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

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.