How to Feel More Grounded in Kundalini Yoga

Sometimes I hear comments like, “I don't want to practice Kundalini Yoga because it makes me feel spacey” or “I feel ungrounded after the practice.” And to this, I first recommend that they wrap their head or cover their head with some natural fabric or fiber. You could wear a wool toque.

The technology really is to wrap the head and to tightly bring the skull bones together to give you that cranial sacral adjustment. But just to explore if you're feeling like you're lifting the energy up and to get that sense of containment is to wrap the head. So I invite people to explore that technology at home. They don't need to do it in class right away but just explore it in their own meditation and see if it makes the difference.

The Power of Mula Bandha Root Lock

Another thing I recommend in the practice is to engage Mula Bandha. That's the root lock, our connection to the earth. When our root is balanced we feel safe, we feel stable. We can stay inside this physical vessel, our bodies, without escaping. And so to practice Mula Bandha, you just squeeze the muscles of the anus, sphincter and pelvic floor, lifting up and the navel pressing towards the spine.

What this does is it allows the pranic energy to move up and the apana to circulate down, eliminating energy. They blend at the navel. So as you bring the navel to the spine, you circulate both energies evenly through your body.

And all yogic practices are essentially to raise the Kundalini – to allow this creative potential that lives in us, that's located at the base of the spine. And with that, it's not just meant to raise and then be gone. There is that oppositional energy of embodiment that we're really passionate about sharing at the Dharma Temple. With our earth-based practices – yoga asana being one of them – you are a piece of earth.

You are not separate from the earth.

And so having an earth-based practice to really ground you is important. The postures are meant to do that. Using Mula Bandha is meant to do that. So I just want to invite some inquiry as to that word of feeling spaced out.

For me, I began my yogic journey 15 years ago as someone who came from a background in dance, athletics, and gymnastics. I was a naturally flexible person. And when I first came to yoga asana I really loved it. I was able to do a lot. I have had this body that has been able to create a lot of the shapes that the sages describe for us to practice in order to invoke these higher states of consciousness.

But not everyone has that Dharma and not everyone has that experience.

But I feel like if you are someone who's practicing yoga asana and you are in a flexible body, oftentimes we're not dealing with the mind. Because the poses are easy for some. And if that's the case, I'll invite you to really look at it.

If you're practicing Kundalini Yoga and using terminology like “I feel spaced out”, connect to that well. What is it? It's space and that is your vastness. And this may be a new experience for you, a new experience that you can really bring back down into the body to open the heart. And then act from that place of heart-centered compassionate action which is the goal of yoga – to treat all beings as one, to uplift one another as you would yourself.

SAT NAM,

SJ