Category: Meditation

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Raw-Dogging Reality – Recovering Your Dopamine, Pt. 2

Meditation

Meditation is a great way to see firsthand your mind’s addiction to empty stimulation. You sit down, close your eyes, and attempt to keep your mind focused on just one thing, such as the breath. Sounds boring right? It certainly was for me at first and it is for most newcomers, who find that their mind will do anything in its power to find something more interesting. 

Daydreams and distractions abound! 

Stick with it though, and slowly but surely the mind will begin to settle, and peace, even bliss can begin to arise. Further, it strengthens your mind’s ability to focus and stay on task, “sharpening the saw” so to speak, so that you can accomplish your goals that much more easily.

In short, meditation is the exact opposite of our attention-scattered, distracted, empty stimulation-seeking habits, and is a big part of the antidote. Our minds drive us from distraction to distraction; meditation says “no” to all of these distractions and teaches the mind to settle on just one thing.

The things we’re giving up this month are a prime example of how the mind craves distraction and stimulation. We aren’t content to just be, but instead run from distraction to distraction, from empty dopamine hit to dopamine hit, hoping to achieve some lasting satisfaction. 

But these things never bring lasting satisfaction, do they? If they did, we wouldn’t get bored so fast and look for something else to fill that hole within us. If they did, that Christmas gift we wanted so badly when we were 10 would still be bringing us great satisfaction, but the satisfaction faded pretty quickly. Come to think of it, the satisfaction we get from anything fades pretty quickly, doesn’t it?

Meditation is the antithesis to our mind constantly running around seeking stimulation – you bring it back, again and again and again, to the object of meditation. And as the mind settles and lets go of its craving, peace and bliss may start to arise. 

What might cause these good feelings? The joy you experience when you get something that you really wanted isn’t actually coming from that object – it’s coming from the craving for that object going away. Think about it, there is nothing inherently joy-producing from a nice juicy steak – if there was, you’d be fine eating it for every meal of the day for the rest of eternity, but anyone would get sick of that pretty quick.

The joy you experience when you get something you were really craving comes from the craving going away – and the amount of joy is proportional to the amount of craving that has ceased.

When the mind lets go of craving, it experiences peace and bliss. This is what meditation can provide, a temporary reprieve from craving, on demand. Meditation teaches you to find contentment and peace in the present moment, so that you aren’t reliant upon outer sources of happiness.

But it takes practice and commitment.

If you aren’t meditating yet, try it out this month. 5 minutes in the evening the first week, 10 the next week, 15 on week three, and 20 mins each night on week four.

Basic Meditation on the Breath

  1. Sit in a comfortable position in a quiet room, and take 3-5 deep belly breaths to settle down. Set a timer for 5-20 mins.
  2. Focus on the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nostrils – this will be your object of meditation. Don’t alter your breath in any way, just passively notice the sensations.
  3. Begin to count your breaths, with one in-breath and one out-breath being one breath. So breathe in, feeling the sensations at the tip of the nose, breathe out feeling those same sensations, and mentally note “one”. Count up to five or ten, then repeat.
  4. Conversely, you can note “in” on the in-breath, and “out” on the out-breath.
  5. When your mind wanders, and it will, gently bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nose. Do this for the entire length of the session, and each time the mind wanders and you bring it back, think of it as “reps” for your mind muscles.
  6. If after a while, when mind wandering has been significantly reduced, drop the mental noting and try to stay with just the sensations of the breath. Try to be aware of every moment of sensation on the in-breath, be aware of the lack of sensation in between breaths, and then be aware of every sensation of the out-breath. This is more subtle and thus more difficult.
  7. When the timer goes off, congratulate yourself. Generate positive feelings, because you just did something Kingly – you took control and overcame the urge to distract yourself. 
  8. Your mind needs to be balanced between the gentle effort of concentrating on the breath with a relaxed “letting go” of other thoughts and sensations. Just as a guitar string that is too tight or too loose won’t sound right, so too must your mind be balanced between gentle effort and relaxation.

Supplements to Enhance Dopamine

There are supplements/drugs that release dopamine on their own, called agonists, that you mainly want to avoid right now. They cause your brain to release large amounts of dopamine all at once, which feels great, but basically ruins your inherent dopamine sensitivity and production over time, leading to depression, the blahs, anhedonia, lethargy, etc etc. So for the purpose of this month-long experiment, avoid dopamine agonists like nicotine, beer, Mary Jane and drugs like (do I even need to say this?) cocaine, adderall and other ADHD meds, MDMA, opiates, kratom, etc. If you are prescribed any of these, it’s best to stick with your prescription and discuss it with your doctor if you want to get off of them.

Coffee, tea and caffeine get a pass as they actually help keep dopamine receptors sensitive, but keep the intake on the lower side – aim for reducing down to 50 to 200 mg per day tops, over a week or two.

Then there are supplements that enhance your body’s own production of dopamine, called precursors. These supply your brain with the raw material to synthesize dopamine, but almost all of them have a “rate-limiting factor”, which means the brain won’t get overloaded with dopamine and you won’t deal with decreases in natural production and loss of sensitivity. 

Certain compounds are great at protecting dopaminergic neurons from toxicity from too much dopamine, aka our usual quick fixes, be it lighter things like gaming/social media or harder things like occasional drug use. These are great options to have on hand or take daily.

Finally, there are supplements that can help resensitize your neurons to dopamine – meaning however much dopamine your brain naturally releases will be better utilized. In other words, you go further with less. 

All of these options are fantastic for us because once we give up our crutches, our quick fixes, our brains will be without their usual sources of quick dopamine hits, meaning we will likely be feeling pretty “blah”. Dopamine precursors will give us an immediate boost in energy and motivation, and dopamine re-sensitization agents will help us over the long term to go further with the dopamine our brains are naturally releasing from everyday life.

Dopamine precursors – must be taken on an empty stomach for full effectiveness. Pick one or two to try out, and use 1-2 times daily or keep them for when you’re really dragging ass. Don’t use a bunch at the same time! We’re just looking for a little dopaminergic boost if we need it.

  • L-Tyrosine – converts to L-DOPA which converts to dopamine. This and NALT are probably the strongest in terms of acute effects.
  • N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine (NALT) – This is more potent than plain L-Tyrosine, but I actually prefer plain Tyrosine. Many prefer NALT, so take your pick. Lots of discussion on comparisons of the two on r/nootropics.
  • L-Phenylalanine – converts to L-Tyrosine, then L-DOPA, then dopamine. It’s a bit less effective than L-Tyrosine
  • DL-Phenylalanine (DLPA) – L-Phenyl converts to L-Tyrosine like before, but the D-Phenyl blocks the enzyme in the body that breaks down endorphins, giving you a nice pain-killing, warm fuzzy feeling – you won’t get high, but it really softens the edges of going without your dopaminergic crutches. This is what I’ve been using, as it provides a very nice but subtle glow while my brain readjusts to giving up its dopamine depletors. A bit “softer” than L-Ty or NALT, but has the endorphin glow.
  • Cordyceps – another great pick that works in a different manner. This is an amazing jing- and qi-boosting mushroom from the orient that increases tyrosine-hydroxylase, the enzyme that converts L-Tyrosine to L-DOPA. From the linked study, “These results suggest that CME (a cordyceps extract) can upregulate the dopaminergic (DArgic) system, and may contribute to neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases.” I have been using Nootropic Depot’s 10:1 Cordyceps extract, and I love it.

Dopamine neuroprotectants – these won’t do much for our little month long experiment, and you likely won’t notice any “boost” when you take them, but they’re great to get in the habit of using daily to protect your dopamine neurons, or especially to use before you’re going to do anything that hammers the dopamine system – drinking, taking prescription ADHD meds, etc.

  • PQQ – Similar to CoQ10, PQQ is neuroprotective to dopaminergic neurons, is a powerful antioxidant and not only energizes existing mitochondria (the engines of your cells), but even creates new mitochondria, giving you more day to day energy- in other words, it boosts qi/prana. No need to cycle but it can be on the pricier side, and oftentimes you’ll find it paired with CoQ10. I’d do a 2-3 month cycles of it to get the mitochondrial benefits, or simply keep it on hand if you know you’re going to be indulging in anything that overloads the dopamine system. Here it is with CoQ10, here it is by itself.
  • Gynostemma – a classic adaptogen hailing from Traditional Chinese Medicine, this qi-boosting herb is also neuroprotective and “neuro-restorative” to dopaminergic neurons. Also delays fatigue, improves insulin sensitivity and a whole lot more. It’s pretty affordable – I have 1-2 cups per day of this tea, which also has extracts of schisandra, goji berry, astragalus and siberian ginseng. This combo is also available in tincture form, or you can try loose gynostemma by itself. Here is an organic source but it will cost a bit more. Also I have not tried these specific loose teas so feel free to source your own.

Dopamine resensitizing agents – these are the real gold here, as they help our neurons to actually recuperate and repair, making them more sensitive to the dopamine our brains naturally produce. While some do gently increase the amount of dopamine in the brain, the big benefit is that they make what dopamine is released more effective – but you need to take them consistently over a longer period of time to get these effects. Try one out for a few months at least, or better yet, use one for 2-3 months, then use a different one, etc, keeping those dopamine receptors fresh.

  • Sulbutiamine – a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1 that modulates dopaminergic systems in the brain. It actually decreases dopamine in D2 receptors, which, over the long haul, increases their expression and sensitivity. For most, it provides a pretty palpable energy boost the first 5-10 times using it, then seems to not do much for energy, but it still is working in the background on those D2 receptors. My top pick if you regularly consume alcohol, as alcohol massively depletes vitamin B1. 
  • Uridine – a dopamine neuromodulator, uridine can increase dopamines effectiveness. Use uridine monophosphate or its more bioavailable form, triacetyluridine. It has even more potent restorative effects when combined with the omega-3 fatty acid, DHA, which you can buy in an already combined form here – highly recommended.
  • Forskolin – robustly upregulates dopamine D2 receptors and “receptor supersensitivity” via increasing cAMP, which has other benefits, possibly increasing testosterone as well. 
  • Acetyl-l-carnitine – also known as ALCAR, this acetylated amino acid increases expression of dopamine D1 receptors – all the others affect D2. It’s also neuroprotective, boosts energy and helps shuttle fat into mitochondria to be burned as fuel. You’ll probably feel it’s energy boosting effects, and can get powder here (it’s sour but manageable), or pills here.

Just Be

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

I write about this practice in the book I’ve been working on (just need to format it at this point), that of practicing just being. It isn’t a cutting-edge tool or technique, but rather a test of sorts to see how far we’ve come in terms of giving up our pointless dopamine depletors. 

Just sit down on a park bench, your front porch, the end of your bed or on your couch. Put your phone on airplane mode and set a timer for 10 minutes. Don’t drink coffee, tea or a beer, don’t smoke a cigarette or a joint. 

Just sit there and be. 

Don’t meditate, don’t try to problem solve, don’t pray, don’t repeat a mantra, don’t do anything at all. Thoughts will come up, but try to remain a passive observer of them.

How antsy are you? How badly do you want to check your phone? How excruciating is it to just sit there calmly? 

Isn’t it ironic we call ourselves human beings when 99% of us find it painful to just sit and be?

What you’re experiencing first hand is craving and aversion in the mind. Craving to do something else, something more stimulating. Aversion to just being, aversion to plain old reality as it is.

Do this once or twice a week this month. You should find that by the end of the month, it’s not so bad to just sit there. Hell, it may even be pleasant. It’s a great litmus test to see how far you’ve come in terms of seeking empty stimulation.

“When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions, we do not allow the wound to heal. But when we instead experience the raw quality of the itch or pain of the wound and do not scratch it, we actually allow the wound to heal.” – Pema Chodron

Putting it all Together

So how do we put this all together? The first part is cutting out dopamine depletors, or at least greatly reducing them. I recommend taking an inventory and seeing what activities you regularly engage in that are sources of empty pleasure, and then systematically give them up.

You should cut out drugs and alcohol entirely this month. If you’re addicted to anything beyond caffeine, that goes beyond the scope of this little experiment, so get help with that first. I’m not getting into the debate on whether caffeine should be used or not while practicing semen retention – it works fine for some and causes relapses for others. I will say that if you’re a heavy caffeine user, try tapering down by 50 mg or so each week. 

Embrace boredom – you may find it leads to creativity. Don’t whip your phone out while you’re waiting in line at the store or while going to the bathroom. Don’t start texting your boys when the book you’re reading bores you. Try driving, lifting and running sometimes without music.

I want you to be raw-dogging reality! Yes, it will be boring at first. Be a man, suck it up, and persevere. It will get better as time goes on.

At the same time as you cut out your dopamine wasters, actively embrace discomfort, both the small things like chores, homework, reading, journaling, meditating, and the big things, like exercise, fasting, sauna use and/or cold showers. Create nightly lists, accomplish what’s on them first thing in the morning.

Remember, exercise, fasting, sauna use and cold showers not only toughen up the mind, but give you a big boost in terms of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin and endorphins. These hormetic stressors will provide an immediate and sustainable release of dopamine, as well as speed up the recovery process. They will make your life much less “blah” and much more rewarding.

Recall that meditation is the antithesis to the constant stimulation-seeking, craving aspect of the mind. It would do you well to make it a daily habit, even if it’s just 5 to 10 minutes each day.

Get yourself a supplement that naturally increases dopamine in a natural, controlled manner, as your brain will be in a dopamine deficit after cutting out those timewasters. Bonus points if you get a supplement that helps resensitize your dopamine receptors.

As your brain resensitizes and your hedonic setpoint gets raised, the small things will gradually become more and more interesting and pleasurable. 

What you do after this experiment is, of course, your choice. If you choose to keep going, realize you’ll need to constantly be putting effort into this. Remember, we’re drowning in a world of hyperstimulating things – to push away or limit phone time, screen time, game time, drugs, junk food, and especially porn requires constant effort and vigilance. 

Entropy is always working against us, boys.

You will be greatly rewarded, however, as you will no longer be a slave to your mind’s craving for constant stimulation. You will be in control. You will be a King amongst the peasants. You will tell your mind what to focus on, and it will listen. And after a few days to weeks to months, you will find accomplishing tasks and goals rewarding. You will look down sympathetically at everyone else, watching as they run towards the next empty dopamine hit, leaving behind their real dreams and goals.

You’ll need to figure out to what degree you let these vices back into your life. Some things you may want to cut out entirely, such as endless scrolling on social media, drinking alcohol, or smoking cigarettes or weed.

Or you may decide that if you had a good, productive week, a couple beers with the boys on the weekend is no big deal, or enjoying a well-rolled spliff as you game for a few hours Sunday night is no big deal. 

Whatever you decide, be sure to keep constant vigilance and to push on the pain side of the balance. Make sure that you are the one in control, not the constant craving for empty stimulation. 

“It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.” Invictus, William Ernest Henley

Further Resources 

Dr. Anna Lembke’s book Dopamine Nation, and the Huberman Lab Podcast episode with Lembke titled Understanding and Treating Addiction, for understanding dopamine more and leveraging the “pleasure/pain balance”

James Clear’s Atomic Habits to learn best practices for creating new habits that stick and breaking old counter-productive habits

A Mind Without Craving – An excellent book by Delson Armstrong

The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits – By Judson Brewer

David Goggins on the Joe Rogan Experience, episode 1080 and episode 1906, for toughening up and general bad-assery

Jocko Willink on the JRE – “Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short. Don’t count on motivation; count on discipline.” – Jocko Willink 

Conquering Flatlines/PAWS, a previous post – similar info but not necessary reading

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Raw-Dogging Reality – Recovering Your Dopamine, Pt. 1

One of the biggest benefits we get from semen retention is the huge increase in dopamine that occurs when we refrain from orgasm. Dopamine is the molecule that not only gives us the energy, confidence and motivation to get things done, but it’s also the molecule of reward, making us feel good when we accomplish our tasks and goals. 

Of course, it’s also responsible for the good feelings we get from food, drugs, sex, gaming, social media – pretty much anything pleasurable.

Unfortunately, the modern world is filled to the brim with cheap thrills, quick fixes and shiny distractions that constantly drain us of our motivation/reward molecule, and I don’t mean just porn – social media, gaming, binge watching Netflix, even text and email alerts all take us out of the present moment, sapping attention and depleting dopamine.

This leaves us crippled, crabby, maybe even downright useless without our normal crutches. 

In other words – we have become so hooked on chemical highs and technological distractions that bare reality has become unbearable. If we take a month or two to get rid of these chemicals and technological distractions (or at least greatly reduce them), then we will, with no further effort, become happier and more interested in the world around us.

Perhaps more importantly, we will find ourselves with both the energy and the motivation to go out there and chase after the things we really want – our dreams, our goals, our mission.

This post is about combating the modern world and all its cheap pitfalls in order to further enhance the benefits we get from abstaining from PMO, first by cutting out those addictive dopamine depletors; by learning to leverage “the suck” to further enhance the dopaminergic pathways and reward centers in the brain; and using targeted supplements to improve the functioning of dopamine within the brain. It’s similar to a “dopamine detox”, but geared towards retainers with some specific exercises and additional goodies.

Further, unlike most of my posts, there’s very little to do with transmuting sexual energy, yoga, and the esoteric. Just plain, hard science on enhancing dopamine – although this concept is essentially the same as tapas, or spiritual austerity.

This article is written with New Year in mind, and framed within a one month context. Try out what is suggested for the month of January, or any month for that matter, but realize that these are practices you should learn to adopt in your daily life, not just one month out of the year.

And let me be very transparent – I am writing this and engaging in this experiment as a kick in my own pants. I’ve gotten a little soft around the edges the last couple of months in some ways – time to get back to the grindstone.

“Resistance is the grindstone of our soul.” – Aubrey Marcus

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

Article at a glance :

  1. Dopamine is the neurochemical currency of drive, motivation and reward. One of the biggest benefits of semen retention is how it quickly and robustly increases dopamine levels – this article is all about further optimizing our lifestyle to maximize dopaminergic function. 
  2. We are addicted to chasing empty stimulation (porn, junk food, social media, gaming, binge watching shows, texts/emails, drugs), and this addiction to distraction and empty stimulation prevents us from doing and enjoying those things we know we need to be doing.
  3. If we give up these meaningless distractions, we allow our brains, specifically our dopamine receptors, time to recuperate and resensitize, making our normal, daily life more enjoyable. We will also reclaim the motivation to accomplish all of our goals, big and small, that we have allowed these devilish distractions to take from us.
  4. Taking this one step further, if we actively “embrace the suck”, we can speed up this process of healing and boost levels of feel good neurotransmitters (Part 1 ends here)
  5. Meditation is the polar opposite of constant stimulation seeking – engaging in focused meditation practice retrains the mind to focus attention and calm down, instead of scattering attention in an agitated manner.
  6. We can use targeted supplementation to increase dopamine levels, protect dopamine neurons, and even to regain neuronal sensitivity to dopamine.
  7. We can assess our progress not only by seeing how much more enjoyment we get out of the real world, but by practicing “just being”.

Dopamine Zombies

The way we achieve things in this life is largely due to dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in both motivation (the pursuit of our goals and interests), and the feelings of reward after we get or accomplish what we were after. One of the reasons semen retention is so powerful is because of how it’s able to increase dopamine levels so robustly – recall that orgasm leads to a rise in prolactin, which subsequently plummets dopamine levels for up to two weeks afterwards. No orgasm means little prolactin, which means more dopamine, leading to you having the energy, drive and confidence to chase after your goals and accomplish them.

The problem with today’s world is that everything, not just porn, has been designed to hijack the reward pathways in our brains – from food, to video games, to social media, to tv and movies, even to our phones, and nevermind drugs themselves.

Think back to when we were a tribal species. We evolved to get rewarded by “dopamine hits” from finding food, hunting prey, sleeping with actual mates, socializing with real friends and family in person, hearing stories and myths told by elders of the tribe (or by telling them), building and maintaining a living space, dancing and communing around the fire… In other words, we had to work for these rewards, and these rewards were useful and beneficial, ensuring we would do the things we needed to survive and form social bonds. And when we were hunter gatherers, there were essentially zero drugs.

Nowadays? We flip open our phone and have instant access to porn, distracting games, and endless scrolling on social media – which is designed to be addictive. Even texting “creates a dopamine loop” in the brain. We have access to drugs and booze that cause an immediate release of pleasure far beyond anything else in the natural world. We eat food and drink beverages that companies have spent millions of dollars designing to be as rewarding and addicting as possible. 

Just take a look at this chart which shows the massive release of dopamine from some drugs – 

“In today’s dopamine-rich ecosystem, we’ve all become primed for immediate gratification. We want to buy something, and the next day it shows up on our doorstep. We want to know something, and the next second the answer appears on our screen. Are we losing the knack of puzzling things out, or being frustrated while we search for the answer, or having to wait for the things we want? The neuroscientist Samuel McClure and his colleagues examined what parts of the brain are involved in choosing immediate versus delayed rewards. They found that when participants chose immediate rewards, emotion- and reward-processing parts of the brain lit up. When participants delayed their reward, the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain involved in planning and abstract thinking—became active.

The implication here is that we are all now vulnerable to prefrontal cortical atrophy as our reward pathway has become the dominant driver of our lives.”  Dr. Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation

And that’s real bad news, because it means we are no longer in control of our behavior. We’re no longer using our prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain so highly developed in humans that allows us to think and plan, but are slaves to our hijacked reward pathways, switching from one source of empty stimulation to the next, not getting anything worthwhile done, not chasing after our dreams or accomplishing our goals.

We’ve become dopamine zombies, slaves to our technology and chemical crutches.

How do we overcome this issue? By getting rid of our addictive substances and timewasters, and actively engaging in the beneficial but less stimulating things we know we should be doing.

“Remember and remind yourself of a phrase favored by Epictetus: ‘persist and resist.’ Persist in your efforts. Resist giving in to distraction, discouragement, or disorder.” – Ryan Holiday

Get rid of Distraction, Lean into Discomfort and Do the Hard Thing (Weaning and Leaning)

The way we get from lazy and comfortable to action-oriented and badass? We need to wean ourselves off of our comfortable, dopaminergic distractions, and lean into those things that are tough that we know we need to be doing. It’s a simple concept, but it can be difficult to really put into place effectively.

I don’t need to tell you what your time wasters are, I’m sure you know them well. Time to start weaning yourself off of them. The most effective method is to just cut them out entirely – no scrolling on any social media apps, no Youtube, no Netflix or gaming. No distracting yourself at all – I want you to be raw-dogging reality. It’s a shock to the system, but it’s effective and there’s no wiggle room to cheat.

If you can’t imagine giving everything up, at least cut out the biggest ones, and save the smaller ones for an hour in the evening the first week, 45 minutes the second week, 30 minutes the 3rd week, cut out completely the last week.

As for drugs? Many in this community don’t use any at all, including caffeine. For those that do, try to cut them out entirely for this month – no booze, no nicotine, no adderall, no pills, no kratom, none of that. I’ll make an exception for caffeine as it’s pretty mild and actually helps to increase dopamine receptor expression, but don’t be pounding energy drinks every two hours.

If your only chemical vice is a bit of coffee each day, cut back on the amount the first couple weeks and then abstain completely the second half of the month, or the last week.

If this is too painful for you, well… Toughen the hell up, buttercup. You want to become a semen retention badass but can’t wait till the evening to engage in your time wasters? Dig deep, get in touch with your manly side, and make it happen!

After you’ve cut your dopamine depletors out or reduced them and moved them to the evening, you’ll have some free time on your hands. Now comes the leaning into part of the practice. What is it you know you should be doing, but that brings up some internal resistance to doing it? Whatever that is, do that thing right now! 

That feeling of resistance should be your cue that whatever is causing said feeling is your new mission. “The Obstacle is the Way”, as Ryan Holiday titled his book on stoicism. That feeling of resistance is your call to arms, the rallying cry to go make things happen. Anyone who does cold showers knows this feeling well. Anyone who has tried to talk to that cute gal over there knows this feeling well. Shit, anyone who has tried to clean their room is familiar with this feeling.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it? The second you feel that feeling, go do that thing without even thinking about it. You don’t have your time wasters to distract you, so what else is there to do?

Just take a second and imagine how different your life would be if, starting today, you didn’t shirk from the essential-but-uncomfortable, but instead attacked head on. Think of how much you could get done today… Think about how much you could get done in a month… Now, imagine if you have been doing things this way for years! 

Yeah, it’s safe to say your life would be very different and undoubtedly much better. You’d scoff at the notion of constantly suckling on the teet of whatever your vices currently are.

Make a list each night before bed of the top 3-5 things you need to get done the next day. Don’t wait until the morning to make the list, have that bad boy ready to go. Then, each time you accomplish a task, cross it off the list. Making the physical list and crossing it off is key to this process. Each time you complete a goal and cross it off the list, guess what? Instant dopamine release – you feel a sense of accomplishment at completing the task (plus some relief thrown in for good measure), and that dopamine release gives you energy and motivation to accomplish the next task. 

It’s a vicious cycle of productive badassery.

Now, you can approach your productive mornings in two different ways. One way is “worst first” – you start your day doing the thing that is gonna be the biggest pain in your ass. With that out of the way, the rest of your manly duties seem much easier. If you’re one of those “fire in the belly” guys, this method may be for you.

I am many things, but a hard-charging, Type A personality I am not. I prefer to start with the smaller things and move up the ladder. The disadvantage here is things become progressively more difficult as I cross off my to-dos, but the upside is I get some small, easy wins which help me build momentum to tackle The Big Baddies. However, both energy and will-power are finite resources, so you have to be strategic about this method. Don’t drain yourself accomplishing 6 smaller tasks and then have no energy to do that 1 big thing you really needed to get done that day – I’ve done that more than I care to admit.

No matter which method you choose, and neither is better than the other, you are now setting yourself up for success in life by training your brain to get dopamine from accomplishing goals, instead of from mindless time wasters or using substances.

Now, it must be noted that in the beginning, the dopamine released from accomplishing small tasks or goals won’t be nearly as big as that released from things like gaming, social media, nicotine, booze, marijuana, etc, etc. If it were, pretty much everyone would easily accomplish their goals off the bat. Hang in there, it will get better.

And it should be noted that the more you allow yourself to spend time on these other highly addictive time wasters, well… The less enjoyment you’ll get out of doing the things you know you need to be doing.

At the risk of repeating myself too often, moving your time wasters to the end of the day and limiting the amount spent on them is a great beginning strategy, but if you really want to get the most out of this month, you should cut them out completely. If you don’t think you can give them up completely from the get-go, start by saving the time wasters for an hour in the evening the first week, a half hour in the second, and then give them up entirely the last two weeks.

This will give your brain time to literally rewire itself – in the wake of blasting your dopamine receptors 24/7 from highly stimulating bullshit, they will re-sensitize enough so that you actually come to enjoy not just adulting, but all the other badass stuff you really want and need to be doing.

And once you reach that point, this won’t be a struggle, it’ll be your new way of life.

“Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.” WB Yeats

Pressing on the Pain Side

What if I told you I regularly engaged in a grueling practice that was difficult, increased bodily inflammation, caused oxidative stress, left me sore for days, increased blood pressure and heart rate during the activity, increased metabolic waste products, was toxic to muscle cells and even caused tears in my muscles themselves? 

Other times I deprive my body of nutrients and fuel for extended periods. Sometimes I force myself to endure bouts of extreme heat, while other times I suffer through periods of immersing myself in intensely cold water.

What if I told you that all of the above practices, while harmful in the short term, actually not only improve my health over time, but also raise my hedonic set point, meaning I’m happier at baseline?

As I’m sure you’ve figured out, I was talking about exercise, fasting, deliberate hyperthermia and cold exposure. These are practices that cause acute stress that leads to an increase in overall robustness, which is great for physical health. Something that is often overlooked is that these things are also powerful means to improve your mood, motivation, and energy levels. 

Your hedonic setpoint is essentially your base level of happiness. Some people just seem to be constantly happy, and the rest of us can’t stand those people. Other people are perpetual curmudgeons, the pessimistic Scrooges of the world. The happier you are, the higher your hedonic setpoint, meaning you walk around feeling pretty good the majority of the time. The grumpier you are, the lower your setpoint – you gotta get lots of things going right for you to start feeling good about your life.

Your hedonic setpoint is somewhat malleable – take addiction for example. You take your Average Joe with a normal life who derives pleasure from a multitude of different things – socializing, his dog, his hobbies, and if he’s lucky, maybe even his job. Then you get him hooked on drugs, let’s say cocaine. Cocaine releases so much dopamine that Average Joe gets high as a kite, and so he buys more the next weekend, and more the next weekend.

From The Oatmeal

After a while the only thing bringing him any pleasure is cocaine, and a bit further down the road, even cocaine won’t bring Average Joe any pleasure but will only delay the withdrawals. Compared to the massive surge of dopamine released from cocaine, everything else seems boring in comparison.

Ol Joey has succeeded in making his hedonic setpoint so very low that it doesn’t matter what he does – he can’t experience pleasure. The good news is that after enough sobriety, he can raise his setpoint back up to something close to what it was before his addiction.

We may not be cocaine addicts, but we are addicted to all these other little dopamine wasters – social media, gaming, binging on Netflix, eating takeout chinese food, etc. And the cumulative effect of all these smaller things is very similar to if we’d become addicted to a drug – we become less happy at baseline and are constantly bouncing from one source of empty stimulation to the next, never feeling happy on our own, never satisfied, and rarely doing anything worthwhile.

Now, and this is key, the reverse of this is also true. Put yourself through deliberate exposure to discomfort, and you’ll begin to raise your hedonic setpoint, meaning you get more and more pleasure out of your day to day life.

Imagine you found yourself bedridden in a hospital for a month, and for the sake of argument, let’s just pretend the food was bland and you had no access to friends, family, phones, tvs, games, even books. Just you, your mind, those fluorescent lights and that eggshell-white wall over there. 

Sounds awful, right? 

Now imagine how great it would be once you made it out of that hospital, back into your normal life. The same old food you used to eat would taste amazing, you’d be stoked to interact with your friends again, and of course, it’d be great getting back to your hobbies and toys.

The good news is that we don’t have to be bedridden in a dystopian hospital in order to make our normal life more enjoyable – we just have to cut out the sources of empty stimulation and, simultaneously, actively and systematically embrace what is uncomfortable.

In other words, we have to embrace the suck.

I know, I just told you to give up on your comforting-but-draining timewasters, and now I’m telling you to make things worse by actively seeking out the uncomfortable… But just stick with me here.

Exercise increases all of our feel-good neurotransmitters, including dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, as well as endocannabinoids and endorphins; cold immersion causes a huge and long-lasting rise in dopamine and norepinephrine, giving us energy and motivation; sauna use releases dynorphin, a chemical that makes us feel acute discomfort but actually resensitizes the brain to its own endorphins; and fasting increases dopamine, as well as serotonin and norepinephrine.

By pressing hard on the side of pain and discomfort, we are rewarded with an immediate rebound of pleasure. When we give up our addictions and plow headfirst into accomplishing our everyday tasks, we don’t get quite the same immediate reward, but the two combined over time allows us to raise our hedonic setpoint. 

That means you will be happier each and every day, whether things are going your way or not.

So if you give up your junk timewasters, it might hurt today. It might be boring tomorrow. It may feel like a sludge through the doldrums for the next week or two. But by golly, stick with it, because in 2 weeks, you’ll start enjoying the little things in life again, and in 4-8 weeks, you’ll find yourself feeling happy for no damn reason most days. And this process will be sped up if you’re able to actively push on the pain side with these more concentrated practices, specifically exercise, fasting, and cold/heat exposure.

Giving up on our cheap, empty addictions is the road to recovery; actively embracing the uncomfortable makes that road a whole lot easier and shorter.

Check out Part 2 here

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Why You Continue to Fail, Pt. 1

What Is Failure?

What constitutes failure on the path of Semen Retention? This will vary from person to person a bit – some will consider failure to be only if they ejaculate. Others are a bit more strict – they consider failure to be even having a sexual thought about any woman they see. Others are more liberal, following something more in line with what the Taoists taught – that occasional emissions are allowed and perhaps even beneficial every once in a while according to your age and health.

For the sake of this article, failure will mean any loss of semen. Here are some common causes of failure on the path, and how to go about avoiding them.

Insufficient Transmuting 

Plain and simple, if you’re not transmuting the sexual energy you’re building up, it’s gonna find a way to be released, and that usually occurs right out your dick, whether that be a session on PornHub or a wet dream. This sexual energy also finds an outlet by causing you to have sexual thoughts, lust after hot “babes” you come across in daily life, and by having daydreams and fantasies about sex and women in general. Having sexual thoughts is much less of a waste than ejaculation, but for many it is still a slow leak.

Transmute that sexual energy! You can do this any number of ways – weight training, running, journaling, meditating, cold showers, prayer, yoga, breathing exercises, Qi Gong, reading uplifting texts, focusing on self-development, diving deep into your career, hobbies and passions – there are countless ways to transmute this energy. Make sure you’re doing at least a few of these things DAILY.

I’m personally a fan of yoga/Qi Gong techniques that have been specifically designed to transmute sexual energy. Journaling, meditating, cold showers and exercise are absolutely amazing practices to have, not just on the path of retention but also in daily life, and they are useful for transmuting sexual energy, but they do so indirectly.

Practices like spinal breathing, testicle breathing, the Microcosmic orbit meditation, vajroli mudra (kegels) and so on directly transmute sexual energy up and out of the crotch, allowing it to be used by both the body and mind for more beneficial activities.

And if your problem is wet dreams, for god sakes do your kegels! This is probably the easiest way to prevent wet dreams, by tightening up those PC muscles. I wrote a whole post on wet dreams on my website for those interested. Part 2 – Cultivation and Sublimation Basics and Part 3 – Strengthening Your Magnetism and Aura go into detail on how to begin sublimating sexual energy via yogic techniques.

Poor Libido Management

In the beginning, many guys will succumb to the libido’s temptations before understanding how to sublimate it into a force to accomplish their goals. Let’s take some time to learn how to tone down that ravenous, sexually glutinous beast within.

Increase serotonin levels. Ever heard of people going on antidepressants, particularly SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), and complaining of having no libido? I am absolutely not recommending that you go get a script written for SSRIs, but there are easy ways to naturally increase serotonin. Try out the supplements l-tryptophan or 5-HTP – both are precursors to serotonin. Reddit even has quite a few posts from guys taking 5-HTP and complaining of loss of libido. 

It’s important to make sure that these supplements are safe to take with any prescription meds you may be on, particularly any MAOIs or other antidepressants, as too much serotonin is a big no-no, as in a potential visit to the ER no-no. Same goes for certain illicit substances, especially MDMA/molly/ecstacy. Just google any drug you’re taking, prescription or otherwise, along with “serotonin syndrome” to double check that there aren’t any negative interactions. 

If you aren’t on prescription drugs, aren’t taking illicit substances and are otherwise generally healthy, consider giving it a shot. Increased serotonin may also boost your mood, reduce hunger/carb cravings, improve sleep (and dreams) and provide a feeling of overall contentment. Tryptophan can be taken 2-3 times daily, before meals, with no need to cycle. Take 5-HTP as directed on the bottle, but this one should be cycled – I wouldn’t go more than a month or two before taking an equal amount of time off. 

Both should be considered crutches, only to be used in the beginning or in a pinch until you’ve got your libido under control.

Modify your diet. Ayurvedic texts state that garlic, onions, black pepper, chili peppers or any foods from the allium family boost libido, as do most spicy foods. I’ve never made a conscious effort to remove these foods from my diet but it seems to be the consensus out of both Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, both of which I have deep respect for, so it’s worth considering.

Consider cutting back on meat consumption – I went strict vegetarian for a month and a half once just to try it out and it drastically reduced my libido. Your results may vary, but most spiritual traditions agree that meat consumption raises libido. Makes sense – meat’s chock full of zinc, a mineral that’s essential for testosterone production.

Eat more soy products. A study titled Hypogonadism and erectile dysfunction associated with soy product consumption concluded “This case indicates that soy product consumption is related to hypogonadism and erectile dysfunction.” Granted this was a case study on just one 19 year old individual, but it showed that overconsumption of soy produced hypogonadism – essentially under production of androgens from the testicles. It also showed that hormone levels returned to normal after a year of going off a vegan diet. And this was in a 19 year old – testosterone levels at this age should be through the roof.

Another study on soy consumption showed that over consumption of soy caused “estrone and estradiol concentrations to be 4-fold increased above the upper limit of the reference range.” Again, this is a case study, so it’s only one individual. But soybeans, and therefore the products made from them, are well known to be chock full of phytoestrogens, plant compounds that act like estrogen in the human body.

For those not looking to reduce libido, small to moderate amounts of soy consumption is probably fine. I personally avoid it as we live in a world FILLED TO THE BRIM with xenoestrogens, chemicals found in nature as well as synthetic ones that act like estrogen in the body. But if you’re struggling with a rampaging libido, try eating more soy for a while, and then drop it down the road once your libido has calmed down.

Try fasting. As a libido reducer, fasting works amazingly well. Only problem is, we all love food and can’t be fasting all of the time, right? However, simple caloric restriction and intermittent fasting can be used instead of straight up fasting. 

This study concluded “Ramadan intermittent fasting might be associated with a decrease in sexual desire, frequency of sexual intercourse and serum FSH level.”

Another short study concludes, “These results imply that: short-term fasting exerts inhibitory influence on Leydig cell function via a mechanism which might involve a reduced hypothalamic and/or pituitary stimulation.” Leydig cells are responsible for the production of most of the testosterone in a man’s body. Reduced Leydig functioning -> reduced testosterone production -> reduced libido.

When are you most likely to masturbate? Right before bed? First thing in the morning? Pick up intermittent fasting and make it so that whenever you’re most likely to be choking the chicken, you’ve already been fasting for a few hours at least. Try a 24 hour fast once a week – eat a big breakfast and lunch, skip dinner, and don’t eat again till lunch the next day.

Fasting is also a great way to build mental toughness and grit.

Now this is not to say that regular intermittent fasting or occasional 24-48 hour fasts are going to demolish anyones libido or testosterone levels. For most people these kinds of habits will only help to improve hormone levels and libido in the long term, but fasting or even caloric restriction can absolutely serve as a targeted approach to libido reduction, and can be used as another powerful tool in your toolbox.

Take Sattvic/Shen-boosting Herbs

Along with increasing serotonin levels, we can look to certain herbs from Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Within Ayurveda, there are certain herbs known to increase the quality of sattva within a person – that quality within that is good, honest, peaceful, calm, noble and drawn to the spiritual side of life. This is in stark contrast to the other two “modes of existence”, rajas (passion and activity) and tamas (destruction, chaos, darkness). Most of us are perpetually stuck alternating between periods of rajas and tamas, of thoughtless activity and dull lethargy, rarely tapping into our sattvic side. 

What is PMO but an over-abundance of passion and chaos and an utter lack of a calm, peaceful mindstate?

TCM’s Shen–boosting herbs largely do the same thing.

Holy basil, also known as tulsi, is considered the most sattvic of all herbs within Ayurveda, with gotu kola and bacopa monnieri close behind. While I couldn’t find any studies showing a reduction in libido, any increase in sattvic qualities will be of huge help in the beginning of taking up the practice of retention. They’re of a huge help all of the time we’re on this path. I find tulsi to personally be the most sattvic, and it can be found in tea or concentrated extracts.

Within TCM, reishi mushroom is considered the king of all Shen-boosting substances. I couldn’t find any studies showing a decrease in libido, but it is a proven 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor – meaning it prevents the conversion of testosterone into its more powerful cousin, dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. Remember, anything that boosts Shen will help you to overcome desires and urges.

My favorite reishi products are this potent Dragon Herbs Purple Reishi Extract, or Nootropic Depot’s 8:1 Red Reishi.

Lion’s mane mushroom is another popular Shen tonic, and one which many folks claim kills their libido. It also has DHT-blocking properties. Just search Reddit for “lion’s mane + libido” for many case reports of lowered sex drive from this fungus. It’s also one of the best natural cognitive/memory enhancers out there. Search r/nootropics for more info. I recommend Nootropic Depot’s 8:1 Dual Extract Lion’s Mane.

The classic stress-reducing formula Bupleurum and Dragon Bone is one of the most commonly prescribed formulas within TCM to help manage and reduce addictions, and what is chronic PMO but a deleterious addiction? Bupleurum and Dragon Bone has a “stabilizing” effect on Shen, meaning it settles erratic emotions and urges, perfect for anyone struggling with riding the straight and narrow. It’s also the most commonly prescribed formula for wet dreams.

I prefer Jing Herbs Bupleurum and Dragon Bone powder or pills.

Anything that disrupts hormones is something I would only consider for a short-term solution, until you’re able to get your mind and libido under control. Reishi and lion’s mane mushrooms have so many benefits that it likely outweighs the slight drop in DHT, but it’d still be wise to cycle these guys. As for eating boatloads of soy… Drop that habit as soon as your libido is in check. 

Poor Habit Management

One of the best books I read in 2020 was Atomic Habits by James Clear. I’m the type of person who can really drag their feet on doing certain things. I can be very motivated about things that interest me and that I’m passionate about, but things that I need to do but don’t necessarily want to do? Yeah, I tend to dilly dally and get to it when I get to it.

That’s why Atomic Habits was such a good read for me – it gave me strategies to deal with my lazy side. One of the most useful hacks I got out of it is the concept of making habits you want/need to accomplish attractive and visible, while making bad habits unattractive and invisible. 

How does this apply to us on the Semen Retention path? This practice is mainly about one thing – not ejaculating. That’s a habit we’re trying to break, so we need to focus on making that habit unattractive and invisible. 

The easiest way to do this is to get rid of all temptations in your life. Start by unfollowing risque accounts on Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok and Reddit. Delete these apps if need be. Download an app that locks you out of other websites/apps if you can’t control yourself – definitely do this with Porn Hub or similar sites.

Stop hanging out with jabronies who only talk about what girls they banged or want to bang. Don’t watch movies or tv that you know have overly sexualized images of women. So… I guess just throw out your tv and netflix subscription.

Got a buddy that’s into SR? Set up a system where if either one of you fails, you owe the other person five/ten/twenty bucks. Raise the stakes for your failures! 

Don’t have an accountability buddy? If you fail you have to do 100 burpees/run 5 miles/something else extremely unattractive. Of course both using an accountability buddy and doling out self-discipline require honesty and integrity, but those come with the self-improvement territory, right?

Hang a calendar up somewhere visible and each day that you succeed in SR, put a big X or smiley face on it, then make sure, no matter what, you don’t break the chain of smilies! This was comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s method – he made sure that no matter what, he’d spend some time each day working on new material. Doesn’t matter if it sucked or not, as long as he worked on something, he’d put a big X on his visible calendar for that day and just made sure to never break a streak.

The same things apply in reverse for habits you’re trying to build – make them attractive and visible. 

Trying to get in the habit of journaling? Leave your journal out wherever you normally drink your morning cup of coffee.

Trying to hit the gym more? Keep your gym bag in your car, with pre-workout, your whey and your shaker bottle all in there and ready to go.

Make the habits you’re trying to start attractive and visible. Make the habits you’re trying to break unattractive and invisible..

Grit Training

Plain and simple, you need to toughen up. Toughness is a skill, not an inborn trait, and toughness can be trained, so start training it.

If you guys aren’t familiar with David Goggins y’all have been missing out. Not only has he competed in and won many 100+ mile races, but he is the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL training (including two Hell Weeks), the U.S. Army Ranger School (where he graduated as Enlisted Honor Man) and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. 

All this came from a shy, meek, overweight and self-proclaimed pussy. In high school he started forcing himself to wake up early before the bus and run. When he got to school he felt like a badass, knowing he’d already been up getting it.

You need to start doing the same thing. Actively put yourself through that which is uncomfortable but which you know is beneficial.

Start waking up an hour earlier each day, and use that extra hour productively.

Don’t workout? Start working out. Already workout? Take it to the next level or better yet, get out of your comfort zone and try something new like Brazilian jiu jitsu, rock climbing or mountain biking.

Eat a bowl of ice cream every night before bed? Smoke a bowl of grass before bed? Have a few beers each night while watching Netflix? Na man, cut that shit out, build some calluses on your mind.

Obviously this is something you should be applying to all aspects of your life, but you need to toughen up when it comes to your views on women and your constant need for self-pleasuring. 

Not getting enough validation from women? What do you need validation from anyone for? Where does that get you? Earn that validation by toughening the hell up and turning into a badass, and then if/when you do get validation, laugh at yourself for ever having wanted it in the first place.

You really can’t go a couple days without pleasuring yourself? You need that five minutes of shameful masturbation every. Single. Day? 

Really?

Time to start training your mind more. Time to embrace the suck. Time to trim the excess fat off your mind, and make it a lean, mean killing machine. 

Here’s how it’s done. Be mindful of your internal state at all times. You should already be doing this anyway. Notice when an urge or desire pops up to do something that is enjoyable but detrimental, and resist that urge. Likewise, being mindful, be aware of when your mind experiences resistance to doing something unpleasant but beneficial, and do it immediately. 

That’s it. 

It’s simple and straightforward, but it ain’t that easy.

Now this doesn’t mean you only apply this practice to when you get the urge to beat your meat. That’s the whole name of the game of semen retention – saying no to that urge to jack off. 

You do this mindfulness-based practice all day, every day. With everything.

You need to build momentum. You need to cut out the weeds from your mind. You need to trim the fat.

At first this will be difficult, maybe even painful. That’s ok. Are you someone who shirks the slightest discomforts needed to grow? Are you a weak little man-child that has to be spoon fed everything in life?

No! You’re aware of your shortcomings and you’re willing to put in the work needed to overcome them, to level up. 

You may fail. You may fail repeatedly. Good. Embrace failure as a good thing – it means you’re trying. Learn from these failures and build back better and stronger.

Failure is almost always a necessary requisite on the path to success, never forget that. The only thing that matters is that you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and then make it further than you did last time.

Grit and toughness is not something you’re born with, it’s something you have to train to have. Start training.

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you ever be polished?” – Rumi

“For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.” – Plato

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go their graves with the song still in them.” Henry David Thoreau

“The obstacle is the way.” – Ryan Holiday

“Resistance is the grindstone of our soul.” – Aubrey Marcus

“No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself.” – Seneca

“Discipline is the precondition to freedom else you are just a slave to your impulses.” – u/RaphizFR

“Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.” – Jocko Willink

“Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence.” – David Goggins

“Only you can master your mind, which is what it takes to live a bold life filled with accomplishments most people consider beyond their capability.” – DG

“You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.” – DG

“Don’t focus on what you think you deserve. Take aim at what you are willing to earn.” – DG

“You have to build calluses on your brain just like how you build calluses on your hands. Callus your mind through pain and suffering.” – DG

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Get Your Head Straight

I wrote this piece as a reminder to myself on what the proper mindset to have on this path would be, although these principles apply to any discipline in life.

Fall in Love with the Process

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my short time here on this earth is to be process oriented, not goal oriented.

Obviously we need to be setting new goals, working to accomplish the ones we already have, all the while constantly tweaking and refining our methodologies.

The problem is, once most people set their goals, they remain myopically focused on just the goal. Let’s say you want to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club. In your mind, this is the ideal physique, and if you could just look this way, all your problems – with the ladies at least – would be solved. You watch Fight Club four times a week, you research Brad’s training program, you cut out pics of him shirtless and bloody in that dungeon of a basement. No homo, of course.

You switch your diet up and start eating “healthy”. You hate the food, but you keep the fantasy in your mind of you looking shredded, bruh. You start hitting the gym. It’s gruesome, tiresome, and frankly kinda embarrassing how weak you are, but you think about all the ladies you’ll get once you’re ripped. Hell, maybe you even start taking Muay Thai or Jiu Jitsu to get a “fighter’s physique”, whatever that is.

And then you quit after two months. What gives? You wanted so badly to look ripped, to be a badass, to get all the ladies. You still want that, in fact. So why did you quit?

You quit because you were goal-oriented, not process-oriented. You did shit you hated in hopes of achieving some far-off goal, instead of learning to love the healthy habits that will get you there.

What you should have been doing instead was falling in love with the process.

Finding a workout program that is both challenging and rewarding, and loving the slow change you start to see in your physique.

Finding bomb recipes of healthy foods and learning how to prep and cook them exactly how you want them to taste.

Learning to love how it feels to go to bed just a little hungry, because that physical hunger will transfer over into your personality, and you’ll become hungry for life itself.

You learn to find pleasure and joy in bettering yourself for yourself, not so you can bang every girl in your social circle.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals – you fall to the level of your systems.” James Clear, Atomic Habits

Same applies with Semen Retention. Learn to love the daily discipline, the daily growth, the daily challenge. Don’t do this for some grand prize that is months or years away. All you have is the present moment, the here and now. Revel in the fact that each day you’re improving yourself, each day you’re better than the day before. 

You might not notice many changes or benefits at first, although some of us do. Again, don’t be focused on and looking for benefits. Trust the process! You can’t transform your physique over night, or even in a month or two. It takes many months, if not years, to build a truly impressive physique. Day by day you may not notice much, but month by month? You can begin to see your body change.

Same with semen retention. Some people might feel amazing after a week of retention, some not so much. Everyone will notice vast improvements after a few months though. Think long term, not short term. Think end game.

And if you slip up, reframe it as a learning experience. Whatever caused you to slip up, well, you’ll be better prepared next time.

Set a goal and then fall in love with the process – don’t chase results. 

Change Your Identification

After learning to love the process, we must learn to overhaul our identity. 

Let’s keep someone wanting to lose some weight as our example. They set a goal – to lose 50 pounds. They may have the best workout plan available, the best trainer money can buy, and they’re following their diet to a T. 

After a few months, lo and behold, they’ve lost the weight! And after a few more months, they’ve gained it all back, and then some.

Why? They didn’t fundamentally change who they were. In other words, they were still a person who used foods for comfort, who loved relaxing at home binging Netflix and eating Rocky Road ice cream, who hated the effort of working out, who never learned how to prepare healthy food in an appetizing way. To be a bit blunt, they were still just a fat person in a fit person’s body.

“Behavior that is incongruent with the self will not last… You may want better health, but if you continue to prioritize comfort over accomplishment, you’ll be drawn to relaxing rather than training… The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits

Keep that quip in your mind at all times – “If you continue to prioritize comfort over accomplishment, you’ll be drawn to relaxing rather than training.” For us, training doesn’t mean so much physical training, but training our mind, our emotions, desires, fears, habits.

James goes on to say,

  • The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.
  • The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.
  • The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.

Therefore, our goal is not to hit 30, 60, or 90 days. Our goal is to become a man in harmony with and in control of himself, including his sexual desires. Once we become that man, 90 days (and beyond) will come easy. 

We need to fundamentally change how we view ourselves, and how we view sex and women in general. 

We must transform from pleasure-seeking monkeys that mindlessly smash our dopamine buttons into men who love striving for what’s best for ourselves. 

We need to learn how to view sex as a means of self-transformation, not as the end-all be-all, granddaddy of all pleasures. 

We need to view temporary, voluntary celibacy as a necessary practice for self-growth. 

And we need to start viewing women as actual people, as friends, as fascinating partners for personal growth, not just as warm bodies to come inside of or notches on our belts.

Avoid Quick Fixes

Studies on delayed gratification show that kids who chose to put off a small but immediate reward in favor of a bigger reward that they had to wait for went much further in life than kids who took the quick fix. It was shown that the ability and preference to delay gratification is correlated with academic success, physical and mental health, as well as social competence.

The obvious ramification for us is to not watch porn and beat our meat into a sad, chafed state. We put off these tiny, fleeting, empty pleasures in our quest to become the ultimate version of ourselves. But putting off the small, meaningless pleasures in favor of the big wins applies far beyond semen retention. Start practicing delaying gratification in all aspects of your life.

This all goes back to Stoicism and learning to embrace discomfort like we discussed in Part 4 – This Is Your Brain on Semen Retention. To make it anywhere in life you must break free from the shackles of comfort and immediate sense gratification. You must learn to ignore the near-infinite amount of tiny distractions so that you’re able to focus on the big goals in your life.

These tiny distractions, which give you nothing but miniscule and ephemeral hits of dopamine but no true satisfaction, drain you of the will to accomplish your actual goals, which are the source of true satisfaction. Brush these distractions to the side. Stand up tall and delay that immediate, flimsy-ass satisfaction in favor of chipping away at your actual goals. The feeling of satisfaction gained from accomplishing something real and challenging is 1,000 times greater than the empty stimulation from browsing Reddit or dicking around on the same video game you’ve played one hundred times before.

More importantly, the sense of gratification and accomplishment of achieving a hard-earned goal creates a positive feedback loop, leading to you wanting to accomplish other big goals. Success begets even more success.

Starve the weeds of distraction at the roots, embrace discomfort and forgo the empty stimulation that fritters away your psychic and mental energies – that is the deeper meaning of Brahmacharya.

Within yoga, the practice of tapas, which literally translates as “heat” or “to burn”, is the practice of austerities. These austerities are the fire that burns away the dross of the mind. This can take on many, many forms, from extended fasting, to braving the heat and the cold, to even the practices we’re currently doing – yoga postures, pranayama, and meditation. One simple form that I practice every day is simple delaying of gratification. 

You get a text from a cute girl – most guys open it immediately and read it, even respond immediately. Or, you can notice that urge in your mind, leave your phone where it is, and check it and respond in 15 minutes. Not only have you built up some willpower, you’ve also created a bit of tension as the girl sits around wondering, “Why hasn’t he responded yet?” Congrats, you remained in control, you just leveled up.

You open the fridge and immediately reach for a soda – do you follow through with this unhealthy desire? Or do you turn it down and reach for something healthier? Boom, leveled up again.

How many times a day do you pick up your phone to check if you have any notifications, even though it’s been sitting right next to you and you know you don’t? Ignore that impulse, master your mind! 

QUOTE: "If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?" --Rumi | Rumi quotes, Irritated quotes, Cool words

The above is one of my favorite quotes of all time. Life presents you with an excellent battleground to learn to train and master your mind – use it wisely.

Be mindful of those nigh subconscious urges to waste time, overcome them, and spend that time wisely. Those little distracting urges are like weeds in your mind – starve them out. These little wins add up, and then when you have the urge to masturbate, guess what? You’ve got so much positive momentum going that it’s a cinch to turn that urge down too.

When have you ever gone to bed feeling happy and content from browsing the internet and masturbating all day? Compare that to the feeling of going to bed knowing you spent the majority of the day productively, and maybe you threw in some Netflix or gaming there at the end. Very different feeling.

Each time you say no to these tiny impulses to distract yourself from existence not being stimulating enough, each time you choose something that builds your skill base or knowledge instead of the mental masturbation of the internet, it’s like you’re doing a mental “rep”. It’s a workout for your mind and your willpower. Enough of these tiny wins every day and you’ll become unstoppable.

“Through tapasya, you are trying to set in motion a process of metabolism, by which all the habits that create weakness and obstruct the awakening of willpower, can be eliminated. You must know what your necessities are. Your life has to be made simpler. You have to make a choice, that’s all. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Either you want samadhi (success in meditation) or you want sensual life. To some extent you may be able to continue, but there comes a moment when you will have to make a departure from sensual life…

That is why tantra is practised. Its purpose is not to indulge in drinking, meat eating or sexual life, but to transcend your addictions. This is an important aspect of spiritual life. Mind is a very good advocate; it always argues for the senses. But in fact, even if you let your senses run riot, that doesn’t bring you happiness. So it doesn’t matter what the mind says. Go on with your tapas.” – Swami Satyananda Saraswati

“Worship of the gods, the twice-born, the teachers and the wise; purity, straightforwardness, celibacy and non-injury – these are called the austerities of the body.

Speech which causes no excitement and is truthful, pleasant and beneficial, the practice of the study of the Vedas – these are called the austerities of speech.

Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, purity of nature, self-control – these are called mental austerity.

This threefold austerity practised by steadfast people with the utmost faith, desiring no reward, they call sattwic (pure, wholesome) austerity.” – Bhagavad Gita, 17:14-17

Expect No Reward

I was speaking with another Redditor who became interested in yoga through the practice of semen retention. We got on the topic of the myriad different forms of yoga, and I mentioned karma yoga, the path of unselfish action. Basically, your every action is done with complete awareness, as an offering to God/the Ultimate/the Universe/your Highest Self, and is done without any expectation of award. 

You do the dishes with complete awareness, and you do them because they need to be done, not to please your wife in hopes that it’ll lead to your one night of sex this week. You do your job at work with complete mindfulness, and not with the hope of getting a raise, but because it’s your damn job. 

While I’m not trying to push this practice on anyone, I think the aspect of not expecting rewards is very beneficial for us on the path. Many of us hear about semen retention and all the nearly magical powers that can come along with it, and all the benefits it can bring, and so we start expecting these things, right off the bat in some cases.

In my eyes, this is the absolute worst way to go about things. You’ll constantly be second-guessing every little aspect of your life, looking at everything that happens to you under a giant magnifying glass, wondering if this is because of this benefit you heard about, or if that was because of that other benefit. 

If a girl looks your way, is it because of your magnetic aura?? Or was she just looking around the room and noticed you were already looking at her? 

You wake up and you’re feeling kinda blah today. Are you flatlining?? Or did you forget that not every day is gonna be the BEST. DAY. EVER?

If you’re constantly on the lookout for, and striving after, any of these seemingly magical benefits we get from SR, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot. It’s kind of like befriending a wild animal, or your neighbor’s cat. Just do your thing, don’t chase after the cat. When the cat is ready and comfortable around you, she’ll walk up, sniff at you, maybe rub up on your leg. If you try to pet her, she’ll just run off, so just keep on doing you and ignoring her.

The same thing applies to any “powers” gained from the path of retention. Maybe that girl was looking at you cuz your aura is growing all huge and magnetic – great, no biggie. As some obscure band from the 60’s was fond of saying, “Let it be”.

This is for YOU

Don’t do any of this for anyone other than yourself. Don’t walk this path to attract and seduce females. Don’t practice retention in the hopes of gaining the respect of other guys, or, worse yet, to intimidate them. 

Practice SR for one reason and one reason only – self mastery. If you can conquer your sexual desire, you’ve slayed perhaps the biggest dragon of your psyche. A better analogy is you’ve tamed that dragon, and now have the most powerful ally in all the kingdom.

Semen retention is for you, and you alone.

“For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.” – Plato

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Intro to Tantra

This post is gonna be a two-parter. This first part is on the background and theory of what Tantra is, with the follow up post being the actual techniques used.

When it comes to Semen Retention, one of the most dangerous things you can do is entertain the idea of anything sexually stimulating. Porn, edging, hell, even looking at or thinking too much about the enticing female form is off the table for many of us, and rightfully so. It’s what led us down this path, spiraling out of control.

So why, of all things, am I about to start discussing how to masturbate and even have sex in order to supercharge our SR practice?

For one reason and one reason only – tantric methods are, by far, the most powerful way to speed up our evolution on this path. 

From the Chinese classic Secrets of the Jade Bedroom –

“Rainbow Girl: It is generally assumed that a man gains great pleasure from ejaculation. But when he learns of the Tao of Yin and Yang, he will ejaculate less and less. Will this not diminish his pleasure as well?

Pen-Tze: Not at all! After ejaculating, a man feels tired, his ears buzz, his eyes get heavy, and he longs for sleep. He is thirsty and his limbs feel weak and stiff. By ejaculating, he enjoys a brief moment of sensation but suffers long hours of weariness as a result. This is no true pleasure!

However, if a man regulates his ejaculations to an absolute minimum and retains his semen, his body will grow strong, his mind will be clear, and his vision and hearing will improve. While the man must occasionally deny himself the fleeting sensation of ejaculation, his love for his woman will greatly increase. He will feel as if he could never get enough of her. Is that not the true and lasting pleasure of sex?” 

There are Two Paths

While it’s more nuanced than this, let’s split spiritual practice, and by extension, semen retention, into two camps. That of renunciation, and that of tantra. 

The path of the renunciate is where we all begin, and where many of us may stay indefinitely. It is by no means the inferior of the two paths, and seeing as it is the basis for tantra, one might even consider it to be the superior of the two. It is powerful, effective, and most importantly, safe. It’s only downfall is it is slower.

In the path of renunciation, we give up all things sexual. We give up porn, we give up masturbation, and we sure as hell give up sex. When the goal is to retain semen, why would we be having sex? It’s almost a guaranteed spillage of precious seed. 

In the beginning, we might be extremely strict. We modify our environment to remove as much temptation as possible. We unfollow IG accounts that post photos of scantily clad women, we stop hanging out with our attractive female friends or buddies who only talk about getting laid, and we may even avoid social situations that could arouse lust within. These are temporary but necessary limitations we impose on ourselves – remember, “discipline equals freedom”.

As time progresses, and we build confidence in our practice, we may relax things a bit. We’ve gained enough mastery that hanging around attractive females is no longer a trigger. We brush off our buddies’ discussions about their weekend conquests, or attempts thereof. While we prob shouldn’t follow accounts or subreddits dedicated to naked females, we may be strong enough to follow accounts that post the occasional dimepiece. 

Then there is the path of Tantra. After a certain level of confidence has grown in our practice, and a certain amount of self-mastery, a few of us may decide to take things to the next level. 

The risk is great, but the reward is even greater.

We realize that maybe, just maybe, we can use our own desire to further our practice. Just as a smoking piece of wood quickly catches aflame as it is tossed in the fire, so too can our practice go from smouldering to ablaze through using our own desire.

The person on the tantric path learns how to masturbate in such a way to stir up his sexual energy, and then uses tantric techniques to further increase and circulate this energy. 

He learns how to look at an image of a beautiful female and use the desire it stirs within him to accomplish his real lifes work.

The most advanced amongst them even learn how to have sex in such a way as to stoke the sexual energy within, magnifying it many times over, circulating it blissfully throughout the body, all the while absorbing the Yin Jing of the females secretions or “elixers”.

The man on this path walks a dangerous tight-rope. Learning the techniques and the patience to keep his sexual excitement within 90-95% of climax, and being able to focus internally on the circulation and transmutation of this energy is no small feat, to say the least. 

Almost everyone will fail their first few times having tantric sex. With the right practice and Jing-building herbs, this is but a minor setback. 

Many will try it and, realizing its difficulty, give up the practice and return to the path of renunciation – and there ain’t a damn thing wrong with that.

Unfortunately, a few will try out this path and, after indulging and failing to retain their seed, give up the practice of semen retention all together. This is most unfortunate but is a real risk, so keep it in mind. 

However, the persistent among us, those willing to take their time, who have properly prepared, and who are willing to keep practicing… These men will see their practice, and entire life, explode into whole new dimensions of bliss and self-realization. 

Speaking on the difference between these two paths, Lama Yeshe writes,

“The behavior of someone following this path (the path of renunciation) to individual liberation is therefore characterized by extreme self-control. The practitioner posts a strict guard at the door of the senses and is extremely suspicious of whatever wants to enter…

Compared to a system like tantra, which actually uses the energy of desire, this cautious approach to the spiritual path is considered inferior… Tantra’s approach is very different. Instead of viewing pleasure and desire as something to be avoided at all costs, tantra recognizes the powerful energy aroused by our desires to be an indispensable resource for the spiritual path.Because the goal is nothing less than the realization of our highest human potential, tantra seeks to transform every experience – no matter how ‘unreligious’ it may appear – into the path of fulfillment. It is precisely because our present life is so inseparably linked with desire that we must make use of desire’s tremendous energy if we wish to transform our life into something transcendental… 

Thus the logic of tantra is really very simple: our experience of ordinary pleasure can be used as the resource for attaining the supremely pleasurable experience of totality, or enlightenment.

The function of tantra is to transform all pleasures into the transcendental experience of deep penetrative awareness. Instead of advocating separation from worldly pleasures the way many other traditions do, tantra emphasizes that it is much more effective for human beings to enjoy themselves and channel the energy of their enjoyments into a quick and powerful path to fulfillment and enlightenment.”

Powerful stuff. The thing is, you must be thoroughly established in SR and completely overhaul your worldview for this practice to bear fruit. You MUST have a solid foundation set, a regular routine that is practiced daily, and have spent some serious time working with your mind, it’s desires, urges and emotions. If you have difficulty making it a couple months without PMO, tantra is likely not for you.. Yet.

While I can’t speak for Lama Yeshe, when he calls the path of renunciation “inferior”, I take it to mean that the path of tantra is more suitable for those of us still living in the world of everyday life, surrounded by temptations and mundane pleasures. We can’t all go full monk mode and live in an ashram, monastery or hermitage, dedicating our lives to spiritual practice, nor should most of us. 

If we begin our practice of Semen Retention with renunciation, starving the constantly hungry sex drive and asserting our rightful dominance over the dominion of craving that is the libido, we set a solid foundation for when the time comes to practice tantra. 

Tantra, Dual Cultivation, and Karezza

Just as true yoga has little to do with soccer moms in pink yoga pants, true tantra actually has very little to do with sex. Or masturbation. Or anything sexual at all really. 

Tantra is all about using your natural desires as a means for spiritual evolution.

Tantra can be translated as a “weave” or “web”, and comes from the Sanskrit verbal root “tan”, meaning to expand. Tantra is therefore the practice and philosophy of expanding consciousness.

As Georg Feuerstein states, “According to esoteric explanations, tantra is that which expands jnana,which can either mean ‘knowledge’ or ‘wisdom’.”

Tantra is a means of transcending ordinary reality by diving deep into and through ordinary reality. Every experience, be it sex, listening to music, getting into an argument or eating a slice of pizza is seen as a manifestation of the divine, and thus can be used for transcendence.

While that’s all well and good, us scalawags on this sub are mostly interested in the sexual aspect of tantra. Within yogic systems of tantra, sex is used not only as means of spiritual transformation, of cultivating immense energy and bliss, but also a means of worshipping the divine feminine principle of the universe, Shakti. Shakti, the divine feminine, represents all energy in the universe – prana, Qi, kundalini, electricity, fire, ATP within the mitochondria – all of it is Shakti. By worshipping Shakti via tantric sex, you are actively worshipping the very same energy within your own body that you’ve been cultivating and sublimating this whole time.

Sex transforms from just a small, momentary explosion of pleasure followed by a limp dick and regret into a science of extended bliss and self-transcendence.

Within Qi Gong, tantric sex or “dual cultivation” is less a means of worship and more of a way to simply increase Jing and Qi, to cultivate and circulate sexual energy. Further, you didn’t have to be a spiritual practitioner to use these techniques. The common folk were well aware of them, as well as *Jing-*boosting, aphrodisiac herbs, just as a means of sexual enjoyment and boosting overall health.

These practices differ from karezza and “coitus resveratus” in the fact that they are energy-based and used as a means for spiritual evolution. Karezza is simply having normal sex and not ejaculating. There aren’t fancy breathing exercises, visualizations, mudras or bandhas, and usually there generally isn’t any non-ejaculatory orgasm, in contrast to Taoist/tantric sex, where all of these aspects usually play a role. 

Regardless, the techniques provided are useful for any type of non-ejaculatory sex, and any type of non-ejaculatory sex provides great benefit for us on the Semen Retention path.

Benefits of Tantric Sex

Whether you practice yogic tantric sex, Taoist “dual-cultivaton” style, or just plain karezza/non-ejaculatory sex, you reap massive benefits. 

Let’s start with karezza. You simply have sex, taking your time and going slow enough that you don’t orgasm. You’re focused on the act of sex itself, without the goal of orgasming. There are two main benefits to be had from this style of love making. 

First, it frees up and liberates a lot of sexual energy, which, if you know what you’re doing, you can then sublimate and circulate throughout the body-mind complex. You can do this during or after sex, or not at all, just enjoying sex for what is – physical intimacy with a special lady friend.

Second, from a Taoist perspective, the act of sex allows you to absorb the female’s “yin essence” – the hormones, peptides and other goodies found in her vaginal secretions. Of course, this implies that you are having sex without a condom, which carries its own risks and caveats, namely it must be consenual, you should both be free of STDs and hopefully the girl is on birth control, in case you slip up and bust a nut. Sperm can be found in pre-ejaculate as well, so consider yourself warned.

As Daniel Reid unpoetically states in The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity,

“In both men and women, sexual secretions contain many pure, potent, biochemically active substances: hormones, enzymes, proteins, vitamins and other elements. When female secretions are released into the warm, moist environment of the vagina during intercouse, they come into direct contact with the sensitive, paper-thin skin of the man’s blood-engorged penis. Body heat opens wide the pores of this stretched skin, and the rhythmic rubbing of vagina and penis causes biochemically significant amounts of female ‘essence’ to be absorbed by the male.”

He continues, “For men, frequent intercourse with infrequent ejaculation is the key technique for cultivating sexual essence and energy. Furthermore, retaining semen during intercourse enables a man not only to preserve and reabsorb his own essence, it also enables him to prolong the act sufficiently for his partner to reach full orgasm, thereby releasing her most potent secretions for his benefit.”

Tantric sex and Taoist “dual cultivaton” are both essentially the same, unless you factor in the act of worshipping the divine from the tantra side of things. You receive the same benefits as karezza, but tantric and Taoist sex is, in itself, a type of energy work and meditation. You actively sublimate and circulate the sexual energy that is created during the act of lovemaking, both during and after the act. This leads to states of extreme bliss, as well as the possibility of altered states of consciousness, although these things don’t have to be a goal and are not guaranteed.

If you’re a skilled practitioner, you’re also able to cultivate bliss in such a way that you have multiple, full-body orgasms, without spilling your seed! Believe me when I say that this takes a lot of practice and, most difficult of all, finding a partner that’s willing to help you learn how to do this.

Taoists also speak of “solo cultivation”, which, as the name implies, is using masturbation in such a way as to cultivate and circulate sexual energy on your own. While it is less effective than dual cultivation, solo cultivation is a useful practice to not only learn to get the hang of the internal energy work that you use during tantric sex, but also to get the body used to getting close to orgasm before stopping and cooling off. It is essentially “tantric edging”.

I highly suggest that you have a solid 60-90 days of retention under your belt before you begin flirting with the idea of solo or dual cultivation. It’s also highly recommended that you are proficient in the sublimation techniques I’ve given in posts 2, 3, and 7, and that you become proficient in the techniques in Part 2 of this series on Tantra before you start messing around with edging or tantric sex.

May I also gently remind you horndogs that this is not a green light to go back to your sleazy ways of watching porn and scrolling through NSFW subs all day, every day. That will still fuck your brain up and drain you of tons of energy and dopamine, even if you’re doing “solo cultivation” practices. You still need to be “guarding the sense doors” the majority of the time.

To give you an idea of the power of these practices, after a few weeks/months of practice, you should be able to have sex or receive a blow job and make the conscious decision of whether you would like to orgasm or not. Having sex without orgasm always leaves me feeling invigorated and empowered, and I’m always ready for more, as compared to sex with release, which leaves me feeling drained and sleepy, with a few days of a “sex hangover” – basically just feeling lazy and less motivated. 

“The art of the bedroom consists of suppressing emissions, absorbing the woman’s fluids, and making semen return to strengthen the brain, thereby attaining longevity.” – Pien Chang’s Dynastic History of the Later Han

Mindset

Before you begin attempting tantric sex or even “solo cultivation”, you need to change your view of the world within and around you.

Remember, tantra is a way of viewing every experience as a play of the divine – everything becomes holy, no matter how mundane or profane. Those with a spiritual or religious bend can fit this way of thinking into their given paradigms. For those of us who are atheist or agnostic, simply view everything in terms of a purely energetic standpoint.

Everything you see around you, the world of physical matter, is just condensed energy. Nothing is “good” or “bad”, everything is just energy moving about in different forms, and thus everything can be used for self-transcendence, if viewed properly.

The spiritual aspirant views the world as a training ground, where he uses everyday experiences as a means to purify the mind and emotions. The semen retention practitioner should view sex and non-ejaculatory masturbation as a training ground for increasing and sublimating sexual energy.

See a beautiful lady walking towards you? Feel that sexual energy rise up, embrace it, and view it not as lust but rather as a powerful means for bliss and self-transformation.

Feeling horny? Good, the drive to be a man and create new life is still strong within you, the flame has not been extinguished. Reframe it as not just a means to fuck a girl, but a means to make love to existence itself and birth a whole new you. 

Realize that your attraction to a beautiful lady is really your male energy craving union with female energy – and she experiences the same in reverse. Yang craves Yin, and vice versa.

Read Reddit user u/redjohnagain’s The Earth is a Woman (Part 1).

If you’re having sex with a gal, don’t view her as just a soft and warm thing to come inside of. Her body is a temple, and you should worship it, not just with your cock but with your mind, using her body, energy and soul to help you create untold levels of bliss within. And fellas, don’t forget – you should be aiming to please her as well you scoundrel, don’t be so self-involved that you forget she wants to feel good too. 

And while we should never put women on a pedestal, we should always feel grateful for a chance to merge with that divine feminine energy we crave so much.

And in fact, any desire you feel for anything, and any experience you have, can be transformed for spiritual means. I’ll leave that to you to study as it goes beyond the scope of Semen Retention.

“Like the sun, which dries up everything, or like fire, which consumes everything, so the yogin enjoys everything but is not stained by sin.” Kula-Arnava-Tantra, 9.76

“One should cultivate desire by means of desire. One should cast desire into desire. Desiring by means of desire, abiding in desire, one should stir the world.” – Vamaka-Ishvara-Tantra, 4.46

“For a man to nurture his male powers, he must nourish his Yang essence by absorbing Yin essence. When men and women indulge freely in sex, exchanging their bodily fluids and breathing each other’s breath, it is like fire and water meeting in such perfect proportions that neither one defeats the other. Man and woman should ebb and flow in intercourse like the waves and currents of the sea, first one way, then another, but always in harmony with the Great Tide. In this manner, they may continue all night long, constantly nourishing and preserving their precious vital essence, curing all ailments, and promoting long life. Without this basic harmony of Yin and Yang, neither medicines refined from the five minerals, nor the most potent aphrodisiacs, will be of any use. If the vital essences are dried up due to excessive emission or complete neglect, they can never be revived.” Su-Nu Ching

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Part 4 – This is Your Brain on Semen Retention

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

For all you SR homies that aren’t as much into the esoteric and more into the down-to-earth, this post is for you.

Motivation

Think back to Post 1. I argued that retaining is a just a means to an end, that end being enhancing a type of energy called Jing. Jing is our vitality, which can be physically described as the sum total of our hormones, neurotransmitters, immune system and DNA integrity.

An interesting thing happens to a man during orgasm. Prolactin explodes onto the scene, and dopamine plummets.

Dopamine is that feel-good, tons of confidence, get shit done neurotransmitter. It’s key to confidence and motivation. We want dopamine, and we want it in abundance.

Prolactin is a necessary hormone even for men, just like estrogen is.. But it’s also the hormone responsible for breast growth and lactation in women. As guys, we want the bare minimum of prolactin floating around.

That sudden depletion of dopamine and surge in prolactin is why guys feel like they “lose their power” after “relapsing”. It’s a sudden diminishing of Jing.

Now the good news is, if you retain for 6 months and then have sex, you don’t go all the way back to square one. It sets you back, but not all the way to the beginning. Even better news, certain techniques can be used as “harm reduction” to prevent the loss of Jing and to quickly replenish it if this does happen. That is beyond the scope of this post, but I’ll get into this as we go deeper down the rabbit hole.

Back to hormones and neurotransmitters –

Low dopamine levels are associated with depression, low energy, lack of ambition, social anxiety, among others (Dailly et al., 2004).

Why does dopamine drop? Well, to make sure we attend to other aspects of our life, our brains come hardwired with a neurochemical mechanism of satiety. Prolactin, another hormone, surges right after orgasm, and is considered a reliable marker of such (Kruger et al., 2003). Prolactin works as a dopamine inhibitor, curtailing our sex drives once we consummate orgasm and providing us with feelings of satiation and sexual gratification. So the happy feelings impulsed by orgasm are carried along by prolactin. These secretions are relatively long-lasting after orgasm (Kruger et al., 2012).

Now prolactin doesn’t just curtail our sex drives, it curtails our drive in general. And studies have shown this dip in dopamine takes about two weeks to recover. That’s a looooong time to have reduced drive, energy and confidence..

When we practice semen retention, we’re trying to “stay hungry” and accomplish goals, but prolactin is a “neruochemical mechanism of satiety”. No bueno.Sweet, Sweet Dopamine

The problem is, jacking off and prolactin isn’t the only thing fucking with our dopamine system. Remember, high dopamine = lots of motivation, drive, desire, and confidence. This is why people love drugs like Adderall and cocaine, and why, if they have nothing better to focus on, they clean the shit out of their apartments. They’re on a dopamine high and gotta do something, anything.

But we live in a world that is beyond oversaturated with things that stimulate dopamine release. They’re massive time-wasters, and they fuck up our dopaminergic systems.

They hack into our brain’s reward system and prevents us actually getting things done.

Neurochemistry 101

I’ll keep this short guys. In the brain you have these chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. They fit into receptors, much like a lock and key. It’s important to remember that the brain and body are always trying to maintain homeostasis.

If the brain detects too much of a certain neurotransmitter, it reacts to maintain this homeostasis. If there is too much dopamine in certain parts of the brain, the brain first ceases to release more dopamine. If that doesn’t fix it, it de-sensitizes dopamine receptors. If that still doesn’t fix it, it starts removing dopamine receptors completely!

This is how addiction comes about. Look at the image below – see how amphetamine looks almost identical to dopamine? It fits right into that receptor, and over time your body down-regulatesdopamine receptors, meaning you need more and more of the drug to get high, and feel worse and worse when you don’t have it.

This is how porn in particular, and modern society in general, have been able to ensnare us in their clutches – they make our brain less and less sensitive to its own neurotransmitters. You need more and more stimulus (more exciting video games, kinkier and kinkier porn) to get the same dopamine release, and things that you once found interesting (books, sports, conversations with friends, whatever), are no longer stimulating enough.

  • Food is literally engineered by scientists to hack into our reward system. Why eat anything healthy and nutritious when there are Cheetos in the cupboard and Mountain Dew in the fridge? Why eat a nice, big salmon salad when I can just pop in a pizza that floods my brain with dopamine and endorphins and leaves me comatose on the couch afterwards?
  • Social media, with its fast pace, endless novelty in the never-ending scrolling, and system of intermittent reinforcement is addictive as hell. Why go through the work of actually hanging out with friends and family? God, you gotta sit there, actually listen to what they say, and then formulate a response? Not enough dopamine for me, I’d rather do the scroll of death or post a photo and revel in the brief, short squirts of dopamine I get with each like.
  • TV shows, immersive video/PC games, constant music playing.. Again, engineered to be addictive and hack into our reward system. Who has the time to learn actual skill sets? To learn how to play a musical instrument? To read a book? How many more pages do I gotta read till I get some damn dopamine?
  • And of course, our personal favorite.. We can have “virtual sex” at any time with an ever increasing variety of women with bodies that are just rarely found in real life. Why go out and try to meet actual women (and face possible “rejection”), when we can stay at home and get off to our weirdest, kinkiest desires? You know how long it’s gonna take to get my hit of dopamine by actually trying to learn to talk to girls?

I could go on and on here, but the point is that we’re constantly bombarded by things that trap us in this negative hedonic feedback loop. How are you going to accomplish anything when you can’t make it past your fuckin’ cell phone?

Now here’s a caveat – the less you partake in dopamine-depleting acts, the more dopamine your brain has for daily life, and the less you’ll crave these time wasters. This is why after a certain amount of time, you longer no miss porn. It doesn’t even sound appealing.

As time goes on, and your receptors become re-sensitized, they become that much more sensitive to dopamine. Things that are “less exciting”, but probably more beneficial, become more enjoyable. That’s a big win. That said, addictive behavior becomes that much more pleasurable. So you gotta be careful, because it could quickly spiral way out of control.

Our goal then is to re-sensitize our brains to our own natural production of dopamine, and use to it ravage our women and crush our enemies. I mean, uh, to accomplish goals and shit.

The True Meaning of Brahmacharya

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

I would argue that preserving dopamine is as important as preserving semen. Really.

Semen retention is the doorway to realizing this. Semen retention is step one.

People think Brahmacharya is just celibacy. The word literally means “to live in higher awareness”. What does this mean in relation to semen retention? Yes, retain. But you must also not squander your dopamine, just like you wouldn’t squander your seed.

You are in the market, but not to buy anything.

This is a very important concept, and is the true meaning of Brahmacharya. It means you are immune to the seductions of the world, and those seductions come in the form of enslavement to dopamine.

You have controlled your lust for sensual pleasure, sensual pleasure meaning pleasure derived from any of the senses! One who has command over his mind and its lust for constant stimulation – that is a true Brahmachari.

It goes far beyond celibacy.

If you can’t get through a few pages of a book without going crazy with the itch for dopamine, you need to work on this.

If you can’t go even 20 minutes, never mind an hour, without checking your phone, your Snapchat, your texts.. You need a lot of work here.

Can’t go a couple days without gaming? Need to work on this.

If you can’t eat a home cooked meal without enjoying the flavor, and coming away satisfied, you need to work on this.

Perhaps most terrifying of all.. can you just sit and be still with your thoughts for five minutes? Ten? No phone, just you and yourself? Go to the local park, leave your phone at home, and just watch the world go by for 15 minutes. It will be torturous. Now ask yourself why the hell simply being is such a painful thing? I dare you to try out a float tank some time.

Addicted to Comfort

We’re addicted to the good feelings dopamine provides us, but we’re also addicted to our modern comforts. We’re weak, weak little babies, and the slightest discomfort makes us cry for mommy.

This is where Stoicism and guys like David Goggins and Jocko Willink come in. According to Stoic philosophy, “the path to eudaimonia (happiness, or blessedness) is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain, by using one’s mind to understand the world”. Stoicism doesn’t mean running from pleasure, but it does mean not mindlessly chasing it or shirking from a little discomfort.

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of laziness, fear and discomfort, and it would do you well to remember this. Conquer those three, and you’ve conquered yourself.

If y’all aren’t familiar with David Goggins yet.. Y’all are missing out. The guy went from a self-proclaimed pussy to probably the toughest guy out there, being the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL training (including two Hell Weeks), the U.S. Army Ranger School (where he graduated as Enlisted Honor Man) and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. Then he went on to break a fuckton of records, including the Guinness World Record for pull-ups, completing 4,030 in 17 hours.

Peep the dude’s athletic accomplishments here.

Funny thing is, he started off as a self-proclaimed pussy, clocking in at 300 lbs.

Regaining dopaminergic tone only takes you so far – you’ll only be motivated to do things in order to get that dopamine hit, and that’s powerful, that gets the ball rolling, but it only takes you halfway. You gotta push past discomfort to be truly outstanding, or to be “Uncommon amongst uncommon men“, as Goggins put it. Motivation is what gets you started – discipline is what keeps you going.

Figure out ways to practice and embrace discomfort, and, key to this practice, reframe it as something positive. You gotta heat iron to 2750 degrees and then beat the living shit out of it forge a sword, so use the heat of discomfort to make the mind malleable and then beat the shit out of it with difficult endeavors to forge a mind that isn’t weak, that doesn’t constantly chase after the tiniest empty pleasures and mortal comforts.

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on discipline.. Discipline equals Freedom” – Jocko Willink

“I had to build this callused mind, and I built it through suffering… I wanted to be a man who detested mediocrity.. This motherfucker is gonna keep coming after whatever the fuck is in front of him.” David Goggins on JRE #1080

Tapas – Toughness Training

Each time you say no to a useless urge that pops into your head, you level up. You build up personal power. It’s that simple. Any time you practice something that is good for you, but that is difficult and that you don’t want to do, boom, you level up again. This is callusing the mind. Do this enough times, and one day a Warrior is born.

In yoga there is a concept known as Tapas, or spiritual austerity. Just as heating ice turns it into water, and heating water turns it into vapor, Tapas is the inner heat that sublimates the energy we conserve by retaining into pure, fiery drive. The word tapas literally means “to burn”.

Any time you say no to an urge, or welcome and embrace discomfort in search of growth, you level up. It’s that simple. That is what tapas is all about.

Stop chasing empty stimulation.

Embrace discomfort.

Practices

So what is one to do?

  1. Cut out empty, short-lived dopamine highs.
  2. Train your brain to have to work for its dopamine hits.
  3. Practice beneficial discomfort and adversity.

Dopamine “Fasting”

Set a time limit on your phone for your biggest time wasting apps. You have to use some discretion here. I first had mine set for 15 minutes, and I’d only allow scrolling for 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 in the evening, and that was for Instagram, Facebook and Reddit combined. Nowadays I just pop on each app in the morning to check notifications, then log off. I also don’t allow notifications from any apps except for Reddit, and that’s only so I can keep up with you fellas. That way I’m not constantly getting updates on my phone, draining my precious attention and dopamine. Check out the app Forest.

Cut out junk food and eat as much home-prepped, whole foods as possible. A lot of people only find snacks, fast food and restaurant food palatable. Their tastebuds have desensitized and they basically get no dopamine released from actual food. Time to change that.

Practice intermittent fasting – You gotta break the chains to food in general! I have a 8:16 feeding window – all my calories are consumed within 8 hours. This means I don’t eat until 10 am, and wrap up eating at 6 pm. Considering I’m asleep most of the fasting time, this is simple. Tons of other benefits, look it up.

Try occasional 24 hour fasts – Once you’re comfortable with IF, try out the occasional 24 hour fast. Eat a big breakfast, and then a big lunch. Stuff your face up until noon, and then no calories until noon the following day. Your first couple times you can drink some bone broth if you’re really hurting.

Fast for everything else – I highly suggest social media / gaming / Netflix fasts. Do one whole day with no screen time whatsoever. Then do a week. Every year take a whole month off. I can feel y’all cringing – if it makes you cringe thinking about it, then you know you need it. Do the same thing with whatever other addictions you have. You will be amazed at all the stuff you can accomplish when you cut back on social media, gaming and other time-wasters.

Start reducing consumption of booze, nicotine, caffeine, and other drugs. Again, this just floods your brain with dopamine. You’re burning through your Jing each time you drink booze, smoke a cig, pop an Adderall or drink a Redbull. You don’t have to quit, but reduce consumption of these things in general. Keep track and just slowly reduce.

Use nicotine/caffeine/booze for a purpose. Tie your addictions up to useful actions. I’ve whittled my caffeine use down to only before a workout or when writing. It’s become a tool, instead of an addiction. Smoke cigarettes? Start changing your habits so that you mostly smoke while you’re accomplishing some goal, or only as a reward. Love craft beer like me? You gotta earn that shit, son.

Practice “sitting still, doing nothing” – This is one of the ways Taoists refer to meditation. I’m a big fan of meditation, but even most forms of meditation involve doing something, focusing on something, visualizing, etc. Sitting still, doing nothing, and just being should be your litmus test for how well you’re beginning to progress on the dopamine recovery path – if you can just sit and be comfortable for 10 or 15 minutes, you’re well on your way.

Earn Your Dopamine

In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall – My Unbelievably True Life Story, he spoke about how as a child in Austria, his father used to make him do pushups each time he entered the kitchen, earning his meals. This always stuck with me.

A lot of people think that as guys, we have to earn our keep. This needs reframing.

As guys, we GET to earn our keep, and how glorious it is.

Set goals each day – start with 3, make ’em small, and stick the fuck to ’em. You want to achieve that “Winners Effect“, where success begets more success. We want to rewire our brain to meet challenges head on, to live off the highs of accomplishments, not mashing buttons while staring at a screen, endless scrolling of social media black holes, or beating our meat.

Put a price on things – 15 pushups each time you open the fridge. 20 air squats any time you leave the house. 20 burpees before any screen time that isn’t productive.

Easy Peasy or Worst First? A matter of personal preference here – some like accomplishing their biggest/least fun goal first and getting it out of the way. Other’s prefer to ride the high of smaller accomplishments and let that lead into bigger daily goals. Find which one works best for you.

Leverage your addictions – Set it up so that you can only take part in your biggest time wasters afteryou accomplish one of your goals for that day. That said, don’t accomplish one goal and spend the rest of the day lounging on Netflix.

Practice Adversity

Start waking up earlier – “The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.” – Jocko Willink

Cold showers – Lots of you guys are already doing this, and it has tons of benefits beyond toughness training. Cold exposure increases norepinephrine 200-300%, meaning an instant energy and motivation boost. It’s even been studied for its effects on depression. Start hot and end cold, do contrast showers, cold the whole time, or ice bath style.. However you wanna slice it, this is a great way to get used to being uncomfortable.

Exercise – if you already do it, great. You lift but hate running? Start running. You run only? Start lifting. Don’t exercise at all? Get the fuck on it.

Meditate – If you don’t meditate.. I just don’t have words. Your mind is the medium through which you interact with the world, and therefore shapes your entire existence. The mind is how you

  1. Perceive the environment around you
  2. Perceive your internal environment (emotions)
  3. Get shit done

Meditation is the science of mastering your mind. If you’ve mastered your mind completely, you can get whatever you want done whenever you want it done, and will feel good doing it. There are a million ways to practice meditation. Find one you like and do it every single damn day. Period.

Embrace the Suck – doesn’t matter what that suck is. Hate your math class? Nut up and just do your homework. Hate running? Time to start. When you start to get the feeling of straight UGH just thinking about it, recognize that as positive thing. That becomes the trigger for success! Befriend that feeling. Just remember, it will help you build that “calloused mind”, and you’ll get some dopamine upon completion, which is exactly what we want.

Feel the fear and do it anyway – This one might not be applicable for every single day, but if something scares you, that’s your cue to go ahead and do it. Don’t think, just act. Reframe it as excitement – in fact, fear and excitement are nearly identical internal states. We don’t run from discomfort, we welcome it. We don’t run from fear, we meet it head on.

In a nutshell, force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy doing, but that is beneficial. And when your mind tells you to quit, keep going until you reach your predetermined goal.

Recommended Reading ~

The Oatmeal – 5 Stages of Caffeine Intake

The Oatmeal – The Terrible and Wonderful Reason I Run Long Distances – comic but very relevant

The Winner Effect – how winning begets more winning

Discipline Equals Freedom – Jocko Willink

Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins

Total Recall : My Unbelievably True Life Story

Recommended Viewing / Listening

Bill Hicks – It’s Just a Ride – not relevant to this topic, but one of my favorite clips and relevant to life in general

Goggins on JRE #1080

Jocko Willink on JRE

How to be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable – 43 Weird and Wonderful Ways to Build a Strong, Resilient Mind

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Part 3 – Strengthening Your Aura and Personal Magnetism

Part 1

Part 2

Another long post, fellas. Grab your favorite drink and settle in…

One of our favorite things about SR is suddenly we start to have a magnetic effect on those around us. It starts off as a subtle thing, but like with all things SR, it grows and grows. Like many of the best things in life, if you told the average bloke about it, they’d blow you off. But after retaining for a while, they too would realize that it’s not fantasy, it’s real.

I’m talking about that seemingly unexplainable magnetic aura we develop as we continue to build up our personal power. Girls pick right up on this, and it’s why all of a sudden you’re getting looks daily on the street, and why girls you’ve known for years suddenly make a lot more eye contact than they used to. Men pick up on this as well, though in quite a different way, and animals and especially kids are sensitive to your magnetic aura.

So why the hell would not jacking off cause this big shift in our aura? Pheromones might be playing a role, as they are present in semen. No doubt your body language plays a big role as well, considering the correlation between higher T levels/lower cortisol levels and body language. And I’m sure your palms losing all that hair makes a huuuuge difference.

r/Semenretention - Part 3 - Strengthening Your Aura and Personal Magnetism

But the real answer is that you’ve dramatically increased the actual energetic field around your body.

Ojas and the Pranamaya Kosha

Ok, so we know that by retaining semen, we conserve and build up our Jing/Ojas. Jing/Ojas is kind of like the fuel for Qi/Prana, our bioelectric energy. Simply by conserving, we build up Ojas which transforms into Prana.

The term Pranamaya kosha is the name ancient yogis gave this field of energy within and around them. So when we retain semen, that energy field grows larger and stronger, simply by the virtue that Jing transforms into Qi, or Ojas into Prana. But there are many, many ways to increase the strength and size of this field.

The Heart’s (Holographic?) Electromagnetic Field

According to the HeartMath Institute,

“The heart’s electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. This field, measured in the form of an electrocardiogram (ECG), can be detected anywhere on the surface of the body. Furthermore, the magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 100 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain and can be detected up to 3 feet away from the body, in all directions”.

r/Semenretention - Part 3 - Strengthening Your Aura and Personal Magnetism

According to Joseph Chilton Pearce in The Biology of Transcendence, about 80% of the brain’s mass is made up of glial cells, which acts like glue for our neurons, and these glial cells are electromagnetically sensitive. He explains that in the heart’s electromagnetic field, our glial cells pick up on information encoded in that field, and thus the energy our heart radiates affects our brain cells and our perception of the world around us.

“This torus function is apparently holographic, meaning that any point within the torus contains the information of the whole field. That is, at any location within the heart’s field, no matter how infinitesimal, all the frequencies of the heart’s spectrum are present.”

This 2019 study confirms that glial cells are affected by EMFs, concluding, “Elucidating the exact mechanisms of EMF actions upon microglia and astrocytes, and its role in neuro-restoration, could be a key step in further research of the therapeutic potential of EMFs in various neurological disorders.”

That’s all well and dandy, but who cares if my brain’s glial cells are picking up on my own heart-based electromagnetic field? Keep reading my friend.

Heart Rate Variability

Our heart rate variability (HRV) is the term given to the fact that our heart beat changes ever so slightly from moment to moment. This is a good thing – it means our heart is healthy and adapting to the level of stress we’re experiencing each and every time it beats. However, if you’re absolutely stressed out, sick, or unhealthy, you will have a lower HRV as the heart just pumps extremely steadily, almost like a metronome.

Think of it this way – when you first start out on a ten mile run, you’re feeling good, spry, light on your feet. Your brain and feet are quick to adjust to any changes in the terrain in front of you. By mile 9, however, low on energy and filled with stress hormones, you’re just mechanically slugging along, each foot-stroke identical to the last, just barely pushing yourself forward.

Same thing with the heart. If you’re healthy and in good spirits, your heart adapts to each minute change in your body’s environment. If you’re sick or overly stressed however, your heart just makes sure it keeps a steady pace.

Our HRV in any given moment affects the “feel” or “tone” of our electromagnetic field. But so do emotions.

The HeartMath Institute once again –

We have found there is a direct relationship between the heart-rhythm patterns and the spectral information encoded in the frequency spectra of the magnetic field radiated by the heart. Thus, information about a person’s emotional state is encoded in the heart’s magnetic field and is communicated throughout the body and into the external environment.

Most people tend to think of communication solely in terms of overt signals expressed through facial movements, voice qualities, gestures and body movements. However, evidence now supports the perspective that a subtle yet influential electromagnetic or “energetic” communication system operates just below our conscious level of awareness. The following section will discuss data that suggests this energetic system contributes to the “magnetic” attractions or repulsions that occur between individuals.

What I would like to posit is that other people’s electromagnetically sensitive glial cells can pick up on both the STRENGTH and the HEALTH of our own energy fields. A higher HRV correlates to a “healthier” pranic field. Further, our emotions likely affect resonance (positive emotions) or dissonance (negative emotions) of this field. This is why we seem to “radiate energy”, “glow”, and have magnetic auras.

Increasing the Strength and Health of our Magnetic Aura

Now the body is extremely interesting in that it has two large pumps and multiple “positive” and “negative” energy centers/channels within it.

Our heart is obviously one of the pumps. We can’t increase its strength/output much, but we canincrease the coherence of its EMF by improving our HRV. The second pump within the body is manytimes greater in size than the heart – our diaphragm. Take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. You might think you used your lungs in order to do this.. But the lungs have no muscle tissue! You were using your diaphragm.

By making sure we take deep, controlled breaths (pranayama), we are able to effectively pump and circulate energy through our electromagnetic field. Yoga postures have the same effect as well – not only do the movements and postures massage endocrine glands and enhance Jing/Ojas, but they clear the energetic channels (nadis) through which the prana flows. The exercises of Qi Gong do the exact same thing.

Yoga, by which I mean the postures, breathing exercises, and meditation, is probably the most effective way to reduce stress and improve HRV! Through yoga and Qi Gong, we can dramatically increase the size, strength, and health of our “auras”.

A 2016 review of 59 studies on yoga concluded –

The ability of yoga to influence autonomic function has been the subject of numerous studies that suggest that yoga practices reduce autonomic arousal and assist with a wide range of stress-related disorders…  Yoga practices, including meditation, relaxation, yoga postures, breathing, and integrated practices, appear to improve autonomic regulation and enhance vagal dominance as reflected by HRV measures

If some of you don’t like yoga, Qi Gong, breathing exercises and meditation, that’s totally fine. You can just practice SR and still reap some of these benefits. Keep stress low, eat clean foods and get plenty of sleep.

If you want to dramatically enhance your aura, keep reading.

Strengthening The Aura

Improving Auric Shine

This can be in tons of ways. Basically, just be healthy and reduce stress levels. Eat clean, nutritious foods, get good sleep, exercise, get sunlight and practice PMA, that positive mental attitude. Most of y’all are already doing this.

If you really wanna increase your personal magnetism, start getting regular with the routine I gave you back in post two. It’s super easy and takes no time at all.

I’ve been into yoga and meditation for a long time now, ten years to be exact. But I haven’t been a daily practitioner for those ten years, and in fact, while I’ve kept up a very healthy lifestyle, the last few years I’ve barely done it all. Shameful, I know.

4 months ago, however, I started making sure to do it regularly. Here are the results on my HRV –

r/Semenretention - Part 3 - Strengthening Your Aura and Personal Magnetism

That’s huge!

So keep up the asanas, and feel free to add more if you like.

Positive, Negative and Neutral Nadis

There are 3 main nadis, or energy channels through which prana flows through (and a 4th one that we will be harnessing later specifically for sublimation purposes). Those three main nadis are sushumna, ida and pingala.

r/Semenretention - Part 3 - Strengthening Your Aura and Personal Magnetism

Going into detail of each nadi is enough information to write a book about, so for now I will just say that ida is negatively charged, pingala positively charged, and sushumna is neutral. Ida is sometimes referred to as the chandra, meaning moon, and pingala as surya nadi, the sun channel.

Breathing through the left nostril moves prana through ida, breathing through the right moves prana through pingala. Now, Sushumna is generally closed off in most people. One of the goals in yoga, and specifically in nadi shodhana and spinal breathing pranayamas, is to clear out and awaken this nadi. In fact, if you want sublimation of sexual energy to be most effective, this nadi is key – this is how the sexual energy flows upward.

Positively and Negatively Charged Energy Centers

Within the yogic map of the energy body there are both channels and energy centers. These centers are referred to as chakras, and the 7 main ones are shown in the photo above. Each correlate to certain powers and faculties of mind, psychological concepts, endocrine glands, etc.

Right now we are only interested in two – Mooladhara and Ajna chakras. Mooladhara is often thought of as the chakra at the base of the spine, but it is in fact in the perineum, and is the seat of ida, pingalaand sushumna nadis. Ajna chakra is at the top of the spinal cord and is the last chakra that ida and pingala pierce, before flowing out of the nostrils. Sushumna goes beyond Ajna to the chakra at the crown of the head.

As you can probably guess by now, sublimation is all about moving the sexual energy from the lower chakras up to the higher chakras! More energy to the solar plexus chakra and you increase your personal power. Sublimate to the heart chakra and you have increased capacity for love, compassion, goodwill and you generally feel amazing. More energy to the throat chakra, you become gifted in speech. To Ajna, the third eye, you become an intellectual dynamo, mental faculties are increased 100-fold, and you may even begin to have many Jungian synchronicities and borderline psychic events occuring. If you gentlemen are interested in how to do this, it can be a topic of a later post.

You guys ever seen one of those flashlights that you have to shake in order to make it work? Inside the handle is a tube of magnetic coil and a big magnet that moves back and forth when you shake it, creating electricity. This is the same thing that happens at the pranic level when we practice alternate nostril breathing and spinal breathing, and this generates more and more energy for our aura. We move prana between negatively and positively charged chakras and nadis.

With alternate nostril breathing, we breath in first through the negative channel, and then out of the positively charged channel. Then in through positive, out through negative.

With the spinal breathing practice, we inhale energy from Mooladhara chakra up to Ajna, connecting the two oppositely charged poles. We increase the wattage of our pranic field.

Practices – Bhastrika, Nadi Shodhana, Spinal Breathing, Ujjayi, Kegels, and Metta meditation

Keep the same simple asana routine as explained in post 2. Then move on to the breathing exercises and meditation. Remember, empty stomach for these things.

Bhastrika – This word translates to “bellows”, and as such is also called the bellows breath. It’s essentially controlled hyperventilation. Just as a bellows fans the flames of a fire, bhastrika pranayamafans your pranic field. It’s classified as an energizing pranayama, so this is a great one to practice any time you need to clear the mental cobwebs.

This pranayama is working to quickly increase the strength, size and shine of your pranic field, of your aura.

It’s incredibly simple as well. Sit down in any comfortable position that keeps the spine straight. Inhale and exhale quickly and somewhat forcefully thirty times, using the belly, not the chest, to breathe in and out. At the end of thirty breaths, exhale completely, squeezing all the air out of the lungs, and then inhale slowly and evenly to about 85% capacity, and hold for 5-10 seconds. This is one round. Complete 1-3 rounds before moving on to the other pranayamas and meditation.

For nadi shodhana, the alternate nostril breathing, start increasing the amount of time on the exhale. The goal is to have the exhale be twice as long as the inhale. So if you inhale through the left for a count of 4, you’d exhale through the right for a count of 8, and reverse the process.

Don’t rush or force anything – we don’t force anything at all with these practices. If 4:6 is comfortable, stick with that and aim for 4:7 in a couple weeks, and then 4:8 in a few more weeks. You might be doing 3:6, or even 5:10. Doesn’t matter the length of time, just practice the ratios and keep increasing when possible.

For spinal breathing, we’re going to add a new technique called ujjayi pranayama. Ujjayi means “to be victorious”. It’s one of the most powerful pranayamas within yoga, but also one of the easiest. You simply contract the glottis within the throat, making a very faint, almost snoring sound. It may also sound somewhat like the ocean.

So for each inhale and exhale, contract the glottis, and move your awareness up and down that thin thread within your spine.

This contraction acts creates a pranic suction, helping to transmit that sexual energy you’ve been building up towards the brain. This is the magnet moving back in forth in the flashlight handle! It also has a ton of benefits of its own, not related to sublimation.

Don’t be fooled by how simple this practice is. Many of the higher sublimation techniques are absolutely dependent upon it, so it would be wise to practice spinal breathing with ujjayi every day. And remember, if you try the higher techniques without mastering the lower ones, that sexual energy won’t be able to make it up to the brain.

Kegels – start practicing these. If you don’t know what they are, google it. It helps retain that sexual energy, sublimates it upwards, is a crucial practice if you ever want to learn tantric sex, and is used in the more advanced sublimation techniques. These can be done at literally any time.

Magnetizing the Aura

Everything up until this point has been about cleansing and strengthening your bioelectrical field. But what about making it truly magnetic?

Well, this goes back to the Taoist idea of the Three Treasures – Jing, Qi and Shen. In Ayurveda, Ojas, Prana and Tejas. Increasing the size and strength of our Aura, that falls under the domain of Qi/Prana. And doing this alone does create some magnetism, there is no doubt whatsoever about it. But to make it truly magnetic, you want to increase your Shen/Tejas. This goes far beyond the scope of this post, but I’ll leave you with a real powerful technique to get you started.

Metta meditation

Some of you may have heard of this meditation. It’s also called loving-kindness meditation. It’s just sending good vibes to people, including yourself, but it has powerful repercussions.

Have you ever met someone and just gotten bad vibes from them? And I don’t mean some creepy dude on the street or at a party. I’ve met more than a handful of people who I just didn’t like, even though they were usually attractive, smart, funny, and other people seemed drawn to them. Later we all found out they were actually terrible people.

My take is that they were naturally charismatic and had a strong pranic field, abundant Jing and Qi. But because they didn’t have good intentions, a small percentage of people sensitive enough were able to pick up on this.

Or you may be familiar with the opposite, meeting someone that you’re just absolutely drawn to, but can’t figure out why. They got that magnetic aura, son!

A practice like metta meditation really helps to shine up those vibes you’re putting out there, and really make ’em magnetic. Add metta meditation after your breathing practices. It can also be done before bed, upon waking or any time you need a mood boost. Here’s how it’s done.

Metta

  1. You begin by sitting down, closing your eyes, and wishing happiness upon yourself. This is crucial. A lot, and I mean a lot, of people don’t like themselves. If that’s your modus operandi, if that’s your default settings, then THAT’S what you’re projecting out there onto the world. So begin by wishing yourself happiness.
  2. Plant a small smile on your face and picture yourself smiling and truly happy and content. Some people like to repeat phrases, such as “May I have peace and happiness, and be filled with joy.” Some are more visual and imagine sending healing light towards themselves. No matter what you do, make sure you really try to mean it, and to genuinely feel the feeling of wishing yourself well.
  3. Sit with those feelings, the image of yourself smiling and truly happy, and repeat those phrases for 15-20 seconds.
  4. Next, picture the person you already love the most, smiling, carefree, content, and repeat the process for them. For me, this is my niece or nephew. Generate those feelings toward whoever this second person is, and realllly try to seep and saturate yourself with the feeling of wishing them the absolute best out of life.
  5. Choose another person as your object of meditation and repeat the process, picturing them happy as can be, sending good vibes to them and wishing them happiness.
  6. After five minutes or so, wish everyone in the world happiness and peace.

Now some of us aren’t very in touch with our emotions. I legitimately think I’m a robot sometimes, watching people seesaw from one extreme emotion to the next, wondering if I ever experience real emotions myself. If you don’t feel much your first time, that’s ok. Just keep at it.

If you have real bad issues with loving yourself, start with the person you love most. Generate as strong of feelings as possible for them, and then switch to yourself and try to let those feelings carry over.

I guarantee that with some practice, this will begin to generate strong feelings of wellbeing for yourself and others. It’s absolutely one of the best feelings of my day, and that happiness carries over to when I’m not in seated meditation. It’s like training your mind to be happy, and to have happiness on command.

Again, those good feelings get encoded in your energy field, in your aura. Other people pick up on these vibes, and they’re good vibrations in your bioelectric field.

Plus, if you wanna talk Heart Rate Variability, this is what happened during one of my metta meditations – it damn-near TRIPLED my HRV.

r/Semenretention - Part 3 - Strengthening Your Aura and Personal Magnetism

Again, a higher HRV means higher heart/body synchronization, and a more coherent electromagnetic/pranic field that you’re emitting. That means you’re radiating health and coherence, and that is magnetic.

Till next time friends.

Recommended Reading –

The Biology of Transcendence

Prana and Pranayama

Be Here Now

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Part 2 – Cultivation and Sublimation Basics

This was my second post on the Reddit sub for Semen Retention.

Part 1 here..

To recap, that charge of confidence, that sexual energy that just makes the whole world juicy when you practice Semen Retention.. The Taoist Qi Gong practitioners call that energy Jing. Yogis know it as Ojas.It’s that energy that makes you feel alive and confident, that lets you burn the candle at both ends as a teenager, letting you masturbate and have sex to your little hearts content, party hard all night and then get up and do it again in the morning.

It’s that good good.

Let’s learn how to cultivate even more of it and transmute it, turning us ordinary Joes into the Ubermensch..

Remember that the following terms are interchangeable and I will be bouncing back and forth between them – Jing/Ojas, Qi/Prana, and Shen/Tejas.Some conceptual frameworks to work with

The leaky cup

The first framework we went over in Post 1, that of a cup with holes or leaks in it. We are that cup, and our goal is to fill it up with that sweet, sweet Jing nectar. The way we go about doing this is by avoiding things that create leaks while at the same time*, doing things to further increase Jing/Ojas.*

The biggest leak in our cup comes from squandering our seed – this must be retained and then sublimated. There are many other lesser ways we dissipate our Jing, but these smaller acts do add up, so we should be mindful.

At the same time we go about plugging up these leaks, we do things to actively increase our Jing as well. The big hitters in this field include using the techniques handed down within Taoist Qi Gong and Tantric Yoga – breathing exercises, visualizations, bodily postures, movements and gestures, as well as herbal therapies and sexual practices. These all radically increase our Jing and enhance our Semen Retention practice. This stuff is like adding jet fuel to your Semen Retention fire. The practices ahead amplify that drive, confidence, brain power and magnetism many, many times over.

The mind/body as energetic system

I’m sure most of you are familiar the image below, that of chakras and nadis, the vortices and channels through which Prana/Qi flow. The map below is the one most commonly used within Hatha and Tantra yoga, and the Taoists have a similar map.

The names, functions and significance of the chakras and nadis are not important at this stage. In fact, whether you believe in them at all isn’t important either.

What’s important for us right now is to start thinking of the body as a kind of battery, an energetic system. What we’re going to be doing as we cultivate Jing is to increase the energy within this system. As Jing increases, Qi/Prana does as well. This is why you suddenly have so much energy and drive to get things done after retaining for awhile! This energy can be further sublimated into Shen/Tejas, that cognitive/spiritual power and radiance some people seem to exude. Anyone who has experienced that charismatic magnetism knows just what I’m talking about.

A very important point I forgot to mention in the previous post is that while building Jing increases Qi, which then increases Shen, we can also work from top down and in any order we want. Conserving Shen can increase Qi and Jing, and increasing Qi can be sublimated either into Shen or condensed back down into Jing. Qi/Prana is the easiest to work with, so this energy system is key. This is one of the key things I haven’t really seen mentioned on this sub much.

Viewing the body as energetic system is HUGELY important for three reasons – one, we will be using visualization practices for sublimation based off of these energetic maps.

Two, think of a wire that conducts electricity. If it isn’t clean, if it’s rusted, if it’s covered in gunk and grime, will it be able to conduct electricity? Poorly, if at all. In fact just back in May I had to clean off the terminals of my car battery because they were corroded and my car kept dying. Impurities impede conductivity.

Finally, and most importantly, we have to be careful so as to not blow a fuse in the circuit. Imagine what happens when water starts flowing through a hose, but halfway through the water hits a kink. All that pressure builds and builds, at best preventing the flow of water, at worst causing an explosion somewhere along the line.

Whether you believe in chakras or not, you’re surely aware that you have a nervous system, and that this system is very sensitive. Electromagnetic energy (Prana/Qi) travels along this highway of nerves. You also have an endocrine system, which produces all of the hormones (Jing) in your body. The fact that EMF can disrupt the pineal gland’s production of melatonin should tell you just how sensitive this system is.

Yoga and Qi Gong, amongst other things, strengthen and balance the nervous and endocrine systems.Those systems all happen to line up almost perfectly with the chakras and nadis show above.

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” – Nikola Tesla

“My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.” – Nikola Tesla

Basics of Jing Cultivation

Alright guys, I’ve already written quite a bit, so let’s jump to some practical advice. Nothing in this next section is going to be mind blowing, but it’s essential you start chipping away at this stuff now. Remember, you’ve already plugged the biggest leak, and keeping that leak plugged is huge! Later on we’ll discuss learning to orgasm without ejaculation and how you can begin to permit occasional ejaculation, if you so desire.

How Jing is Commonly Wasted

  • Poor Diet
  • Lack of sleep/Poor quality sleep
  • Abuse of drugs, particularly stimulants (including ADHD meds), opiates, binge drinking and smoking cigarettes, etc – These all cause your body to release and burn through hormones and neurotransmitters (Jing), and affect the nervous system (Qi). Even coffee and caffeine cause your body to burn through dopamine, norepinephrine, cortisol and more. The key here is to just not abuse any of these things! Moderation, my friends, and if you are prescribed medications, be smart and don’t just stop taking them!
  • Excessive ruminating, anxiety, depression… in a word, poor mental hygiene
  • Excessive exertion – Running multiple marathons a year, working out hard every single day, “burning the candle at both ends”, too much cerebral work and not enough “embodied” work (or the reverse)
  • Excessive fasting
  • Erratic mood swings/intense emotions – just have balanced emotions. Think of every embarrassment, failure, and setback you’ve ever faced. Guess what? You’re absolutely fine right now, in this moment. It’s not worth the excessive worry, embarrassment and anger you felt. Think of every toy you ever obsessed over and begged for for Christmas. When you got it, you were elated! And now, you’ve likely thrown it out or it’s collecting dust.
  • Hedonism – This is gonna be a biggie for us in this age, and this is a constant battle. Hedonism refers to the fact that we live in a MASSIVELY overstimulating world and it’s waaay too easy to overindulge. Our food is literally engineered to be addictively tasty while having almost no nutrition. Everywhere we look there is another screen with flashing lights and pretty colors vying for attention, and apps based off of intermittent reinforcement that suck us back in. We are the mouse in the cage constantly pressing the lever, desperately hoping for that next “hit”. Read, reread and read again u/freeanonsoul‘s post The Spirit of Seeing. This is where NoFap stems from, this is where “dopamine fasting” stems from. This is the true meaning of Brahmacharya, it is not just celibacy but control of the mind and senses!! More on this later.

“A true saying it is, Desire hath no rest, is infinite in itself, endless, and as one calls it, a perpetual rack, or horse-mill.” – Robert Burton

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” – Aldous Huxley

How Jing can be Easily Cultivated

  • Proper rest – Practice good sleep hygiene! If there are any podcast junkies out there, check out Matthew Walker on JRE. This is THE biggest way to maintain Jing outside of SR.
  • Proper nutrition ~ Nutrient density – It’s pretty simple guys – Jing is the strength and integrity of allllll our hormones, neurotransmitters, immune system, cellular structure, and even DNA. All of this is built out of nutrients we get from our diet! The topic of nutrition alone would take many posts for us, so for now, try to make sure your diet is based off of whole foods, get adequate protein, healthy fat sources (get Omega 3’s, avoid fried foods, vegetable and seed oils), eat plenty of green veggies and berries (or use green powders to start), organic is preferable but not necessary, and use a quality multivitamin and quality fish oil.
  • Proper nutrition ~ Detoxification – Before you lump me in with all the MLM people you see on your facebook pedaling detox products, understand what I mean. “Detoxing” is a fad, a gimmick, and a way to make money off of gullible people who expect quick fixes without putting in the work. That ain’t us. However, the body absolutely and 100% actively detoxifies itself all day, every day. We need to make sure we are helping it to do so, firstly because it is a huuuge drain on energy levels to be constantly detoxifying surplus chemicals (especially the xenoestrogens that are dragging out testosterone levels down), waste products and end products of basic metabolism. Detoxification also helps us become more sensitive to Prana/Qi, which is absolutely going to come in handy when we start doing Pranayama and visualizations. Finally, and this is a biggie, when it comes to one of the most powerful ways to build the Three Treasures, through herbs, you’ll get very little to no effect from them if your body isn’t able to properly utilize and assimilate them. It’s also extremely easy to do – eat a lot more greens, practice intermittent fasting (I personally do at least 8:16 most days), and make sure you’re eating mostly fresh whole foods and not packaged junk. Daniel Reid talks a lot about this in his book, and within Hatha Yoga they begin with the Shatkarmas, or Six Actions, to hasten the cleansing process.
  • Proper exercise – nothing new here. Lifting weights help optimize male hormone levels andhelps us in the beginning to manage some of that excess energy/horniness/positive aggressiveness. Cardio helps us build up a sweat and eliminate toxins both through sweating and breathing – yes, toxins are eliminated through the lungs, that’s how breathalyzers work. Exercising 3-5 times a week is a great goal.
  • Positive Mental Attitude/Compassion/Generosity – Real men, and people coming from places of real power, are almost always givers. They come from a place of surplus, and they want to share that with those around them. There’s a reason the first two of the the 8 limbs of Raja Yoga are based on ethics, why Jesus preached to love thy neighbor, and why the Buddhists are so focused on generosity, compassion, right speech and right living. Generosity, compassion and love are a never-ending source of energy and strength. What you give, you receive back ten-fold, and I feel like most of us on this sub know this. Bunch of helpful and positive fuckers.

Practice Stage 1 – Asana and Pranayama

On to the good stuff! This post is just going to cover some basics, but remember, this is the foundation upon which your castle is built! The goal is to build a strong and supple nervous system that is able to handle higher and higher amounts of Pranic energy.

It is better to practice a small amount every day than it is to do longer sessions every once in a while! Pay attention to how you feel before and after the practice, and to how you feel in your everyday life as time goes on.

Asana

The word asana just means posture. These different postures serve three immediate functions for us – they strengthen and purify the nerves/nadis for higher Pranic loads, they prepare us to sit comfortably when we do Pranayama/meditation, AND they enhance Jing.

Jing is largely about our hormones, remember? Hormones are produced by endocrine glands, and asanas squeeze, massage and tone these glands, enhancing blood-flow to them and their secretion of precious Jing hormones. Chakras line up almost perfectly with all your major endocrine glands.. Hmm..

I’m going to give the most basic set of asanas. This is the backbone I personally use, and if I’m tight on time, this is it verbatim. I’m not trying to sneakily convert a bunch of dudes on Reddit into becoming soccer moms, so we’re going to keep things batshit simple. It includes a dynamic sequence, a forward bend, some back bends, a spinal twist and an inverted posture – other than the fact it’s missing shavasana, that’s a complete asana practice!

Asanas feel pretty damn good and are a transformative practice. Remember, asanas improve endocrine function and therefor directly increase Jing! Feel free to learn more than what I teach here. Hell, take that Big Dick energy to the local yoga club and meet yourself some honey bunnies.

Practice –

  • 2 full rounds of surya namaskara – sun salutations. Note that 1 full round is really two half-rounds – the first half you take your right foot back first, the second half you take your left foot back, and that completes one round
  • 1-2 minutes half-paschimottanasana – this is literally the one-legged sit-and-reach we did in gym class growing up. 30-60 seconds to the right side first, then with the left leg
  • 30 seconds dhanurasana – bow pose
  • 30 seconds bhujangasana – cobra pose. I like to look over my right shoulder, hold for a few seconds, go down to starting position, then arch the back up again and look over the left shoulder for a few seconds. This gives an enhanced massage to the kidneys and adrenals, which as you’ll learn later, are the “seat of Jing”.
  • 60 seconds ardha matsyendrasana – 30 seconds to the right, 30 to the left
  • 15-30 seconds salamba sarvangasana – shoulder stand. This practice will be crucial for more advanced sublimation!

Time ~ 10-12 minutes

Notes ~ Practice on an empty stomach. Two hours after a meal or half hour prior to a meal. First thing in the morning is great, although you will be noticeably stiffer than if you practiced later in the day, and I don’t meant morning wood. Go straight from asanas into pranayama.

Pranayama

This is the active cultivation and manipulation of Prana, or Qi. In Qi Gong, Yi (the mind), directs Qi. Qi directs Jing. Therefor, by combining the mind (awareness) with the breath, we are able to sublimate our Jing.

The benefits are tremendous, but for us right now, it includes not just increasing our Prana at any given moment, and thus energy, but also sublimating Jing into Qi into Shen. When we increase our Prana during practice it can then be used to enhance meditation (Qi->Shen), or can then be “stored” as Jing.

Each time you sit to do pranayama, you are actively sublimating your Jing!

We can also use pranayama for daily life. Need to boost your energy before you lift a heavy weight? There are multiple pranayamas for that. Need to calm down before a job interview? Got you covered. Need help sleeping? Easy peasy. Need to boost your immune system and warm the body in preparation for an ice plunge? Check out ya boy Wim Hof.

Do one of the following for 5-10 minutes after asanas, preferably alternating which practice you do each session –

  • Nadi Shodhana – This is alternating the breath through the left and right nostrils. Shodhanameans to purify, so this practice is all about purifying your nadis, the channels through which Prana flows. In Taoism, these are called meridians. If you could only do one pranayama for the rest of your life, this would be the one, and while it seems simple, it has IMMENSE benefits
  1. Sit in lotus, half-lotus, cross-legged, whatever is comfortable and keeps your spine straight.
  2. Curl you pointer and middle finger into the palm of your right hand, so that only your thumb, ring and pinky fingers are still extended
  3. Exhale
  4. Close the right nostril with the thumb, and inhale a full but gentle breath through the left nostril
  5. Close the left nostril and exhale through the right
  6. Keeping left nostril closed, inhale again through the right
  7. Close the right nostril, and exhale through the left
  8. If you’d like to add a visual component, imagine inhaling white light through the left nostril down the left side of the spine to the base, and then exhaling it back up the right side of the spine and out through the right nostril. Reverse the visualization for the next breath
  • Spinal Breathing – this is a concept used in Taoism, Tantra and Yoga. This is a powerful practice for cultivating the Three Treasures, so get real familiar with it.
  1. Sit in lotus, half-lotus, cross-legged, whatever is comfortable and keeps your spine straight
  2. Close your eyes and exhale
  3. Inhale slowly and evenly, filling your lower belly first, then mid abdomen, and finally the lungs around your clavicle
  4. Exhale slowly and evenly, reversing the order
  5. Inhale again, except this time move your awareness up a very thin channel or thread that starts at the perineum, moves up the center of the spinal cord, up through the brainstem and into the exact center of the head
  6. Repeat the process but in reverse, drawing the the awareness from the center of the brain (Ajna chakra) back down through the center of the spinal cord, and to the perineum at the base of the spine (Mooladhara chakra). Repeat this visualization with each inhale and exhale

For right now, your breathing practice will also be your meditation practice, as it requires a calm, concentrated mind to do the visualizations.

Notes ~ Again, empty stomach is preferred. You may feel tingling or other pleasurable sensations, these are a sign of progress and will only greatly increase with practice.

If you have really congested airways, look into neti pots or a vapor inhaler.

Key Takeaways

  • Start thinking of yourself as a leaky cup and as an energetic being
  • Get good sleep, eat well and cleanly, reduce stress, start cutting back on partying, don’t do anything to excess
  • Start exercising if you haven’t already, and try to do more good in the world
  • Asanas enhance Jing and allow for easy sublimation
  • Pranayama is a simple but powerful practice, and the quickest and most powerful way to sublimate Jing

Recommended reading ~ Practice

The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity

Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha

Recommended reading ~ Mindset

The Spirit of Seeing

Invictus

Walden

Song of Myself

Island

Recommended Listening

Sinatra’s My Way

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Yoga and Semen Retention

I wanted to give a little bit of background on why I focus so much on yoga and Eastern practices in general, as well as a bit of a background on them themselves. For those with no interest in the topic whatsoever, this post still has valuable conceptual information for all on the retention journey.

Why I Talk So Much About Yoga

Some of y’all might be wondering why I talk so much about yoga, about Taoist practices and Eastern thought in general. Not only is it foreign for those of us in the West, with odd words and concepts, but the concept of yoga itself is very feminine here. Say “yoga” and it immediately conjures up images of soccer moms, pumpkin spice lattes in hand, wearing yoga pants and thinking they’re getting a real workout. I get it! That’s what I thought too before I really learned about it. Google “sadhu” or, crazier yet, “sadhu aghori” if you’d like to see how some yogis actually look.

Aghori Sadhus

Here’s what yoga actually is though – it is a spiritual science for achieving mystical experiences. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root “yuj”, which means “to yoke”, “to merge” or “to unite”. It’s the science of merging the “little i” with the “big I”, of the ego with the highest level of consciousness, of the self with the Ground of All Being. Yoga was created and perfected over thousands of years for one purpose and one purpose only – to help the practitioner achieve mystical experiences and eventual enlightenment. 

Yoga isn’t religious. While it did come about in ancient India, it is not a Hindu, Buddhist nor Jain practice, and it in fact predates these religions. It is a standalone practice. Just as Christians pray, but prayer isn’t only for Christians, yoga developed in India, but it is for everyone.

The postures you see in yoga, the asanas, are only the tip of the iceberg within yoga. Within one form of yoga, Ashtanga yoga, they are just one of eight limbs, and, amongst other things, are used to prepare the practitioner for deeper states of meditation. We in the West have commoditized yoga, prepackaged it with lotus flowers and pastel-colored yoga pants, and sold it to bored women who were looking for a way to exercise without really breaking a sweat. That’s what we do here in the West – bastardize things for monetary gain. 

True yoga is, in actuality, arguably the most hardcore thing you can do in this life – to overcome your limited ego and peel back the veil of reality, to see what is actually going on behind the curtain. 

Now, that isn’t our goal in this sub – this sub is about hacking and utilizing one of the most powerful forces available to us – our sexual energy – via the retention of semen, in order to accelerate our successes in life. 

Well guess what? Yogis have known about this for millennia and have perfected all sorts of techniques and methods to not only retain semen, even during sex, but to harness, amplify and transform this energy into rocket fuel for spiritual evolution. Why do you think celibacy is required of monks and nuns of almost all spiritual traditions? Conserving this energy is a powerful tool for self-transformation.

Some of you may have heard about this in the form of Brahmacharya, literally “God-like conduct” or “conduct leading to God”, but which is often translated as mere celibacy. But again, that is just the tip of the iceberg. The more powerful and esoteric practices within yoga must either be learned from a guru, a teacher, or from the right resources, which are few and far between.

Here’s the important thing to ask yourself – why do we experience benefits from semen retention? The benefits aren’t just having great, big balls full of sperm, as fun as that is. There’s little to no benefit from the sperm and semen itself. We experience benefits because we’re beginning to hack our nervous and endocrine systems, as well as our mental programming.

Let me reiterate that point – all the benefits of semen retention stem from beginning to hack our nervous, endocrine and mental systems! Put a big fuckin’ star next to that point in your mind.

Retention starts a positive cascade of hormonal changes, beginning with reversing the rise in prolactin and drop in dopamine caused by ejaculatory orgasm. It begins to build energy (prana/Qi) within the nervous system, increasing the size and strength of your aura. And retention is obviously, first and foremost, a mental discipline, which only increases your mental fortitude in all aspects of life, as you’ve slain possibly the biggest dragon there is – sexual desire. (As an aside, ever wonder why there are so many depictions of slaying/conquering dragons or serpents, both in the East and in Western alchemical depictions? It symbolizes man overcoming the reptilian part of his brain, which is in charge of our primal urges, the most insidious of which is the urge to procreate.)

Yoga is nothing but a systematic and scientific method of further hacking all of these systems. It powerfully improves endocrine functioning (hormones) through all the postures squeezing and massaging the endocrine glands; pranayama is the direct increasing and manipulation of prana/Qi/bioelectrical energy within and around the nervous system; and meditation is the practice of training and strengthening the mind. Never mind all of the advanced mudras, bandhas and kriyas used that many never hear about. 

All of that said, these sorts of practices are not limited to yoga, and may exist in some form in other spiritual sciences as well. Every religion has their mystical traditions – Kabbalah within Judaism, Gnosticism within Christianity, Sufism within Islam, and the many yogic and tantric practices within Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. They likely all have some form of sexual sublimation practices. 

I speak specifically so much about yoga in particular for a couple of reasons, but the main one is that it has the most information available and it is extremely detailed and thorough. It is very much alive and still being practiced for its true purpose the world over, especially in the East. 

Taoist practices come a very close second – there’s almost as much info available, and the info available is complementary to what I’ve learned from yoga. There’s much more info about tantric sex and the use of herbs coming from Taoism/Traditional Chinese Medicine than from yoga/Ayurveda, but in my eyes, yoga has much more detailed maps and techniques for “solo cultivation” of sexual energy. So I choose to blend the two, and trust me – it is incredibly powerful.

The final reason I focus so much on yogic practices within this community is this – these techniques simply blow anything else clean out of the water. Cold showers, working out, goal-setting and accomplishing, all of these things are FANTASTIC practices for us on the path of retention. And in fact, they should come first and foremost, before trying any of this more advanced wizardry. There’s no point trying to amplify and circulate this sexual energy you’re building up if you aren’t taking care of the foundational sublimation techniques, of taking basic care of your body, of journaling and self-reflection, of setting goals and actually sticking to them. 

There are so many guys out there that are experts in these things and are doing the good work of sharing their advice with others. These guys are killing it with advice on these topics, and I think they are just as, if not more valuable due to their foundational nature, as all these yogic things I talk about. I saw there was little in the way of these powerful energy practices in the community, and these practices which have been a fascination of mine for years, so that has been my focus. 

I’m not trying to convince anyone to become yogis or Taoists, and certainly not trying to change anyone’s religion. You can practice semen retention without ever hearing the word “yoga”. These are simply powerful internal practices that, if done correctly and regularly, will take semen retention to insane heights, and have the potential to radically transform the quality of your life.

“Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is essentially your own.” – Bruce Lee

Posts in the Pipeline –

Advanced Sublimation Techniques

Building Sexual Energy w/ Herbs pt. 2

Intro to Tantra

Recommended Reading

The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley

Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts

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How Sublimation Works

This post is yoga and Qi Gong heavy, and provides a context and background for how sublimating sexual energy works. If you aren’t a fan of these frameworks, feel free to skip this, as it’s purely informational. However, it will go a loooong way in explaining how this sexual energy we cultivate gets sublimated for higher purposes.

Why do we retain semen? Do we want big, fluffy balls that ache for sweet, sweet release? Maybe some of you degenerates do, but what we really want is to cultivate our sexual energy, our Jing, and to harness and sublimate it so that we can accomplish our every wish, goal, and desire.

Western science has no term for this “sexual energy”. The libido exists, we know that much, but how does one harness and sublimate the libido in order to, say, start a business? To get in shape? To accomplish one’s goals? This isn’t something Western science has an answer for.

So we must acknowledge that this energy does in fact exist, and that it can be increased, harnessed and then transmuted for higher purposes – whether or not Western reductionist science has discovered or been able to measure it. This is why we turn to Qi Gong and yoga, practices aimed at developing and sublimating this energy, practices that have stood the test of time.

The mind exists, but there is no one, single physical correlation of the mind. You can’t reduce memory, thought, feeling, visualizations, desires, emotions to neurons and neurotransmitters. We must admit that, while likely connected and related, they aren’t one and the same.

Likewise, our sexual energy, our Jing, is related to hormone levels, neurotransmitters and more, but it is not just these things. And then there is the issue of what are we sublimating this energy into? Something physical? Something spiritual? Drive, charisma, intelligence, wisdom and ambition, these aren’t things that you can reduce to single, physical components.

So let’s turn attention away from the reductionistic view of the body/brain/mind complex, and look at a more holistic, energetic approach.

The art of cultivating and transmuting Sexual Energy

Taoism

Within Taoist Qi Gong, which literally means “energy cultivation”, there is what is known as the Three Treasures, that of Jing, Qi and Shen. Jing is the basis for Qi, which is likewise the basis for Shen. Jing is the essence out of which Qi, energy, arises, and which in turn can further be sublimated into Shen, or spirit.

Rest assured, all the benefits you’ve noticed and heard about while practicing semen retention fit within the paradigm of the Three Treasures. You feel strong-willed and have a lot of drive? That’s cuz you’ve increased your Jing. You seem to have some sort of aura and much more energy? You’ve got more Qi, baby! And people seem magnetically attracted to you? That’s Shen at work, son.

From a Qi Gong perspective, we want to cultivate our sexual energy, or our Jing, so that we then have a surplus of energy, or Qi, to work with. We then use this Qi to cultivate different aspects of Shen for personal evolution.

Jing is our deep sexual energy; if we cultivate Jing but don’t sublimate it, we become robust, strong, immune to disease. We can take a beating and keep on ticking. Someone with deep Jing has strong passions and drive.

To look at it materialistically, we start by increasing Jing by retaining semen. This positively alters our hormone levels, giving testosterone a boost and increasing dopamine, due to the decrease in prolactin. The increased testosterone and dopamine help increase our drive and determination to get things done.

Qi is our bioelectric, ionic energy, related to our mitochondrial health, ATP, and moment-to-moment energy. This field of Qi is what your aura is. Cultivate enough Qi and fatigue just doesn’t exist. You’ll need less sleep, can physically and mentally do a lot more work, and you will have a strong aura and energetic presence. You walk into a room and the room notices.

Through Qi Gong, yoga and pranayama, we improve our mitochondrial health, and purify and regulate our endocrine and nervous systems. This is the domain of Qi/Prana. By controlled breathing exercises, we improve the oxygen flow to the cells and therefor improve their energy output. We also increase the mitochondria’s tolerance to carbon monoxide, which increases mitochondrial antioxidants and even helps us grow new, stronger mitochondria. The yoga postures help squeeze, tone and regulate the various endocrine glands, such as the adrenals and their release of adrenaline and testosterone, and even the pituitary gland, the “master gland” of the endocrine system.

As I stated back in my third post on Reddit, our Qi/Prana is what makes up our aura. The heart puts out an electromagnetic field that is detectable up to fifteen feet away, and this is what gets strengthened when you start retaining, and especially when you start doing energy practices.

The Heart's Magnetic Field

Shen is the mental/spiritual aspect of Qi. When Shen is properly cultivated, one is naturally happy and content, kind and compassionate, and full of wisdom. Someone with developed Shen can apply their minds to any task and accomplish it with ease, seeing as they are so bright and intuitive. Life becomes a breeze, both easy and joyful, for those who have properly developed their Shen.

Qi Gong and yoga have profound effects on our neurotransmitter levels, or Shen. Yoga drastically increases levels of the calming neurotransmitter GABA. Interestingly, people who kept a regular meditation habit had higher serotonin levels at baseline than those who didn’t, and everyone in the study, experienced meditator or not, experienced higher serotonin levels post-meditation. The proof is in the pudding.

Yoga, Chakras, Kundalini

This same process of sublimation happens within yoga, only it isn’t spelled out quite the same way. Within yoga and Ayurveda, Jing is known as Ojas and Qi is known as Prana. Shen doesn’t have an exact correlate in yoga, but we could use the terms tejas, inner radiance, sattva, meaning pure, and prajna, meaning wisdom, as rough translations.

Within yoga, the goal is to awaken the kundalini, the libidinal psycho-spiritual energy at the base of the spine, and to raise it up through the chakras on the way to enlightenment. Kundalini is itself a type of Prana or Qi, but has its differences. This could be the topic of numerous posts, so for now, just realize it is the grandaddy Prana and it does have a libidinal aspect to it, meaning it is affected by semen retention.

The role of Ojas actually plays a rather minor one in yoga. It isn’t discussed much, because the focus is more on kundalini itself. But remember, the real goal for these practices is spiritual enlightenment, but we are more focused on sexual energy, on Jing and Ojas. Regardless, whether you practice Qi Gong or yoga, the same thing is happening – you’re increasing your Jing/Ojas, your Qi/Prana, and your Shen/Prajna.

There is also much more importance given to chakras and nadis. You can think of chakras as both storehouses and transformers for Prana, and each chakra has different attributes and powers, and relates to different aspects of the mind. This is crucial, because you want to learn how to awaken certain chakras based on what goals you want to accomplish. Same goes for nadis, the channels through which Prana and kundalini flow.

This is how sublimation works in yoga – you build up this sexual energy, this Ojas, and use it to increase Prana. You use this Prana to then start awakening the chakras and opening up the energy channels, to allow the kundalini energy to flow upward, both to the brain and to the different chakras. The chakras are related to different aspects of the mind, so by activating different chakras, you increase different capacities of mind. You sublimate Ojas into Prana, and then use that Prana to activate certain chakras and their corresponding mental attributes.

If you want more charisma and personal power, focus on the third chakra. More peace, compassion and feelings of love, do heart chakra practices. If you want to have great powers of speech and persuasion, focus on the 5th chakra, the throat chakra. This is how you sublimate sexual energy for higher purposes.

As a side note, within Qi Gong, nadis are known as meridians, and chakras are very similar to dantians, or “elixir fields”. Pragmatically speaking, they are the same.

So if we approach things from a strictly Taoist perspective, we want to increase all Three Treasures, and as Jing sublimates into Qi and then again into Shen, we start evolving. From a yogic point of view, we want to learn to increase Ojas and prana and gain control of kundalini and awaken chakras – again, personal evolution. Two different maps and methods leading to the same goal.

The Tao of Yin and Yang

We’ve all seen the yin yang symbol. Yin represents “feminine” energy, yang “masculine” energy. Yin is receptive, contractive, cooling, calming. Yang is expansive, warming, opening, invigorating. A very important thing to remember is that yin entails the accumulation and assimilation of energy, while yang is the use and expression of that energy made manifest.

The implications here should be very clear – as men, we are more yang, females are more yin. We are naturally attracted to yin energy, and as we retain and cultivate our Jing and yang energy, we naturally attract yin energy in the form of females. It’s that simple.

As we go about the process of semen retention, our aura, our pranic field, grows bigger, stronger, and more yang in nature. This in itself makes us more attractive, on a vibratory level. Because this Jing that we’re cultivating is very yang in nature, it means that women, filled with yin energy, are even more drawn to us. Just like a positive electromagnetic field attracts a negative one and vice versa, we too, with our strong yang energy, attract females with their abundance of yin.

Have you ever met a woman who is just so mysteriously attractive, but you can’t put your finger on it? She’s cute, sure, but there’s something else going on.. That something else is her abundant yin energy. You have cultivated the same type of energy, except obviously it’s yang in nature. This is the reason women start to seem magically drawn to you.

Sushumna, Ida and Pingala

Within yoga there are three main nadis or channels through which prana flows. Sushumna is the most important channel, and it goes right up the middle of the spine, going from the base chakra all the way up to the 7th and highest chakra. This channel is closed and dormant in almost everyone, but it is crucial that you purify and awaken this channel, so that you can begin moving Prana and kundalini through it to the chakras.

Ida and Pingala are two channels that crisscross up the spine, intersecting the chakras in an opposite, intertwining fashion. They end at the sixth chakra, the third eye.

Image result for pingala ida sushumna diagram | Chakra, Kundalini, Kundalini yoga

Ida is yin in nature, associated with lunar energy, and is cool and feminine. It starts at the left side of the base chakra, rises up the spine crisscrossing the other chakras, and terminates out the left nostril.

Pingala is yang and is Ida’s opposite – it is associated with solar energy, is warm and energizing, and is more masculine in energy. It follows a mirror imaged course as Ida, starting from the right side of the base chakra, crisscrossing each ascending chakra, and ending out the right nostril.

Just as Qi Gong seeks to balance yin energy with yang, yoga seeks to balance Ida and Pingala. When it does so, Sushumna opens up and allows prana and kundalini to flow upward to higher chakras.

This is why I’ve stressed the importance of spinal breathing and nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breathing. These practices balance Ida and Pingala, balance and energize the chakras, and open up all the nadis, allowing prana/qi to flow freely, and for us to direct it as we see fit.

The Takeaway

So in Qi Gong, we seek to cultivate all Three Treasures, Jing, Qi and Shen, and to balance both Yin and Yang energies. In yoga, the goal is to build up Ojas and Prana, purify and open the 3 main energy channels, as well as to awaken all 7 chakras, so that we can raise Prana and kundalini energy upwards.

When we retain semen, we immediately start increasing testosterone and dopamine, and reduce prolactin. When we start doing yoga, pranayama and/or Qi Gong, we begin increasing our pranic field (aura), improve our energetic output via the mitochondria, and begin to tone and regulate our endocrine system. Finally, all of these practices, especially meditation, help to increase our Shen through increasing neurotransmitters such as GABA and serotonin.

We can further enhance this process by working with specific chakras and their corresponding faculties of mind – a topic for a later post.