Balancing Masculine & Feminine

Satnam and welcome everybody. Welcome to Sacred Kundalini with Karoluni. I'm so pleased to be here today. This is our third practice together. We've started off before with grounding, working on the root chakra in our first class. Second class, we moved ourselves up into detoxification and purification, working on cleansing the kidneys and opening up the energy of the heart center. And in this third class today, we're going to focus on balancing our masculine and feminine energy. We have 72,000 energy channels that run through the body. We have three of those energy channels that are very powerfully associated with the awakening of what we call Kundalini energy. It's said that there's this reservoir of energy that resides at the base of the spine, that when awakened, when activated, can evolve our consciousness, can bring us into heightened experiences and can bring us into the potential for evolution of consciousness in a way that was otherwise inaccessible. So we work with that energy in Kundalini yoga. This is one of the reasons why people find this style of yoga to be so highly transformative and changes their lives, changes their perspective, because it literally raises your vibrational frequency and helps you access it just a different state of awareness. So as I mentioned, we have 72,000 energy channels, three of which are highly important when it comes to that energy. The Ida energy channel, which runs from the entrance of the left nostril all the way down to the base of the spine. This is our feminine energy channel. We have our Pingala energy channel in the right nostril, runs from the entrance of the right nostril all the way down to the base of the spine. And then at the base of the spine, when those two energies are in balance, when they're in harmony, they activate what's called the Sushmana. This is the central energy channel where that Kundalini energy rises and clears and balances, harmonizes all of our seven chakras. So today we're going to be working with Ida in Pingala energy channels, bringing ourselves into a state of balance and harmony energetically, bringing ourselves out of the polarities oftentimes that modern culture brings into our lives, these kind of polarized and accelerated or aggravated energies of the masculine and the feminine, maybe outside of your own general nature to hold some of these expectations energetically. So this brings us back into a state of home. All right, let's rub our hands together, stimulating these 72,000 energy channels. All of these energy channels begin in the naval center and they end in the hands and the feet. So when we rub the palms together, we rub the soles of the feet together, we are stimulating, activating, energizing these channels. And then we bring our hands into the chest. We tune in with our sacred invocational mantra. The mantra is called the Adi mantra. Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo. I bow to the divine teacher within. We're calling on the high self. I'd like you to close your eyes, lengthen the neck. Let's tune in three times with the sacred mantra. Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo. Let's take a deep breath in through the nose to begin. Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo. Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo. Take a deep breath in through the nose. Suspend the breath, root lock, third eye. And exhale, release.

Welcome. Always feels different after you tune in, doesn't it? Now a couple things that I want you to know about today's practice with regard to masculine and feminine energy. Whether we are men or women, male identifying or female identifying, we all have masculine and feminine energy. And it's usually the case that we tend to identify more strongly with one than the other. And as such, that tends to be over used or over applied. And then the other may grow weaker or maybe less fully embodied. So what this balancing of the masculine feminine energy also does is help really bring into empowerment benefits of both qualities of energy into our being. So you're gonna feel really strong, stabilized and balanced. Alright, so let's start with our Sufi circles. Hands are on the shins and we're gonna close the eyes. For my new friends to Kundalini Yoga, you'll notice that we tend to practice with the eyes closed and this is very purposeful. We want to refrain from identifying with things outside of our being and really turn inward and focus on the whole universe of experience that goes on within. Allowing ourselves to gain deeper intimacy with our mind, our emotions, our energy, the messages that our body is sending us, whether it's pain or release. So rolling in this clockwise rotation with Sufi circles, inhaling as you roll forward, exhaling as you round back, eyes are at third eye center, stimulating glands in the brain. Allowing them to produce hormones that fill the bloodstream with the ability to experience expanded awareness, heightened consciousness, relaxation, restoration, even healing. Good, inhaling forward, exhaling back, feeling your way into the body. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale, hold center and please reverse the direction. Inhaling forward, exhaling back. These Sufi circles is what they're called. These help us ground our lowest energy center, our root chakra, bringing us into a state or an experience of stability, security, energetically speaking. This is a beautiful foundation energetically through which to build upon, to open up and access the energy centers that sit above the root chakra. Naval, third solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown. So just grounding yourself to the earth, inhaling forward, exhaling back. Good, let's go for four, three, two, and one. Holding center, let's inhale, lift through the heart, arch the back, exhale round tuck and dome, opening up the central energy channel of the spine. This takes the grounding that we just did with the first chakra and moves it up into the second and the third chakra. These low three chakras are considered the energy centers of our low triangle. These govern the experience in the material world. Eyes are a third eye and really move open, breathe. Move into a more active, productive breath. Allow the movements to facilitate opening in the lungs and in the ribs and stay with it. It's very easy to get distracted, especially when you're taking a yoga class outside of a studio, maybe in your home. Allow yourself to maintain the sacred space that we've created together and stay in the vibration of the class. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale, lift high through the crown of the head. Exhale, shoulders down away from the ears. Even the little things like breathing, lengthening the spine. I want you to try and think of that as very experiential. Be present with all of these subtleties. Let's take the hands up onto the shoulders. Elbows are down away from the ears, shoulders are down away from the ears. Grounded nice and strong through my tail. Inhale, twist left and exhale, twist right. Eyes are a third eye center. Think of this as a ringing out. Think of this as a realignment for the spine. Also consider this as a way to rise energy up into the heart center. The placement of the arms is directing the energy up into the heart. So we're taking that energy that we started with the first, moved up to second and third, and now we're bringing it up into the fourth chakra. Good. Now keep this rotation and lift the hands off the shoulders. Gyan mudra, index finger and thumb join. Feel how this opens the chest, the muscles in front of the heart. Be present with the experience of the opening that's occurring here. Energetic and spiritual opening. Now keep with this rotation and extend those arms up 60 degrees. Chest tips up to the sky, face tips up to the sky. Calling in a high vibration emotion, gratitude, compassion, enthusiasm. Feel that in the heart. Allow it to vibrate into the whole being. Let's go for four, three, two, and one.

Inhale, lift high, suspend the breath, root lock, third eye, and then exhale. Let's sweep through the energy field. Reaching up and over, charging those hands. Feel energy in the center of the palms. Feel electric in the fingers and just sweep that energy through the auric field. And the auric field is a real true and scientifically proven phenomena. It's an energy field that radiates outside and around the physical body. In Kundalini Yoga we seek to bring it to its highest expression. Can we bring more high energy into this field? Can we extend it further from our being? This is one of the reasons why we wear white natural fabric. It reflects light back into our energy field. This is why we do a lot of movements around the body like this, charging the energy around the field. I'd like you to visualize just bright beautiful light around the body as you continue to breathe and sweep. Good, let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale, arms reach up nice and high. Exhale, hinge, bow forward, stretch through the low back. Take a breath while you're here. Sigh it out. Please look forward to the hands and let's come on to tabletop position. Alright, we're gonna do a few more warm-ups here. Hands are under the shoulders, knees are under the hips. We're gonna start with some cat-cow. And I'd like you to again apply the tool of visualization here. Think of the spine, the whole spine itself being infused with light. And as you breathe and you move, you're distributing all of that energy through the whole central channel of the spine. We're inhaling to lift the chin tail, exhaling to round and tuck. Here we go. Four, three, two, and one. Inhale, chin and tail rise. Exhale. Come back to that tabletop neutral spine. We're gonna do a little modification of the cat-cow to get the legs involved here. A lot of our work today is going to be in seated cross-leg position, so I'd like to get those legs a little energized. We're going to exhale to bring the nose to the knee, knee to the nose. Inhale, extend and lift the leg up behind you. We're gonna do a few on the left and a few on the right. Here we go. Full extension. Have direction in the toes and through the ball of the foot. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale. Exhale, drop it down. Inhale, right leg lifts behind. Here we go. Four, three, two, and one. Inhale. Exhale. Knees come out wide, sit the hips back to the heels, and gently rest the forehead on the ground. It's at this point where between warm-up and the Kriya set itself, this is a place where you can set intention or cast out a prayer for the work that we're about to do. Kundalini yoga serves to evolve us as human beings, bringing us into our highest and fullest expression of our potential, helping us heal some of the shadow elements, heal energy blocks, process some of the karma that we've either either brought into this lifetime or have generated through this lifetime. All right, we're going to come directly onto the back to start. We're going to do kind of a quintessential exercise in Kundalini yoga called stretch pose. I'd like you to extend the legs out in front of you, and we employ a breath of fire. We're going to be doing breath of fire kind of a lot today, maybe a little bit, somewhat, and the breath of fire is a rhythmic pumping of the belly, sometimes through the mouth, sometimes through the nose, so I'm going to start it through my mouth just to give you an idea. It's kind of like panting like a dog, how the belly should move. So as I inhale, my belly expands. As I exhale, my belly contracts. Now we can do that same breath through the nose, which is how we'll be doing it today. Okay, so the diaphragm is kind of serving as a pump for the breathing, and it's a breath that should be easily sustainable, nothing too manic. All right, so we're going to come laying down onto the back, articulate the spine down, and I'll show you a modification, but first I'll show you the full expression of stretch pose. Full expression involves my chin to my chest, my head is lifted up off the ground, my arms are engaged in reaching toward my toes, my toes lift up off the ground, and my eyes gaze at the toes, thighs, legs engage, navel engage, lower back presses to the floor, and that's where I begin breath of fire.

Modifications include hands under the low back to support it, maybe alternating legs as you go, if you feel a little tense in the hip flexors and the abdominals, and then if you are pregnant or on the first three days of your menstruation, ladies instead please do longer, deeper breath. Okay, so feel free to imply the modifications as you see fit. Let's get in posture, here we go. It's gonna get uncomfortable, that's what it's all about. We're clearing blocks, we're moving through some of those stagnancies. Apply a little grit here, a little stick tuitiveness. Stay with me, we're almost there. Last ten. Now inhale, suspend the breath, engage all the muscles, and exhale, release, and allow yourself to relax. It's always an energetically beautiful sense of accomplishment when you finish stretch pose. What we've done here is we've done what's called setting the navel point. If you put your hands on your belly, you may feel your pulse at the belly. It's always a good sign that the energy of the navel center has been balanced out. Okay, clearing out any blocks, any stagnancies in the low triangle. Alright, I'd like you to take your heels and walk them in right behind the hips. Knees are hips distance apart, hands are on the ground, head is on the ground, chin is to the chest. We're gonna lift up into a bridge pose. Okay, walk those shoulders under the ribs a little bit, and then drop the hips down on the exhale. Eyes are closed, third eye center. Here we go. Just clearing the low centers. Energize the hamstrings and the glutes. Feel the belly pressing up to the sky. Let's go for 10, 9, 8, 7, keep breathing, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Now inhale, hold lifts, suspend. Root lock, third eye, then exhale. Draw the knees into the chest. Hands slide under the hinges of the knees and please rock yourself up seated, cross leg position. Okay, as you know chanting is a big part in Kundalini yoga, and it's not just a sanctimonious thing. We're not just doing it for the sake of doing it and trying to make ourselves look like dedicated yogis. There's an actual science, we call this nada yoga, the science of nada. This is the science of sound and the impact that sound has on our being. Okay, so when we move sound, we're vibrating the rib cage, we're vibrating all the organs, we're vibrating all the cells, right? So if there's any deep levels of tension and trauma in the body, any gripping and resistance, this can help release at so many levels of our being, right? That's beyond the mind. So I'd like us to chant the sound MA, M-A. Now MA means rebirth. There's a mantra that we chant a lot in Kundalini yoga, and each of these sounds has an archetype, has a symbol. SA, TA, NA, MA.

MA is going to be the sound we're chanting today. SA means birth. TA means existence. NA means death or transformation. MA means rebirth. And with working in masculine and feminine energy, it's really good to bring ourselves into this state of openness to rebirth, openness for new creations, new beginnings, okay? And this taps us into the center of the heart, the sound MA vibrates at the chest. So we're opening up and accessing the heart chakra. I'd like you to take your left hand over your right, please. Or your right hand over your left, rather. Shoulders down away from the ears. We're gonna chant the sound MA three times. Alright, so just listen to me and then follow along. Here we go. Eyes are at the third eye center. MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, really sing it out. MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, MA, take a deep breath into the nose. Suspended, root lock, third eye. And exhale, relax for a moment. Gyan mudra. Sometimes these sounds can evoke emotion. The sound MA connects us to the mother. The sound MA connects us to the heart. The sound MA reconnects us with connection. So sometimes brings some emotion or allows grief that needs to be healed to arise. And if that does happen for you, one, it's not out of the ordinary. It's very typical in Kundalini. And two, don't repress it. I encourage you to allow it to rise. This is how we heal. Alright, gently blink the eyes open. This next part of the Kriya is called the merger of the sun and the moon. The feminine energy is considered our moon energy. And the masculine energy is considered our sun energy, right? Female energy is through the left nostril, feminine energy rather. Masculine energy is through the right nostril. Now our feminine energy is very receptive. It's very nurturing. It's very intuitive. It's very creative. It's very cool, calm, and receptive. Okay, we all have this, men and women. The masculine energy, the sun energy is very logical. It's very rational. It's very action oriented, whereas the feminine energy is creative. This has a destructive element to it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, right? Things need breakdown. It is very material. It's very logic and reason, as I mentioned. And so we tend to find ourselves gravitating toward one or the other oftentimes. And what this set helps us do is really embody and strengthen both aspects of our being at its most natural and harmonious state for us as individuals, right? Each person has their own constitution. And what this set does is bring us back into the balance of our constitutional balance of masculine and feminine energy. Okay, so I'm going to take my arms out to the side. My shoulders are soft. My neck is long. My chin is toward my chest. And my wrists are flexed. Now what may look like the arm raising up is not the case. I'm actually just going to lift my shoulder and then drop it. The elbow and the wrist just follows. Okay, so it's going to be, I'm going to do right inhale, exhale, left shoulder, inhale, exhale. Okay, so this is merger of the sun and the moon.

We're going to work on the masculine energy and the feminine energy. Here we go. Eyes are up to third eye center. Again, it's just a lifting of the shoulder, kind of a shrugging. My pace may be a little too rapid for you. Feel free to slow it down if that feels in alignment for you. I like to visualize this as kind of the balancing of scales here of my masculine and feminine energy. Allow the creative start doing you as opposed to you thinking your way through it. Connect into the heart energy and just roll with it. Allow yourself to step out of the thinking position. Last 30 seconds, stay with me. Last five, four, three, two, and one. Now shrug both shoulders up. Flex through the wrist, root lock, third eye, suspend the breath, and exhale. Gyan mudra. Long, deep breathing and relax. Notice, right? Bear witness to your heightened state of awareness. You're more aware of more aspects of your true nature. Not just the labels you apply to yourself through your actions, but something deeper, subtler than that. It's living consciousness. There's a witness. Gently blink the eyes open. We have two more parts to this creoset. One is we're going to do some opposite nostril breathing, right? We have these two nadis, Ida and Pingala, energy channels or nadis, that we want to really bring into this balance and state of harmony. And then we're going to come laying down on our backs to do a visualization exercise for our masculine and feminine energy, which is very, very powerful. All right?

So let's start with the right hand coming up to the face. Thumb closes off right nostril. Left hand is in Gyan mudra. Eyes are at third eye center. I'm going to inhale through my left nostril. Close off my left nostril with my right ring finger. Exhale through my right nostril. Inhale through my right nostril. Close it off and exhale through my left. Alternating back and forth. Inhale left. Exhale right. Inhale right. Exhale left. I want all of these breaths to be even balanced and full. Here we go. Eyes are at third eye. One more on each side. Now release the right hand. For the sake of balance, let's do the same thing on the other side. Taking my right hand up to my face. Closing off my left nostril. Right hand is Gyan mudra. Inhale left nostril. Right nostril. Exhale left. Inhale left. Exhale right. Continue. Full complete breaths.

Do you notice inflammation in one nostril more so than the other? Sometimes that's indicative of an energy imbalance. Let's take one more full round on this side. Release the left hand. Take a deep inhale through the nose. Inside out. The last part of this Kriya. I'd like you to come laying down onto your back please. Please make sure that you're going to be very comfortable and relaxed. If you tend to be tight in the low back, please take a pillow or a bolster or something or blanket and put it under the knees to support the low back. I'd like you to let your feet and thighs turn out naturally. Tailbone turns down. Palms face up next to the hips and actually take those palms and give them a good rub. Generate some energy and then lay those palms down next to either side. Chin is to the chest. Ears fall back. Eyes sink back. And we're going to do a beautiful visualization that's going to help you gain an awareness of the state of being of both your masculine and your feminine energy. I'd like you to pay attention to your left hand. Feel the energy in the palm. And standing like a beautiful hologram in the center of your palm, I'd like you to envision the manifestation of your feminine energy. What is her form? Is she human? Is she animal? Maybe she's plant? What is her form intuitively? Visualize the form of this feminine energy, the form it takes. What is her size? Is she large? Is she strong? Is she thin? Is she frail? Does she have a skin color or tone? Or maybe she has fur or feathers? What is her constitution? Does she feel strong, fast, quick, energetic, or maybe she's slow and lethargic, maybe a little lazy? And I encourage you not to judge what's coming up. Just bear witness to what's coming up. This will give you an understanding of your state of energy in the feminine. Does she have a scent? What is her age? Is she in need of anything? Is she lacking anything? Is there anything that she's trying to communicate to you? Does she feel at home in your being? And to visualize and sense all of that sitting in your left palm. And just let her sit there patiently for a moment as you focus your energy over to the right hand. In the center of the hand is your masculine energy, the manifestation of your masculine energy. Does he have a form? Is it human? Is it animal? Is it plant? What is his size? His color? Does he have fur or feathers? What is his energy? What is his constitution? Is he quick? Is he fast? Is he fiery? Is he watery? Maybe he's very grounded and earthy. Sense how he feels in your being. Is he at home? Is he in need of anything?

Is there anything that he's trying to communicate to you? And I'd like you to feel the presence of both beings, both energetic manifestations in the palm of your hand. Sense how they interact. Are they foreign? Are they at odds with each other? Or are they easily merging and in communication and cooperation with one another? Is one stealing energy or robbing light from the other? I'd like you to feel both of those manifestations in your hands and bring them both to the heart center and see what needs to take place for those two energies to merge and to cooperate. Just hold those energies in the center of your heart while you breathe and you rest in Savasana. All right, let's end. You You You You You You You You You You You You Gently wiggling your fingers and your toes You Please draw your knees into your chest Wrap your forearms around your shins and rock from side to side. I Hope you enjoyed that visualization I Always find that a wonderful way to really gain an understanding where there is an imbalance in my being be able to Hold a symbol and then see where there might be an imbalance And please roll on to one side into fetal position While you're down there relax yourself Take a full breath in through the nose Side out through the mouth Releasing anything that doesn't serve one more time inhale And then please use your top hand to press yourself up to seated cross-leg position Let's close out with one round of the longtime Sun and three rounds of Sat Naam May The long time sunshine upon you all love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way on Guide your way on guide your way on Sat Naam Bringing the folded hands to third eye Center Suspend the breath blessing that you'll be guided by intuition And have the wisdom encouraged to follow it exhale bowing forward Sat Naam namaste Thank you everybody