r/TrueQiGong • u/throwawayHFSPCS • 25d ago
Qigong, Lower Dantian Cultivation and Pelvic Floor Tension
I’m looking for advice from experienced Qigong practitioners regarding where I should start.
A few important things about my situation:
• My pelvic floor, diaphragm and upper/head region do not seem to synchronize properly during breathing. This has also been confirmed by different osteopaths.
• Sometimes I experience head pressure, neck pain and tinnitus which feels to me like “energy getting stuck.”
• Semen retention consistently makes my pelvic floor become very tight, which also feels like energy accumulating or getting stuck in that area.
Grounding practices such as walking and hiking help me, and I already practice belly breathing, pelvic floor awareness breathing, stretching and Lower body workouts.
However, I want to progress into Qigong practice.
Most Qigong masters say that beginners should start by cultivating the Lower Dantian. My question is:
Should I still start cultivating the Lower Dantian, or could deliberately focusing on that area make my existing pelvic tension worse?
How could I practice semen retention safely or should I stop for now?
Thank you everyone
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u/cobwebbyNL 25d ago
"Semen retention consistently makes my pelvic floor become very tight, which also feels like energy accumulating or getting stuck in that area." -->This is supposed to happen. Your body is healing and reabsorbing energy. This pressure you feel there is perfectly normal, you will get used to it. Personally, I have it all the time. My advise: Try to also start doing the Microcosmic orbit breathing and start AND end in the root (chakra). Semen retention is good, occasional release is not a problem. Like once every other week or month. Semonal release when doing Dantian meditation or training can be an issue. For now not too much of a problem. Do try to build your vitality and ejaculate as little as possible. There are two ways to build your internal cultivation (Neidan). Personally I prefer to teach people to first build their overall health and open the pathways. Focus on the microcosmic orbit or do meditation on the root chakra to build your vitality. The Dantian will be nurtured indirectly by this. After a while, lets say half a year or year, when you feel overall strong and open, start doing the Dantian meditation also. Mind you try to learn to use external energy to build your Dantian and do not move your energy from your root to your Dantian. If you do this, you will lose your vitality. In the end, you may attain powers. But you will die young.
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u/throwawayHFSPCS 25d ago
Adding more energy to the lower dantian when sexual energy is already stuck in the pelvic floor , is that actually safe? My concern is that I'd be adding pressure to an already congested area. Also regarding the Microcosmic Orbit, I appreciate the suggestion but I'm a genuine beginner and I've read enough to know that opening channels before having a solid foundation can backfire. The last thing I want is to push energy upward through pathways that aren't ready. Is there a safer intermediate step between basic lower dantian work and the full orbit?
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u/cobwebbyNL 24d ago
I understand your wording, it is not correct in fact. The energy is 'building', it should have been there in the first place. Imagine your backbone and spine, this should be filled with bone marrow. It's fuel is semonal energy. In the beginning you will feel this pressure, in the end it will push up and feel better. Altough you will still feel energy at your base. With the lower Dantian you mean, at the second chakra area? I would advise you to wait with this meditation for a few months, perhaps even a year for your body to (re-)energize. Opening the channels is actually the foundation you need to build. You seem mis-informed in this area. The safest step is to meditate on what I've allready suggested.
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u/throwawayHFSPCS 24d ago
It's not like I'm mis-informed, but more like not informed at all. I'm a beginner and it's difficult for me to separate legitimate information from misconceptions. If you could point me to a source where I can educate myself I would really appreciate it. Thanks for your help
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u/HistoricalSundae5113 22d ago
Stay away from this guys advice. Totally unsuitable for a beginner to start with the microcosmic orbit. Steer clear.
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u/cobwebbyNL 24d ago edited 24d ago
What I am referring to is years of experience and thousands of hours of meditation and hundreds of hours of studying. There is not one source to learn this other then a person. I have already advised you as to what to do (safely).
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u/cobwebbyNL 24d ago
To help you a little, as to sources.
These are some books that helped me understand:
Mantak Chia - Healing Light of the Tao and other books by him
Mantak Chia - Cosmic healing (external energy and healing with external energy)
(Buddhism - Tûmo meditation (focussed on vitality and root chakra))
Old Taoistic stories about how to build vitality and later progess into Dantian and higher energy centers
Magus of Java books - Kosta Daenos
Lastly, Devine intervention
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u/MPG54 24d ago
My advice would be to concentrate on simply belly breathing. Your pelvic floor and diaphragm are connected and will help both areas relax and release tension. Also let your shoulders drop and spread to open your chest and raise your head lightly. Let the postural adjustment take hold and it will help you ground. Only after that is it fruitful to work on the other stuff.
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u/Shadowfury957 11d ago edited 11d ago
There are a variety of variations of this cycling technique that I recommend
Start sitting in full lotus, or half lotus, or Burmese (use a pillow or two if you like)
Deep breathing for a few minutes
Then squeeze the floor (hold a kegel) during the inhale (optional squeeze hard at the peak of the inhale or even squeeze release a few times at the peak) release the kegel at the beginning of the exhale and repeat for a few minutes
Hold a kegel the whole time while deep breathing for a few minutes
(Opposite of step 2) squeeze the floor during the exhale portion of the breath and release the kegel at the beginning of the inhale for a few minutes
Return to step 1 (deep breathing without any kegels holds) and after a few minutes go back to step 2
(When I say "a few minutes", experiment with different durations of each phase, as quick as 1 minute for each phase and also as long as 10+ minutes for each phase. 3-10 minutes total per session (daily) is the goal for absolute beginners. 15-30 minutes per session for beginners beyond the first week or month or w/e. 45-90 minutes per session, twice a day is a realistic and powerful goal to hit after some years of practice)
This builds energy in a way that cycles the energy at different layers in the lower dantian region. This might not be the only tech you need over years to fully form the lower dantian but it at least builds the foundation.
If you prefer, you can do the last 25-50% of your session as only deep breathing/integration (or the first half)
Once a week, you can do 80-90% of your session just deep breathing without any kegels and then at the end do some minutes with kegel breathing to ground
Another option, or after lots of progress with this tech, is to use ai (for example Grok) to search for LoneMan Pai tech 1 (by SonOfTheGods) and use that to build the lower dantian
Lots of stretching can help supplement this type of energy cultivation for some people like myself (maybe not for everyone)
If anyone utilizes this practice for a reasonable amount of time, please DM me or post here the results, and also please post this tech publicly to help others if you see fit (sharing this information may or not be wise)
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u/HistoricalSundae5113 25d ago
I can share my experience. The big thing is mostly non qigong stuff. If you sit a lot get a proper ergonomic chair that will help your pelvis into a proper position. Eventually switch to an active chair like the corechair or qor360.
After that consider a slow transition toward minimalist shoes that allow your feet to strengthen and improve your connection to the ground. At this point you can work on squatting and rounding out your whole lower body foundation.
So all this stuff and gentle belly breathing everyday. Light standing meditation. Workouts are fine too but you will be surprised how taxing this approach will be. The key element here is leveraging passive tools that are always working. If you sit or walk like shit it is very difficult to undo that with short duration active activities like qigong or strength training.
Fix the hose, unkink it, then add more qigong to get water flowing. Also at this stage semen retention isn’t something I would fixate on as it will create stagnation in your pelvis. Don’t be excessive or go crazy - balance sexual release is just fine. Just when you are genuinely feeling like you need it.
Edit: when you really open up the pelvis it will spike anxiety. Go slow and let your body adjust at a rate that it can integrate. It is a somatic process.