Microcosmic Orbit Meditation

This is a Taoist based meditative practice. It is meant to help with circulating energy up and down the body to promote mental clarity and vitality. If you've been feeling mentally blocked, this practice can help you clear your mental space.

Transcript

This meditation will lead you through the microcosmic orbit,

A Taoist practice for circulating energy through your body.

If you aren't already,

Please make sure you're sitting upright with your knees lower than your pelvis.

If you're on a chair,

It's recommended you sit on the front edge of the seat with your feet flat on the floor.

We'll start by remembering what it feels like to genuinely smile.

What does it feel like in your body to radiate joy from the inside out?

Do your best to recall this sensation.

And now,

To the best of your ability,

Direct this smiling feeling inwards towards your body.

This is the inner smile.

The inner smile will help you relax and allow your body to find its best alignment.

The inner smile is a simple and concrete way to send love towards yourself.

Now put your tongue gently on the roof of your mouth so that the tip of your tongue is just behind your front teeth.

Your tongue connects your front channel to your back channel and completes the circuit that we're going to circulate energy through.

Breathe gently and easily in and out of your nose at your own pace.

And bring your attention towards your lower belly.

We're going to focus on an energy center known as the lower dantian.

To find the exact location,

You can imagine a triangle between your navel,

Your genitals,

And your sacrum,

Which is the bone in the back of your pelvis.

The dantian is right in the middle of this triangle.

Do your best to imagine this point.

Put your attention on this part of your body and breathe.

Breathe in and out of your lower dantian gently and easily at your own pace.

You can imagine a ball of energy or a glowing ember in this part of your body so that with each breath you're fanning the flame.

With every inhalation and exhalation it gets a little bit warmer and a little bit brighter.

You may already notice that you can feel some sensation here in your lower belly.

If you do,

That's great.

And if not,

That's totally okay.

Simply keep your attention on this area and imagine a growing flame or growing warm light.

Notice if there's a way you can breathe where you can feel a little bit more in this area.

Maybe that means breathing with less effort,

A little more gently,

A little more easily.

You may find that as you relax more deeply and breathe more easily,

You can actually feel more sensation in your dantian.

And if not,

Just imagine a light,

A flame,

Or an energy growing.

Now we're going to start moving the energy through the microcosmic orbit.

You can direct your energy now,

Move it from your lower belly down towards your genitals.

You can imagine the flame or warm light moving down there.

Or maybe you can even feel the sensation move along with your attention.

As we did before,

Breathe into this area and notice what you feel.

Now we'll continue moving the energy backwards,

Towards your anus.

Make sure this part of your body is relaxed as you move your energy past it.

Keep breathing and either visualize energy moving or feel the sensation move along with your attention.

Allow it to go further back now to your tailbone.

On your next gentle inhalation,

Imagine your tailbone drinking up the energy up into your sacrum,

The bone in the back of your pelvis.

Breathe now into your sacrum.

Visualize or feel the energy move up your lumbar spine into your lower back.

As we move into the back body,

It's possible that certain areas will feel more or less than others.

Many of us have dark spots in our energetic circulatory system,

Maybe tight areas where it's harder to feel.

If you find such a spot,

Just put gentle attention on it and visualize the best you can the energy moving through it.

This will help open it up.

Continue breathing up your back body and drink the energy up into your thoracic spine,

Your middle back,

And your upper back.

Notice where you can feel more and where you can feel less.

Continue drinking the energy up into your cervical spine,

In your neck.

Visualize or feel the energy rise all the way up to the crown of your head.

Take a moment to put your mind's eye now on your entire spine,

From your tailbone all the way up to your crown.

This is an energetic highway.

And just ask,

Is there a way you can allow more energy to flow?

On your next inhalation,

Visualize or feel energy move up from your tailbone to the crown of your head.

Is there a way to adjust your breathing to allow yourself to feel more in your spine?

Is there a way you can adjust your posture to feel more in your spine?

If you'd like,

You can try gently rocking your pelvis forward and back in your seat.

And as you do that,

Notice how the rest of your spine feels.

There are 364 joints in your spine.

Are they as flexible and fluid as they can be?

Are there areas that can use a little more love and attention?

On your next inhalation,

Breathe up the full length of your spine again.

Visualize or feel energy move from your tailbone up to your crown.

And remember your inner smile.

Love this part of your body.

And allow this energy to move as it wants to,

To circulate in your head.

Direct your inner smile to your brain.

Visualize or feel this energy washing everything inside of your head.

Now we're going to send the energy back down.

Make sure your tongue is still touching the roof of your mouth.

And let the energy follow this pathway down into your throat.

You can swallow if you'd like to help the energy move down into your throat.

If on the way up the energy was warming,

We can now imagine it cooling as it enters down into your heart space.

Breathe gently,

Remembering your inner smile.

As we allow this channel to open up on the front of your body.

Let it descend down past your solar plexus and back to the dantian in your lower belly.

And on your own now,

You can visualize the entire circuit,

Allowing the energy to flow on its own through the orbit.

You don't actually have to move this energy yourself.

It will flow on its own,

Enlivening and revitalizing you so long as the channels are open.

You can scan the entire orbit from the lower belly to your genitals,

Backwards towards the tailbone,

Up the sacrum,

Into the lumbar spine,

Thoracic spine,

Into your neck and the crown of your head.

Then back downwards through the tongue and the throat,

Into your heart space,

And back down to your lower belly.

Notice where in the circuit it feels more open.

Notice where in the circuit it feels less open.

If you find any spot that feels less open,

Direct your inner smile to that point.

Visualize your loving attention coming in to open up this point,

To unblock this area in the pathway.

It may take time for a stuck area to open up,

So simply put your gentle attention on this area and let it know that it's safe to open,

To feel,

To experience energy flowing through it.

It may take a lot of practice to really open up the stuck points,

So feel free to listen to this meditation as many times as you need.

Put your mind's eye once again on the entire circuit.

If you can feel energy moving,

Notice how fast it's moving.

And if you're not sure of what you feel,

Just guess.

Many of us are a lot more sensitive than we realize.

We've just become used to filtering out our intuitions.

Do your best to notice any other qualities of the energy circulating through this orbit.

Does it have a texture?

Is there a color that is easier to visualize than others?

Is there a certain temperature it has?

Maybe a different temperature in different parts of the microcosmic orbit.

Simply observe,

Breathe,

And maintain your inner smile.

We're going to close now with the most important part of this meditation,

Grounding.

It's always important to bring the heat back down after any practice.

So pay attention now to the front part of the circuit,

From your tongue down to your lower dantian.

Visualize or feel any excess energy in your head sliding down this front channel.

Again,

You can swallow to help it down into your throat,

Down through your heart space and into your lower belly.

If you'd like,

You can even put your hands on your lower belly,

Just below the navel,

To help guide excess energy to the safe storehouse in your lower dantian.

Breathe into your dantian and visualize or feel the excess energy,

Any excess heat cooling and settling in your lower belly.

Smile into this part of your body and expand your inner smile to your whole body.

Expand your smile to your whole being.

And only if you feel like it,

You can even expand your smile to whatever is in your environment.

Whatever you felt today or think you felt today is perfect.

This is a practice,

And the more you practice,

The more you'll feel.

You can go back and listen to this meditation as many times as you like,

And also see if you can notice your back channel and your front channel throughout your day today.

See if there's a way you can stand or breathe or think that allows the energy to flow even more.