A microcosm is a little world; a system or experience or circumstance that mirrors something much larger. Isn’t everything a microcosm? Meaning is everywhere, if you become obsessed with finding it. A microcosm allows us a bite of something mega, if we’re courageous enough to take it and awake enough to taste it. They say, “how you do anything is how you do everything” — a fall-back catch-all phrase that’s relevant to everything from powerhouse business management strategy to yoga to death.
But it’s true. Your particular meeting of a moment is a microcosm of your entire life. Your eye is also a window to your soul / the universe. Your future lies in the creases of your clammy palm (eh?) Sacred geometry allows us to peer into the meaning behind nature’s shapes. Your rudeness at the Post Office doesn’t mean you’re fundamentally and forever an asshole, but it does mean something — check it out. That is why, as the great Lama Rod Owens reminds us, “If we don't do our work, we become work for other people.”
I guess the question I have is whether beholding a microcosm, which allows us the ability to understand something much bigger that perhaps we couldn’t understand directly, also allows us then the freedom to make different choices which can, in turn, change the nature of that larger whole. Meaning, we’re not watchers gliding through a museum, we’re participants in a collaborative, interactive universal event. We are lucid dreamers.
I’ve been practicing microcosmic orbit breathing in my yoga classes these past few weeks. It’s a Taoist Qigong practice, also used in yin yoga — a dazzling trip of the imagination which irrigates the body and mind with the water of the breath.
Here’s how it goes - it just takes a few minutes:
Arrive at yourself: Start sitting comfortably with your tail untucked and spine long, or laying down with your hands and feet undisturbed; Invite your awareness to join you exactly where you are, and breathe easily.
Take your seat: Now send your awareness to your lower belly, the space between your belly button and your pubic bone. This is your second chakra: the space of possibility, pleasure, art, and all that could/might/will be. Take a moment to behold this space of yours and all that has and will transpire there. Wow!
Inhale: From this place begin to inhale the breath, using your imagination to sending it down the front of your pelvis to your root, underneath your pubic bone and perineum, and breathing uupppp your precious spine. Keep tracing that same inhale up over the top of your head like a hood until you get to the space of your forehead. By now you should be fuuulllll up with air and so you’ll pause.
Pause full: Hold full here for two counts with awareness between the brows. This is your sixth chakra, the seat of the third eye, your place of knowing knowing, connection to the hypothalamus and your emotions like pleasure and rage. Take a moment to behold this space of yours and all that it understands and expresses.
Exhale: From here begin to exhale down the front of your body, tracing over your perfectly unique profile with your breath — your nose tip, lovely mouth, long throat, dear heart, and soft belly — ushering all the air, every last puff, out with care until you are completely empty arriving back again at the lower belly space. And pause.
Pause empty: Hold empty for two counts. Notice this second stop on your body for experiencing potential energy. The feeling before a really big inhale (remember your lungs are never really totally empty).
Now orbit: Is it an orbit if you only go around once? Same same but different, begin again to trace your next inhale down and around. Repeat this until you are just stars, or until the Europa Clipper is launched (October 2024), or until you feel ready.
We wrap ourselves in our own breath to move deeper into the body and in that way transcend it. Our own energy is our spaceship. Remembering that we have what we need though the inner landscape is complex. And you just sit there and breathe, on this rock hurtling through ever-expanding space.
If you’re intrigued by sacred geometry, Taosim, and Chinese Medicine, get curious about Katonah Yoga. Below is their Magic Square which is Russian nesting doll of microcosms.
Offerings
Glacial slow flow class at the Santa Monica YMCA on Mondays at 5:45. The class is to support your breath and unwinding, allowing you to go deeper into body and peace.
At Love Yoga in Venice. Upcoming: Wed 3/1 @ 9:30am, Thurs 3/2 @ 6pm, Mon 3/13 @ 9:30am, Thurs 3/16 @ 8am, and Thurs 3/23 @ 8am.
I have a few more spots for private 1:1s either online or IRL, focusing on yoga (restorative, yin, prenatal, vinyasa) and meditation. These are entirely tailored to where you’re at and can range from much more traditional asana alignment focus or athletic to more rehabilitative. I work a lot with older adults who are managing mobility and injury, to re-establish stability, flexibility, and most importantly a sense of peace.
If this is intriguing to you at all, send me an email and we can explore!
Love that breath! Thank you. Been doing primordial Qi Gong but there are so many forms and practices there is always something new. Wonder would it would be like to do that breath every day for a year