You have been developing your Masculine embodiment practice, but you want to take it even further and expand your energetic range to be able to face anything that comes your way.

In this practice that John originally led for his 2020 Embodied Men's Leadership Training in Mount Shasta, you will bounce and shake as you pack energy down into the earth; feel deep into the earth and dance with Her as Wild Man; punch it out as a Warrior supported by the earth; stand with gratitude; connect to the infinite space between your navel and perineum with the Breath of Fire; breathe with every inhale an acknowledgment and celebration of the beauty of your life and every exhale a deep surrender into what is; sit in meditation as a Zen Warrior with a beautiful balance of relaxed, regulated, smooth breath and readiness to leap up and protect someone you love; practice the Biological Breath and move in a way that makes your body open and available to receive the nourishment of The Feminine; and stand in the shape of Fierce Devotion, making yourself a joyful offering to life and to the people you love.

If you want to increase your Masculine energetic capacity, this 59-minute practice will cover an expansive range.

Prior to your practice, set aside an uninterrupted period of time in which you can stay in practice the entire time. Prepare a private space where you can practice standing, seated either on a cushion or chair, and lying down on a yoga mat or blanket.

Begin standing with the soles of your feet soft and open. Feel the awareness that the soles of your feet have. Press the awareness of the soles of your feet down into the earth. Let the soles of your feet feel down 100 feet, 1000 feet, 10,000 feet...

Then bring a slight bend to your knees (2-4 inches), pull your navel in, and press your sacrum down from the top of your spine. Now feel the awareness of your sacrum, the base of your spine, the perineum area, the root area, and press it down into the earth, like you're plunging a rod or tree root down. Notice the difference between the awareness of the soles of your feet and the awareness of your sacrum.

Now you have a beautiful base between the soles of your feet and your sacrum. Start bouncing on this base, as if you are packing the energy down. Imagine that the bounce is pressing things down from your shoulders. Keep the soles of your feet and your heels connected to the earth.

It's like you are shaking off some crust & stress and giving it to the earth through the soles of your feet. If you have a thought, pack it down. It's almost like the packing is pressing all of you down into the earth. Feel yourself sinking down into the rock.

You can make the bouncing and shaking faster or slower, a little more or a little less—find what's right for your body. Find a sound that's right for your body. Then, as you continue to bounce, take your fists and pound up and down your center column, from collar bone to lower belly.

Feel the part of you that is deeply connected to the earth. Feel the part of you that wants to dance with the earth. Find a little joy in this moment. Find a little joy in this dance with the earth. Dance with Her. Feel Her. So it's not just you alone; it's you and Her. Spread your awareness down into Her.

Make your arms nice and loose. Make your tongue nice and loose. Open your throat. Open your jaw. Make some freaky faces. Feel the part of you that is wild.

It's like you're making love with the earth in a certain way. Imagine running through the woods with Her. Jumping into a stream. Being under a waterfall. Let Her see you wild. Let Her feel your joyful, wild heart. And feel how much She wants to give you from this place.

Don't disconnect from Her. Don't let yourself zone out or get swallowed into thought. Stay fully present with Her. Press down into Her. Let her feel your belly, your legs, your genitals.

After about 9 minutes, without changing any of the energy you've cultivated, bring your arms up to heart level, left arm in front of the right, and begin to punch from your heart, alternating arms, and pulsing the sound "Ha." Your palms can be open or closed. Make your core powerful and strong. Keep bouncing and pressing yourself down.

What are you doing battle with right now? What are you fighting? Negativity? Depression? Delusion? Stress? Evil in the world?

Feel yourself as a warrior being supported by the earth. Feel Her supporting and blessing you while you're fighting. Make each punch count. Feel down and remember the soles of your feet. Feel out to the forests and the animals.

After 3 minutes of this, come to stillness. Drop your arms by your sides. Continue to press down through the soles of your feet and sacrum. Close your eyes and feel the connection down into the rock beneath you. Lift your heart up. Notice what might feel more open and clear in your heart. Soften your heart. Feel the beauty all around you—the forests, the sun, your life, your family...

Feel this gratitude without losing any ground. Bring to mind all that you are deeply appreciative of. For example, the love of your children, the feeling of sunlight, cold water, the stillness of the forest, love of other men. Breathe it into your heart. Acknowledge to yourself how blessed you really are and how much you've been given.

Then feel into how much you have to give. Connect to the part of your heart that has an infinite source of love to give, share, care for, nurture, challenge, and hold. Reconnect to the earth through the soles of your feet and sacrum. Give a bow to all of it—your community, teachers, nature, and your life.

Then sit down cross-legged on a cushion on the floor if you can. If not, you can sit in a comfortable position on a cushion or chair. Bring your thumb and forefinger together and place your hands on your knees. Extend and relax your arms. Relax your shoulders down and back. Lift your heart. Slightly tuck your chin so it is even with the floor. Again, press and feel down into the earth.

While in this position, begin the Breath of Fire, which is a forced exhale through your nose using your navel to pump the breath. The inhale happens naturally. Close your eyes and bring your "gaze" through your browpoint and third eye. Then focus all of your awareness on the space between your navel and your perineum. Pump life force into your root with every breath.

Now, can you do it with joy? Can you do it without it being something serious that you need to get right? Can you find some celebration in it? Some play in it?

Clear your center column of judgment, fear, and stress. Notice what happens when you start to become uncomfortable, bored, or want to "pop out." Focus. Feel the infinite space between your navel and perineum.

After 4 minutes of Breath of Fire, take two deep inhales and exhales. After the second exhale, hold your breath out. Let everything die for a moment. Let your mind go blank. After 30 seconds, inhale and hold your breath in. Drop your shoulders and drop your breath down to your lower belly. After 30 seconds, exhale and relax.

Keep your eyes closed as you regulate your breath. Find a nice, smooth inhale and exhale. Let the inhale happen when your body needs it. Let the exhale happen when your body has used the air that it needs. How deep, smooth, and natural can you let your breath be without any effort or striving?

Make your breath joyful. Make your inhale an acknowledgment and celebration of the beauty of your life. Find deep stillness in your heart in the pause between breaths. Make your exhale a deep surrender into what is.

Thoughts will come—self-centered, self-referential thoughts. Gently let them go.

You are looking for a state of relaxed alertness. From this place of very deep relaxation, imagine yourself being ready to spring to protect somebody you love. Find that beautiful balance between relaxed, regulated, smooth breath and readiness to leap up and protect someone you love. Complete, monk-like, pristine, relaxed alertness and readiness to protect your family. Let yourself live in this space of total relaxation, yet lethal.

Begin to turn up the part of you that is lethal. Start in your core. See if you can do this while remaining still. Activate your core, all the way down to your inner thighs, just above your heart, but keep your breath long and deep. Feel that beautiful balance. Zen Warrior.

Then, after about 9 minutes, as you bring this part of the practice to a close, see how much you can bring both of these textures with you—the part of you that is relaxed & alert and the part of you that would spring into action for what matters.

Now lie down on your back on your yoga mat or blanket. You can place a blanket or cushion underneath your head if you need it. Rest your arms down by your sides. Let everything go. See how naturally receptive you can be.

Rather than generate, output, or take care of someone else, feel how this moment wants to take care of you. How would you breathe if you really understood that this moment wanted to take care of you? How might your breathing change if the sun, the forest, the sky, and life itself were all conspiring to caress you and take care of you right now? Might you make a sound? Would you let your shoulders fall back a little bit to reveal your heart? Would you make your belly and solar plexus a little softer? Can you relax your body enough to become available to receive nourishment? Tune your awareness to the way that the moment wants to nourish you.

Then begin the Biological Breath. Inhale through a wide-open mouth with a relaxed open jaw into the back of your throat and the back of your heart. Let your body receive the breath with no striving, like you are gulping the nourishment that this moment wants to give you. Exhale through your mouth and become aware of your farthest extremities.

Notice what your extremities may want to do. Maybe your feet want to move. Maybe your fingers want to stretch out individually, one at a time. Let the exhale and your extremities work together. Make yourself available to what the moment wants to give you. Let the exhales make your body more available to receive this. Maybe your arms or legs spread open. Maybe you spread your shoulders open, so that your heart is more penetrable. Maybe your hips widen.

Begin to move your body in a way that intuitively makes you more available to receive the pollen from the trees, the rays of the sun, the song of a bird, the touch of your lover. The nourishment of the moment can only penetrate so far if your body is closed. It's not all about strength. It's about openness. The great Martial Artist is fluid.

This is not about stretching. Do not stretch. It's about letting the exhale tell your body how to become more available. If there's a different position of your body that feels like it makes you more available, let that happen, like on your side or on your hands and knees. If there's a sound that clears some space in your throat, let that happen.

There is so much love and nourishment that wants to come to you. She wants to give you everything. Create space to receive it. Imagine that the exhales make your cells more available to receive.

As you are making yourself more available, imagine that you are being caressed by the love of your life. Imagine Her touching you in a way that makes you feel energized. Feel The Feminine wanting to gift you right now. Receive it and let it feel good. Stay open and available to receive. Let yourself be honored. Let yourself be celebrated.

Inhale and then let the exhale tell you how to open. Feel your body expanding the way the universe is expanding while your heart is being stroked and your body is being caressed by the wind, the sun, your lover. Feel your body getting infinitely wide while receiving this gift from The Feminine. She wants to give you this. Imagine that every breath brings in the gifts of the cosmos, the gifts of life—children laughing, animals playing, everything that is joyful and beautiful.

Feel the part of you that does not want to open and enjoy, the part of you that collapses into habitual burden or thinking, and do it anyway.

After about 20 minutes, slowly begin to come to a more upright position, either standing on your knees or on your feet. Make yourself an offering to life and the people you love. Feel your own devotion. Let your body move in a way that reveals your devotion—to your community, to your children, to life, to love, to truth, to freedom.

Continue to make yourself wide. Let your body become the shape of devotion that frees your partner, mother, father, children, children's children, community, the people you lead in the world. Devotion to freedom. Devotion to love. Devotion to joy.

Let your devotion become fiercer and more intentional like this is your responsibility and your charge. The Divine is asking you to give something to the world. Let your body continue to open as this devotion. Let it spread across the land like a rising sun across a meadow, touching people's hearts, freeing them, loving them, and showing them the way.

In the last few minutes of the practice, allow your arms to come down slowly to your sides. Lift your heart. Let it shine. Once again, feel the joy that is available to you. Feel the joy of living, the joy of loving. Let the top of your heart open wide to the sky.

There is so much love. In you. In them. In us. In the world. Let that realization settle. Give a bow to that bounty of love.

Music:
"The Snake and the Moon" by Dead Can Dance
"A Punch Up at a Wedding" by Radiohead
"Clandestine" by Simrit
"Naam" by Gurunam Singh and Simrit
"Aftermath # 02" by AES DANA
"Aftermath # 05" by AES DANA
"Rakim (Live at the Mayfair Theatre)" by Dead Can Dance

View this practice for a detailed demonstration of the Breath of Fire: https://johnwinelandstreaming.vhx.tv/videos/breath-of-fire-and-ego-eradicator

Disclaimer: Although anyone may find this practice to be useful, it is made available with the understanding that we are not engaged in presenting specific medical, psychological, emotional, sexual or spiritual advice. Nor is anything in this practice intended to be a diagnosis, prescription, recommendation or cure for any specific kind of medical, psychological, emotional, sexual or spiritual problem. Each individual has unique needs and this practice cannot take these individual differences into account. Each person should engage in a program of treatment, prevention, cure, or general health only in consultation with a licensed, qualified physician, therapist or other competent professional. Any person suffering from a sexually transmitted disease or any local illness of his or her sexual organs should consult a medical doctor and a qualified instructor of sexual yoga before practicing the sexual methods described in this practice.