Kundalini Yoga is a powerful self-care practice that cultivates resilience and mindfulness in daily life. You’ll leave each class refreshed and grounded, allowing you to stay more regulated throughout your day.
It is known as the Yoga of Awareness. Your self-awareness will grow and you will become more connected to your body and spirit. Each class combines meditation, mantra, physical exercises, and breathing techniques to create a greater ability to be present in your daily life.
HISTORY
The Kundalini Yoga we know today is of ancient origins and was only taught to exclusive royals in the East who proved their desire and dedication to learn the practice. For many years, it was kept behind "closed doors" and only within certain family lines. Yogi Bhajan was one of the privileged to learn this practice and began his training at the age of eight. In 1968 he saw a desperate need for the West to have this technology and courageously broke the secrecy of the practice by coming to the United States to teach publicly. Through his dedication and efforts, by the time he came over to the States, he was considered one of the highest-living masters of Kundalini Yoga. The practice gained popularity through the benefits his students were achieving. Though Yogi Bhajan was a devout Sikh leader and served his students tirelessly he also worked with other religions and world leaders to foster world peace.
BENEFITS
Carl Jung, a renowned psychotherapist, and author, referred to Kundalini Yoga as inexpensive psychotherapy because of what he witnessed and experienced through the practice.
Through a regular practice of Kundalini Yoga, you can strengthen your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
You can experience any or all of the following:
- Improved flexibility and strength
- More energy
- A stronger nervous system
- Better digestion
- Healthy detox
- Reduce stress
- Improved mental clarity and focus
- Greater emotional balance.
- Increased sense of self
- A deeper connection to who you are meant to be
- Your ability to make more aligned decisions in your life
- Become more present and connected in your relationships and to yourself
THE PRACTICE
Kundalini Yoga focuses on sound, movement, and shifting energy within your body, especially in the nervous and glandular systems. We practice kriyas, which are specific combinations of yoga poses, breathing techniques, and meditations designed to achieve certain results. These results could be physical, like more energy or better digestion, or more mental and emotional, like stronger intuition or a more open heart.
To achieve these results kriyas come with precise instructions and include the following components:
- Asana: yoga postures
- Mudras: hand positions
- Pranayama: breathwork
- Mantras: intentional, repeated sounds
- Bandhas: constriction of a particular area of the body
- Drishti: directing the gaze of the eyes
- Shivasana: deep relaxation at the end of practice
Each Kundalini Yoga kriya is designed to be practiced as a complete yoga set for relaxation and rejuvenation of body, mind, and spirit.
“The beauty of Kundalini Yoga is that if you can just physically sit there, fix the automatic rhythm of your pranayam (breath control), and add a creative naad (inner sound), your mind becomes focused and balanced. In one kriya, you can immediately achieve a complete physical, mental, and spiritual balance. It works so effectively and quickly because of this completeness, balance, and energy.”
~ Yogi Bhajan