from the book:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex
By: Dr. Judy Kuriansky
ENERGY IS ETERNAL DELIGHT
Tantra is about the flow and exchange of energy, the movement of life. Tantrics believe that the most powerful energy is sexual energy. Tantric practice shows you how to circulate this energy around your own body and then move it between you and your partner. You will discover how to take the sexual feelings you have in your genitals and to move them up to different areas of your body and ultimately to your brain, where they are experienced as ecstasy. As this energy moves through your body, it sets off fireworks en route.
What Westerners think of as getting turned on or horny, Tantrics and Taoists think of generating sexual energy. You can be in touch with this powerful energy all the time. But you'll probably be glad to know that this does not result in feeling unbearably aroused 24 hours a day. Tantra teaches you how to have access to this energy and how to store it in your body. So, instead of being subject to uncontrollable sexual urges, you feel more creative, more alive and more in touch with your senses as you go about your daily life. You can shop, work, play and get fit with a spring in your step and a positive sense of wellbeing.
In the West we tend to think the only way we can get in touch with our sexual energy is through someone else. Couples in tired marriages, for example, may feel tempted by an affair that will make them feel alive again. Meeting someone new is certainly one way of accessing that giddy and exciting sense of being in love, but it is not the only way. Tantra teaches us that the powerful sexual energy that we think can only be ignited by another person exists in us all the time. And we can learn how to channel it for ourselves.
As the poet William Blake wrote: Energy is eternal delight.
BOOSTING YOUR ENERGY
If at times you feel tired and lethargic, there are some pretty straightforward ways of giving yourself an instant energy boost. Instead of opting for a strong coffee to wake you up, try breathing deeply to increase your intake of oxygen, so that your belly expands as you fill your lungs. Take up to seven deep breaths in and out, then revert to normal breathing, and continue this pattern until you start to feel your body kick-start into action. (Breathing deeply for too long when you are unaccustomed to it will make you feel dizzy, so stop and breath normally if you begin to feel light-headed).
Alternatively, start to move; ideally to dance or run. Energy is blocked when you slump onto the sofa and released when your body and limbs begin to move. Experience a double whammy with the addition of sound, another positive source of energy, by putting on a CD that makes you want to dance. If you are dubious about the benefits of dancing, just think about why people dance when they go partner hunting at parties. Dancing has been described as the vertical expression of a horizontal desire and when you dance with someone you find attractive, you are actually stirring up sexual energy in your body, ready to use later.
Get dancing and within minutes you will feel more awake and you will find your brain is less sluggish. If you are someone who is uncomfortable with the idea of dancing either publicly or in private, resolve to give it another try without judging yourself while you do it. If you still find the idea of dancing about as appealing as an hors d'oeuvres of Pedigree Chum, run on he spot or do a few bends and stretches instead.
Still uncertain what energy feels like? Try this experiment. Vigorously shake your right hand for a minute or so. When you stop and hold it in front of you, bring your left hand, palms facing, gently towards it, and you should feel a vibrating sensation around the hand that has been shaken. It may feel pleasantly buzzy and warm, or it may even feel larger than the unshaken hand.
By shaking your hand yoou have charged it with energy and if you place your attention there you will feel it. One of the things that Tantra does is to teach you how to generate and move this warm, tingly energy throughout your body.
from the book:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tantric Sex
By: Dr. Judy Kuriansky
