What is Tantra?

How is this still relevant?

To explain tantra to you it is necessary to highlight the contrast of what is not tantra. Most spiritual or mindfulness practices work with bypassing the body, or the "lower" urges. To be devoted to these practices you need to live in some sort of seclusion from the rest of the world. Or isolate yourself during certain practices.

Tantra was intended to be a spiritual practice that includes our human nature, and the societies we live in. Where the church told us we were sinful, tantra tells us we are already divine. Instead of resisting our urges or the busyness of regular life we can use anything to dive deeper into spirituality. And yes this does include sex, however a tantrika might just as well be celibate!

So what does a tantra class look like?

In my classes I almost always use the pillars of breath-work, sense activation, movement and sounding. My aim is to free up the body from any old conditioning that is not serving anymore. For example if the breath is shallow there is a holding in the body that is not beneficial in the current moment. This "holding" of the body is often a pattern caused by having resisted some kind of primal response/ inner urge when it was not safe to express.

In this way I view everything that presents itself in the moment as a micro-expression of the whole. Someone's body can often tell me more then their mind can. I love giving people space to sound, move and express (emotions) as it seems there is a great need for this. It is not unusual for clients to come up to me after a class or session to share that they were able to process/ feel on a level that years of "mind based" therapy could not accomplish.