Kundalini yoga is a profound holistic healing system brought to the west in the 1968 by Siri Singh Sahib, also known as Yogi Bhajan. Yogiji, as he is affectionately called by his students left behind a lucrative governmental career in India with the vision of bringing Yoga to the West. He taught that the glandular and nervous systems are stimulated, with kundalini yoga & meditation, and one's capacity for creative potential is heightened. Maintaining a regular practice builds vitality and helps compensate for modern day stresses.

Kundalini Yoga is a rich, whole system of healing in that it shines into many areas of one's life. KY includes yoga kriyas, or postures, mantra chanting, breathwork, bhandas, meditation, and yogic lifestyle practices. The deeper you choose to go into these practices, the more profound the effects. These effects create great healing on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels!

Postures are very versatile and range from calm sitting kriyas to quite vigorous movement and balancing kriyas. There is a common myth that kundalini yoga is very meditative and doesn't engage the body much. Actually, depending on the yoga set taught, Yogi Bhajan taught over 300 sets, the classes can cover the whole spectrum of easy to very challenging. Many of the kriyas ride on the breath utilizing powerful breathing techniques such as "breath of fire" to help move the body. For some examples of whole sets of kriyas taught by Yogi Bhajan, click here.

Mantra Chanting is considered to be a sacred part of the "Nad", or universal sound current. Mantras are basically keys to activate different parts of the psyche and nervous system through the thousands of nerves on the roof of the mouth. (kind of like Morse code for the soul!)

Breathwork is also utilized and helps to move life force energy throughout the bodies nadis, or energy channels, and through the chakra energy centers. Many types of breathwork are practiced in kundalini yoga. Some are meditative, some are invigorating, all are wonderfully effective and powerful!

Yogi Bhajan also prescribed hundreds of meditations, some with various combinations of mantra, bhanda, or body/energy locks, and breathwork. Practicing a meditation for 40 days is a frequently prescribed practice to build discipline in one's life and effect profound shifts!

There are various lifestyle practices in kundalini yoga that may be used to widen the effects of this scientific yogic system even further such as daily sadhana, daily practice and prayer, and ishnan, or early morning cold showers with oil massage.