The fifth BaliSpirit festival has concluded last week. Five days packed with offerings ranging from yoga and dance, to music and holistic medicine workshops, this year’s festival attracted the largest crowds yet in its history. Susan, yoga practitioner from the United States, sums up her experience of the festival: “There is a huge number of workshops, and so many amazing new things to try. But for me, the most important part was to meet so many like-minded people and to connect with the community.”

The international audience that flocked to Ubud to experience the BaliSpirit festival is part of an ever-growing international community of health- and environment-conscious yogis, musicians, and dancers. This year, BaliSpirit attracted more than 1,000 participants from the United States, India, South America, Australia, China, Japan, Western and Eastern Europe, and Africa. John Ogilvie, yoga presenter, festival sponsor and founder of Australia’s Byron Yoga Center, recognizes the galvanizing power of the festival: “There is an international community present at this festival. All of them will take ideas and inspiration from this festival back to their own communities.” In this way, global awareness relating to health and environmental issues grows. Spirituality, as Ogilvie points out, has to be practical. By building an international community, the maxim ‘Think Global, Act Local’ can become a reality.

The general atmosphere of the festival encouraged sharing and community, and presenters as much as the audience enjoyed the many new connections and shared experiences during the festival.  “To me, as a presenter, the festival felt playful and free and because we all join each other’s classes, Michael Hallock, Watsu teacher, explains. “Normally, as a presenter, I would be a ‘special’ person at an event, but here I was one of many. It was really humbling because I saw so much greatness around me, so much talent and creativity. I saw many people in the fullness of their expression. It was very inspiring and humbling.” Presenter John Ogilvie, who says he enjoyed the experience of switching roles from teacher to student when he joined workshops led by his world-renowned peers, shared this feeling.

Bali is an ideal location for the festival – the Balinese are natural yogis, who live their form of yoga on a daily basis. As devout Hindus, they perform offerings and ceremonies on a daily basis, and service to the community is the norm rather than the exception. Kadek Gunarta, co-founder of the festival, asserts, “We Balinese do yoga our whole lives. We do yoga every time we make an offering and every time we go to a temple. We are always trying to lift our consciousness.” It is this constant effort to maintain a connection to the unseen world that makes Bali such a magical and inspiring place for Western visitors. This atmosphere is amplified during the festival, as many workshops encourage participants to look inside, become more conscious, and open their hearts.  Or as self-proclaimed ‘badass’ yoga instructor Cheri Rae, from Peace and Love Yoga, Los Angeles, puts it: “You do yoga to become a better person. If you don’t – get out of my class and go do aerobics!”

In an effort to promote and include local presenters and audiences, this year, several Indonesian presenters added more local flavor to the festival. While the vast majority of yoga presenters were white Westerners, Indonesian presenters such as Jane Chen, Indrawati Widjanarko and Dewi Asmarani were welcome additions to this all-white line-up.  There is still some way to go, however, to make a truly inclusive festival, especially regarding the Indonesian audience. As a positive gesture, the festival offers one day with free access for everyone, and especially Balinese families, with special workshops organized for children, and yoga classes with Balinese village elders, amongst others. There is, however, no adjusted ticket price for Indonesian participants, which is reflected in the under-representation of Indonesians in the audience during the other four days of the festival.

Giving back to the community, as a yogic principle, is a major theme running through the festival, and is inspiring to Westerners who might be craving a deeper sense of community and connection in the materialistic and individualistic West. BaliSpirit festival might just be a small part of the growing movement of people seeking community and holistic lifestyles around the world, but its ripple effect through the inspiration it provides is larger than the festival. According to John Ogilvie, “If we can get enough people doing yoga around the world, it will be a better place” – a simple formula, which recognizes the capacity of the festival to inspire proactive change among its international guests.

One such ripple effect of the festival has been the inspiration it has provided for similar yoga and holistic health festivals that have developed around the world – such as the Namaste Spirit Festival held in Jakarta, the Byron Bay Spirit Festival in Australia and the Hawaii Spirit Festival. Founder and Chairwoman of Namaste Festival in Jakarta, Anita Boentarman, says that she was “inspired by the BaliSpirit Festival.” She further commented, “Yoga is not about competition, it’s about union and working together. We want to work more closely with the BaliSpirit Festival.”

One important aspect of the festival’s mission relates to the environment. BaliSpirit prides itself in its partnership with green organizations such as Bali Cantik Tanpa Plastik, Bali ReGreen and the Environmental Bamboo Foundation. It is also linked to the East Bali Poverty Project and donations collected on Hari Cinta Keluarga day are donated to Ayo! Kita Bicara HIV/AIDS, an NGO created by BaliSpirit to engage the local community in conversations and education about HIV & AIDS.

Pau Castellsague, yoga presenter and founder of the Barcelona Yoga Conference, insisted on the urgency for people to take positive action: “I feel a strong connection to nature here in Bali, it is very inspiring. But what we humans have done to nature is very sad. We suck! It is time to change. And I don’t mean it’s time for the intention to change. It’s too late for intentions. We need to make change happen, now.”

While the festival does take its responsibility for the environment seriously, as is exemplified in their waste recycling program and support of environmental organizations, it isn’t perfect. The presence of plastic spoons, chopsticks made from tropical forest wood, and a huge number of paper cups still mar the image of a fully environmentally friendly festival. The consciousness and will to limit the impact of the festival on the environment, however, is well present, and efforts to manage waste have constantly improved since the festival’s inception five years ago.

Overall, this year’s BaliSpirit festival was a successful and positive event, galvanizing an ever-growing community of people who crave positive change in the world. And besides this grand aspiration, it was also, simply, a lot of fun. With workshops ranging from many different styles of yoga, such as Hatha, Anusara, Yin, Vinyasa Flow, Ashtanga, Acro and Kundalini, and lots of dynamic dance workshops, including Nia, 5 Rhythms, and the hugely popular West African Dance, there were plenty of opportunities for both for self-reflection and growth, as well as for good, plain fun, exhilaration, and booty-shakes! And while the Festival united some of the world’s most experienced yoga instructors, the festival welcomed beginners and the simply curious too.

Yoga is for everyone, and yoga should be fun, as Cheri Rae’s words bring it to the point: “Yoga should feel good.” And this is what this festival was about, most of all – feel good, do good.

These days it seems like everyone is doing yoga. A large yoga scene has developed in Bali in the last few years, attracting more and more foreigners and locals to practice this ancient art on the Island of the Gods. Practitioners rave about its physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. But might there be other benefits to it that are not so often discussed? Yoga’s aim is to re-establish union between the human body, mind and spirit. Could it be, however, that it also enhances the union between humans? In other words – can it improve your sex-life?

Read on… because it can.

A consistent Yoga practice will improve your physical well-being, fitness, and looks. But besides giving you that sexy “Yoga-butt”, it can do a lot more for your sex life than you might at first imagine.

And it’s scientifically proven. A recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that yoga improves women’s sex lives significantly. Moreover, the results were even more pronounced in women aged over 45. For the study, women aged between 22-55 participated in a 12-week yoga course. After the course, all of them reported an improvement in their sex lives, including improvement in desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain reduction.

On the masculine side, the results are just as positive.  Among men aged 24-60, yoga improved desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm.

So, how does it work? Exactly how yoga affects your sex life is not always clear, but here are some clues.

It makes you fit, strong and flexible
On the physical side, you will gain greater fitness, muscle tone and endurance from a regular Yoga practice. More energy, strength and better health all contribute to a better and more fulfilling sex life. Feeling good in your body may translate into feeling sexier when you enjoy your body in bed with someone else. Being fit can also make you feel more attractive and confident in your relationships with the opposite sex.

Increased flexibility and longer muscles give you greater freedom of movement, which invites creative experimentation in the realm of bedroom acrobatics. You might even want to try out some of the more adventurous positions transmitted in the ancient Indian art of lovemaking, the Kama-Sutra.

The practice of engaging the sacred energy locks of mula bandha and uddhiyana bandha in Yoga simultaneously toning the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles and increases their strength. A strong pelvic floor means stronger orgasms for both sexes, as these are partly the muscles that contract during orgasm. A strong core will give both sexes strength and endurance in all areas of life, and for women, as an added bonus, it will maintain their sexual fitness even into an advanced age.

Strong pelvic muscles can also help men develop greater self-control and endurance, thus giving them more time to please their partners. This aspect is crucial in love-making, as women usually need a longer time than men to get aroused to the point of orgasm. Therefore, a patient and self-controlled lover can translate into more orgasms for the woman. “Yoga really affected my sex life,” says Sascha, a yoga practitioner from Canada. “I’ve gained greater body awareness, partner awareness, endurance, stamina, and control. The biggest change for me is my awareness and control in engaging the mula bandha (pelvic floor) area, as well as a greater sensitivity to the female energy.”

A study conducted by researchers at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, concluded that yoga can help combat premature ejaculation and promote sexual satisfaction, and this even to a greater extend than the usual drugs prescribed for these problems – 100 percent of the yoga group showed improvement in premature ejaculation and sexual satisfaction, compared to 82 percent of the drug group.

More presence, more sensations
The relaxation practices within yoga allow practitioners to access a relaxed state more easily. Deeper relaxation allows for greater blood flow to the sexual organs, increasing sensitivity and responsiveness to stimulation.

With time, Yoga will develop physical self-awareness and sensitivity. “Your whole physiology will be optimized, your nervous system re-conditioned and so you’d be able to feel more sensations in your body. But Yoga will also develop the ability to integrate these enhanced feelings within every aspect of your life”, claims Uma Inder, Ayurveda consultant and yoga teacher of more than 20 years. “Yoga brings you right back into your body.”

Coming back into your body translates into a more focused and present mind. A distracted mind is no use during lovemaking – if you want to make it worthwhile. As researchers from the University of British Columbia found out, yoga meditation and mindfulness can help treat women’s sexual problems. In their study, researchers found that mindfulness practice significantly enhanced women’s sexual arousal and response.

A relaxed mind is more open to enjoy and be present during those intimate moments with your partner.

Beyond the physical
Yoga’s effects, however, transcend the physical. Increased self-confidence and a better knowledge of oneself are natural by-products of Yoga. During the practice of yoga, you learn to stay with the sensations and emotions that come up in various postures instead of ‘running away’ instantly. Learning to stay where you are, in a scary headstand for example, develops self-knowledge and confidence. You learn that fear, for example, is just an emotion, and that you don’t necessarily need to give in to it. So you’ll gradually become more comfortable in vulnerable positions, whether it’s in that headstand during class or while communicating your wishes to your partner.

Your relationships will naturally improve as you become more aware and respectful of yourself and others. According to Uma, “on a basic level, Yoga develops physical freedom and emotional maturity. Conscious acceptance of your own self empowers your capacity to relate truthfully with others.” And who says better relationships, says, well, better sex.

Moreover, Yoga might, over time, help you to undo some of the cultural and social conditioning that demonizes sex, and specifically keeps women from enjoying it. According to Margot Anand, senior Tantra Yoga teacher and founder of Skydancing Tantra, “If we want to be good lovers, on the spiritual level, as well as on the physical level, we have to look at the beliefs we were raised with, and whether we agree with these beliefs. You should realize that a belief is just something that is given to you from the outside – it is not your truth, your experience.” Regarding sex, “the first belief to let go of is that sex is “taboo”. It is not, for it is sacred. The second belief is that women should not be allowed to have as much pleasure, or as many lovers, as men. The third belief is that the Goddess is a stone effigy that resides in temples, but at home, the woman is just a worker and a mother. This is not so. If you can see the divine in your partner and make love to that transcendence – as you pray, so you love – then you experience true bliss because you are beyond the ego.”

From the lower realms… to the highest

By integrating all levels of the human experience – the physical, mental, and spiritual – Yoga may not just improve your orgasms; it could potentially lead you to ‘enlightening’ orgasms, too.

“In the Kundalini Tantra system, the sexual center, the second chakra (swadisthana), can be experienced as the center in which the individual self is established and supported”, says Uma Inder. “Within this tradition, the sexual center may be used as the platform, the basis from where spiritual experience is generated and amplified.”

Kundalini and Tantra yoga will develop more awareness in the lower centers, and open these up. “This is the doorway, the beginning of the spiritual journey, in the basis of existence,” according to Uma Inder. “All spiritual experiences are generated from the lower chakras, and this has been scientifically proven.” The challenge is to develop these lower centers without getting stuck there, as “there is a higher purpose to sexual intercourse, that is, to conceive another human being or higher consciousness. The highest sexuality is the union of energy and consciousness in every aspect of our bodies and our lives.”

At a still more advanced level, yogis can develop the capacity of experiencing a full-fledged orgasmic experience in the body, without having to go through sexual intercourse. As Margot Anand states, “When you enter that bliss, you don’t even think about sex anymore, because it’s so much better than sex!”

…are you still reading, or are you on your yoga mat already?