I got home, so I decided to skip Tai Chi. Hopefully just a one-time thing, though…