Listen, make the time to do at least an hour of training in the morning. Even if it seems like it’s killing you at first just get up and do it. After about a week of this you’ll realize that you have much more energy and require less sleep. Overall you’ll feel very energized. As well, this will bring your body’s organic functions under subconscious control as well as strengthen the colon which in reality regulates everything else. Anyway, without getting too off the deep end; just shut-up about it, get up an hour early and just do it. Try it for a week, if you don’t like it you can always go back to your normal habbits. Also, Ba Gwa seems to have a better overall energizing effect in the morning, whereas taiji seems to just kinda of put you in a zone; i recommend Ba Gwa for your morning practice or an energetic version of your Taiji form. Here’s my morning routine:
1.Ba Gwa 8 standing qigong (just to get the blood circulating)
2.Ba Gwa Circular Form
3.Ba Gwa Linear Form
Then, in the evening I do the 8 standing qigong again followed by weapons training sets (Long Pole, Double-Knives, etc.)
Anyway, you need a regimen that works for you, but take my advice and just make yourself do it.
For those of you who live in southern california and if you were to go to the famous Chiatown village you would see many practitioners practicing all styles of the internal arts.
As an update to this post, I now practice 3-4 days a week from 6 -7 AM outside on a basketball court,perfect for bagua and xingyi. We’ll see if I can continue this when it gets cold out and the bed’s harder to get out of.
Knowing others is wisdom, Knowing the self is enlightenment- Lao Tzu
Even if you don’t have time for chi-gung or forms, you should still stretch every morning when you get up. This helps reset the nervous tension in your muscles thereby increasing and maintaining your overall flexibility.
Ma_Xu_Zha - “also late night practice at 12am makes you vulnerable to bad spirits and ghosts when a ‘mysterious’ door opens.”
Yes, I dunno about the “secret door,” but I also heard that nighttime being Yin, that is when the spirits come out to play. So, you are definitely at much greater risk of spirit attacks or possession at night.
That is also why I’ve been told to close your window at night. But, lately I’ve been leaving my window open all night b/c I seem to sleep better and can wake up much earlier, like 5:30 or 6AM (assuming I get to bed by around 9:30 or 10+PM). It’s like when u go camping outdoors - u can’t help but wake up early. Any opinion one way or the other on this???
For those of you that live in southern california every morning in the chinatown suburb of Los Angeles at Alpine Park you will find many practitioners of many of the Internal Arts. Many of them learned in China.