Hello,
Welcome,
My name is Lou Redmond,
And today I want to share a personal practice that I do often at the beginning of a longer silent sit.
And I learned this practice from Reginald Ray,
Who does a lot of work around somatic meditation.
And this practice,
He would call the 12-fold lower belly breathing.
And this is a practice to help us connect with an energy center that is called the lower dantian.
The lower dantian in Chinese medicine is connected to our primordial nature,
The essence of energy of who we were before our personalities took over.
This is our center of qi and energy flow,
And it is described like the root of the tree of life.
So it is located two inches below our belly button.
This is where we're going to be visualizing breathing in,
And at the center of our belly is this egg-shaped energetic womb that has this primordial energy in it.
And so this is a practice to help us awaken that energy and let it flow into our body.
And so go ahead and close down your eyes and start to find a comfortable posture,
Finding the shoulders relaxed,
Relaxing the lower belly as we're going to bring awareness here.
And right away,
Start to bring the awareness down into the lower belly,
Two inches below the navel,
And just noticing if you can connect with the felt sense of this area of your body.
Maybe it feels cool,
Heavy,
Maybe it's tough to connect with the felt sensation.
And so the practice is going to be visualizing as if there was nostrils two inches below our lower belly.
And as you breathe in,
Imagine that you're breathing into the lower belly and breathing out,
Letting all the air release,
Almost pushing it out,
Expending it out.
Again,
Breathing into the lower belly,
Imagining that it's moving right into its center,
And breathing and exhaling a bit more forcefully than you normally would to let it all out.
Again,
Breathing it in,
Energizing your energetic womb,
Breathing it out.
And so that is the practice.
So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to invite some space for you to practice on your own.
And as you do,
Invitation to tuck the chin a bit,
And you feel the energy start to move up the spine.
And for the next 12 rounds of breath on your own,
Breathing in to the low belly,
And then fully letting the breath go,
Connecting with your primordial essence,
And this refuge of energy that you are awakening and connecting with,
With each lower belly breath.
Staying with the breath,
Noticing the energy moving in your body.
Again,
Maybe you tuck the chin with your next breath into the low belly,
And the full exhale,
Releasing it out.
And even if you've done 12,
Staying here for another minute or so,
Continuing to breathe the cool air into your lower dantian,
Sending that life force throughout your body,
And then letting go of any intentional breaths,
And just being with your body in this moment,
Allowing the effects of the practice to just settle.
You might be noticing strong energy moving,
And you might not notice much different.
It might have been difficult for you,
And just welcome both.
Welcome whatever the experience was like for you,
And let yourself being here with your body for a few more moments be enough.
And then closing this practice in any way that feels right,
Maybe you put a hand over your heart or your belly,
Feeling what it's like with a hand there,
Giving it some love for the work that it's done.
And whenever you're ready,
You can open your eyes,
Come back into your room into this day.
And it was my pleasure to guide you through that little practice.
Let me know how it connected,
Landed for you.
I love hearing from you,
Sending you lots of love,
And as always,
Namaste.
