Since 2015, thanks to the UN, Yoga has its international day: June 21st. And of course I celebrated it with tones of Yoga. Like 3 hours of Yoga, Mantras and Meditations. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to practice Yoga for 3 hours in a row. Or every day. Or any day. It keeps me in shape, sane, spiritual, flexible, inspired, rocking. It puts in in touch with me, myself and I. And the joy of it.
Because of it and much more, man, I love Yoga. And I am so grateful for it.🙏
And this is coming from a person who up to a few years ago thought Yoga wasn’t her thing.
At all.
So thank Goddess I gave Yoga a second chance.
I don’t even remember why I did, just felt myself willing to try Yoga again. And so I did. First with a very light kind: Restorative Yoga. It blowed my mind away. Cause it was so relaxing, calming experience that even helped me to sleep better. So I kept doing it.
Restorative Yoga made me rethink my whole idea of Yoga. So, because of it I decided to give it a try to other types of Yoga like Hatha, another kind I love. To be honest I only practice Hatha every now and then but it is one type of Yoga I wanna practice more. And I will.
I also tried Kundalini. My first go wasn’t very successful. I just didn’t like it. So I passed for a little while til I gave a second chance to it and guess what? I loooooved it. And this has been my Yoga. I practice it every single day now. By myself. And everytime I have a chance I go and practice in a class. Both experiences are great. Each one on its own. Totally recommend both.
Kundalini in particular brought to my life two important things: joy and a spiritual sense or experience. It has been, indeed, a journey of my self, to my self, through my self.
And so much healing came from and with it…
And again, I am so grateful for this journey, with its ups and downs, goodies, baddies and uglies. Imperfectly perfect. Just the way it is.🙏🌸
And if you were like me and thought Yoga wasn’t your thing, just give another shot. Just like me, you can change your mind. And you can only gain from it.😘
When you feel that your mind is too active, with thoughts racing for attention, too plugged in that you can’t sleep, highly worried about a particular thing or just want to take a moment to relax you can try this Kundalini breathe called Left Nostril Breathing to bring some serenity and peace back to your state of mind.
This is how you do it:
Sit in Easy Pose (on the floor with your legs crossed). Close your right nostril with your right thumb while your other fingers are stretched straight up as antennas. Put your left hand on your left knee in Gyan Mudra. Close your eyes and put all your attention on your third eye (middle of your forehead). Begin to breathe long and deep only through your left nostril. Do this breathing for 3 minutes. If you can, you can increase the time for 5, 7 or even 11 minutes. Or 31 minutes if you feel up to.
And there you go.
Above you have a video that illustrates pretty well how to do it.
The left nostril breathing helps to calm you down because it activates the Ida NerveEnding in the left nostril, which relates to calmness and relaxation. By the way, the left nostril is related to the moon energy, which is changeable, feminine, yin, giving, and cool.
Researching about this Breathing so I could make this post, I found this on GRDHealth:
“The benefits of left nostril breathing are numerous including sharper, clearer focus of the mind, and a deep, full relaxation or sleep. It is said in the Yogic tradition, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, that if a person breathes through the left nostril for 31 minutes a day for 90 days (the time it takes to plant a new habit into the subconscious) they will naturally change their metabolism in favor of relaxation and weight loss.”
I guess I just found my new Kundalini routine for the next 90 days… 😉😁
And if you want to check my past Kundalini routines, check this tag.
I just finished my 90 days routine with the Prosperity Kriya, the Subagh Kriya, which I highly recommend, by the way. It was an experience. And I am sure I will repeat it some other time. Because I do need to work on my Prosperity issues. Not only on earning money but mainly on being opened to new opportunities and be able to capitalize with them. I missed a lot of great opportunities in the past and I am not so sure if I overcome it just yet.
Anyways, now I am doing a 40 days routine with this new Kriya called the Sat Kriya. According to Yogi Bhajan, if you have to pick just one Kriya to do everyday from here to eternity, let it be the Sat Kriya. And it is because this Kriya works nearly everything you need to work, like your digestion system, your central nervous system, your sense of yourself, your creativity among other things. It is one exercise that is a complete Kriya. It makes the energy circulate, it energizes, strengths and heals the body. Plus your internal organs receive a gentle rhythmic massage. Which is a major plus, indeed.
My understanding by practicing this Kriya is that it works your Kundalini energy aka your sexual energy. It let it moves towards your spine. That is the benefit of it. And trust me, it is not a minor benefit. Au contraire. Especially (but not only) for us, menopausal women.
And it is not a hard Kriya to do. You can always begin with 3 minutes and then go up to 7 minutes and then 11 minutes and even 31 minutes. It is up to you. Just commit to it and do it for 40 days straight. Or even 90 days straight.
How to Practice:
Sit on the heels in Rock Pose, knees together. Breathe deep and relax for a few seconds, put your hands together in the Prayer pose and then open with the Adi Mantra Ong Namô Guru Dev Namô. 3 times. When you finish the intro, stretch the arms over the head with elbows straight, until the arms hug the sides of the head. Interlace all the fingers except the index fingers. Men cross the right thumb over the left. Women cross the left thumb over the right. Or as one of my teachers usually said: if you identify yourself with the female energy cross the left thumb over the right; if you identify yourself with the male energy, cross the right thumb over the left. In any case, the spine stays still and straight. Remain firmly seated on the heels throughout the motions of the Kriya.
Begin to chant Sat Naam with a constant rhythm of about 8 times per 10 seconds. As you pull the navel in and up toward the spine, chant Sat from the Navel Point. Feel it as a pressure from the Third Chakra. With the sound Naam, relax the belly.
As you continue in a steady rhythm, the root and diaphragm locks are automatically pulled.
Sat Nam means “I am truth”, “Truth is my identity.” We usually salute people with this mantra. And I love that.
To end it, inhale and gently squeeze the muscles from the buttocks all the way up along the spine. Hold it briefly as you concentrate on the area just above the top of the head. Exhale completely. Inhale, exhale totally and hold the breath out as you apply a firm mahabandh – contract the lower pelvis, lift the diaphragm, lock in the chin, and squeeze all the muscles from the buttocks up to the neck. Hold the breath out for 5 to 20 seconds according to your comfort and capacity. Inhale and relax.
You should ideally rest right after it the same amount of time you did this Kriya. If you do it for 3 minutes, rest for 3 minutes.
I must confess that I hardly rest as much as I should. 😊
To finish this Kriya, you can bring your hands together in the Prayer pose again and sing along the Longtime Sunshine song if you know it or just chant a long Sat and a short Nam.
If you need a visual guidance, take a look at this video below.
It has a very good visual explanation on how to practice it. And in the video below it has the practice with the proper beginning with the Adi Mantra and the rest at the end. I could not find a video with the proper ending with the LongTime Sunshine and the long Sat and short Nam. But you can have a look at the end of this Kriya to know it.
As you may know by now, I am an enthusiastic of Kundalini Yoga. And to keep on practicing it daily I decided to pick a Kriya and do it on my own for a number of days in a row. The one I am doing for the past months is this Kriya for Prosperity called Subagh (or Sobagh) Kriya. The benefit of this Kriya is to invoke the wealth of the Universe, it is meant to open the door of opportunity in your life and make you make the best of it.
In the video above you can learn on how to do it properly, step by step and you can actually do it every day with Tej. That is the way I have been doing it. So, follow the exact steps for the exact amount of time, every single day for the next 40 days, at least and open up yourself for Prosperity once for all.
This Kriya is not the hardest one and it is quite short (only 25 minutes). I find it a perfect Kriya to begin your Kundalini journey. Because it is doable and quiet-ish and at the end you feel rested and energized at the same time. I haven’t felt prosperity knocking on my door yet, but my experience with this Kriya has been amazing. It has opened a gate to self-awareness and it has helped me a lot to keep up, keep on going in this quite cloudy moment in my life. And I am very grateful for it.
I highly recommend it. So, give it at least a try.
As I said, I am doing this Kriya for 90 days in a row. My first idea was to do it for 40 days, but then I decided that would be better to do it for 90 days. And here I am. Almost there. I am strongly considering to extend it, not only because I need an extra help in this area but because I am kind of attached to it. I love waking up in the morning, meditating and then doing my Prosperity Kriya. Love this routine.
But maybe it is time to let it go. At least for a while… I always can go back and start another set of 40 or 90 days if I feel I need to. It is comforting to know that.
And yes, prosperity is an area in my life that I do need extra help. I feel as if I keep on sabotaging myself in this area. Constantly. It feels as if I do not allow myself to prosper. Plus my relationship with money is terrible. I almost feel embarrassed to earn it. Or multiply it. Which says a lot on this on its own. And I do have a serious problem in earning it as well. I am pretty good in having good ideas for business, but when I have to put myself out there to go and get it, man, I am a fiasco. It was like that with my Men’s Style blog. I had a great opportunity to capitalize with it and yet, I did not. I do regret it because it was something I really loved doing. Maybe that is why I sabotaged it in the finance field, cause I should have kept this thing I loved so much doing clean from all the “bad” money vibe. Or maybe because I didn’t feel I was worthy enough. Even knowing that I was pretty good at that and worked my ass off and therefore I deserved it.
Rationally I knew it but deep inside it didn’t feel quite like it. And still doesn’t.
So, yes, I need to change this pattern. I am aware of it. And I am very confident that this Kriya will help me to go through.
And if you give it a try, let me know how it goes.
Today in my Kundalini calendar with quotes and thoughts from Yogi Bhajan, there was this invitation to do this One Minute Breath Meditation. I am actually already doing it for the last 55 days, more or less, as a part of a Kriya I am doing everyday for 90 days. I just do a 3 minutes of it daily but it is quite powerful and interesting. Especially now that I can almost do the whole 200 seconds for each part.
“When you practice one breath a minute, then you become Pavan Guru—you become the light and knowledge of the prana, and then you know the Universe, the Universe knows you.” -Yogi Bhajan 7/26/96
This is how you should do it:
Sit in a meditation posture. Spine straight, neck a bit pulled in. Breathe normally for a few seconds. Try to relax. Then you can start: inhale for 20 seconds, hold your breath for 20 seconds, exhale for 20 seconds. If you cannot do it for 20 seconds, try doing it for 10 seconds each. The important things here is do it the same amount of time for each part of this breathing meditation. And after a while try to go up til you reach the 20 seconds.
“Twenty seconds to inhale, twenty seconds to hold, twenty seconds to let it out. It takes one minute. And if you just practice eleven to thirty-one minutes, your blood itself will become a warrior against disease.” -Yogi Bhajan
You can do this meditation for 3 minutes, 7 minutes, 11 minutes, 31 minutes or 62 minutes.
In Kundalini we always start with a mantra Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo, chanted 3 times with hands in the prayer pose. And we close with a long Sat and a short Nam at the end.
The Benefits of This Meditation:
It improves the cooperation between the brain hemispheres.
It calms you down, your anxiety, fear and worries.
It opens you to one’s presence and the presence of spirit.
It helps to develop your intuition.
“If you want things to be done for you so you don’t have to do anything, then you must breathe from one to five or six breaths per minute. If you can practice that, then you can attract the Universe to you. It is no secret. It’s a simple thing. The longer and deeper your breath is, the more your psyche attracts everything to you—it’s a way to prosperity.” -Yogi Bhajan
Source: 3HO. There you can find more info on this Meditation.
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