One-Minute Practice: Flow Like Water

We humans are mostly made up of water, and it’s fun to think of ourselves as aquatic environments. About 70% of our bodies is water. Even our brains are fluid and spongy.

As you picture yourself being watery and feel into your fluidity, know that you are an ecosystem of various kinds of fluid that flow or seep in different ways. Tune in to your watery flow with these ideas:  

Veins and arteries carry our blood fluid everywhere in us. Notice the rhythm of your heart and know that the pulsing of this spiral muscle is sending blood through all of you, in various size channels, like rivers, streams, rivulets.

Imagine your limbs are like hoses that you can turn on low for a gentle flow of energy or turn on high for gushing energy for sports or other high energy actions.

Synovial fluid in the joints allows for lubricated movement. It’s thick like honey, and warm because it’s inside you. Try sensing this fluid smoothing the movement of your joints. 

Organs are very smushy and where they meet connective tissue, a healthy suppleness and elasticity comes from fluid. Dried out tissues are less healthy. Do a little twist by looking around behind you. And then twist the other way. You just created a bit of compression and release, which helps the resilience of the tissues and flow of fluid. 

Up to 20% of the body’s mass is made up of interstitial fluid, which is in between and around everything else. Give yourself a little wiggle or shimmy or roll and see if you can visualize and sense this fluid floating all around.

The brain is nourished by the interstitial fluid, and even the eye balls are filled with vitreous humor, their own special kind of fluid. Try closing your eyes for a few seconds with the awareness of fluid in eyes and in the brain, allowing everything in your skull to soften and be like jelly.

What if you imagine a fountain flowing up your spine to the head-neck joint, allowing your skull to balance effortlessly?