What is Kundalini Yoga? Its one of the most transformative yoga practices today. It is based on a set of exercises that is designed specifically to target certain areas of your body in order to strengthen them and help them release toxins.
KUNDALINI YOGA IS DESIGNED TO:
- increase your physical strength & build your stamina by holding postures
- clear the clutter from your mind with meditations so you can be focused
- expand your lung capacity and boost your immunity using breath work
- elevate your consciousness and manifest your dreams through mantras
- strengthen your nervous system by boosting your endurance so that you can remain energised no matter how busy or stressful your life is.
What is a typical class? In each class, each lot of exercises are referred to as a ‘set’ or a ‘kriya”.
- First we tune in using a centering technique to call upon our inner guidance.
- Then we warm up and stretch out our bodies using movement and strong breathing. Each Kundalini yoga class is unique, but each will contain a yoga ‘set’ of postures and exercises that work on specific areas of the body, mind, and spirit.
- We begin our ‘set’ that targets the meridians of the body. By strengthening that meridian, we release our individual physical blocks that free us mentally and emotionally.
- This is followed by a deep relaxation, sometimes accompanied by a gong
- We end with a meditation that helps us reprogram our thinking
chakras
What sort of sets or kriyas are there? There are literally hundreds of these yoga sets to choose from. Some focus on strengthening the liver, lungs, kidneys, the chakras or the aura, or even the thyroid. Some sets strengthen your back, your radiance, your mind/heart balance, your ability to keep up through hard times, in short, for every aspect of you as a human being.
How does Kundalini Yoga differ from Hatha Vinyasa?
- Breath is always specified and deliberate in a Kundalini yoga class
- Postures are designed to stimulate glandular functioning and build nerve strength
- Mudras stimulate pressure points affecting the mind and the distribution of energy through the body
- Mantras are a sound current which tunes and controls mental vibration
- Bandhas or body locks are applied to help release blocks.
- A drishti (or a focus) is integral in each Kundalini Yoga class as it balances the hemispheres of the brain.
How is the practice based on angles and triangles? Yogi Bhajan (Master of Kundalini Yoga says) says: ”Kundalini Yoga is a science of angles and triangles’ Every angle we hold our body in has a corresponding effect because the muscles are putting pressure on specific parts of the body.”
the aura
LEGS & ANGLES -Lifting the legs:
- 10 degrees affects sex glands & reproductive organs,
- 30 degrees affects the kidneys – navel area,
- 60 degrees affects the heart, lungs stomach,
- 90 degrees affects the head, memory, pineal and pituitary
ARMS AND ANGLES
Sitting – arms Horizontal (parallel to the ground):
- Works on Brain – L&R, strengthens the nervous system, Releases crystals in the shoulders
Sitting – arms 60 degrees off the horizontal:
- Works on the heart and lungs, strengthens the heart, adjusts and strengthens the aura
- Benefits are enhanced health and well being, greater physical flexibility, a more comfortable back, stronger and balanced immune, digestive, eliminative, and nervous systems.
