michael young's blog

Training went pretty well today. Mostly because I just observed my self. I refrained from judging as much as I could. I noticed a few things.

1. I can't seem to release between my shoulder blades. It always get tight and stiff there while training. What can I do to help this? 

2. Turning the body and keeping the belly button and breast bone together is actually pretty tricky. I have done some Practical Method Chen Taijiquan and they do all kinds of twisting of the waist. I had seen others online doing it and now I see it is a habit in my body.

I know that I have only been doing this stuff for several weeks, but I can't help but be frustrated that I still can't feel the rising energy or anything that resembles the stuff that is described by sifu or anyone else who has been doing this a lot longer than I have. I thought I may be able to get a sense, at least, of some of these feelings but I've got bupkis...Don't feel pressure that is applied to my body going effortlessly to the floor through my structure or any where close. Blah Bla Blah. You get the picture.

I have noticed for about the last week that, when I properly breathe to dantien, I have a sense that something is moving down from mingmen and up from mingmen, both vertically. The upward movement goes all the way up my neck and stops there. It feels as though my breath is filling up the area around my spine from mingmen up and mingmen down the whole thing seems to inflate. This concerned me because I thought that there was not supposed to be any pressure in the neck. The feeling occurs during the inhale. The fuller the breath gets the farther up and down the fullness travels.