What is Kundalini and Kundalini Yoga?
Meaning “awareness” and known as the nerve of the soul, Kundalini is the atomic energy of creative consciousness, the whole energy of the cosmos and the Divine within and beyond ourselves.
It resides dormant in the base of the spine – the root chakra or muladhara – and when awakened, it travels up until it reaches the head, helping us break through the limitations of the human world, reconnecting us to Divine consciousness, strengthening our intuition, reuniting us with our highest self, leading us to our most Divine truth and helping us remember who are.
Kundalini awakening is a result of Kundalini Yoga – the fastest way to create transformation and establish alignment of your mind, body, and soul. Practicing it stimulates and shifts your glandular, electromagnetic, circulatory, and nervous system through the combination of pranayama (breathwork), kriyas and asanas (strategic postures), meditation, and mantra to raise the Kundalini energy.
Most call Kundalini Yoga the most spiritual form of yoga. It’s a living technology with ancient roots that date back to 1000 BC where it was mentioned in the Vedic texts. Today, it continues to inspire spiritual grounding, healing, and reconnection with infinity in the millions who incorporate it into their lives and daily sadhanas. Myself included. Here’s are 4 ways that Kundalini Yoga changed my life upon diving into its transformative magic.
1. Kundalini Yoga emphasized my discernment.
I want to get to the elephant in the room by taking a look at why I think it’s there in the first place. If you’re watching this, you either know nothing about Kundalini Yoga, or you’ve heard about it and you’re curious, or…you’ve heard that it’s dangerous and has a dark past. Let’s talk truthfully.
Upon diving into my learnings, I became acquainted with Yogi Bhajan, the man responsible for bringing Kundalini yoga to the west, teaching his first class in the US in 1969. Kundalini Yoga was a Raj or royal yoga that was reserved for only the serious, advanced, and privileged, but Yogi Bhajan brought the technology to the States during the early 70s, a time of political unrest and spiritual exploration. Naturally, Americans were all over it (I mean it’s an ancient practice that speaks for itself), but he painted himself like a guru, so naturally, people were also all over him.
Bhajan led the popularization of Kundalini Yoga in the west and ended up building a multi-million dollar empire in the process, and over a decade after his death, the world became clear on HIS truth: the financial scams, the sexual misconduct, and the abuse of power that was the foundation for his organization and his social presence.
Unfortunately, a man abusing his power and claiming himself a guru to exploit people for popularity, money and/or sexual favors is the story for many yogis around the world. Actually, it’s the story for many spiritual leaders, period.
As a teacher, as a person, and more so as a spirit living this human experience, I leaned into what Kundalini Yoga was reinforcing within me when I learned all this – discerning the truth and creating my own path.
What I know is this:
I know that these truths can feel confusing and hurtful, whether you practice Kundalini Yoga or not.
I know that I honor everyone who has been directly impacted by Yogi Bhajan’s abuse.
I know that this technology is ancient. Yogi Bhajan might have been the person who shared it, but it does not belong to him. So I carry it proudly, honoring its journey to the modern world while separating the man from the teachings.
Listen, I’ve had many discussions about this with people who agree with me and people who don’t. Being someone who grew up in the Catholic Church, separating the teachings from the man was something I had to do to feel safe having my own relationship with spirituality. Because if we’re throwing out Kundalini Yoga because of a human man who behaved in a way that opposes the teachings entirely, then why hasn’t the world done the same with other spiritual practices led by religious leaders who abuse their power?
2. Kundalini Yoga revitalized my nervous system and then some.
If you don’t know, the nervous system is responsible for transmitting signals between the brain and the rest of the body…like thinking, but also moving, seeing, and just general organ function.
Prior to February 2022, I had experienced chronic anxiety and depression for most of my life, and it was because I was living with mental illness and finding natural ways to cope with it sans medication that I created a career emphasizing holistic wellness, talking about the importance of realizing how intricately connected our mind, body, and spirit are.
I have tried it all and tried it all publicly. From moving my body in different ways, to changing my diet, to taking a myriad of supplements, to deep physical cleansing, and even trying veganism, I had failed to find one thing that brought ME back to ME, and that was sustainable, that held up against my changing mental landscape, busy life, living in an overstimulating city, etc.
A few weeks into my training, I realized, “Hold up. I haven’t experienced ANY symptoms of anxiety or depression since I started practicing this daily!”
I can’t put into words the way it felt to realize that, but know that for my first memory of depression to have been in the 5th grade and to finally feel long-lasting alleviation at age 33….I’m just grateful.
One of my favorite parts of my training was learning yogic anatomy and how Kundalini Yoga affects our body on a systemic and cellular level. Learning that KY helps strengthen the nervous system by increasing the energy moving through particular nerve pathways, improving the generation of brain cells and their interconnections, and increasing the parasympathetic response WHILE actually doing it? INCREDIBLE!
And not to mention all of its other mental, physical, and spiritual benefits. How it can shift the endocrine system responsible for our hormone health, how it cleanses and reinforces the electromagnetic system, resulting in a stronger and more vibrant aura, how it centers the mind, making you incapable of vibrating anything other than your truth…
THIS is why I teach Kundalini Yoga. Because it helped me reconnect internally so that I could create a different experience externally. With that, let’s go to number 3.
3. Kundalini Yoga changed the landscape of my relationships.
This is the point where most of you might be tempted to turn this off because you’re telling yourself that you don’t want your relationships to change. The truth is, that some of you have remained connected to people, places, and habits out of familiarity, and some of those connections aren’t serving your growth in any way. Lots of people are comfortable in their stagnancy, and sure that’s ok. Do you. But you can’t be nuzzled in cold, dry spaces and be angry that you’re not growing.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I was hoarding a few relationships that I thought were honest and fruitful, but they weren’t. And two months into my teacher training, everything was revealed to me about those relationships, including the relationship that I have with myself.
I’ve been teaching about personal development for years, but I never experienced shifts so fast and so clear as when I adopted Kundalini Yoga as a daily practice.
I learned very quickly that the kriyas, meditations, and mantras that I was practicing were directly speaking to the Divine through me. That when I was moving and chanting things like SAT NAM (truth is my identity) or KARTA PURKH NIRBHO NIRVAIR (doing it from the light of truth, fearless, without blame, judgment, or revenge towards self or others) that I was moving in prayer and vibrating these words into the Universe, and that everything I was asking for was being boomeranged back to me.
I teach about manifestation not just being something that we practice but something that is happening every day whether we’re intentional or not. But this living technology physically reminded me of our power and the power of focusing the energy you want through a daily practice.
People sometimes talk about Kundalini Yoga being dangerous, and having practiced and studied it intricately for a year now, all I can say is…yeah. If you want to stay within the walls of who you were told to be, if you want to sink into society’s perspective of life, or commit to only experiencing God outside of yourself OR not believing in God at all, then Kundalini Yoga is dangerous. Because it will cause you to break free of any and all limitations because it will awaken you to God within yourself. It will align you with a version of you you didn’t even think was possible, let alone the world around you.
4. Kundalini Yoga showed me true reverence and respect for spiritual practice.
Again, I come from a Catholic background. I was a Catholic schoolgirl from age 3 to 22 with a brief public school intermission from 15 to 17. I am a first-Friday mass going, Sunday altar serving, sleepover at the convent with the nuns, choir practice every week Catholic. School. Girl.
And now I am not. I experience God in my every day and STILL, with everything I’ve experienced when it comes to spirituality and commitment to it, I thought I knew reverence. I thought I knew respect for spiritual practice. Sadhana challenged that entirely.
Sadhana is a yogic term for daily spiritual practice, one that’s done early in the morning before starting the day. Staying disciplined to your sadhana keeps your mind clear to guide your actions consciously and initiates your expression as your most Divine self every day.
I was taught to honor sadhana in a very traditional way, so that meant learning to wake up at 3:30 for Ishaan (a cold shower to wake up the mind and body and stimulate the blood), then sitting for Amrit Vela sadhana from 4 AM to 6:30 in full bana, white clothing, and a white headwrap.
I get it now. Honoring daily sadhana and also more specific 40/90/120 day sadhanas, where if you miss a day, you’ve gotta start all over. Sadhana has taught me about respect for Spirit and for myself in new ways that I’m very grateful for.
Thank you for allowing me to share my story. This technology has offered me back to myself in ways that I want the world to experience for itself, so if you want to learn more from my perspective, subscribe to my channel and like this video while you’re at it.
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