Chi - how does it feel?

[dwai]

45 minutes ago, wandelaar said:

 

Just did 15 minutes of standing in the wuji posture. I didn't feel any chi flowing, but I sure had a burning feeling in my calf and shoulder muscles...

Stand and relax more. As you become more relaxed you will  

[Fa Xin]

If your having trouble feeling energy, I recommend trying out some sort of reiki session or other energetic healer.  

 

I did tai chi for years without knowing exactly what energy felt like. It wasn't until I met a skilled qigong practitioner who blasted me for 15 minutes... then I couldn't NOT feel energy.

 

Edited December 3, 2018 by Fa Xin

[Fa Xin]

1 hour ago, wandelaar said:

 

Just did 15 minutes of standing in the wuji posture. I didn't feel any chi flowing, but I sure had a burning feeling in my calf and shoulder muscles...

 

You  may be more likely to feel energy when your laying down, totally relaxed and open.... then trying to stand in some awkward position.

 

Just my .02

 

Once you know what to look for, and become more attuned to the inner sensations, then you can start powering it up with standing practice.

[wandelaar]

24 minutes ago, dwai said:

Stand and relax more. As you become more relaxed you will  

 

I wonder whether it would make any difference as regards my (lack of) sensitivity for chi. Because I already do forms from the book:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Health-Vitality-Michael-Tse/dp/0312141289/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8

 

Edited December 3, 2018 by wandelaar

[dwai]

20 minutes ago, wandelaar said:

 

I wonder whether it would make any difference as regards my (lack of) sensitivity for chi. Because I already do forms from the book:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Health-Vitality-Michael-Tse/dp/0312141289/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8

 

It takes time to become sensitive to Qi flow. Also as @Fa Xin pointed out, lying down on your back and relaxing the entire body can also help you become more aware of the Qi. All it takes is the ability to recognIze it. Once the initial recognition happens it will always be there. 

[dwai]

57 minutes ago, wandelaar said:

 

I wonder whether it would make any difference as regards my (lack of) sensitivity for chi. Because I already do forms from the book:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Health-Vitality-Michael-Tse/dp/0312141289/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8

 

I found that for me personally, having the correct alignments shown to me (also learnt experimentally by adjusting after preliminary postural alignments were shown to me), made a HUGE difference.

 

• After standing in the wuji posture, gently move your crown point (by shifting your upper torso slightly) forward and backward until you feel an energetic "click". The crown point suspended should feel like a little tornado going off. Similarly move your crown point side to side until you feel the "click". Think of it like fine-tuning alignment through the cross-hairs of a scope.  You will notice that you will end up leaning slightly forward with your upper torso (maybe 4-5 degrees at most) from the perpendicular axis (of how you normally stand). 
• I noticed that most people tend to let their chin float up too much. Tuck your chin such that your eyes look around 20-30 degrees below the horizontal plane of how you "normally" stand (with chin floating upward naturally). 
• Relax the muscles in your upper chest (like the flesh drops down towards your stomach). it is a very subtle change. This will help drop the qi to into your lower dan tien. 
• Let your elbows drop but open the armpits a little (like you are holding an egg in each arm pit). That will result in your elbows sticking out (side to side) slightly. 
• Let your finger tips gently rest against your thighs (either in front or on the side).

 

This might take repetitive review during a single standing session as our bodies tend to revert to old habits subconsciously. When these alignments click, within a few minutes there will begin a pouring sensation towards the stomach (like the stomach is filling up with a fluid movement). Resting the mind on the dan tien (about 2-3" below the navel and about 2-3" inside the body) will result in a filling up sensation there which will then start pouring over. The belt meridian should start lighting up, and a flow including the feet should start as well with sufficient standing duration. T

Edited December 3, 2018 by dwai

[Bindi]

1 hour ago, Fa Xin said:

 

You  may be more likely to feel energy when your laying down, totally relaxed and open.... then trying to stand in some awkward position.

 

Just my .02

 

Once you know what to look for, and become more attuned to the inner sensations, then you can start powering it up with standing practice.

 

Not knowing anything about qi or Daoism I found this as well, lying down totally relaxed I 'noticed' a sensation near my navel and kept my attention there, just feeling it, and I repeated this noticing regularly for a long time. Far less confusing than postures or reading. 

[Fa Xin]

6 minutes ago, Bindi said:

 

Not knowing anything about qi or Daoism I found this as well, lying down totally relaxed I 'noticed' a sensation near my navel and kept my attention there, just feeling it, and I repeated this noticing regularly for a long time. Far less confusing than postures or reading. 

 

Agreed. Mine was laying down, relaxing and playing with states of consciousness. I started to notice what I felt as “wind” surrounding my body and skin. It’s funny how different stages have manifested different sensations for me. 

[Zen Pig]

On 12/1/2018 at 7:48 AM, Apech said:

the problem is. I think, that you can't force qi sensitivity - you just have to let it develop. 

 Good comment.  from my own experience in various meditations, most of the techniques are very easily taught within a few min's, but the so-called hard part is to practice every day, for at least an hour or more, and just be sensitive enough to start feeling your body tell you how it needs to move, (at first we need to kind or intend our breathing with focus, but later the body starts to get what we want it to do, and this natural movement starts to take over, hard to explain. just have to keep doing it) as far as the question "how does chi feel",  it feels like being alive, like every day life,  we just become more aware of the actual movement in our bodies, and the tension we did not even know we were carrying around. 

But it has always been there. Kind of like breathing, we have always breathed,  but once we really connect with the flow of air/life though our bodies, it becomes kind of amazing.   

[dawei]

On 12/3/2018 at 5:17 PM, dwai said:

It takes time to become sensitive to Qi flow. Also as @Fa Xin pointed out, lying down on your back and relaxing the entire body can also help you become more aware of the Qi. All it takes is the ability to recognIze it. Once the initial recognition happens it will always be there. 

 

When I was doing Qigong classes, usually they were 60-90 minutes, we would lay down for the last 15 minutes in a kind of meditative, empty state... I would usually be on the verge of completely falling asleep... except Qi would fly throughout the body.   

 

Looking back, it definitely pre-figured the sensation I got much later which were like Qi electrocutions, twice.