I hope you enjoyed the previous blogs on the pelvic floor muscles (PFM). Here is a visualisation which includes the pelvic floor and can help you feel its connections with your whole body. If you’d like to listen to me guiding this visualisation I have put a video of it up on my YouTube channel.
Microcosmic orbit
This is a Daoist practice from ancient Chinese medicine. Its aim is to activate our central channel, which is the Chinese version of the chakras. This central channel is the origin of all our energies, as well as our physical structures.
It is often taught as moving the breath up the back (Governing Vessel) and down the front (Conception Vessel). I find this oversimplifies the movement, which is ultimately more of a spiralling movement which also moves inside our body. In my version we move up both the Governing and Conception Vessel and include a downward internal movement to connect with the Core Four Organs of the Brain, Heart, Kidney and Reproductive organs (“Palaces). We feel the “lines” of CV and GV more like wider bands which can include Penetrating Vessel and even Girdle Vessel if you know these Vessels.
Sit in an upright position so you can experience your perineum in contact with the earth and your brain in contact with the heaven.
With each out breath engage your pelvic floor and abdominal muscles to draw into the centre of your Palaces ( reproductive organs).. Feel as though water is rising inside your Palaces and moving up inside to the watery cauldron between your Kidneys. Feel the water rise to your Heart and then to your Brain. Then feel it like a wave moving back down through your Brain to your Heart down to your Palaces.
Feel this wave slowly rising and falling in your body. Perhaps mirroring the movement of your in and out breath. Feel this water expanding around your Palaces, Kidneys, Heart and Brain becoming a broad midline within your body. Feel your centre line as a living, breathing broad tube, like a living sap-filled tree trunk
Feel the wave moving out from your organs to the outside of your body. Feel it moving out from your perineum, travelling up to your pubic bone and moving up the front of your body to your mouth. On your abdomen focus on it flowing in a band of about one thumb width wide. As it moves up into your chest/breasts feel the band widening to 4 thumb widths wide. Feel it moving up through your throat, and, as it reaches your lower lip, entering your mouth to flow back inside your body rising up to your Brain. Then feel the wave moving down back inside through your Heart, Kidneys back to your Palaces.
This time as it spirals out from your Places allow the tide to turn so it flows through your perineum to your tail bone. It passes up through your spine, moving in a band about 2 fingers wide up through your tail bone, up through the bony lower part of your back (sacrum), through your lower spine into your upper spine and through the centre of the back of your head to the top of your head (GV20 -Crown chakra) flowing down between your eyes, over your nose. As it reaches your upper lip it spirals inside to your Brain, back down through your Heart and Kidneys to your Palaces.
Keep following this movement as long as you want: emerging from your perineum to flow up your front, entering your mouth to flow to up to your Brain, down inside through your Heart, Kidneys and Palaces to re-emerge on your perineum to flow up your back, over your head, entering your mouth to your Brain and spiralling back down again.
Let go of your focus on the flow and simply feel how it wants to move. It may continue with the movement you have been following or shift to something else.
Feel the wave moving through you. Be aware of its light, rhythm, texture.
Be aware once more of your breath. Feel how it moves now.
You might want to lie down and allow yourself to absorb and reflect on what happened. Note which of the connections felt most helpful for you:
