This is going to be a meditative practice on sensing and becoming more aware of our digestive tract,
Sometimes known as our GI or gastrointestinal tract,
Coming out of our embryological unfolding of the gut tube.
And so we will start by becoming aware of the front or beginning of the digestional tract and bringing awareness to our mouth.
Just sensing first that we have a mouth.
Becoming aware of the sides and walls of the mouth and the tongue and salivary glands.
You may even be noticing saliva forming and being swallowed as you sit here.
And as we follow it back to the back of the throat,
You will begin to find the place where the throat and the neck become one.
And you'll find yourself coming to the top of the esophagus.
Esophagus is a lovely long tube that brings food and liquids down to the next organs of digestion of which we'll be coming to.
But for now just focusing on this tube.
Maybe even sensing this tract going from throat down underneath and behind the ribs until eventually we'll meet the stomach.
I'm just breathing into that,
Sensing into that,
Noticing your stomach.
Feeling as if the stomach was more alive with sensation.
Or possibly if your stomach was too much happening you would want to invite a little bit of slowness into the stomach here.
Just sensing that shape and location.
As we move through the stomach we come to the bottom part called the pylorus which is going to lead us into our next organ,
The small intestine.
The first part of the small intestine will be known as the duodenum or duodenum depending on where in the world you live and how you pronounce it.
This is the first part of the small intestine.
More or less making a transverse movement.
It starts by going just down and then more or less going transverse from more or less the center of the body across to the left side of the body.
I'm just sensing into that tube.
I'm feeling the connection of that to the stomach and to the esophagus and to the mouth.
Just creating this path from mouth all the way down to duodenum.
Then at some point we make a little bit of a turn south and duodenum meets the jejunum,
The second part of the small intestine.
This is where at the jejunum we begin to find more of what we may know as the small intestine.
These curvy,
Twisty,
Tubular formations.
Just noticing the twists and turns that your small intestine is going on and sensing in,
Becoming aware.
Again,
If there's not a lot of movement going on,
Maybe inviting a little bit of movement into the jejunum.
If there is too much movement,
Well inviting a little bit of calm and peace through the jejunum.
Sensing the roller coaster turns,
The ups and downs,
Squiggly like but comfortable movements of the jejunum.
Then at some point the texture is going to shift and change a little bit.
We find ourself in a little more of a spacious airiness while still similar movements and turns and shapes.
That's when we know we've got to the ileum,
The final part of the small intestine.
So the jejunum might be a little more compact as it's processing.
The ileum has a little bit more space.
So inviting that in and following the curves.
Again,
Noticing the connection from where we are all the way from where we began up at the mouth.
Noticing the tract we have been following all through one tube.
As we follow the path of the ileum,
It is going to lead us to generally around the bottom right side of our belly,
Of our thorax.
We find a connection to the beginning of the large colon,
The large intestine.
That is what is called the ileocecal valve.
It's where the ileum and the cecum meet.
As that valve opens,
We can pass through from the ileum into the bottom of the large intestine,
Which is the cecum.
Noticing this now has a very different quality as well.
It's more spacious,
More fluid-y type sensation.
More airy,
Less compressed.
We begin traveling up from that lower right part up to just underneath the bottom of the ribs,
Near the liver.
Traveling up the ascending colon.
Noticing this is one of the first times we're really going against our gravitational pull.
There are smaller,
Shorter ones in the small intestine,
But now we are traveling up,
Moving up.
As we get up to that little corner just under the liver,
Do a sort of hook over and begin to now go across.
From the right to the left side,
Across.
This is our transverse colon.
We're crossing slowly across the body and sensing how the transverse colon is.
Again,
Noticing the whole path that has gotten us here so far.
Then from the left corner,
We again make a little movement,
Hook down,
And begin to travel down as we begin the final part of our journey.
Going down the descending colon.
Noticing how this may be easier than having gone up the ascending colon,
Although if there's a lot of constipation in our world,
This may actually be more difficult.
Should that be the case,
Again,
Inviting in a softness and a spaciousness in there to allow the descending colon to be a little more ease.
As we get to that bottom left corner of our belly,
We begin to transition from the descending colon into the sigmoid colon.
That comes a bit across the bottom part of our belly.
Again,
Making somewhat of a transverse,
Although not exactly.
When it gets to about more or less our midline of our body,
The sigmoid colon transitions into our rectum.
Just sensing into the rectum and the naturally occurring tension there,
One that we actually want some tension there.
But again,
Noticing is it too tense or not tense enough,
And inviting a bit of what might feel required here to help find that right balance,
That right comfort.
And again,
Noticing the whole path we've taken from the large intestine,
Small intestine,
Stomach before that,
And esophagus and mouth before that.
Noticing this whole tube we've been traversing as we find our way to our final spot,
The anal canal.
And just noticing how it feels to be finding the other end of our pole from the mouth as one opening out through the anal canal and anus at the other end.
And just sensing that whole tube,
That whole tract as one connected,
Healthy,
Whole passageway of which we are able to digest what comes at us,
What comes through us.
So taking these last few moments just to sense that whole canal.
You've just gone on a journey from your mouth through your anus and including all bits of your GI tract.
This is a practice you can do as feels needed.
It can be used for gentle relaxation,
But also for working with things going on in your digestive tract.
So before you do get up,
I'll recommend that even though I will be stopping the recording,
That you take a few more moments or minutes to just take it all in.
And then as you transition eventually up to what comes next,
Just harvest the sensation of ease in your whole digestive organs.
And know that at any point in a later experience,
You can welcome these sensations back in as a somatic memory of how ease felt in your body.
