Chanting Kundalini Yoga

Within the Kundalini yoga thought system, great concentration and focus are required to handle an increase in Kundalini energy. This mental preparedness is often thought to come from careful and extended meditation, or reflection, on the chakras essential to Kundalini yoga practice.

For this reason, among others, many practitioners of Kundalini yoga enjoy experiencing the cultural, mental, and physical benefits yoga has to offer through chanting. With roots in the early appearances of all yoga, Kundalini is the perfect choice for rich and meaningful mantras, or chants used in chanting yoga.

Chanting Kundalini goes beyond using phrases and mantras with origins as far back as the 2nd century BCE, and incorporates breathing exercises and some physical poses along with chanting.

But the true aim of these poses is not necessarily aerobic. Rather, the physical aspect of chanting Kundalini helps your body connect with the phrases used in chanting and help forge a link between yourself and your environment.

Types of Movements

Many mantras involved in chanting Kundalini are directly derived from the meanings of words associated with the type of yoga itself. One example is a rough translation of the word "Kundalini" which one anonymous author called "the curl of the lock of hair of the beloved." This is appropriate as many poses within traditional and spiritual Kundalini practice involve yogic locks, which in turn require coiled arms, legs, or even, in a relative sense, muscles.

Most of the positions of kundalini yoga involve cross-legged positions with specific spine positioning and closed eyes. Mental focus is achieved through the chanting of mantras and breath control. All of this is designed to free up energy through the spine, which manifests itself in increased mental functions, clarity and creativity.

Mental and Physical Requirements

With primary focus on verbal meditation, there are few physical requirements for chanting Kundalini yoga. However, Kundalini yoga requires that you are flexible enough to get into the specific postures and that you have the strength to hold them, though your skill level dictates how long that time is. The most important aspect of this type of yoga is the focus you need to dedicate to the mantras and visualizations. It is important for you to be able to separate yourself from distraction.

Equipment Requirements

• Yoga Mat
• Comfortable Clothes
• Large Mirror

Mental and Physical Benefits

Mental

• Increased Somatic Awareness
• Improved Attention
• Improved Memory
• Improved Depth Perception
• Decreased Anxiety and Depression

Physical

• Improved Immunity
• Decreased Respiratory Rate
• Improved Cardiovascular Efficiency
• Decreased Blood Pressure
• Decreased EMG Activity

Aerobic Effect

You'll find very little aerobic effect within chanting Kundalini, and moving quickly from pose to pose is actually contrary to the point of chanting Kundalini. Proper practice involves careful analyzation and reflection on each mantra used during the exercises.

Kundalini focuses on proper spinal alignment to achieve a release of energy to the mind. The practice uses a variety of mental exercises to initiate this.

These include guided relaxation, visualizations, and spoken chants. Kundalini yoga can be thought of as one of the more cerebral types of yoga. Through these methods, different poses target different areas of the body.