Kundalini Awakening 101
One of the first questions I often get from new Kundalini Yoga students is about Kundalini awakening or rising. As part of their spiritual journey, there is a lot of curiosity and even concern about the process to make it happen and if it’s something they should try to avoid. My response is that very few people ever achieve a full Kundalini Awakening. The discipline and practice that it takes is considerable. However, it is possible through a sacred practice to experience movement of your Kundalini energy through the body and experience higher consciousness. It is a remarkably powerful spiritual experience.
Spiritual Awakening is a Subtle Thing
So what is Kundalini and how do I get it to rise within me? Kundalini is a subtle feminine, life force energy that is stored at the base of the spine in the root chakra. It is described visually as a coiled snake. From a more ethereal perspective, it is also sometimes described as the Holy Spirit, Divine Within, among others. This dormant energy is raised through applied breathwork and intention that mixes positively and negatively charged energy at the root chakra. Through postures/asanas with body locks, breathwork, meditation, and mantra (all components of a Kundalini Yoga class), it is possible to raise the energy up through the subtle central channel, the sushmana, which runs parallel up the spine through all the chakras. Whether or not the energy reaches a full rise by reaching the crown chakra, is a function of methods applied and readiness of the Kundalini Yoga student. It is important to remember that our spiritual practice is more about our path and what we learn about ourselves through greater awareness, than about a particular end goal.
If subtle energy is difficult to understand, maybe a story from Vedic literature may help. As a romantic, I love this story that Joan Shirarpita Harrigan shares in her book “Kundalini Vidya: The Science of Spiritual Transformation”. She describes Kundalini rising/Kundalini awakening as the journey that one individual takes to reach her beloved on a mountain top. At the mountain top, her partner is in a state of elevated meditation, experiencing oneness with all. Her goal is to traverse the challenges of the human world to reach that state of pure consciousness. Along the path, she is supported by “tastes” of this divine state of being. Again, the importance of the journey is the goal. It is a point that I can’t emphasize enough as we continue on our individual spiritual paths.
How to Experience Awakening Your Kundalini
I’ve found that the most direct way to support the movement of Kundalini, life force energy, is through a regular practice of Kundalini Yoga, although other types of yoga and meditation are additional paths to a Kundalini awakening. If you’re new to Kundalini Yoga, consider starting with a short series of private classes. One-on-one instruction provides you with a solid foundation of experience and knowledge for group classes or even starting your own personal practice. In my private classes, I also share the science behind the technology as you begin to experience the more basic (and very effective) series of exercises, breathwork and meditation. Each class will allow for a short debrief to support you in your exploration and spiritual path to your true nature.
It is interesting to note that this spiritual journey can be supported by other activities. According to Yoga Journal, this list includes:
Dance: I would add that ecstatic dance can connect you with your emotions while moving energy in the body. Increased awareness of emotions is the first step to better understanding yourself, process your emotions and then rebalancing the energy in the body.
Energy work, which can include reiki and gong sound therapy. Both can realign energetic blockages in the body. The result is an easier flow of energy in the body, and in particular through the chakras and thus the sushumana.
Practice gratitude and live with an open heart. The research on the benefits of practicing gratitude is impressive. As it relates to a Kundalini rising, the following benefits shared by Mind, Body, Green are particularly relevant: gratitude can help you cope through emotional trauma, make it easier for the mind to not get so worked up worrying about things, and can make you feel more positive emotions.
What Do You Feel When Kundalini Awakens?
The most common experiences of a Kundalini awakening are emotional and physical reactions in the human body, which are often referred to as Kundalini stirring. These are remarkably powerful spiritual experiences as the life force energy begins to move up the central channel, the sushumana. They may include feeling waves of energy in the body, trembling or shaking. Gaia also shares more profound experiences including a sense that things feel as though they are falling apart, greater sense of intuition, increased sensitivity to those things around us, including the media and other people. As we work to increase our own vibration, beliefs that are not aligned with a higher vibration will cause dis-ease or energey blocks in the body. It is a process of greater introspection, self-evaluation, and potential realignment of beliefs and shift in focus as our values become clearer, energy blocks shift. Through this Kundalini experience, you have a powerful opportunity for healing.
What Are the Side Effects of a Kundalini Awakening?
If you search the internet, you will also find documented experiences of resulting physical pain reactions and mental imbalance. I remember asking my Kundalini Yoga teachers about this during teacher training. They shared that these are usually cases where the person was not ready and/or the person practiced to an extreme. I follow the advice of Swami Sivananda Radha, who explains in her book, “Kundalini Yoga for the West” that raising the Kundalini energy , “…can take place in such small steps, so gently, as never to upset or jar you into anxiety.” According to Healthline, “If a person isn’t fully prepared for the experience, some people claim they may experience long-term negative effects. Kundalini Yoga meditation does involve deep breathing exercises and slowed breathing. If you aren’t used to this, you may feel dizzy or lightheaded. While meditation can certainly be a powerful experience, there’s no evidence to support such long-term negative effects.”
Ananda shared this useful analogy, “Kundalini energy can be likened to a large river: If one’s motives are right, Kundalini is drawn up safely through the inner spine, just as a river follows its natural channel. However, if a seeker motivated by ego forces Kundalini energy upward by extreme breathing exercises, his consciousness isn’t internalized and refined enough to allow the energy to flow freely in the spine’s deep channels. This forced energy has to flow somewhere, and as it does, it can damage the nervous system, like a river overflowing its bank.”
Benefits of Kundalini Awakening
Said more simply by Harrigan, “It is the purpose of life to bring our awareness from mere physical existence by traversing undistractedly through all the inner phenomena to the ultimate Source. The sacred Power that enables us to accomplish this task is our inner spiritual director, the Divine within, Kundalini”. We come from Source and our spiritual path brings up back to Source. It can bring us back to a sense of Oneness with all; it is a profoundly simple and yet all encompassing experience. It is not achievable only through a regular Kundalini Yoga practice, although this form of yoga integrates all the elements to support a Kundalini awakening.
We are living in times of extraordinary change. Through the challenges that these times bring, may we choose to go deeper within ourselves and make a commitment to ourselves, with a regular Kundalini Yoga practice, to connect to the Divine energy that resides in each of us and connects us in a beautiful sacred geometry.
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