Releasing Mental Patterns

Hello and welcome to Kundalini Rising on Yoga Anytime. I'm Kara Looney. Today we will be doing a Kriya set that works to help us remap the mind. We develop these little habits, these little behavior patterns, these neural pathways that cause us to tend to do the same activities over and over and over again. When there are good behaviors and good positive habits, that's a great thing, but sometimes our habits and our tendencies tend to be disserving and cause us some strife and suffering in our lives. So this particular process is going to help us remap and renegotiate some of our neural pathways to bring us into more positive life-affirming action. Let's bring the hands to the heart center, rubbing the palms vigorously, charging up 72,000 energy channels, and bring the palms together, thumbs into the sternum. And let's tune in with our sacred invocational mantra, I bow to the divine teacher within, calling that high self forward. Let's take a deep inhale to begin. Namo, Gurute, Namo, Om, Namo, Gurute, Namo. Take a deep breath in through the nose.

Suspend the breath, root lock, third eye, and exhale, release. Let's prepare the nervous system, prepare the physical body for the work we're about to do. Take those hands onto the knees, starting with Sufi circles, whichever direction feels organic for you, clockwise or counterclockwise to begin is fine. Inhaling forward, exhaling back, eyes are at third eye center, opening through the heart, rounding through the back, spreading through the shoulder blades, moving through the neck and shoulders, priming that central channel of energy to begin our practice. Let's go for four, four, three, two, and one. Hold center and reverse. Inhale forward, exhale back, shoulders down and away, and just soothing your way through these beautiful Sufi circles. These are a wonderful exercise to do at any time. They help balance out our digestion, open up some of these energy channels, and bring us into an expanded awareness. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Come center, spinal flex forward on the inhale, rounding on the exhale, four, three, two, and one. Inhale, lift high through crown of head, and exhale release. Let's take those hands onto the shoulders, shoulders down away from the ears.

Inhale, twist left, exhale, twist right. Nice beautiful spinal twists, wringing out low body organs, drawing that energy up into the high triangle of consciousness. Eyes are at third eye center. Keeping with this rotation, gently lift those hands off the shoulders, join index finger and thumb into Gyan mudra, four, three, two, and hold center. Inhale, reach the arms high, and let's sweep through the energy field. Inhaling and exhaling, nice lateral flexion through the spine, opening up into the lungs and those intercostal muscles of the ribs. Just these warm ups alone serve to benefit our energy field, our mind, and our physical bodies. And we're going to take it a step further today and really start to remap some of these disserving tendencies of the mind, these habits that we have. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale, reach the arms high, and let's reach the arms down to the ground. Extend the legs forward. I'm going to come side facing so you can see the length of my spine. Both legs are extended fully. Feel free to have a bend in the knees if you like for the ability to lengthen through the spine. I'm going to reach my arms up overhead to inhale. Exhale, hinge my hips forward, keep a long spine. I'm going to either grab onto my big toes, pressing on the big toe nail with my thumbs, or grab onto the ankles or the shins, okay? And again, I don't want any rounding through the back. I'd like a nice long spine. So if that means you have to bend your knees to lengthen the spine, please do so. All right, here we go. Nice long spine. I'm going to inhale, lift to lengthen. Exhale, hinge to bow. Eyes are at third eye center, and we're pressing on the big toe nail with our thumbs if you are reaching to the toes. We have a little meridian line under the big toe nail that connects to the glands in the midbrain, believe it or not. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Inhale, lift to lengthen spine, root lock, third eye. Exhale, release, gently bow.

Then come rising up. Let's come into a seated cross-leg position. Now, if seated in cross-leg position becomes uncomfortable for you, always feel free to take any other modified option. Legs extended, sitting on a chair, sitting in rock pose. You don't need to be perfect at this, right? This is yoga. Yoga is for everybody. Now, we're going to start our practice with a very powerful practice to charge up the psycho-electromagnetic field around the brain. I'm going to bring my arms out to the side. I have a gentle shoulders, long neck, soften my bent elbows, but my hands are very engaged. I grip through my fingers. We call these lion's paws and it's kind of almost also like eagle's talons, very strong in the hands, very gripping in the fingers, but everything else is soft and relaxed. I'm going to take an inhale, bring my hands up overhead. Exhale, hands come to the side. Inhale, cross the opposite direction, and then hands come down around the side. This movement is going to be accompanied with a breath of fire. We're going to breathe through the nose for the first half of the exercise, pumping the navel with a breath of fire. And then the second half, we're going to extend the tongue very long and do a breath of fire through the mouth. The tongue, when extended at its full capacity, activates the vagus nerve, right? And that's a nerve that runs throughout the whole body all the way down to our reproductive organs. So this is a powerful effect on the whole nervous system itself. All right, shoulders down and away, elbows soft, hands are strong and engaged, eyes a third eye. Let's begin. I'd like you to envision yourself really charging up a big, beautiful field around the head.

See if you can move consciously through any discomfort, soften any gripping in the shoulders and move through this very conscious, very gentle and very aware. Okay. Strong hands, eyes stay at third eye center, going for about 30 more seconds with the breath of fire through the nose. And then we transition to breath of fire through the mouth with extended tongue. 30 more seconds. Here we go. All right, let's extend that tongue, close it out with a powerful breath of fire through the mouth. Tongue is extended at full capacity, activating that vagus nerve. Last 30 seconds.

Withdraw the tongue, inhale hands out to 60 degrees, keep the strong fingers, lengthen the arms, suspend the breath. Keep the posture, exhale, inhale, root lock, third eye, suspend, fingers are strong. And exhale, release. Palms face up on the knees, Gyan mudra, Gyan mudra, reflecting inward, gaining awareness, connecting to that witness. The more that we allow ourselves to connect to the witness, the more we develop a relationship, the more we begin to perceive from the perspective of the witness. The witness is above fear, the witness is in balance, and the witness is in bliss. And gently blink the eyes open. The second half of this practice involves a mantra, very balancing mantra. The mantra is Ra Ma. Ra is the sun, Ra is the positively charged male energy, masculine energy. Ma is the moon energy connected with our feminine aspect, and it's the negatively charged aspect. So we're balancing sun and moon, Ra and Ma, masculine and feminine, brings us into a wonderful state of harmony and balance within our own being.

Each and every one of us has masculine and feminine energy that based on our own particular constitution has its particular balance, very unique and very specific to us and who we are. And when we chant this mantra in a nice slow rhythmic fashion, we connect intimately to our authentic balance of masculine and feminine. This helps reorganize the mind. I'd like you to take your hands in Gyan mudra, index finger and thumb join, long spine, tuck the tail, shoulders down away from the ears. Gentle tuck of the chin to the chest to create length in the back of the neck and the eyes are at third eye center. Slow monotone rhythm. Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama, feeling your own vibration. Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Rama Take a deep inhale, suspend the breath, root lock, third eye focus, and exhale release. It's a very powerful mantra to balance out the right and left hemispheres of the brain, the logical and rational and the intuitive and creative sides of us. Please come laying down onto your back. Feet and thighs turn out naturally. Palms face up next to the hips.

Shoulders are down away from the ears. Jaw softens, tongue relaxes in the mouth, ears fall back, and eyes sink back. Have a gentle awareness at the crown of your head. A gentle awareness at the crown of your head. A gentle awareness at the crown of your head.

A gentle awareness at the crown of your head. A gentle awareness at the crown of your head. A gentle awareness at the crown of your head. A gentle awareness at the crown of your head. A gentle awareness at the crown of your head.

Gently wiggling your fingers and your toes. Draw your knees into your chest, wrapping your forearms around your shins. Rock from side to side. Roll yourself onto one side into fetal position. Take a full inhale while you're laying on your side and side out through the mouth.

Using the top hand to gently press yourself up seated, cross leg position. Let's bring our hands to the heart center. Closing out with our sacred blessing to close the class, may the long time sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the pure light within you guide your way on. And then we tune out with three long vibrational expressions of the mantra satnam, declaring truth is our identity. Let's take a deep inhale through the nose to begin.

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. Satnam Satnam Take a deep breath into the nose. Suspend it, bringing those folded hands to third eye center, blessing that you'll be guided by intuition and have the wisdom and courage to follow it.

Exhale bowing forward, satnam, namaste. Inhale, rising up, blinking the eyes open. Satnam, everyone.