Dev

I'll play around, and see if I can keep my tarsal bones spread to the same degree while distributing my weight a little better. If I can do it that way without forcing them to spread, then why not i suppose

Okay that's good to hear Now that's a good idea! I didn't think of that. I just wish the monthly membership had full access to their library. And yeah I'd much rather learn from videos and lessons as opposed to a book, but at least in the meantime I've made a neigong workbook, and have been carefully reading Damos book, making notes on everything

I read a little more into it today (from Damo), and i think that i might have had my weight a tiny bit too far forward, because one's heels should not be lifting off the ground (mine weren't, but were about to). Gonna try it slightly further back today, still on frontal part and see if my calves hold up better.

Great tip, thanks

How do you find Damo's information? How have you progressed over time using his system? Run into any problems yet, glass ceilings etc? Are you part of his academy, or just reading his books and watching his youtube videos?

Ahh, I was wanting to ask. I'm wanting to learn neigong (originally i was interested in learning to faqi, but now I'm honestly just pursuing it for the sake of it, for self-mastery and interest's sake). As I want to pursue neigong I'm going to choose the latter and explore, but again, I really appreciate your offer I will keep an eye out for those loud voices, and take everything with a pinch of salt

Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the advice

Okay great, that's good to hear. I'll just have to power through

I'd love to take you up on that offer, that's very kind of you! Yeah I've been struggling to make up my mind, from what i can see i have 2 options: your friend that is in china RN and is teaching neigong through a zoom seminar, and damos academy. Damo's is a bit cheaper, and comes with a huge amount of resources, material to study and learn, and seems to be quite structured and well laid out, which resonates with me, but the other guy is guaranteed knows what he's doing, but I'm not sure how much information and structure I'll get from him?

Thanks man, appreciate the insight. What parts of your legs did you experience cramps in?

I'm going to try join Damo's school, just need to sort out cash (and possibly speak to him about this as well as recommended by someone). Definitely can't find an actual teacher here in RSA - the only 'teachers' are people who went overseas, began learning the foundations and came back to south africa a 'master'. There's also only like 2 of them. I'd honestly rather figure it out myself than go to one of them. Damo does outline a lot of the risks, and is really comprehensive about it, so i really hope to be able to join his school

According to damo, the weight must be on the frontal part in order to open up yong quan, which connects you to the earths yin. "If you distribute the weight evenly on your feet then your tarsal bones won't spread sufficiently and yong quan won't open up properly". Edit: We're probably just on different systems that do it slightly different though, so I appreciate your advice regardless

I do that every now and then, its rather yummy Where I stay a few hundred years ago there were only hunter gatherers, so the 'dishes' were likely mainly roots and leaves. This is interesting though, I'm going to do a bit more research into the diet of the koi-san people, they were the originals in this climate. So should one adapt their diet to different climates? Its blazing hot here in summer, and pretty chilly in winter but never really gets below 8C in the day I love using warm spices, so this is good news So I normally eat a lightly cooked salad every day, with cool vegetables (carrots, sweet pepper), some pungent veg (spring onions, leeks, onions, garlic), nuts and seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, flax, almond), some chilli and some herbs n spices (cumin, oregano, thyme), and baby spinach. Is this overcomplicating it? Would you say that's warm or cool overall?

Okay thanks, that's unfortunate, but if it's gotta be done, it's gotta be done.

Right, I was wondering about that Maybe I can try find a TCM practitioner to give me a diagnosis. They're few and far inbetween here in RSA though. Does 'cold' have anything to do with heat? E.g if i mash a banana into some warm oats, is it now a warm food? Does this include chilli?

Okay so definitely organic, wholefoods are the way to go https://www.shenspace.ca/blood-nourishing-foods Can you tell me what you think of the info in this article? Very much appreciated

I'll research this What specific nutrients/compounds are in these foods that you need more of? Or is it more that they are yin/yang foods? I see. I've been cutting a lot of addictions recently - social media, caffeine. I think the main thing i need to focus on right now is not overeating, even though i eat healthily, too much is not good, especially when its just a subtle 'feel-good' mechanism. I saw that video by damo on nourishing the kidneys, i'm gonna watch it and see what he says Yeah thats a big part of why I'm doing the iboga, I know many of these patterns already, I just need to go a bit deeper into them and cleanse myself of them Okay, will do. Thanks for the advice

Also, in around november I'm going to do a series of fasts (juice and normal), and do a herbal intestinal cleanse (using a gentle, gradual cleansing agent), along with a kambo ceremony to clear my body of toxins and waste products. Also will be doing an iboga retreat to get some solid shadow work done, to decondition and resolve a couple traumas and balance myself mentally, because I would rather approach nei'gong with a focused, balanced, clean mind, free of shadows and trauma that will interfere and hold me back. Also likely to go on a vippassana retreat. What I want to know, is since iboga has a metabolite that lasts for 2-3 weeks or so, and continues to work its magic for that period, should i hold off the nei'gong etc for a while after the retreat just to be safe? Will the iboga/kambo interfere at all? Freeform pointed out to me that kambo activates your wei qi, is that a good/bad thing?

What are the recommended lifestyle/health practices to get your body healthy and ready for nei'gong? I read something about avoiding the 5 grains, is that a diet that is applied to nei'gong? I'm reasonably healthy already (no dairy/meat, low sugar, lowish saturated fat, no high-GI, very few processed foods, mostly wholegrain, do yoga here and there and hike once a week - also starting to plank for a few minutes daily). What could I improve on? Any suggestions/insights?

Fair enough, I agree with you. Although these things are my 'goals', for me, a goal is just a direction to head in. I'm not attached to the ideas, it's just what direction i want to head in. If I felt it absolutely necessary to achieve those things, it would likely end up with me resisting the flow of the universe. Rather, I'd just give myself a direction, something to head towards, and actually just play it as it comes. Who knows, maybe I won't heal at all and will live in a cabin on a mountain lol. Not sure who Tim Ferriss is, I'll check him out. And i will heed your advice and focus on one thing at a time, and most certainly do what i enjoy

That is also most of what a proper psychotherapist (and counsellor) is supposed to do. Psychotherapy is definitely going to be my baseline, the other practices will add on to that, for this exact reason

Yeah that's a very good point. There are so many underqualified "reiki masters" out there. I think the only way would be to go to china and find an actual reiki master True, but I never said i was going to rush into it. I definitely won't offer any services until i know that I am way past qualified to offer them. I'm going to start off with just psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, and add on more modalities as i master them/become proficient enough to offer them throughout my life. Not going to put people in danger

It's not something I'm going to rush into, i might only fully achieve it in old ageGoing to take it step by step, mastering one thing at a time. Also, it would be drawn over the space of 2 weeks or so, not all at onceAlso, i understand that people's illnesses are a result of their karma, which is why i don't just want to "heal" because that won't last, but rather heal and teach people to heal themselves

Yeah that's true, although studying something is different to practicing something that you would happily do anyway, and arguably takes up more time of the day (unless you are in retreat and practicing nei'gong the whole day every day). In Damo's comp. guide to nei'kung he touches on some TCM, i found that really helpful to understanding the whole process of nei'kung. I definitely am going to self-study and learn as much TCM as possible now, also because then maybe if i study it in 20 years time or something I'll have a large foundation and will fly through the degree

That is true, but at the same time, I do really enjoy meditating in solitude. My plan is to start a few retreats, hiring teachers/healers i trust to work at them, and hire someone to manage them in terms of business. Then I will have plenty of time to spend in retreats, doing proper internal work, with a consistent cash flow supporting me. That way I can work and heal when I have time, and otherwise take as much time as i need to work on myself. I also do actually want to study TCM, I've been reading into it. I think I might do a degree later on in my life (i will of course reserve healing with qi for after this), it's just quite a long degree. But I will see what happens later in life. Either way, I will take @freeform's advice and study TCM before i attempt to heal anyone with Qi, that's only reasonable and responsible