What is Kundalini Yoga

As yoga studios open all over the world, practitioners have more and more options when it comes to what kind of yoga classes they’d like to go to. While all of these options are amazing to have, it can be a little overwhelming for people who don’t know the differences in the kinds of yoga that are out there. For example, someone looking for a gentle practice may not be happy if they ended up in a hot yoga class. One type of yoga that you may be interested in but know nothing about is called Kundalini yoga. Kundalini yoga, also known as laya yoga, is a type of yoga influenced by the Tantra and Shaktism schools of Hinduism.

The Practice of Kundalini Yoga

Practicing Kundalini yoga includes meditations and kriyas. These are performed to raise your body awareness and complete it. Doing so will allow your mind, body, and nervous system to handle the energy that comes from Kundalini rising. Practitioners focus on breath work, spine activity, naval activity, and pressure on body points and the meridians. Using alternate nostril breathing will cleanse your nadis and help practitioners raise Kundalini energy.

What is Kundalini Energy?

Simply put, Kundalini is known as the energy or life force that each person has located at the base of their spine. It is imagined as a coiled-up serpent, and practicing Kundalini will wake up this sleeping serpent. Doing so will allow the practitioner to reach full enlightenment as the energy is drawn up through the seven chakras of the body. Once that energy reaches the top chakra at the top of a person’s head, that person has reached enlightenment.

Asana Sequences

Each of the asana sequences practiced in Kundalini yoga are known as kriyas. Each kriya is a series of poses done with specific breathing to intensify the pose. Every kriya done in practice corresponds to a specific chakra, and each will differ from each other in intensity, movements, and breathing.

Going to a Kundalini class may be overwhelming if you’ve never experienced one before, so it’s nice to know what to expect. Opening with a chant and warm-up stretches, each class then will work through the kriyas and end with meditation. This is one of the most spiritual types of yoga available to practice and practitioners love the focus on grounding the physical body while working towards enlightenment. The chanting, meditation, and chakras can be overwhelming at first, but this kind of yoga is worth a shot.