Plumping Our Central Channel
I’ve been noticing what occurs when I keep trying. When I press on with my agenda. When I collapse because it seems like things will never go the way I want them to. When I insist on a path forward instead of abiding while things unfold. Maybe you can relate?
One of the things that happens for me, as body, when I engage these patterns: My central channel dries out and gets brittle. Another way of describing it is that my central channel droops, like the stem of a flower that needs watering. And when the stem gets dry, the energetic tendrils that extend out from my central channel also become brittle, almost crackly.
The central channel is an energetic stem or tunnel inside our body. It goes from our perineum, our root or anatomical base, all the way up and out the top of our head.
My experience of my central channel is that it supports my physical alignment: my ability to feel (and be) upright. My central channel also is a tunnel through which I can move energy.
When I’ve been keepin’ on, pressing on, insisting on, I drain the tank of my central channel and dry out the tendrils that extend out.
Because we’re bodies that are intelligent and responsive, we can restore ourselves when we engage this pattern. We can refill our central channel “tank” with embodiment practices that pump and plump and fluff.
For example, Zapchen Somatics practices of Sighing, Yawning, Sipping Breath, Ahhh. Embodiment practices like belly breathing and moving our attention to include our ankles and feet give us a felt experience of ground for our re-filled well to rest into.
When I do these practices I often experience a soothing effect. An ease from the inside out. A sense of buoyancy that supports being upright in a relaxed way. A confidence in my tissues. My insistence pattern releases, and I’m able to be with the uncertainty and let possibilities arise naturally, even if it’s not for long.
And this respite, no matter how brief, is a freedom that me as body remembers and will return to more easily the next time I collapse, push, insist on trying.
I’m including here a teaching video of Zapchen Sighing practice. I hope you’ll watch or listen. Send me an email or text, and let me know what you experience.
From my heart to yours,
Marla
