Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong SFQ2

Let me back up a bit here...
-regarding my not doing level I active exercises: If you are open and clear, you are open and clear, whether it is by level I active exercise, or level II active exercise, or level II healing techniques on self. You can work within level I or II, and accomplish same results regarding one's own health. I did spend a number of months doing Level I active exercises for two hrs a day, in the beginning. I then spent the same total time in level II, doing the active exercises in combination with self healing work using the hands. (This was my personal involvement, I am not saying this is how long you are supposed to practice active exercises. You can benefit from 10 minutes, it is a matter of degrees.)
-regarding how I practice qigong: I have been pretty open about that. Certain aspects of self growth and experience are simply personal and private. Look at it like this.. you go to art school and take a painting class. You have never done it before. Think of all the work you have to do to get to the point where you execute a decent painting. Then think of the idea of doing a painting in your own style, based in what you have learned and experienced. "Sort of a pure expression of self." That takes some time. Maybe even a gift, there in the beginning , or obtained along the way, or some of both. Think of how all that changes over several years... How do you make a painting, can not be transferred in words that provide the experience or ability for someone else. We are all given tools. How we use them is up to us. Learn the basics, practice, and enjoy what unfolds for you.
-regarding using the exercises to fit one's needs: Think of the aspect of self healing. Using level II to scan yourself and remove blockages. Perhaps using specific qigong exercises to address specific blockages, or, to pursue specific interests regarding spiritual, physical, emotional, creative, or healing energy.
In the beginning, you should practice the basics in total. Don't do seven steps alone, to just address your knee. Do the whole set, then, maybe do the seven steps at a different time of day, as an extra benefit, or do a self healing using sword fingers..., or do the whole exercise set again! Your main blockage my be in your pancreas, not your knee.
In the beginning, I never took from the level I active set to fit my needs. I was talking from a much broader qigong experience and perspective. Whenever I start something, I focus on the basics, and do them until I feel them embodied at a nice level. I might do the seven steps now, if I have a knee problem, but, I would probably have done a balanced set of some active exercises too, or done a level II healing on myself to cover my whole system. You need ongoing groundwork or a solid foundation to work from.

Gallen,
What a heartening and soothing answer. I understand you fully.

A synchronistic event happened when i went home after being so enlightened w/ your At some point, you want to bring what you need from the exercises, to you. Knowing them helps you do this. Just doing them all, all the time, or alternating to cover ground, isn't as effective as knowing them, and using them to fit your needs.

I opened Level 1 manual that evening & opened to the part on focus. I keep reading the sentence, but because it is in M. Lin's type of expression, i keep forgetting it verbatim. It goes something like this: relax yourself into a state where you are not focused and yet able to sense things in the body; and, when you focus on that feeling, it goes away

It's something like that and, to my understanding, it further adds to what you wrote.

Last night for the first time, i really did what you posted and what M. Chunyi Lin said to do and i felt all kinds of energy in my fingers and down the front of my torso, especially in my heart region.

I am doing all the exercises from Level 1 and i'm feeling my way into them and letting them speak to me. We're getting to know each other.

Because you are an artist and use your hands, it only makes sense that you were born w/ the innate or inherent ability to be a healer. After all, art is such a healing force in this world. At no time in the history of mankind have we lived w/o art.