Breathing into the heart opened a whole new universe for me. But after a few months I began to wonder what would happen if I were to focus my attention in the abdomen. So I began to breathe softly and deeply while focusing my attention in the middle of my intestines. I didn’t notice too much in the beginning, except that my gut felt a little tense and congested. But the sensations became much stronger as I continued to work with this practice.

One of the first things I noticed is that my digestion began to improve. I started to feel all this rumbling, churning and other digestive activities. The congestion in my abdomen began to dissipate. And I could feel that my body was breaking down and eliminating toxins that had accumulated within the intestines. This part of my body began to feel healthier and I could tell that it was becoming more vital and alive.

I began to experience a wide array of other sensations such as pulsing, tingling and warmth. In some instances I felt burning sensations. The sensations would gradually change as I continued to do the practice. I just continued to follow the sensations as they went through their progression.

For much of our lives we have pushed unpleasant feelings out of our conscious awareness. But what happens is all those unpleasant thoughts, feelings and realities get buried inside of us where they putrefy. Naturally it’s going to feel uncomfortable when we reconnect with these parts of ourselves.

Sometimes I feel very raw or emotionally vulnerable after doing this practice for a few days or weeks. In some instances it brings up some very unsettling feelings of anxiety. And that can feel really uncomfortable at times.

I’ll back off for a while if the feelings become too intense. But I usually welcome the process and go as far as I can with it, because it allows me to access parts of myself that were previously inaccessible. This practice takes me right to the source of the issues I’ve struggled with, so that the holding patterns that I had been stuck in begin to dissolve. I feel the parts of me that were damaged, stuck and entangled coming to the forefront of my awareness and untangling. That frees up parts of me so that I can grow in new ways. I’ve become more flexible and that’s made it easier for me to adapt to circumstances and let go when I need to. This practice stimulates my mind so that I come up with new creative solutions. And it also fuels my passions, which keeps me moving forward in life.

Feelings do intensify initially, but the confusion surrounding the issues in my life clears up as I continue to breathe into the feelings. The emotions lose their charge and the issues gradually become lighter. It often feels as a veil has lifted when that happens. That gives me the clarity to really see myself, recognize my own dysfunction and understand the patterns that have played out in my life. I find myself processing difficult emotions with greater ease and it helps me to understand the driving forces behind my feelings and actions.

There are other times when I’m in the midst of a very stressful situation and I just need to calm down and find some kind of stability. I’m able to diffuse the anxious, overwhelmed or other stressful feelings by being permeable. I become permeable by softening, letting go of resistance and allowing the distressing feelings to flow through me as I breathe. That enables me to calm down and to find the strength and mental clarity to deal with what’s happening.

Many people struggle to find a sense of purpose and direction in their lives. They may find something here or there that interests them, but there is no real passion or drive coming from within to motivate them. And after some time they become distracted or just lose interest. These individuals often wonder what they should do with their lives. And they often look to others to tell them what to do.

Breathing into the intestines awakens an instinctual knowing. I experience this gut feeling as a physical, emotional and energetic force. It’s a deeply felt desire that lets me know when something is right for me. This passionate drive gives me a feeling of "…I have to do this". It’s this passionate drive that strengthens my sense of purpose and gives me the momentum to keep moving forward.

Sometimes I experience writer’s block and I can’t seem to find the words to articulate what I want to communicate. Working with this process stimulates my creativity so the ideas begin to flow and it becomes much easier to find the words to express myself. I sometimes work with this practice for an hour to ninety minutes before I go to bed. Whole paragraphs seemingly jump out of me during the practice or later in the night as I lay down to sleep, so that I often have to get up and turn the lights on and start writing to capture the inspiration before it evaporates.

Spiritual people place so much emphasis on the heart in their process of development. We may expand our capacity to love by opening the heart. But opening the awareness within the abdomen causes us to become more present. It helps us to develop greater empathy, so that we better understand the needs and considerations of others. And it increases our capacity for intimacy.

Many martial arts traditions emphasize the importance of the lower abdomen as the seat of our power. And that’s because the abdominal region is the foundation of our consciousness. What happens within this part of our body affects all of our organs and systems.

The intestines are somehow connected to other parts of our body. Breathing into the intestines will often cause the tension in the neck and upper back to release. It can also relieve tension in the jaw associated with TMJ. Many other health concerns respond and show considerable improvement as people work with this practice.

The thoughts, feelings, emotions and life experiences that we fail to digest freeze up inside of our body and mind. Our brain is constantly recording and it contains visual, auditory and other sensory impressions of everything we experience in our lives. It holds impressions of the television and movies we watch, and the music we listen to. So many of the thoughts and feelings that we experience in relation to what happens in our lives are also stored in the brain. The continual over stimulation we subject ourselves to compounds the problem by putting us into sensory overload. The brain then becomes cluttered because it can not process such overwhelming volume of stimulus.

Focusing within the intestines stimulates the brain. People often experience vivid imagery and dreamlike scenarios as they work with this practice. Dreams will often intensify and sometimes they will have a garbled quality about them. And it can sometimes feel as if all this mental clutter is dumping out of the brain.

The abdominal region is a doorway into the subconscious mind. Working with this practice will help you to build a bridge between your conscious and subconscious minds. Naturally your intuition will grow stronger. And you will develop a much deeper level of awareness into your own being and the world in which you live.

The way to begin this practice is to focus your attention in the area behind your navel down in the middle of your intestines. Allow yourself to notice any physical, energetic sensations or emotions. And notice the texture and tone of the intestines. Do the intestines feel dry or moist? Are they warm or cool? Do they feel heavy, congested, deadened or inert? Or do they feel vital, alive, active and responsive? Now breathe into any feelings or sensations you experience and just allow yourself to notice what happens. The feelings and sensations will change as you breathe into them. Just continue to breathe into the feelings as they go through their progression.

The objective here is not to focus on the breath, but on the sensations within the abdomen. Breathe very deep as you focus your attention on the sensations within the abdomen. Breathe in a very relaxed and easy manner. Continue to soften your breathing allowing your breath to become very subtle.

Do your best to keep your attention focused on the sensations within the abdomen. Your mind will drift at times and that’s normal. Notice when that happens and then refocus your attention on the sensations you feel in your abdomen. After some time you may find yourself going into an altered state. You may then notice a lot of imagery or dreamlike scenarios playing out in your mind.

People who have done this practice describe so many different kinds of feelings and sensations within the abdomen. However, many people do not feel much of anything in the beginning. Many will initially experience very subtle sensations such as a dullness, heaviness or slight sense of warmth. That’s to be expected considering that most of us are not that conscious of our body.

Many people mistakenly assume that nothing is happening when they don’t experience some kind of dramatic feeling or sensation. Breathing into the feeling of heaviness or other vague sensations is still very effective, as it will enable you to awaken the consciousness within this part of your body. With continued practice, your body-mind awareness will increase and the sensations will become much more vivid.

So many people in our society have learned to shut down their emotions, disconnect from their bodies and are living in their heads. And those with dissociative disorders tend to be very floaty or spaced out. Breathing into the intestines has a very grounding effect as it causes people to become more rooted in their bodies.

Like so many people, I was very cut off from my own feelings and just lived in my head.

And there were many times in the past when I tended to take everything I saw or heard at face value. It created a lot of hurt and misunderstanding for me, when people were so incongruent, saying one thing and doing another. Working with this practice helps me to further develop my sensory awareness and become more present in my body. It’s enabled me to develop the capability to sense people’s intentions and understand where they’re coming from. That’s helped me to not take things so personally.

I’ve been working with a woman who was diagnosed with cancer for some time now. She got into some trouble about a year before this writing and we were afraid we would lose her. Fluid began to collect in her abdomen causing it to become very distended. And it appeared as if she were a few months pregnant. She had to wear maternity pants as a result of the distention. Her system was very weak and it felt as if she were barely present in her body.

I had her breathe into the distention during the preliminary part of our sessions. And then we spent a lot of time working on the abdomen while she was on the table. Her abdomen flattened out after two sessions. I can only travel to her part of the country about two to four times a year and the swelling will return after some months. But her tummy will then flatten out as we work together again.

She still has some tendency to space out and become very forgetful and disoriented. I will sit her down and have her refocus her attention within the abdomen. After about fifteen minutes she starts to become much more focused, grounded and her strength returns.

I’ve experimented with this practice for sometime now. And I’m continually learning more as I receive feedback from clients and observe the changes taking place in their body, aura and their lives.

Many people do not really understand how to care for themselves. Much of the stressful emotion that they fail to digest is stored in the abdomen. And they sometimes absorb the emotions and energies of other people. All these undigested emotions and energies turn into a heavy congestive residue that fills the aura and saturates the body.

The deadening substances that so many people mistake for food have little nutritional value and are often toxic. Much of this toxin is stored in the gut where it becomes interspersed with all the internalized stress. The combination of physical, energetic and emotional toxin has a deadening effect upon our awareness. It dulls our senses and causes us to become heavy, sluggish and complacent. In some instances it extinguishes the inner flame and our spirit dies within. These toxins drastically reduce the life force to the abdomen. After some time the aura, the navel charka and then the physical body begin to break down.

Stressful emotion stored in the gut often causes people to feel feels as if they have knots in their stomach. The stress and toxin that’s backs up in people’s intestines also causes bloating. Stress can cause considerable damage to the intestines over time, and that’s one of the primary reasons that so many people suffer from various digestive disorders.

Breathing softly and deeply while focusing the attention on the sensations within the abdomen awakens a healing intelligence within the body-mind. It will enable you to process the accumulation of stressful thought and emotion and cleanse the body of toxicity. Constipation and various digestive disorders such as colitis usually show considerable improvement as people work with this practice. The knots will soften and unravel and the bloating will subside.

Some people will initially experience the abdomen as a dark and scary abyss full of horrible things. They may experience very strong unpleasant emotions and imagery associated with this part of their body. They may also feel as if the abdomen is not really a part of their body and that the energies, emotions and imagery contained therein are somehow foreign. This is what often happens when people disconnect from their feelings, experiences and parts of themselves.

Breathing into the dark, congested and toxic places brings consciousness into these parts of our body and mind. That will allow you to heal and reintegrate these parts of your self. The dark and menacing quality will gradually diminish. You will experience a sense of warmth, comfort and wholeness. And you will find a place of refuge within that will become a source of strength for you.

In some instances surgery may be necessary, but it can also be an invasive trauma to the body. Surgery often damages the meridians, which are the pathways that allow the subtle life force to flow through our body. The resulting damage to the meridians causes the life force to pool up and stagnate in parts of our body. In many instances the charkas are also be damaged. The navel charka is often damaged in women who have undergone a cesarean section or hysterectomy. The mechanisms within the subtle bodies that sustain these parts of our body with life force can no longer function. That leads to further health problems, the body then breaks down and ages faster. The resulting physical trauma from surgery can also have a deadening effect as it shuts down parts of our consciousness.

I teach this practice to my clients during the preliminary stages of the healing session. I find that so many people do not have much of a foundation. The life force is often stagnant. The gut is backed up with years of unprocessed emotion and physical toxin, and the abdomen is distended. The navel charka is often damaged. In many instances it had never really developed. This leaves people shut down and disconnected from their source. Parts of the individual never mature or become fully functional.

The beings who work through me in the healing sessions cleanse the body of toxicity. Reconstruction takes place within the physical body. And the backlog of unprocessed thought and emotion is predigested so it can be assimilated. The charkas and layers of the aura are reconstructed. The body and mind become more integrated. And the connection to your source grows stronger, allowing the force of creation to flow through you. Intuition grows stronger and you become clearer about your purpose. Life becomes fuller and has greater meaning. Parts of you that were shut down will emerge and flourish so that new resources become available to you. And you become more capable so that you go further and do so much more.