Tantra is such a beautiful way to heal wounded sexuality and give you back your body and your life. It combines the ancient spiritual arts of sacred connection to yourself and others. Using deep and intentional breathing, imagery and movement, tantra moves the kundalini or life force (prana) through the chakras, opening and energizing, bringing you home to yourself.

I began Tantra quite "by accident" during a time when I was most disgruntled with my sexuality, feeling so little pleasure that I didn't care if I ever made love again. A friend gifted me a seven-day workshop in Hawaii, and I thought only of sun, beaches and time to loll around. When it struck me I was in a workshop on sexuality, I felt "Oh, my God, what have I done now?"

Those seven days changed my life forever. I learned my body is my own, I can set boundaries and allow only the touch I desire, and I can feel desire and passion even without a partner. That week restored my holy relationship with myself. I learned this body I'd given away so often, trading sex for love, was actually designed to give me pleasure and fulfillment in ways that could bring me to the God within.

Tantra opens and activates the chakras and, by moving sexual energy through them, brings up for healing whatever blocks true passion. In workshop after workshop, I encountered pain of being sexually violated by three men in the family when I was little, and the exercises allowed me to breathe through the pain to the pleasure beneath.

The workshop leaders and dakinis (assistants there to support sexual healing) created a sacred temple in which I felt safe to explore my pain, explode in rage, and reclaim a body ravaged by incest and years of reenactment through casual sex. It was amazing to be so accepted with all of my pain, respected and supported for my deep commitment to heal.

Even when the memories were the worst and I needed to be celibate, Tantra gave me a way to recreate my sexuality and enjoy the movement of orgasmic energy through my healing tissues. When I could make love, the practices guided me to connect my heart with my yoni (genitals) and enjoy a full-bodied extended orgasmic play far more fulfilling than any sexuality of my 60s free-sex lifestyle.

Now I find I can make love in hundreds of ways: through breathing alone with the full moon, by touching hands on heart with my beloved and simply breathing love into each other, or through full, deep sexual exchange. Tantra adds the spiritual component so making love feels like worship and I feel like a Goddess being honored. Such a change. My body is now a temple and I enjoy life within it.

E-mail: evalena@tantraforwomen.com
Web site: tantraforwomen.com