Urination, Chakras, and SBP

07.Discussions on AYP Pranayama, Mudras + Bandhas
1

Although I did not have this problem as a small child, since around the time I became a teenager, I had a problem I’ve heard called “shy bladder”–namely, I have had difficulty urinating when near others, such as in a busy public restroom. A minor nuisance, but connected to energy “blockage”? Here’s what makes me think so:

Recently, this problem is better. I realized that, in order to urinate, I have to relax what feels sort of like a center-line of nerves/muscles running down the middle (not just, or even primarily in the pelvic area) that has become more perceptible and directly controllable through yoga. Perhaps due to some sort of sexual hangup (I guess this because of the appearance of the problem around the time I knew about sex), I realized that, when attempting to urinate near others, I was having trouble relaxing this part of me that I feel recently more aware of.

Recently this “middle line” down my front is more perceptible and can all be physically flexed or relaxed consciously. It all connects to the same part of the stomach as moves during nauli, but it runs all the way from the throat, down through the chest, and into the pelvic area. I guess this is not the sushumna but probably more like the front meridian, given it is not located within the spine, but it does feel sort of like I’m growing aware of “chakras,” insofar as I feel something at the throat, heart, etc. (it feels like there is still some “blockage” there, but that they have “loosened up” significantly).

When doing SBP now, I like to expand these parts along with the rest of the belly, chest, etc. as I move up with the intention. I guess this would not be considered a “non-standard” application of AYP technique but just a natural outgrowth of the frontal aspect of the chakras becoming more relaxed?

Back to the issue of urination, though it’s possible my “chakras” were having this tightening up reaction in response to some kind of psycho-social hangup, the fact that, whether or not around others, and whether or not having trouble, the process of urinating itself seems to require a degree of relaxing these “chakras” (if that is what I’m perceiving) is interesting, given the areas of yoga Yogani has associated with the bladder: amaroli is orally recycling the urine from the bladder, vajroli is sucking up sexual essences into the bladder where, as I understand it, they may also be further transmuted into e.g., soma. Perhaps the bladder is just a key point along the pathway, with the digestive system and throat being others, where the “nectar cycle” occurs? And perhaps we need to relax our chakras to urinate because urination is part of that cycle?

I posted this in “Pranayama” (mods feel free to move) because in terms of any practical implications, it seems like it might be most relevant there. I still don’t feel like I perceive the sushumna as something like a string of light in my spine very clearly at all, but I can perceive this frontal line that I can expand when inhaling quite clearly. I also feel like I may have begun to perceive the ida and pingala more clearly, sort of like criss-crossing lines leading up to the top of each nostril.

I wonder to what extent I should keep trying to imagine something moving up my back (I’ve always been bad at visualizations) and to what extent I can try to just move my intention up and down the middle as I expand these lines of energy I’m recently more aware of. Thanks for any thoughts!

3 Likes
2

Hi Casey,

Certainly many muscles in the body are connected and relaxing one group of muscles can help another group to relax. And the relaxation of muscles is related to thoughts, emotions and trauma. So, what you are experiencing is not surprising at all.

It is also true that when blockages are released in the subtle nervous system, we can suddenly find that mental, emotional, and physical issues that we may have suffered for years, can simply disappear.

With regards to Spinal Breathing Pranayama practice, if you find that you are noticing the energetic feeling of the spinal nerve, then you can simply follow this with your attention instead of visualising the spinal nerve going up the spine. The spinal nerve can be felt in the spine, or in front of the spine, or in the centre of the body. If you are feeling an energy channel running up the front of the body, that is a different one.

3 Likes
3

Hi Tristan,

Thank you for the reply. I think what I’m perceiving in the front could be what the Daoists call the “conception vessel” a.k.a. the front meridian. What I am perceiving in the locations of the chakras may be their “kshetras” (frontal aspects)? As for the sushumna itself, I’m not sure I quite perceive it directly yet, though maybe in parts.

I feel a sometimes ecstatic place near the back of the nasal pharynx perhaps corresponding with the area where it turns forward to the brow, and I feel some ability to trace the feeling of expansion up the middle when I expand these frontal chakra areas on inhalation, so maybe just tracing that feeling up and down the middle of the body is good enough?

2 Likes
4

Hi Casey,

You could try that and see how it goes. If it feels too unclear and vague, you can always go back to visualising the tube, or thread, going up the inside of the spine, and tracing that with your attention. At the end of the day, as long as we end up at the ajna chakra at the end of each inhalation, and at the root chakra at the end of each exhalation, the practice will work.

2 Likes
5

It is good enough. Since learning ketchari 2, when engaged the nasal pharynx activates easily and the shushumna seems to yawn wide with gentle acknowledgment of it. At some point of the journey, purification awards our gentle attention influence. As Yogani has pointed out many times we don’t really need too know to much about the specifics under the hood, simply witness and surrender in DM. Witness draws us “there”, we gently return to the mantra regardless.

Christi’s advice about being at Ajna at the top of inhale and Root on the exhale really helped me early on, and the ability to “experience tracing the spine” came later for me, at the discovery my gentle attention had “feelings”.

Allow your imagination to paint your own inner picture, it doesn’t have to be a silver thread. Often after DM I rest my palms on my face and quietly melt into the blue-black void behind my eyelids. Inevitably for this yogi a red floating dot appears then dissolves into a wormhole, a drishti, a product of my gentle attention. I assign it as my shushumna and beyond the wormhole becomes the liberation and the knowing I desire. Our inner worlds are created from gentle loving attention if we are quiet, playful, and open to anything.

6

I feel silly, but I forgot about this early lesson, which seems to confirm the connection between urination and stimulation of higher energy centers/activation of kundalini:

Yogani here suggests it is the stimulation caused by urine passing through the prostate. To me, the connection is felt more on the level that other chakras seem to need to “relax” to a degree to urinate, but these are not mutually exclusive. It seems like the prostate is probably a close physical corellate of the swadisthana chakra, so stimulating it could stimulate that chakra and, if the nadis are relatively “open,” other chakras as well.

It seems to me lately that performing mulabandha, a kind of flex of the muscles above the pelvic bone, or even just mentally drawing the attention to the root area can cause an orgasmic feeling, so I guess this is likely the connection that occurs even when not urinating Yogani mentions in the post. And presumably it eventually starts happening automatically, even without consciously performing mulabandha or bringing attention to the root, etc.

2 Likes