Once we’ve done this Releasing practice for some time and we feel this tension start to dissipate and travel down through our body into the earth, naturally over time we’ll notice this point where enough has happened. We’ll be ready to move into the second phase of Rest and we start the second phase of Rest still in the standing position. Over the years of practicing in different ways, I’ve come across a very simple Tai Chi practice which really helps to ground and center yourself in the body before you sit down to practice. So, we’re starting this second phase of Rest still in the standing position. So, after we’ve done the Releasing, we again return to the same standing position. Noticing our feet maybe about hip width distance apart. Our knees are bent so we’re feeling gravity and the connection with the earth. Our spine is straight. You can imagine that cord pulling up the back of your head a little bit. Your chin is slightly dropped. Your tailbone is slightly tucked under. And you are just feeling your body in this space. And then you’re bringing your hands to the lower belly. Again, lots of reasons why we bring the hands to the lower belly, but the main one is: where our attention goes, that’s where our mind goes. As we bring our hands to our belly, it brings more attention to our belly and allows our mind to more naturally rest there. You can place your hands ultimately either way, whatever works for you, but often I suggest your left hand under your right. The left side of your body and the left hand being the feminine side of your body. So, by putting the left hand directly on the center of the belly and the right hand over it, we’re connecting first with the sense of Femininity and the sense of Rest and in doing so, hopefully we’re encouraging the body to come into a state of ease and wellbeing.
So, in a similar way that we’ve been working with these points in the feet, you may notice in the very center of your hands that there’s a particular place in there that feels like the core energy point of your hands. And we’ll be working with these places in this practice and in other areas in this work also. But, just to begin with, as we’re working with this place in this practice, you can start by having your left hand – the very center of it – on what feels to you like the center of the lower belly. And then placing the center of your right hand directly over the center of the left hand. This is a way in which we can connect these two energetic points in our hands and the center of our belly in the best way possible.
Now, when you do this practice, you can have your eyes closed the same as when you were doing with the Releasing practice so that it helps you to go inward. And, even more so than the Releasing practice, it’s important here that you at least start with having your eyes closed. It’ll help you come into this space in the lower belly in a natural way and you can just take some time in this space to really connect with the felt sense of the belly. Noticing from the moment we start this Resting phase of the Nurturer, that really, the most important thing – far more important than any specific instruction here – is to allow ourselves to come into a space of Rest. And if these instructions are working for you, they’re actually helping you to come into a deeper space of Rest. So, we’re creating some structure here, a container, so that we can actually rest more deeply. So, maybe some of these practices and instructions take you a bit of time to make your own. But, as you progress, always remembering that we’re doing these things so that we can let go into a space of wellbeing and ease.
So, then with your hands on the belly, you can start by sweeping the left hand out to the side of the body in an arcing motion upwards and you can see this in the video on the website the exact movement of this. When your hand moves in this arcing motion, it comes beyond the top of your head a little bit, and then comes over to the center of the body still in an arcing motion and then moves right down the center line of the body. Perhaps 3 to 5 inches away from the body. Then it returns to the place on the lower belly where the right hand is still rested. And then we take the right hand and make the same arcing motion out to the side, sweeping upwards, and then coming down the centerline of the body and returning to the place in the lower belly. Then we go back and forth between these two hands for some time.
So, this is the very basic form of the practice and just to begin with, even if you just do this motion, without trying to incorporate any of the other instructions I mentioned today, that’s perfectly fine. And you probably will notice, even just doing that very simple part of it that you start to become more rested. You naturally start to become more centered. And that’s why I call this part of the practice the Centering Exercise. Or, sometimes I’ll refer to it as the Energetic Centering Exercise. So really, we’re centering ourselves as we do this.
I also want to include here some of the more subtle instructions for this practice which hopefully you can start to incorporate over time and maybe notice. And the first one is: As you sweep each hand out to the side, you can visualize the energy of the Earth on that particular side of your body -- so just that side of your body -- almost as if you were to draw a line down the center of your body and whatever side you’re on, you’re working with the energy on that side of your body alone. And so, as you sweep up your hand, you can visualize through the sole of your foot on that side, you’re drawing up the energy of the Earth through that sole of your foot and up through that side of your body. And as your hand moves up in that arcing motion, you can feel the energy. Or, if you can’t feel it, visualize it moving up in sync with your hand all through that side of your body coming up to the top of your head. And then as your hand moves into the centerline, it starts to move down this energy now through the top of your head all the way through the center of your body and comes to rest in the lower belly. And then we do that the same thing on the other side.
And so, what are we doing here essentially? At a more subtle level, we’re making ourselves available to the energy of the Earth. We draw it through our bodies and we draw down through the centerline of our body from the head and gather it in the center of the belly. In Daoism, this center of the lower belly is often referred to as the Lower Dantian and you can really discover for yourself that this place in the lower belly is actually like a reservoir. It’s a place that we can store energy in the body. And the more we start to bring energy into this place in the lower belly, it becomes easier and easier for our mind to rest in that space. It’s like the more it becomes filled with energy or filled with light, the more the awareness of that part of our body becomes easier to access. And it creates a natural resting space for the mind to rest in.
So, as you do this practice over time, you can start to notice that. Often, I’ll say in the guided practices to either notice or visualize this sense of light gathering in the lower belly. When you do this over time, it may become clear to you that deeper than the physical body, we’re actually bringing energy into this subtle body underneath it. And, we’re filling this body with more and more energy and as I said this creates a natural resting space for all of us to just naturally settle in that space.
It can also really help to synchronize the breath with the hand movements. As we’re moving our hand upwards, as we’re drawing it up in that arc, we can slowly inhale from the center of the belly. And then as our hand comes to the top of the head and starts to move downwards, we can slowly exhale. Usually it’s best with this practice to do the inhale and the exhale through the nostrils as this way of breathing can have a very calming and restful effect on the body. And once we’ve completed these movements on both sides for some time, it’s useful that we finish on the opposite side that we started so that the movement is balanced and integrated in the best way possible. And then, again, we bring our hands back to the lower belly. Left hand under the right. The centers of the palms aligned again. And they’re over, again, where it feels like to you the center of this space in the lower belly. And this can change over time as you practice and feel into where feels like the center for you.
Often the instruction is given that it’s 3 or 4 finger widths below the belly button. That can be a useful indicator or starting point where it feels like to you to be the center there. And then starting to feel the sensations in both of your hands. You’ll probably notice that after moving a lot of energy through your hands as we’ve been gathering this energy from the earth and washing it through our bodies, you may notice more of a tingling sensation in your hands. Or if your awareness is already more subtle, you may be aware of the energy in your hands, particularly in those points in the center of the hands as I’ve already mentioned. And let this energy build, just feel it for a few seconds as you have your hands in front of the lower belly here. And then start to feel that energy and start to breathe it through your hands into the center of the belly. So, we’re gathering all of this energy that we’ve cultivated in our hands and so we’re bringing it into the reservoir again of the center of the lower belly. Again, with the intention to bring us into an even deeper state of rest.
Then we can do this for a few minutes. Again, we can slow down the breath. Even slower now for this practice. Breathing in very, very slowly through the nostrils. And then breathing very, very slowly on the exhale again through the nostrils. Taking some time to slow right down so we can feel that energy and breathing it into the center that we can rest there. And after you do this after one or two times, you can also include the sense of breathing all of yourself into the center of the belly as you breathe that energy in there. So, perhaps you notice a part of you that’s witnessing from your head. And just taking this opportunity as you’re breathing to allow that place to come to rest as well in the center of the belly. Breathing it in there very gently. And then when you finish that for a few minutes, just let your hands stay rested on the belly and allow yourself to unhook from everything. No particular practice or way of being, just letting yourself rest in that felt sense of the belly and enjoying that deep state of rest that can come from that. And so, this is the first phase of the Resting practice that I suggest you do after releasing when you stand up and doing both of these together before you begin any form of sitting meditation.