Wow, it's been almost half a year since I last posted. If it wasn't already apparent, I have an annoying habit of letting work and my own laziness interfere with my extra-curriculars. I used to be online all the time, but these days I'm rarely at my computer. My bagua practice tapered off a bit back in September, thanks to an extended period of time in which I worked a lot of overtime, which is a shame, since it seemed to be progressing pretty well at the time. I've tried to keep up with it over the last several months, but it's been intermittent at best. And, of course, I obviously practice more than I post on here. Perhaps I should figure out the "mobile posting" settings for this blog setup, so I can add posts from my phone while I'm at work with nothing else to do.
Happily, this return to my journal coincides with a renewed effort in my bagua practice. I've been trying to steadily increase my level of conditioning in recent weeks, that way I can more easily jump back into practice. On a side note, I've also been spending some time doing tai chi, mostly for stress-reduction purposes (I need to stop reading about politics).
So, I have something resembling a game plan for structuring the time I spend with my bagua practice every day. I'm implementing it in a small scale, which I'll gradually increase, but my initial mid-term goal is to eventually spend about three hours per day on bagua practice. Spend a few minutes doing standing postures, one hour on strike training, one hour for forms work and one hour of circle-turning. That's a tall order at the moment, since I'm out of shape in general and have not yet gotten to the point where I'm working with the bagua for extended periods of time. My bagua practice today lasted from about 10am to 1pm, though there were significant periods of rest interspersed throughout. But, as always, it's a work in progress.
