Kundalini Yoga and I were destined to meet.  For about five years before I ever took my first class, I had been hearing about it and being given books about it (three copies of the same book to be exact). I obviously wasn’t ready, as they remained on my bookshelf until one day in my office I noticed changes in one of my co-workers. I asked her what was going on with her, why she looked so happy, radiant, healthy, calm and peaceful.  I shouldn’t have been surprised, yet I was, when she said she had been going to yoga classes, Kundalini Yoga to be exact.

Realizing now was the time, I asked her where she went for classes and committed to going to the next one before I could change my mind.  The timeline from my first class to loving it, was about 30 minutes.  Given classes are 70-90 minutes long, you can see how quickly I was hooked.

I loved that nobody touched you, corrected you or made you wrong.  They told you how and trusted you to recognize and meet the needs of your own body and capacity. Kundalini Yoga is also done with your eyes closed. The experience is personal, it isn’t about competing to get into the deepest posture, showing the most skin with the least clothing, it is about doing your best, no more no less.

I, like many others, wear white when I practice Kundalini Yoga, for the reason that white is the highest energy colour, containing all eight colours of the chakra and energy field, and has the ability to expand your aura.  For most people wearing white is hard, as there is no place to hide and perhaps this too is part of the experience, so as to not hide from ourselves. Choosing to dress modestly and elegantly, can help you expand your personal projection and expand your consciousness, while settling into a new place of comfort and acceptance of yourself, exactly where you are.

Kundalini Yoga has been called the Yoga of Awareness, is recognized as a dynamic and powerful tool, designed to give you an experience of your soul. Kundalini Yoga harnesses mental, physical and nervous energies of the body. The technology within the yoga precisely and consciously combines breath, mudra, eye-focus, mantra, body locks and postures to balance the glandular system, strengthen the nervous system, expand lung capacity and purify the blood.  It brings balance to the body, mind & soul.

I know this to be true, as it is what I experienced from my first class, through my Kundalini Yoga teacher training classes, to now, more than 10 years later.

That said, it is also hard, challenging work that pushes you to and then beyond what you thought possible, both mentally and physically in equal measure.  Through the regular practice and also something very special called White Tantra. In the interest of disclosure I am referring to a single day event, held once every year, not a consistent practice of this, which may in fact be different.

White Tantric Yoga is a one day event. It is done in pairs, as a group meditation. Participants sit facing a partner and follow instructions for meditation then proceed to complete  six to eight kriyas, each one 31 or 62 minutes long, with short breaks or lunch in between. The kriyas themselves may be done silently or chanted aloud, eyes may be open looking at your partner, or closed and each uses a variety of mudras and asanas.

I did this for the first time, less than a month after my first class.  I wasn’t sure if I could hold a position for 31 minutes, let alone 62, but I also knew that this would be the challenge of the mind, not the body. I knew it would be my biggest job to quiet my mind from telling me my body couldn’t do this and I did.  I was so proud and energized after the day, I knew something powerful inside me had shifted and from it emerged a new sense of self, a new respect for myself that has remained with me to this day.

Kundalini Yoga is all about your experience, it is a practices of experiencing your own limitations and your excellence, which quite often is dormant. But once awakened, it goes right into your heart, it is up to you whether you mind accepts the words or not.

Kundalini Yoga isn’t a religion and it is available to everybody, it is universal and non denominational. It is often referred to as the “yoga of the householders” as it is for everybody, for those who have to cope with the daily challenges and stress of daily life, from holding jobs to raising families, managing business and beyond.

Kundalini Yoga isn’t for everybody, I know that. But it is for me and that is why I shared it here. For me the powerful combination of mind, body and soul and the combined technology that is felt immediately, is what keeps me going back, even after breaks that are long enough that my ego says it’s too late, you’ve been gone too long. I remember that first White Tantra day, and put the voice back where it belongs and out of my way and head to practice.

I will continue to share these bits and pieces of me, so you have a chance to get to know me better.  We don’t have to agree, we don’t have to see everything the same way, we just have to respect and accept each other, exactly as we are and it will be enough.

Namaste.