Yin Workshop

Anakosha

A feminine approach to sexual freedom

The Yin Workshop

Southwest Florida
Next one: to be announced

Agenda

Meet and Greet Upon Arrival
Saturdays from 11 am to 7 pm. $110 a couple plus $40 to become members. Must be members to attend. The day includes lunch. In most workshops there is usually a wait period upon arrival. We put you right into the action. Attendees receive a list of names when they check in, and requested to start introducing themselves to others right away. This begins the weaving of energies together. Because there is to be no sex at this workshop, there is no need for politicking, chasing or defending. Just meet as friends.

Exercise 1 - Meditation
A guided meditation starts the workshop off to help everyone stop thinking and become peaceful. The words will focus inward on the energy centers called chakras, which are great peaceful pools of love and light. While our minds are generally busy with external affairs, our bodies live in a timeless zone. Connecting with the body helps gentle the mind down to a loving, trusting place. Love and trust are natural to the inner self.

Exercise 2 - The Honoring Circle
This is a stand-and-rotate circle to meet and honor each person there. We are guided to hold an attitude of reverence and respect in the presence of each person in turn. Don't worry whether you do or don't respect someone. It's not about the other person but about you. This is practice in holding you steady while close to a stranger and not being rattled. The honoring is done in thought, not words. These thoughts help build a unified field among us. We all are very different on the outside, but inside, at peace, we are all connected as One to love and light.

Exercise 3 - The Discussion
A circle discussion about the lifestyle, it's benefits and problems. Jealousy, insecurity, possessiveness; different styles likes anonymous sex, recreational sex, romantic sex, Tantra, B&D, fantasies, couples-only, singles, bisexual, group sex, open marriages, nudity, fantasies, hygiene, vibrators, ED and more. There won't be enough time to discuss all of them, but the group's questions will determine the direction. Write a question anonymously and put it in the jar.

Lunch Break
A substantial and nutritional lunch is included midway through the workshop, around 3 pm. We will have one hour to eat, socialize, dip in the pool or jaccuzzi, call home. Sodas, water, tea and coffee will be available.

Exercise 4 - Separate Women & Men Talks
Women and men break up into separate locations to discuss things they are not comfortable saying in mixed company. Both men and women are better able to talk in same-gender groups. Women have enjoyed this part the most over the years, better than men. The sisterhood of the lifestyle starts here. While men liked male groups the least, we are challenged to find just the right male leader to pull this together. The men need it. It is hugely empowering for men to surrender their male egos to their own hearts and talk candidly, from feeling.

Exercise 5 - Group Massage
This is perhaps the most exciting session of the workshop. A demonstration will be shown beforehand, and then a drawing for which massage table to go to. Couples may be separated to different tables. Groups of 5 or 6 are assigned to each table. This is a sensual massage but not sexual. It's done in the nude but a towel or light wrap may be placed over vulnerable parts for comfort. The focus is on the quality of touch, with sensitivity for the person on the table. The receiver is challenged to lie still and allow the touching. It's a exercise in trust, which is not easy for those with memories of abuse. But we are demonstrating that we can be trusted. We are learning to give and receive with an open heart that is discerning. No sexual activity is involved. This is a very special, very healing, very warming and intimate activity without sex.

Exercise 6 - Closing Circle
A sit-down closing circle ends the day to debrief and disentangle ourselves from the group. This final gathering is important to come back to our own center and individuality. In a lovestyle such as ours we need to learn how to engage and then disengage when it's over, not to carry it home with us. We will discuss what comes next after today, make plans for the future, share contact information and good-bye hugs.

Schedule

Calendar
No dates have been set yet. Keep checking here. Become a Member to be notified of dates or, if you don't want to become a member yet, sign our guestbook on the Contact page.

Time
Saturdays from 11 am to 7 pm.

Place
A private home in the country, Southwest Florida.

Group size
A minimum of ten couples are required.

Cost
$150 per couple, or $75 a single person. Lunch is included. This workshop is for couples. Single people need to find their own partners of opposite gender to register. We do not have lists of available singles.

Dress
Bring sarongs or loose garments to change into.

Hotels nearby
The closest hotel is 15 miles away. There are others further away. Click here for a list of hotels.

Eligibility
This is for couples in love or relationship but must be one man and one woman. All must be members of Anakosha to attend. Please sign up as members first at $20 per person. The membership form includes a privacy agreement which is important to us. A relationship can be any type of agreement between two people, even two friends who agree to attend together.

Other pertinent information
No alcohol or drugs please. Also plan to be honest and open about yourself. We will be overlapping energy fields. Dishonesty will be felt. This workshop opens people's hearts, so if anyone is thinking of lying about who they are or their marital status, it is not a good idea. It will be difficult to maintain the pretense.

For couples in love or relationship

Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang are two sides of one coin with the pure and innocent SELF in between. The SELF is a holy, beautiful, clear and intelligent consciousness. From infancy we begin covering ourselves with layers of limitations until we become unique, a one-of-a-kind personality. We learn to express as either male or female, but actually we are both. We are a 50/50 blend of male and female but we use one more than the other. Our yin or feminine side is our loving, motherly, nurturing side; while our yang or male side is our thinking, controlling and action-oriented side. Yin is our heart and yang is our mind.

I was shown a picture of yin and yang the other day. A solid beam of pure and holy consciousness came down from above and entered the head and down through the body into the ground. Suddenly Yang punched out to the side like a fist through what appeared as a rubber sheet (the body), while Yin was the underside of the rubber sheet. Yin followed wherever yang went. Yin and Yang are the same person. They are linked together in us as one.

Yin is naturally supportive of yang, since it is the lover and mother in us. This explains why women give in so much to the men in their lives, and why they suffer so much abuse without giving up. Yin is the silent, patient, long-suffering side of us that puts up with anything, as long as our Yang side is active. When our yang gets too crazy, our yin is right there, ready to step in and balance it or hold it back. But often when we are on a Yang roll (too aggressive), we are too strong even for ourselves. Even WE cannot hold ourselves back from danger or jumping off a cliff. That's when Yang gets too strong for its own good.

You could say that Yin is our relationship with our inner self, while Yang is our relationship with our outer self which is the outer world. Yin is in touch with the goodness of ourselves, the love within us, and the joy of being at peace and serenity. Yin is contemplative and draws great joy from being close to others. Yin feels through our bodies. Our bodies are full of sensings and sensuality. Our bodies are our mother.

When Yang is not going crazy with control or manipulation, it is father love and brother love and full of intelligent wisdom. Yang operates through the mind with higher intelligence and has the capacity to be abstract and impersonal, while Yin operates through the heart which is intimate and personal.

Both of these natures are available to us, and our goal is to bring them into balance. Human nature is such that many women are overly Yin and act too much from the heart, are too nurturing, and not enough from their higher mind. On the other hand, many men are overly Yang and act too much from their mind, by structuring, planning, analyzing and controlling others, and not enough from their hearts. The pain that men and women experience are the result of being out of balance within themselves. The challenge is to bring these out-of-balance tendencies - extreme Yin on one hand and extreme Yang on the other - into balance and thus into peace. They then earn a struggle-free and pain-free life where everything they do and feel, including their relationships, thrive and grow in harmony, strength, confidence and love.
Physiologically women's bodies are yin, men's bodies are yang, but that does not mean they cannot bring their bodies into yin-yang harmony and live a balanced life of joy and richness. Men will still be men, and women will still be women. Each will perform according to their inner nature and enjoy all of the sensations of their gender - and more.

The organized swinging lifestyle is mostly yang-dominated. It is action-oriented and tunnel-visioned on the sex act. This has been the reflection of a culture that is more male than female. Males are needy of sex and the neediness is felt at swing parties, while the female need has been sacrificed. The women in swinging, who are mostly wives and girlfriends, take care of the men because that is their role in the relationship.

The needs of the females are not being recognized in the swinging lifestyle nor, generally speaking, in the larger mainstream culture of today. The lifestyle of swinging provides a structured time, place and agenda for sexual swapping, and participants are expected to act sexual a these events. And while this structure has worked well to create a practical lifestyle for monogamous couples to have some fun and spice in their lives, it keeps a lid on our feminine (Yin) side. We have not been given time, space or permission to form feelings for other people or to explore those feelings and enrich our souls. We still carry fear about intimacy. We are afraid of heart-based feelings. A fear of emotional closeness. We do not know how to fit it into our lifestyle.

Our world is overly yang. Action takes precedence over peace. Life is fast and aggressive. While there is a movement toward more peace today, it has not made much of a dent in the way men and women do things. Yang is still in control, even in spiritual organizations like churches. Yang punches through the rubber sheet and Yin follows. Yin is not strong yet because it has not been empowered. It has not been honored, recognized and respected, either in men or women. Yin is still considered the weak side, the underling, the brunt. "Tears are for sissies."

Many people don't understand what Yin really means. How does yin behave? What does it look like? What does it feel like? We find a good example in the master from Galilee who lived 2000 years ago. He was a wise man who turned the other cheek, forgave transgressions, healed through touch alone, spoke simply without pen, paper or computer. He demonstrated by example what the feminine nature looks like in a man. Yin was empowered in him. He brought his yin and yang into balance and found great strength, peace and love. He was a forerunner. He said we could do the same - and more.

Through the YIN workshop we will practice feminine behavior and how to integrate that type of behavior comfortably into our relationships.

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