The Three Centers

This guided practice is one of my favorites. There are lots of variations on it, and I switch it up as I intuit what’s called for at the time.

The Three Centers Practice has several components to pay attention to. If the overlap of elements make it hard for you to follow along, I’ll give options you can adapt. You can play with any element I refer to that feels available and resonates. Some people love doing all of them at once.

Meditations with sound, visual, and felt means of awareness are helpful for when our minds are active. They require more attention from us at first, which leaves less room for distractions of the mind.

The sound part of the meditation is an ancient Sanskrit mantra. To keep it simple, it is the sound of the breath and translates as I am. Give a nod to those meanings now, but while you’re doing the practice, let go of ideas and let it be a felt resonance. 

I let these guided meditations go quite at the end so you can continue if you like. Exit the practice very gradually when you’re through. Do not hop up and go.

Let’s settle in. We’ll settle into our body for a couple minutes before starting the practice. 

If you can, this meditation lends itself to an upright posture. So if that’s available to you, you could try pressing the back of your hands into your upper thighs to get upright. 

Lengthen your breath a little, and breathe into your lower lungs. Get into a rhythm of a smooth, even, quiet breath. 

One way to relax the breath is to soften the transition between inhale and exhale on both ends. Instead of stopping one and doing the other, you let the inhale round into the exhale and let the exhale round into the inhale. Make it seamless. 

Gradually let go of paying attention to the breath and allow your breath to flow naturally.  As your breath relaxes, feel your whole body relax. 

If any of the following instructions are too much concentration or visualization for you, just relax into a felt sense of awareness in the part of the body I’m referring to. 

The first center we’ll light up with awareness is our pelvic area. At the center is a small red point of light, situated about 4 finger widths below the navel in the center of your body. I like to hear the prompt of the location and then trust that I can intuitively find that place if I relax in that general area. Center your awareness and breath there. 

From that center you can imagine the red point glowing with red light that radiates throughout the pelvic area. Let the area below the navel fill with red light emanating from the red point at the center. Feel yourself grounded and connected to the Earth and the ground of your being. Allow the breath to permeate this center as it radiates with red light. 

On an exhale your awareness and breath will rise up to the next center, a point of blue light at the base of the heart. The base of your heart is the center of your body. Some describe it as being behind that soft spot of your lower sternum, back in the middle of your body.  I find that if I intuit the center of my body, from head to toe, it sort of lands there. 

Imagine the blue light radiating, filling your chest and upper belly with a soft glowing blue light. As your breathe into this center, feel it centering you and filling you with a sense of well-being.

On an exhale follow your awareness to the next center in the middle of your head, just above the soft palette. If you touch your tongue up to the back of the roof of your mouth, it’s just above that. 

Imagine a point of white light there. Imagine the white light radiating a soft white light, filling your head and throat, and beyond if you like. As breathe into the glow of the white, bask in a sense of clear, spacious openness. 

On an exhale allow your awareness to rise about 12 finger widths above the head. Allow this space to be empty and quiet, nothing to concentrate on. We could call it the void, but lets not use words, just breath in and out with a freedom from the noise of thought. A vast, quiet, velvety emptiness. 

On an exhale you’re going to allow the breath to flow like a wave all the way down the body. Find the red bindu again or just a red glow or felt sense in the pelvic area and seat. Breathe and relax there, and you can add the mantra Ham on the inhale and Sa on the exhale. (Hum Saw) Ham Sa. 

On an exhale breathe up to the blue light center at the base of the heart. You can breathe into the radiating blue glow, or just the felt sense of that center. Continue with the mantra Ham Sa if you like. 

On an exhale breathe up to the white light center in the head. Feel the radiant white glow or the felt sense as you repeat the mantra Ham Sa. 

On an exhale breathe up to the empty space above the head. Breathe into the quiet stillness, but you can keep the mantra Ham Sa going if you like. 

On an exhale relax the breath into a wave all the way down to the seat. From here you can go at your own pace and practice with any or all of the elements we’ve learned. I’ll go through the accelerated version a couple times to get you in the rhythm of it, but if you find you’d like to go slower and stay in each center longer, you can go back to that. You can intuit which center you’d like to land on a little longer if that is available for you to sense. 

You’ll inhale into the pelvic center and red light, and on the exhale following the breath up to the blue light at the base of the heart. Inhale at the base of the heart, exhale up to the white bindu at the head center. Inhale into the head, exhale up above the crown. Inhale into the crown, exhale down the body. If you continue the mantra it will be Ham on the inhale and Sa on the exhale. 

I’ll go through that one more time with the mantra. Inhale ham at the red light, exhale sa up to the heart. Inhale ham at the blue light exhale sa up to the head. Inhale ham at the white light, exhale sa up to the crown. Inhale ham in the emptiness above the head exhale sa down to the base. 

Now find your own rhythm if you haven’t already. You may want two breaths at each center. Take it at your own pace. 

If you get to the point where the aspects of the practice you’re using are flowing in a relaxed manner, you may find yourself concentrating more softly, touching more lightly on the elements. The practice evens out the differences between the centers, it brings them online together, so your body becomes a seamless flowing happening. 

If the body becomes aligned and in-tuned enough you may feel like letting go of the practice and basking in the resonance of peace and clarity that its brought.