Belly Yoga: Blueprints and Systems Motility
What if it's all just one big experiment in coherence?
Dear Fellow Human,
What if it’s all just one big experiment?
Before I share directly about motility and the relationship between the enteric nervous system and health, if we recognize the fractal nature of measurable toroidal fields surrounding cells, organs, human bodies, and celestial bodies, I'll make a case for “blueprinting.” All life that emerges from Earth and beyond, emerges with a blueprint. A knowingness of it’s own evolution encapsulated in light, wave form turned particle, nested as a system within systems.
When a human body begins to grow, there is no brain at first, no heart, no lungs, no eyes, no legs. The nervous system begins to emerge from somewhere, and mysteriously our bodies begin to take form. The intelligence that moves this creative process is not our mind. It is something far greater. Same as an acorn holding all the information of the giant oak, we are “blueprinted” with directions on how to form, grow, and even heal. All living things are embedded with a blueprint for wholeness.
Self Reflection: How might your relationship with your body change if you recognized it as an expression of universal intelligence rather than something you possess?
I'm approaching this understanding through multiple ways of knowing. Quantum field theory offers one perspective through wave-particle duality— our bodies exist simultaneously as potential and specific form. Material and non-material. Certain indigenous traditions have long described similar understandings through their wisdom systems—not as metaphors needing scientific validation, but as direct recognitions of the true nature of reality. Both Diné concepts of hózhǫ́ and Maori understandings of whakapapa offer frameworks for this interconnectedness that don't need translation into scientific language to be valid.
As we go around living life in bodies on this planet, in this universe, we experience the capacity to move within systems. Our cells move within organs, our psyche within relationships, our body within ecosystems. The mobility we experience is directly related to our agency or lack thereof. The blueprint has a path already planned—like the acorn and the oak, we have a code that pre-dates what we think of as “us.” This code is nested within systems and relationships—the code is aware of it’s context. It’s generated for contextual fitness. This tracks at the level of biology, quantum physics and indigenous wisdom. We are encoded and the fittest codes survive.
When I use the word code, I'm not suggesting determinism here. It’s paradoxically both “that” and we are always at choice. What choices we have may be limited, but we are always at choice. As our blueprint interacts dynamically with the environment, we have agency in how we engage with these patterns—simultaneously bound by our “costume” or the unique bodymind we inhabit for this life, and we are capable of unimaginable creative response to life. There's a dance between what's encoded and how we express it through relationship with our surroundings.
Thomas Hübl and others talk about the Universe being made of information and if this is true, you can feel me when we are on a zoom call together, you can sense my nervous system with yours over the phone. If you're anxious, I can feel it. I get pinged in my consciousness when you're thinking of me halfway across the planet. You know this experience. Information is both local and non-local.
This non-local connection between nervous systems resonates with quantum entanglement—particles maintaining instantaneous connection regardless of distance. I've felt this directly during calls across the globe with friends, experiencing sensations in my body that matched their emotional states before they verbalized them. This isn't new age woo woo mystical nonsense, it’s a pointing toward the limitations of our current understanding of consciousness and interconnection. It’s an invitation into deeper ways of knowing.
In somatic body-based trauma work we understand the difference between the blueprint and an the imprint. Blueprint being that code we came in with. The one that knows how to generate a heart, a brain, etc. Imprints being that what was too overwhelming for our nervous systems—either something that happened too fast or something that happened too often, without our consent.
Self Reflection: Where in your life have you experienced moments of feeling the blueprint beneath the imprints? What sensations or awareness arose in those moments?
Indigenous cultures had/have practices for processing and transmuting imprints within bodies. Sometimes the transmutation process is like alchemy—the trauma becomes gold to be shared with the community. If you've ever seen dances with tribal peoples in Africa who make funny faces while chanting and rhythmically bouncing—often times those facial movements, sounds, and beat are bringing tone back to the nervous system, making space to reconnect with the blueprint so the imprints can shift or leave entirely. The stomping, the trance-inducing rhythm, the parasympathetic engagement, it’s all Earth-based technology for healing and wholeness.
The process of imprinting is an evolutionary process not to be avoided. Let’s just imagine the Universe is made up of information, this “imprinting” is the process of the Universe experimenting with new information. Learning. Exploring. Expanding. Like a child in a garden oasis. Consider this, an animal is the embodied information of an ecosystem. If they and others in the system learn how to live well within a place, the fractal quality of harmony is embodied across the system. Yes, there is death. Yes, there is pain. Yes, there is suffering. These are all parts of life—intrinsic parts of this great experiment.
Consider this as well, the cells in your body die at an alarming rate while being regenerated. There is a constant state of death occurring within your body at any given time. Death is an inherent part of life. And for some reason, we in the West have forgotten this. Everything we eat comes from dead things. Whether it be a salad or a burger, what you eat is dead and in the majority of cases it grew from the soil composed of dead things or it eats what grows from the soil composed of dead things. Death is just as much a part of life as eating—maybe even more so.
This understanding transforms how we might approach thinking about healing and collective evolution. Rather than seeking to eliminate all traces of difficulty, we can recognize how challenging experiences might be metabolized to support new growth—new evolution. I don’t want you to think I’m glorifying suffering— this way of thinking contextualizes us within the cycles recognized by indigenous traditions and in ecological science and increasingly acknowledged in mainstream literature. We are systems within systems and stress and death are not bugs, but features of this great experiment of Life.
The blueprint is the inherent code for life. All animals, plants, fungi, etc. have blueprints that originated before we were born. The blueprint tells us how to form. This is an amazing process which occurs prior to our brains development. If we are designed to be nested within systems, just like the information of imprints gets discharged during trauma recovery, so does the information of species who don't adapt within ecosystems. That fractal reality is staring us in the face as we do what westerners have done for thousands of years— don’t think with deep consideration and care, 7 generations in the future when adopting new tech like AI. Survival of the fittest doesn’t mean the strongest, but the most adaptable. The most agile. The most updatable embodied information.
Self Reflection: How does viewing trauma as “evolutionary information” rather than “damage” change your relationship to difficult experiences?
Life is an experiment. Not just human life, all life. It's the experiment of this architectural force, who's names might be the Universe, God, Life, the Mystery, to learn and evolve. Just like a baby sucks it's toes or an adolescent has their first kiss—it's all fractal and this larger intelligence is also learning and experimenting just like us. Some experiments work for a time and some work for a longer time. None work forever. Even stars supernova. In their death all the elements for life are propelled out across the Universe.
Witnessing a beautiful sunset, it occurs to me that I’m witnessing God at play in an artful experiment. What if it’s this?
Viewing life as “an experiment” has shifted how I approach difficult patterns, moving from seeking permanent solutions to recognizing everything as evolving information. This perspective allows curiosity rather than judgment when facing challenges—like the intense global shifts here and now. The strategy to protect our hearts after heartbreak for instance works for a time and then that strategy becomes outdated and rather than the original heartache being the source of our suffering, it's the protective mechanisms put in place that create long lasting misery.
The blueprint is always present. The original code never leaves, regardless of injury or perhaps even death. The code may change physical shape or it may disappear from an ecosystem altogether. This is the practice of Life experiencing itself. Think of it this way—the Mystery is learning by gathering information through experiments. A new species emerges as an experiment within the context of it's ecosystem. Because of the fractal nature of reality, all matter from cells to organs, to bodies; plant, animal, human, all gather imprints on top of their blueprints as experiments in evolution and growth. Some of the imprints stick and inform the next generations blueprint with information. It's a fractalized experiment, ever changing and ever evolving.
Self Reflection: How do you experience the dance between destiny (the blueprint) and agency (conscious choice) in your life?
Mobility, our agency or ability to move is different from motility—the inner capacity for intrinsic movement within a living system. For example, the belly has a motility—a natural way that it wants to move beyond our conscious control. Yet not unlike many other systems, when we place our attention on this part of the body, knowing it's capacity for motility as a belly, we can cause change in the system—we can amplify it’s awareness of itself.
This is systems thinking. Understanding how systems work within larger nested systems. Therefor the motility of the belly can be amplified when it becomes aware of it's relationship to the larger context in which it is embedded within. Meaning, let's help the belly communicate with other parts of the body! Let’s bring it back online. Let's help the belly communicate with the immediate environment and unify the upper brain with the lower brain. 80% of the nerve fibers in the vagus nerve carry signals from the gut to the brain, while only 20% transmit signals from the brain to the gut. 90% of the body’s serotonin is generated in the belly.
Serotonin is responsible for promoting trust and empathy. It strengthens social bonds and reduces social anxiety, facilitates social engagement, stabilizes social memories, supports lasting connections, and integrates social information.
The practice I'm sharing with you is a nervous system flexibility practice on belly motility. In this inspiring video, Rickson Gracie shows the “nauli's”, a yogic belly practice at the 3:40 minute mark of the 6 minute YouTube video below. Gracie is considered by many to be the best Jiujitsu fighter of all-time. I was introduced to this practice by my first yoga teacher Bharat Das in Honolulu. Das had been teaching daily yoga classes at Kapiolani Park in Waikiki for over 30 years when I met him. You can see in the video what an advanced practitioner can do with belly motility.
The enteric nervous system communicates with other bodily systems like mycelium networks in forests—through chemical signals, energetic pulses, and physical proximity, creating an information exchange that coordinates the whole ecosystem's response to changing conditions. When practicing belly motility, I've noticed emotions arising that were previously unconscious, thoughts and insights I didn’t expect, implying from experience that the gut holds emotional information and wisdom that becomes accessible when attention moves there.
Vagus Nerve Flexibility Exercises
Part 1: Facial Vagus Nerve Activation
Duration: 2-3 minutes
Position: Seated or standing in a comfortable position
Basic Technique:
Take a deep breath in through your nose
On the exhale, make a gentle "voo" sound, feeling the vibration in your face
Continue for 2-3 minutes at a comfortable pace
Advanced Variation:
Alternate between "voo" and "ahh" sounds
Close your eyes during "voo" sounds
Open your eyes wide during "ahh" sounds
Create a rhythmic pattern of breathing and sounds
Transition: After completing the facial exercise, take a moment to notice any sensations before moving to Part 2.
Part 2: Abdominal Vagus Nerve Activation
Duration: 1-2 minutes
Position:
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart
Bend knees slightly
Place hands on thighs
Similar to a baseball infielder's fielding stance
Technique:
Breathe in fully through your nose
On the exhale, rapidly pump your belly in and out
Maintain a steady breathing rhythm
Important Notes:
⚠️ CAUTION: Do not perform the abdominal exercise if you have high blood pressure
Only practice on an empty stomach
If in a fragile physical or emotional state, start with fewer repetitions
I invite you to explore this practice as a meditation for experiencing the relationships between conscious awareness and the intrinsic intelligence operating within your body’s systems. By bringing attention to processes that usually happen unconsciously, we create opportunities for greater coherence between systems—supporting personal wellbeing and more sustainable relationships amongst the communities of cells and organs within us as well as the wider ecosystems we interact with.
Thanks for sharing your valuable time and attention with me today. If you’re curious about Nervous System Flexibility Training or if something touched, moved, or inspired you here I’d love to hear from you.
Until next time.
Stay conscious fellow human.
I’ve linked a post from Substack below for fellow nature lovers.
Check it out.
Apprentice to Life,
Patrick
~*~