Welcome to this belly focus meditation,
Designed to draw us into the centre of our bodies,
The centre of our beings and to connect with our place of intuition.
It's advised to do this lying down so that we can feel supported by the ground and so that we don't have to lift up any part of us against gravity.
That way the space around the belly can be free and our nervous systems can feel most relaxed.
We have the opportunity to be fully rested and to really gather in and rejuvenate.
So lying down,
Allow any last bits of fidgeting.
Check that your head feels fully supported so you feel your chin can drop lightly in towards your throat.
To ensure a position you can sustain lying with your lower back comfortable,
Do place any cushions under your knees that you might need.
Then feeling that your shoulders can really drop,
Can really open,
Place your hands somewhere onto your belly,
Onto your abdomen,
Somewhere that you feel fully comfortable into the fingers,
Into the wrists,
Into the elbows,
Into the shoulders and across the top of the chest.
Do adjust if it feels like any part of your hands or your arms or your shoulders are feeling tense or that they're lifting off the ground.
We can be very used to lifting ourselves,
Holding ourselves up and holding things together.
So it's worth just exploring any parts that you could be breathed into and dropped a little more.
Then breathing into your hands,
Feel that touch and their weight onto your belly.
Placing your hands in a way that doesn't impede the movement of your breath and maybe even just a little bit apart so you can really start to connect into the rise and the fall of your belly as you breathe.
Placing our hands onto our belly in this way really connects us back down into that intuitive central part of our body and our being.
We often believe or feel that our head is our centre as our thoughts can often be so dominant,
So loud.
But really the part of you underneath your hands now is central to your physical being.
It's where we truly sense how safe or unsafe the world around us feels.
How we sense out into our landscape,
Into our own environment and engage with people or situations accordingly.
How we choose to either approach or to move away from them.
So breathing into your belly,
Feel that connection,
That sensory conversation.
Many ancient traditions believe the belly is the seat of intuitive wisdom and now modern science agrees that gut feelings are very true.
That the information we receive from the enteric nervous system in our gut is very important.
Our brains receive around 90% of information up from the belly rather than only 10% top down from brain to gut.
Feel the weight of your hands and breathe to feel a sense of trust in your core.
Anytime you start to label what arises with words,
Notice how you may start to move up into your head.
Any nature of distraction,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Thoughts about feelings,
Feelings about thoughts,
Take you away from that connection with your centre.
Smile a little.
You can note how it's incredibly natural,
How very human of us to follow thoughts,
To be distracted.
So smile a little to show kindness to yourself.
Inhale to where thoughts seem to be focused and exhale back down into feeling tones without words in the belly.
Feel how your abdomen rises as you inhale,
Falls as you exhale.
At any time you feel you need to take your arms to another position,
Feel free to do so.
You can still feel that sense memory of your hands,
That residue of tactility and touch helping connect us into our physical beings.
So wherever your hands are now,
You can still feel an innate sense that the inhale moves in towards the belly and the exhale expands out and away from the central hub.
Observe the pulsing quality of the inhale gathering in towards that central point and the exhale starting to expand your inner being out towards the edges of your outer shell,
Maybe even starting to move a little out beyond.
So there's always a sense of however much you move out from the center,
The inhalation always gathers back.
So it always has a feeling of safely bringing you back home.
Then you can feel more freedom to explore outwards with each exhalation and reach out into the space around you at a level that feels comfortable today.
If it starts to feel organic,
It starts to feel right to do so,
Even reaching a little bit out past your comfort zone,
Knowing that you will soon draw back in again.
Some days we feel that we're happy to explore a little past our boundaries and some days we feel more vulnerable,
But you'll feel more connected and integrated into the center the more you're able to reach out and still retain a sense of softness,
A sense of adaptability,
Flexibility.
So if we lose our sense of being centered,
We can feel that when we move out,
Things can become more fragmented.
They feel a little less safe.
So keep the exhale a little closer to home if you just feel that you need to regroup at this moment.
Noticing as you breathe in and out,
This pulse,
This tide has a soothing quality.
Because you're creating an awareness of yourself and your space,
You can listen to your inner rhythms more easily.
All the skin that encases you can remain soft.
And as this soft outer shell ultimately enables us to move through our environment without having to harden up,
Without having to feel so self-defensive,
We can feel flexible through a whole mind body.
We can feel that it's actually more self-protective to remain soft,
To remain adaptable,
To be able to respond from a more reflective than impulsive place.
Constantly regrouping with the inhalation,
We can recharge our feelings of safety by letting our gut feelings know we are listening to them and trusting what they tell us.
Then we can create an expanse with the exhalation that creates a large space for holding anything that comes up,
Any measure of emotion,
Anything that's arising,
That's ready to be let go of,
Anything stagnant,
That's ready to leave.
The expanse of the out-breath creating room for everything to just be,
To just unfold as it needs.
Inhale,
Drawing into the belly and also into the heart to gain courage.
Exhale and let go of anything ready to leave.
Meeting what's coming up on the inhale,
Releasing fully on the exhale.
Sigh out if you need.
Then starting to feel that you gather your whole being in towards your belly without losing that sense of space.
Still being aware of your breath into the whole of your soft outer shell.
Have a sense of where your body is,
Feeling your weight on the ground and the backs of your legs,
Your feet,
Top of your back,
Back of your skull,
Elbows,
Tops of your shoulders,
All held up by the ground.
Quickly take your time,
Draw up your legs,
Roll to whichever side feels intuitively most safe and curl yourself into your belly.
So it feels like you're wrapping yourself around your belly and your heart to really protect those soft areas.
Lying into that comfortable fetal position on your side,
A position that we can so naturally come back to,
Recreating the safety of the womb.
From this position,
Still retaining that connection with your belly,
Very gently,
Consciously opening your eyes.
When you're ready,
Placing the hand of the top arm down onto the ground,
Rolling up through your belly so your head and chest come up last.
Sit upright in a comfortable position for a few moments to feel your upper body lifting up from your belly and still feeling that centering connection.
When you're ready,
You can start to move out of the practice and into your day.
Namaste.
