Deepening Intimacy and Connection with Tantra

• Relationships
• Awakened Living

There is a cultural longing for more connection and intimacy in relationships. There is also a call for sacred and spiritual connections. People of all ages, genders, and sexual orientations are feeling the need for a place to connect with their body, mind, and spirit in community. Tantra offers ways to deepen your relationship with yourself and others.

For those who are new to Tantra, it is a practice that combines movement, breath, meditation, bodywork, and sound to assist the energy system within the body, also known as chakras, to open. This opening allows dormant energy, also known as kundalini, to move up from the pelvis, along the spine. As this life-force energy moves up the spine, it helps one to transform and heal. The healing involves loosening constrictions within the body that develop throughout life. When the constrictions are loosened, one’s true identity is revealed. Transformation takes place, as well as life shifts: significant physical and emotional health improvements, new jobs, new or deeper partnerships, moves to one’s dream location—these are just some of the outcomes I have witnessed.

The intention of tantric practices is to expand one’s body and experience back to the soul’s original essence (known as purusha in Sanskrit): who you were as a fetus, free of stress or trauma, and who you are growing into as you become free. This is when we can come into our fullest potential, with acute awareness and clear, loving connection with others.

On my own Tantra path, and as a practitioner, I have held space for many to expand into their fullest selves. Over and over, I have seen that when chakras open, emotions stir. After all, they became blocked or contracted because one was not protected or did not feel safe being oneself. Contractions can result not only from an accident or abuse, but also from the constant messages we receive from society to be someone we are not. Contractions within the body are a natural response to protect your soul, which wants so much to be free to express itself. However, the contractions affect our ability to create and to let go of unsupportive habits, and also how we connect with others.

Inviting the chakra system to open requires courage and readiness to take that leap, trusting that you will be supported and protected as you heal and open to living your true destiny.

Why are so many people turning to Tantra to solve their relationship challenges?

Tantra offers simple, useful communication techniques you can practice and use immediately in your daily lives. Tantra can become your new way of relating—with intention, care and passion. We help our students to be honest about what they enjoy and what they don’t in any given moment.

Sexual abuse survivors and those with other sexual concerns find Tantra to be healing. We all need a forum to discuss sexual concerns openly without shame, and a place to learn new ways of connecting intimately that are sacred, fun, and exciting.

Today, with the increased use of technology for communication, both partners often holding down full-time jobs, and the need to coordinate parenting schedules, couples often drift apart. Tantra can help you to connect, ignite new passion, and remember why you came together to share your lives.

Tantra-based practices, like the Divine Love Meditation below, help cultivate intimacy with oneself and others.

Divine Love Meditation

First, envision water being poured over your head. This water is soothing, softening and cleansing. Imagine it cleansing all the allergens, toxins, and tensions from your body.

Soften the top of your head (your crown chakra). Inhale divine love from the sky through your crown chakra and through your shushumna (central channel), all the way to the heart of the earth. (The inhale is technically being drawn in from the nose.)

Exhale and allow the breath to slowly rise up your front body and out your mouth. Allow your exhalation to wash over your heart and throat, softening anything you’re holding in those chakras.

Try practicing this meditation regularly, and notice if your communication transforms to a more loving form. Also, notice how this style of communication affects your relationships with others.

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