For a conscientious yoga practitioner, there are many accessible energies to hone into. Shakti is a subtle energy that means “power” or “empowerment.” It represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe according to Hinduism.
Shakti embodies the active feminine energy of Shiva and is identified as Mahadevi or Parvati. While often described as feminine, Shakti truly transcends any gender. You may be more familiar with the term “chi” used in Taoism, but “chi” and “Shakti” both embody the energy that exists within everything.
Credited with governing our spiritual evolution, Shakti can open up our inner world of meditation and unfold our yoga practice. It can bind us together throughout our whole body, mind, and spirit. Our shakti is the secret force that evolves our consciousness and opens the doorways of our souls.
To awaken and unfold your Shakti takes time, and everyone’s timeline is different. But once it has revealed itself, your Shakti will empower any practice you commit to whether that’s asana, meditation, or a creative or professional project.
Shakti is where your spiritual and creative growth come together and accelerate exponentially.
So how can you call upon your Shakti? Below are a couple of tips to help you tap into your inner energy and power.
How to Access Your Shakti
#1 Hold Your Hands
Hold your hands about two or three inches apart. Feel the energy between them. Move your hands apart another few inches and maintain that sense of energy. If you lose the connection, move your hands closer until you feel it again.
#2 Bring Attention to Your Heart
As you inhale and exhale, imagine your breath moving through your heart and out of the back of your body. Become aware of any subtle energy that supports you like a backrest. Take that support and lean into it. Feel the energy flow out and surround you on all sides.
With long, slow breaths, breathe that energy into any places in your body that feel stuck or tight. Recognize that what you are inhaling and exhaling is your shakti.
#3 Become Aware of the Base of Your Spine
Try to sense the presence of a subtle channel of energy. It runs through the center of your body from the base of your spine to the crown of your head. With each breath, let your attention flow from the back of your spine to your heart to the crown of your head and back again.
Be aware of this gathering of energy as it moves in this inner channel. You may feel it as an expansion, a tingling sensation, or a subtle electricity. Recognize that this is your shakti.
#4 Pay Attention to Your Breath During Asana Practice
During your asana practice, gently guide your focus to the core of your body. That subtle channel of energy from the base of your spine to your heart will flow with your breath.
As you practice, you may notice subtle physical or energetic sensations. You might feel an expansion, a shiver, heat, a sense of lightness of heaviness, or even a change of heartbeat. It is not uncommon to notice these sensations most during Savasana. It’s easier to notice your shakti when you are still.
#5 Explore Kundalini Bhakti Meditation
Engage in meditation to access your shakti. One of the most powerful meditations taught by Yogi Bjahan utilizes devotional mantras to invoke the universal, feminine creative power that awakens your shakti.
This beautiful meditation can connect you to your sacred energy. Intentionally apply these energies to your practice. This may help you dissolve any limiting beliefs and thoughts while radiating a charge throughout your entire being.
How to Study Your Shakti
For some, tangible shakti experiences can take a longer time to manifest. This can have uncomfortable ramifications including intense emotions of self-judgment. But this is all a part of the release that your shakti triggers.
The energy is clearing you from the inside out. This suggests that you are riding out the storm as you would a detox. You will feel calm but you have to let it rage first.
Over time, it is important to become a student of your shakti and learn from its teachings. This subtle energy can manifest somatically and psychologically in various ways. Some experience feelings of heat or physical movements like swaying. These insights can revolutionize your asana or meditation practice and help you better tune with yourself.
If you feel in tune with your shakti, notice which thoughts or behaviors seem to make it expand or contract. In this way, your daily practice will become less about following a set or technique. Instead, it will be more about addressing what your body and energy needs at any given time.
Harnessing this energy can help you generate ideas and work through your emotions. You will realize that this power can be lended to any field you practice you engage in.
How to Dialogue With Your Shaki
Dialoguing with your shakti can provide profound insights into what you need. But you must welcome your shakti with a loving attitude.
Surrender to its energy. This energy moves throughout you so any stuck feelings, sensations, or fears will ultimately be released if you only pay attention.
Let go of resistance and expectation. Dialoguing with your shakti will allow you to communicate with the energy of your body. This is also why mantra practice is used to create powerful results for your shakti.
By dialoguing with your body, your inner energy can become very responsive. It’s even possible to experience your inner energy as a distinct presence.
These tools of communication can become particularly useful when working through various issues. It may be an emotional issue, a tightness or a pain in the body. Whatever you seek to work out, your shakti can help guide you through the process.
To help you create a dialogue with your shakti, follow the steps below.
5 Step Shakti Dialogue
#1 Notice Your Body
If you notice a part of your body that feels tight, painful, or stuck, tune into the pain. Notice how big of an area that pain is. Ask your body about it. Does it feel sharp or hard? Prickly or achey? What shape is it? Recognize this pain as a bundle of energy and try to coax it loose lovingly.
#2 Welcome Energy Sensations
Be conscious of creating a loving environment around you, even when you feel uncomfortable. Welcoming in all energy sensations invites letting go. Your acceptance of pain can help you release it.
#3 Speak to Your Energy Gently
Try to use suggestive words like “ease” or “open” when addressing your shakti. You can even ask stuck energy what it has to show you. Allow yourself to be informed by these sensations and welcome them with gentleness.
#4 Visualize Your Shakti
Imagine a light-filled circle of spacious energy around the stuck places in your body. Breathe into that light and allow your attention to flow through the energy of the pain. That spacious circle of light is your shakti. It is welcoming the pain to release itself.
#5 Breathe with Intention
Be sure to use language like “ease” or “open” to detach difficult emotions or problems your body may be experiencing. Your shakti is inherently healing. She will respond to your intentions and help you let go of what no longer serves you.
Final Tips for Accessing Your Shakti
Your shakti is unique to you and will reveal herself when both she and you are ready. Accessing her and her energy will allow you a greater range of communication tools. You may be able to experience difficult emotions or physical pains with more compassion and understanding.
Your shakti is always present deep within you. Her energy is inherently healing. Over time, the transformative current of your shakti can dissolve tensions and outworn beliefs you may hold. That’s when the natural ecstasy and wisdom can reveal itself.
These expressions of wisdom and beauty are essential to the self. They are not qualities that you must seek to embody. They already reside within you.
There is a secret tradition of shakti that is guided by the following:
To live your yoga means to live in partnership with the deep interior current of this awakening force.
Feel your shakti pulsing through your body and psyche. Let her mold you invisibly into the unique and radiant being that you are. She will help guide you to a closer connection within yourself. And she will reveal to you all that you are meant to be.
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