Sexuality: Channeling Your Erotic Energy: Yoga for Better Sex
Singles and couples are welcome to join Cara Judea Alhadeff, Iyengar yoga
teacher, for an afternoon of choices about how to direct energy and develop
a cooperative union between our consciousness and our bodies. This workshop
focuses on stretching our capacity to experience pleasure. Investigate our
connection to inner breath to stimulate deep relaxation and awareness in
your own body. Learn how the practice of expansion and containment can
support you in your daily life, release tension in your sexual centers, and
help you develop a deeper intimacy with yourself and/or you and your
partner. Discover a new sense of freedom as you let your breath support you.
Open your heart to remain calm, focused, and powerful.
The workshop focuses on stretching and expanding energy fields. By unpeeling
layers of self-awareness, we investigate how emotions and energy influence
the breath and our choice to be present--learning how to develop energetic
muscles in order to fully inhabit what we Chose to feel through movement,
breath, sounds, intention, and surrender.
For me, eroticism is any intensely satisfying sensation of connectedness to
oneself, to others, and to one's environment. It is continually born out of
the recognition of the self in relation to the whole and the mind in
relation to the body. Erotic is any deeply satisfying feeling of
connectedness to yourself (your body), to others, to nature in which
creativity and work enhance your own and others' sense of vitality. The
"erotic imperative" embodies various responsibilities to yourself and to
others; it is continually born out of the recognition of mutual connections
which brings the self closer to the whole; personal experience is embodied
in the whole.
I want to encourage people to slow down enough to find connections within
their own bodies, among themselves and others—to develop Self-Awareness by
paying attention to the present moment. For me, this is the definition of
Commitment—a willingness to jump into the unknown with an open heart.
The practice of Being at ease, which is different from being comfortable,
with the unfamiliar/the awkward is key for me to understand sex as a bridge
between mind and body. This act of Paying Attention is a conscious choice to
be fully alive—of not only noticing the extremes, but the juicy spaces in
between.
When we reconnect with our desires, learn to love our bodies, enjoy our
sexuality, and communicate our needs, we become erotically empowered.
There are so many issues that can get in the way of us inhabiting our
bodies. Media messages/social conditioning: Self-image/body image and
restrictive attitudes about sex and pleasure, Inadequate sex education, and
stereotypes can all lead to disassociating from our own bodies. And then of
course, our touch-deprived culture also creates confusions about intimacy.
By using our imagination and going beyond what we think we know, we take
emotional and maybe physical (but safe) risks. When we explore the unknown,
we learn to confront habitual reactions and let go of fear of being judged.
Often, just by getting out of our habitual structural relationship within
our bodies, we can change our psychological and physiological experience.
Part of the process of letting go of old habits has to do with how we
perceive energy. Erotic empowerment is often a question of distribution of
energy. It is not a question of acquiring something outside of ourselves.
Redistribution is a question of learning how to use what you have more
effectively. For many of us, sexual energy is like physical strength. We may
not even realize how strong we are, and that our perceived vulnerabilities
may be incredibly powerful. To be vulnerable, you need to let go of ego.
This workshop is focused on how to support our vulnerability and see it as a
form of strength.
This is a practice of developing more refined proprioception (innate body
awareness) and willingness to ask oneself questions without expecting
answers.
To me, ego and the need to be right is about taking things for granted. Ego
takes for granted that certain things are absolute-right and wrong. Being
present is a choice to not get defensive or jump to conclusions. When we
allow the ego to be in charge, we are acting from an unconscious place
(judging, blaming, accusing, making the other wrong).
When we choose to be present in our vitality, we allow the magic of everyday
life to circulate—going beyond wrong and right as we continually seek
multiple truths. Settling into equanimity is a form of accepting what is.
Magic is witnessing what already exists; paying attention to the constantly
shifting unknown that is right in front of us.