In the ancient healing models of energy flow and blocks, chi, and prana are said be centered in the belly.
In the Enneagram types 8,9, and 1 are said to be grounded, gut-instinct savvy, and kinesthetic. Modern science continues to discover just how important “the second brain” is. The stomach contains more serotin than the brain and neurotransmitters there communicate with bacteria. 70% of the bodies immune response is aimed at the stomach to thwart dangerous micros.
The day is coming some speculate the psychiatrists will be dealing with both in order to assist their patients in achieving mental health and some already claim that depression drugs are effective because the treat what’s happening in your belly not in your brain.
What makes perfect sense to me is that what you experience as a gut feeling or butterflies is an awareness that might not be so obvious on a thinking/left-brain level. When I assist respectful dialogue can finally begin with that area of the body.
That movie turned my stomach
I don’t have the stomach to do that
My eyes are bigger than my stomach
I feel it in the pit of my stomach
A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach
That man makes me sick to my stomach
Universal idioms such as the ones above are often based on a deeper truth. Pay attention to what your stomach is telling you and you’ll both be as richly rewarded as Hotei. (Hotei, the Laughing Buddha and symbol of luck and good fortune, was a wandering monk who walked the world taking the sadness from all people)
