This simple Qigong meditation can be performed sitting or standing. It is a good alternative to watching-your-breath or watching-your-thoughts meditations that people find dull and unnatural. It is effective at reducing stress reactions and supporting your equilibrium during the day.
With eyes closed, find the center of your gut feeling. This is not your stomach, navel or sexual area. It is a location in the abdomen behind and below the navel, somewhat closer to your spine.
In Chinese internal arts this place is called the dantien or Elixir Field and is an energy storage area. (See Standing like a tree.)
Put your mind in this location and try to keep it there through the process. It can be helpful to place your hands over this area, as in this image of Qigong practitioner Victoria Windholtz.
Smile to this center. The feeling you want is like when you have had some warm cocoa or other pleasant drink and it goes down and makes your tummy warm.
Another trick is to imagine smiling at a rainbow or summer day. Get a smiling feeling in there even if you think you have nothing to smile about.
Do not skip this step. Practice until you can elicit this response repeatedly. Remember, it is a) getting the smiling feeling; and b) directing the smiling to the dantien.
It's not necessary to make an exaggerated smile; this is an inner process, but your face will probably smile if you do this right.
Inhale gently and smoothly through the nose and mentally direct the air down to this center while smiling to it. You are not swallowing air, just inhaling normally and following it to the center. (On nasal breathing, see Meditation and your nose.)
Relax and exhale through the nose. It can be very helpful to make the exhalations longer than inhalations, and to constrict the throat slightly on exhale so it makes a sound. Then - get the smiling feeling and repeat.
This is the main part of the meditation, so spend as much time as you can on this part. Five or ten minutes at least. 20-30 minutes better.
It isn't necessary to "note", "notice", "observe", "witness" or "acknowledge" your thoughts. Proper technique is not mental activity. If you find yourself thinking about something – even thinking about meditation – instead of commenting on it or wondering if you noticed it, just feel the smiling energy and the breath in the lower dantien.
This is not a "watching the breath" practice, nor does it require particular attention to the lips or different portions of the nose.
Much like running and push-ups make the muscles strong, Daoists thought it was important to make the energy strong, the breath move freely, and to create a sense of life emerge from the centre of their beings and envelop them in calm and happiness. — Robert James Coons
To close, swish your tongue around in your mouth. Build up some saliva there, then gulp it down all at once. With practice you can even make a gulping sound.
As soon as you gulp, with your mind follow the saliva down to dantien. Do this several times. Of course, the saliva does not go to dantien; it goes to your stomach. But the energy goes to dantien. In our experience this works best if you follow your mind down to dantien immediately after gulping, without pausing to think about it.
With time, the saliva can feel electrical or energized and even sweet tasting as you swallow it deep down.
It is thought that this charged saliva contains a secretion of the brain, a kind of natural pharmaceutical. Slowly open your eyes and observe your state of being.
