How to address the feeling of lots of imbalance between right and left sides of whole body

[Anonymous]

I was watching and reviewing the Standing Qigong video (Standing Qigong Session 2, Beginner Practice Alignments and Sinking 201701_Standing_02), which I have done several times before. When Bruce started talking about trying to feel as if your feet are really sunk into the ground, for the first time,I noticed the feeling that the WHOLE left side of my body was much more ‘alive’ than my right side. And now whenever I do standing practice, that feeling is always noticeable, more sometimes that others, but it persists. I have had hints of this before in one part or the other, e.g., my right knee usually feels ‘deader’ than my left, or my right foot doen’t feel as connected to ground as my left. But since I noticed that it is the whole right side of my body, I realize that this asymmetric feeling pertains to just about every body section.
So, my QUESTION: Is there any specific strategy or hint that Bruce can give about how, during standing or other chi practices, I can address a problem where the entire right side of one’s body just does not feel as alive as any of the left sided parts?
Some personal information, I am 66 years old. About 9 years ago, I suffered a serious head injury during a fall, and had a left subdural hematoma (blood collection) that had to be operated on 3 times. Right after the third surgery, I had a postoperative seizure. I was on anticonvulsive meds for a few months, and seizure has never re-occurred. An EEG slowed some slowing of brain waves on the left side of my brain. (The left brain controls the movement and sensation in the RIGHT side of the body.) I was told that the slowing may or may not ever go away.
I returned to work and normal physical activity shortly after my last surgery, with no permanent deficits or problems that were obvious to me or other people. But over the last 9 years since, I had to give up running about 4 years ago because my right knee started hurting a lot after each run. (I had also injured my right knee anterior cruciate ligament more than 20 years ago. I seemed to have recovered more that 90% from that knee injury and was able to resume running, without too many problems, until several years after my brain injury.) And I have noticed that when I do slow movements in tai chi that call for relaxed, controlled movement, that my right knee, hips, gluteal muscles, etc were much, much weaker and unstable than their left counterparts.

[Anonymous]

Hi Paul,
I am around the same age and I think we will, therefore, have similarly slower learning speed. I am still trying to figure my way through the foundation of this qigong but I will give you what I think. Maybe it will help you.The books on energy gates and dragon and tiger are full of basic information that will definitely help you in understanding all qigong.
My observations are,
1) We typically try to carry out qigong action, follow the instruction and thought we are doing a 70% effort, But actually, we may not be in tune to the qi and are way over in our effort and we therefor get tired for nothing. We could have slow down and reduce the movement to something like 30% and then we might find that we feel more connected to the qi and we don’t feel tired. It is meant to be song and relax. This apply to our age, and in qigong less is more.
2) When one side is weak, then paid more attention, put your mind and consciousness there and practise until the weaker part catches up to the stronger part. Maybe you can also put more time on that part of the body.
3)If you are not doing energy gate qigong then you should get the book and do it. A lot of things there are relevant for you. Sinking qi and balancing qi keeps your body in yin state that is good for the overworked brain. Alignment in standing and cloud hand correct misalignment that prevents us from sinking qi and also from being unbalanced.
Turning left and right in cloud hand and in the 3 swings work up our balance and connect the brain circuit and may help to give a smoother left/right brain connection.
4) Personally, I am doing bagua circle walking and just the single palm change. For health, we just need to walk and move and the instruction from Energy arts together with a lot of video from Paul Cavel is enough for you to learn to walk the circle. If you are from Taiwan, you will notice that many old folks who can harder walk a straight line are also doing the bagua and they claim to have miraculous results. I like it because you can walk as fast or slow as you like and you don’t have to worry whether you are connected to qi or not, Everything happens automatically through the simple act of walking in circle. It built strong legs, create a good balance and maintains a strong presence of mind, all the qualities that older people want.
Incidentally Bruce mention in his introductory book that Bagua is for people who are reasonably fit. That is because Bruce is a linage holder and he teaches Bagua which is a formidable fighting skill. Excuse me, if I am bringing the teaching standard down a bit. For us, half-dead people, we find the little information and skill of circle walking better than all the other qigong. Bruce also considered Bagua as a good form of meditation walking.
All the best.

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[Anonymous]

Hi Paul,
The Taichi Circulating Hand or Horizontal circulating hand is mainly for circulating qi horizontally. It is an important function for everybody and it seems to be what you are asking for.

[Author]

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