About Kundalini Yoga
What is Kundalini Yoga?
Known for its transformative benefits, the practice of Kundalini Yoga builds physical strength and stamina and enhances cognitive function, emotional fitness, and spiritual connection. Many people describe the experience as exhilarating, euphoric, and powerful.
Who is it for? Kundalini Yoga offers a holistic technology that can be used by people of any belief and from all walks of life. Unlike renunciate yoga traditions, Kundalini Yoga provides a path for householders: people with families, social roles, and worldly concerns.
The Practice
In this practice, the primary focus is on the movement and transformation of energy. There is no one practice or series. Instead, the practice focuses on kriyas, which are each a specific sequence of yogic techniques and meditations to create a specific result in consciousness. This could be something very concrete (like better digestion) or something more etheric (like an open heart). Each kriya (which means “action” in Sanskrit) and comes with precise instructions and usually includes most of the following techniques:
- Asana: body postures
- Mudras: hand positions
- Pranayama: breathwork
- Mantras: intentional, repeated sounds
- Bandhas: constriction of particular area of the body
- Drishti: directing the gaze of the eyes
- Shivasana: relaxation at the end of practice
While they may be made of up multiple components, kriyas are one complete action, designed to be practiced as a whole set for an intended purpose. Learn more about Kundalini Yoga kriyas.
The Technology
Kundalini Yoga is known to assist change and self-limiting habits.
- It is a transformational system designed to release blocks to the reservoirs of untapped energy within us.
- It is designed to balance the glandular system and revitalize the nervous systems.
- It works to build, clear, and balance the subtle systems of the nadis (energy channels) and the chakras.
- It includes hydrotherapy and breathing practices and other established practices for optimal health and optimal functioning.
- It is a science
When energy moves freely through the chakras, it stimulates the mental, physical, and spiritual health of the being. There is a clarity that arises that combines perception, thought, and intuition.
Further Reading
Kundalini Yoga’s Greatest Hits
If you start doing Kundalini Yoga, on your own or in a class or community space, sooner or later — probably sooner — you are going to encounter these 10 core practices of Kundalini Yoga.
10 Great Reasons to Practice Kundalini Yoga
Kundalini Yoga is known as the Yoga of Awareness. It is the householder’s yoga—for people who are active in the world.
What Is Kundalini Yoga?
I often say to students that you cannot stay the same when you practice Kundalini Yoga. The very nature of what we do is to awaken the energy of consciousness, to practice in a way that sheds light on our self-imposed limitations.