The Yoga of Sex Muscles

Today's PC muscle exercises, or Kegel exercises, are not the ones your mother might have done. Oh no, they've been upgraded a whole lot so it's surprising that they aren't considered one of the "yogas". The truth is that they are a type of yoga. Mindfulness, along with these physical exercises, was taught by many ancient traditions for both men and women.

Dashing off a couple of squeezes here and there is not what I'm talking about. Learning and practicing the correct way to do Kegel exercises isn't hard but it is important to do them right for the desired physical benefits. There are many reasons to do these little gems of internal exercise. They radically improve arousal, blood flow to the pelvic region, strength of grip of the phallus during intercourse, bladder control, amount of orgasm and strength of orgasm, lasting longer, stronger erections, prostate health, thickness of pelvic floor muscles, health of internal organs and more. I recently had to have a sonogram of my lower abdomen and the doctor exclaimed, with some excitement, that my uterus looked like that of a 35 year old. I'm quite a bit older than that, and have had three grown children too, but I attribute this to years of doing my Kegels.

I began doing Kegels many years ago because I wanted to tighten my muscles for more "feeling" during sex. Then I began to get into the more subtle facets of using those built-up muscles to explore the "courtesan" in me. Many stories exist of women so highly trained that they could grip a man's phallus and not let go until they chose to. The Kama Sutra lists the sex technique Vadavaka as "The Mare's Trick" and a skilled woman could rhythmically and consciously massage and "milk" with her pelvic muscles. What the literature doesn't tell is that by learning and enabling this set of muscles the body core becomes more stable and healthy.

However, the yoga part has to do with the awareness and mindfulness that more advanced practices bring. Learning to do PC muscle exercises correctly is the first step to learning how to employ "bandhas" during regular yoga practice or even breathwork (pranayama) and meditation. By locking the pelvic muscles, and visualizing the upward movement of energy throughout the inner body, the topography of the interior organs can be felt and explored. This is called proprioception. Proprioception - from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own", and perception - one of the human senses. This term is often referred to only for outer limbs but it pertains to our inner topography as well. When we pay attention we can begin to feel our bladders, uteruses, prostate glands, cervixes, many of our organs and other soft tissues. This, in turn, aids visualization and potential healing.

In studies with athletes, scientists have discovered that they can improve the muscle strength and performance skills of the athletes by up to 15 percent when they use visualization to imagine their muscles growing or their game improving. This is also the case with learning the relaxation techniques that go with mastering ejaculation control. This pertains to pelvic muscles too. Evidence is growing that we create our own realities by our thoughts and actions, at least to some degree. We can take advantage of this fact to enhance the experiences of our lives.

Here we are on earth. We have a life that we have created to the best of our abilities. Yet both learning new "things" and refining what we already know are very important aspects to a cultivated life. This is what mindfulness is and what further refinement is when we are constantly improving our ability to "know" our selves. It is always interesting to me that many people believe that sex is not a worthy path to knowledge. Better put, that it is something that should only be spontaneous and free. That can be true some of the time but when we focus our minds, bodies, and spirits on sex, the sky can be the limits on how we do it and what outrageous consequences can come from it. Studied and practiced, those consequences can help integrate the mind and the body far more thoroughly.

Here's a very thorough Kegel lesson I wrote and I know you can find others around the Internet, also. This one has the basic practices, inquiry questions and advanced steps for visualizing and moving energy.

Jivamukti founder David Life says it very well in this quote on YogaJournal.com: "Through gradual refinement, mula bandha becomes less muscular and more subtle, energetic, and etheric. This movement from outside to inside, from mundane to rarefied, from unconsciousness to enlightenment, is the basic pattern of transcendental yogic awakening. On an energetic level, mula bandha allows us to feel, restrain, and then direct our energies toward enlightenment. Finally, when practicing mula bandha on the highest level, the yogi sees the Divine in all with equanimity and detachment."

Alchemy – A powerful transformation that is a universal cure for the body, mind and spirit.

How does one become an alchemist? In what ways have you transformed yourself? Have you moved through a restraint, a negative personal experience or a handicap that has informed you on a new level? Have you been an alchemist in your life?
Mother Gaia is moving once more through the seasons with the Equinox having just passed. For some of us the nights will grow shorter and the season will move to Spring and then Summer. For others of us the nights will be longer and we will move into the darkness of Fall and then Winter. This is a potent alchemical time whichever season you are moving into. Change is a-foot and the opportunity to create transformation is close. I’m sure you can feel its presence.
It is a potent practice to understand how you personally move through change. In this busy world you probably barely have time to get your bed made let alone take some time to be with change. It tends to happen to you instead of you guiding yourself to and through it. Being aware of the times, moments, situations that have the potential to transform us is a learned mastery but there are ways to facilitate the change so that it is transformational and expansive. Understanding your own nature – what feels good and right to you – is one of the highest accomplishments you can perform in your life.
Each breath you take is an alchemical process. You take in the life giving air and your body uses it in a myriad of ways to give your cells the nourishment they need to sustain you. Your out-breath, in turn, nourishes plant life and the processes that are outside of ‘you’. Yet these processes are you. You are tied to the bigger picture. You are an alchemist in nature.
When you pause during your day to just ‘be’ with all that is going on in your world you are being an alchemist. You are taking everything in and allowing a moment for integration to occur. Your yoga, meditation or even exercise practice is alchemical. Many different processes are going on in your body/mind/spirit during activities like these even if it is simply five minutes of presences and awareness of what ‘is’.
In your deepest relationships you are the alchemist when you choose compassion and love in the face of adversity and angst. Seeing through a lover’s complaint to the hurt is alchemy. Holding an aging parent’s hand through a difficult transition with patience rather than guilt or resentment is alchemy. Learning new things in the face of not really knowing why you must do it is alchemy. Every moment has the possibility of being the Alchemist’s tool for transformation.
Creating a practice of noticing more often when alchemy is happening and how to actually court it is the process of becoming the best ‘you’ you can be. Acknowledge it when you see it. Call it to you when you can’t see it. Create ritual to acknowledge alchemical transformation. Cultivate consciousness at your source – you are the source.

Small Study on Mood Benefits of Yoga

Finally, the scientific community is studying some of the strong, anecdotal evidence that Yoga produces calmer, happier people. A small, new study on Yoga and health benefits just announced that the amount of a substance in our bodies – GABA – goes up 27% in people who meditate versus reading a book. GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is a neurotransmitter that makes us feel better. Concentrations of this neurotransmitter were at significantly higher levels throughout the brain areas that respond to it in MRSI scans after the one hour Yoga period. Their findings suggest that yoga, and perhaps other forms of exercise, should be investigated as a complementary treatment for depression and anxiety disorders, which are commonly associated with low levels of GABA. This is definitive news on how Yoga, and probably exercise, orgasm and maybe even meditation, can benefit all of us.
Further studies will include a look at general exercise as a comparison to Yoga to see if any qualifications can be used to further define what exactly is happening to the brain and the presence of GABA. I’m hoping they look at meditation and visualization too. Other recent scientific studies have pointed to the fact that you can simply ‘think’ or ‘visualize’ to actual ‘optimize’ the benefits you get from your regular exercise. Imagine yourself pushing your own envelope and it will happen!