What Makes Kundalini So Different?

By Ashley Miers

The most popular form of yoga in the West is Hatha yoga, which focuses on 84 physical poses (or asanas), 24 mudras (energy seals), and three maha-mudras along with breath control. Hatha Yoga is mainly a physical practice and classes you might be familiar with include Vinyasa and Vinyasa Flow. I myself enjoy this type of yoga and practice it at least twice per week for strength and flexibility.

However, Hatha Yoga was originally intended for students who could limit or withdraw from normal life and takes many years to raise consciousness, even with perfect practice. Kundalini, on the other hand, is a form of yoga designed for householders. The purpose of any yoga is to raise consciousness, but the difference with Kundalini Yoga is that it is the quickest route to this outcome. My experience with Kundalini Yoga is that it helps to dissolve emotional blockages, increase intuition, and strengthen willpower. In one kriya, or set of asanas, you can immediately achieve a complete physical, mental, and spiritual balance.

Yogi Bhajan, the Kundalini master who brought Kundalini to the West, described Kundalini as a technology for the Aquarian Age, which we are now in. The Aquarian Age is an age of information overload (sound familiar?) where everyone feels immense stress and pressure. Without a practice to ground us, we can succumb to this stress and suffer anxiety, depression, anger and physical illness. Kundalini can help you to maintain your sanity in a world where - let’s face it - there is a lot of insanity running rampant right now.

By engaging in a practice that raises our consciousness, we give ourselves more bandwidth to cope with whatever challenges we encounter in day to day living. Kundalini is not the only practice that raises consciousness - there are many. It is just one that I know of that has a substantial impact in a very short amount of time. Kundalini involves breathwork, meditation, and physical poses that work on our energy system to enhance its functioning. Specifically, Kundalini works on the nervous and endocrine systems. It can shift your mental and emotional states quickly and dramatically, helping to release stored trauma and making you more able to be present and focused in all aspects of your life.