You might have access to both the masculine and feminine energetics within you, but perhaps you feel out of control and unable to call upon them when you need them. There are times in your life in which you want to act more from your masculine or more from your feminine, but you don’t feel empowered to shift between them fluidly and intentionally.

This is a practice for cultivating energetic agility by moving fluidly between the embodied masculine and feminine. John will guide you to embody the natural energetics of Tree and Smoke. One is grounded and open. The other is all flow. You will, first, feel how both of these different energetics live in your body, but eventually seamlessly integrate them into the natural energetic of Bamboo. This will allow you to sense the part of you that is completely still and unchanging (your masculine) while also feeling the part of you that is ever-moving with the pulse of your heart (your feminine) in any moment.

If you want to be able to expand your capacity to move fluidly and intentionally between the masculine and feminine energetics that are always there within you, start with this 13-minute practice.

Start standing with your feet underneath your hips, your toes pointed straight ahead like you're on skis or train tracks, your knees slightly bent, your navel pulled in, your sacrum tucked, your hands by your sides with your fingers pointed toward the ground as if you are plugging your fingers into the earth, your heart lifted, your eyes soft like you're gazing into a starry sky, your spine strong, and everything else relaxed and open.

Begin to breathe through the soles of your feet into your lower abdomen and belly like you're pulling energy up from the earth. Practice being in "tree mode," in which every exhale spreads your roots further down into the earth, and every inhale breathes life through the trunk of your body such that you lift, widen, and grow up toward the sky with every breath, like a tree.  

Feel how there is both stillness and aliveness in the tree. It's as if your limbs are like branches and your skin is like leaves rustling in the wind. Continually ground deeper into the earth, breathing the energy of the earth into your roots. Feel the part of you that is still and infinite, but also alive, alert, and able to feel everything. Feel your heart alive.

You are Tree. Feel your pride, nobility, length and sheer size. Maybe you are a huge Redwood or Eucalyptus tree. Allow your entire body to take the shape of Tree for 1 minute.

As you slowly allow that to relax, move your arms up toward the sky, as if you're trying to tickle the sky. Begin to feel the energy of rising smoke. For 1 minute, become Smoke rising and curling up toward the sky, with no direction and no ground. You're at the mercy of the wind. Let it take you. Let it feel good. You don't have to do anything except float. Your feet don't have to stay grounded. Imagine yourself moving higher and higher into the sky; dispersing and dissolving into the entire sky.

Then, after a minute, let that practice relax. Plant your feet. Feel the earth. Ground. For another minute, become Tree once again. Feel the part of you at your center that has never, and will never, change. Feel the You that is you forever and always. Feel your leaves spreading out in every direction, soaking up the sunlight, wind, and water. Feel your roots being effortlessly fed from the earth. No working. Just being.

Then, relaxing that, find your way back to Smoke for a minute. Let yourself rise and drift into the sky, like your ultimate destination is the sun. Let it feel good. Maybe you make a sound. You're fully surrendered to the wind and the weather. You can't resist it.

Notice the difference between the two textures. They both have a lot of feeling. One is all flow. The other is grounded and open.  

Then come back to the ground. Plant your feet. Lift your heart. Feel yourself one last time as Tree. Imagine that as your roots, through the soles of your feet, move deep into the earth, every breath pulls energy, nutrients, and minerals up from the earth. Feel how the top of your head rises up toward the sky like a tree growing tall. Feel your trunk strong and still.

For the final minute, without changing your root, as you lift your arms up to the sky again, imagine that instead of Smoke, you are now Bamboo, so you're staying rooted, but there's a little bit of sway in the breeze. You're still a tree, but a different kind of tree. A tree that flows in the wind.

Then bring this to stillness. Let your arms drop by your sides. Feel how both of these different energetics live in your body. Feel the part of you that is undulating, perhaps your spine or hips, even if imperceptibly. Feel the pulse in your heart, hips, genitals and spine, and how your body is moving with that pulse always.

Then feel the part of you that is completely still. Never moving. Never changing. Everything happens and changes around it. Feel both of those parts of you.

Close your practice with a bow to the earth and sky.

Music: Promentory by Trevor Jones, A Punch Up At a Wedding by Radiohead

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.