Miffymog

Hi there Summer, The time commitment is roughly 30 minutes as a minimum, but as the whole practice is quite relaxing and enjoyable, after time you may find the duration naturally increases. Here are some links that can give you a pretty good overview of the requirements and what’s involved. https://taichimania.com/essentialguidelines.html https://taichimania.com/trainingschedule.html And this link will give you a lot of very well structured information on the practice. https://forum.alchemical.garden/branch/zenbear/

This is all that matters.

Hi Sifu Terry, I was just wondering what your advice was in regards to FPCK and fasting. I currently practice 6 days a week and I've just started fasting on my day off. This seems to be working okay, but I'm considering increasing the fast to 2 days a week in future, would it still be alright to do some FPCK on a fasting day or should I leave it until the fast is over? Many thanks, Miffymog p.s. I've never really had any brain washing sensations, but when doing Basic Warm Up 1 (5-60-80-40-30) as slowly as possible, I have sometimes felt as though there were two very small cogs intermeshing and rotating right in the center of my head (just in front of the pineal gland). But it was a really mild sensation

I remember reading somewhere that if you asked a Westerner who they were or how they defined themselves, they would nearly always answer that question with what their job or profession was. But if you asked an African, they were more likely to define themselves by who they were related to (Who/what are you? - I'm so and so's cousin/brother/sister). I'm trying to redefine myself in my own mind in these terms, but I'm not quite there yet

You'll be fine. If you find yourself experiencing too much chi after a session, the advice is actually go and eat something as that 'turns it off'.

I'm not saying it's either something you can or should do, but I did come across this guy on Youtube that might have some answers to your questions. https://m.youtube.com/c/sexualkungfu

I liked him.

This is a slightly tricky one to deal with. TLDR; it's best if things like this are done on a daily basis, but you can start off with literally doing just 5 minutes a day, just to create a the habit. This duration will then naturally increase in time. Whenever I had practices in the past, be it standing or sitting mediation, I always used to tell myself that the amount of time I end up doing it was always fairly equal to how much less sleep I’d need during the day. Therefore, it actually took no time out of my day to do it, I merely needed to get up a little earlier to do it. The reason I’d need less sleep was because I’d gain a little more energy from doing the meditation, the day would be a little less stressful due to it, so I’d expend less emotional energy, and my sleep was probably of a slightly higher quality. So it was kind of a win-win situation (the fact is, this is probably true for any daily exercise routine, not just meditation and qi gong). For me, the most challenging bit was getting up early to do it, because if I left it to the evening, there were always other things that might come up and I’d miss a session. FPCK is a little bit different, in that because the mediations can be quite relaxing and aren’t always too strenuous (especially when it comes to the seated mediations on DVD 2), my sessions can end up taking up quite a bit of time, and I definitely don’t get all that time back in less sleep needed. However, the way I have reduced the longer sessions is by only doing one mediation a session. Currently, I do some warm up exercises, sit or stand for 10 minutes before I start, perform the mediation for 20 to 30 minutes and then done, so it's relatively compact. Good luck with your new job and finding a routine that works for you

Either go to your normal GP, or look for a local TCM practitioner?

It'd probably be best to sign up to his on-line school where you can then join his Facebook group. There are loads of people who'll be happy to help you there.

Wow - that was awesome - Thank you Sifu Terry!

Hi there, I've just re-read your original post and I realised that I've written a response that doesn't really answer you question. But having written it, I've decided I'll still post it rather than delete it - sorry about that --- I’ve done a CBT course of intrusive thoughts as I have suffered from them myself, here are some of the main things I leant. The first step is it’s best not to avoid situations where they might arise, as that can reinforce the sense that the thoughts are more than just thoughts. Then, once you have identified the situation where they may occur, try to identify your ‘MUST NOT …’ thought. What is it exactly you must not do or think. As soon as you see something as a must not, that is a good way to get the mind to entertain the idea, so what are your must nots? Also, while in the situation, see if you can identify any safety behaviours you may be using to reduce the intrusive thoughts. Unfortunately, these also have the tendency to just re-enforce the intrusive thought and you pretty much have to let go of these behaviours too. You then have to face that situation where you have the intrusive thoughts and ‘let the worst thoughts possible’ happen. This is a challenge and involves no small amount of ego death. The fact is, you may not have a pleasant experience allowing your thoughts and imagination to ‘go wild’. However, after the event, you will always realise that the consequences of not fighting the mind are less than the perceived fear you originally had. If you have truly managed to let go of yourself in the moment of confrontation, then the next time you face it, it will be easier. The anxieties and intrusive thoughts will not have gone, but they will have diminished. What will then happen is in time the ability to relax into the moment at the onset of the anxiety becomes easier, and you can slowly become more rounded again. This is all much easier to do with a therapist, but I did find this book particularly good Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: A CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts by Sally M. Winston PsyD (Author), Martin N. Seif PhD (Author)

Definitely go for the first two together if you can afford it Level 1 / DVD 1 just consists of standing meditations, and level 2 / DVD 2 just consists of sitting meditations. A really good thing about FPCK is that it combines both, and works better with both. So if you can stretch to the cost of them together then I highly recommend it, and you can then just stick with those for ages before you think about purchasing any of the other DVD's.

This just means in its most common usage, one a normal person on the street would understand it as.

Short answer: This one is above my pay grade I’m afraid. Combining stretches from such a different tradition is one thing, but combining energy work is something quite different. FPCK is a daoist tradtion, as is Serge Augier’s Da Xuan, but Hatha Yoga is not... The problem is these practices have effects on the body that are beyond our ability to perceive, so how one interacts with another is very difficult to predict. However, FPCK’s primary aim is to generate healing, calming and balancing qi. And, although this is not something I can actually recommend doing, when I have mixed two systems together and they haven’t complimented each other, I do tend to find out about it pretty quickly. For example, negative side effects have included having too much energy in the head and difficulty sleeping. But if you do both, at different times in the day, and end up feeling more balanced, calm and grounded, then you may be okay….