Note: Kundalini yoga means all of it, not just the spinal series which is only a small part. Unless specifically stated, when I write kundalini yoga or KY I mean the full practices.

Kundalini Yoga is tantric, it was designed to help us deal with all areas of life: work, family, love, creativity, overcoming obstacles, and personal development. There are kriyas to improve mental health and cognition, increase physical strength, help overcome emotional or psychological problems, help with sexuality, increase fertility, improve physical health, and to be more in tune with your Self and your life purpose.

Overall, a full KY practice is meant to improve your entire being and prepare your body and soul for the rise of the Kundalini Serpent, and the Magnum Opus. There are other methods for the rising of the Serpent, and KY might not be what every individual prefers; this post is intended to show you what you can expect from KY practices if you chose to do them.

“Kriya” means complete action, and effort. A kundalini yoga practice should include breath work, spinal flexing, asanas, movement, bandhas, meditation, and mantras. You can change the order of this and do combinations such as: start with breath work, then some warm ups, do some spinal flexing, then a few asanas with long deep breathing, an asana with breath of fire, then more spinal flexing followed by mula bandha, some mantras, another asana, some meditation, more spinal flexing, Savasana (corpse pose), then end with meditation and a mantra.

It should range around 30-90 minutes, whatever you are able to manage. You can take a day off once or twice a week, and have an easy day with while doing some essentials to keep your energy stable yet resting your body and nervous system if needed. When you first start doing KY, you might feel like you have a sunburn all over your body, and perhaps feel a bit nauseous. This is due to the increase of bioelectricity that your body is not yet used to. These symptoms will probably only last a week.

If you ever feel lethargic from your spiritual practice, then you’re not doing something correctly. Try changing it up, perhaps you are trying to do too much in one session. Once you feel great and energized, use that momentum for your life. For example, you can do your main practice, then go to work or school, then do your chakra work later in the day for another energy buzz. The point is to keep your energy raised through the day as Lady Pythia emphasized. Do not try to cram everything into one session, get overcharged or sleepy, then have your energy drop and remain too low later in the day.

You can make your own KY practice, but I recommend learning enough to know what you’re doing. There are a lot of really great KY videos, a very large variety of practices available for free and paid memberships. I will warn you, much of it has awful music, really annoying and jarring. The music for doing KY should be meditative and in harmony with the spiritual practice.

Many videos are based on the teachings of Yogi Bhajan, which can be found here. Most videos by KY instructors are designed to be more well-rounded, as many of the Pink Lotus kriyas are for a specific problem or goal and might leave you feeling the need to do more yoga to balance yourself.

When following along to a video, keep these in mind:

-You do not have to do as much breath of fire (BoF) as they instruct. Doing too much will damage your nervous system. Only do BoF for a few moments, then do regular breathing, and try BoF again later in the video. Work up your time doing BoF gradually.

-Most mantras are fine, but when in doubt, substitute for one on the ToZ such as Sat-Nam or SaTaNaMa.

-The opening chant of “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo” is completely fine, but I used to change it when I was new, and will change it again here to reflect the ToZ. Chant/sing/vibrate this, in the tune of the chant in the video: “Hail Zeus, Hail Zeus”. You can do “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo”, it translates to “I bow to the Creative Wisdom, I bow to the Divine Teacher within”. It’s chanted 3 times for past, present, future.

-They generally chant with a slight vibration for some mantras, you can do more vibration if you prefer. They also sing some mantras, this is deliberate and helps activate the right brain hemisphere and creativity. You can vibrate if you prefer, but learning to sing used to be considered an essential skill and is healthy for the brain.

-Pause the video at any time you need to, never push yourself to the point of danger. Challenge yourself yes, but never damage yourself.

-If any kriya or asana is beyond your physical availability, learn how to modify it, skip it, or do something similar instead.

-They don’t always count the spinal flexing to a set number. You do not need to do spinal flexing to exact numbers unless you are at an advanced level. Until then, you can do it as it feels good without paying attention to the count. If you do feel you need count to a set number then pause the video, do it on your own count, then start the video and do your 1-2 minute rest as they do their spinal flexing. Sometimes they only do 40 or 50 which is perfectly fine. The entire kriya is what matters.

-Yes, they do some strange arm movements. These are really great for building and distributing prana, helping the glands function properly, raising energy, balancing the brain hemispheres, and so on. These might seem weird or pointless, but I always feel great after.

-Rolling on the spine. Some videos have this a few times. This is beneficial for the back and spine, and distributes your energy evenly throughout your body, instead of too much energy being in your legs or your head. If you have back problems consult a physiotherapist or qualified yoga instructor, but in general this can help improve your back and spine. Just make sure to hold your knees up to your chest and roll on a rounded back, do not land flat onto your lower back. Look up further instructions and demonstration before attempting this for your first time.

-Most will end with a series of visualizations:
1. Breathe in, hold your breath (only hold for as long as is comfortable, breathe normally any time you need to) and visualize yourself as healthy and happy (this might change depending on the focus of the video).
2. Then they do another breath, with sending healing to someone you know who needs it; this is fine, or you can focus on connecting to your Guardian Daemon.
3. Then the final breath is “sending peace to the world”; you can do this or focus on the ToZ growing stronger and members becoming more connected to our Gods.

-At the very end, they say “Thank you and God bless you”, you can do as I do and change this to focusing on Zeus and say something like “Zeus bless us” or “our Gods bless us”, or whatever you prefer. Regardless, I definitely recommend focusing fully on Zeus or your Guardian Daemon for a few moments, this will help connect you more to our Gods.

-Sometimes they do a 2-minute Savasana, then do a meditation and the closing prayer. 2 minutes generally isn’t enough, so after the video ends, you can do a 5-15 minute savasana.

-A tip for coming out of Savasana: bring your knees in and gently rock from side to side then back and forth and then ease up off your mat.

Kundalini yoga is designed to combine spirituality with physical needs. In this modern era we tend to not move as much as we should, so KY includes physical warm-ups and movement along with the spiritual practices. It also has a lot of core work, to strengthen the body and nerves for the rise of the Serpent, as the nerves and nadis all congregate in the solar plexus region. Your nerves and nadis need to be strong in order to handle the powerful energy of the Serpent. I developed very strong abdominal muscles just from KY.

I’ve often heard in Kundalini yoga, “the physical body is the vehicle for the soul”. This is because KY is tantric, not in denial of physical life and the physical world. Our body is used to strengthen, refine, and advance our souls.

Take care of your body, strengthen and improve it, to drive the soul to towards its destination: Godhead.