…More than body conditioning

Many people are first drawn to yoga as a way to keep their bodies fit and supple, good to look at and to live in. Others come seeking help or relief for a specific complaint, like tension or backache. Some are compelled by a sense that they are not getting as much out of life as they could be. Whatever your reason, yoga can be a tool, and instrument for giving you both what you came for, and more. To understand what yoga is about, you need to experience it for yourself.

Kundalini Yoga promotes the better functioning of our bodily systems, it increases our radiance and the impact we have on others, it promotes emotional balance and enhanced intuition, it helps to eliminate negative habit patterns, and promotes a general sense of relaxation and well-being. In short, the benefits impact all aspects of our physical, mental, and spiritual being.

Stress in our Fast Paced World
Stress is the number one killer in the Western world, according to medical studies. Stress and poor diet are the major causes of heart problems, contribute to many other diseases, and lead to drug and alcohol abuse. Many people attempt to relieve stress by suppressing the symptoms-- by taking tranquilizers, alcohol or tobacco, or hiding their anxieties in chronic television viewing or overeating. Stimulation is then required, like coffee or speed, to replace the depleted, drugged or suppressed energy. This on-off approach is like driving a car with one foot on the accelerator and the other on the brakes. And like a car, our body wears down with the constant abuse. For an excellent resource go to Guru Rattan's Kaur's web site.

Kundalini Yoga and Meditation address the issues that produce stress, providing the body with the muscular and nerve strength and flexibility to handle stress and excel in the material world. As our body becomes strong, graceful and flexible, so does our mind and our psyche.

Emotional Balance
Emotions ebb and flow like the ocean tides. Sometimes we don't even know why we are upset, depressed, anxious, sad or having a sudden feeling. Emotions can be so strong at times that we feel out of control. We may feel as if there isn't any way out. Meditation and kundalini yoga help stabilize emotions. No the goal is not to stop you from feeling, just to help in balancing you so that you don't feel psychotic. Kundalini Yoga does this by strengthening the nerves, balancing the glands which regulate your hormones and give you a sense of your own identity so that you're not always caught reacting and by connecting you to your breath so you feel in control.

Achieve Calmness and Clarity
Through meditation we can purify our thoughts and strengthen their projection, and then use this clarity and projection for prayerful purposes, such as healing ourselves and others or unraveling difficult problems which perhaps had seemed unsolvable. Through meditation we can silence our "monkey mind," which is constantly jumping from one thought to another, since the mind generates one thousand thoughts per wink of the eye. Then we become silently receptive and intuitive. Meditation can cleanse the mind of fears, so that we can absorb, compute, and act wisely and neutrally in response to situations, rather than reacting and being ruled by conscious and subconscious emotions. Fears and anger begin to lose their hold over us. Meditation awakens the mind to the infinite capacity of the soul for sacrifice, service, and creativity. Meditation can also lower blood pressure and be very energizing, since the body is a chemical organism and meditation actually changes the chemistry of the brain.

 

Some of the benefits of Long Deep Breathing: * reduces and prevents toxic build-up in the lungs * stimulates the production of endorphins in the brain, eliminating tendencies towards depression * helps give clarity, cool-headedness, and positivity * activates and cleanses nerve channels