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Prep work
Say or chant Ong namo guru dev (rhymes with “save”) namo three times. This means “I bow to the Creative Wisdom” or “I bow to the Divine Teacher within,” and is used at the beginning of every Kundalini practice to tune into the divinity and knowledge in each of us.
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Fists of Anger
3 minutes
Take a comfortable seat, touch the tips of your thumbs to the pinky-finger mounds on each hand, and close your fists. Alternate swinging each arm overhead, as if doing the backstroke. Take powerful and even inhales and exhales through an O-shaped mouth. To end, stretch your arms above your head, hands interlaced and palms facing up. Inhale, imagining a white light around you, then exhale. Repeat this ending breath 3 times.
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Baby Pose, with Head Up
1.5 minutes
Sit on your heels and bring your forehead toward the ground and your arms alongside your body, palms up. Keeping the hands on the floor, lift your neck to your comfort level and bring your gaze straight ahead. Hold here. Begin Kapalabhati Pranayama (Skull Shining Breath or Breath of Fire), pumping the stomach as you breathe powerfully in and out through the nose. If you start to feel uneasy with any alternative-breathing practices, revert to normal breathing.
See also 8 Detoxifying Poses + Kundalini Kriyas
Seated on Heels, with Back on the Ground
1.5 minutes
From Baby Pose, sit up and gently ease onto your back, remaining on the heels. Place your arms next to you, turning palms up; if you can’t make it all the way down, face your palms downward for support. Close your eyes, rolling them up and in toward the center of your forehead—your “third eye”—and practice Breath of Fire. In Kundalini Yoga, this posture is said to help with blood flow to the organs and with removing waste that may slow metabolism.
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Kundalini Chair Pose, with Lion’s Breath
1.5 minutes
Come to standing, feet a little more than hip-width apart and toes turned out 45 degrees. Bend forward, keeping your back parallel to the floor. Then bend your knees deeply and reach your arms between them, bringing the hands to the tops of the feet. Try to keep the hips at knee height. For Lion’s Breath, stick out your tongue and breathe in and out through your mouth. Exhale to come out.
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End here with Savasana (Corpse Pose) 2.5 minutes OR, HAVE 10 MORE MINUTES? Continue the Sequence.