Where is hara point

So move as if your center of gravity is a couple of inches below your belly button. It was better to be the flattener than the flattenee. Further down the road I encountered an Aikido master who taught about keeping one point of consciousness at the hara. Hara is the Japanese word for a point in your body about two finger widths below your navel.

It is a major center of ki chi, life energy. He demonstrated how maintaining "one point" was useful, not only in Aikido, but in daily life. When he put his consciousness at his hara he became immovable.

Several men much larger than he could not lift him, nor could they push him off his base stance. Yet in demonstration he could throw six attacking students in what appeared to be a graceful and nearly effortless dance of martial art. I found that by putting my mind at my hara, I was more balanced, and activities like opening heavy doors, pushing a car, or even just walking and running were easier and more graceful.

In any discipline that is sensitive to the subtle energies of the body, it will be identified as an important seat of power and balance. Using the hara in meditation can help counterbalance our tendencies to be in our head.

Westerners, especially, are trained to focus consciousness in the upper energy centers. We are thinking people or feeling people. Our life energy seems to be centered in our heads or hearts. Some of us identify our egos with our brains and we experience the world through our heads. It is as if our bodies just dangle down from our noggins, never really touching the earth.

Or we go through life centered in our hearts. We feel deeply. We are compassionate loving beings, yet we can be swept away in our emotion, and our hearts are prone to breaking. As children, our attention is drawn away from our lower centers of energy.

We are taught not to touch the "naughty bits. Anything below the navel and above the knees is off limits to any more than a passing awareness. Consequently, some of us become absolutely fascinated with the region and others cut off any relationship with it. If you look at athletes, it is very easy to see hara. The Tan tien pronounced dandien is in the lower abdomen. It is approximately 3. It connects out into the universe. When the hara is aligned you can feel power, purpose, centredness, clarity, integrity and flow.

From yogic and Qi Gong exercises of breathing, to belly dancing, meditation, martial arts, aerobics and more, these practices have recognized the importance of infusing the center of the energy of life, the abdomen and the organs, with the breath of life to regulate the energy and blood of the entire body. In Oriental medicine the role of the Dan Tian was recognized by the ancients who wrote of its importance in the classics.

As noted writer Bob Flaws points out, " In clinical practice it is the vacuity of the three viscera of the Lungs, Spleen and Kidneys which is mostly seen. The navel communicates with the five viscera and the six bowels and joins the channels and vessels of the entire body. By stimulating Shen Que , one can course and free the flow of qi and blood, regulate the internal viscera, and strengthen organic function.

In terms of modern medical theory, stimulating Shen Que can regulate the nervous, hormonal and immune systems thus improving organ function and returning it to normal. The Nanjing views the navel region as the center of heaven, ruled by Earth, and by virtue of Five Element correspondences, its pertaining organs the Spleen and the Stomach. Based on this association, practitioners of classical Chinese medicine have used the navel as a means of treating the Spleen, the Lungs because Spleen is the figurative mother of Lungs, and the Kidney because Earth figuratively controls Water.

Practitioners continue to treat the navel with various modalities for addressing disharmonies of these three major organs which are the three major organs involved with the qi of the body. While the diagnostic significance of the navel has it historical roots in the Nanjing , this part of the anatomy also has useful clinical applicability for illnesses in the modern world.

As we can see the area around the navel is a powerful storehouse of energy that can treat virtually any illness, not just allergic disorders but the root of an illness, including the following:. Japanese Acupuncturist Mubunsai in the s agreed by attesting to the fact that examining and treating the abdomen is sufficient to cure nine out of ten diseases. Yoshimaso Todo, founder of modern day Japanese acupuncture, concurred by affirming that the abdomen is the source of life and therefore the myriad diseases have their root there.

They then discover that the application of moxibustion to this area of the abdomen is permissible for specific conditions, such as loose stools or increasing the will to live. However they rarely see it used clinically, and they may not use it often, if at all, when they become practitioners. Nevertheless, in Oriental medicine there are important uses of the navel as a microsystem with its own diagnostic parameters and treatment strategies that extend well beyond the conditions for treatment in Oriental medicine including the diseases cited above or highlighted in this brief artcle.

There are many ways in which to treat this area with Oriental medical modalities such as needles, moxibustion, and hand palpation. An excellent tonification treatment for patients with Lung, Spleen, and Kidney disharmonies or for patients exhibiting many criteria described above involves treatment of eight points around the navel.

The eight acupuncture points are located at a distance equivalent to the KI 16 radius from the navel.