The SSSC has announced an Independent Healing and Reparations Program. For more information click here.
I first heard of the Age of Aquarius from a song in the musical "Hair." I was a teenager in the 60's and it sounded really cool.
Now it is time for people to have the tools they need to transition from the Piscean Age that we had been in for 2000 years, into this new Aquarian Age.
I grew up with the Aquarian Sadhana, an early morning practice that includes doing Japji, yoga and chanting. My parents would bring me down to the sadhana room all bundled up in blankets. My mother said when I was little I would always pop up out of my blankets and sing along with the chants when they started.
Later as a teenager and in my early twenties I really identified with the chants as I began to compose tunes for them on my guitar. And now as a mother these chants have brought great comfort and peace to our home.
Postural Expression
I have made a life-long study of interpreting human behavior by observing human structural and movement patterns. Our patterns of movement can become accurate indications of our personality and character. We express ourselves through the thirty-trillion cells circulating throughout our bodies. As the cells dance, performing their individual responsibilities, they act together and in total, and become a personality.
If you've noticed the world seems polarized lately, you are not alone. From politics to climate change and from pandemics to wars, it can feel like the human race is having a really hard time getting along. While these times can leave you feeling destabilized and down, the good news is that the polarization is because we're going through a transition from one astrological age to the next, and the coming period promises to be one of higher consciousness, compassion, and enlightenment.
What is an Astrological Age?
"We must go beyond the illusion of separateness so as to realize that we are all interconnected. Whatever our beliefs, we must seek to be instruments of love, peace, and light, so that we may be a force for good in this world."
-Dr. Joseph Michael Levry
Consider the vastness of our global practice community, and that each of us has our own unique reason for finding our way to the mat. With a body of teachings as rich and diverse as Kundalini Yoga, there is beauty in the invitation to choose what resonates, and engage the tools that speak to our soul.
The simplest description for stress I have ever heard is from Hans Selye, the Canadian physician, who first borrowed the word from engineering and applied it to a physiological process he observed in his patients. He described stress as simply the body's adaptation to change. It is how we respond whenever an internal or external event occurs.
Change can be as simple as a shift in room temperature or as destabilizing as losing one's job. Since change happens nearly every instant, we have a stress response nearly every instant. Stress is natural and necessary.
What Is Healing?
Healing, from the perspective of Kundalini Yoga, is different from curing. Curing is removing the illness, problem, or issue. Healing means to make whole. A person who is healed may also have an illness or disease.
When your body is in rhythm with infinite consciousness, there is health or ease. When this rhythm is lost, there is dis-ease. Understanding the art of healing in this way allows you to feel liberated and whole throughout your life, even as you encounter times of both conventional health and illness.
Yogis believe you have a thousand-petalled lotus that's partly etheric and partly philosophical at the top center of your head. For every petal, a complete thought is produced every second. So that's a thousand thoughts per second, which is serious computing power.
Some of these thoughts are conscious; most of them remain subconscious. All of these thoughts get channeled into different parts of the brain through neuro-pathways.
This article will take us through each of the eight chakras, offering a brief explanation with a Kundalini Yoga kriya and meditation to help bring each of these energy centers back into balance.
What are Chakras?
Chakras are energy centers that exist within the human body. These energy centers are mapped to different emotional and psychological issues and can be used to help identify imbalances and to establish internal harmony.
The combined effect of our chakra systems become who we are, how we feel, how we behave, and how we change.
You may be wondering--can I teach my kids Kundalini yoga? Can I involve them in my practice? Is yoga suitable for small children?
The answer is: absolutely! However, you'll need to adjust the practice so it's appropriate for various children's ages. Check-in with your teacher or studio to see if they offer kids' classes, and follow the basic suggestions below to get your child involved with the life-changing power of Kundalini Yoga.
