“Wow! I didn't know it was possible to feel this good!,” said a client the other day after a Vivation session. This article briefly explains what Vivation is.
Originated by Jim Leonard,
Vivation is the skill of experiencing the core feeling process within your body that is the true source of human happiness. Vivation is something you learn to do for yourself to produce the physiological changes necessary for expanding joy, peace and well being in your life. Based on the ancient sciences of kundulini yoga, meditation and modern
breathwork, Vivation is a gentle, loving and powerful way to permanently heal any kind of negative emotion, trauma or experience. Vivation is powerful because it helps you quickly and pleasurably resolve even the most difficult feelings imaginable.
Vivation is a feeling based process. The primary difference between Vivation and other types of meditation is its emphasis on maintaining awareness of the strongest feeling in the body on an ongoing basis. In this way, the feeling experience itself guides and instructs you where to go next. In Vivation no distinction is made between emotions or sensations, as both are experienced kinesthetically. In Vivation, there is no requirement to "quiet your mind". If your mind is overly active, you simply continues noticing what that feels like in your body. Because of Vivation's emphasis on feeling your feelings, there is no mental or cognitive component to Vivation. By connecting directly to the physical feelings in your body, negative thoughts about those feelings are bypassed, resulting in a much more honest and pleasurable experience.
From the perspective of Vivation, there is no such thing as negative feelings, only negative thoughts about those feelings. Feelings once experienced openly and honestly, are inherently positive and blissful. By relaxing the mind and body and paying attention to the feelings already present, any "make wrong" about those feelings is relaxed too. This results in a relaxation or "melting" of body armor. When a feeling integrates for you, the physiological energy keeping that emotion suppressed is now released, resulting in a feeling of bliss. Every feeling that comes up in a Vivation session integrates. Every integration is permanent and represents a step forward in your emotional autonomy, freedom and liberation.
Vivation works directly at the feeling level in your body. These feelings are your most direct access to the present moment and the infinite varieties of bliss available there. The way to tap into this infinite source is learning how to experience the feelings in your body more openly and honestly. Everyone knows how to do this to some extent, but the real skill is knowing how to do it all the time in the face of all of your emotions in the most efficient and pleasurable way possible. There have been many methods past and present for helping people attain true happiness and spiritual enlightenment, but ultimately it comes down to just five elementary skills. These skills are the Five Elements of Vivation:
- Circular Breathing
- Complete Relaxation
- Awareness in Detail
- Integration Into Ecstasy
- Do Whatever You Do: Willingness Is Enough
* The First Element of Vivation is Circular breathing, which consists of three basic components. The first is that your inhales and exhales are connected together, with no pauses in between them. The second is your exhale is completely relaxed. By relaxed, this means yout exhale comes out all on its own and not forced or controlled in any way. This differs from many other forms of breathwork which have you do a forced exhale. Also, because the exhale is completely relaxed,
there is no hyperventilation in Vivation. If hyperventilation does occur, it is because the exhale is not relaxed and is likely being forced out or inhibited in some way. Hyperventilation ceases the moment your exhale is relaxed again. In Vivation, breathing rhythms occur along a continuum of three quadrants: Slow and Full, Fast and Full, and Fast and Shallow. Slow and shallow breathing takes you out of your body, and so is not used in Vivation. For those who are familiar with Kriya Yoga, Sudarshan Kriya (SKY) also uses three different rates of breathing, however in Vivation these breathing rhythms are adjusted continuously in real-time to resonate with the feelings in the body in the most enjoyable way possible. In this way, it is the experience of the feelings in the body that instructs and leads each session.
* The Second Element of Vivation is relaxing the mind and body as much as possible. One doesn't do Vivation, so much as relaxes into the experience for what it already there. In Vivation, feelings integrate when one relaxes into accepting those feeling for what they already are. In Vivation, integration is a relaxation of effort.
* The Third Element of Vivation is awareness in detail of the strongest feeling in the body. Feelings are not analyzed or sought after, only experienced for what they are in that moment. Since each moment is unique, this is the only element that practitioners must remain conscious of, as all other elements become automatic and natural supports of Third Element awareness.
* The Fourth Element of Vivation is integration into ecstasy. The basic idea is being open and receptive to whatever positive feelings are already present. According to Vivation practitioners, feelings are only experienced negatively because of mental judgments made about them. By relaxing the mind and body in the presence of the feeling, the positive aspects of the feeling become more obvious and easier to accept. According to the fourth element, one doesn't intentionally integrate a feeling, one enjoys the feeling as much as possible until it integrates.
* The Fifth Element is doing whatever you do, willingness is enough. In Vivation, willingness refers to the willingness to feel a feeling as honestly and positively as possible. There is no prerequisite for having a positive experience, only a willingness to be open to the possibility of experiencing the feeling in a positive way. In Vivation, integration is a function of willingness, and therefore is the most important of the five elements.
rnMastering Vivation means knowing how to apply these elements towards maximizing your enjoyment of the total human experience of life. This includes learning to enjoy even the most "painful" emotions that life sometimes brings us. But with practice, and training from a certified Vivation Professional, you can be up doing Vivation yourself in no time.