It’s everybody’s dream to earn a living doing something they love that has a positive impact on the world, and we can think of few better ways to do that then by helping children learn proven practices for long-term health, happiness, and holistic success like yoga and mindfulness. In the last few years, there has been an incredible amount of research showing just how profound yoga and mindfulness practices are for improving pretty much every area of a person’s life—and the earlier we learn them, the better. Children’s brains are shaped by their experiences in their formative years and learning yoga and mindfulness at these young ages has been shown to have a number of benefits from measurably lowering stress levels, to significantly increasing happiness and academic performance to building healthy social skills and increasing the likelihood of positive contribution throughout the child’s life. This is truly how we can build a better future for us all—by equipping the next generation with the skills they need to develop high levels of emotional intelligence and tools to live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives.

How to Help Bring Yoga and Mindfulness into Schools

The positive aspects that yoga can have on a child’s life is something the team at Bent on Learning realized many years ago and has been working tirelessly to achieve ever since. Bent On Learning is a nonprofit organization committed to teaching yoga and mindfulness to public school children, aiming to touch the lives of as many students as possible—not after school, but right there, in the classroom, where the learning happens. They have an incredible track record of success: they currently facilitate 61 classes per week, touching the lives of 1,140 kids every week, with over 22,356 children served to date. And they are growing—they have 50 schools on their waiting list, with new requests for their program coming in every month… With a vision to bring yoga and mindfulness skills to children everywhere, they are seeking to expand their experienced team of yoga educators through their Yoga Alliance Certified Children’s Yoga Teacher Training. This training shares Bent On Learning’s highly effective, real-world proven methodology with school teachers, yoga teachers, and those who feel called to this path either as a part-time addition to their existing career or something that they would like to pursue full-time. Designed to prepare participants to teach yoga to diverse populations of children in a school environment, their training is a sure path to learning the core skills needed to kick off a career helping future generations to thrive. It is an extremely comprehensive training that covers a wide range of topics from understanding the needs of students and schools, to learning classroom management techniques and writing lesson plans. Participants have the option to receive hands-on teaching experience in New York City schools, under the guidance of a senior Bent On Learning teacher. If you are interested in participating, you can learn more and apply here: bentonlearning.org/tt2018/ Each module of the training features special guest experts in education and youth development who share the fruits of their many years of experience working with children in the classroom, both with yoga and other synergistic skills to help you to be able to navigate any experience that arises and have the greatest impact.

Already a School Teacher? It Gets Even Better…

Bent On Learning’s Children’s Yoga Teacher Training Program is a great way to add depth and impact to your existing curriculum, and it does not require any previous yoga certifications or teaching experience. It’s also highly specialized to serve and accommodate a diverse, inclusive range of ages, body types, ethnicities, and learning styles, making it accessible and impactful for each and every student. Imagine walking into your classroom every day to kids that feel confident in themselves, their bodies, and their abilities. Here’s what a few of the students have experienced this in their classrooms had to say…

“Yoga makes me feel like I’m important.” – Diamond, 6^th Grade, Robert Wagner Middle School

“Yoga has taught me the importance of taking a minute to be still, listen to my thoughts and relax.  I also have a more positive attitude about my body.  Now I know that if I want my body to be able to do more, I just need to practice.  Before I would just say I can’t, now I try…” – Bobbi, Senior, Williamsburg Prep High School

Bent on Learning has been closely monitoring the effects of their in-school programs and yoga teacher curriculum. Thus far, they’ve found that 83% of Bent On Learning high school students showed statistically significant gains on the following youth development outcomes, which have been linked to improved overall health, happiness, academic performance and positive behavior.

1. Self-Management 2. Positive Identity 3. Contribution 4. Social Skills 5. Social Capital 6. Academic Self-Efficacy

And in fact, when it comes to academic self-efficacy, the results of their research show that the students with the lowest confidence in their ability to attain academic success improved the most!

“Our students saw significant gains in their ability to self-regulate through the Bent On Learning program. They learned how to use a simple yet important tool like their breath to instill focus and manage their emotions. The BOL yoga program is particularly vital to supporting our at-risk and special needs student population. It is our vision to become a flagship school and bring the benefit of these practices school wide from Pre-K through 8th grade”. – David Cintron, Principal, PS214

To learn more about how this is possible in your classroom and to find out more about Bent on Learning mission and training, visit: bentonlearning.org/tt2018/ This article is a sponsored post written in collaboration with the non-profit Bent On Learning, whose trainings and ethos comply with Conscious Lifestyle Magazine’s stringent quality and integrity guidelines.

About The Author Meghan McDonald is the Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine. She holds a master’s degree in social psychology from San Diego State University where she conducted award-winning research into the nature of human social behavior. She is an advocate for many environmental and social justice causes and a champion of social impact-focused brands and products that adhere to high sustainability and ethical standards. As a regular travel and lifestyle contributor to Conscious Lifestyle Magazine, Meghan funnels her extensive knowledge of natural products, organic living, and consumer behavior into researching and reviewing brands and products that promote health, wellbeing, sustainability, equality, and positive social change. She has traveled to over 25 countries and loves exploring diverse destinations worldwide while documenting the local artisans and businesses offering conscious, healthy alternatives.

yoga teacher trainings and instructor certification courses come in all shapes, sizes and flavors so be sure you are getting into the right one for your goals and needs before you start.

You might have already completed your yoga instructor certification, so this might be a moot point. But if you haven’t or if you’re considering more training, please read this before spending the money.

Choosing the Right Teacher Training

When I began my yoga instructor training in 2007, programs were stricter. They had a lot of requirements and were lengthier. They tended to be more expensive as well. As I mentioned, I did my yoga teacher training with the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, California. It was a 300-hour program. We had to learn a lot about the human body, human anatomy, and health and nutrition. The program was strict and structured, but I loved it. I found I had a solid foundation for teaching yoga as a career. With yoga’s rise in popularity, teacher-training programs began to crop up everywhere. You’ll notice many gyms and yoga brands have their own teacher training. Prices have gone down since the early 2000s, but the time required to acquire a yoga certification has also been compressed. I paid about $7,500 for my yoga teacher training plus travel, hotel and expenses. Today, you can get a 200-hour certification for anywhere between $3,000 and $3,500. Choosing the right training for you will largely depend on what you want to do with your certification after you graduate.

Reasons for Choosing a Program

Right now you might not have a clear plan for teaching yoga. Take some time and think about what you’d like to do with your yoga instructor certification. As I said, it’s a big investment of time and money. You want to make sure you’re choosing the right program for you.

1. You want to work for a specific studio.

I get it. Your local yoga studio introduced you to yoga. You love the environment, community, and vibe and you want to give back. And it wouldn’t hurt to have free classes on your days off either. If you’re absolutely sure that you don’t want to teach anywhere else or specialize in another type of yoga, this might be the route for you. Basically, if you’re trained in a certain style such as Bikram, hot Vinyasa flow, or power yoga, you’ll have a difficult time teaching other styles. Here’s why. Most of the community-at-large are beginners. I’m going to give you ideas on how to make a living outside of a traditional yoga studio. But in order to be marketable and liked by those who are not tiny and flexible, you’re going to have to learn a little bit more on taking care of beginners and people with all kinds of body types. Another thing to think about is how much you want to get paid per class. Many really popular yoga studios don’t pay very well. I was talking the other day with a yoga teacher friend in San Diego, California and he told me that his favorite yoga studio only paid teachers $20 per class. Yikes! I was paying way too much for my yoga teachers by starting them at $40 per class. I’ll bet you want to work for me now, don’t you? Well too bad, because I closed my studio, remember?

2. You want to open a yoga studio.

If you know you’re going to open a yoga studio, be as targeted and specialized as possible. Obviously, if you’re opening a franchise, you must teach the style of that franchise. The selection for a yoga teacher training will be easy for you. If you’re opening a yoga studio with a brand that allows you the freedom to integrate other types of classes, don’t worry about your own training. Hire specialists who already teach those types of classes. For example, if you want barre fitness classes at your studio, hire a barre teacher. Do you want to add prenatal yoga? Add a prenatal yoga course specialist. You’re going to be too busy running your own studio. You cannot be a jack-of-all trades. You will be a master-of-none and your business will suffer. Focus on your strengths. Let’s say you’re a pro at hot vinyasa flow. Teach that and then use your other time to focus on your business and client relations.

3. You want to make teaching yoga your career.

I would recommend you get classic yoga training if you want to make yoga your career. Classic yoga instructor training would include Hatha yoga, some Iyengar yoga or Anusara yoga. The reason you want a classic training is to be able to make yourself the most marketable everywhere. Teaching beginners is much, much harder than teaching people who are young, flexible, and experienced. You have to make sure your students don’t injure themselves. You have the predicament of teaching in confined spaces, such as office space, classrooms, or senior living homes. You’ll have clients who have injuries, have just had surgery, or have special needs. You need to be able to think on the fly when a student tells you about a specific illness or recent injury. My Chopra Center training combined Hatha yoga, Iyengar yoga, and Raja yoga. I’m so grateful to have had that type of yoga instructor certification because I was able to teach in a various number of settings. I have taught students from ages 6 to 93. I have taught people in wheelchairs and those with recent knee surgeries. I’ve taught moms after C-sections and a client on a respirator. One of the most important parts of my classic training was learning how to properly teach pranayama, yoga breathing techniques. That alone is marketable as a separate class or course. You can help more people with classic training than with any other type of yoga teacher training. I will add that if you want to volunteer your time teaching yoga in hospitals, at women’s shelters, at rehab centers, or at prisons, classic yoga training will also be the best for the same reasons listed above.

4. You want to take yoga teacher training for personal development.

I’ve met plenty of teachers who initially take yoga instructor training because they want to improve their practice, learn more about yoga, and enjoy time with other yogis. Personal development is a great reason to take teacher training. If that’s your true goal, the sky is the limit. Go all out and take a teacher training in Bali or India. You might as well enjoy the place while taking time for you.

Elements of a Great Teacher Training Program

Teacher training programs registered with Yoga Alliance in the 200-RYT trainings, must meet certain requirements. Yoga Alliance 200-hour standards show that a teacher-training program must contain:

1. Techniques, training, and practice for 100 hours. This includes asanas, pranayama, mantras, meditation, and other yoga courses and techniques.

2. Teaching methodology for 25 hours. This includes communication, demonstration, teaching styles, the student learning process, and the business aspects of teaching yoga.

3. Anatomy and physiology for 20 hours.

4. Yoga philosophy, lifestyle, and ethics for yoga teachers for 30 hours. This includes the yoga sutras, ethics for yoga teachers, and the value of teaching yoga as a service.

5. Practicum for 10 hours.

6. Remaining hours and electives. Yoga Alliances gives each teacher training program the liberty to disperse the rest of the hours among the five categories.

At least 125 hours total must be contact hours. Yoga Alliance describes a contact hour as time spent in the physical presence of a faculty member. In other words, the other hours, or non-contact hours, may be spent on home study, attending yoga classes in other studios, webinars, emails, or conference calls. In order to be certified, all yoga teachers in training must complete CPR and first aid training. My suggestion to you: If you’ve never completed a Red Cross CPR and First Aid class in a classroom setting, do that instead of taking an online course. Don’t mess around people! Someone could drop dead in front of your eyes. You have to know how to save them. Or almost dead, or just unconscious. Or it could be someone who’s just messing with you because they were bored in class. Or maybe they just wanted to be in savasana for the whole class. You never know. Just go practice on a few dummies and you should be good to go. No, I didn’t mean your friends. I meant the Red Cross test dummies. Oh goodness, just keep reading.

Evaluating Yoga Instructor Certification Programs

We’ve already established that you’re spending a big chunk of change on a yoga course. You want to make sure the instructors are well qualified and have a lot of experience. With the rate at which teacher training programs have been cropping up in the last few years, you can’t be guaranteed to have experienced lead teachers. So you might be wondering how much is enough experience to train other teachers. That’s a good question when considering a yoga instructor training. We could assign it a number, like five years of teaching. But then you need to think about how much they’ve taught. If they’ve been teaching one to two classes per week for five years, with an average of 48 teaching weeks per year, that’s only 480 hours of teaching. When I was teaching nearly every waking hour, as a business owner, I taught an average of ten classes per week. Over five years that equals 2,400 teaching hours, which is quite different. You might have to go by other data, such as whether or not the lead teacher is a studio owner, whether they’ve been teaching longer on a consistent basis, or if they have credentials through some others means. Look also at how long the studio has been open. Are you planning on taking a teacher training course from a studio that has only been open a year or two? A lot of studios will try to generate more income by having yoga teacher-training programs, but that doesn’t necessarily make them good. Lastly, look at how long the actual teacher-training program has been around. Have they graduated several years of students? Do they have reviews and testimonials from previous students? Are they willing to give out some students’ names and numbers so you can call them to get feedback? A good and professional program will not hesitate to give you that information.

Is Advanced Training Necessary?

Many yoga teachers get hooked on taking training programs. They finish the 200-hour yoga teacher training and they want to move on to another. Then, they set their sights on specialty training programs and before you know it, they’ve spent upwards of $20,000 on yoga training. I know taking yoga training programs feels good. It’s amazing to be among great lead teachers, your peers, and being immersed in the educational setting. Some teachers like to keep the momentum going. They feel that if they get out of the learning mode, they won’t go back. While that might be true, look at a couple of things before registering for advanced training. Do you want to continue your training because you don’t feel ready or qualified enough to teach? If this is the case, start teaching anyway. Or you can intern at a yoga studio for free, with a lead teacher, who’s willing to teach you his or her techniques and tricks. I used to train recently certified teachers at my studio. They would intern with me for six-weeks. At the end of that time, if I felt they were ready to teach at the studio, I would hire them. When in doubt, ask. Many of the interns I found called me first, asking if they could be my apprentice. Do you feel it would increase your income? If that’s your belief, then don’t take advanced training. Please don’t do it unless you have the money lying around to afford the extra training. It will take time to get a return on investment for the initial $3,500 you spent on your first training. There are many things you can do to build on your 200-hour training. You can read books, watch YouTube videos, buy actual DVDs with those who specialize in areas that interest you, or you can offer to volunteer for a center that has a certain style you want to learn. The specialized yoga certification will not be worth the money. There is obviously one exception to this rule. If you plan on running a Yoga Alliance 500-hour RYT training, you must have the certification first.

Make Yourself Well-Rounded

A well-rounded teacher is much more marketable. For example, after my teacher training, I traveled to a few of Deepak Chopra’s events and taught yoga and meditation. Since 2014, I’ve been writing articles for Chopra Lifestyle. Being able to put those two things on my resume has added credibility and value to my yoga teaching. Now that I’m a well-known author in the field of Ayurveda, it makes me even more marketable. Do you see how stacking experience can add value to what you do? When you add value, you can charge more for your services and make a better living. Read books on the yoga sutras, meditation, or read about famous yogis such as B.K.S Iyengar. Take classes with the masters. Attend a few yoga conferences. Learn about Ayurveda. Read about the latest research on yoga, meditation, and mind body health. Continue your yoga teacher training and education off the mat. So when clients ask you questions, you’re well informed. And if you don’t know the answer, never, ever, give them advice or guess. Clients look up to you as an authority figure. If you don’t know the answer, tell them. You can simply say, “I don’t know the answer to that, but I will research it and let you know.” Finally, have other interests in your life so you can successfully talk to clients about other things. A lot of yoga teaching is networking. You really want to get to know people on a personal level. If all you can talk about is yoga, meditation, the chakras, and kriyas, you will be limited in your connection with others. Building relationships is about rapport. Let me give you an example. I love running and a few years ago, I decided to go for the gold. No, not the olympics. Get serious! My sister and I had registered to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon. One day before class, I was talking about my half marathon training. One of my students piped up and said, “I run half marathons and marathons for Run Disney.” I told her about my upcoming race at Disney World. As it turns out, she was running the same race. That connection alone made her a faithful client of mine to this day.

Recap of Lessons Learned: Yoga Teacher Training

1. Before you invest in a yoga teacher-training program, decide what you want to do with your certification.

2. Do your research before enrolling in a teacher training yoga course. Contact previous students of the program you’d like to join and get feedback.

3. Try teaching for at least a year before getting advanced training.

4. Keep on learning after your yoga instructor training and certification.

Read books about yoga philosophy, study meditation and Ayurveda. Learn about other health-related topics so you can be well rounded as a teacher. This piece on yoga teacher trainings and certification courses is excerpted with permission from How to Run a Successful Yoga Business and Not Go Broke by Michelle S. Fondin.

About The Author Michelle S. Fondin holds a Vedic Master Certificate from the Chopra Center and is a member of the National Ayurvedic Medical Association and Yoga Alliance. She treats clients, speaks, and offers workshops, and lives in Herndon, VA. She is the author of The Wheel of Healing with Ayurveda: An Easy Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle (New World Library, 2015), Help! I Think My Loved One Is an Alcoholic: A Survival Guide for Lovers, Family, & Friends (2016), How To Run A Successful Yoga Business And Not Go Broke: Lessons From A Yoga Teacher, Entrepreneur, & Modern Hippie, and the upcoming book Chakra Healing for Vibrant Health (New World Library, 2018), Enlightened Medicine (Fall 2017).

photo: william farlow

An Introduction to Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga

Most people don’t realize that there are many branches of Yoga. In the West the term Yoga is a catch-all that seems to be all-encompassing, but really there are many different types: Kriya yoga, Agni yoga, Raja yoga, Hatha yoga, Bikram yoga, Ayinga yoga, Sahaja yoga and many more. It seems as though every day there is a new branch of Yoga forming. However, in essence, there are four basic yoga paths and everything else stems from one or more of these four branches. They are known as Gyana yoga, Ashtanga yoga, Karma yoga and Bhakti yoga. However, in this article we are going to focus in on Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga paths to understand their essence and meaning. All the different yogic systems are designed to bring us back to the spiritual realm. In other words, yoga connects us to the perfection of all that is.

Karma Yoga

‘Karma’ means ‘action’. So in Karma yoga one becomes united with the Supreme Being through activity. The distinction that makes it a branch of yoga is that their activity is dedicated to the Supreme Creator (God/Universe, etc.). Most people work to earn money or to meet some kind of material or existential need without a higher purpose. Money and work bring security and this is the ultimate aim of the individual. But in Karma yoga, your work and the fruit of that work is dedicated it to the Supreme Creator or God, Universe, etc., and this brings us into direct contact with good fortune. On the path of Karma yoga the relationship between the individual and the Supreme Creator becomes ever closer and deeper. If one is only thinking of themselves, the relationship to the Supreme Creator/God is basically non-existent. Gradually dedicating our work to the service of the Supreme Creator/God as it is done on the Karma yoga path, purifies us until the motive becomes actually pure—to please God. I don’t want him to give me anything, I just want to do this because it is in service to God’s pleasure. And this path is also directly connected to Bhakti yoga.

Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti yoga translates to ‘devotional yoga’. The word ‘bhakti’ literally means ‘devotion’. Many consider this to be the highest level of yoga. In the Vedas, it is described as the most exalted form or branch of yoga. Accordingly this is the only branch of yoga where actual love and devotion are part of the yogic practice. This, of course, brings us into the most intimate relationship with Bhagavan or the Supreme Being. The Bhakti yoga process is a gradual series of steps that enlightens our intent so that we can leave behind all material things and fully embrace and embody the things and truths that are truly nourishing to the spirit and soul. The practice of Bhakti yoga is a process of spiritual purification that changes you at the core of your being. Along the way your health improves, your mind quiets, your mental condition is peaceful. Your heart gets cleansed, the hardness and pain goes away. You become very compassionate, very tolerant. You see other people in compassionate ways.

The Relationship Between Karma and Bhakti Yoga

There are essentially two levels of Karma yoga. The first is the furtive worker—the person who is trying to get a good results from his actions—and it is the lower form of Karma yoga. In it the person does all kinds of pious activity: work, charity work, always trying to do good things to help other people because he knows, “I’ll get rewards for this. I’ll go to higher heavenly planes. I’ll enjoy the results of my pious activities.” He is still at the level of consciousness where he is trying to get something for the ego, even if it is from doing good things in the world. However, this is still a step up beyond where most people operate and in that sense, there is great karmic reward. But the real karma yogi (the second level), the one who really understands the essence of the what it means, understands that karma means action in service—and so he dedicates his action to the Supreme Lord. The true destination of the Karma yogi is the supreme abode of the Supreme Lord known as the Vaikuntha plane. Vaikuntha is the spiritual world in which there are entirely spiritual planets, according to Hindu philosophy. The material world is a replication of the spiritual world, but here on Earth it’s all gross material energy. It’s temporary, it doesn’t satisfy, but on the Vaikuntha plane, everything is eternally spiritual—they are transcendental planets. All the entities therein have spiritual forms, spiritual bodies—not material bodies. The soul expands when it reaches these perfections and takes on a spiritual form. There is form, but it is a spiritual form. Thus, it is eternal. It doesn’t get old, doesn’t get sick, doesn’t deteriorate in any way. Doesn’t have any hassles. Vaikuntha means no anxiety. The Vaikuntha world is a spiritual world. This is where the soul begins to find what it is really looking for—complete satisfaction and happiness. Karma yoga is ultimately designed to take one to this dimension. However, beyond Karma yoga is Bhakti yoga. As mentioned, Bhakti is devotion. Without devotion even the upper reaches of Karma yoga are not complete. The journey is not complete, the perfection is not complete. Because devotion is what makes it all perfect. What does devotion also translate into? Love. Because if you love somebody, you are devoted to that person. There is no such thing as, “I love you, but I am not devoted to you.” That’s lust. Lust is the opposite of love, but that’s another subject. Bhakti yoga is how the individual soul becomes united with the Supreme Soul through loving devotion.  This is when everything is complete—the heart is fully satisfied. But the unique thing is now there’s no longer any desire for, “I want to enjoy this. I want to enjoy that. I want to merge. I want to have mystic powers. I want to go to heavenly planets.” All that’s gone. Because now that has been transcended. Love goes beyond that. Love takes one to the realm where you’re not trying to get anything for yourself, but you want to please the one that you love. That’s your happiness. That’s your reward. That’s your fulfilment. It’s completely non-self-serving. This is the perfection of the soul. This is the eternal position of the soul. The soul’s eternal position is to render loving service to the Supreme Lord. That’s what we don’t have. We’re always trying to find it when we are living from the ego here on the Earth plane. Our mantra is: “I want to be served.” This is the opposite of what it should be, you see. This world is a perverted reflection. So, our idea is, “I’ll be happy if everybody’s serving me.” You see? “I want to be the master, I want to be the controller. I want to be God!” You see? But really we’re not God. I can’t be somebody I’m not. I am who I am, and who I really am is the eternal loving servant of God. Everybody’s a devotee of God but not everybody realizes it. We’ve forgotten it. We’ve forgotten our true identity so we’re trying to be God. Trying to enjoy God’s property, the material world. And it’s not working. We’re destroying everything—most everything is in shambles because we’re trying to play somebody we’re not. As a result, we destroy the environment, our bodies, and our minds. Without devotion to the Supreme Lord we don’t know what to do with our life. But the paths of Karma and Bhakti Yoga are our liberation. They lead us to be truly free. Truly happy. Truly content.

About The Author Bala Das is the disciple of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad and Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda. Bala Das travels the world speaking on yoga wisdom, teaching kirtan & meditation, at retreats, seminars and public lectures. Bala Das is an expert at presenting profound spiritual topics and practices in ways that are easily accessible and achievable by every individual. “I came to this philosophy of truth in a very indirect way. I became interested in hatha yoga as a means to improve my surfing which at that time was my whole life. The benefit was immediately apparent, and I began to look deeper into the subject. Through reading I began to practice some simple meditations, adopted a yoga diet (vegetarian), and spent more time in deeper contemplation of the truths of life. I had always been a traveler, and now I embarked on an inner journey. All the while my world, both external and internal, became more peaceful and calm.”

regularly practicing prana breathing techniques is a powerful way to build life force energy in the body that can be used for healing and deep cellular rejuvenation. photo: xochi romero

What powers the vital processes that bring your physical body alive, giving it the dynamism to move and breathe? What regulates your senses and the way you perceive, think and act? Ancient yoga texts tell us it is a subtle energy known as prana. This is not physical energy—prana is quite different from the electrical impulses in your nervous system—yet it flows through your body and manifests itself through your breath. By changing your breathing, you can direct this vital energy force.

What is Prana?

The Sanskrit word prana is usually translated as “vital air”, “life-force” or “vital energy”, but none of these descriptions really explain it. We can’t translate the word into English, or any Western language, because until recently our culture lacked the concept. The Chinese word chi (as in tai chi) or the Japanese word ki (as in reiki) are exact translations. People who practice acupuncture, reflexology and most martial arts understand and work with prana energy. Your prana is divided into five categories each “governing” aspects of your body, mind and breath. Each main chapter of this book reveals how one of them works.

Your Energy Highway: The Nadis

Prana energy flows through your body in subtle energy channels called nadis. Approximately 72,000 crisscross your body (see image opposite)—you might like to think of them as roads on an energy highway system. The traffic on the roads is your prana. When traffic flows freely the system works well, but if a nadi becomes blocked, the flow of prana energy to that region of the body is reduced or even cut off. Without the nourishment of vital energy, that part of the body may weaken or become sick. For your body to be vibrantly healthy, an unimpeded flow of prana is necessary. One way to encourage this is to practice prana breathing exercises.

The Main Nadis

Of your 72,000 energy lines, or nadis, three are of particular interest in our exploration of prana breathing. The ida nadi channel flows to the left of your spine, the pingala nadi channel to the right, and the central nadi channel, which approximates your spine, is known as the sushumna. The left and right channels are associated with qualities of mind, and when your breath flows through one of these channels it develops these qualities in you. Various pranyama breathing exercises can guide your breath through the left and right nadi channels. The only time your breath flows evenly is during pranayama meditation, when it enters the central nadi energy channel and both sides of your brain are balanced. In order to achieve a state of meditation, ancient yogis developed breathing techniques referred to as pranayama. Practicing pranayama breathing is one of the main disciplines within hatha yoga.

Your Vitalizing Breath: Understanding Prana

The first of the five forms of prana—the energy, or driving force, behind all energy—that flows through your body is, rather confusingly, also known as prana. Yoga teachers will tell you that every time you breathe in, you draw in this vital energy along with the air you inhale. Just as you need physical oxygen to vitalize your body, you need prana energy to enliven your mind and emotions. In the following paragraphs, you will discover how this vitalizing prana breath enables you not only to inhale air into your lungs, but to take in stimuli of all forms—from sights, sounds and smells to feelings, ideas and knowledge. For prana energy provides the basic stimulus that sets all things in motion. In doing so, it enhances your appreciation of, and zest for, life, and opens your heart and mind to new possibilities of every kind—from your personal creativity and productivity at work to your relationships with others and your environment.

Your Dynamic Life-Force

If you imagine that your body is a factory, your prana is the person in charge. As the chief of the five forms of energy in your body, your incoming breath is responsible for authorizing all acquisitions and overseeing the intake of all raw materials. When prana stops doing its job, the factory closes down. Prana is the root source of all the energy in the universe. Whether this energy manifests itself as heat, the sun, rushing water or the wind, all forces of nature are manifestations of prana energy. Within your body, the strongest influence of this vitalizing prana breath extends from your lungs and heart up to your nose. Prana endows your lungs with their ability to draw in all forms of prana, giving your eyes their energy to see, ears their ability to hear and mind its power to make sense of the world; prana energy nourishes your brain as it supervises the workings of your nervous system. If you frequently feel stressed or exhausted, you may not be taking in enough prana through breathing. Alternatively, you may be wasting your prana energy, perhaps by overworking or allowing it to drain away as you spend long hours in front of a computer or a television, or sit in air-conditioned rooms or use a microwave. All of these activities deplete prana. Compare how tired and drained you feel in these situations with how energized you feel standing in a place rich in prana energy, such as near the ocean. Ancient yoga texts state that the symptoms of any illness are the manifestation of a decreased flow of prana to particular parts of the body, usually due to lack of proper pranayamic breathing.

Working with Prana Energy

As you use the prana breathing techniques, ask yourself the following questions. They can help you to see how you are depleting your prana and find ways in which you rebalance it.

+ Do I breathe deeply and fully, using my full lung capacity?

+ Do I nourish my body and mind with prana in the form of clean air, healthy prana-rich food and stimulating ideas?

+ Am I able to absorb the beauty around me? How does it strengthen me?

+ Do I tend to “bite off more than I can chew”? Does this deplete my prana energy?

+ Is my life chaotic? Is this because I am unable to direct my energy?

+ Do I permit people to drain me emotionally? Or do I drain other people’s prana by making unreasonable demands on them?

+ Do I waste time by being unfocused? Or do I allow others to waste my time?

+ Am I overly negative and self-critical? Is this because I allow people to deprive me of my independence and free will?

Although such a depletion is usually gradual, the effects of a sudden lack of prana energy can sometimes be obvious. If you experience a shock, for example, you may begin losing weight rapidly, see your hair turn grey overnight, or find that an internal organ ceases to function—for example in a heart attack. Through practicing the prana breathing techniques in this article, you can become conscious of the flow of prana energy within your body. By breathing with concerted awareness, you may find that you can extract more life-energy and deliberately direct it wherever it is required, whenever it is needed. As you become familiar with the pranayama breathing exercises and practice them regularly, you may notice changes in the way your body functions and the fullness with which you live life. You may even notice your appearance changing, making you appear more alive, fresh-faced and youthful.

Visualization Technique: Drawing in Prana

The prana breath-visualization technique opposite focuses your awareness on the headquarters of the prana energy in your body. This is found at the “third eye” in the middle of your forehead. The “third eye” is another name for ajna chakra, the energy center that manages your senses, your conscious and unconscious minds and your sense of self. From this control center at your brow, the propulsive energy of prana moves inward and downward to the bottom of your lungs, from where it acts as the main on-off switch that stimulates all your other subtle energies into action. Try to keep in mind the idea of inward-moving energy as you practice the prana breathing exercise, opposite. You might like to picture prana as a welcoming figure within you, who opens a door and allows energy to enter every time you breathe in air, take a bite of food, listen to an idea or have a drink of water. Feel reassured that she will whisk the incoming energy to the proper processing area within your body, whether your lungs, stomach or mind, ready to be used appropriately. You can practice the Prana Breathing exercise, below, anywhere and at any time, but it is particularly effective when you feel depleted of energy and would like to recharge your batteries. For a variation, combine this exercise with Alternate Nostril Breathing.

Harnessing Prana

Have you ever had to tell someone something that was disagreeable, but necessary? Think of how you instinctively prepared yourself to do it. You probably took a deep breath, held it for a moment and then, with a deep sigh, thought, “OK, let me get this over with.” If so, you were unconsciously harnessing prana energy. By holding your breath in this way, you efficiently extracted an extra “jolt” of energy that helped you to accomplish your unpleasant task.

Exercise: Prana Breathing Tehcnique

Start by sitting comfortably, preferably with your legs crossed. Draw your shoulder blades down toward your waist to lift your breastbone and allow your ribcage to move freely as you breathe prana.

1. Sit with your back straight. Gently seal your lips and breathe prana through your nose. Bring your palms together and raise them over your head.

2. Inhale deeply through your nose, draw in as much prana/air as possible. Open your eyes wide, bulge them out, and imagine drawing in light. Visualize yourself drawing in energy through your ears, your face and the top of your head.

3. When your lungs are full, hold your breath, filled with prana. Close your eyes and bring your awareness to the point between your eyebrows. Visualize the energy you inhaled forming a sphere of bright, concentrated light at the center of your forehead. It may give off sparks or even lightning flashes. Retain your breath for as long as is comfortable.

4. As you exhale, watch the light dissolve into a sparkling shower of energy that invigorates you. Start with one prana breath and gradually build up to 10.

Directing Prana

“Prana is force on every plane of being, from the highest to the lowest. Whatever moves or works or has life is but an expression or manifestation of prana.”

— Swami Sivananda, Bliss Divine (1887-1963)

You may not be aware of it, but you receive and breathe prana energy all the time—from the food you eat, the water you drink, from sunlight and the air you breathe, and from the people around you. You also give it away to others. Usually this is an unconscious exchange of energy. If you feel unwell and a friend places her hand on your forehead, she is transferring her prana energy to you through her compassion. If you stumble and instinctively hold your breath and take both hands to your injured knee, you are directing an increased flow of prana to the area to speed healing. A yoga teacher who asks you to breathe prana into your hips is suggesting that you re-direct prana to that region to invigorate your pose. If your body is healthy and full of vitality, you naturally affect those around you in a positive way when you transfer your prana energy, consciously or unconsciously. People enjoy being with you because they feel invigorated by the encounter. But when you feel distressed or lacking in positive energy, others may find your presence emotionally draining. By practicing the pranayama breathing technique below, you can start to channel your prana energy consciously in order to become that vital, positive person that people want to engage with. If you would like to take this conscious command of prana energy further, you can learn to manipulate it to heal yourself and others. The healing process works by directing prana energy to areas of your body that need help and by breaking up blockages in energy channels to allow prana to flow unimpeded. A good flow of prana stimulates cells and tissues and encourages the elimination of toxins, helping to restore healthy activity to that part of your body. If this type of healing appeals to you, then why not investigate workshops or courses in one of the many popular techniques that work by transferring prana energy? These include reek, Pranic Healing and Therapeutic Touch. Practitioners of these healing and prana breathing techniques may place their hands on or near a recipient, tune into their prana energy, focus their intention, and then allow the vitalizing energy to flow through their hands and into the receiver. Other practitioners believe that their prana is drawn out by the recipient’s injury in order to activate or enhance the body’s natural healing processes.

Exercise: Visualization to Increase Prana Energy Flow

This prana breathing tehcnique helps to recharge you and can lift your mood whenever you feel “down”—when you are charged with prana, you are more likely to be able to transfer your energy positively to others. This is also an effective way to top up your prana energy before using energy-healing techniques.

1. Gently sealing your lips, slowly breathe in prana through your nose to a mental count of 8 and then exhale through your nose to a count of 8.

2. Now breathe in prana again through your nose to a count of 8, but this time visualize prana energy streaming into you, intermingled with the air you inhale. You might like to visualize the prana as a current of bright light.

3. Hold your breath for a count of 4 and in your mind’s eye picture the prana circulating through every part of your body.

4. Exhale through your mouth to a count of 8, feeling negativity leaving your body with the stale air. Repeat for as many breaths as you like.

This piece on prana energy breathing is excerpted with permission from Power of Breath: The Art of Breathing Well for Harmony, Happiness and Health by Swami Saradananda.

About The Author Swami Saradananda has lived and worked in India, England, the U. S., Canada, Germany, Spain and the Bahamas. For more than 26 years she worked with the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and ran yoga centers in New York, London, New Delhi and the Himalayas. In addition to teaching yoga, she has worked as a spice merchant, magazine editor, olive picker, cookbook writer and pilgrimage leader. She is the author of a number of books, including The Power of Breath, Chakra Meditation, The Essential Guide to Chakras, Yoga Mind and Body, Relax and Unwind with Yoga and Mudras for Modern Life. Visit her website: FlyingMountainYoga.org.

yoga poses for depression and anxiety work by rebalancing the body neurologically and energetically to restore harmony, happiness and calm. photo: lerina winter

There are numerous yoga postures that can work miracles on your body and mind. Out of hundreds of such postures, I have selected the top three that are particularly good yoga poses for depression and anxiety. The first one, called the Sun Salutation, is not one posture actually but a sequence of twelve postures. As a matter of principle, you should always lie down on your back for a few minutes and breathe gently to conclude your yoga session for mental health every day. Yoga for anxiety and depression can be done once, twice or three times a day, depending on your time availability and your passion. A session of yoga can last anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour; an average session is thirty minutes. Forty-five minutes is usually ample time to do all the yoga postures for anxiety and depression with feeling and focus. Postures of yoga should not be mistaken as simply stretching of the limbs. Every pore of your existence talks to you if you do them with feeling and that is how yoga for mental health yields the greatest result.

1. The Sun Salutation

The Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskara) is the mother of yogic exercises and comprises a sequence of twelve yogic postures with focus on inhalation and exhalation at each step of the salutation. It appears quite simple but is profoundly effective yoga for depression and anxiety. It stretches your entire body and channels the flow of various energies. Here is how to do it: First Position Take a deep breath. Stand straight, body relaxed but straight. Bring your hands together and join them near your heart in the posture of Namaste. Exhale. Second Position Start inhalation and gently separate your hands and raise them above your head fully stretching your arms. Arch backwards with your palm facing towards the sky. Don’t arch more than you comfortably can. Third Position Now exhale slowly and bend forward with your legs straight. Your head will rest between your knees and ideally you should be touching the ground with your hands. If you can’t bend to touch the ground, bend as much as you can. Fourth Position Bend your knees as if about to sit on the floor and rest your palms flat on the floor. Stretch your left leg back, with your knee and toe touching the floor. Bring the right leg in front with knee almost touching your chest and foot firmly and fully on the ground. Raise your chin upwards and inhale gently and deeply. Fifth Position Bring your left leg back midway and stretch back the right one midway so they are parallel to each other. Raise your hips as if about to do a pushup. Your body now forms a plank. Keep your chin locked to your gullet. Start gentle exhalation and move to the next posture of yoga for anxiety and depression while exhaling. Sixth Position Stretch your legs back and lower yourself. Your palms, chest, knees and toes touch the ground. Your hips remain a little raised and your belly does not touch the ground at all. Your forehead is parallel to the ground but does not touch it. Hold your breath. Seventh Position Start inhaling gently. Straightening your arms, lower your legs and waist so your toes, legs, knees, thighs and groin touch the floor and raise your torso gently arching back your spine. Raise your chin as if looking up and stretching your neck. Eighth Position Raise your hips and bring your straightened legs midway. Your body now forms the same triangle. Lower your head and lock your chin in your gullet and exhale gently. Your palms and heels remain flat and firmly planted on the ground. Ninth Position Gently inhaling, stretch back your right leg, arching your spine and bring forward your left leg with knee touching your chest. The toe and knee of your right leg touch the ground and the left foot is flat on the ground. Your palms are flat on the ground. Raise your chin up. Now you are in the same posture of yoga to release stress and anxiety as in the fourth position but with the alternate leg stretched. Tenth Position Bring your feet together, straighten your legs and bend forward from the waist. Now your posture is exactly the same as in the third position. Once again, try to touch the floor with your palms and if you can’t, lower them as much as you can. Exhale gently, releasing stress and anxiety. Eleventh Position Inhale deeply and gently. Straighten your body and arch backwards with your palms facing upwards. This is exactly the same posture now as in the second position. Twelfth Position Straighten your body with palms facing each other (as if doing the Namaste posture) and exhale gently. This marks the conclusion of the Sun Salutation, a yoga posture that is effective for depression and anxiety. Hold each yoga posture for a few seconds. This is one round. In the second round, alternate your legs—stretch the right leg first in the fourth position and the left one in the ninth. There is a variation of this yoga posture for anxiety and depression where the same leg is stretched in the fourth and ninth position and is only alternated in the next round. Lying flat on your back for a few minutes in the corpse pose (shavasana) is highly recommended after completing your anxiety yoga session of the Sun Salutation. The ancient method also involves chanting the seed syllables of the Sun Mantra while doing the Sun Salutation. Texts expounding the solar science believe that the rays of the first few minutes at sunrise are therapeutic and healing, supportive of yoga for mental health. Ideally, the sun salutation is performed facing the sun at the time of sunrise. If not feasible, you can do it indoors at the time you do yoga for depression and anxiety or other physical exercises. You can start by doing ten rounds of yoga for anxiety and depression every morning. With practice, your postures will flow into each other in perfect transposition and effortlessness.

2. The Shoulder Stand

There are two postures that are not covered in the Sun Salutation. If you suffer from depression and anxiety, you will benefit much from doing these yoga poses. The first one is called the shoulder stand. It is known as Sarvanga asana in Sanskrit. Sarvanga means all organs or part. This yoga posture for anxiety and depression infuses vitality into the entire body and mind. Your torso and legs are stretched to the fullest as you raise yourself vertically, with your neck bent and head on the ground, while the weight of your entire body rests on your shoulders. You hold your body with your hands. Here are the steps to do it: Lie on your back. Relaxed but straight. Keep your legs joined, with your ankles touching each other and toes facing up. Keep your arms straight with your palms touching your thighs. Gently inhale while you slowly raise your legs, stretching them fully at a ninety-degree angle. Exhale and raise your body while inhaling. Bring your hands to the waist to support your torso as it raises. Raise the body as straight as possible. Keep the legs joined all this while. The entire weight of your body should rest on your shoulders (not on your neck or head). Your chin touching the gullet. Your toes should now be pointing at the ceiling. Breathe gently and normally. Remain in this yoga position for anxiety and depression for thirty seconds. Gradually, you can increase the duration but it should not go beyond three minutes. To complete the asana, gently bend your legs, folding them at the knees and slowly lower your body, all the while using your hands to support the weight. Once the body is back on the ground, stretch your legs straight and breathe. Pregnant women and anyone who has undergone any form of heart surgery is prohibited from performing this asana. Besides being good for depression and anxiety, this posture is excellent for the spine, nervous system and thyroid glands. At the end of your yoga for depression and anxiety session, always lie down in the corpse pose for three to five minutes. The shoulder-stand is a variation of the head-stand (shirshaasana). Head-stand is not recommended unless you are disciplined in your practice of pranayama (breath regulation) and completely free of any gastrointestinal, respiratory and neurological disorders.

3. Child Pose

It is called Bala Asana. Bala means child. It is a simple and an easy yoga pose for anxiety that has a calming effect on the body and mind. To perform the posture, follow the steps below: Keep your legs hip-width apart and gently inhale as you kneel on your hands and knees. Your head will rest between your arms and your palms facing down. Straighten your toes so your toenails touch the floor, keeping them relaxed. Exhale and lower your rear towards your heels. This naturally stretches your torso, and as it folds over your thighs, bend your neck so your forehead touches the floor. Gently inhale and bring your arms by your thighs. The palms will face up presently. Breathe slowly and hold this anxiety yoga posture for thirty seconds. To complete this yoga posture for anxiety and depression, bring your arms in front with palms facing down, bring your torso forward and rise up. You can place a cushion between your buttocks and heels if the stretch is uncomfortable. Feel free to rest your forehead on a cushion if the floor feels hard or uncomfortable.

Regulation Of Breath

There is a term frequently found in most of the yogic scriptures. It’s called Pranayama. Prana means vital life force in the breath and yama means to elongate, strengthen or progress. Pranayama is the science of breath regulation, which has powerful effects for reducing anxiety, depression and stress. It is primarily of twelve different types. It has three stages called exhalation (rechaka), retention (kumbhaka) and inhalation (puraka). Pranayama is not for everyone: correct breath regulation requires attaining a perfect stillness in the posture and observing a strict dietary and moral conduct. Predominantly though, because through pranayama, you infuse every pore of your body with the vital life-force. If your state of mind is negative and the breath impure, this is what you will push and supply to all the cells. Each cell is a complete living unit in its own right. It has a respiratory system, an excretory system, a nervous system, an endocrine system. The quality of life-force you supply to each cell has an impact on the life and health of that cell. Pranayama is capable of opening clogged arteries, it makes the muscles supple, gives luster to the skin, reduces stiffness in the joints and infuses life in the veins. Pranayama done wrongly, however, can lead to neurological disorders. That said, if you don’t hold the breath during pranayama, you have nothing to worry about when practicing in tandem with yoga for depression and anxiety. When you simply inhale and exhale in a specific way, it regulates your breath and immediately infuses calm in your mind, helping to reduce anxiety and negative thoughts associated with depression. Of the many types, I will share with you two types of pranayama that are particularly useful in treating depression and anxiety with yoga. Before you begin pranayama, it is important to sit with your back straight, with your spine, neck and head forming a straight line. If you can sit cross-legged, it is even better because it regulates the vital energies in the body. You can also sit in a chair. At least two hours should have lapsed between your meal and the exercise of pranayama. If you do yoga and then do pranayama, the rewards of that yoga on reducing anxiety and depression are greater and quicker in that case. These two types of pranayam are best for improving mental health:

4. Alternate Breathing

Alternate breathing is a type of pranayama that is excellent for neurological and respiratory cleansing and detoxification and a great compliment to yoga for depression and anxiety. It forms part of the nervous system-purification (nadi-shodhana) regime. It is called Anuloma-Viloma in yogic texts. Anuloma means natural order and Viloma means reverse order. Retention of breath (kumbhaka) is an important aspect of pranayama fpr depression and anxiety. Such breathing in its truest sense is recommended for those who have mastered the physical posture and eat only a sattvic diet and are complete teetotalers. Besides, it is a staged progression. Therefore, in a variation of the standard alternate breathing, my strong recommendation is that you do not hold your breath for anymore than a few seconds (between five and ten at the most). There is a very important reason to take this seriously. When you practice alternate breathing without gaining stability of posture and without controlling your diet, you run the risk for pushing the toxins through your nervous system to all parts of the body. This can lead to neurological disorders, formation of tumors, cysts and loss of memory. If you practice it without prolonged retention of breath, however, you gain the greatest benefit of pranayama and yoga for depression and anxiety. You purify and cleanse your nervous system and boost the stabilizing energies and forces in and around you. If you have been practicing yoga for a long time (a minimum of two years) and you are on a sattvic diet, you can practice retention for longer time. In any case, do not do it beyond what you are comfortable with. No yogic exercise is supposed to make you look red in the face, during or after. They are supposed to be effortless. How To Do It Right Here are the seven steps to the life-transforming alternate breathing pranayama for depression and anxiety: 1. Sit straight, preferably cross-legged or you can sit on a chair. 2. As always, start with complete exhalation with both nostrils. 3. Put the thumb of your right hand on your right nostril to close it. 4. Now breathe deeply, steadily and gently through your left. 5. Hold the breath for a few seconds. 6. Put the middle finger of your right hand on the left nostril and lift your thumb to open the right nostril. 7. Exhale completely, steadily and gently. Ideally, your exhalation should be so soft that you should not even hear yourself breathing out. Yogic scriptures state the standard one-four-two rule for pranayama. It means if it takes you one second to breath in, for example, you should hold the breath for four seconds (four times the length of inhalation) and exhale over two seconds (double the length of exhalation). However, as I stated earlier, this should only be done if you have been guided by an expert and if you are observing all the rules. If you have epilepsy or seizures, or if you are on medication for hypertension, or you have palpitation of the heart, or if you have had a heart-attack in the past do not retain the breath at all. Simply just breathe from alternate nostrils. This still has profound effects for reducing anxiety and depression, especially when practiced alongside the yoga poses above. At one stretch you can do twenty repetitions. One complete repetition is inhale from the left, hold, exhale from the right, inhale from the right, hold, and then exhale from the left. This is one repetition. Very few people have the time, but you are free to do it twice or even thrice a day. There is no better purifier of your entire nervous system than pranayama. It is nothing short of a miracle exercise handed down to us by the ancient yogis, making this a good form of breathing and yoga for anxiety and depression and overall mental health.

6. Bumble Bee Breathing

It is called Bhramari pranayama. Bhramara means bumble bee. As the name says, in this breathing style you make the humming sound of a bumble bee. It has a near instant calming effect on the mind, and is a good pairing to do alongside yoga for depression and anxiety. Imagine a table with playing cards scattered on it. They look like a mess. Further, imagine organizing those cards to form a neat deck. You can tear a card but you can’t tear apart a deck—it’s stronger, organized and unified. The energies in your body are scattered. There is a mismatch between cellular organization, emotional forces and mental energies; they are not aligned. Bumble bee breathing aligns those energies. The effect is instant and noticeable for improved mental health and reduced anxiety and depression. How To Do It Right Bumble bee breathing is an eight-step process as follows: 1. Sit straight, preferably cross-legged or you can sit on a chair. 2. Take a few deep breaths to become aware of your breathing and to normalize it. 3. Spread your hands and bring them to your ears. 4. Now, block your left ear with left thumb and right ear with right thumb. Gently place your index and middle fingers of the right hand on your closed right eye. 5. Do the same on your left eye with your left index and middle fingers. Don’t press your eyes. 6. Rest your ring fingers just below your eyes. Your mouth should be closed and cover your lips with the little fingers. 7. Now, inhale with both nostrils as deeply and comfortably as you can. 8. Once inhalation is done, gently exhale from your both nostrils, producing a humming sound like that of a bee. Feel free to take breaks after a few rounds as your arms and hands may get tired in that position after a few minutes. Resume after your break. You can do it up to twenty times in one session and you can do two sessions a day. This pranyama has an extraordinary filtration effect on the body and mind, making it good yoga for reducing stress, anxiety and depression. If you focus on your diet, do the yoga postures and regulate your breathing, it’ll have a profound impact on your physical well-being and mental health. The stronger and more together you feel physically, the better prepared you are to work on your mental and emotional healing. Eventually, if you can replenish the depleting neurotransmitters in your body by adopting a healthier lifestyle, if you can receive a loving touch, if you can develop that rhythm in your breathing, you will never need to take another antidepressant for reducing depression. You don’t have to take my word for this, or for any other suggestions I make in my book. Try and see it for yourself how pranayama breathing and yoga is good for depression and anxiety. Your body is a sanctum, a temple, and, as such, should be revered and kept like one. I know, to take control of your health and to change your lifestyle is easier said than done. But, as they say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Incorporating yoga for depression and anxiety is a rewarding part of the journey. This piece on yoga poses for depression and anxiety is excerpted with permission from When All Is Not Well: Depression and Sadness – A Yogic Perspective by Om Sawmi.

About The Author Om Swami is a mystic who lives in the Himalayan foothills. An advanced yogin, Swami has done thousands of hours of intense meditation in complete seclusion in Himalayan caves and woods. He is also the author of the best-selling If Truth be Told: A Monk’s Memoir. You can connect with him on his blog, omswami.com, which is read by millions all over the world.

in order to attain any of the 28 siddhis you must regularly practice yoga and meditation or be born with a natural predisposition for such things. photo: lerina winter

Yoga Superpowers

Classic yoga texts, such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, written about two thousand years ago, tell us in matter- of-fact terms that if you sit quietly, pay close attention to your mind, and practice this diligently, then you will gain supernormal powers. These advanced capacities, known as siddhis, are not regarded as magical; they’re ordinary capacities that everyone possesses. We’re just too distracted most of the time to be able to access them reliably. The sage Patanjali also tells us that these siddhis can be attained by ingesting certain drugs, through contemplation of sacred symbols, repetition of mantras, ascetic practices, or through a fortuitous birth. In the yogic tradition, powers gained through use of mantras, amulets, or drugs are not regarded with as much respect, or considered to be as permanent, as those earned through dedicated meditative practice. The promise of these siddhi superpowers has little to do with traditional religious faith, divine intervention, or supernatural miracles. As Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace says,

“In Buddhism, these are not miracles in the sense of being supernatural events, any more than the discovery and amazing uses of lasers are miraculous— however they may appear to those ignorant of the nature and potentials of light. Such contemplatives claim to have realized the nature and potentials of consciousness far beyond anything known in contemporary science. What may appear supernatural to a scientist or a layperson may seem perfectly natural to an advanced contemplative, much as certain technological advances may appear miraculous to a contemplative.”

Yogic wisdom describes many variations of the siddhis. Today we’d associate the elementary siddhis with garden-variety psychic phenomena. They include telepathy (mind- to- mind communication); clairvoyance (gaining information about distant or hidden objects beyond the reach of the ordinary senses); precognition (clairvoyance through time), and psychokinesis (direct influence of matter by mind, also known as PK). For most people, psychic abilities manifest spontaneously and are rarely under conscious control. The experiences tend to be sporadic and fragmentary, and the most dramatic cases occur mainly during periods of extreme motivation. By contrast, the siddhis are said to be highly reliable and under complete conscious control; as such they could be interpreted as exceedingly refined, well-cultivated forms of psychic phenomena. The more advanced siddhis are said to include invisibility, levitation, invulnerability, and superstrength, abilities often associated with comic book superheroes. All these abilities are also described in one form or another in shamanism and in the mystical teachings of religions. In fact, most cultures throughout history have taken for granted that superpowers are real, albeit rare, and surveys today continue to show that the majority of the world’s population still firmly believes in one or more of these capacities. Mainstream science is not so sure. Many scientists and scholars trained within the Western worldview regard such powers not as supernormal capacities of the human mind, but as superstitions used solely to promote religious faith.

Attaining The Siddhis

“The whole history of science shows us that whenever the educated and scientific men of any age have denied the facts of other investigators on a priori grounds of absurdity or impossibility, the deniers have always been wrong.”

— Alfred Russell Wallace

The Yoga Sutras provide a taxonomy of supernormal mental powers and a means of obtaining them. Today we would classify most of the siddhis as various forms of psychic, or psi, phenomena. Others might be called exceptionally precise means of controlling the mind- body relationship.

Samyama: Extraordinary Focus of the Mind

Patanjali writes that the siddhis are attained after mastery of the last three steps of the eightfold path: the ability to simultaneously sustain concentration, meditation, and samadhi at will. “Sustained” in this context means holding a highly focused, unwavering, deeply absorbed meditative state—as opposed to obsessive mental chattering— indefinitely, if one so wishes. Considering that beginning meditators may be satisfied to hold an unwavering focus for ten seconds, being able to do this for fifteen minutes at a time may seem incredible; for hours without end is practically incomprehensible. But that’s the level of mental control said to be required to exercise and attain the siddhis on demand. And that’s just the beginning. In the Vibhuti Pada, Book III of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali writes that samyama might seem special to the uninitiated, but it is rather crude compared to where you really want to go. A translation of Sutra III.8 is: “In comparison to the seedless and unbound goal of enlightenment, samyama is to be viewed as a coarse and external component.”In other words, walking on water is trivial compared to what you really want to achieve, a state called nirbija samadhi, or samadhi without attenuation. At this point, to prevent our heads from exploding after trying to imagine the intense practice and skill required to attain these advanced siddhi states, let’s return to the comparatively simple practice of samyama. As we do so, we will simply assume that after thousands of years of exploration, refinement, and discussion about these techniques, advanced yoga practitioners may have advanced far beyond what science is currently capable of confirming, and we’ll leave it at that. Depending on the nature of the object one is absorbed into during samyama, different siddhis are said to arise. This is not due to magical incantations, but a natural consequence of merging with the object of focus. For example, if one focuses on another person, in samyama one becomes the other person. The siddhi that arises is what we would call telepathy. In the science fiction television series Star Trek, this practice was depicted as the Vulcan mind meld. Telepathy occurs in the mind meld (and in the siddhis) not because thoughts are transmitted from another person’s mind to yours, but because while in samyama your mind breaks through the illusion of separation that tricks you into believing that you and the other person are different. In deep states of the absorptive mind meld, whether yogic or Vulcan, holistic reality reigns. You are no longer two people, but one and the same. The genius of Star Trek is that it is the dispassionate, hyper rational, deeply focused Vulcans who can achieve this state, and not the attention-deficit, emotionally uncontrolled humans. As another example, in samyama one may focus on the processes of time, change, and transformation. The siddhi that arises is the simultaneous perception of the past, present, and the future. The idea that the present contains the past is common knowledge; we call this memory. The idea that the present is also influenced by the future may seem odd, but this quasi- teleological concept is accommodated within today’s physics. For example, in quantum theory the idea that the present is constrained by both the past and the future is respectable, but of greater importance, there is now experimental evidence supporting it, published in 2012 in the journal Nature Physics. The originators of this concept are not mystics. They include physicist Yakir Aharonov, who was awarded the US National Medal of Science in 2010 and is regarded as one of the world’s leading quantum theorists. The future influencing the present might sound strange, but practically everything seems strange the moment we step outside of the everyday world and probe either the inner depths or the outer limits of reality. Likewise, the siddhis seem contrary to common sense only because they arise from depths of awareness that lie far beyond the common senses.

The 21 Siddhi Powers

Past, Present, and Future walk into a bar at the same time. It was tense. Approximately twenty-five siddhis are listed in the third book of the Yoga Sutras. An exact number is difficult to pin down because the abilities may be interpreted in different ways, and there is some overlap. But it is possible to view all the siddhis as variations on three basic classes: 1. EXCEPTIONAL mind- body control 2. CLAIRVOYANCE, the ability to gain knowledge unbound by the ordinary constraints of space or time and without the use of the ordinary senses; includes precognition and telepathy 3. PSYCHOKINESIS or mind- matter interaction, the ability of the mind to directly infl uence matter Fifteen of the siddhis fall into the category of clairvoyance, four fi t into the category of psychokinesis, and six in mind- body control. The siddhis listed here are in the order in which they appear in the Yoga Sutras: PADA III. Sutra 16. (This will be abbreviated as III.16 in succeeding sutras.) Knowledge of the past, present, and the future, resulting from samyana on the nature of change. This is clairvoyance through time, commonly called precognition when the information obtained is from the future, or retrocognition if it is from the past (and is not simply memory). Siddhi III.17. Knowledge of the meaning of sounds produced by all beings, resulting from samyana on the “third ear,” or the concept of sound, words, or hearing. This may be interpreted as a form of clairvoyance, or telepathy that extends beyond human minds and includes animals, insects, and other species. More generally it is known as clairaudience. Siddhi III.18. Knowledge of previous births and arising of future births, resulting from samyana on one’s latent or inherited tendencies. This is clairvoyance on an aspect of consciousness that does not arise from the body and is sustained after bodily death. A similar siddhi is described in Sadhana Pada II.39, translated as “When non-greed is confirmed, a thorough illumination of the how and why of one’s birth comes.”17 III.19–20. Knowledge of minds, resulting from samyama on one’s own mind or another’s mind, both of which from a holistic perspective are part of the universal mind. We now call this telepathy. Siddhi III.21. Disappearance of the body from view, as a result of looking at the body with the inner eye. This is sometimes translated as the power of invisibility, because the Sanskrit aphorism contains words suggesting a “suspension of the coarse or limited projection of the body.” But it may also be interpreted as the ability to perceive aspects of the body that are beyond the limited scope of the ordinary senses. In other words, we could interpret this as clairvoyance, or perhaps as psychokinesis. Siddhi III.22. Foreknowledge of birth, harm, or death, resulting from samyama on sequences of events in one’s past and present. This again is a form of clairvoyance. Siddhi III.23. Loving- kindness in all, resulting from samyama on friendliness, compassion, or sympathetic joy. This can be interpreted to mean that when one is imbued with joy, that state may induce similar feelings in others. This may be interpreted as an unintentional or field like form of psychokinesis. Siddhi III.24. Extraordinary strength, resulting from samyama on the concept of physical strength (the aphorism specifically mentions the strength of an elephant, which was undoubtedly the strongest creature in Patanjali’s world), but it might also include mental, moral, or spiritual strength. This could be interpreted as an exceptional form of mindbody control or as a mind-matter interaction effect. Swami Satchidananda sums up this siddhi with the comment, “You can lighten yourself; you can make yourself heavy. It’s all achieved by samyama. Do it; try it. Nice things will happen” Siddhi III.25. Knowledge at a distance, resulting from samyama on the “inner light,” which in Western esoteric terms is known as the “subtle body” or the “light body.” This siddhi includes knowledge of hidden objects, or clairvoyance. Siddhi III.26. Knowledge of the outer universe, resulting from samyama on the solar principle, which could include the sun as a planetary body, or the concept of the solar plexus, one of the principal “subtle energy” centers or chakras in the human body. A more detailed translation of this siddhi would require a major diversion into esoteric yogic concepts where aspects of the human body, some physical and others more subtle, are mapped onto aspects of the cosmos. This arcane symbolism is outside the scope of the present book, so we may simply interpret this siddhi as clairvoyance of macroscopic objects and systems. Siddhi III.27–28. Knowledge of the inner universe, resulting from samyama on the lunar or chandra principle, or the “pole star.” As with the previous siddhi, to avoid diverting our attention to esoteric lore that is not within the capacity of science to evaluate, we will interpret this as clairvoyance of microscopic objects and systems. Siddhi III.29. Knowledge of the composition and coordination of bodily energies, through samyama on the navel chakra or manipura chakra. This siddhi may be interpreted as an exceptional mind- body connection, or as a self- healing ability. Siddhi III.30. Liberation from hunger and thirst, through samyama on the throat. This siddhi is known as inedia within the Catholic tradition, or more popularly as breatharianism (living on breath alone, without food, and in extreme cases, without water). Siddhi III.31. Exceptional stability, balance, or health, through samyama on the kurma nadi, the root of the tongue. This siddhi refers to mind-body knowledge leading to exceptional health or self-healing. Siddhi III.32–36. Vision of higher beings, knowledge of everything that is knowable, knowing of the origins of all things, knowledge of the true self, through samyama on the crown of the head, intuition, the spiritual heart, the self, or the nature of existence. These siddhis are forms of refined clairvoyance. Siddhi III.37. Siddhis may appear to be supernormal, but they are normal. This is not a description of a siddhi, but rather a caution to avoid regarding or attaining the siddhis as unnatural or supernormal, as that could become a distraction to sustaining and deepening samadhi. Siddhi III.38. Influencing others. This siddhi suggests that a highly realized yogi who is adept with the previously described siddhis can not only know about others, but also influence them. This is related to the concept of shaktipat, the ability to transmit spiritual energy to others through one’s gaze or presence. In laboratory jargon, this phenomenon is known as “distant mental interactions with living systems.” It may be interpreted as a sort of field effect due to the rarified mental state that the yogi embodies, which acts like a radiating beacon that influences everyone in the vicinity. This siddhi is also related to a sutra described in the second book of the Yoga Sutras, Sadhana Pada. The translation of Sutra II.35 reads: “In the presence of one firmly established in nonviolence, all hostilities cease.” Siddhi III.39 and 42. Levitation, through samyama on the feeling of lightness. This siddhi is said to allow the yogi to float, hover, fly, or walk on water. It could be interpreted as a highly advanced form of psychokinesis. Siddhi III.40. Blazing radiance, through samyama on “inner fire,” or inner energy. This has been interpreted in several ways, as possession of exceptional charisma, as an exceptional digestive ability that would allow one to eat huge amounts of food or withstand toxic substances without harm, or as exceptional control of bodily energies. We will interpret it as an exceptional form of mind- body control. Siddhi III.41. Clairaudience, through samyama on the area behind the ear. This siddhi allows one to hear the “conversations of the enlightened ones, the subtle mental conversations of others, the celestial music, and receive messages through the ether both awake or while asleep, as if they were spoken or whispered whether or not they exist through the medium of sound waves as such.” In other words, this is a refined form of clairvoyance or clairaudience. Siddhi III.43. Freedom from bodily awareness and temporal attachments. This could be interpreted as a state of perception from out- of- the- body, or as a form of clairvoyance. Siddhi III.44–45. Mastery over the elements, through samyama on the elements, enabling manipulation of matter, including the size, appearance, and condition of the body. Variations of these abilities include the fulfillment of any desire, or to create or destroy material manifestations; a highly refined version of psychokinesis. Siddhi III.46. Perfection of the body. This could be interpreted as a melding of exceptional mind-body control combined with psychokinesis. It would manifest in extreme cases as indefinite life extension, as incorruption of the body after physical death, perhaps as the “rainbow body” in Tibetan tradition, in which the corpse does not decay but rather slowly fades away and turns into colored lights. This list covers Patanjali’s classic siddhis; many other variations of these superpowers can be found in mystical texts from other traditions. They include bilocation (the ability to simultaneously appear in more than one location); the ability to move very fast or cover great distances in a short time; the ability to stay comfortably warm in extremely cold temperatures; the ability to suspend breathing or to hibernate indefinitely; the ability to bestow siddhis to others; the ability not to be harmed by fire; and the ability to change the weather.

Danger, Danger

Before we begin our scientific examination of the siddhis, it is noteworthy that Patanjali and others specifically highlighted the dangers of dwelling on the siddhis. Patanjali states in Sutra III.51 a warning that may be translated as: Avoid invitations to display or identify with any accomplishments in yoga, including the siddhis, even if invited by a respected person, because this can reinforce one’s sense of separate self, leading to ego, pride, and arrogance, and this becomes an impediment toward further spiritual unfoldment. There are many ways that this trap can manifest. If personal pride or greed causes one to be seduced by the ever-present challenge of proving one’s abilities to skeptics, such as using psychic abilities to win a prize, then the power gained by that seduction is likely to corrupt the ethical restraints that are the very first lesson to learn on the eightfold path. That “power corrupts” is an unavoidable truth in human affairs, and the consequences of the fall in this case are profound because the goal of achieving enlightenment, which requires far more discipline than simply developing clairvoyance, is lost. Even if one does not personally identify with an attained siddhi, and instead attributes it to one’s teacher or a particular lineage, the damage is done. This means that from a scientific perspective it may be exceptionally difficult to find people who have achieved these rarified states and are willing to demonstrate them, because paradoxically they have reached those states precisely because they have not demonstrated them in public. When I have asked yogis who appear to have reached some level of mastery to participate in laboratory tests, only on very rare occasions have they agreed to do so. They usually performed remarkably well, but when I ask how they did it, or to do it again, they just smiled. Fortunately, attaining siddhis is not an all-or-nothing affair. They are not instant phase shifts that appear out of thin air, but rather they’re stable versions of weaker effects that some people can demonstrate some of the time. If this were not so, then science would never have learned anything about the siddhis.

Proof?

A common complaint about the siddhis goes like this: If science has been studying these phenomena in a systematic way for over a century, then surely we should have settled the issue one way or the other by now. So the fact that the mere existence of these superpowers is still mired in controversy tells us that the siddhis don’t exist. This logic seems reasonable until one pays closer attention to the history of science. From the historical perspective this type of critique is simply a matter of impatience. For example, consider the case of magnetism. One of the first recorded attempts to study magnetism in scientific terms was in 1269. Until then, everyone considered magnetism to be a magical phenomenon. But Peter Peregrinus, who was serving in the army of the king of Sicily, took a different tack. He decided to write down everything that was known at the time about lodestone (a natural magnetic ore) and how to make instruments using it. Three hundred years later British scientist William Gilbert would again take up the challenge to explain magnetism in rational terms. But another whole century would pass before scientists began to think of new ways to understand magnetism. Even then, it took the invention of highly abstract mathematical concepts before invisible forces like magnetism could even begin to be understood, and the truth is that even today we still don’t understand fundamentally what magnetism actually is. We’ve learned a few tricks that describe how it behaves under certain circumstances, and we can make machines that take advantage of that knowledge. But that’s all. In any case, it took half a millennium for science to learn enough about magnetism to make it practically useful, and unlike psi, magnetism is easy to demonstrate. Similarly, physicists have developed models for how they think gravity works, but we still don’t understand exactly what it is. Nor after many decades of intensive work by tens of thousands of scientists, funded to the tune of a trillion or more dollars, do we understand how to cure cancer. And no one has the slightest idea what consciousness is, despite it being the one and only thing any of us will ever personally know firsthand. In sum, given that the number of mysteries in the universe that remain to be deciphered is practically infinite compared to the few trinkets of knowledge that we’ve discovered, it’s astonishing that anyone could possibly argue that after a century of fits and starts we should already have a complete understanding of psi and the siddhis. Some progress has been made, but we’ve just begun.

Summary

The third book of the Yoga Sutras describes supernormal abilities in matter-of-fact terms. The siddhis are presented not as magical or divine gifts available to the lucky few but as natural consequences of intense meditation practice. Most of these abilities today would be regarded as variations of psychic phenomena, mainly variations of clairvoyance. But some of the siddhis stretch our sense of the possible beyond the breaking point. How should we regard such tales?

Question & Answers on Developing the Siddhis with Dean Radin

Q: Can you speak to some scientific evidence that proves the siddhis are real? ​Science isn’t about proof. It’s about collection and evaluation of evidence. Along those lines, some of the elementary siddhis, like telepathy and precognition, are perfectly amenable to being tested within scientifically valid experiments.​ ​Such abilities have been repeatedly tested in ordinary people for about a century now, and the cumulative results are clear: ​In repeatable experiments the overall evidence strongly indicates that the elementary siddhis exist as inherent potentials within most people. The main difference between what an accomplished yogi can do vs. what “Joe Sixpack” can do is the degree of accuracy and conscious control of their abilities. Q: What are some practical ways that people can start to develop and attain the siddhis within themselves? Most important is maintaining a disciplined meditation practice. ​Plus, be aware that many simple siddhis will occasionally happen spontaneously, ​so they shouldn’t be regarded as ​outrageously ​surprising​, nor should they be taken as anything more than revealing what has always been there​,​ ​just not ​previously ​noticed. To attain super-siddhis, like levitation, not only takes ​a great deal of ​practice, but also talent. The former is under your control; the latter is not. Q: Where did your interest in the researching and exploring the Siddhis come from? ​I have been involved in the scientific study of psychic phenomena for over 30 years. ​In the West these abilities are considered to be so controversial that despite a large body of supportive evidence there is little consensus within the broader scientific community on whether they even exist. I knew that within other cultures and contexts the exact same phenomena are regarded as boringly normal. The siddhis are ​an important part of the yogic tradition, so I decided to look into that more closely, and that led to my book Supernormal. Q: What do you make of the Wim Hof Phenomenon? There’s a huge range of natural talents​. Wim Hof’s talent represents an exceptional degree of control of the autonomic nervous system. Others can learn to do what he does to some extent, some more than others. But both raw talent and disciplined practice are necessary to reach world-class performance in any domain. Yogis agree that not every life-long meditator is going to be able to achieve and attain every siddhi. Some extremely rare talents will be able to do all sorts of mind-boggling feats (even though the yoga tradition strictly prohibits showing off!), but most of us will be able to develop the simpler siddhis to some extent. Learn more about Wim Hof’s supernormal abilities here. This piece on developing the siddhis is excerpted with permission from Supernormal by Dean Radin

About The Author Dean Radin, PhD, is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, and SRI International. He is author or coauthor of over 250 technical and popular articles, three dozen book chapters, and three books including the award-winning The Conscious Universe (HarperOne, 1997), Entangled Minds (Simon & Schuster, 2006), and the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award winner, Supernormal (Random House, 2013). Visit his website at DeanRadin.com

these simple kundalini yoga poses are powerful tools for opening, activating and balancing your chakras when practiced regularly.

All light is vibration. Visible light can be separated into distinct colors by generating a rainbow. The light appears to be separate colors as its frequency changes, but blended together the frequencies form one white light. Similarly, our chakras—each a different frequency and color—express the entire spectrum of frequencies that comprise the energy of the physical body. The word chakra (pronounced “chak-rah”) means “wheel” or “circle,” named so by the ancient yogis to depict a wheel-shaped vibration of pranic energy. A chakra is pure and continuous energy. It is our prana in motion, a wavelength of vibration in our electromagnetic field that contains our values, feelings, thoughts, and childhood imprints. As each of the eight chakras become energized through chakra yoga and other means, the physical and emotional attributes corresponding to that frequency are also energized, as is our consciousness. Much like a tuning fork that will not sound if it is held tightly, tightness in parts of our physical body can prevent our chakras from resonating. For a tuning fork to resonate, we have to release our grip, hold it delicately, and allow the vibration to flow. This is very similar to how we work with the physical body in kundalini yoga: the “tuning fork” of each chakra is anchored to the physical body, and by releasing physical tension we also release the movement of energy. The body holds our emotions. When we have a blocked emotion, the chakra that corresponds to the part of the body holding that emotion is also blocked. When the energy starts flowing through the practice of chakra yoga and other means, the blocks dissolve and the emotions open. It takes deep trust to release these blockages, but it can be done by getting the prana moving through kundalini yoga and other spiritual practices. In the following section, we describe the character of each chakra and provide yogic exercises that will enable you to connect with its essence.

First Chakra: Existence

The first chakra vibrates with the most fundamental aspect of our human incarnation: the energy of existence. This is the energy center connected to the material world and primal survival. Our physical body, our health, and our habits correspond to this area. Its anatomical equivalent is at the perineum and the base of the spine. The legs and feet are also extensions of the first chakra. The color associated with the first chakra is red. We take on form and mission with the declaration of “I am.” The way we honor our very existence affects the frequency of the first chakra. When the first chakra is balanced and flowing with prana, we feel worthy of our existence and happy to be alive. It is the fertile soil from which all else arises. When our first chakra is blocked, we may not feel valued, lovable, or entitled to occupy space. An unbalanced first chakra also leads us to compare ourselves with others and resent their existence.

Yoga for the First Chakra: Crow Pose

When we cleanse and balance the root chakra with yoga, we boost our health, strengthen our sense of security, and increase our trust in the flow of prosperity. Crow Pose is a yogic pose that brings our pranic energy to the base of the spine, the home of the first chakra and a place where we often conceal ourselves. Chakra Yoga Instructions: Crow Pose 1. Stand with your legs three feet apart. Feel your spine rising tall from your pelvis and your weight distributed equally between both feet on the earth below you. 2. Maintaining the position of your feet, squat down with your feet flat on the ground. We invite you to press your palms together in front of your heart as if you are praying during this chakra yoga pose, with your elbows inside your knees and your spine as straight as possible. 3. Inhale slowly and deeply into your abdomen, hold it for a moment, and fully empty your lungs on each exhalation. Continue holding the yoga pose and breathing this way for thirty seconds to three minutes. 4. To finish, release the hands and bring yourself onto your back. Rest for a few minutes. Allow your breath to flow naturally again, notice the movement of prana through the physical area of the perineum and in the space surrounding your body, especially around the hips and coccyx.

Second Chakra: Feeling

The second chakra opens our incarnation into the world of trusting our sensation. We become drawn to what feels good—drawn to warmth, to touch—and in doing so become vessels of universal creativity. When we trust that what we feel is a gift from our highest consciousness, we can surrender and allow the creative force of nature to work through us. We instinctively know what to do. We trust our instincts. We go with it. We open. Conception is the first, most beautiful creativity that we are all born of. Thus, the frequency of the second chakra is represented in the physical body through the sexual and reproductive organs, the hips, and the receptive lower spine. The color associated with it is orange. When the flow of prana through the second chakra is blocked, we no longer trust the source of our feelings. We separate our feelings from God, and our sensation becomes thought of as something negative. Many people who overly control their lives with thought have a difficult time accepting their second chakra energy because it can feel so out of control. It feels separate from their intellect because it is! The second chakra vibrates at a very deep emotional, not mental, level. Modifications: If you have difficulty holding this chakra yoga position, two wonderful modifications can make it easier. First, keeping the balls of your feet on the ground, you can place a rolled-up yoga mat or blanket beneath your heels. Or, if putting your palms together causes you to fall backward, try holding on to the leg of a heavy table with both hands instead.

Yoga for the Second Chakra: Pelvic Lifts

Yoga movements that open the hips and relax the pelvis encourage the flow of positive energy while releasing negative energy in the tender area of the second chakra. In this chakra yoga exercise we balance the energy in the lower belly by using the breath, visualization, and movement. Chakra Yoga Instructions: Pelvic Lifts 1. Lie down on your back with your spine flat against the ground. Feel your breath entering through your nostrils and filling your lungs; notice the rise and fall of your rib cage with each breath. Tune in to the steady, nurturing earth below you and the vastness of the sky above as you breathe. 2. Bend your knees so your soles are flat on the ground, close to your buttocks, with your knees pointing toward the sky. Place your arms alongside your torso, with the palms pressing down against the earth. Alternatively, hold onto your ankles. 3. For the first phase of this chakra yoga pose, inhale as you slowly raise your pelvis as high as possible, lifting your spine up off the floor one vertebra at a time, starting with the lowermost vertebrae and gradually moving up the spinal column. 4. Exhale as you slowly lower the spine back down to the starting position, feeling it reconnect, vertebra by vertebra, back down onto the ground. 5. Continue lifting up and lowering your pelvis down throughout the chakra yoga pose with a slow, steady, smooth, meditative movement. Allow your breath to lead the movement, fully filling your lungs as you inhale and stretch your spine up, fully exhaling as you lower back down. As your breath leads your spine, allow your spine to move the rest of your body. Visualize your breath erasing tension as you inhale and visualize your breath releasing any imbalance as you exhale. Continue for three to twenty-six lifts. 6. For the second phase, stay in the upward position while you take long, slow, and deep breaths. Completely fill the lungs and allow your rib cage to expand on each inhale. Hold your breath in for a moment after each inhalation and hold out after each exhalation. As you exhale, empty the lungs fully and allow your rib cage to compress. Continue for three breath cycles or longer. 7. To finish the kundalini yoga pose, inhale deeply and hold the upward position. Imagine pent-up energy from the second chakra releasing, pouring into, and filling your lower spine; in your mind see it illuminating and infusing your entire being. Hold your inhale in and continue visualizing for as long as possible. 8. Now fully exhale while bringing your hips up a little higher. At the end of the exhale, hold the breath out for as long as you comfortably can. 9. Inhale again and slowly exhale as you lower your spine down to the floor, vertebra by vertebra, until the last parts of your body to come down are your buttocks. 10. With your back flat on the floor, turn your palms up and stretch your legs out. Stay still, taking long, slow, deep breaths, feeling the shift in your energy body, particularly around your hips, groin, and lower spine. Trust that everything you are feeling is moving through you to bring harmony in a newfound way.

Third Chakra: Power, Stability, Perseverance

The navel was where we were all once connected to our mother in her womb. We completely trusted this lifeline, and every day as we grew we would draw on that connection with our mother. That sense of trust continues in our lives via the navel point. The navel point is located between the navel inward toward the base of the spine. While the navel is a physical part of our bodies, the navel point is an etheric ball of energy which holds our consciousness and power as spiritual beings having a human experience. The navel point acts like a pranic reservoir, and it reverberates like sunshine radiating through our entire being. If prana is flowing easily through our third chakra, which starts just below the belly button and projects upward into the solar plexus, we have an inherent sense of being sustained energetically, giving us the power and confidence to manifest on earth. The third chakra is known in kundalini yoga as the place where true awakening happens. It is where the fire is ignited and sent to the other chakras. The color associated with this chakra is yellow.

Yoga for the Third Chakra: Front Platform

Many people sense a pang in their stomachs when something is simply not right. We often experience our inner instinctual guidance system through feelings that seem to arise from our third chakra. There’s a reason we call this a “gut reaction,” and by all means it is a very important message to listen to. We can develop the sensitivity to truly listen to what the gut is expressing. When the third chakra needs balancing, you may feel unstable in your day-to-day decisions and uncertain about your choices. The following chakra yoga exercise opens the flow of prana through the third chakra, balancing and sensitizing us to hear the messages we get from the solar plexus area. Chakra Yoga Instructions: Front Platform 1. Lie on your stomach with your toes pointed away from your head. Bend your elbows and press your palms against the floor on either side of your body alongside your rib cage. 2. Inhale and push your body up off the floor so you are supported by your palms and the tops of your feet. Keep your heels together and the toes pointed throughout this chakra yoga asana. Look down at the floor between your hands while drawing your neck back, creating one straight line from the top of your head to your toes. Engage your abdominal muscles. 3. Hold the position and begin taking long, deep inhales and exhales, drawing your breath deeply into your abdomen and pushing it completely out. Imagine your breath as light. Continue for thirty seconds to three minutes, focusing on the flow of prana spiraling through your navel center. 4. To finish this kundalini yoga pose, bring your knees to the ground and press your glutes back toward your heels while drawing your hands alongside your hips with your palms facing upward. Rest in this Baby Pose for the same amount of time as you practiced Front Platform Pose. Modification: If the full chakra yoga position is too much of a strain, keep your knees on the floor and push only your upper body up.

Fourth Chakra: Love

“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.”

– Helen Keller

The fourth chakra is the chakra of love and compassion. It corresponds to the heart, and its color is green. The heart chakra is the most powerful center in the human body. The release of kundalini energy along the short distance from the navel to the fourth chakra, or heart center, is a miracle. A huge cascade of physiological, emotional, and spiritual changes takes place when our heart is allowed to resonate with its true feelings. The heart has the capacity to transcend everything. When we pray, we pray from our heart. When memories of times with those we love make us feel sentimental, we are feeling from the heart. Our heart is our vulnerability, and we must keep it healthy with love. When we speak from our heart, we inspire others. In fact, we do not even need words to communicate from the heart. We can simply smile, and our smile expresses unity and connection. The state of love from an activated and balanced heart center does not depend on external conditions. It becomes a self-sustaining, deep, completely natural empathy for and energetic connection with one another and with ourselves. However, when the heart chakra is imbalanced, we forget to take care of our own needs, and we may cling to others for the support we are not giving ourselves.

Yoga for the Fourth Chakra: Heart-Centering Meditation

This yogic chakra meditation uses a special mantra to vibrate the energy frequency of the heart center. Mantras are usually spoken or chanted out loud so that the vibration can permeate our bodies, but in this exercise you will be chanting the mantra silently, in your mind. The mantra for the Heart-Centering Meditation is an affirmation of our connectivity with all there is. The humming sound of each syllable comforts our hearts. It is pronounced “Humee Humm Brahmm Humm,” and it means, “I am I, and I am divine.” This mantra reminds our souls that we are part of a much greater whole and that we are loved in more ways than the mind can comprehend. Yogic Chakra Meditation Instructions: Heart-Centering Meditation 1. Sit on your heels in a kneeling position for this chakra yoga meditation, keeping your spine straight. Spend a few moments feeling the flow of breath entering deeply into your lungs. 2. With your elbows extended to the sides, like wings, and forearms parallel to the ground, turn your palms toward the ground and touch your middle fingers together in front of your heart. Keep your fingers straight. 3. Lower your eyelids until they are almost closed and focus your gaze on the tip of your nose. This eye position is often used in kundalini yoga to focus and quiet the mind as well as activate the pituitary and pineal glands. 4. Like when you have a song in your head, listen to your inner voice silently vibrating with the mantra “Humee Hum Brahm Hum” (pronounced “hummee humm brumm humm”). Listen to yourself chanting as though you were moving your mouth, but without speaking or even moving your lips. Alternatively, you may wish to listen to recorded music of this mantra. 5. With each repetition of the chakra yoga mantra, slowly extend your hands out from your heart center straight to the sides, keeping your hands and forearms parallel to the ground and your palms facing down. As your hands move to the sides, powerfully pull in your abdomen at the navel, lifting the solar plexus and diaphragm slightly. 6. Move the hands and arms back into the original position with fingertips together in front of you, as described in step 2. Release and relax the navel as you bring the hands into center. 7. Repeat steps 5 and 6, continuing the arm movement while keeping your eyes focused at the tip of your nose and listening to the resonance of the mantra in your mind. Move the arms at a comfortable and consistent pace. Continue for three to eleven minutes. 8. To finish the chakra yoga meditation, close your eyes completely as you inhale with fingertips in the center position. Hold your breath for five to fifteen seconds. Then exhale and relax your hands down to rest on your thighs. Sit for some time with eyes closed. We invite you to connect with the prana flowing through your heart center and radiating into your entire body and the electromagnetic field that surrounds you.

Fifth Chakra: Truth

The fifth chakra corresponds to the throat, and holds the frequency from which we speak in our authentic voice. It is where impulse turns into choices and action in the world. In the physical body, this frequency is represented by the neck, the vocal chords, and the crossroads between the torso, head, and arms. The fifth chakra allows us to weigh our actions and make conscious choices about how we wish to communicate our authentic expressions that originate from our true self into the world. The color associated with this chakra is blue. From the frequency of the fifth chakra, we verbalize, make sound, and do work with our hands and head. If this chakra is blocked, we may have difficulty expressing what is coming from our heart. When we put more effort into being polite to others than we put into being truthful to ourselves and the world, we create a very unbalanced fifth chakra. In essence, denying our truth will cause blockages in the fifth chakra.

Yoga for the Fifth Chakra: Camel

Camel Pose balances the energy of the neck and throat and releases tightness there. This chakra yoga pose opens the entire throat and heart area, which enables us to love, give, and express without fear. note: a simpler variation of this chakra yoga pose is presented below if it is too intense for you. Chakra Yoga Instructions: Camel Pose 1. Kneel on the floor with your legs hip width apart and the thighs perpendicular to the floor. Relax your shins and the tops of your feet deeply into the floor. Place your palms on the back of your hips. 2. Inhale and lift your heart up while you allow your hips and thighs to press forward. 3. With your heart lifted, exhale and draw your shoulder blades toward each other to open the heart more deeply into this chakra yoga pose. 4. Breathing deeply in and out of your belly, continue moving your hips forward while gradually opening your sternum up toward the heavens. Pay close attention to the throat as you slowly lift your chin and tilt your head back. 5. Gently drop the head back as far as feels comfortable and lower your hands to your ankles. Continue breathing deeply. 6. Focus on relaxing your throat. Allow the healing energy in your throat to begin vibrating the sound “hummmmmmmmm.” on each exhalation. Release the sound out loud and continue for one to three minutes while holding Camel Pose. 7. To finish this chakra yoga pose, inhale deeply, fully filling your lungs and gently holding your breath. As you exhale, slowly lift your head and gradually lower your hips back down until you are sitting on your heels. Give yourself the gift of time to sit, lie down, or come into baby pose, assimilating the effects of the posture and feeling the flow of breath.

Sixth Chakra: Intuition

The sixth chakra is a frequency of energy at the third eye, the seat of our intuition (or sixth sense). It physically corresponds to the point between the eyebrows, and its color is indigo. At its most basic level, the sixth chakra is sensitive to light and dark, day and night; from here the hormones for sleep and wakefulness are released. As we develop the sensitivity of the third eye, we become aware of very subtle shifts of prana, such as those caused by the feelings of others. This sensitive awareness is our natural state of being. In the activated whole person, kundalini can flow freely to open or shut the third eye as needed in any given situation. When the third eye is balanced, we do not have to search outside ourselves for the answers. We simply know, intuitively, and we trust what we know as truth. We also realize that our wisdom is coming from our connection to the divine. When the fifth chakra is not balanced, however, we feel confused and have a difficult time making clear decisions.

Yoga for the Sixth Chakra: Guru Pranam

Guru Pranam is a powerful chakra balancing exercise for our energy field. It is a simple but incredibly transformative chakra yoga pose. The position is the body language of surrender, making the statement, both inwardly and outwardly, that “I bow and allow the flow of the divine.” By holding the head below the heart, we create an energetic message saying that we are allowing the heart to lead the way. We sweep the pathway clear for divinity to enter and create an invitation within ourselves to receive. We remind the mind to release its grip and let the deeper, quieter wisdom of the heart to shine. Placing your forehead upon the floor activates your intuition by bringing energy to your third eye point. The tipping of the head forward shifts cerebral blood flow, enhances the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, and activates the glow between the pituitary and pineal glands, releasing a nectar that helps prevent aging. When practicing the version described below, spread your knees and relax your shoulders so that your heart can melt downward. Chakra Yoga Instructions: Guru Pranam 1. Sit up on your heels in a kneeling position to start this chakra yoga pose. Deepen your breathing and recognize the flow of your prana arriving with every inhale. Feel your spine elongate as you hold it up tall. Modification If you have difficulty sitting on your heels, place folded blankets or firm pillows beneath your buttocks and straddle them with your legs. 2. Spread your knees comfortably, hinge forward from your lower spine, and slowly move your navel toward the floor while extending your arms out toward the floor in front of you as well. Keep your spine elongated and move from the lower back until you can place your forehead on the ground in front of you. 3. Focus on releasing your lower spine toward the floor; then relax your entire back down toward the floor. Pay close attention to the vertebrae between your shoulder blades, melting that area so that your heart chakra can open. 4. Stretch your arms out on the floor in front of you and bring your palms together. Begin taking long, slow breaths, inhaling and exhaling fully while visualizing light all around you. Keep your palms together, pinkies lightly touching the floor, arms outstretched, and your whole body relaxed. Surrender to the pull of gravity. Settle into this position and continue to take long, deep breaths for three to eleven minutes. 5. We invite you to sweetly and gently press your forehead to the floor throughout this chakra yoga exercise, supporting you and toward the earth below you. This position activates meridian points that send messages to the pituitary gland, resulting in the release of hormones and neuropeptides that allow the mind to become peaceful and the intuition to speak. 6. To finish this chakra pose, place your palms on the floor to support your weight with your arms and then lift your torso, beginning with your lower spine. Slowly rise up, vertebra by vertebra, until your head comes up last. Take a moment before standing up or rest on your back for a few minutes before returning to your daily routine. Modification: If your forehead will not go all the way to the ground, place folded blankets or firm pillows underneath your head as a support.

Seventh Chakra: Grace

The seventh chakra is the energy pathway through which the pure prana of infinite wisdom merges with the individual nature of the soul. When we allow the flow of spirit to touch us at the seventh chakra, a new blossoming occurs in our consciousness. The seventh chakra, vibrating at the top of the head where the fontanel is, corresponds to the pineal gland. It is the gateway to angelic, love-infused prana. This is where we connect to spirit. Its color is violet. Opening to the divine is a core part of the experience of being human. Everyone has this capability, but often, because of the way that religion has been misinterpreted, our experience of divinity comes weighed down with baggage, such as feelings of shame. Our innocent perception of God’s ever-flowing presence becomes undermined by our thinking, rationalizing, and second-guessing. We start to feel small and separate, and we stop trusting our own experience. We forget that everything we encounter is part of a wondrous, loving consciousness that is coursing through us and breathing with us at this very moment. Awareness that every sensation is a gift of the divine is called Guru Prasad. Guru Prasad is the reminder that we all are sparked by the same light and that we are part of the process of giving and receiving.

Yoga for the Seventh Chakra: Meditation for Guru Prasad

This fundamental and simple chakra yoga meditation opens us to the experience of our own connection with all there is. It bypasses all the trappings, the rules, and the limiting beliefs we might carry. All humans have the ability to simply experience their angelic nature, and Guru Prasad allows us to do that. Chakra Yoga Instructions: Guru Prasad 1. Sit on your heels in a kneeling position throughout this chakra yoga meditation and feel your spinal column rising tall and filling up with the light of your soul. Give yourself time to breathe and to be present with the energy flowing through your breath. 2. Cup your hands together in a bowl shape, palms facing up toward the sky, in front of your heart. This creates a special kind of living bowl that receives light. 3. Relax your shoulders so your upper arms touch down snuggly but gently against the rib cage. Feel that you are in the presence of the divine and ready to receive a gift. Feel that the infinite universe is right with you, wanting to give gift after gift and blessing after blessing from its infinite abundance. Feel the universe pouring all these gifts into your hands for you to absorb into your being and into your life. 4. Lower your eyelids until your eyes are just barely open. Focus your vision on the tip of your nose. This focus opens the third eye and stimulates the optic nerve as it connects with the pineal gland. As this meditation progresses, however, feel free to close your eyes and focus internally on the third eye. 5. Begin long, deep breathing cycles, inhaling deeply through the nose and exhaling completely through the nose. 6. Open yourself to receive. Feel yourself being infused with the blessings of being part of a conscious, infinite universe. Allow the love of the universe to penetrate into your heart. 7. Continue for at least three minutes to complete this chakra yoga meditation, but you are invited to keep going for as long as you like. So much joy and so much love are just waiting to enter you. Allow this vibration to resonate into every molecule of your body and into your aura. Open up, allow, and smile. 8. To finish the chakra meditation, bring your arms down, place your hands in your lap, sit quietly, and resume normal breathing. Slowly open your eyes and see the world as a gift. As you rise and begin to move, feel yourself stepping into an energy field of delight, peace, and fulfillment.

Eighth Chakra: Radiance

“Power is your presence.”

– Yogi Bhajan

The electromagnetic field surrounding the physical body is our eighth chakra, which encompasses the totality of the resonance from all the other chakras. It is known as the aura. Just as white light combines all the colors of the rainbow into one, our eighth chakra combines all the frequencies of our being into one field. It extends as far as nine feet around our bodies and is extremely sensitive to the movement of energy, both from within us and from external sources. The color of this chakra is white. We consider this the chakra of radiance because it radiates with a frequency that originates from the soul. Our inner glow becomes our outer glow by the projection of positive energy. When we say that someone has a healthy glow about them, we are intuitively referring to their radiance. Is our radiance a jumbled-up cacophony of disharmonious energy, or are we centered and clear? We can learn how to shift our radiance to one of health, vitality, and joy by aligning our vibration with the vibration of the infinite flowing through us. This is the key to manifesting a miraculous life. When our radiance is aligned with our soul, our presence becomes our power. The love in our heart can ripple out through our body and flow into the world around us. We express confidence and attractive humility. We hold a magnetic grace around us. Our presence becomes our field of optimal possibilities, a magnet that draws bountiful, beautiful, and miraculous gifts. Our presence can even heal others. Visualization for the Eighth Chakra: Expand Your Electromagnetic Frequency Everybody is a candle, but not everybody is lit. In this meditation you will be igniting the spark that the divine gave you. This meditation will give your skin a glow from the inside out. In this meditation we silently focus on the mantra “Sat Nam,” imagining the sound rather than saying it out loud. (For more about this and other mantras, please see chapter 5 of our book Essential Kundalini Yoga) 1. Sit with your spine straight, eyes closed, and hands resting in your lap for this chakra yoga meditation. Gently roll your eyes upward and inward and focus your attention on the top of your head. Feel the flow of your breath. 2. Imagine that you are a candle with a flame of light at the top of your head and a glow of white light that extends nine feet around you on all sides. Visualize it as a huge circle of illumination that radiates outward from your heart. Keep your eyes closed and looking upward upward and inward. 3. Inhale and slowly sweep your arms out and up, with your elbows straight, fingers extended, and your palms facing the sky. As you do, silently think of the mantra “Sat.” In the long form, often used for meditation, the word Sat has a long, extended vowel sound that rhymes with the word thought. 4. At the end of the inhalation, keeping your elbows straight, touch your palms together overhead. 5. Once your palms touch above your head, turn the palms away from each other and slowly sweep the arms down as you fully exhale. Silently think of the mantra “Nam” as your arms sweep down. The word Nam is pronounced “naam” and rhymes with the word calm. Just think of that sound, without saying it. 6. As you sweep your arms down, visualize your hands clearing anything that is dense or heavy from your electromagnetic field. Think of light coming out from your fingertips as you sweep through this field. 7. Continue the chakra yoga meditation arm movements and silently hearing the mantra for three to seven minutes. Feel that your inhale and exhale are leading the movement of the arms. You can choose any pace that feels comfortable. 8. To finish, inhale, lift the arms up, and hold the breath in. Exhale slowly, lower your arms one last time, and relax. Visualize the glowing energy of illumination within you and expanding into the space around you. Tune in to the extraordinary vibration that you have just created in your aura. This piece on chakra yoga poses is excerpted with permission from Essential Kundalini Yoga by Dharm Khalsa and Karena Virginia. essentialkundaliniyoga.com

About The Author

Dharm Khalsa is on the board of trustees of the Siri Singh Sahib Corporation—the non-profit organization that oversees kundalini yoga in the United States after the passing of Yogi Bhajan in 2004— as well as 3HO Foundation and Unto Infinity. He has been teaching kundalini yoga since 1980 and was a close student and staff member of Yogi Bhajan. Visit his website at dharmji.com.

Karena Virginia is a deeply spiritual life coach, inspirational speaker, healer, yoga teacher, and TV personality. She is known for her transformational and accessible messages which bring powerful and mystical practices to the mainstream. Raised by European parents, she resides in the suburbs of New York City with her husband and two children. Visit her website karenavirginia.com.

anulom vilom pranayam is an ancient yogic breathing technique designed to balance the nadis, purify the energy body and activate higher consciousness.

Anuloma Viloma purifies the nadis (energetic channels in the body) and makes Prana (life-force energy) flow into sushumna (the central energy channel of the spine). These are the two purposes for practicing pranayama (breathing techniques), according to the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Anulom Vilom is a modern name used by Swami Kripalu and several other teachers. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika calls this pranayama Nadi Shodhana (nadi meaning “channel” and shodhana meaning “to purify”) since this is the pranayama for purifying the nadis. Some traditions call this pranayama Surya Bedhana, which is actually the name of a different pranayama that we will discuss later. It seems the two techniques go by the same name because of vague descriptions in the ancient texts. Anulom Vilom Pranayama is also called Sahita Kumbhaka, meaning broken or interrupted breath retention. The practitioner inhales and holds, breaks the hold to exhale, then inhales and holds again. All of these names refer to the same practice as distinguished by different yoga schools. The spelling varies as well, and we’ve used both variations here. In short, Anulom Vilom is a form of alternate nostril breathing—inhaling through the left nostril, holding the breath in, then exhaling through the right nostril. The sequence is then reversed: inhale through the right nostril, hold the breath in, and exhale through the left nostril. The name Anuloma Viloma means “with the grain and against the grain.” This is a reference to one nostril usually being more open than the other. Breathing through the more open nostril is breathing “with the grain” and breathing through the less open nostril is breathing “against the grain.” Swami Kripalu was adamant that Anulom Vilom Pranayama was extremely important and that all yogis should learn it early in their pranayama studies. This is because, when practiced correctly, it introduces the practitioner to all the processes that will be encountered on the pranayama path: heightened sun energy activated by the breath retention and the sweet flow of sensation that comes with slowly releasing the breath. As one repeatedly practices oscillating between the intensity of breath retention and the relief of the exhale, the reaction to each gradually minimizes, and the practitioner becomes able to sit with increasingly strong sensation. In this process of alternate nostril breathing, Anulom Vilom, the nadis are purified, and the witness for inner experience grows strong and steady; the practitioner learns to watch intense energy and emotion without reacting to it. It’s important to distinguish here that being present to intensity by shutting down is not the true witness. To be fully open, even vulnerable, and not react is the true witness. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika considers this Anulom Vilom Pranayama conditioning essential in order for pranayama to have its full effect. The energy-activating pranayamas stir up emotion and passions. The full benefit comes in witnessing this process, without becoming restless or judgmental or turning the attention outward. Another way of looking at purification of the nadis is that the student’s prana (attention flowing inward) grows strong and apana (attention flowing outward) becomes weak. When our attention flows outward, it increases our identification with the outer world. When our attention flows inward, we have the experience of being part of something beyond our ego mind. Over time, the traditional alternate nostril breathing practice of Anulom Vilom evolved into something quite different than what we’ve just described, as the Kripalu School of Yoga and other traditions reduced or eliminated the breath retention. What is often taught today is a meditative breath done through alternating nostrils. This can be calming and balancing, but it’s completely different from the original practice. In the Kripalu tradition, the pranayama without the breath retention came to be called Nadi Shodhana, and the pranayama with the breath retention was called Anuloma Viloma. Here, we are teaching the traditional pranayama, with the breath retention, as it was originally taught in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

Practicing the Breathing Technique

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika uses the name Nadi Shodhana for Anulom Vilom Pranayama and describes it in the following way:

The Yogi seated in Padmasana should draw in the Prana through the moon Nadi (left nostril) and having retained it according to his capacity, should release it through the sun Nadi (right nostril).

The above verse tells us to inhale through the left nostril, hold to our capacity, then exhale through the right nostril.

Again, drawing in the Prana through the sun Nadi, he should inhale to his capacity and hold the Prana in the abdomen. Having systematically and correctly performed Kumbhaka (breath retention), he should release it through the moon Nadi.

Here we are told to repeat the Anulom Vilom sequence going the other way, and we learn more about the inhalation and holding. The text says to inhale to our capacity, which means inhale fully enough to feel a stretch in the belly. Our holding must be systematic, which means we must be able to repeat it again and again. If you hold your breath too long on one side, your retention will be shorter on the other side. Holding to capacity, then, is the longest you can hold without compromising the sequence on the other side.

Through that particular Nadi which Prana is released, draw in the Prana again. Retaining it with much effort, he should slowly release the Prana using the other nadi. He should not release forcefully or quickly.

Here the Anulom Vilom Pranayama technique is summarized, and we learn that we are to hold with “much effort.” The effort comes from finding the fine line between holding as long as we can and maintaining the length of the holding on the other side. This requires incredible discernment. This verse also tells us we must be able to exhale slowly and with control. This helps ensure that we don’t hold too long, in which case we’d need to exhale sharply. Through the alternate nostril breath, we are building strong energy and challenging the mind to stay present so that releasing the breath is a conscious choice, not a reaction.

If one draws in the Prana through the moon Nadi, one should release the restrained Prana through the sun Nadi. If the Prana was drawn in by means of the sun Nadi, after the holding, the Prana should be released by means of the moon Nadi. As a result of the regular practice of this process, the mass of many Nadis becomes unified within three months.

The Anulom Vilom done properly will cause the nadis to “unify” or fully open within three months. According to this text, when all the nadis open, they merge to become the sushumna nadi (central channel). This is the sun and moon uniting. This is prana and apana ascending as one energy.

In the morning, at noon, and in the evening, one should offer the practice of Kumbhaka gradually building up to eighty breaths.

We are told to practice this alternate nostril breathing three times each day for maximum benefits. Some versions of this text indicate four times, adding a midnight practice. Eighty breaths, or 40 rounds, takes about an hour for most people. So the traditional teaching is to practice three or four hours of Anulom Vilom Pranayama each day for three months to purify our nadis and prepare in the best way for the pranayamas that follow. Remember that this text was written for yogis who dedicated their lives to this practice. For most of us, a slower approach is more appropriate, and you can practive even once a day to receive the benefits of Anulom Vilom. There are those who train for marathons and those who benefit from running a mile. Still, it’s inspiring to know the history, tradition, and possibility. The benefits of Anulom Vilom are an increased capacity to be with experience, especially uncomfortable experience; a stronger sense of self that is separate from thoughts, feelings, and events; increased introversion; a profound sense of meditative awareness, which creates an easier transition to meditation or asana practice; a sense of increased spaciousness and expansiveness; and greater distance from events happening before the practice. There is research, mostly from India, showing that Anuloma Viloma balances the two hemispheres of the brain. While we believe this could be true, the research is questionable.

Practicing Anuloma Viloma Pranayama

1. Before beginning Anulom Vilom, sit comfortably in a cross-legged position, kneeling, or on a chair. Wobble a little side to side and back to front to make sure your seat provides adequate and balanced support. If your seat does not support you properly, your abdominal muscles will have to work harder and be less available for breathing. 2. Bring your body to stillness. Feel your spine and lengthen it as much as you can by pulling your tailbone down and the back of your neck up. Pull your shoulders forward and up, then back and down. Pull your shoulder blades in toward your spine and down toward your sacrum, but keep your spine long. 3. Begin Dirgha pranayama. You may grow into Dirgha with several successively deeper breaths or go right to your deepest inhalation. Empty your lungs completely each time you exhale. Add the Ujjayi sound to help keep your mind focused. 4. Practice Dirgha pranayama for about two minutes, until it feels absorbing and there is no resistance. Then, raise either hand to your face and, when you start your next exhale, block the right nostril so that all the breath flows out slowly through your left nostril. This is the transition to Anulom Vilom Pranayama. You can continue making the Ujjayi sound if you wish. As soon as you are empty, inhale through your left nostril and immediately exhale through your right. Continue alternating breaths through your nostrils (exhale, inhale, change; exhale, inhale change, etc.) until your mind has relaxed into this level of practice (about four rounds). Make sure the breath is as deep as it can be. If you feel dizzy or nauseous, slow down. You can use any comfortable hand position to block your nostrils; the yoga tradition recommends Vishnu Mudra. 5. After about five cycles of Dirgha pranayama through alternate nostrils, inhale and pause for about 10 seconds and then exhale through the other side. If the pause feels good, continue. If it doesn’t, shorten the pause. After a few rounds with the short pause, make it a few seconds longer. Very gradually lengthen the pause.You should find it sweet and absorbing at first. As you hold longer, your feelings will intensify. Let them grow as strong as you are able to witness. At the same time, progress slowly. Never hold so long that the holding on the next side must be shortened. With longer holding times, you can let your hand rest in your lap. You can also change hands as frequently as you need. If your seated position becomes uncomfortable, simply adjust and continue the pranayama. 6. After about 10 rounds of Anulom Vilom, end the pranayama on an exhale through your left nostril. Then release your hand to your lap and let your breath flow freely. 7. Let your attention drift into your body and feel the effects of what you have done. Many students report feeling energized and peaceful, with their minds expanded. Take at least three to five minutes to explore all the changes in your body, emotions, and mind. When you are ready to move, start slowly. You might feel uncoordinated for a few minutes. Do simple tasks or rest until your mind becomes active again.

Alternate Nostril Breathing Instructional Video

For more consciousness expanding pranayama resources and practices check out Allison’s book Pranayama or visit her website: AllisonGemmelLaframboise.com

Advanced Practice

1. Lengthened holdings. With practice, breath retentions in Anulom Vilom will lengthen and become more meditative. Some old texts indicate that when your nadis are fully open, you can hold your breath for three hours. They probably meant that it feels like three hours, because you are so absorbed. 2. Visualizations. Visualizations are prescribed in some texts during Anulom Vilom, often based on chakras. Here are several ways to work with this:

+ Memorize each chakra’s shape and color and visualize it while you hold your breath. For example, spend the first five rounds focusing on the pelvic chakra (muladhara). For the next five rounds, focus on the lower abdominal chakra (svadhisthana) and so on.

+ Open your eyes and stare at a drawing of a chakra as you inhale. Then, close your eyes and visualize it inside you as you hold the breath and exhale.

+ As you inhale, visualize white light flowing into your nostril, over the top of your head, and down your spine. As you hold, visualize a red light glowing in your lower abdomen. Exhale the red light up your spine, over the top of your head, and out the nostril. This visualization in Anulom Vilom supports balance, with the red light representing the sun (passion) and the white light representing the moon (cooling). The balance and integration comes from the merging of the sun and moon.

+ A visualization to support purification would be to imagine that you are inhaling white light flowing in the nostril and down the spine to your pelvis. Exhale smoky or grey light out the same path in reverse.

3. Mantras and affirmations. The hatha yoga traditions used mantras extensively with meditative pranayamas like Anulom Vilom. Here are several ways to work with this:

+ Repeat the same mantra the entire time you practice Anuloma Viloma. A longer mantra might last for the whole round as you inhale, hold, and exhale. For example, you could use the Gayatri mantra:

Inhale: Om bhur bhuvah svah Hold: Tat savitur vareniyam Bhargo devasya dhimahi Exhale: Dhiyo yo nah pracodayat

One translation of the Gayatri mantra is “We meditate on the glory of that Being who has created this universe. May He enlighten our minds.”

+ A shorter mantra might be repeated three times in each round: once for the inhale, once for the holding, and once for the exhale. An example here would be Om Namah Shivaya, meaning “I surrender to that which is benevolent” or “I open myself to you.”

Affirmations can be used in the same way as mantras to receive the benefits of Anulom Vilom. Here are some examples:

+ Recite a long affirmation as you inhale, hold, and exhale. For example, you could use this mantra from the Ashtavakra Gitra:

Inhale: “In me the boundless ocean” Hold: “the boat of the universe moves here and there, driven by the wind of its own inherent nature” Exhale: “I am not affected.”

+ A shorter affirmation might be repeated once for the inhale, once for the holding. and once for the exhale.

Example: “I am fully alive in this moment.”

+ Use a different affirmation for each stage of the pranayama. Example: Inhale: “I take in all that is”; hold: “I am strong enough to see my whole self”; exhale: “I let go of everything that isn’t me.”

Practice Anulom Vilom until you feel very comfortable with it. It should make you more sensitive and generate an inner strength through challenging you to be present with uncomfortable experience. A traditional way to practice would be to do Dirgha, Ujjayi, and Anuloma Viloma until you feel that this inner strength has been attained. Then, drop Anuloma Viloma, and move to the energy-activating pranayamas (taught in the next section) after Dirgha and Ujjayi. Another way to practice alternate nostril breathing would be to do Dirgha, Ujjayi, and Anulom Vilom, then move into the energy activating pranayamas without dropping Anuloma Viloma. Many modern practitioners choose this option, incorporating Anuloma Viloma in their regular practice. Traditionally, these Anulom Vilom practices were done by monks who had teachers to tell them what to practice and when to move on. If you are practicing on your own, you need to decide for yourself how to practice, when you are ready to move onto the next technique, and which sequences to use. This article on the benefits of Anulom Vilom pranayam is excerpted with permission from Pranayama by Allison Gemmel LaFramboise and Yoganand Michael Carroll.

About The Authors Allison Gemmel LaFramboise trained with Yoganand to become a yoga teacher at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. She has since studied in numerous depth trainings, and holds a professional level teaching certification. Allison graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University and has experience in psychology and public health research. Today her work is a combination of her life’s true callings—teaching yoga and African-style hand drumming; running her yoga-inspired jewelry line, Prasada; helping to manage the yoga team at Kripalu; and her greatest passion of all, mothering her sons, Kai and Tayo. For workshops, blog and free yoga resources from Allison, go to AllisonGemmelLaframboise.com Yoganand Michael Carroll is Dean of the Kripalu School of Yoga, leads Pranakriya Yoga teacher trainings and other programs around the country, and is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. He is a masterful storyteller—through many years of intensive study and practice, he has gained a profound ability to distill and interpret esoteric yoga texts and techniques, making complex philosophical concepts accessible and engaging. When he’s at home in South Florida, Yoganand spends time cultivating his collection of close to 500 orchids, whose ability to blossom and thrive in harsh environments amazes and inspires him. For workshops with Yoganand, go to Kripalu.org and Pranakriya.com

practicing balancing yoga poses helps create a balanced body, which is integral for creating a harmony and flow. photo: lerina winter

Balance yoga looks different to all of us. Our lives require dynamic shifts in balance depending on the season, the year, or even the decade we find ourselves moving through. This includes but is not limited to our relationships, our career path, our health and, quite frankly, any other area of our life; all of it is fair game. A balanced life is, in fact, so essential to our wellbeing that the ancient yogis, rishis, and swamis of India devised a 5,000-year-old science and system of balance yoga called Ayurveda. Needless to say, the discussion and history of balance is rich and varied across the ages. To tie things back to your body and your balance yoga practice, what I recommend for modern yogis is for the focus to rest strongly on the asana practice—the balanced body being a microcosm and reflection of our life. By properly stacking the muscles and bones, we work towards more efficiency, effortlessness, and balance in our movements on and off the mat. We often step onto the yoga mat with the intention of working toward “good alignment,” but this is a double-edged sword. Where we can go wrong as yogis in striving for balance yoga is by attempting to “over-fix” our tight areas rather than focusing on harmonizing our system and looking for clarity and freedom of movement. Because our body is an unconscious reflection of both our conscious and unconscious psychology, as we become freer and less restricted in our breathing and movement, it elicits a corresponding deeper opening in our psychology. We become less restrictive and dogmatic in our thinking, allowing us to perceive and dance with the duality of our existence—seeing the ever-evolving, ever-changing nature of all things. This balanced life helps us move from seeing things only in “black or white” to being open and receptive to all aspects and shades of life, bringing us into compassion and acceptance for ourselves and others; ultimately, transcending the limited ideas of right and wrong in favor of a greater evolutionary wisdom and, perhaps most importantly, to truly find the balance that is appropriate for us in the moment. A balanced body, therefore, may look very different from one body to the next. Yoga poses are meant to be dynamic, not rigid, and to truly unravel and open as we seek to find the harmony inside of our bodies. In your practice, look to find what feels good on the inside rather than what looks good on the outside. We are always our own best yoga teachers.

Taking Balance Too Far

As we begin our yoga practice, we find areas of tension in the body and barriers to movement, which are often highlighted by a teacher, reflected to us vividly by a mirror, or noticed as we observe differences in our bodies compared to those practicing around us and decide we are not adequate enough. We either then stop practicing balance yoga or our mental pattern begins to loop on the “dysfunction” rather than paying attention to our anatomy on the given day and turning our focus to making incremental openings in the body—which is the real goal of the practice. Instead we start to over-correct, eventually leading to dysfunction on the opposing side and swinging us even further out of a balanced life. We begin to lose the essence of yoga; to sync up and integrate our moment-to-moment awareness of our body and thoughts. At least that’s my perspective on the art—my goal with my practice being to use my mind in conjunction with my balanced body to consistently bring them both into harmony moment by moment. When we seek a balanced life through harmony as a feeling rather than what our minds tell us is right, we allow for exactly what is. Harmony brings about equanimity, whereas balance, especially when we try and find it through the mind, can be seen in many bodies as an anatomical and behavioral adjustment that “must be made,” for instance, “I’m broken and must be ‘fixed.’” The balance yoga practice then becomes unconscious and dogmatic, as we slavishly try to fix ourselves, acting from a wounded place rather than tuning into the information supplied by our beautiful body and mind that we walked onto the mat with that day, which is always nudging us to find harmony. In those situations, what is out of balance is our sense that there is something wrong with me—that we are anything less than perfect just as we are and must be fixed.

Finding Balance: The Harmonious Way

So what’s a harmony-seeking, out-of-balance yogi to do? The method I use with my clients is as follows: Cultivate Awareness Explore and get acquainted with your body that day. Like an old friend you haven’t seen for awhile, you’re familiar but want to catch up on all the updates since you last spoke—to hear all the details you’ve missed in your time apart. Try to truly see and admire all the stuck places, all the open places. Practice Acceptance Take time to reflect and take stock of exactly where your body (and mind) is on that day. Appreciate and accept exactly where it is, without judgment, honoring the wisdom of the self in that moment, which is honestly the bulk of the balanced life practice and the most beautiful. To find acceptance we must be fully connected to the body—mentally and physically—and what it is telling us. It probably won’t make any rational sense, because the body generates feelings and images, not fully cognized sentences. So go easy on yourself as you begin to listen, and don’t dismiss any of the information that arises. It’s gold. Write it down if you feel called to do so and study it later. Acceptance allows for the full integration of the balanced body and mind. Acceptance touches deep mental and emotional places as we gain awareness of how long our body has moved or felt a certain way. Be light and easy with yourself. Possible Pitfall: No rejection of the body allowed. It’s really easy to deny parts of ourselves here, ignoring a pattern or pushing away and rejecting what we don’t like, or my favorite: to “control” or “muscle it” back to health. That’s how we got into the pattern of dysfunction, disharmony, and imbalance in the body in the first place. Instead think: tender loving care, just like you’d love a child. In fact, our unresolved childhood emotions get stored in our bodies and form protective muscular patterns called samskaras in yoga, which cause us to tighten or freeze. Take your time and move slowly, making sure to catch all the details as you explore balance yoga. Inspired Movement With all of that juicy, accepted information: move into your balance yoga. Move to your heart’s content, slowly stretching and breathing open all the nooks and crannies, continuing to not resist what’s happening in your body, nor how quickly or slowly it’s opening. The key wisdom here is that the balanced body does not speed up healing and opening for anyone. Your body is part of nature, and it moves in its own cycles and rhythms, as does nature. It can’t be rushed. Our body is an unconscious reflection of our consciousness. So, as we try to control our anatomy, we are also unconsciously trying to control outside circumstances and people. When we view our anatomy as wrong or bad and attempt to control it, it turns an acute dysfunction into more deeply held muscular tension. This holding on to believing that something is wrong and needs to be fixed leaves us in pain and further disconnected from ourselves, our balanced bodies, and our loved ones. As my friend and coach Brandon Hawk says: “What we resist, persists.” So, take time with your body today. Lie on your mat and ask: “What would harmony feel like in my body?” Let that guide your balance yoga movement and practice. This is the key to a truly balanced  life. Going within, noticing what parts feel stiff and what parts easily receive breath, and then working with them organically and somatically to determine what needs to happen. Yoga teacher, mirror, or other yogis be damned!

Balance Yoga Tree Pose (Vrksasana)

1-2. Stand with both feet flat on the ground about hip width apart. Place your hands on your hips. Rock your weight firmly onto your left leg and left side of your body. Find stability in the leg. Gently externally rotate your right hip open and rotate on the ball of your right foot. 3. Gracefully slide your right foot up your shin. Continue to slide the foot past the knee joint, up your inner thigh (optional). Once you arrive in the pose, settle your weight again in the left leg. Lengthen your tailbone toward your left heel, lift your lower belly, and widen your bent knee. 4-5. On an inhale, lift your arms above your head. Broaden your chest, and draw your shoulder blades down your back. Breathe deeply for 5 breaths. Notice in this “balancing” pose that, when balancing on each leg, we are anything but balanced. Instead, we strive to maintain equanimity in our whole balanced body: a sense of rootedness while being in the chaos. Repeat the entire sequence on the other side.

Cat-Cow Pose (Chakravakasana)

1. Move gently while trying to balance your body: Climb onto all fours; stack your knees under your hips and your wrists underneath your shoulders. Inhale and drop your belly, lift your chest, and lift your tailbone high. 2. Exhale, round your spine in, dome your upper back. Slowly reverse your cat/cow movement. 3. Move 5 to 10 times, inhaling to lift your chest and exhaling to curl inward. (For more on turning inward check out my article “Slowing Down: Yoga to Shift Your Consciousness” in the previous issue) 4. Soak in the movement, noticing your neck, your upper back, and shoulder blades. Notice your middle back and all the tiny muscles running along your spine, which support you to move so effortlessly.

About The Author Matt Cooke is a neuroscience-based yoga teacher (500 RYT), author, and High Performance Coach who uses movement to unleash high performance for burnt out tech entrepreneurs. Matt studied extensively with Noah Maze and Elena Brower and his work is infused with Kripalu, Iyengar, and several coaching methodologies. Having conducted workshops and seminars all over the world, Matt is impassioned to inspire action and embodiment off the yoga mat. To learn more about Matt or get in touch with him, visit his website: matcooke.yoga

slow yoga is the art of moving more deeply into the flow through poses and mental shifts—not just in your yoga practice, but in all areas of your life.. photo: lerina winter

It seems counterintuitive, but what if you slowed down to speed up? To get more done by feeling clarity in the moment. To know exactly how you’re feeling, and not have ambiguity about what the next step is. When you slow down to the speed of life—during yoga and otherwise—as it unfolds, you move with certainty. As you really experience the moment you are in, fully aware of your environment—the sounds, the smells, and sights—you most importantly slow down your thoughts. At the end of their slow yoga practice, many people notice feeling either inwardly focused and relaxed, or feeling energized and ready to conquer the world. Many of us know the power of yoga and movement to improve our posture, increase cardiac output, and improve our immune and nervous systems. During a single session, slow yoga acutely affects not only our body temperature and physiology, but also helps us slow down our brain and collect our thoughts. We also know that slow yoga makes us feel good, but often don’t realize how it affects our neurocircuitry. Every posture, including the body language of a pose, creates a certain feeling in the practitioner. When strung together skillfully in a flowing sequence, a teacher can use a class to wake their students up or draw them deeper into themselves. Some slow yoga poses boost our confidence, power, and strength, while others draw us inward, towards contemplation and deep reflection. Specifically, the standing slow yoga postures create a feeling of stimulation and power because many muscle groups must be engaged to safely perform the pose, while in seated and supine (on back) poses tend to lead toward introversion due to the lack of muscular engagement of these poses. Forward folds are typically passive in slow yoga, using few muscles, with the head facing inward. In forward folds, our physical and metaphysical gaze are turned inward toward introspection. Many forward bends lend themselves to closing the eyes, and slowing down the breath and the nervous system. On a more concrete level, these yoga postures allow us to slow down and study our thought processes and mental flow. To slow down our mental chatter enough to really examine what is passing through our minds, and if they are old thoughts, to release them, or if they are new insights, to receive them. These postures lead us closer to acceptance and understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Backbends have a very opposite effect, expanding our awareness to the details of the outside world, stimulating the nervous system, and generally speeding up the breath. These slow yoga poses work like a natural shot of caffeine to the system. Backbends also typically require much more muscular engagement in the abdomen and diaphragm to keep the spine safe, allowing us to lift and open the heart. If we feel nervous or withdrawn these are great poses to counteract that tendency, and draw our attention outward, toward extraversion. My favorite slow yoga postures are the ones that draw us nearer to ourselves. In our technologically rich society, our minds are moving so fast, often eroding our experience of life and our connection to ourselves. And conversely, our bodies are slowing down more than ever before. This weakens our attention to and awareness of our consistent thought patterns, emotions, and habits, not to mention our proprioceptive awareness of our bodies, which leads to dwindling satisfaction of our lives, and results in us missing our personal power and flow. As we slow down our minds and stimulate our bodies with the help of our breath and slow yoga practice, we bring our being more closely into alignment—literally lining up our awareness of our body, mind and breath. We effectively level out the playing field and draw closer to our primal nature and gut instincts. We begin to listen to our intuition and desires. As a result, we are less stressed, eat less, and follow the natural rhythms and flows of our bodies rather than rely on the conditional power of stimulants and caffeine. Overall, contemplative practices, such as the Creative Warrior Movement process help us to see ourselves with more clarity, creating more decisive actions and leading us to rediscover our personal power!

Droping Into Flow: Creative Warrior Movement

Creative Warrior Movement weaves these two methodologies, with the use of a journal to expound upon your brilliant million-dollar ideas that come up while you are in deep meditative states, for example, after practicing slow yoga. When I studied at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, we were told that what we experience on the yoga mat is like a science laboratory for life off of the yoga mat. A microcosm to express and inquire about the macrocosm of our lives. But this can also be reversed to say that you can experience more of your life off of the yoga mat, while you are on the yoga mat. You can begin to feel more clear about the challenge you’ve been having at work, or in your relationship. You can understand more about your beliefs and fears, and ultimately come to see how whole you truly are. This process on the yoga mat allows you to slow down, step back from your experiences, and get a bird’s eye view of your life. To observe all the moving pieces, and be struck with creative insight (our intrinsic body wisdom) about what the right next step is for you. To stop trying to “figure it out”, or fester endlessly on the solutions. Instead, you simply allow your body, breath, and mind to do the work. The answers were always there inside of you. The question is, can you slow down long enough to feel them? Right now: Slow down, breathe, and ask yourself, “What is my intrinsic wisdom telling me the answers to my challenges are?” Keep a pen and a journal close to you as you explore the slow yoga poses below and once you finish, write down any insights or feelings that come up.

Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose) [Beginner]

1. Laying on your back, bring your feet to stand right by your sitz bones. 2. Exhale, press through your heels, and lift your hips. 3-5. Wiggle your shoulder blades deep down your back, and clasp your fingertips. Lengthen your tailbone towards the backs of your knees. Stretch the fronts of your thighs. Magnetize your inner thighs together. Press the backs of your shoulders and forearms deep into the floor, to broaden your collarbones into this deep slow yoga pose. 6-7. Lift your chin slightly away from the sternum, and gently lift your sternum back into your chin. Breath in the pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Exhale to release. Roll your spine slowly back to the earth as you come out of this powerful slow yoga pose.

Camatkarasana (Wild Thing) [Advanced]

1-2. Start in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog). Lift your right leg high to the sky. 3-4. Bend your knee, and open up your hip. Press your weight into your left hand, and slowly spin onto the outside blade of your left foot. 5-8. Keep floating your right leg up and over to the left. Externally rotate your upper left shoulder, gliding your left shoulder blade firmly down your back. Once your foot touches down, in one fluid motion, rotate your torso and hips towards the sky. On an inhalation, lift your hips with buoyancy, and lift your heart towards the sky. Lift your right arm, stretch your bicep up and over your ear. Let your neck lengthen and bring your gaze in between your eyebrows for the remainder of this part of the slow yoga pose. 9-11. Keep breathing deeply. Root down through your left hand, clawing your fingertips into the ground, as you continue to lift your hips and torso for 5-10 breaths. Breath slowly in this yoga pose, letting the rush of adrenaline and exhilarating sense of strength and confidence soak deep into your chest, belly, and hips. To release: look back toward your left hand, bring your right hand back, and bring your right hip back up and over, returning back to Downward-Facing Dog, and repeat on the other side.

Upavistha Konasana (Seated Wide Angle Pose) [Beginner]

1-2. Sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose). Lean your torso back slightly on your hands and lift and open your legs to a wide angle. 3. Press your hands against the floor and slide your buttocks forward, widening the legs another 10 to 20 degrees. (Raise your hips off the floor with a blanket if you can’t sit comfortably.) 4-6.Take both hands to your right thigh, and rotate the inner thigh down, and outer thigh back; pulling the flesh of your buttocks back. Ensure the kneecaps point upward. Press the thigh bone down into the earth. Repeat with the other leg. Lift your kneecaps, and press out through the balls of your feet. Walk your hands out, between your legs, keeping your arms extended throughout the slow yoga pose. 7-10. Hinge at the waist, using your hips to tilt your torso forward, stretching your spine long, as you bow forward. Breath here for 1-5 minutes, turning your attention inward to slowly stretch your lower back throughout the slow yoga movement. Modification: Bend your knees to take any strain off of your lower back and hamstrings. To release: On an inhale, rise up with the long torso, floating your rib cage to stack over your hips.

Kurmasana (Tortoise Pose) [Advanced]

1. Sit in Dandasana (Staff Pose). 2-4. Walk your heels to the far corners of your mat. Bend your knees to 90 degrees. Draw your sit bones deep behind you, keeping your kneecaps pointed skyward. 5-7. Bend at your hips and lean forward. With palms facing down, Slide one arm at a time, under your thighs and walk your palms away from your legs. Broaden your collarbones, and release your shoulders toward the floor. 8-10. Work to straighten your legs, lift the kneecaps, and press out through the heels to stretch the legs long. Stretch your arms away from your shoulders. On an inhale, stretch your sternum and chin forward. On the next exhale, slide your heels farther apart, and reach your forehead forward, toward the floor. Breathe deeply in this deep slow yoga pose, and hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute and gently release by bending your knees, and lifting your torso.

About The Author Matt Cooke is a neuroscience-based yoga teacher (500 RYT), author, and High Performance Coach who uses movement to unleash high performance for burnt out tech entrepreneurs. Matt studied extensively with Noah Maze and Elena Brower and his work is infused with Kripalu, Iyengar, and several coaching methodologies. Having conducted workshops and seminars all over the world, Matt is impassioned to inspire action and embodiment off the yoga mat. To learn more about Matt or get in touch with him, visit his website: mattcooke.yoga