Moving from Hara 腹 - with video
Meaning of Aikido
Both Jiu Jitsu’s and Aikido’s approach defense against an attack is a response to the attacker’s energy. This is opposed to other martial arts which may respond by attacking back. However, a self defense martial art may instead employ the notion of using an opponents energy against him/her. A crude illustration of this would be sticking your foot out to trip someone who is running past you… you’ve used their own energy to divert them toward the ground.
From a purely literal interpretation, aikido is the "Way of combining forces" or "Way of unifying energy", in which the term aiki refers to the martial arts principle or tactic of blending with an attacker's movements for the purpose of controlling their actions with minimal effort. [Wikipedia]
To apply these principles in everyday life becomes a massive advantage when used with discretion. The basic idea is that when a problem or conflict arises, we should be out to help guide the problem or conflict to a better more balanced position or solution. In other words, we don’t want to escalate things but instead want to guide the problem or attack in the direction of de-escalation or better balance.
The Ki Society (気の研究会, Ki no Kenkyūkai).
Martial arts often conveys to students the necessity to focus on, move from and indeed live from hara.
Hara is located one to two inches below the navel, in women it may be a bit higher. When viewed from the front, it is along an imaginary centerline that runs vertically up and down the body. And when further imagining its location, when viewed from the side it would roughly 1/3 of the way inward from front and back.
The Hara or lower Dantian, as conceptualised by the Chinese and Japanese martial arts, is important for their practice, because it is seen, as the term "Sea of Qi" indicates, as the reservoir of vital or source energy (Yuan Qi). It is, in other words, the vital centre of the body as well as the centre of gravity. For many martial arts, the extension of energy or force from this centre is a common concept. Many martial art styles, amongst them Aikido, emphasise the importance of "moving from the hara", i.e. moving from the centre of one's very being – body and mind. There are a large number of breathing exercises in traditional Japanese and Chinese martial arts where attention is always kept on the dantian or hara to strengthen the "Sea of Qi". Source: Wikipedia
In Japanese martial arts, such as Jiu Jitsu and Aikido, Qi is referred to as Ki, pronounced the same. In other arts it can be referred to as Chi, Prana, energy, spirit, Great Spirit or even Holy Spirit. The dictionary defines it as, “a spiritual force that is held to emanate from or give animation to living beings.” (Source) But that’s the energy or Ki. Which is different than hara.
The basic notion of hara is that we don't want to move our body as isolated parts, but rather move as a cohesive, unified unit. We want to move from the movement center of our physical body.
We can extrapolate this concept into our everyday life practices. For example, the more disjointed I am, the less effective I am. If I put the ironing board too high or too low, I'll be stretching or bending to the point that my back aches and I start hating ironing more than ever. Similarly, if I don't have all of my rearview mirrors in my car correctly aimed, my disjointed approach increases my odds of an accident.
This idea of unified movement extends throughout our lives. The more upset I am with work or school or grocery shopping - perhaps everyday life feels like I am Feeing Attacked From all Sides - the greater the odds of something creeping in that will threaten my balance even more. Maybe I need to slow down a bit, or stand back and take a short break, or get some me-time to spend in nature or reading a book.
Whatever is needed to regain balanced movement, I personally live striving for that specific equanimity. For me, hara is not only a physical thing, but it is also something I measure in terms of my emotions, my mental stability, and certainly my spiritual poise.