Kundalini Yoga - using chakra energy points to awaken the spirit within
Kundalini yoga focuses on psychic centers or chakras in the body in order to ignite a spiritual power, also known as kundalini energy.
Kundalini yoga is a meditative style of yoga, composed of a set of basic techniques that use the mind, senses and the body to achieve communication between "mind" and "body". Kundalini yoga centres on the psycho-spiritual growth and the human body's capacity for maturation, giving emphasis to the spine and the endocrine system in the understanding of yogic beginnings.
Kundalini is understood to be the potential form of prana or life force, lying stagnant in our bodies. It is imagined as a wound up serpent (in Sanskrit, kundalini means ‘coiled up'), this serpent can arise when activated by spiritual disciplines. The practitioner can visualise a snake or serpent passing through and awakening all the chakra points and igniting the fire inside for cleansing and spiritual awakening.
Similar to many other yoga styles, Kundalini yoga links movement with the breath. The way it is different from other yoga styles is that it has a direct focus on passing energy through the chakra system. Awakening the energy in the lower charkas and bringing it to the higher chakras. The chakras are energy points, seven in total. These are located at the base of the spine and positioned along the spine, ending at the top of the head. There is also an eighth chakra in Kundalini yoga, which is the electromagnetic field, also called "aura". This aura is understood to be strengthened through the practice of Kundalini Yoga. Kundalini Yoga strengthens and ignites the energy that lives in the spine by activating the nerve channels that are interlinked there.
Kundalini Yoga is a way of explaining the flow of energy which is already in existence within each person. The practices are thought to help the person to unite with the universal self. This uniting of individual consciousness with the consciousness of the planet and universe is thought to creat a "divine union" called "yoga."
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