What to Know Before a Kundalini Yoga Class
What do you need to know before taking a Kundalini Yoga class? As a traditionally trained Kundalini Yoga teacher, there are a few things that I think are important.
If you’re meeting me for the first time, my name is Melanie Santos, I’m a mind, body, spirit wellness educator and practitioner, psychic medium, energy healer, and Kundalini Yoga Priestess. I’m passionate about creating space for discovery, healing, learning how to live intentionally, embracing our nuances, and aligning with our Divine truth.
First, what is Kundalini and Kundalini Yoga?
Meaning “awareness” and known as the nerve of the soul, Kundalini is the atomic energy of creative consciousness, the whole energy of the cosmos and the Divine within and beyond ourselves.
It resides dormant in the base of the spine – the root chakra or muladhara – and when awakened, it travels up until it reaches the head, helping us break through the limitations of the human world, reconnecting us to Divine consciousness, strengthening our intuition, reuniting us with our highest self, leading us to our most Divine truth and helping us remember who are.
Kundalini awakening is a result of Kundalini Yoga – the fastest way to create transformation and establish alignment of your mind, body, and soul. Practicing it stimulates and shifts your glandular, electromagnetic, circulatory, and nervous system through the combination of pranayama (breathwork), kriyas and asanas (strategic postures), meditation, and mantra to raise the Kundalini energy.
Most call Kundalini Yoga the most spiritual form of yoga. It’s a living technology with ancient roots that date back to 1000 BC where it was mentioned in the Vedic texts. I honor its power and potency by preserving its spiritual roots as they were passed down to me.
Structure of a Kundalini Class
The basic structure of a Kundalini Yoga Class:
Tuning in with chanting Pranayama breathwork and warming up the body A Kriya or set of asanas (or postures) with a specific theme
Savasana (deep relaxation) Meditation Tune out by chanting Sat Nam and singing the short “Long Time Sun” song
You can totally join a class as a beginner not knowing anything and follow the teacher for an amazing class, but I think it makes for much deeper resonance when you know what you’re chanting and why. So get into tuning in and out.
To tune in, we begin by chanting the Adi Mantra, a mantra that dissolves the ego so that you can connect to the flow of your Divine guidance and the wisdom of all of those who came before. You may resonate with this as your highest self, your benevolent ancestors, your spirit guides, angels, and spirit team, and even past yogis and yoginis who practiced this ancient technology.
The Adi Mantra is Ong namo guru dayv namo which translates to “I bow to the subtle Divine wisdom, the divine teacher within.”
After the Adi Mantra, we chant the Mangala Charn, “Necklace of protection”. It clears doubt and opens us to guidance, surrounds our magnetic field with protective light, and forms the channel through which the wisdom and protection of the Kundalini tradition flows to us
The Mangala Charn is Ad Guray Nameh, Jugad Guray Nameh, Sat Guray Namey, Siri Guru Oevay Nameh which translates to I bow to the primal wisdom. I bow to the wisdom through the ages. I bow to the true wisdom. I bow to the great unseen wisdom.
It’s important to pay attention to your drishti, your eye gaze when you’re tuning in and practicing throughout a class. Each drishti is a different point of focus and an expression of the asana or meditation.
The default gaze is at the brow point or the third eye.
To gaze properly, close your eyes and rolls your eyes to the brow point. Your focus should be at the center of the forehead, just above your eyebrows.
This stimulates the pituitary gland and sushumna (central channel of the spine) and develops intuition.
How to show up to a class
Despite being rooted in tradition, Kundalini Yoga does not have strict rules when it comes to dress code, so practitioners are free to choose what works best for them. However, because it is designed to increase sensitivity, enhance your aura, and strengthen your nervous system, approaching how your dress from an informed standpoint can help what you wear become a tool for clarity.
Typically, you see people teaching and/or attending a Kundalini Yoga class wearing loose white clothing. Because Kundalini Yoga increases your awareness by helping you become more subtle, wearing white (which embodies all colors of the spectrum) is a way to deepen your experience as it expands your aura and in turn, your energetic projection.
I emphasize loose clothing so that your navel isn’t constricted and you have adequate space and are comfortable enough to breathe properly.
You might also see people wearing turbans or headwraps. As an extra sensitive person, I have been wrapping my head for more than ten years to protect my crown during more energetically potent times, like if I’m around a lot of people or during something like a full moon.
When I started practicing Kundalini Yoga seriously, I felt affirmed by the fact that practitioners cover their crowns as well. Our hair is an extension of our crown chakra and our nervous system. Covering your crown in Kundalini Yoga allows us to harness the inflow of energy, and focus during yoga and meditation and supports balance and transformation within and throughout.
Wearing a head covering is ultimately totally up to you.
Lastly, Kundalini Yoga is practiced without socks! We don’t cover the soles of out feet because there are 72,000 nadis or energetic currents that carry prana or life force energy to the entire body. These energy currents originate from the naval and end in the hands and feet, so not wearing socks allows the energy you’re cultivating to flow freely.
Answer the call, show up as you are, and without expectations.
Whatever it is that you’re dealing with, whoever you are at the particular moment that you hear the call to attend a class, show up…for you… without expectations. You’d be surprised how divinely orchestrated your path to the mat is and how often the kriya and meditation that’s chosen for the class you attend is exactly what you need.
If you’d like to attend Kundalini classes, courses, and sadhanas with me, make sure you’re subscribed to my mailing list, and stay tuned with all upcoming classes and events here.