Showing posts with label visualization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label visualization. Show all posts

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Just some ideas for fun experiments

When it comes to tantra and kundalini yoga, I want to encourage a spirit of fearless experimentation, because I think there is absolutely nothing to fear, as long as you apply some common sense.

Once you are free from the irresistable urge to ejaculate, here are some fun things you might do. They all feel a bit different, and they all feel very good, and I find it interesting to simply note the differences.

  • Edge a few times
  • Not edge at all
  • Practice in different positions
  • Be loud, or be quiet
  • Engage your thighs: Vibrate or pulse, clench and relax in varying rhythms
  • Visualize different colors up or down your spine
  • Visualize those colors not necessarily just up or down your spine, but drive it anywhere you want
  • Up on the inhale, down on the exhale, or the other way around
  • Draw long breaths, or short ones, or even pant
  • Let go, and just feel
  • Hold your breath, then let go and feel
  • Stroke yourself, or don't stroke yourself
I'm sure there's lots of other stuff.

Also, let me add that, even though I obviously write from a male perspective, I do not at all endorse the view that semen is somehow special, contains the most qi, or anything like that. I just have no clue how tantra for women works, that's all.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Let's Turn It Into An Art Form!

It just dawned on me... in all my attempts at dealing with my own emotions, all the personal-development stuff I've tried, with whatever success... one thing was missing all that time.

Just look at it. Picture me dealing with some "difficult emotion", whatever it is.

The buddhist doctrine will tell me that it just "is what it is", and then to focus on my breath and meditate.

The NLPers will say that I have to break it down into its various sensory qualities, then create a new feeling from scratch, anchor that, yadda yadda yadda.

Tony Robbins will tell me I have not yet succeeded in making "feeling better" a MUST, that I should shift my pose and focus on the right things. Father Barron will want me to rejoin the catholic *cough*cult*cough* church, and Steven Pylarinos will make another video.

The psychoanalyst will try to find the root cause for a few years, the christian will find my lack of faith disturbing and tell me to pray nonetheless, Marshall Rosenberg will offer four stages (not three! not five!), the advaitin will say that there's nothing to learn anyway...

And they all have exactly one thing in common: They offer me one (or maybe two or three) recipes, based on a few ideological premises that are to be accepted. When you cut to the chase, there is One True Way, and by necessity the others are false, or at least not the best way.

There is a certain... fearful timidity to that approach. As if my inner life was like an ancient chinese vase about to fall and break into a thousand pieces!

Do you, my dear reader, share my impression that the best things in life generally tend to make you feel free, spontaneous and creative?

If so, why don't we start being creative about our own emotional development? There is this troubling feeling. I can yell at it to go away. I can consciously choose to identify with it. I can name it, externalize it, picture it as a color. I can breathe into it. I can dance around the room, or at least visualize myself doing so. I can try and add warmth to it, or else push it away and make it appear smaller and in black-and-white. I can focus on my breath. I can come up with a few fun affirmations...

I have all those things to try, and then some.

Doesn't that feel tremendously more empowering than sticking to one method devised by some clever guru? Even if that guru be the christ, or the buddha himself...

Let's reclaim our own relationship with ourselves! Let's turn our self-appreciation into an art form, our self-love into an eternal dance, a fire of passion, creativity, unabashed recklessness. Some things will make us feel divine for a short time, some things will help us in the long term, and some attempts will blow up in our face like a big old jack-in-the-box. Let's learn from our experiences, mistakes and successes, and let's share our insights.

I'm not a broken vase. I am my own art project.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Experiment with breath, chakras, and a word

Here's a little experiment. It might take you 5-10 minutes or so:

  1. Choose some attribute that you like. For example, "creative", "enthusiastic", "motivated", "strong", etc.
  2. Think of that attribute.
  3. While thinking of that attribute, focus on the first chakra. Repeat the attribute in your head, while breathing into the first chakra.
  4. Then do the same for your second chakra, with the same word.
  5. Do you notice any difference? Which chakra "responded" stronger? Were there images popping up? Are the images for the second chakra different from the ones for the first chakra?
    Do not try to change anything. Just note it.
  6. Go on through all the chakras, from pelvic floor through solar plexus and heart, up to crown chakra.

Now take note of your feelings.

Did anything change? Was it a change you liked?

Now, you might want to decide to include this into your daily schedule. Or not. Your call.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

The "balloon pump" exercise

This exercise is a synthesis of a few tantric and taoist exercises that I've read in several books, so if you're a purist of one specific brand of tantra, or if you're opposed to the neotantra craze, you'll probably not want to try this.

You have been warned.

It consists of the usual basic tantric elements:


  • breathing into the pelvic floor
  • using the PC muscles
  • directing the breath/energy upon exhaling
  • visualisations
Now, the trick here is WHAT to visualize, and WHERE to direct the energy.

If you're a beginner, it's probably best to first train each step before putting them all together.

  • Best practice seated. It seems to be easier to stay focussed that way.
  • Use slow, mindful strokes on your cock, so you don't hastily go into ejaculation.
  • As always, be sure to caress your WHOLE cock, not just the tip.
  • When you INHALE, relax the muscles and direct the breath into your scrotum. (the taoist "scrotum breathing" technique)
  • Imagine your scrotum as a balloon that inflates (as much as you like) when you inhale.
  • When you EXHALE, clench your PC muscles, deflate the balloon and direct the breath/energy directly from the scrotum, one by one, into...
  1. the pelvic floor itself
  2. the anus
  3. the prostate
  4. the lowest vertebra of your spine
  5. and so on, up and up your spine
  6. up the back of the head
  7. the crown chakra
  8. the third eye
  9. the mouth
  10. the neck
  11. the chest
  12. the belly
...and so on until you've reached the pelvic floor again.

Of course, it totally depends on you what "steps" you take to direct your breath, and where you direct it. I usually aim to make the steps as small as possible - ideally, I want to cover each vertebra separately, though I never manage to do so.

It is certainly beneficial to "rest" upon each separate spot for a few breaths - until it feels "filled" or starts tingling... the criteria here are a matter of practice. I just get the impression that it's enough for this one particular spot, after a while, so I move on. (Or I simply grow impatient, but that wouldn't be "spiritual" enough, so I never said that and you have no idea I did, okay?)

When I've reached the belly, it often feels like an intense flow of love and strength emanating from there.

I also make a point of including the arms and legs - on the soles of the feet, this feels almost like a foot massage; and I figure that, since my knees sometimes feel a little sore, they can only benefit from this kind of care.

And by the way, when I first tried this, I tried to separate the left extremities from the right, but I didn't manage to do so, so I gave it up and just go both at the same time.

So, that's it - balloon and pump away! And be sure to give me feedback after a while!