Train Your Love Muscle and Ground Yourself!

Here is one of the key secrets: Connect with your life force energy and ground yourself in your pelvic floor. It’s the place of the base center or root Chakra. 

Activating your pelvic floor muscles (the Pubococcygeus or Love Muscle) coordinated with the breath will do wonders for you. Fear of survival, worrying about the future, being afraid of not being good enough reside as constricted energies in the first Chakra. When we release those energies we come back to the ground of our being. 

The following practice will assist you in this process by increasing the flexibility and strength of your pelvic musculature, releasing tension in the sphincter muscle and activating your life force energy that emanates from the base of the spine. 

Sit in a comfortable position on a chair or meditation cushion – close your eyes.

• In order to locate the PC muscle, squeeze your pelvic floor as if you were holding back the urination. Then release the muscle. Repeat this for a few times and then relax the muscle – all the way 
• Now, take in a deep breath filling your belly like a big balloon. On the exhalation visualize sending the breath down and out of your butt into the cushion of your chair 
• Now take a deep breath in filling your belly, chest and all the way up to the top of your head. On the exhalation squeeze and release your PC muscle for several times to the bottom of your exhalation 
• Then breathe in filling your torso from the bottom all the way up to the top of your head – if you can keep squeezing and releasing your PC muscle on the inhalation do so 
• On the exhalation speak out loud while working your PC muscle: Squeeze – release, squeeze release, and so forth until you arrive at the bottom of your exhalation 
• Keep going with this practice for a total of 6 inhalations and exhalations
• Then relax the muscle all the way and continue in your own rhythm of breathing 
• With your eyes closed notice how you are feeling in the area where you were squeezing and releasing 
• Upon completion open your eyes

Enjoy and have fun with it!!!

Please click HERE to get access to the audio of the PC Practice.

 

Spooning: Harmonizing Energies & Moods

Here is a Valentine’s gift for you and your partner. The purpose of this connecting practice is to create balance and harmony, to influence the synchronicity between you and your partner and to come into resonance with each other.
Here is how the practice goes:

The couple lays together spoon-fashion on their left side (for reasons of energy flow). The receiver on the inside is enveloped in the arms of the giver on the outside. The giver, holding the receiver, has his/her right hand rest on the receiver’s lower belly (Creation Chakra) and his/her left arm under the receiver’s neck. 

Synchronized breathing:

As you lie together, close your eyes and relax. Quiet your mind by focusing on deep breathing together. Breathing into your nose down your throat into your lungs and extending into your belly.

• Become aware of your partners breath. 
• Inhale together and exhale together. When inhaling, visualize receiving energy into your Creation Chakra from your partner’s Creation Center and when exhaling send energy from your Creation Center into your partner’s Creation Center. 
• Follow this pattern for four breaths. 
• Then the giver places his/her hand on the receiver’s Heart Center. When inhaling, visualize receiving energy into your Heart Center from your partner’s Heart Center and when exhaling send energy from your Heart Center into your partner’s Heart Center. 
• Follow this pattern for four breaths. 
• Then the giver places his/her finger tips with a light touch on the receiver’s Third Eye Center. When inhaling,visualize receiving energy into your Third Eye Center from your partner’s Third Eye Center and when exhaling send energy from your Third Eye Center into your partner’s Third Eye Center. 
• Follow this pattern for four breaths.

Now switch roles. Once you have completed this practice look at each other and share your experience with each other.

To learn more about TantraNova, their seminars in Chicago and across the US go to http://www.tantranova.com or call 773-525-5006.

Valentine’s Prep: Discover the Secrets to Lasting Intimacy

As you may know we are going to Newport Beach, CA, in February to lead a 3-Day Valentine’s Retreat. It’s all about discovering the secrets to lasting intimacy. And we are excited (both Freddy Zental and Elsbeth). Our regional coordinator, Ayanna, has been doing a phenomenal job in organizing the event and spreading the word in Southern California. 
 

By the way have you ever considered your intimacy or love conditioning? It’s already ingrained in your subconscious and if you want to make any changes to this conditioning it's essential to recognize what it is set for. Is it set for fulfillment and total satisfaction or neediness and lack of intimate connection? Is it set for struggle or ease, high or low libido, consistent or inconsistent sexual pleasure, picking winning or loosing relationships or partners? Unfortunately your current conditioning will stay with you for the rest of your life, unless you identify it and change it. 

With this in mind we created this Valentine's retreat so that women and men can enter new realms of intimate connection and fulfillment. Whatever your conditioning may be, you will be enabled in this retreat to unleash your full capacity for intimate connection and joy with yourself and your partner, rekindle your passion, and rejuvenate your body and spirit. 

This is what you will learn in a safe, respectful and joyous environment:

• How to create fulfillment, joy and pleasure in your relationship and life
• How to rediscover the source of your creative energy
• How to let go of blocks that prevent you from getting what you want

We at TantraNova hold that men and women approach sexual and intimate relationships in fundamentally different ways. For men, the feeling for love connection originates in his sexual center, while for women it originates in the heart center. The result is a big disconnect: He’s feeling it here, she is feeling it there, and eventually no one’s feeling it anywhere. TantraNova helps connect men and women to themselves and to each other and discover the magical connection that allows them to open up and fully be themselves. The outcome is an experience of:

• How to rediscover the source of your creative energy
• How to let go of blocks that prevent you from getting what you
• Deeper intimacy and love
• Rediscovered aliveness and spontaneity in your relationship
• Joy and play in relationship for the woman
• Revived vigor for the man
• Connection with your creative energy
• New ways to be with yourself and another
• Harmony and balance
• Expanded pleasure in your work and family
• Integration of your spiritual and sexual being

To learn more about their upcoming Valentine’s Weekend Retreat for Couples and Individuals in Newport Beach, CA, on February 15-17, 2008, go to http://www.tantranova.com or call Ayanna Mojica, Regional Coordinator, at 949-395-3359.

Honoring the Divine Within: Creating Deeper Intimacy

At TantraNova we have a tradition of celebrating the Holiday Season by inviting our community from near and far to our Holiday Puja Party. It’s this time of year again and we, Dr. E and Freddy Z, want to share with you about this great gathering of guests we had here at the TantraNova Institute in Chicago last night.

You may wonder what a Puja Party is. Puja is a Sanskrit word. Its meaning originates from ancient Buddhism and Hinduism. According to Wikipedia, puja means “expressions of honor, worship, devotional attention. Acts of puja include bowing, making offerings and chanting. These devotional acts are generally performed daily at home (either in the morning or evening or both) as well as during communal festivals.”

We at TantraNova have taken parts of the original idea of the puja traditions and created a Puja Party with the theme of “honoring the Divine within oneself and within another”. Our Puja Party last night was a Holiday celebration and our guests showed up in festive and inspiring clothes. It was a joyous and most delightful occasion since all of us got to connect with old and new friends. We enjoyed aphrodisiac foods that were prepared by raw food chefs Yvonne Washington and Bonita Kindle. It was a most delicious feast.

Freddy Zental created an engaging medley of dance music and we had a blast watching fabulous moves and individual expressive styles on the dance floor.

The center piece of the party constituted a Puja ritual which is a practice with an inner circle facing the outer circle. It’s a kind of musical chair game where the inner circle moves to the left after they connected with a person in the outer circle. Elsbeth and Freddy Zental lead the Puja ritual giving different directions at each station of the circle.

The ritual is designed to support you in becoming more present to the moment and to yourself. This in turn supports you in becoming more present to the person that stands across from you in the Puja circle. When fully present you bring focus to acknowledging the Divine within yourself and within the person you are facing at each of the Puja stations.

You can tell by all of our blog entries over the past few months that everything centers on being and becoming more present. Once you become more present you can connect more deeply with yourself as well as with another. This is at the very core of creating lasting intimacy in your life and relationships.

For further info on TantraNova and to learn more about creating lasting intimacy and love go to http://www.tantranova.com

Gifting - The Giving of Pleasure

This is the season for giving. I (Elsbeth) have been reflecting on the meaning and customs of giving in our culture. I experience this time often as a bitter–sweet event. However recently I declared to myself to be joyous, at peace and delighted in gifting without rushing around and hectic moments.

So, when Freddy Zental asked me for private time together – a time when we don’t work or discuss business, a time that is truly for the two of us alone, I accepted with delight. We set aside Saturday morning to create a Healing Ritual together.

As many of you know from working with us in seminars and private programs, feeling connected and intimate originates from a deep listening to oneself and one’s partner. The Healing Rituals we practice and teach allow cultivating that kind of listening. One crucial dimension for this listening is the establishing of the giver and receiver roles.

I prepared myself for the ritual by choosing to be the giver with the intention to support Freddy Zental further in his recovery from surgery. Setting up the room, getting his favorite lotion and crèmes, turning on the heating pad for sustained warmth underneath the sheet (after all we do live in Chicago!) and drawing the shades for soothing light I felt anticipation and joy.

Then Freddy Z arrived and received – so appreciative and open. His body could let go, his energies could flow and his Being dropped into a state of peace and pleasure. It was truly a healing and flowing experience, a re-awakening of his body, heart and spirit.

Yes, this kind of gifting we both treasure. And mutually we agreed to make time for more of these kinds of Holiday presents.

For further info on TantraNova and to learn more about the Healing Rituals and Practices go to http://www.tantranova.com

The Healing Powers of the Breath

Freddy Zental here – I am speaking to you after colon surgery I underwent last Monday. For the duration of the surgery I was put completely under anesthesia for a couple of hours. When I resurfaced I found myself with a catheter in my bladder and an intravenous dripper for feeding and hydration, antibiotics and pain medication. I felt so out of it, drowsy, dizzy and sick to my stomach. However soon into my hospital stay they also provided me with a breathing device to assist in strengthening my lungs after the artificial breathing support with a tube during surgery.

There was nothing of the usual distractions – like food, walking around, talking on the phone, being on the computer, working out. Taking moment by moment I went inside. For 24 hours I kept focusing on my breathing expanding my belly as much the stitches in my colon and belly allowed. That kept me present. The breath was my bridge between my body and my soul, between the physical pain and staying peaceful.

Within 24 hours I was up and walking – with my machinery of feeding and pain killing devices on my arm – down the corridor of the hospital floor. The walking and the conscious breathing kept my circulation going.

Something that might seem horrible, painful and confining showed up for me as coming to peace in myself no matter the circumstances. The breath once again saw me through. I returned to stillness.

BREATHING PRACTICE

Here is a breathing practice I do frequently by myself and teach in my private sessions and group workshops. I am offering this to you so you can come back to stillness and peace within:

- Sit comfortably on a chair or a cushion on the floor

- Place your right hand on your abdomen on the navel area

- Take in a deep breath and let your belly expand into your hand

- On the exhalation notice the falling of your belly

- When you are ready take in a deep breath again notice your belly expanding into your hand

- Exhale deeply and feel your belly falling and letting go

- Continue in this pattern of breathing for 15 – 20 breaths

- Then remove your hand and follow the wave of your breath coming and going - notice your belly rising with the inhalation and falling with the exhalation

- Stay with yourself for a moment longer and notice how you and your body feel now

Write us at tantranova@tantranova.com with further questions or thoughts on the breath, how it works and what difference it could make in your life. For further info on TantraNova go to http://www.tantranova.com

Much to do About TantraNova Man

Last night was Theater Night at TantraNova. My one-man show starts out with: …… “I am TantraNova Man!!! Just kidding! I am Freddy and really a tall black guy.”

So today I’d like to give you a taste of what the show is all about. Even if you can’t attend since you live in L.A., Memphis, Rome, or Santiago you can get a glimpse of it here by reading the interview Elsbeth did with me:

Elsbeth: How did you come to create your “TantraNova Man” show?

Freddy Z: I wanted to share with people in an entertaining and inspiring way how TantraNova lives and works for me in my life. I am weaving storytelling with singing, dancing, telling jokes and playing my drums – all to express how the impacting moments in my life starting at the age of five through adulthood have shaped who I am today.

Elsbeth: Any breakthrough that you experienced since starting the play?

Freddy Z: Yes, I always wished I could sing. Until I started the play I firmly believed that I couldn’t sing. I remember as a kid that I was told I’d better keep my mouth shut when it came to singing. As a grownup every time I would listen to Kurt Elling or Carol King or Satchmo I wished I could sing. Three years ago when deciding to do my play I made a pact with myself to learn how to sing. So I took lessons and started to practice and developed my voice. And now I am having a lot of fun performing songs by the great masters while accompanying myself on my jimbai drum, congas or handsonic (my electronic instrument).

Elsbeth: What’s your favorite part in your play?

Freddy Z: The story about the time when I was 13 years old discovering my first orgasm. This was a most exhilarating moment. I thought ‘it doesn’t get any better than this! I never have to leave my room again! I don’t have to take out the garbage anymore! And I was wondering why the teachers in school never had taught us about this?’

What I see now is how much that sexual lusting energy ran me for a long time - falling in and out of love experiencing lots of drama. Looking at it from my present day perspective I find it rather comical – however in my youth and young adulthood it was exhilarating, serious, heart wrenching ……!

Elsbeth: What else do you like about the play?

Freddy Z: I get to do all the things that I love to do: I get to sing, get to play my drums, get to touch people’s hearts with my stories, get to laugh in a group and I’m having fun.

To find out about future show dates please go to TantraNova Man: An Experiential Show or the Special Events section on www.tantranova.com. I also invite you to write me at freddy@tantranova.com.