The belly button represents the beginning of our life, the entry point from which everything we needed to survive and grow in our mother’s womb came. Once we’re born, I’ve discovered, it’s also a point through which health of body, emotions, mind, and spirit can originate.
By stimulating the navel, you pump the nutrients, toxins, waste, lymph, and blood gathered in your abdomen, causing them to pass through more easily, which helps your systems stay clear and flowing. It also warms your abdomen, which increases immune function, and relaxes muscles and fascia, which calms you and helps you breathe more deeply, sending more oxygen to your body and brain.
Your gut, behind your belly button, produces over ninety percent of the serotonin in your body and about fifty percent of the dopamine. These are two hormones that are responsible for keeping you satisfied and happy, among other things. Problems in the gut are linked to problems in the brain, such as depression, Alzheimer’s, autism, and ADHD, due to a close link between the brain and the nervous system in charge of the gut. This system, called the enteric nervous system, is often called the second brain, or gut brain, because of its extensiveness and semi-autonomy from the brain in the head. A healthy gut is important for a happy mood and a healthy brain.
Whether you’re stressed, having trouble with digestion, or have problems in your four major joints, because everything is connected to the belly button, I think that practicing Belly Button Healing, along with abdominal breathing and Brain Education, can promote health in your body naturally.
Do Belly Button Healing with a Healing Mind
The important thing to remember when doing Belly Button Healing is that it’s not just about using the right technique—it is about having the right mind. You must never get greedy or apply too much pressure. Focus on your belly button and abdomen as you do it, and notice the sensations in your body. That will tell you just the right amount of pressure you need to use.
The method is not as effective if you’re just passing time and not paying attention to your body. By listening to your body as you stimulate it, you’ll know where you have pain, feel warm or cold, the length and depth of your breath, how relaxed you are, and how well your blood and energy are circulating. With this deeper awareness, you’ll also see the changes that result from Belly Button Healing, and gain insight into how to care for your body.
Belly Button Healing is even more effective if you do it with love, gratitude, and a sincere desire to heal. This mindset will further activate your body and brain’s mechanisms to heal themselves and attract healing energy to you that will spread throughout your body. You can experience life energy, along with deep stability and peace, as you are connected with the Source of life.
If you share Belly Button Healing with this sincerity, you’ll also be sharing this healing energy. Then a new culture will spread around you, and you will have a Healing Life, Healing Family, Healing Society, Healing Nation, and Healing Earth.
How to Do It
First, you should confirm whether or not you are tense. It’s best to do Belly Button Healing when you’re sitting or lying down, although you can diagnose your abdominal condition better if you lie down. Pressing the belly button does not produce much stimulation while standing because the abdominal and back muscles are flexed. It’s like how getting punched in the gut hurts less if it happens when your abdomen is flexed. If you feel a lot of pain even when you’re standing or sitting, you have a problem with your health.
Once you are lying down and relaxed, press your belly button gently with your middle finger or thumb. Do this with clean hands, and press over your clothing or a light towel. At first, press lightly, and try to feel whether or not it hurts. Pain means that you have tension. Pressing lightly is like cooking on low heat. If you feel pain from slight pressure, you are likely to have tense intestines, problems with digestion, little enthusiasm, and/or be impatient.
If you don’t feel pain, push a little more forcefully, on medium heat. Many people say they hurt at this time. People who don’t feel pain, even though they press a little forcefully, are healthy. You should never do this on high heat. If you press really forcefully, it will hurt no matter how healthy you may be.
It’s important to determine how hard you should press to get a feeling of slight pain. Once you discover this, in addition to pressing downward, press in and toward different directions around your belly button, as if your finger is pressing from the center of a wheel along its spokes.
Wherever you encounter pain, keep pressing gently for several seconds, and then take your hand away. Repeat this for about one minute. If you do that, the pain will gradually decrease. Keep doing Belly Button Healing until you sense that the pain felt at first has subsided.
When you have finished, rub around your belly button clockwise with the palm of your hand, soothing your belly. Spend a minute or two breathing naturally while keep your focused attention on your belly button.
There are also other Belly Button Healing techniques, all of which become more effective when you perform them with Healing Life, a Belly Button Healing wand I designed from a fallen branch of a hwangchil tree in New Zealand.
(Don’t do Belly Button Healing if you are pregnant, have had abdominal surgery and has not yet healed, have intestinal disorders, or have injuries near your navel. It is not recommended for children under seven years of age. Press lightly if have high blood pressure, heart disease, or hardening of the arteries.)
From Your Belly Button to the Earth
Belly Button Healing is a powerful way to revitalize your health while experiencing your deep inner nature. The love and connection that can arise from Belly Button Healing will change your relationship with yourself and with other people. This is a pure love that wishes all beings and the earth are happier and healthier. Looking at the bigger picture, I believe that this is the secret for healing our suffering world. When people with such hearts come together, they will be able to heal society and the Earth.
Note: If you would like to learn more about Belly Button Healing, you can read my book of the same name, Belly Button Healing: Unlocking Your Second Brain for a Healthy Life.
You can also get the book included in the Belly Button Healing Kit, which contains the Belly Button Healing wand you can use to do Belly Button Healing more comfortably.