My new job starts tomorrow, so my little break comes to an end. How did I do on the goals I set myself? Well, the result was mixed. I had a bad cold for one of the three weeks; I did try to practice once, but the cold just seemed to get worse and go deeper into my chest as a result, so I stopped until I’d shaken it off. Also, I was pleased that a number of social opportunities came up, so I had fewer free evenings to practice than I’d expected 
So:
- Yang 24-set: yes, made good progress on this, and can do it better than I could before.
- Cheng Man Ching 37-move Taiji set: yes, relearned, and better than before.
- Xuan Xuan Taiji broadsword set: yes, at least as good as before.
- Yang 13-move Taiji broadsword set: no. I gave up on this. It’s too long since I was able to do this. Also, just before I left Beijing, I bought an instruction DVD for this form, but never watched it until now. It suggests that the way I learned before was flawed. I’ll have to come back to this in the future.
- Bagua Turning-Spinning Qigong: yes, although I need to do more work to get the final turning section follow the ying-yang pattern more closely. I actually like this qigong set a lot.
- Iron Shirt Neigong exercises: no. Didn’t have enough time. Still very high on my to-do list.
- Bagua palm and sword sets:yes. These actually benefited a lot from the work I put into the taiji forms, particularly with regard to my posture and sinking my weight.
- Vipassana meditation: oops, no. That’s surprising, given the boost in enthusiasm I got from my practice in Bangkok. This was what I had planned to do in the evenings, so it was most affected by my going out to meet friends. I’m not too worried about this: my social life took a bit of a battering due to my work situation over the last year, and it’s important to build it up again! The meditation remains a high priority, and I’m confident I’ll be able to do this.
There’s no room for complacency, though: I need to keep practicing in order to maintain the improvements I’ve made!
So, tomorrow, a whole new work and lifestyle situation begins. It’ll take a while to settle down, but I’m looking forward to it!
Work moves energy. And I think you already know the picture =D
[...] breath of wind over embers 31 08 2007 It wasn’t so long ago that I felt at the top of my game; I was meditating regularly, working on my qigong, and thoroughly rehearsed in all of the forms [...]