Almost 20 years ago, when I attended massage school, my instructors addressed many forms of healing, spiritual, and physical practices like QiGong, and energy work.

One philosophy that I’ve always treasured was that of keeping your Hara open in your daily life. The Hara has many meanings among different cultures and beliefs but basically, it is a Japanese word meaning “belly,” the center of our energy force, in balance with our mind energy.

Hara is a physical place with a spiritual layer. If we keep the Hara open, we expand that energy outward, toward others, toward our work and intentions.

As an audiobook narrator, I like to think of this as shining my essence onto my work, expressing through my core, to tell a story. I like to think of my Hara being a ray of light shining forward. If we slump and slouch, the physical Hara is cut off; our light is closed off. We lose a bit of the giving of ourselves in our artistry.

Let your lights shine!