A meditation towards a more heart centered “to-do”

I was on the airplane back from Austin, then I got this notion that I was to focus on the point “Ren 26”.  I thought about this for a second, trying to remember where this point was that was above the neck points.  After thinking a bit further, I remembered “this isn’t actually a point”.

If you’re laughing at me, please do!  I like to laugh at myself and welcome company.  Was I guided by spirit to a point not mentioned?  Am I just making stuff up as I go along?  Either way, curiosity compelled me into exploration.

For reference, the “Ren channel” is one of three deep meridians associated with the center of the body.  It is considered to be the “sea of yin”.  You can think of Yin as moist, receptive, soothing and nurturing.  It is more in line with the front aspect of the body and pertains to how we related to bonding and nourishment.

It’s counterpoint is the “Du channel”, or “sea of yang”.  Yang is the energy that allows us to take action and bring ourselves to meet the world around us.  This could be our immunity, motility, or taking action in general.  It is associated with the back of the body, very much in line with the spine, sacrum and coccyx.

So when I was called to focus on this point I’m not sure really exists, it seemed an invitation at the least to focus less on all the “to-do” of my life and more on a still method of being.  The location would be somewhere in the center of the brain, but more towards the base of it.  Imagine a line from where the spine meets the skull (Du 16) to around the tip of the nose.  Can you start to get a sense of it?

Here’s a process I came up with for working with this “point” ::: 

1. Close your eyes.  Feel the region of your neck where your spine connects to the skull.  How does it feel?  Take a breath in, imagine vitality bringing softness to this region.
2. Take the awareness of this region in the back, and invite the energy to move inwards, generally to the area between the mouth and the nose.  If you’re having trouble with this, invite yourself to let go of whatever you might need to take action on.  It’s ok, you can get back to it in a couple of minutes.
3. Invite softness to come to the region inside of your brain.  Anytime you feel tension along your neck, invite the energy to come back to the center.
4. Take deep breaths and start to invite softness into the center of your neck.  Focus less on the muscles themselves; try to find the exact center of the neck with each breath.
5. Bring awareness to the center of your chest (Ren 17), at your heart center.  With each breath, invite a connection to the area between the brain, down through the neck and to the heart center region.
6. After a few minutes of this, you can continue the process with deep breathing, and welcome the connection through the center of your body to the lower parts of your abdomen.
7. You can focus on bringing the awareness deeper and lower into your body with each inhale.  You are welcome to keep checking back on the initial focus in the center of your brain as you do this.

For me, this helps me get out of my “to-do” brain associated with stress.  I don’t know about you, but I can get a bit overloaded by all the things needing doing in my life.  This allows me to slow down and connect to my heart.  In this space, I can invite awareness to what calls to me the most, and focus on what would feel most fulfilling.  I find that if I do this, I can at the least go about my tasks from a calmer and gently paced demeanor.

From the Chinese medicine perspective, this meditation would allow you to  act more from your hearts purpose, and bring that purpose to the forefront of meeting the demands of day to day life.

Perhaps this might work for you!