3 Heroic Kundalini Journeys, with Jung on Yoga

We start this 1-hour yoga set to flex and prepare your whole body for travel into a successful future. You tune in,  making preparations for travel, and catch your direction. For this session, you may want to start with a destination in mind in your life, or be open to locating a destination.

The set continues. You get busy with and go far with focus on your destination, and learn to work with current and wind (for when you get stuck).

Finally, we arrive at our new location, enjoy a long rest to soak in the lesson, and give thanks.

This 1-hour yoga set evokes a solar or masculine energy. For this session, you may want to start with a problem or challenge in mind to solve, to be open locating one. And first, we tune in and prepare to move with purpose as we activate our resource.

In the heat of battle, you can find your place of peace and power, and learn to flow and stretch when faced with complexity.

Ultimately, you find victory in the heart of the matter, and can rest and give thanks.

This 1-hour yoga set evokes a lunar or feminine energy. After tuning in and getting comfortable, you will find greater balance, particularly with respect to some task, job, person or calling in life.

In this 3rd act, the penultimate exercises reveal the power of service. And we end with rest and thanksgiving. Ideally, you come with a devotion or responsibility in mind, or open to locate one.

Even among people who know Dr. Carl G. Jung's work, they may be surprised to hear he studied yoga. He did more than dabble. We know this from his lectures on yoga, conversations with Indian yogis, and his tour of India. These lectures are somewhat hard to follow. But what can we learn from them?

Chakras are a well-known aspect of yoga. But what are they? We can define them multiple, complementary ways. And Jung discussed the chakras in depth, from a psychological and anthropological view.

Energy flows through the body. Kundalini is the huge reservoir of energetic potential that resides within us, often deep in the body. In most people, it lies dormant, waiting to be awakened and worked with productively. To work in a healthy with with this energy, yoga helps tone the body, mind, and spirit.

Reflect on areas of your life that need help, and how body-mind practices address the whole person, not just one aspect like mental strategizing only, attending to emotions only, or hitting the gym only.

Please reflect and do a gut-check now. How do you feel? What does wellness look like? What stresses are you dealing with? And what baggage have you been carrying. Get personal on yourself to prepare for the "kind of person" you want to express.

Body-mind practices like yoga are grounded in science, in the architecture of nervous system. We are far more than a brain in a body. The nervous system runs through the whole body. And the ANS, of Autonomic Nervous System, holds a key to understanding much of yoga's power.

Consciousness is not simply a state of awareness or mental focus. We step through Jung's description to understand consciousness as something that moves organically, situationally, and developmentally.

As Jung saw it, the Western tradition is more about analysis, skill-building, and self-improvement. In contrast, the Eastern tradition including yoga is more about about quieting, clearing baggage, and emptying oneself to better connect with Universal Consciousness.