Faq - Kundalini Yoga as Taught By Yogi Bhajan

What Do I Need to Know Before I Come to a Class?

• Bring your yoga mat and block if you have one. Otherwise we have some spares.
• Best not have a full stomach. Leave 2 hours or more after a big meal. A light snack before is OK
• Wear clothes that allow a full range of movement
• For women during your period you should avoid inverted poses and exercises that stress the lower part of your body.
• Consult your doctor if you aren't in general good health.

please let me know if you:-

• Have a back or other problem that affects movement
• Have been diagnosed as psychotic.
• Have any other medical condition that makes exercise dangerous.

Who Was Yogi Bhajan?

Yogi Bhajan started teaching Kundalini Yoga in the west in the 1960's. Kundalini is a cool sounding word and gets used in many contexts often associated with rather bizarre things. This is the yoga that Yogi Bhajan taught and nothing else.

What is Special About Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Yoga is designed to get the benefits of yoga as quickly as possible. It offers a challenge - if you work harder you get faster results. You make your own choice as to how hard you work.

Do You Do Meditation in Kundalini Yoga?

Yes but maybe a better term is 'Deep Relaxation'. This lets our mind/body 'unwind' the effects of accumulated stress responses. I think our ancestors could sit gazing at a fire, the sea, a river or nice view and this 'self-repair' processing would happen by itself. In our fast paced high stress world Kundalini Yoga gives these processes a mighty 'kick start'.

Is Yoga Spiritual?

This is a big subject. For me yoga starts with undoing the effects of stress. Just doing this a significant amount is very good for us physically and mentally. Some people do a lot of yoga and go beyond just de-stressing and work to gain the so called 'mystic' experiences. These are very interesting and give a deep understanding of how we operate internally. Many claim they sense their connection to god or a 'universal consciousness' of the universe. Very few people go this far with these things so a lot of writing about yoga is about experiences that the average yoga student maybe isn't so interested in. There are two aspects of our experience that are beyond the realm of explanations using logic and words. These are art and spirituality. No-one doubts we have a subconscious 'mind' that we can't control and don't really understand much about. Beyond that there are many different beliefs and belief systems - many contradict each other. For this reason I try to teach yoga without a belief system - except the belief that if it works so well for me it can work well for other people!

On the Internet I see warnings. Is Kundalini Yoga dangerous??

This Kundalini Yoga is safe. I give a 'health warning' because people with frailties and medical problems need to take care as you would in a normal exercise class. Kundalini Yoga can be vigorous but you are only using your own muscles and the force of gravity. If you seek the paranormal you won't find it in a Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan class any more or less than you would fnd it anywhere else!

How Do Mind/Body Techniques Work?

Some Terms

• SNS - Sympathetic Nervous System. Trigger our Fight or Flight and other defensive reflexes
• PSNS - Para Sympathetic Nervous System. The "rest and digest" system.
• ANS - Autonomic Nervous System - comprised of the SNS & the PSNS.
• Trauma - Used here means anything that involves a negative reaction. These range from massive traumas like war or sexual asualt, down to more minor ones like feeling left out or insulted.
• Stress - Stress can refer to more minor trauma. It is often used interchangeabley.
• Stressors - these are things that have the potential to cause stress.

The Problem of Stress and Trauma

Due to our environment being so different to the one we evolved in a normal person has an imbalanced ANS. The PSNS can't cope with the constant firing of the SNS so our systems retain muscle tension and psychological trauma. Mind body methods at their best allow the PSNS to bring the ANS back to a far better balance. This releases the muscle tension and the trauma - these being very closely related. The PSNS being over-active means our negative reactions are more powerful and fire at a lower level of stimulus. A person with a well balanced ANS is less likely to react to a minor stressor and will react less strongly to a more major stressor. We use the word Stoic to describe a person who copes well with adversity. Most people don't realise the ancient Greek Stoics were like this because they used meditation to adjust their system not just because they thought staying calm was a good idea.

How Does the Alexander Technique Work

I did one year of a 3 year Alexander Technique teacher training course and came up with this view of how hands on AT works. I wasn'y happy with the explanations supplied by Alexander and how they had not changed despite the knowledge coming to us from science and from the eastern mind/body techniques.

AT utilises some form of communication - maybe mirror neurons. The teacher's nervous system is calmer than the pupils. Their hands calm the pupils nervous system and this mirrors back to the teacher in a feed back loop.

AT Chair Work

When the pupil stands their Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) massively over fires and their Parasympathetic (PSNS) fires to try to damp it down.When the teacher Inhibits the mirrored stimulation of their ANS the inhibition mirrors to the pupil so their SNS doesn't overfire so much. But the PSNS still fires strongly creating a large imbalance in favour of the PSNS. What they call an 'experience of a new Manner of Use involves a period of operating with the Autonomic Nervous System in a much better state of balance. With long training and repetition eventually the PSNS stops being constantly overwhelmed by the over-firing of the SNS and the ANS moves towards a more beneficial balance. I think this brief period of PSNS dominance is what does the most good in the AT and something that makes it different to other mind/body methods. For me the AT was more about inhibition of the over-firing of the PSNS and the resulting tensing of muscle than of habitual behaviours. Pulling the head back and down and clutching the floor with the toes are basic reflexes over-firing. The engaging of excess tension when going into action or when trying to balance can also be identified and inhibiited.

AT Table Work It takes some training to be able to inhibit the pupils SNS over-reaction. Table work allows a teacher to calm the pupils system and manipulate them to trigger much smaller reactions (twitches) which are easier to inhibit. A pupil can feel these and inhibit the twitches - which also can cause release of static over-tension. This is much like meditation where you cultivate internal awareness to feel out tension then release it Putting hands on a person helps both people to be more aware of proprioception and calms both people down which makes it much easier for the pupil to feel the tensing reactions and inhibit them.