Stumbling Upon Kundalini Yoga

I came upon Kundalini Yoga in rather desperate times. A local class was 200ft from my front door and I turned up dejected and hopeless to my first class. Here is the dichotomy, as a Movement Therapist I spent most of my time in dialogue with bodies; other’s and mine but in a grieving ten year period I had lost my identity, I had lost my marriage, house and two businesses and more shatteringly than all that I had lost connection with my body. For me this was losing my map, losing my way so completely, losing my, until then, reliable internal GPS system. I had given up feeling, given up connecting and given up hope.

So imagine my state of being when by the end of the warm-up I could feel energy moving through my body. I could feel and track my mental state changing before me, in me, and I had more sensory body awareness than I had felt in a very long time. I was now incredibly curious as to what could be acting so directly upon and within me.

I have enjoyed yoga and its various forms for many years and appreciated the calming and invigorating benefits – so how was this different? Rather than focusing on postures and strength and flexibility instead I noticed my attention was drawn to strange sensations pulsing through me, whatever this energy was it was so palpable that I could feel it rinsing my mind and recalibrating my body and mind connection. I hadn’t had such a direct experience through yoga before. And so on this day it seems Kundalini Yoga chose ME.

As I learnt more I discovered some of the science behind this technology. As a comprehensive system KY integrates movement, breathing, posture and hand positions sometimes with chanting sounds to create specific effects. Unique combinations are designed to use and mix the life force in the air, food and atoms! (prana) with the eliminative energy (apana) that expels waste on all levels not just the physical. When the these two forces meet and unite, they exert thermic pressure, on a latent force of energy in all of us – Kundalini energy. This energy then starts to move and rise as a result of the white heat thermic reaction created by the two polarity forces acting on one another. The design of the kundalini energy is then to travel along a path upwards to the head clearing the path as it goes and then back downwards to the navel where it grounds and integrates the changes into the body and lower chakras.

So the next question that usually crops up is… What is Kundalini energy then?  Find out by booking onto a Kundalini Class or read on…

What is kundalini? It is the whole energy of the cosmos in the individual and beyond the individual. It’s the energy of consciousness.

Far out, I know. Best thing right now is to remind yourself to breathe. Take a deep breath… exhale and now continue to read.

Without the constant flow of kundalini, you and I couldn’t live. If we can sustain a large flow of this energy then our mind begins to awaken, activating the dormant potentials in the brain and when this happens, you can understand the effect and impact of your actions so you develop the choice to take an action or not. That’s why it’s called “the yoga of awareness.”

Just as all rivers end up in the ocean, all yoga ends up raising the kundalini. Kundalini Yoga is only different because it concentrates its techniques on the nervous and glandular system very specifically to create this very direct effect.

As a personal snapshot of the effects of this path I can say with great clarity it is a crucible for character building, courage & awareness.

Kundalini Yoga prepares me daily not only to survive, but to flourish even in dynamic, dramatic and transformational times. The weekly class I took and maintained, kept my head above water; my own daily personal practice that I began at home, deepened my hunger and thirst to understand what I was working with; training as a teacher offered me a process of de-constructing who and what I thought ‘I’ was, clarifying my own thinking in order to dispel past conditioning and to find out where I stood; and advanced trainings moved me beyond personality to humbly meet my soul identity – the ultimate guide.

The theme in all my movement work as a professional is to help introduce people to themselves. And Kundalini Yoga was one of those ‘paths’ that helped me do just that for myself. To meet myself in all my current realities, increase my awareness and as a practice continues to enable me to see my own evolution of consciousness built on personal understanding.

Yoga as a word means Unity. As a means in itself it is to think intuitively, to investigate and to inquire. If you are doing any form of yoga, good on ya and if you ever feel curious enough to step into the mainframe – give Kundalini Yoga a go for 3 months. I’d love to hear about your experience.