72,000

I am absolutely floored! This morning, I did a fantastic kundalini yoga video on awakening to the ten bodies.

I hadn't done kundalini yoga in a while; but this morning was grey and cloudy with rain; and it just felt like my body (and mind) could use it. The instructor, Shivie Cook, is fantastic! She's got a Brittish accent and is beautiful. And, she explains things really clearly. The 40 minutes flew by.

She started off the video by explaining that our ten bodies encompass not only our physical body, but our mind, spirit, our relations to others, etc. And, this morning's practice was about awakening these bodies by bringing breath and movement to them.

The practice was gentle, yet challenging. I definitely worked my breathing, and felt energized afterwards. What was cool, was that Gidget, who was laying several feet away, as soon as she heard me doing fire belly breathing, trotted on over and laid down beside me for the whole routine. She was calm (which she's usually not when I'm trying to do something active, she's usually in my face). So, I think that it had an effect on her too :)

And, while I felt good, there's something that Shivie said that rung so loudly in my head and has stayed with me all morning....and that is that we have 72,000 nerve endings in our bellies!!!! WHAT?! That's FANfreakingTASTIC! It totally blows me away to think about that. I know that our belly chakra (3rd chakra) is our power house, the root of ourselves. But, to think about having all of those nerve endings in there. I can barely wrap my arms around it! So, this morning, I've been looking into different articles about that. Fire belly breathing is where you force the exhales out from your belly with an audible exhale (think pilates breathing for the hundred - or check out the video I linked above and see for yourself). Anyway, by doing this type of breathing, you're firing up your system, detoxing, breathing, allowing air to flow in and flow out from all of those nerve endings and really firing up from your belly, so that all of those nerve endings that radiate out from your belly into the rest of your body just shine on through - radiating prana and life force throughout your body and aura.

I'm squeamish about my belly. I detest having my belly button touched. I don't even like poking around in there. It's truly one of the most sensitive areas of my body. And, maybe, by sending breath there it won't be so sensitive. I don't know. But, I really do want to strengthen that chakra from an energetic sense. Strengthen my personal power.

As I mentioned, I hadn't done kundalini yoga in a few months; but, as I'm looking to change up my training routine, I will be adding kundalini practice in once a week.

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