On Tuesday we talked about an exercise men can do to improve their sexual health and energy. Today, we will be discussing another exercise, this one for women, which serves the same purpose. As mentioned last week, this exercise is found in the book Healing Love Through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy, by renowned Taoist masters and mind-body experts Mantak Chia and Maneewan Chia.
This exercise is more meditative than physical, and involves moving energy from the ovaries to the Ovarian Palace, a particularly important area of the uterus in Taoist practice. In order to focus on the correct areas for this exercise, you first need to find the ovarian palace.
Take a look at the image below. You can find the ovarian palace by placing your hands, palms down, on your lower abdomen. Your thumbs should touch right over your bellybutton. By touching your two pointer fingers together to make a triangle, you have found the location of the ovarian palace. Your ovaries should be located just beneath your ring and little fingers.
Gently rub the areas where your ovaries are with your fingers. Breath in and out through your nose and visualize the energy building up in the ovaries. They should feel warm.
With the hands in the same position, visualize the energy from the ovaries moving into the Ovarian Palace (from where your little fingers are to where your pointer fingers are).
Accompany this movement and breathing with gentle contracting and relaxing of the perineum (P-C) muscles. This is the muscle of your pelvic floor, used to control the flow of urine. It is also called the "Chi Muscle" in Taoist practice.
You should experience a delicate opening and closing of the vagina with these contractions. Use the contracting, inhaling motion to pull the energy from the Ovarian Palace to the base of the pelvis, and then on the relaxing and exhaling motion, send the energy up along the back of the spine to the top of the head. Try to visualize the energy moving, and take a look at this diagram for help:
Do this exercise once a day for five or ten minutes. Each woman experiences different sensations and builds up the energy at different speeds. Go with whatever practice most helps your energy and health.
For more energetic system overviews and exercises, read more on the blog. Or, you can read up in my Sunrise or Sunset Tai Chi books, or watch my DVDs.
Good luck!