Thich Nhat Hanh talks about the benefits of doing a lot of meditation in the lower area of the abdomen and the hara when you're dealing with situations of strong emotions or strong change in life.
And in the Japanese tradition,
Working with the hara is thought to develop strength,
Develop character and develop energy.
So come into a relaxed,
A little alert position.
Relax the shoulders,
Let them drop away from the ears.
You can take a moment to relax the jaw as the mouth gently closes,
Hood or close the eyes.
Let them release a little as well.
And now you've got yourself settled.
Just let yourself feel the body as it is right now.
See if you can release any areas that might be a little tense that might need a little bit of softness and relaxation.
And let your focus then come to the way the body expands and contracts with the breath.
And allow the breath,
Breathing in and breathing out.
Just notice how far into the body the in-breath comes.
It doesn't matter how far.
Just bring your attention to your breathing for a moment and just notice what it's doing in this moment.
Letting the breath in and watching it go out.
And now bring your attention to this lower part of the belly,
The hara.
A couple of finger widths below the navel and a couple of centimeters into the body.
And imagine your breath coming into the hara.
If the breath doesn't naturally go there that's not really the point but imagine that it does.
Allowing that expansion,
Visualizing it if you like in the area of the hara.
And exhaling.
Inhaling deep into the abdomen,
Into the hara.
Exhaling.
If you like,
Imagine the in-breath coming in through the abdomen,
Through the front abdomen.
Coming in and expanding the lower belly.
And then exhaling through the nose.
So it becomes a circular breath now,
Circular breath into the belly,
Directly affecting the hara and then out through the nose.
Now imagine the hara is expanding in several directions.
Expanding out through the front.
And exhaling.
Also now expanding through the right side.
As you inhale again,
Expanding through the back.
And releasing with every out-breath then with the in-breath expanding to the left side now.
All four sides now expanding with each in-breath.
Now allow your next in-breath to bring expansion deeper into the abdomen so that your pelvic floor might activate.
And relax on the exhalation and allowing expansion coming up into the stomach.
And exhale.
You can visualize all of these things if it doesn't feel completely natural for the breath to be doing this kind of expansion.
Continue to breathe into the hara,
Allowing the exhalation out through the nose.
Inhaling,
Allowing the expansion.
Exhale,
Release.
While still keeping your posture relaxed but energizing.
There might be a temptation to let the spine drop so see if you can keep the spine upright as you exhale.
And then fully allowing the belly to expand again on the in-breath.
You can take another round of expanding breaths if you like.
Inhaling and expanding through the front of the abdomen.
Inhaling,
Expanding to the right.
Inhaling,
Expanding to the back.
And releasing on the out-breath.
Inhaling,
Expanding to the left.
And relax on the out-breath.
And while maintaining all of these expansions on the next in-breath,
Allowing expanding into the depth of the abdomen.
And then on the next in-breath expanding up to the top of the abdomen.
And take a few breaths now with this expanded awareness of the hara and the lower abdomen and releasing and relaxing on the out-breath.
This is an exercise you can do at any time throughout the day when you feel like you'd like to reconnect to ground yourself to recharge.
And as you're feeling ready to end this period of meditation you can start to move into the toes and the fingers.
Just moving the body a little bit side to side forward and back.
And seeing how you feel now.
How your body feels different.
How your energy level feels as you gently open your eyes and ready to go about your day.
