Flowing into life,
A Yushi Reiki navel meditation for you and your animal companion.
Find your position,
Sitting or laying,
Wherever allows your head to rest comfortably on your lower belly.
Take a slow breath in,
And then just let it go.
Feel the ground beneath you,
The floor,
The earth below the building,
The deep steady presence of something that has been holding you your entire life,
Without once asking you to be different.
You belonged here,
And you have always belonged here.
We begin,
As the Yushi tradition invites us,
With a Kenjo-ho,
A cleansing,
A clearing of the day,
The week,
The weight.
So,
Bring your palms together at your heart in Gassho,
And set it,
This intention,
Silently.
I'm making space.
I am ready to flow again.
And now,
Put your right hand to your left shoulder,
And swipe diagonally down across your chest,
And release it at your right hip,
And exhale as you go.
Then,
Your left hand to your right shoulder,
And sweep it down,
And release it at your hip,
And exhale.
Right hand again to the left shoulder,
Sweep it all the way down,
And release.
And your left hand to your right shoulder,
And sweep it all the way down,
And release.
Now extend your left arm,
And sweep your right hand over the shoulder to the fingertips,
And let go of anything that's clinging there.
Right arm,
Sweep your left hand over the shoulder,
All the way to the fingertips,
And release.
Beautiful.
Bring your hands back into Gassho.
Take one breath of thanks.
You are clear.
You are ready.
And before we move to the belly,
Let the Korkai settle into the body.
You choose five precepts,
Not as rules,
But as water poured over the self.
Just for today,
I will not be angry.
I will not worry.
Just for today,
I will be grateful.
Just for today,
I will do my work honestly.
Just for today,
I will be kind to every little thing.
And just notice where those words land in your body.
Most people feel it in the third one here,
In the belly.
Gratitude lives in the gut before it finds words.
And now,
Slowly and gently,
Bring both hands to rest at your lobe or abdomen,
Just below the navel.
And let them be heavy,
Warm,
And still.
Or hoover them,
If that feels more right for you today.
Trust that impulse.
Feel the gentle rise and fall of your breath beneath your palms,
Your belly expanding on the inhale and softening on the exhale.
You are breathing,
And that alone is something.
Beneath your hand lives the sacral chakra.
Its Sanskrit name means dwelling place of the self.
Not the self you perform.
Not the self that has been approved.
The original self.
The one that arrived here already knowing how to feel,
How to create,
How to be moved by beauty.
And in the Yoshi tradition,
Just three fingers below your navel sits the Tanden,
The Hara,
The center of gravity,
The place where ki is cultivated,
Where all energy returns.
The earth and the universe feeds us,
Both biologically and spiritually,
Through the Hara and throughout our lives.
We are in relationship to all of life from this location.
A constant loop of resonance and re-processity.
Your navel was your first point of connection to life,
To nourishment,
To be held.
Your hands are resting there now,
And Reiki is flowing.
And visualize a warm orange light gathering beneath your palms,
Soft at first,
Like the first glow of the sunrise on the horizon.
Just the beginning of something.
With every breath in,
The light grows a little warmer,
A little brighter.
And with every out-breath,
It expands,
Spreading through the lower belly,
The hips,
The lower back.
So with an in-breath,
The orange warmth is rising.
And with an out-breath,
It's spreading,
Widening,
Flowing.
Let it move like water.
Because this chakra is water.
And water does not force its way anywhere.
It finds every crack.
It moves around every obstacle.
And it always,
Eventually,
Finds a way through.
Gently,
Without judgment,
Let your awareness rise on something this belly has been holding.
Maybe it is a creative impulse that was dismissed so many times that it stopped trying.
Maybe it's an emotion with no name.
Just a vague,
Persistent sense of being cut off from your own aliveness.
Maybe it's a shame or guilt or the particular grief of life that has not yet allowed to be fully free yourself.
Whatever it is,
It's welcome here.
With your hands warm,
Reiki is present.
You don't need to understand it,
Explain it or fix it.
Just let the orange light touch it.
Just let the warmth be enough.
Breathing in and feel your belly soften beneath your palms.
And breathing out,
Let the water carry what it finds.
When you feel ready,
Speak these affirmations.
Silently or simply let them wash through you.
I am the dwelling place of my own self.
My emotions are allowed to move.
I was born to create.
I am worthy of pleasure,
Of joy,
Of a life that feels alive.
I flow.
You keep your hands on your belly,
But bring your awareness to your animal companion,
Into their.
Your dog,
Your cat,
Your horse.
The one who plays when they are happy with their body.
Their tail,
Ears,
Paws,
All saying yes at once.
And the one who has never once pretended to feel something they do not feel.
Your animal chakra lives in their lower belly and hips too.
The same orange center.
The same element of water.
The same government of emotions,
Play,
Creativity.
And pure joy of being alive.
And the extraordinary thing,
The thing that makes this practice so much more than self-care,
Is this.
What you hold in your belly,
They feel in theirs.
And what you release,
Ripple towards them.
The orange light that is warming and expanding in your own center right now.
Let that flow out toward.
And just imagining it moving like water across the floor,
Across the room,
Reaching your animal wherever they are.
Settling a gentle,
A rounder belly.
Warm and unhurried and steady.
Your healing is their healing.
Your flow unlocks their flow.
Your aliveness reminds them of their own.
If your animal is with you right now,
Bring one hand to rest gently on their belly or side.
While keeping one hand on yours.
The two orange center quietly glowing.
Two living beings breathing together.
Remembering what it feels like to be fully,
Freely alive.
And then slowly start breathing more deeply.
Feel your hands,
The warmth still held in your palms.
Yours or your animal's or both.
Then bring your hands to the gaso at your heart.
And offer a quiet thank you to Reiki.
To Yushi and to the long lineage of practitioners who carry this tradition forward.
To your belly,
Which has held so much and is still right now willing to let it flow.
To your animal companion.
Who has never needed permission to feel what they feel.
Who has always moved with the current of life rather than against it.
They are your teacher in this.
Take one full breath in.
And then let it all the way out.
When you're ready,
Wiggle fingers,
Toes.
Let your eyes open slowly.
And if you feel fluid or spacious,
Press your palms to the floor for a moment.
Feel the solid beneath you.
You have tended to the dwelling of yourself and that is sacred work.
So just for today,
Be kind to every living thing.
Being here,
In this belly,
At this original point of belonging.
Welcome back.
And welcome home.
Reiki is a complementary practice and it's not a substitute for medical or veterinary care.
