THE SEVEN POINTS

The Seven Points of Contact with their associated Gifts and Challenges

These Seven Points form the foundation of Contact Yoga.

The chakra system is a metaphor for the workings of the inner world. When you look at the way chakras affect relationships, and combine the map of the chakra system with the practice of Contact Yoga, you have an elegant set of principles that we call the seven Points of Contact. These are places of connection where important energies flow back and forth between people. The even Points of Contact describe the essential bonds that make a relationship vital, healthy, and complete. If any of these Points are missing, the relationship suffers. When each Point is open and connected, the relationship thrives.

Where do you really connect in your relationship? Where do you fail to make contact? Where do you want improvement? Perhaps you are strongly passionate but fail in your communication. Or perhaps the passion is missing, even though your commitment is still strong. Maybe you find it hard to trust, yet long for a deeper union. These are the issues common to most relationships, issues that emerge in the practice of Contact Yoga.

Trust, Passion, Commitment, Love, Communication, Vision, and Union—these are the things we long for, these are the treasures of relationship. We know their gifts well, yet each has its challenges—hidden places of conflict that interfere with a solid connection. We must acknowledge these shadow aspects if we are to transform them. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung once said, “We don’t become enlightened by chasing after figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” By bringing our shadow elements to light, we remove the barriers that keep us from union.

The shadow aspects of the seven Points of Contact represent the places where we hold back, our fears, confusions, insecurities, and struggles. They are places not to be avoided, but embraced and transformed into avenues for greater contact. Then we can harvest their gifts—the precious pearls that so powerfully enhance relationship. When passion and desire arise, it can be frightening, but if we surrender to the flow of energy, we experience the joy that passion and pleasure bring. To risk vulnerability is to find intimacy. To have clear communication, we must risk honesty, but when we do, the reward is inspiration and deeper rapport. To see someone clearly, we need to pierce through the illusions of projections and assumptions and receive the gift of clarity.