Yoga Plus Friends The classic image of a Yogi is the person sitting by themselves, alone in meditation and removed from the world. Yet, it wasn’t always this way. One theory about the earliest practices of yoga is that it was first done to create group consciousness...

How Mantras Work Mantras, sacred sounds, are used in all the practices of yoga, from postures to breath to meditation. They help focus the mind, direct the flow of prana, and center us in the present. In Kundalini Yoga, we say that repetition of mantras creates new...

Kundalini Re-Birthing I have a friend in Portugal who teaches Kundalini yoga and plays the gong. When he and his wife had their first child, he played the Gong while she chanted mantra. A real Kundalini Gong Birthing! The rest of us probably were not as lucky during...

Do You See Colors When You Meditate?  For many practitioners of Kundalini Yoga, the answer is Yes. In fact, one of the most frequent question that come up in our Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training courses is:  “What does it mean when I see colors in my meditation?” The...

Meditation to Conquer Pain  In the Yoga Sutras, the first collection about the teachings of yoga, it is said (to paraphrase): Pain is universal -- suffering is avoidable. Life brings everyone pain in some form or the other, from the physical to the emotional to the...

The Shortest Kundalini Yoga Meditation Ever Meditations in the Kundalini Yoga tradition are typically 11 minutes or 31 minutes in length. And there are some meditations that can be practiced for 2 ½ hours (and even beyond!) and there are actually a good number of...

If Yoga is so Good, why is it so Hard? If you have been doing yoga for a while, you already know the many benefits it brings you: more energy, better rest, freedom from aches and pains, and a greater sense of peace and calmness. You would think that once someone...

The Secret Kundalini Meditation  Sometimes a secret is intentional, and sometimes it’s accidental. This is an accidental secret Kundalini Yoga meditation from over 20 years ago. I first experienced this meditation when it was first taught (at least in the Western...

Kundalini Brain Fog A popular new non-medical term is “brain fog” – a condition sometimes reported by people who have recovered from the coronavirus. Basically, brain fog is a symptom of an underlying medical condition that involves memory problems, a lack of mental...

Eat Your Stress Away Kundalini Yoga, like all yoga, is most effective when practiced as a lifestyle. In my very first class at a Kundalini Yoga ashram nearly 50 years ago, I became aware of the delicious aromas coming from the kitchen as they prepared their evening...

Fly Like a Butterfly This month brings us an opportunity to reset our energy and our lives as we move toward the Equinox on March 21.  The word equinox from Latin means “equal night.” It is a time when the length of the day and the night are equal in length, and there...

Going Neutral “The Yogi is one who the pair of opposites does not control. Neither heat nor cold, praise nor blame, affect the Yogi.”  – Yoga Sutras II, 48 One definition of a Yogi is one who does not react. In Kundalini Yoga, we call this non-reactive state the...

Sat Nam Building Blocks Mantras are prelinguistic and they came before all languages. The sounds of mantras are independent of meaning and their effects are universal. They are sonic formulas to facilitate healing and transformation, and each part of the formula can...

Total Transformation - 15 Minutes! The practice of Yoga takes place over multiple lifetimes, and every advance you make carries forward throughout the soul’s journey.  No effort you make in yoga is ever wasted, and everything counts for now and forever. Success is not...

Self-Mastery and Community: A Kundalini Yoga Formula When attending Kundalini Yoga, you soon discover that there seem to be countless yoga sets, kriyas and meditations you can practice.  Some teachers never repeat a class over the course of a year. And no wonder – it...

The Most Powerful Mantra in Kundalini Yoga (?) The job of a Preacher is to remind you that there is a God. The job of a Teacher is to remind you that you are God. Your job is to remind yourself. Fortunately, there is a mantra for that. Most of the mantras we use in...

The Secret Sustainer While doing research for my upcoming Mudra Therapy course, I examined several hundred mudras from many yoga and spiritual traditions. I began to appreciate that Kundalini Yoga used several fascinating mudras that I had not been able to find in the...

Mantras Meet Mudras A powerful yet relatively unknown practice in yoga is the conscious placement of sound into the physical body. This was one of the original tantric practices that reclaimed the physical body as the vehicle and implement of consciousness, and it is...

Magic Fingers The greatest secret in yoga is right at the tip of your figures. Literally.  When you touch your fingers together in a specific way, you can take your Kundalini yoga practice and even your health to a completely new level. These finger positions are...

Classic Kundalini Quickies! One of the most common excuses people use to avoid committing to a daily yoga practice is they do not have any extra time in their day for yoga. Of course, no one has “extra time.” But everyone absolutely has “enough time.’  Especially if...

It’s Thyme for Yogi Tea! The health benefits of Yogi Tea, the beverage of choice for Kundalini Yoga practitioners, are well known: Improves digestion Increases circulation, Purifies the liver Strengthens the circulatory system Helps the lungs and respiratory system...

Be Healthy - Ride the Camel! Sometimes the simplest things work best. In Kundalini Yoga, perhaps the most fundamental posture or exercise is the seated spinal flex, sometimes called “Camel Ride” for its approximation of the natural movement that can occur when you are...

ONG NAMO GURU DEV NAMO As a Kundalini Yoga student and teacher, you may have chanted this mantra hundreds of times. It was a link to teachers and teachings that came before us and will come after us, a Golden Chain of a lineage and legacy. The Piscean explanation of...

Talking with Your Chakras   In the practice of Kundalini Yoga, there is the understanding that creating a conscious relationship with others depends on which chakras you are using in your communication. Are you coming from your heart? Your intuition? Your gut?...

The Secret of Consciousness In 1977, one of the first books to be published about Kundalini Yoga was “The Experience of Consciousness,” a small collection of lectures and meditations by Yogi Bhajan. The book is almost impossible to find today, yet it explains the...

The World’s Shortest Kundalini Yoga Practice   It’s no secret that having a consistent and constant Kundalini Yoga practice is essential to physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.  A daily sadhana will carry you through all the changes, challenges, and...

Prosperity Flows: The Mantra That Works!  Prosperity can be defined as not simply having the abundance you need to fulfill your needs, but to realize that all your needs are pre-fulfilled. Yogi Bhajan, the master teacher of Kundalini Yoga, said this about prosperity:...

Kundalini Yoga: An Adventure in Consciousness When I first began practicing yoga in 1967, I found a book called Be Young with Yoga. Since I was only 17 at the time, I was actually more intrigued by the book’s pictures of women in leotards than with staying young. But...

The Master of Kundalini Yoga Yogi Bhajan is often called the “Master of Kundalini Yoga,” a title that was given to him at the age of 16 by his teacher, Sant Hazara Singh. The title of “Master” is often used to describe someone who has expertise in a particular area or...