Hara Meditation
Hara meditation is excellent at improving digestion, relaxing the mind and is one of the best ways to deal with stress at the end of the day to help as a cure for insomnia.
- Begin by focusing on the point just below your navel.
- As you Inhale, move your focus up the right side of your umbilicus to the point just above the umbilicus.
- As you Exhale, move your focus down the left side of your umbilicus to the point that you started at, except just a little bit lower.
- You are drawing a clockwise circle around the belly button starting below the belly button. Inhaling as you draw the right side of the circle up, and Exhaling as you draw the left side of the circle down.
- Each time you draw the circle with your focus and your breath, the circle gets bigger, covering a larger area of your abdomen, with your belly button as the center point of that circle.
- Draw this circle 9, 13, or 21 times so that your last circle extends to the very side of the abdomen, up to where the abdomen meets your chest, and all the way down to your pubic bone.
- Now draw the circle in the opposite direction with the circle getting smaller and smaller, starting at the point on the pubic bone where you just finished drawing your last circle.
- Inhale as you move your focus from the lowest point where your lower abdomen meets your pubic bone, up the left side of your abdomen up to the highest point of your abdomen, where it meets your chest.
- Exhale as you move your focus down the right side of the abdomen, back down to the point where your pubic bone meets your lower abdomen, except just slightly higher than where you started.
- Continue drawing these spiraling circles counter-clockwise, inhaling up and exhaling down, 9, 13, or 21 times until the circle is just circling the belly button, ending at the point just below the belly button.
- Now, starting on the point just to the left of the navel, Inhale as you draw a half circle over the navel (outside of your body) to the point just to the right of the navel.
- Exhale as you draw a half circle from this point on the right, under the navel (inside your body) back to the point on the left.
- Keep repeating, drawing the circle over the navel to the right and then back under the navel to the left, the circle getting bigger and bigger each time you draw another circle, so that your circle starts at the very left edge of your abdomen, extends out far from the body to the very right edge of your abdomen, and then enters deep into your abdomen and into your lower back to emerge at the left most edge of your abdomen again.
- This should take 9, 13, or 21 circles to complete (give or take if you're tired).
- Now switch your focus over to the right most edge of your abdomen.
- Inhale as you draw a large half circle over your umbilicus to the left most point of your abdomen (level with the belly button).
- Exhale as you draw the half circle from the left most point deep into your lower abdomen and back, to emerge at the right most point.
- So now you are drawing the circle in the opposite direction as before, and the circles get smaller and smaller until you are again drawing very small circles around the umbilicus, ending at the point just to the right of the umbilicus.
- 9, 13, or 21 times. These are just recommended numbers. It is best to circle as many times as you feel is adequate to thoroughly break through any abdominal obstructions and Nourish your Spleen and Kidney Qi.
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