Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

game is the same.
Root Lock
The first of our three locks, mula bandha, is the Root Lock. After the diaphragm descends into the
abdominal cavity upon inhalation and the Root Lock is applied by contracting the perineum and the
urogenital webbing, the dense band of muscle between the genitals and the anus, the pelvic floor is
raised and the breath you’ve just inhaled is compressed, or locked in, retained. The energy of the
breath is sent deep into the abdominal cavity and held there. Internal pressure increases and, in
combination with the other two locks, Abdominal and Throat, circulation increases and blood is
exchanged optionally in the internal organs and surrounding tissues.
When you can root your own breath inside you, your energy gets locked inside where it can do its
best work and strengthen you from the inside out, literally. When I apply the lock after inhalation, I
can actually envision my breath becoming life-force “mist” inside me, a magic ether supercharged by
my nurturing intention, circulating and nourishing everything it touches.
This later translates into “rooting to rise” in our actual yoga practice, when we root our feet into
the earth to rise, to lift our bodies higher away from the earth. It is the rooting, the deepening into yin,
into earth, that gives us the power to soar, to fly, to connect then to heaven, and it all starts with your
own breath and how you consciously direct it. This is also what generates energy.
When you consciously commit to “guarding” your energy, as in becoming the guardian, the
protector, of it, the one who savors the resource, it grows. Applying the first of the three locks, the
Root Lock, is what establishes your innermost foundation and consecrates your commitment to the
waking of your own energy.
Since I always learn the best through contrast, I believe you will too. We are first going to
practice retaining the breath without applying the Root Lock and then see how different it feels when
we do.
1. Sit in Easy Pose with your palms face down on your knees and inhale to three-quarters full. Hold
your breath as long as you comfortably can, and while you do, tune into what this retention feels
like. What is the quality of the retention? Where is it exactly that you can sense the breath being
held? Just before you feel as though you can’t hold your breath any longer, exhale.
2. Inhale again, and now, just as you begin to hold the breath, coordinate your breathing and the
contraction of your perineum and start to squeeze it at that very moment. Can you feel the
difference? Can you feel how now the breath actually is locked inside? You can feel the “energy
bathtub stopper” that you have applied. It’s real. The Root Lock gives you a place to orient your
senses, a “bottom,” literally, a foundation, a floor from which the breath can then rise inside you.
This is your first example of “rooting to rise.”
3. As you squeeze your perineum, don’t exert too much pressure; simply try your best to isolate the
area and remember effortless effort, appreciating the subtle stimulation and lift that the
contraction creates in your lower body, in your Root. Retain the breath as long as you
comfortably can while squeezing, and then as you exhale gently release mula bandha and rest,