Kundalini Yoga Glossary
Navel Point
The body's structural center, located below the belly button, from which posture and movement are organized.
Meaning
What Navel Point Means
The Navel Point does not correspond exactly to the belly button, and it is not the same as the Nabhi or Navel Chakra, which is etheric. It sits in the area of the transverse abdominal muscles, between the belly button and the last bone of the spinal column. The Upanishads describe it as shaped like a bird's egg, enclosing within itself the starting point of the body's 72,000 nadis, its subtle channels of energy.
A simple way to locate it: lock the little finger down with the thumb, leave the index, middle and ring fingers straight, and place them against the stomach just under the belly button. The Navel Point sits just below the ring finger.
In Practice
How It’s Used
The Navel Point is where the body anchors its posture. Gravity pulls one part of the body down while another pushes against the earth, and the resulting force runs through the Navel Point, out toward whatever part of the body is reaching upward. It is the connecting point for every posture: the center from which the body both pushes and reaches.
Students learn to bend, breathe, twist and move from the Navel Point rather than from the head or shoulders. It is also where the pelvis is controlled from, so the heart and head can stay aligned above it, and it is one of the two structural points, along with the Pelvic Floor, that Mul Bandha works from.
