Soft Belly Standing

A standing meditation that focuses on calming and relaxing through softening in the belly and allowing the breath to drop lower in the body (diaphragm breathing). When the heart and mind relax and open our breathing will drop lower. But also breathing from lower down helps to allow that opening of heart and mind. So this practice also shows us the complete inseparability of body and heart-mind.

With eyes open, this practice could be done in spare moments like queuing.

Transcript

Welcome to this short standing meditation which you can do with eyes open or closed.

Beginning by just noticing how you are,

Your overall mood or emotional state in this moment.

And noticing how that's felt and reflected in the body and in the texture or quality of your breathing.

And now taking a few deeper breaths and imagining the breath is coming up from the earth,

Up through the feet,

Travelling up through the body,

Right up to the crown of the head.

And then the out breath washing back down through the body,

Down into the earth.

The in breath energising the whole body and the out breath like a wave of release and relaxation washing out the tension and holding.

Allowing the weight of the body to drop down into the earth.

And now aware of the lower belly below the navel.

As we relax our breathing will naturally drop down more into the lower belly and we can encourage that by allowing the belly to soften.

It might also help to place a hand on the belly for a few breaths and feel it rising and falling.

Belly softens,

Breath can drop down,

Breath drops down,

Belly can soften further.

And as the belly softens more,

Seeing if there are other parts of the body that are easing up,

Loosening,

Letting go.

Even just a little bit and noticing the effect of softening the belly on how we feel emotionally in the heart.

It might help to imagine that the belly is like a sun that's radiating outwards,

Melting tension throughout the body with each breath.

Seeing if there can be a melting,

A release in the lower back around the tailbone and if you don't feel any release,

Seeing what happens if you just imagine it.

So sensing or imagining a melting and letting go in the lower back,

Down through the buttocks,

The legs,

Ankles and feet.

And can the soft belly bring a release,

A melting in the face,

The jaw,

An opening and releasing in the hands and seeing if there can be any opening,

Softening,

Freeing up in the neck.

And across the whole back and a broadening and softening across the collarbones and across the heart area.

And the shoulders melting,

Releasing down the arms into the elbows and elbows melting down into the wrists,

Wrists into hands and fingers.

Soft belly rising and falling,

Melting and opening the whole body.

Reviews

Thank you so much! I love this meditation. I feel so well. Namaste. 💖