61. Experiencing your life force - Prana
On 11th August, I joined the Life Force Academy’s 11-Day Intuition Meditation challenge. And for the first time, I felt intuition as a tangible sensation, just like the sensation of feeling hot or cold.
Jai Dev, the founder of the Life force Academy, is a practitioner of Ayurveda and the life force he refers to is the Prana.
Prana is our essence, our spirit, it is what breathes life into our physical body. Think of it like the essence without which you will cease to exist. Dr. Smriti Pandey, lecturer at State Ayurvedic College, Lucknow, says, “The elements agni, soma, vayu, satwa, raja, tama, five indriya and bhutatma are considered as prana. These twelve live attributes constitute the human body. It is the vital essence of all dhatu i.e., ojas is also considered the site for prana.”
So prana is the subtle part of us. It is that which can be felt only when we bring our awareness inwards. But during the 11-day meditation challenge, I learned of a more radical way of experiencing the life force. Jai Dev taught us how to fire up the prana so that the subtle becomes so magnified that it’s impossible to ignore it.
The meditation practice involved some intense breathing asanas that eventually fired up the prana such that it could be felt like a tingling sensation in parts of the body where the heat from the breathing was most concentrated. Think of this like air versus wind during a cyclone - there is air all around us, but often it is too subtle for us to take notice of it. But right before a cyclone, the air gets fired up, which we feel as strong wind.
Why is it important to connect with the subtle part of us?
It is extremely important, if not the most important part of our experience as humans, to connect with our subtle life force energy. Because without experiencing our prana, we are missing out on basically what gives us life.
We are very used to living life from our mind space, and our heart space, making decisions on a daily basis on what feels right, or what is logically the best thing to do. While thoughts and emotions are waves that we can ride to take us through life, our prana or life force is the ocean that ultimately manifests as waves.
Thus, if you want to experience the wholeness of life, if you are curious about going beyond the mundane, if you believe in any capacity that there is more to you than what meets the eye, if you feel that you are guided by a higher purpose or calling, if you want to truly know you - you are essentially yearning to experience your prana, which becomes a pathway to experiencing your higher Self, your Soul.
What are some practical applications of experiencing your prana?
Prana is subtle. By practicing tuning into this subtle sensation, you get better and better at getting in touch with your intuition. You will gain discernment, and with practice, you will be able to discern between your intuition and other feelings. This will make navigating life smoother and you will feel more in flow with life.
Prana is blissful. And who doesn’t want to feel bliss? Don’t we all want respite from the madness of the day-to-day and experience bliss for even just a moment?
Prana is a balancing force. When we feel imbalanced in life, often it can be traced back to an imbalance in our pranic elements as mentioned above by Dr. Smriti Pandey. Tuning into our prana can help regain our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual balance in stressful situations. Proactively balancing the prana on a daily basis helps us not lose our balance easily in stressful situations.
Prana can be regulated. As you get more adept at understanding your prana, you will be able to regulate it to heal any bodily ailments like headaches, stomach issues, even emotions, and many other conditions like balancing energy blockages in the body. Prana is what is known as Qi in Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM). Through techniques like acupressure and reiki, you can learn to give healing to your body and others, filling you with vitality. By regulating your prana, you will be able to improve the quality of your thoughts and feelings.
How to experience your prana?
I absolutely enjoyed the “active” meditation method, where through focused intense breathing asanas, I was able to fire up the prana and thus experience it as tingling sensations. So you could try that.
Or, you could spend time in nature and allow yourself to be enveloped by nature’s healing and vibrant energy. Sit with nature and that blissful feeling for a few moments - that is your prana rejoicing because it feels at home.
You could also sit in meditation and slowly empty yourself till you are no longer distracted by your thoughts and feelings, but you are left with a feeling of lightness and calmness. You can get into this state by bringing your complete awareness on long deep breaths and by focusing on your third eye space.
Side note: Is prana the same as source energy?
Yes and no. Everything is a manifestation of source energy - every single thing.
So just as thoughts and feelings are manifestations of our prana, the prana is a manifestation of Source energy.
But ultimately, if you want to experience pure Source energy, that field of energy is more subtle than even our prana. So tuning into our prana is definitely a stepping stone to experiencing our source energy.
Just as we need to train our minds to think helpful thoughts, we need to cultivate a practice of tuning into our prana, our life force energy regularly, so we can regulate it rather than experience the outcomes of unregulated prana.
Love and light,
Vishanka
READING RECOMMENDATION
Intuition and its Five forms by Paramhansa Yogananda.