Saturday morning was probably the worst class I have had so far. Im currently taking an intro to the bqsic 108 yang posture. Im having a good time and up untill Sat thinking Im doing all right. The day started out crappy, didnt even want to go to class, but I got up and dragged myself in anyway. I even started to feel a bit better once I got in. It went down hill from there, during the Chi Qong session the whole thing felt just useless, like I was just waving my hands in the air. While actually practicing the set, I nearly fell on my butt. The instructor was looking at me like he thought I was drunk. Well, I feel better now. Thanks
There's an old tai chi saying about practicing the form - goes something like: "If you miss one day, you will notice" "If you miss two days, your master will notice" "If you miss three days, everyone will notice" That could be a bit of an exaggeration but I know if I miss practicing the form for a few days I know all about it. I haven't done it for about a week and a half and I feel like a Thunderbird puppet. Don't even get me started about missing out on tai chi/bagua form practice when you concentrate too much on the other form for a while! It's not all bad though. I find that it's when I don't practice for a while that I make the most progress once I get back into it. Practice a couple of times a day for the next few days - you'll find you have to try different ways of movement cause you've lost some of the muscle memory of certain moves. That way you'll be exploring slight variations of the same movements and you'll probably have an inspiration about parts of the form that you wouldn't have otherwise.
yeah im currently on break from my taichi too. last thursday i got sick and i havent practiced at all since. i take instruction on tuesday and thursday but i practice my form everyday, ive just felt like dog<tish> i do agree with nzric tho, when you miss a few days it will feel worse than when you stopped, but those few days of pickup are some of the best: you try harder and your teacher pushes harder to get you back up to par.
I recently went for about a month when there was no feeling whatsoever. I think everyone has bad days (my day just carried on!) I think everyone goes through this (at least I hope its not just me-though i'm not saying I hope it goes bad for you lot) but there is so much to learn- forms/mind/energy at varying degrees that it cant go perfect all the time
I have my good days and bad days also. Not so much with my form work but there are days when I think my Qigong isn't happening. This is actually the wrong kind of thinking because whether we are aware of it or not the Qi is always flowing regardless of whether we are doing Qigong or not. Without Qi we would keel over and play possum. Something my teacher said to me once was a perfect antidote to my misperception of good and bad days. He said to me that when you get sensations during Qigong this is just a sign that the Qi is working through blockages and is flowing more freely in a certain area. The mistake is to look for these sensations and thus start thinking that when these sensations don't appear that your Qigong is not happening or a waste of time. No two Qigong sessions will ever be the same and you will have days when your Qi is working secretly beneath the surface, almost covertly without you knowing. When I have quiet days like I've had in the last couple of days I just know that things are normal and that my Qi has work in other areas which are perhaps beyond the more visceral sensations that we often associate with it. For example, after two quiet days, today I was doing my qigong and I got tingling in my third eye right in the centre of my forehead which is the activation point for the upper dan tien or the third eye/pineal gland. Now if I had gotten annoyed over the last two days and decided to give up and not practice today I might not have experienced that particular activation. Just remember that even on your bad days these are really the same as your good days, you just need to look at it from the perspective of your Qi and not your own desire to feel sensations. The most important thing is to relax, empty the mind and make sure your posture and breathing is correct. Gong on my friends, it's all good! Best, Syd
Thankfully, things have improved a bit sense I poted this. My instructor no longer thinks Im a drunk and I am getting something from my QI Gong sessions. I looked at my daily practices and decided that I needed to put a bit more effort into it. WIth the form and Qi Gong and stretching, the whole thing takes about an hour now. About twice what it was. Effect is, I dont stumble around in the classes anymore and I actually feel like going in for class. Yay!
