Sleep is key to our health and healing. Sleep gives our bodies and minds time to restore and renew, a time to shed toxins through the breath and skin and to resolve worry through dreaming.

When we're feeling anxious and overwhelmed we desperately need to rest and release the stress that has been accumulating in our lives. Unfortunately, it's exactly at these times that falling asleep can seem to be an impossible task. The mind is chattering away, the body is tense. Thankfully, the body's center - the hara, the energetic sourcepoint that our bellies shelter - can serve as our doorway into sleep. As you focus your attention on your belly and your breath as indicated in the following practice, tension drains out of body and mind into the hara, where it dissolves and allows sleep to gather you in.

I tried this practice for the first time during a spell of tossing restlessly around in my bed. I completed the suggested five repetitions and said grouchily to myself: "Well, this doesn't seem to be working." The next thing I knew it was morning, and I felt refreshed.

This practice is just one of many ways in which honoring our bellies can contribute to our health and well-being.

In the context of this practice, you might regard your belly as the guardian at the threshold between the waking world and the world of sleep. As you proceed through each step, see and feel yourself calmly moving toward that threshold; there you might meet a figure of friendship, one who beckons to you and waves you across the threshold into the world of healing sleep.

Lying on your back with your arms and legs extended, inhale slowly through your nose, expanding your belly. Holding the breath in, pull your belly in and down toward your spine; then tighten all the other muscles in your body.

Still holding the breath in and keeping every muscle tight, now push your belly out and hold it out for a slow count of five. Then exhale slowly through your mouth and release your muscles' grip completely. Breathe naturally for a few moments.

Then repeat as many as five times, focusing on sensations and images occurring in your belly.

Sweet dreams!

(c) 2004 Self-Health Education. Lisa Sarasohn is a health educator with over 20 years' experience helping women love our bodies and ourselves. An award-winning speaker, she's author of the acclaimed Woman's Belly Book: Finding Your Treasure Within.

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