“Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive, Jump into experience while you are alive!” Rumi

Have you ever eaten something that made your mouth explode in ecstasy? Or read a poem that touched you so deeply that your heart filled to overflowing with love?

Perhaps you were hiking somewhere and suddenly you noticed how the leaves were iridescent in the sunlight. The smell of the woods intoxicated you and you became filled with a sense of connection to life itself. The beauty of life welled up inside you and took you by surprise.

Maybe you fell in love. Or for one blinding moment, lovemaking called you back to an ecstatic relationship with life. Maybe it happened for you giving birth to a child when you were overwhelmed with an all-encompassing love. Or perhaps you experienced ecstasy while dancing when you lost yourself in the music, or while listening to a symphony. Whatever the reason, it was during these times of illumination that life offered you a little taste of the sacred.

So what is ecstasy? Abraham Maslow describes it as, “peak experiences”. Ecstasy is an experience of intense contentment and inner joy. To live a life filled with ecstasy is to live a life with our senses fully immersed in life. We then embrace the erotic nature of life as we thoroughly enjoy our five senses. Our ability to be in the here and now, to touch each moment fully is one of the keys to being able to access ecstasy in your everyday life.

Some of our most common experiences with ecstasy come when we are feeling the relief, joy, and exhilaration that comes with the sudden release of a difficult situation. Another common experience is during lovemaking with moments of intense pleasure and blessed release. But this is just a taste of what is possible. Ecstasy transcends sex.

We can learn to cultivate the quality of a great lover in the way we live our daily life. Ecstatic moments can be cultivated on a daily basis when we enter into a love affair with life. (Margo Anand, The Art of Everyday Ecstasy)

The tantric path teaches us to embrace and unify with the ordinary, the erotic, and the sacred dimensions of life, which all have their roots in Spirit. The Seven Tantric Keys of Awakening, are doorways and rituals that you can embrace in your life to reveal the inherent beauty and meaning of your ordinary life. These are taken from the book, The Art of Everyday Ecstasy, by Margo Anand.

The Seven Tantric Keys of Awakening

Say ‘yes’ to life in all its erotic passion. Go with the flow of the life force within you and all around you. Trust yourself and allow your personal power to manifest in life. Open your heart in loving compassion to yourself and others. Authentically express your creativity and your truth. Look within to achieve clarity and insight into your life. Surrender to your source and know gratitude, spiritual peace, and a new capacity to live at your maximum potential in every moment.

These seven keys can open you up to your essential self and unleash within you the abundant, joyous energy that you are.

The Seven Tantric Keys of Awakening

• Say ‘yes’ to life in all its erotic passion.
• Go with the flow of the life force within you and all around you.
• Trust yourself and allow your personal power to manifest in life.
• Open your heart in loving compassion to yourself and others.
• Authentically express your creativity and your truth.
• Look within to achieve clarity and insight into your life.
• Surrender to your source and know gratitude, spiritual peace, and a new capacity to live at your maximum potential in every moment.

These seven keys can open you up to your essential self and unleash within you the abundant, joyous energy that you are.