Week #1 

The power within poise

Creating time to give our emotional system some much-needed attention and expansion can be hard to resource or understand. Making room in your life for tending to your emotions on a regular basis will and does keep a healthy, balanced and ready for life you.

Kundalini Yoga has taught me an everyday practice; to wash the stress from the body, allowing me to reclaim myself a space to quieten the minds noise and to open into a peaceful and calm stillness.

A little slice of personal time, with regularity and patience has added a beauty of balance to my life. A way to process the emotions regularly; accompanied to journalling and yogic diaries allowing acknowledgement and the release of emotions. A tending to my emotional garden, thus keeping me healthy and within a neutral mindset.

The hardest working muscle in the body, the heart, functions this way. It does not stop from the time it takes its first beat while we are still in the womb, until we take our last breath. Yet, notice the beat of the heart: action, pause, action, pause. In a similar way, it is not the stress itself that is unhealthy; it is staying continually in stress response without pause that is unhealthy.

-Dr. Khalsa 

Over time, we create our own individual stress response patterns through our thoughts and beliefs, our emotional responses, the way we breathe, and the way we hold and move our body. This pattern becomes set at a certain point, and although this response is intended to be helpful, more often than not our personal stress response pattern blocks the natural flow of ease in the body, and we become frequently sick, easily tired, often irritable, and generally “stressed out.”

Where we hold tension and how quickly we release it—our individual, personal stress response—determines what happens in our body, how much energy we have, how healthy we stay, and how we feel at the end of the day. One characteristic of a healthy stress response is to take action when action is needed and to pause, or rest internally, when it is not.

“Kundalini Yoga is a method to become nothing, so everything can flow through you.”

-Yogi Bhajan

Yogic Breath 

Yogis teach that the breath is the life of the mind. This means that the quality of our thoughts and emotional responses is determined by our breathing. Breath can therefore be thought of as our direct link to our spirit, mood, energy, and hopefulness.

Challenge One

Throughout the day how often do you notice your breathing pattern and where you hold tension in your body? Do you hold your breath when thinking? When listening? When performing certain tasks? Do you lift your shoulders or tighten your stomach? These are all part of your personal stress response pattern.

Once you are aware of your pattern, you can interact with it, modify it, learn from it, expand upon it and allow it ri work for and with you.

Effective Body Movement

Why is Kundalini Yoga more uniquely suited to effective stress reduction than 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise within the gym? 

Whilst most forms of exercise reduce stress, Kundalini Yoga is suited due to its positive effects on the glands and nerves. The movements within its set sequences (breath, meditation and movement), directly release tension built out over time from holding the breath and within various muscles and patterns of your own individual particular stress response blueprint. Best described as a nervous system detox and cleanse.

The practice of Kundalini Yoga releases tension from the inner organs, nerves and glands and creates an internal biochemistry of calm, inner balance and depth of self. It is beyond an experience of a bodily response from physical exertion alone; one of a deep glandular experience.

Thus to reverse the the ill effects of long-term stress, and to increase our capacity to form and maintain healthy stress response patterns; learning breath, meditation, and movement patterns become essential stress busters tools.

On a physical level, how can you start today? 

The practice of various yogic breathing techniques can strengthen the nervous system and balance the action of the glandular system. This system is a key to a healthy stress response; by making them both strong through corrected breathing can break learnt patterns and form a healthy stress response.

TIP ONE – By breathing from the navel point, we develop a deeper relationship with the core of the body, bringing a greater grounded centre of confidence and calm.

TIP TWO – Taken from the teachings of Yogi Bhajan the following breath meditation (pranayam) every evening can alleviate stress patterns and wash the body, filling it with calm, quiet, balance and prana (vital life force).

Posture: Sit in a comfortable meditative posture with a straight spine; chin in; chest lifted, hands in Gyan Mudra(hands resting upon the knees) or any other comfortable meditative mudra.

Eyes: Close your eyes and concentrate on your breath.

Breath: Inhale through the nose in 8 equal strokes. Exhale through the nose in one deep and powerful stroke.

Time: 11 minutes.

To End: Inhale deeply and hold the breath 5-10 seconds. Exhale. Inhale deeply and hold the breath 15-20 seconds and roll your shoulders. Exhale powerfully. Inhale deeply and hold the breath 15-20 seconds and roll the shoulders as fast as you can. Exhale and relax.

Forty Day Practice

If you are looking to truly shift your energy and cultivate a sense of deep calm and balance; Kundalini Yoga encourages the use of one set consistent practice for a period of 40 days as a newbie; so why not dip your toe into the water and give the above stress busting meditation a go as part of your bedtime ritual in the month ahead. Thus creating and cultivating a lasting change;  learning a profound new breathing skill as a coping mechanism to soothe and self manage a stress busting coping mechanism.

I teach regular nature workshops and teaching for women that speak to the soul and soothe the nervous system. Evoking an inner awareness and new dialogue to your life, through learning the positivity to be found within poise.

The teachings of Kundalini Yogi combine breath, hand position (mudra), eye focus, meditation, asana (posture) and sometimes mantra. Having a more potent effect on our physiology and neurophysiology than mindfulness meditation or other types of meditation. Kundalini Yogic theory strengthens the nerves, repatterns the brains wiring, helps balance the glandular system, develops a sense of will and strengthens the mind. It has changed my life in a poised way and given a mode to find peace.

As a yoga teacher and sports coach I do not diagnose, I encourage the natural healing process by the use of movement kriyas and meditations. Healing in this sense is an ongoing natural maintenance of the body/minds ability to heal itself. 

Kundalini yoga is a source to elevate awareness and maintain the flow of energy in the mind and body, which will enliven any healing approach, and help people care for themselves with a positive lifestyle.

By practicing kriyas in a group is to enter into a safe collective self healing space. A healing circle is where we meditate our muses together in specific ways to multiply the effects of our individual source through the power of the group projection.

All of my womens spaces are small in number, nurturing and groups hidden away in beautifully intimate rooms for a unique safe experience. An oasis for the mind in peaceful settings where you can establish a new healing routine of self nurture practice and self love method, allowing your inner calm to surface.

Subject to limited availability (small or individual group bookings)

Face to Face dates and booking enquiries with Lanes Counselling

Workshops led

Self Care Ritual and Yoga Therapist

All workshops are supported with Neals Yards Organic Health & Beauty Remedies