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The Be Fully Alive Podcast On Patreon
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"We all carry the potential to realize, in real time, that the vibrant energy we experience
when we feel truly loved, seen and met, is who we actually are." Dawn Cartwright
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Episode 318 . The Circling
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The Be Fully Alive Podcast
Flies are surprisingly sophisticated orbiters.
Before landing, a fly executes a precise series of loops — reading air currents, calculating approach angles, gathering everything it needs before making contact. It looks like chaos. It's actually mastery.
And it drives us nuts.
Meanwhile, we're orbiting the conversation we need to have. The in-laws visit. The question of who's going to initiate sex. The laundry pile that has somehow become a referendum on the entire relationship.
And most of us, at one point or another, have been that fly.
We circle. We just never land.
This episode of The Be Fully Alive Podcast introduces Pradakshina — the ancient practice of sacred circling — and what it actually means to move toward what we love with full enthusiasm.
This week, we come in for a landing.
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What Is NeoTantra?
Circling . In our NeoTantra exploration we begin to approach the one we love the way planets orbit the sun — no longer rushing toward a destination — circling the center of our pleasure as moments of meeting reveal themselves. The closer we get to stillness, the more we accelerate. Revealing space and closeness in equal balance.
Devotion . The Sufi dervish spins. And in the spinning, devotion appears. NeoTantra invites us into this same discovery — when we show up for love as a practice, love shows up for us.
Breath . The breath is the bridge between the outer world and the inner one. Every inhale creates an exhale. Every exhale creates space for the next inhale. The NeoTantra breathing practices are our most intimate partner — a space we can enter together.
Center . A circle exists because there is a center. The ecstasy we long for is a sensation we orbit together. The more we surrender to the experience, the more ecstasy appears.
Freedom . Pradakshina — sacred circling — dissolves what has limited us, releases the accumulated weight of the past, and opens us toward something that is constantly alive, fresh, and new. NeoTantra is, at its heart, the practice of becoming fully alive.
I invite you to start your day listening!
Dawn
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"A circle is the set of all points equidistant from a single center. Remove the center and the circle ceases to exist. Remove the circle and the center has no meaning. Each defines the other."
— Euclid . Elements . 300 BCE
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 | Episode 319 . The Circling Practice
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The Be Fully Alive Podcast
In this week's practice episode, we enter the circle — breath, gaze, and heartbeat — as a guided partner practice.
Breathe.
Circle.
Land.
Each breath is a complete journey. Each exhale creates space for more. Together, we circle with awareness — becoming intimate with our breath, our partner, ourselves. Breathing as an offering of devotion.
We'll practice solo first, then together — because the circling that weaves us together is always already happening inside us, waiting to be noticed.
Pradakshina, the ancient Hindu practice of sacred circling — pleasure deepens in the circling, passion ignites in the returning. And ecstasy lives at the center of everything we've been orbiting all along.
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What are the Benefits of Partner Practice?
Breath . Twelve to twenty cycles per minute, every minute of our lives — the breath has been circling inside us since the moment we were born. A simple, yet direct pathway to connected pleasure.
Attunement . When we synchronize our breathing, we attune. Our heartbeats align. Our nervous systems settle into a shared rhythm. The space between us becomes magnetized with electricity.
Gaze . Eye contact elevates our feelings of connection, vulnerability, and arousal. This practice expands our capacity for seeing and being seen. Meeting and being met.
Return . The quality that sustains long term passion isn't chemistry or compatibility. It's the willingness to keep coming back — to the breath, to the gaze, to the person we love — again and again — with the same quality of attention we brought the first time.
Center . Pleasure deepens as we circle one another's pleasure. Passion ignites in the distance between us. Ecstasy is revealed in the center.
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 | Episode 320 . The Long Marriage of Miriam and Robert
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The Be Fully Alive Podcast
Meet Miriam Goldstein, 67. Head librarian. Strong opinions about cheese. Married to Robert for 42 years.
Robert is 69. Sells insurance, which embarrasses him slightly. Underneath the insurance, he's a jazz musician. He hums while he does the dishes, while he gardens, while he drives.
Miriam noticed six years ago that the humming was becoming less frequent. She hasn't said anything. She doesn't know what to say without making it into something bigger than it might really be.
So she just keeps noticing. Which, it turns out, is its own form of Pradakshina.
Their daughter Naomi sends a podcast link with the message: Mom. Just listen. Both of you.
Sunday evenings become their time. Miriam makes tea. Robert makes a small plate of cheese with more ceremony than is probably required — because the ceremony makes Miriam smile.
On a Tuesday, Robert sits in the car in the driveway in the dark and listens to the Monday episode alone. He thinks about the music. He thinks about 30 years of circling it — humming, foot tapping, pausing whenever jazz comes on the radio — without ever recognizing this as devotion.
He goes inside and finds Miriam reading in her chair by the window.
Do you want to try the circle practice tonight? We don't have to wait till Sunday.
They sit on the living room floor on cushions from the couch, cross-legged or as close to cross-legged as 67 and 69 will allow, with the phone propped between them.
Their breathing finds its own rhythm. Not Robert's. Not Miriam's. Something that belongs to them both.
And then Robert's foot begins to tap.
Miriam sees it. And something moves through her that isn't exactly grief and isn't exactly joy and isn't exactly desire — but is in the vicinity of all three.
Oh. There you are.
Afterward, Robert says — I used to play a lot more.
Miriam says — I know.
He says — I didn't realize you knew.
She says — the humming.
He reaches across the cushions and takes her hand. Not a grand gesture. Just finds her right there, where she's always been.
Episode 320 . The Long Marriage of Miriam and Robert
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 | New 8-Week Series: The Art Of NeoTantra Partner Practice
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The Be Fully Alive Podcast . 8-Week Series
For thousands of years, the Hindu temple tradition has encoded a complete map of the human journey into sacred space.
From the outer gate to the innermost chamber, from the first act of purification to the moment of mutual beholding at the center.
Every threshold, every ritual, every offering was designed to produce a specific effect on human consciousness: the gathering of scattered awareness into a single, vivid, fully embodied point of contact.
This is the map we'll follow across eight weeks.
The Art of Sacred Intimacy draws from the living wisdom of Hindu temple practice — the architecture, the rituals, the priestly traditions, the Sanskrit teachings — and brings them into the most intimate spaces of our lives. Whether we come with a partner or walking the solo path, this practice will change the way we touch, the way we connect, and the way we make love.
Monday we learn. Wednesday we practice. Friday we witness.
An intimate arc of discovery for singles and couples ready to explore the sacred intimacy NeoTantra reveals.
WEEK 1: THE BELL AT THE GATE Ghanta — Awakening
The bell rings. Awareness gathers. The senses sharpen.
Episode 309 (Mon): The Bell at the Gate
Week One of our 8-week NeoTantra practice for couples and solo practitioners. We'll discover what the temple bell reveals about awareness — and what becomes possible in lovemaking when we are truly present.
Episode 310 (Wed): The Arrival Practice
A guided practice of breath, body awareness, and arrival — awakening the senses and cultivating the quality of presence that reveals the deeper layers of intimacy we crave.
Episode 311 (Fri): Callum Stopped Checking His Phone
Seven years together. One evening of real presence. What Callum and Priya discover when they tune in and turn toward each other with full awareness.
WEEK 2: THE THRESHOLD Shuddhi — Purification
Releasing the stories, the tension, the residue from the day.
Episode 312 (Mon): The Threshold
Shuddhi — the Hindu art of purification — the seven layers of the temple mirroring our own journey of intimacy.
Episode 313 (Wed): Crossing the Threshold
That moment when we make the decision to say yes. A guided practice through the temple's layers — shaking, sound, and water — as a complete sequence of shuddhi.
Episode 314 (Fri): Elena's Saturday Morning
Elena hasn't cried in two years. On a Saturday morning in New York, she crosses the threshold alone — and discovers what becomes available in intimate life when we finally clear the space within ourselves.
WEEK 3: THE FIVE OFFERINGS Puja — The Offering
Five offerings. Five senses awakened in sequence.
Episode 315 (Mon): The Five Offerings
The Pancha Upacharas — five offerings to awaken our senses — intimacy as an offering of love and reverence.
Episode 316 (Wed): Pancha Upacharas
A ceremony to reveal the secrets of intimate connection through the senses — giving and receiving with devotion.
Episode 317 (Fri): James's Adoration
James has a natural proclivity for adoration, something he’d always taken for granted — until now.
WEEK 4: THE CIRCLING Pradakshina — Circumambulation
Pradakshina is the practice of sustained, circling, returning attention.
Episode 318 (Mon): The Circling
Keeping our beloved at the center of our pleasure reveals a new doorway to sustained erotic awareness and emotional attunement.
Episode 319 (Wed): The Circle Practice
A guided pranayama practice for couples and solo practitioners — cultivating the shared energetic field that exists as the center of every erotic connection.
Episode 320 (Fri): The Long Marriage of Miriam and Robert
Forty-two years together, and a wake up call that brings them closer. Intertwined through breath, they open an inner door to shared arousal.
WEEK 5: THE ANOINTING Abhishekam — The Sacred Bath
The deity's body is bathed with honey, milk, and rose water. This is abhishekam.
Episode 321 (Mon): The Anointing
Complete and total adoration. Elevating intimate moments, awakening the inner lover, accessing a higher love.
Episode 322 (Wed): The Anointing Practice
Annointing every part of our lover’s body with scented oils and fragrances. Igniting flames of desire through touch.
Episode 323 (Fri): Lena and the Mirror
Lena is 27 and has never touched her body with true devotion — until now.
WEEK 6: THE FLAME Aarti — The Ceremony of Light
This is aarti — seeing the divine face of the beloved.
Episode 324 (Mon): The Flame
Aarti — the Hindu ceremony of transmitted light — revealing the divine face of the beloved.
Episode 325 (Wed): The Candlelight Practice
Candlelight, stillness and wonder. Who are we in illuminated moments of lovemaking.
Episode 326 (Fri): Tomás and Remi's Renewal
Tomás and Remi have been together eleven years. Somewhere along the way they stopped actually exploring one another as lovers. This week, they begin to explore one another again.
WEEK 7: SACRED UNION Maithuna — Sacred Union
Maithuna. The Tantric teaching of sacred sexual union.
Episode 327 (Mon): Ceremonial Lovemaking
Ceremonial cultivation of ecstatic energy during lovemaking reveals dimensions of awareness and connection that are rarely experienced — and beautifully simple and meaningful.
Episode 328 (Wed): The Maithuna Practice
Following threads of arousal inward. Expanding beyond pleasure. Discovering union. A guided ceremony of sacred lovemaking for couples and singles.
Episode 329 (Fri): The Night Amara Said Yes to Herself
Amara is a cellist, three years single by choice. The night she practices maithuna alone is the most intimate, the most alive, and the most unexpectedly ecstatic evening of her life.
WEEK 8: THE BLESSINGS Prasad — The Blessing
When the devotee leaves the temple, they carry blessings home with them.
Episode 330 (Mon): What We Carry Home
In the Hindu Tantric Tradition, the sweetness of our lovemaking is food for the gods. The blessings we receive when we make love are the treasure we bring into our lives.
Episode 331 (Wed): The Everflowing Blessings Practice
As we complete this series, we step fully over the threshold into a new experience of lovemaking and intimacy. Rediscovering the true compass for our intimate lives going forward.
Episode 332 (Fri): Eight Weeks Later
We return to all our characters — Callum and Priya, Elena, James, Miriam and Robert, Lena, Tomás and Remi, Amara — and witness what eight weeks of sacred practice has made of their bodies, their partnerships, and their lives.
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The Be Fully Alive Podcast
I look forward to welcoming you into the Be Fully Alive Podcast community. We're diving deep into the elegant systems that transform complex lives into embodied aliveness.
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Thank you for being part of this evolution with me. I can't wait to share what's coming next.
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 | Making peak experiences a way of life.
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The Be Fully Alive Podcast
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