Soft belly,
Steady earth meditation.
Let's begin by arriving right where you are,
No need to change anything yet.
Just noticing that you're here.
Taking a posture,
Either sitting or lying,
And notice the earth is already holding you.
Taking a moment to sense gravity,
That quiet,
Reliable pull that has been with you your whole life.
Noticing where your body meets the chair,
The floor,
The bed,
The points of contact,
The weight being received.
You don't have to hold yourself up,
The earth is doing that part.
Even if things inside you feel uncertain or uneasy,
Gravity itself is steady,
Unarguable.
Here,
Let yourself rest into that steadiness for a few breaths.
Now gently expand awareness,
Not just to the body but to the space around the body,
The air touching your skin,
The room around you,
The sense of space extending out in all directions.
Nothing to do with this space,
Just noticing that it's there,
And then slowly allow awareness to drift inward,
Towards the center of the body,
Toward the belly,
Not the belly as an object to fix or control,
The belly as a space,
A living,
Sensing space,
The edges blurring into the space around you,
You might imagine it as a ball,
Or a soft balloon,
Or some other gentle image might come to you,
If it's comfortable you might bring one hand to the belly,
Or perhaps you might gently cradle your belly with your two kind hands and forearms,
Seeing if you can allow a softening,
No trying,
No force,
Allowing a softening,
Not to collapse,
Not a pushing out,
Just less holding,
So the belly could melt a little,
Like ice to water,
Or butter warming in the sun,
Sand loosening after rain,
You don't need to make it soft,
Just stop insisting that it stay tight,
Stephen Levine used to say that we tighten the belly to protect ourselves from what we fear we cannot bear,
Hello kookaburras,
So softening it's not a weakness,
It's a willingness to feel what is already present,
Maybe you notice sensations of movement,
Of warmth,
Coolness,
Tightness,
Heaviness,
Emotion,
Uneasiness,
Groundlessness,
Or very little at all,
Whatever is present is welcome,
The belly is a place that feels a lot because it listens to our whole system,
It's where signals about safety,
About energy,
Metabolism,
Action,
Stress pass through,
There's so many nerves in the gut and connections to our immune system and stress system and nervous system,
It's almost like it has a brain of its own,
Always feeling,
Always informing,
So if there's stuff happening here that's not a problem,
It's information,
If you notice tension here or a sense of resistance that's not a problem either,
You don't need to go into it or push it away,
You might simply allow it to soften around the edges,
Just allowing the belly to be a soft container,
A soft field wide enough to hold changing sensations,
Like weather moving in this field,
Tightening,
Loosening,
Emotion rising,
Emotion fading,
Thoughts passing through the background,
Belly doesn't have to stop any of this,
It only needs to stay soft enough to allow it,
A soft belly can hold fear,
A soft belly can hold pain,
A soft belly can hold uncertainty,
Uneasiness,
No need to brace,
You might notice that as the belly softens something else responds,
Perhaps the breath deepens or becomes easier,
The belly may rise and fall,
The chest may loosen,
The jaw may soften,
Your system may calm down,
Just notice this isn't because you fixed anything or solved a problem,
It's because when the belly feels less scarred,
The nervous system receives a quieter message,
There's no threat for now,
Things are okay,
Things are manageable and that changes how sensations are interpreted,
If you have some physical or emotional pain in the body can you let it be held within the softness of the belly,
Expanding and gently contracting rather than bracing against it,
Pain can be here and the belly can stay soft and open,
Both can co-exist,
The belly doesn't need to decide what the sensations mean,
It can just give them room,
Letting awareness move gently between the steadiness of gravity below,
The spaciousness around you and through you and the softness within the belly,
Earth,
Space,
Soft belly,
Held,
Open,
Allowed,
If at any point this softening feels too much,
You can return to the feeling of weight,
Of contact,
Of being supported,
You're in charge of the pace,
As we come towards the end of this practice,
See if you can carry this sense of a soft receptive belly with you,
Not as something to maintain perfectly but as an option your body now remembers,
A way of being that says I can feel this and I don't have to tighten against it,
Taking two or three slightly deeper breaths and when you're ready,
Allowing the eyes to open,
The body to move slightly,
Bringing with you the quiet knowing that softness is not weakness,
It is strength,
As Stephen Levine reminded us we do not have to make pain go away in order to be free of suffering,
May this softening of the belly be a way of meeting whatever is here with kindness,
Courage and an open heart.
Thank you.
