I’ve always been a pragmatic person.

If something is going to take my time or energy, it has to feel real and useful. I like knowing:

• what it does
• why it works
• how it actually helps me in daily life

So when I first started practicing yoga over 25 years ago, I loved the movement and the breath. I loved how it helped me feel calmer, stronger, more capable. But the moment someone started talking about chakras or “energy fields,” I could feel myself shut down a little.

It wasn’t that I didn’t respect the tradition. I just couldn’t make sense of it. My logical mind needed more than poetic language.

Discovering the Practical Side of Tantra

What surprised me is that the doorway that finally pulled me deeper into yoga wasn’t the esoteric side at all—it was tantra. Not the modern, sensationalized version, but the traditional approach that is so beautifully practical.

Tantra, at its core, asks:

• What actually shifts your state right now?
• What helps you feel more alive and connected today?
• How can we use breath, attention, and the body to create real change?

That landed for me.

As my teacher Pandit Rajmani Tigunait says:

“Tantra is not about belief. It is about experience. It asks you to do the practice and see the result for yourself.”

That sentence changed everything for me.

Tantra doesn’t ask you to believe anything. It asks you to experience it. You do a practice—and you feel the shift.

My breath slows.
My chest softens.
My mind clears.
My energy settles.

That’s not theoretical. That’s lived experience.

The Esoteric Struggle

For a long time, I kept anything “woo” at arm’s length.

Energy healing?
Subtle body?
Chakras?

I would politely smile, but internally think, “Okay… but how does that actually work?”

I needed a bridge. Something that connected the ancient language to what I understood about the body and the brain.

And then, slowly, that bridge appeared.

The Science That Changed Everything

As I learned more about the nervous system and the physiology of breath, things started clicking into place.

I began reading about:

• heart-brain coherence
• electromagnetic fields around the body
• resonance and vibration
• brainwave states in meditation

and suddenly, concepts I once brushed off as “too mystical” started making sense.

Swami Satchidananda once said:

“You cannot understand spiritual teachings by explanation. Only by experience.”

For me, the science became the explanation that allowed the experience to land.

When we breathe slowly and rhythmically, the heart’s electrical patterns become more coherent, which directly influences brain activity. That changes how we feel—calmer, clearer, more grounded.

When we feel gratitude or compassion, there are shifts in our physiology that can be measured.

When we meditate, our brainwaves literally change.

So when ancient teachings talk about “raising your vibration,” I now understand it as:

shifting our physiological state toward coherence, calm, and connection.

It’s poetic and scientific.

A More Grounded View of Energy

Here’s how I now think about “energy” in a practical way:

Our heartbeat has a rhythm.
Our breath has a rhythm.
Our brain has electrical patterns.
Our emotions influence our chemistry.

All of these create patterns—frequencies—that can be harmonious or chaotic.

When we’re stressed, everything becomes irregular and jagged.

When we breathe slowly or feel safe, everything becomes smoother and more coherent.

One of the classical tantric masters, Abhinavagupta, wrote over a thousand years ago:

“The body is not an obstacle. It is the gateway.”

That resonates so much now.

So when tantra talks about:

• prana
• life force
• energy flow

I see it as working with the systems in the body where science and experience overlap.

That feels both grounded and exciting to me.

Why Tantra Feels Like Home

What I love most about tantra is that it doesn’t ask me to leave my life or my logic behind.

It’s embodied.
It’s relational.
It’s sensory.
It’s practical.

Tantra doesn’t say, “Transcend the world.”
It says, “Be fully here. Be fully alive.”

And that speaks to me.

Opening the Door to Energy Healing

Here’s the surprising part: the more I learned about the science, the more open I became to the subtle, energetic side of things.

Not because I suddenly wanted to believe in something mystical, but because I started feeling the effects—and understanding the possible mechanisms behind them.

I don’t feel like I’m abandoning logic.

I feel like I’m expanding it.

Why This Matters Now

Midlife has a way of stripping away what doesn’t feel real anymore. We don’t have the patience for things that sound good but don’t actually change anything.

We want:

• meaning
• connection
• authenticity
• to feel alive again

Tantra gives us tools we can use right now—breath, awareness, movement, presence—to shift how we feel today.

And to me, that is both spiritual and deeply pragmatic.

A Sacred, Sensible Awakening

So yes… I still love science. I still want things to make sense. But I’m also opening to the mystery—the subtle experience that science is only beginning to describe.

Somehow, the combination of the practical and the profound feels like home.

It feels like the perfect place for this midlife chapter:

grounded, curious, awake, and fully alive.

“Tantra is not about belief. It is about experience.”
— Pandit Rajmani Tigunait