Yay for Yoga!

Sat Nam!

Welcome to our blog space! My intention with the creation of this space is to offer you the opportunity to get more information regarding Kundalini yoga, a forum in which to discuss the practice, and if there are specific aspects of it which you are particularly interested in , the chance to delve deeper on these subjects, and needless to mention, to offer a place where questions can be raised. I will do my upmost to provide you with clearest information based on my own personal practice, the knowledge I have acquired through my teacher training and the fantastic resources made available to me through my learning. I am also blessed to have my own Teachers to turn to whose vast wealth of experience is invaluable.

The First Steps

My initial flirtation with yoga began in 2005 when I began attending Ashtanga classes at the amazing centre here in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the classes and loved the space I was soon to learn one of my first yogic lessons - this was not the yoga for me! I was not quite sure what was next, most likely that was where my experience of merging with soul or at the very least merging with my mat would end. So before I rolled my mat up for good and placed yoga in the , "well I gave it a go" pile, I asked myself, "What was it that was not working for me?".

After some truthful inner investigation as to my motives for taking up yoga , I realised that initially I wanted a 'six pack' and that it would be nice if I got something spiritual out of it along the way, but I was not holding my breath on either account. Therefore I could ascertain that I was already resigned and cynical about the entire journey and had already doomed it to failure! Score! Set to fail from the get go! I am sooo clever! So as soon as i cleared that up with myself I asked myself, ' well what yoga would I like to try that would work for me?', novel thinking eh?

So I scraped the 'six pack' as an immediate 'must have' and looked at the real criteria, and for me that was simply a practice that would fill me up. One that let me bring myself to my mat on any given day in any given mood which left me feeling elevated by the end of my class. A feeling that I have put something good back into me rather than going around running on empty. Which is something we are all doing most of the time. Which really underlined me that I cannot be the person I want to be for you, you and you or even me, if I am not looking after myself.

Take a moment to look at y for our life, take an average day, hey take an average morning, how much information do you consume from the moment you wake - thinking about the dream you just had, reading the newspaper or a magazine, check your email, check Facebook, make or take a few phone-calls, you have already thought about ten different people in three different countries, their families , their relationship to you, you to them, done some comparitive thinking, shared some, talked some , been emotive and it 's not even lunch time! When do you give yourself the opportunity to digest this, let alone switch off from it?

We bombard ourselves with information and it is an expectation which is taken for granted that our Nervous System should, and will keep up with our lifestyle, and we have not even mentioned the weekend!

I would like to say at this point that for some people their yoga maybe doing the gardening, tinkering in the shed, taking long walks. For me it used to be horse riding and that really was and still is pure bliss for me, it centres me, brings me into the present, fills me up, gives me connection to the living breathing world around me and literally underneath me! But I am currently living in the city and I can't roll a horse up and place him in the corner of my room! Yoga is currently much more accsessible 24/7!

Now I knew I wanted to do yoga not just aerobics and the difference between them is DEVOTION. In yoga you are presencing yourself in your body, connecting with your Conciousness, bringing devotion to the moment, being kind to yourself, pushing yourself where you feel the need and pulling back and simply being where that is appropriate. Being good to yourself so in turn you can bring that goodness and light out into the world. Wow! Doesn't this sound like something we all need and crave?

As I am sure you will have noticed there exists a wealth of options when it comes to choosing "yoga for you" - Hatha, Bikram, Iyengar, Ashtanga - the list goes on, and they all will get you to where you want to go as it is all about your personal practice and the devotion you bring to it.

I went to my first Kundalini Yoga class in January 2007 and I knew I found a practice that worked for me. I hope to inspire you and offer you something that really makes a difference in your life as this does in mine. Kundalini Yoga is extremely effective in bringing about change within you on many levels, it is 16 times faster than any other yoga ( 1year of Kundalini Yoga = 16 years of Hatha Yoga) this is due to the combination of Asana/Postures, Pranayam/Breathwork, Mantra/Working with the Sound Current and Meditation. It is a powerful practice. It works on to cause an effect on an energetic level which in turn brings about change on a mental, emotional and physical level.

In the following posts I will offer you the background to Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, I will tell you about Yogi Bhajan! I will post some helpful points to remember, definitions, precautions and outline the class structure for you.

Once our course commences we can discuss the KRIYA (this is the sequence of postures, breath and sound which are integrated together to allow the manifestation of a particular state) and meditation that we covered and you can contribute by posting your own questions/statements/thoughts about the class/yoga. I have posted up links to helpful and insightful sites on the lefthand side of this blog, they are not all yoga related, it is all stuff I am interested in and thought you may want a look at too - all mind openers! I love it! So yeah, that's my intro, I really hope you all find this fun and useful and I welcome all you shining souls to this our virtual hang out (blog)spot!

Yay for YOU and yay for YOGA!

"May the longtime sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the pure light within you, guide your way on"

Sat Nam