Living From the Hara

Summer Solstice occurred last Friday. As the sun set on the shortest night of the year, I reflected on what I’ve been experiencing. Gratefully, it is fulfillment and manifestation -- this blog being one example. And not to talk too much about dreams, but in fact the night before the Solstice, I dreamed about being in my backyard tending three separate fires. Fire represents expansion. How fitting to be dreaming of fire also as the sun’s light was the longest of the year.

Manifesting means expanding beyond any fears, limitations or preconceived notions about what we believe is possible. It means utilizing qualities we have built in ourselves, igniting these with the creativity of our minds, and pushing outward with our will and personal power – our Hara.

I recently had my first Zen Shiatsu experience (also on the Solstice). The session begins and ends with assessing the Hara. In martial arts and Japanese healing arts like Zen Shiatsu, the Hara refers to the area of our lower belly and more. (More specifically, the tan tien or tan den is a point in the Hara and on the Haric Line resting below the navel.) All of the meridians of the body flow through here. It is our power center. 

In Healing Touch, we learn that when one is aligned with their Hara Line, they are grounded and strong in the intention of their soul's purpose. From Barbara Ann Brennan's book Light Emerging it states, “When our personal wants and desires are aligned with our spiritual longing or higher desires, our purposes are aligned and the creative principle in the universe can function unhindered” (288).

Yes! This is it, this is what I want -- to live from intentionality.

 "... to align the aspects of thinking, feeling, and willing. When thought, feeling and will to action are in harmony, they hold a synchronistic vibration (or harmonic resonance) that creates the possibility for a powerful and significant shift in health and wholeness” (Healing Touch Level 3 Workbook, 46). When aligned with the Hara, we bring the energy of intentionality into physical manifestation. It is quite possibly our most potent creative power.

At the apex of this year's light, I hope you too are manifesting your desires. Pour your light into your creations and relish their fulfillment. This is your power. 

My First Memory is a Dream

I was 2 or 3 years old. The dream goes, I was in my bedroom, in my crib. I had woken up during the night and was standing up in my crib, looking out of the open window across the bedroom. It was very quiet.  I had a sense of being self-aware.

Then the scene flashed, and I was in my mother's arms, and she was talking to me, soothingly, while looking out the window with me and explaining what was going on. Looking down onto our backyard, there were emergency vehicles - a fire truck, ambulance, police cars - and their lights were flashing silently, the sound of sirens became muted.

This only lasted a few seconds. Then the scene flashed again to me asleep in the crib. I remember hearing a chord, like the ending sound you hear to a movie's closing, as if to end this episode in my dreamtime. 

The thing is, I seemed to be observing these scenes as they happened, while also experiencing them. 

One can interpret the dream and say, I was piecing together elements from my recent experiences in daily life. Maybe I sat in a fire truck recently with my mom or saw some police cars with their lights flashing.

Another interpretation is me using my mind to see things outside of myself - outer circumstances which are drawing my attention. I'm doing this with the help of my highest Self, my highest guidance. And then finally coming back to a state of rest. The interesting thing is, there's an element of being Self-aware by experiencing and feeling the observer perspective.

I view this dream as me becoming aware of my own exploration of the world. Recognizing parts as outside of myself, rather than all-inclusive. It's fitting as my first memory because it’s surreal, quite literally a different world; definitely not a fixed reality, and surely the beginnings of my observer mind.

What are your first memories or dreams? Let’s explore.