As a male in my 30s, living a typical western life, I've never done anything that focuses inwardly. Recently I've been touted meditation as a way to better clarity, which started all this exploration as to what else is there that I don't know and understand. Some of the things I'm hearing resonate with me, most are over my head but there's also a lot of mysticism, charlatans looking to make money, so I'm just all over the place at the moment.
I've read about:
- Zhan zhuang standing meditation;
- looking for local teachers, there's a dozen that practise zhong yuan qigong, but the grandmaster Xu Mingtang seems to be contraversial. I'll likely try them out, as there's nothing else available in-person, but am filled with doubts;
- then there's Damo Mitchell teaching neigong, who no one seems to contest is a good teacher, but online only, so also an option;
- then there's Riki from authenticneigong.com, who also gets praises universally. I'm leaning towards him because of the comments in this forum and his system seems most straightforward for me, who has no understanding (The 3 practices needed to activate the dantians ability to store qi, cultivate qi, ground your energy and start to open and fill the channels. Two of them are standing and one is sitting and requires about 40 mins a day.);
- then there's neidan, which according to it's practitioners, streamlines qigong and neigong into a single efficient practise, but requires a teacher.
All in all, I'm the first to admin I don't know what I'm talking about. Reading the descriptions for zhong yuan qigong, neigong, neidan, they seem very different. Zhong yuan qigong seems to focus on visualizations, image medicine, each level focusing on storing qi in different dentians. Riki on the other hand, if I'm understanding correctly, says you can't store anything without first activating the lower dential and not in a visual way either.
My goals are focused on self, the only person I want to heal is myself. I'd like to rid myself of anxieties, become more intune with my body and reach deeper clarity - if that's not part of the mysticism!
So that's me - glad to have found this community.
