I did exercise 2, Harvesting Yang, of the Microcosmic Orbit class last night. It lasts only 20 minutes and should be practiced when the foundational exercise (#1) is mastered. 

I probably should have just listened to this exercise rather than trying it for myself since I have not yet mastered exercise #1. Thankfully, the exercise was easy and I didn’t have any issues. I was unable to feel much energy in the perineum and the part about pulling energy up in little bits did not seem to be working at first. Then, I noticed that, when I breathed in and pulled up ever so slightly, I could feel energy move up over the front of my pubic bone and into my erogenous zone. It was very slight as if teasing me. It didn’t get strong, thankfully, so I just noticed and it soon passed.

The facilitator of the exercise warned in exercise #1 that the energy of the root/perineum can sometimes create arousal and be highly erotic. He says the reason for this is conscious or unconscious intention over time. So, again, a conditioned response but one that can be corrected. I am happy that my response was not so sexual as to be distracting. I have felt the erotic feeling in the past and it is difficult to ignore!

Eventually, I could feel energy trickling up into my heart which wasn’t suppose to happen so I had to stop, focus on breathing deeper, root the breath, and begin again. 

When it was over, I did a regular meditation for about 15 minutes and went to bed.

About two hours after going to sleep I was awakened by a pressure at the base of my spine. It was highly uncomfortable! Ouch!! Not only did it feel similar to needing to have a bowel movement, it was painful to the point that it was concerning me. The only other time I’ve felt pressure and discomfort in this area was after a strenuous run where I became overly dehydrated. I imagine the feeling might be similar to what someone would feel after being violated via the anus! 

After a few minutes of discomfort and trying, unsuccessfully, to extinguish it, I asked my guidance for help. I immediately received back a visual of myself on the floor in bridge pose. Wasting no time, I got out of bed and got down on the floor. Before getting into bridge pose, I pulled one knee into my chest and then the other, breathing deeply. Afterward, I got into bridge pose and held it for a few breaths. Almost immediately the pressure went away! When the feeling was completely gone, I got back into bed. Unfortunately, the feeling returned but with less intensity, so I resume bridge pose while in bed and it went away again. I fell asleep soon after and when I awoke there was no discomfort in the area. 

Though I can’t be certain, the pain at the base of my spine may have been brought on by doing exercise #2 before I was ready. IDK for sure, though.

I researched bridge pose to see if it was helpful in balancing the root chakra. It came up as the #1 yoga pose for releasing excess energy from the root chakra! Ha! The next pose on the list was the one I did before bridge – pulling each knee into the chest. 🙂

So, the next night (last night) I repeated exercise #1. This time the energy was much less obvious in the areas of focus, especially in the abdominal area. Again, keeping my attention on the areas was a struggle. I kept losing attention and would have to self-correct whenever this happened. It was less than the first time, which is good, but I still have a ways to go. I was able to focus attention on the perineum and feel the energy there, which was almost imperceptible. The cool thing was that I was able to feel all of the areas together as one mass of subtle energy. I plan to keep practicing exercise #1 until I can maintain consistent attention without drifting off and feel the warmth of the perineum.

The ideal times to practice these exercises are: 1. Around sunrise (5-7am), 2. Around sunset (5-7pm), and 3. at midnight on the full moon. This is impractical for me because of my schedule. My kids are up and making noise at sunrise and sunset (dinner time is at sunset). Midnight is doable but being it is so late I will probably fall asleep. lol Thankfully, these exercises can be done at any time, but if done during one of the recommended times the environment will assist.