Kundalini Yoga for Beginners: Benefits & Where To Start
Kundalini yoga is a powerful practice celebrated for its mental, physical and spiritual benefits. When I began practicing Kundalini yoga, I realized that I felt better than I ever did in my 20s and 30s. So what is Kundalini yoga, why is it so powerful, and where do you start? Read on to learn more about this sacred practice.
What is Kundalini Yoga?
Every morning I show up on my mat, sit down, and breathe. I move, meditate, and get into communion with my body.
Because if I don’t, the habits and patterns infused into my tiny mind and body before I was seven years old take over. Of all the practices I use to keep myself centered, Kundalini yoga is one I simply can’t skip.
Kundalini yoga combines movement, breath, sound, and chakra healing meditations designed to gently train you to become more conscious of your emotional and physical blocks.
It has traditionally been one of the more secretive styles of yoga. It’s said to be passed down via a chain of wisdom keepers and teachers—carrying the Kundalini yoga practice forward in what’s known as the “Golden Chain.”
When practiced regularly, Kundalini yoga can help you become awake and self-aware while moving through your day-to-day at an elevated state of consciousness.
Kundalini Yoga Benefits
Kundalini yoga offers many mental, physical, and spiritual benefits. For beginners, Kundalini yoga can be a way to release stress and tension while calming the mind and strengthening the body.
To dedicated practitioners, it’s considered the diamond of yoga: a powerful practice that provides deep healing by releasing trauma from the energetic body.
Mental Benefits: Reduce Stress
During Kundalini yoga, your chakra centers open—which supports the opening of your vagus nerve and strengthens your nervous system. By opening the vagus nerve, coupled with breathwork and mudra work, Kundalini yoga helps to release anger and sadness while ushering in feelings of joy and gratitude.
When our nervous systems are strong, we process experiences and emotions in a healthy, supported way. It’s a system that deserves the highest level of care, as it affects our sensations, motor control, organs, and limbs.
Physical Benefits: Strengthen Body
Although there are other more “athletic” types of yoga, like Vinyassa, Kundalini yoga is equally great at strengthening the body. As the combination of movement, breath, chanting, and long yoga poses can be pretty intense, this practice can improve your core and enhance your flexibility.
Spiritual Benefits: Kundalini Awakening
In Sanskrit, Kundalini means “coiled snake.” Early Eastern religions believed that divine energy was created at the base of the spine, and Kundalini works to “uncoil the snake” to connect us to our divine energy within.
The primary goal of Kundalini yoga is to enhance your self-awareness and unblock your chakras, so that the life force energy from within can be awakened and flow freely. When you reach this state, you step out of your egoic mind and into higher vibrational frequencies like love, compassion, and joy.
If we allow the Kundalini light to rise regularly through daily spiritual practice, we can experience a Kundalini awakening—where creativity, intuition, and sexual power are at their peak.
Is Kundalini yoga safe?
Your first Kundalini Yoga experience can be quite powerful. Because of the intensity of the breathwork, it’s best to practice safely with a certified teacher.
However, more and more traditional yoga studios are offering the practice, and online studios offer introduction courses worldwide.
Use caution if you:
have breathing issues
have joint pain
have an injury
have balance problems
are pregnant
If you’re not sure whether Kundalini is safe for you, talk with your doctor to find out if there are any precautions you should take or if there’s a safer exercise option to try.
Starting Kundalini Yoga
Before entering a Kundalini yoga class, it is helpful to remember that there will be a combination of movement, sound, breathwork, and meditation. You’ll find they’re chanting specific mantras to “tune in.” While there are traditions, most teachers will tell you they’re just guiding principals, as there aren’t super strict rules that claim to be “the” way to oneness and higher purpose.
When I began my Kundalini yoga teacher training with Guru Singh, a celebrated 3rd generation yogi and master spiritual teacher, he invited us to experience the practice authentically. We wore what felt comfortable and explored the mantras, mudras, and kriyas—which are sets of exercises considered “complete yogic actions”—that resonated with each of us.
Breath of Fire: A Breathing Technique
Breath of Fire, Kapalabhati Pranayama, is a yogic purification practice. It is also a breathing technique used in Kundalini yoga, making it a simple way to introduce yourself to the practice.
The word Kapalabhati is made up of two Sanskrit words: kapāla, meaning ‘skull,’ and bhāti, meaning ‘illuminating.’
I began practicing the Breath of Fire years ago in my Hot Yoga sequence; my teacher would open and close the class with a minute of this breathing technique. As I explored additional yoga modalities, Hatha and then Kundalini, I found this breath integral to the practice and provides remarkable benefits.
The Breath of Fire is calming, detoxifying, and strengthening. It also creates healing and takes the practitioner into higher planes of consciousness.
How Does Breath of Fire Work?
The Breath of Fire works by pumping from the center of the navel while breathing rapidly through the nose.
The goal is to generate heat within the body and burn off any negative karma in the Solar Plexus Chakra, the emotional center of the chakra system. It balances our inner fire as we lengthen the space between the navel and the heart.
The Solar Plexus Charka connects us to our self-confidence and self-acceptance. The challenge of this chakra is to have the willpower—the inner fire—to make positive changes in your life.
The Breath of Fire helps you dial up your inner power by sparking courage and conviction while improving how you feel about yourself. The inner glow you nurture through this breath can enhance the quality of all your relationships.
This breath can be intense: if you feel light-headed while practicing, stop and rest. Beginning with 30 seconds and working your way up to 3 minutes is a good way to ease into breathwork.
How to PRACTICE BREATH OF FIRE:
Breath of Fire begins at the navel: rapid, rhythmic, and continuous.
Warm up with 3 long deep breaths, then follow the steps below:
Sit up tall so that your airways are open and clear.
Begin by breathing with force, exhaling through the nose, forcing air out, and contracting your navel inward. Imagine that you’re blowing into a tissue.
Seal your lips, and continue the exhale through the nose, feeling the navel begin to rise in a pumping motion. The upper abdominal muscles will continue to pull in and up. This will start to feel automatic as you contract the diaphragm rapidly.
You’ll notice a rhythmic pace within your breath as you continue to practice. Keep the body relaxed, focusing on relaxing the hands and arms, feet and legs, face, lips, head, and torso.
Keep your eyes closed and hold your gaze at the third eye.
Note: Breath of Fire should not be practiced by menstruating or pregnant women.
Kundalini Yoga For Beginners & Beyond
Many choose to practice Kundalini yoga on their path to healing the mind, body, and soul. When practiced mindfully and safely, Kundalini yoga is a powerful catalyst to higher states of consciousness and spiritual awakening. If you have been curious about this practice, perhaps it is a sign to explore how it may benefit you and your well-being.
*This article acknowledges the recent allegations against Yogi Bhajan and does not seek to idealize him or ignore the real experiences of victims. It aims to separate the practice of Kundalini yoga from the teacher, focusing on the practice itself.
