Hi everybody,
I’m really interested to the answer to this question: After a recent kundalini awakening, can you overdo asana practice? I dont find a direct answer to this question in the lessons.
I would like to keep up my regular daily 45 minutes ashtanga practice (also as a form of physical exercise). Can this lead to problems in terms of overdoing it/ not self-pacing enough? From the lessons, I understand asanas as a grounding exercise, so there shouldn’t be such problems. Is that correct?
Hi Cato,
Yes you can overdo with ashtanga asana practice, as this is a prana activating asana practice. Savasana after this asana practice helps to smooth the energy. Never skip savasana. Especially after awakening we can have periods in which cases less is more, the body has to get used to the stronger flow of prana. Self pace is needed if you feel irritated or not grounded for instance during daily life.
Grounding is walking in nature, interact with others etc. Asana could be grounding, but they could also arouse, they work both sides, depending on how we perform them and the purification of the body/mind of the individual. After kundalini awakening it is important to have a daily meditation practice. Ashtanga means eight or eight limbs of yoga, the practice of asana is often the start of a beautiful journey.
PS, I just read this topic of you, and I second the advices you received.
https://aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=17616#17616
Hi Charliedog,
I thank you for your response. Your answer leads me to an additional question: You mentioned that asanas can be both grounding and arousing. Coming from an ashtanga practice, how do I make these asanas grounding and how can I make them arousing?
Hi Cato,
Welcome to the forum! Good advice from Charliedog already.
Asanas are energetic practices. So,yes we can overload especially if it’s a spontaneous Kundalini awakening and a bit chaotic. Gentle asanas are more grounding.
Once we have a stable daily sitting practices consisting of deep meditation and spinal breathing with mudras and bandhas, asanas turn ecstatic. This does not happen overnight but over months and years. Hope this helps.
Hi Cato,
As Sunyata mentioned the way we respond to asana changes along the journey. This depends on purification of body/mind and the ability to place our attention or awareness during the sequence. Its a process, we can’t deliberately do it. Awareness, movement and breath become one, then it is not a physical doing or exercise anymore but ‘meditation in motion’.
For specific questions about your personal asana practice I would advice you to talk to your teacher, as you mentioned you are in a yoga class.
Hi,
unfortunately, my ashtanga teacher is not very much into kundalini awakening, so there is no advice coming from there.
My plan based on your responses would be like this: First to establish a solid pranayama and meditation practice (the marker here would be to feel balanced in daily activities). Then to add regular ashtanga practice which I am familiar with and which also includes pranayama. If that goes fine, I can introduce automatic kriyas (for me this means asana, mudra, nadi, chakra work) for this seems to transport quite an amount of energy. Later on, I can add advanced AYP practices. Does that make sense?
Hi Cato
Sounds like a good plan. Take your time developing your meditation practice.
As meditation takes effect and the inner silence/witness develops, you will also get more clarity about what you need to do next. No need to create long term plans. We can only add one practice at a time. Some months down the line there will be a different “now”, which will come with its own knowing of what the right next step may be.
It would be good if you could read the AYP lessons on self-pacing. These are powerful practices and you will need to be managing your own progress. There is plenty of guidance in the written lessons. Any questions, you can always ask them in the forum.
Enjoy your meditation practice.