Sexuality is our life force. It is the energy that we can create in our system, the only energy we can self-create. We were designed that life comes out of sexuality. And what we forget, very often, is that this energy is also medicine.
What the ancient traditions understood
Sexual energy is not just sexual. In all the ancient lineages, from Taoism to Tantra to yogic practice, it is considered chi, prana, life force. And it is not just there to be released. It is something we can cultivate, move through the body, and use.
What Taoism and Tantra built detailed practices around is the idea that this energy can be circulated rather than depleted. The navel centre, just below the belly button, is where energy pools. The breath is how you draw it upward, move it through the body, and let it settle. This is the navel breathing practice that sits at the root of the Kama work, rooted in particular in the teachings of Mantak Chia, and thousands of years of direct observation of what the body is capable of when you treat it as an instrument of cultivation.
What happens when you cultivate rather than release
The shift is simple, and significant. Sexual energy builds and we release it, that is the only model most people have ever been given. When you learn to contain that energy at the edge, breathe it through the body, and let it spread rather than peak, the quality of the experience changes entirely. The whole body becomes involved. The warmth and aliveness spread beyond the pelvis.
When we suppress or shame sexuality, we suppress our life force. That is not metaphor. That is what is happening. The ancient traditions mapped this through felt experience over centuries.
"Sexuality is our life force, the energy we can actually create in our system. The only energy we can self-create."
How this shapes the practice
What I have found, in my own practice and working with others, is that the body responds to being treated as an instrument of cultivation. The pelvic floor, the breath, the capacity to stay without rushing toward release, these are the practice itself.
Pleasure is a really easy and fun way to be present, to resolve anxiety and stress. I think it is just the best medicine. And it is free.
Try this
As many of these practices require privacy, which might not be immediately available, I invite you to simply imagine the practice. Visualise, sensualise, how you would do this practice, and what it would feel like.
Navel breathing, gathering energy
I invite you to find a comfortable position, sitting or lying down. Let your hands rest on your lower belly, just below the navel. Close your eyes.
As you inhale, allow the lower belly to expand outward, not the chest, not the upper abdomen. This specific space below the navel. Let the breath be slow, full, and low. As you exhale, draw the lower belly gently back in. Let the exhale be a little longer than the inhale.
As you continue, begin to imagine that with each inhale you are drawing energy upward from the base of the body, from the perineum, the seat of the pelvis, up through the belly and into the navel centre. With each exhale, that energy settles and pools there. You are cultivating. Gathering. This energy does not need to go anywhere right now.
Stay for several minutes. When you are ready to finish, take one full conscious breath in, and as you exhale, let the warmth spread outward through the whole body. Notice what is different. This is yours to return to.