Category: Sacred Space

Kundalini Global: A Growing Community

Exciting Times for Kundalini Global and The Power of Community

Published on by Sara Edwards2 Comments

In a few weeks’ time it will be a year since I certified with Yoga Alliance as a Kundalini Global yoga teacher. That went by pretty fast. Wow. I was in the first cohort of graduates from the training. Soon another big group, full of fascinating and brilliant humans, will qualify and join us. It is an exciting time.

I am extremely proud to call myself a Kundalini Global teacher.

As a general rule I strongly reject names and labels. My pride is testament to both the quality of the training and the potency of the practise. I love it. I do. I love being in classes. I get to them as many as 5 times a week. I adore teaching. I am passionate about this incredible community growing.

Community is one of the first words that comes to mind when I think of Kundalini Global. The past year has been so weird. So hard for so many. Not least in the isolation. The community that Carolyn Cowan fostered over lockdown through her own Kundalini Global classes has been a magical thing to be a part of. It’s amazing, actually, to consider how we all managed to come together so often over zoom and how much solace we found in doing so. Not only solace. Magic. Transformation. Joy. It’s been unforgettable. And we continue.

As the first group of graduates stepped out in to this peculiar, but really quite wonderful, landscape of online teaching we took the spirit of community into our own classes and slowly but surely, we have built communities of our own. I feel the connection between them all. We are, together, such a force for positive change.

At the time of writing I believe there are around 16 certified teachers of Kundalini Global. Within the next few months that will likely treble. I hope it will treble (and more) many many more times over coming months and years. Another training starts in September. If you’re interested in joining us it’s an incredibly exciting time to do it.

You can find out more here:

Kundalini Global

Kundalini Global is pioneering, unique and, best of all, it works…

Works for what?

Most people come to a yoga class because they have heard through the grapevine, or via a super-skinny YouTube yoga celebrity, that it is relaxing, gentle, or good for stress.

Perhaps too, they seek some kind of a spiritual experience… whatever that means.

Some, like me, come because they are desperate to find respite from how unbearable life feels. How bored they are of their wily, unrelenting mind, and contracted, tense and agitated body. Respite that does not come from a hastily prescribed box of pills from the  GP or from the bottom of a bottle of wine.

Kundalini Global classes offer that respite. Quickly, magically, and through a growing, inclusive, community of teachers and practitioners who become experts in, a phrase you will hear us echo: changing how we feel.

We are a community that is new, yes, but growing quickly. And we have things to do. Big things.

What is Kundalini Global?

I do have a little page on my site about this question, a question I get asked regularly. I never manage to do it justice.

Kundalini Global is a new form of Kundalini Yoga. It is tricky to encapsulate in words, beyond saying that it is absolutely bloody amazing.

I find it to be an extraordinary, embodied, safe, kind, trauma-informed, form of yoga. A practise that creates a unique, still and gentle space within and outside of the self. The practise has a strong focus on the power of presence. And it is fun. I always add that. I have to. I have to tell you it is fun because as a statement it passes the test of being kind, necessary and also true.

Kundalini Global has opened up an entire new universe for me. One of connection, of community, one that feels powered by gratitude and intention and that allows for infinite space and freedom to be myself.

We probably aren’t what you expect…

Teachers of Kundalini Global are trained to consider aspects of creating safe, sacred spaces for classes that, I believe, opens up the possibility of exploring yoga to a much wider demographic. That is what we want. What we intend.

We probably don’t dress how you’d expect a yoga teacher to, we may not be as pretty, as flexible or as ‘love and light’… we may not play the music you have come to expect in a yoga class and we sometimes even say or do naughty things. But we are kind. We are open-minded. We practise self-reflection, daily, to notice where we may have yet unchallenged biases, attitudes or blindspots. We are supervised… we work to ensure we are well boundaried, that we are taking care of ourselves physically and mentally. We support each other.

We are human (and not, unfortunately, frogs… at least not always)

Kundalini Global teachers share a desire to use our individual manifestations of ‘humanness’ to offer those who come to classes an experience of what it can be like, what it can feel like, to be present, safe, still and gentle.

How we help you get there can require effort, don’t be entirely fooled by all this talk of ‘gentle, still, softness.’ That’s the reward.

We may have you using your arms as the world’s sharpest swords, working your core, squatting as a frog in stilettos or beaming 80 foot beams of light through your exhausted, extended arms up over your head (it’s not all barmy – but it’s fun when it is).  No matter what we invite you to explore,  though, all posture is presented with many equal variations to suit all body shapes and abilities, to allow for knowing that a posture is not a ‘can or can’t’ situation.

We show you how to make the postures work for your body. With no ‘ideal’, only equal variations that give the same, or a similar, desired effect.

Kundalini Global is not the preserve of the bendy, the thin, the white, the cis, the straight, the able-bodied, the young, the rich. It is our intention that we do the work to create diverse and welcoming communities that feel safe, fun and, hopefully, sacred. For everyone.

Whilst we may teach on zoom from grey, post-industrial cities in the midlands rather than parading in leggings and bras on rocks in the Ganges, we are all in service to create magical spaces that allow for all manifestations of what it means to be human to be held safely.

Ever unfolding

The work that we began on ourselves during the teacher training with Carolyn Cowan has continued for me every single day since.

‘The work’ – it sounds like a chore, doesn’t it?

Perhaps, if you haven’t ever done a yoga teacher training, you could imagine we mainly practise postures and learn about bones and muscles. We do do that. Lots of it. But the experience of training to teach Kundalini Global goes far beyond that.

With Carolyn you are invited to take apart your entire self-and-societally-constructed sense of self and examine each aspect with open, present, eyes.

I mention presence again here because, in order to do the work, the ability to come to presence again and again is vital. As teachers we must ‘practise what we preach’ and do that.

On the training we become expert at knowing hundreds of ways to come out of the pain of the past and the fear of the future and to the present moment. The commitment is to do it. Believe me, this is easier said than done. It takes huge amounts of self-awareness. It takes an ability to step out of self-obsession. But we commit to it. Because we understand what it opens up.

Deconstruction to reconstruction

I had a point on the teacher training where my entire universe lay in a giant, messy, heap on the floor in front of me. 

But I was present to it. I could see the work that was needed.

Deconstruct, examine, look at it in different lights, through different lenses. Reflect. Keep? Upcycle? Discard? And repeat.

Repeat with each and every aspect of yourself. From the stories you feel are pivotal to your life to how you feel about veganism to your gender identity to your relationship to god. Eventually you are left with what is likely a smaller pile of ‘stuff’ of ‘parts’, from which you can begin to reconstruct YOU.

My reconstruction has been interesting. Bits fall off all the time. Usually for good reason. But I reflect on them as they tumble. On what they taught me. New things get added. I have to take them off and have a look at them every now and then too.

Big parts of my work have been about dealing with shame, on body issues, on landing back into my body after years of being incredibly disconnected. It truly has been about challenging all aspects of what I thought about life and what life could, or should be.

When I wrote earlier ‘it sounds like a chore?’ I was going to follow with ‘it hasn’t felt like one.’ But actually, on occasion, it really has.

I have done it anyway.

I made a commitment when I qualified. I wrote an agreement for myself about what being a Kundalini Global teacher meant to me, what my commitment was. 

I am really bloody proud of myself for sticking with my commitment to change, to challenge, to reflect and to remain, always, open-minded.

When I got to my teacher training in February 2020 I would NEVER have thought possible that I would be in a place so soon of having taught hundreds and hundreds of classes. Of having built a absolutely awesome community of lovely humans who I teach. To have made my own Instagram account full of artistic manifestations of the insides of my brain, made friends with an imaginary tiger that I was comfortable enough to share with the world… none of this would have felt possible.

It became possible because the Kundalini Global training is an incredible, incredible, way to kick-start huge transformation. A little spoiler: you may have to walk through hell on the way. It’s worth it.

My journey…

When I first came to Kundalini Yoga it was not, back then, Kundalini Global. My first exploration was in the ‘as taught by Yogi Bhajan’ school. I remember someone describing the practise at the time to me as ‘yoga, but more spiritual’. An interesting statement on a number of levels. Hilarious.

I could kind of see what they meant, though. It felt like a ‘spiritual thing’ in comparison to what you may find presented as yoga in a gym. To chant. To focus at the third eye. To meditate for hours on end. And it made me feel great. The endorphins alone were enough to see me leaving class as high as a kite, desperate for my next Kundalini fix.

When I first practised Kundalini Yoga, I went from a lycra-clad, scatter-brained, spiritually-skeptic accidental-class-attendee to a white-linen-wearing, spiritual-name-holding, daily sadhana practising, devotee within months. I also became vegan, stopped drinking, took daily cold showers and believed every problem that had ever existed in my life had miraculously vanished with the power of chanting with Snatam Kaur.

I lived for a few years as if I was floating in a cloud of sparkly fairy dust. It drove those around me mad.

This form of Kundalini did much for me at the time but I never wanted to commit to teaching it. Partly because:

a. Everyone around me thought I had joined a cult. 

b. Some part of my knew I had, indeed, joined a cult.

It’s a big topic. And by even discussing it I open myself up to scrutiny in a way I do not feel entirely comfortable with. But the context is important in my journey. Because part of what I love about what Carolyn has done with Kundalini Global also comes to how the practises we teach, just like my description of the work we are invited to do on ourselves, have been deconstructed and examined. The ‘why’ of how they work has been conceptualised within the frameworks of physiology… neuroscience, endocrinology…

We have equally looked at the esoteric thought of the practise. But broadened out that exploration to consider the whole spectrum of religious and spiritual belief systems.

We understand how the practises we work with work. And, yes, many teachers then choose to imbue their classes with all kinds of other concepts and ideas that resonate with them. But the key aspects remain: we can show you how to go from feeling left-out, stressed-out, overwhelmed, anxious, pissed off and offended to the present moment. A place where the ability to accept and allow is possible. And, often, welcome. You also, of course, have permission to stay exactly as you are. We’re only here to show you what you’re capable of if you make the choice to change.

BS Free Yoga

When it comes to Kundalini Global, in private I have said that it is ‘Kundalini Yoga without the bullshit’. A controversial statement? Definitely. And perhaps something of a judgmental one, too.

But, on a personal level, I believe that Yogi Bhajan was not only a despicable predator but that his teachings contained huge amounts of complete and utter, misogynistic, harmful, BS. Beyond that I believe, with every cell of my body, that we do not need anyone to be our guru. We only need to be given some tools and a safe enough space to practise them, to realise that we are powerful beyond measure ourselves.

Creating a new form of Kundalini Yoga is quite a thing. Fearless, fascinating and controversial in itself.

Carolyn Cowan, who founded Kundalini Global, spent decades teaching Kundalini Yoga
before making the incredibly brave decision to take this new, pioneering, path. Carolyn recognised, long before the controversy that hit the world of Kundalini Yoga at the start of 2020, that a new way was needed. A kinder way. A 21st century way. One that is radically inclusive.

Together, I believe the Kundalini Global community will do truly amazing things. I would so love some of those who have enjoyed my classes to train to teach this incredible practise themselves. If you want to read more about Carolyn and the training you can find information here:

Carolyn Cowan
Kundalini Global


Feel free to email me if you have questions.

With loads of love, as always

Sara-Jayne

xxx

Minecraft Massacres, Plaintive Paws and Poems That Melt My Icy Cold Heart: What I Have Been Up To This Week

Published on by Sara EdwardsLeave a comment

Hello lovely humans

It’s exceedingly grey and miserable here in the ever-glamourous Wolverhampton. This feels to me the perfect excuse to stay home and ignore the plaintive sounds of Rebel the Golden Retriever, who sits across from me as I type, occasionally offering her paw as a gentle signal that I am not, in this moment, providing her with what she would like. Sigh. I will go out in the freezing drizzle and mud to walk. It’s a must for Rebel and for me too, I never regret it once I am out. A good opportunity to practise Breath of Fire, too. Doing Breath of Fire on a cold dog walk is quite a thing. A great way to get to grips with the breath and a good way to ward off the advances of strangers who will usually assume you are a little strange when you are rapidly pumping your navel as you walk!

We have a week off from homeschool. Hip hip hooray! We’re all absolutely thrilled about this. The kids are still in their PJs today. They’ve been eating cookies my mum made for them for Valentine’s day and generally doing very little else. It’s so quiet in the house. I love it. At least I love it until I go intermittently to check in on the silence and find some kind of horrifying calamity in the bedrooms upstairs that’s come from over enthusiastic Minecraft role-play.

Minecraft has been in my life now for at least 8 years. I must admit that I haven’t ever truly engaged with it until recently but I was very touched when my youngest child this week crafted a restaurant for me and his dad to have a virtual dinner in. I was a blue Power Ranger and his dad was Luigi. The youngest child was the waiter – Super Mario in a cat costume. And, as well as creating an entire restaurant, he’d made virtual menus for us to choose meals from and prepared an assortment of dishes. Unfortunately, my Minecraft skills were not what they they could’ve been and I inadvertently caused quite a lot of damage to the restaurant as I looked around. The entire experience was very sweet until the final moments of our meal when he announced that we would all ‘battle to the death’. It was actually highly amusing and a memory I am unlikely to forget. As I had absolutely no idea how to control my weapon I was killed extremely quickly. The amount of effort he had put in to the whole endeavour was admirable and we were all crying with laughter.

I am finding that it is becoming more challenging to stay present as the weeks pass in lockdown. I have to notice so often that my thoughts have begun to gallop off to the future… bringing with it an activation of a propensity I have toward being somewhat impatient. I find the thing that does really help with this for me is to practise gratitude. In this specific case writing out lists of what I am grateful for right now. Gratitude is a wonderful way to trick the brain and the stress system in to being more present. And I really do have much to be grateful for.

Classes This Week

Yesterday I ran a 3 hour workshop via Zoom where we explored creating safety – becoming safe enough to experience the magic of the yoga mat. We went in some depth in to the individual elements of what, in Kundalini Global, we call the magical equation:

Intention x Breath x Posture = Transformation

It was the first extended workshop I have run this year and I am hugely grateful to everyone who joined me. It was a great experience and I look forward to running it again soon.

This week I teach a free class at 8am on Wednesday morning. The link for that goes out to everyone on my email list on Tuesday evening. If you do not yet receive my weekly email newsletter you can sign up for that, and the free classes here:

Free Classes

I also teach at 7pm on Thursday evening and 10am on Friday morning. Both of these classes are 75 minutes long and can be booked here:

Book Classes

Everything that was broken…

I haven’t allowed myself to read much over the last few weeks as I have had a to do list longer than my over-long arms (I really do have long arms) that I needed to get on top of. One thing I have been picking up to enjoy, in quiet moments, are the poems of Mary Oliver.

Mary Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work was largely and hugely inspired by nature rather than the human world, and came from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild. She did, though, write a book of poems about love. The collection is called Felicity and despite being a human who has never, ever, considered themselves to be a romantic by nature, I find them to be extremely beautiful. In a sentimental moment this particular one even made me cry:

Everything that was broken has
forgotten its brokenness. I live
now in a sky-house, through every
window the sun. Also your presence.
Our touching, our stories. Earthly
and holy both. How can this be, but
it is. Every day has something in
it whose name is forever.

–Mary Oliver, “Everything That Was Broken,” from Felicity

Consider my sharing of that a little Valentines gift to you all. Do get in touch. Let me know how you are. You can leave a comment below or email me. I always love to hear from you.

Sending you love. I should go for my walk now, right?

(edit: I did and it was lovely. If a bit damp!)

Sara-Jayne

xxx

Making The Ordinary Sacred What Is Sacred Space? And Do Spaces Have A Gender?

Published on by Sara EdwardsLeave a comment

At the start of every Kundalini Global class you will most likely, and most definitely in my classes, hear the teacher state that we will begin by opening a sacred space.

What does that mean?

I can give you my own explanation, but I’m very interested in what it brings to mind for you? What does the term sacred space bring up? What does a sacred space feel like? Look like? Sound like? What is its purpose?

For me, on first hearing the phrase, I believe my mind went to designated places of worship. Last year I read a really fascinating book called Violence and the Body: Race, Gender, and the State which explored how when we look to places of worship we will often find buildings designed and built by men with male form and geometry. It gave me pause to consider if a space was to feel sacred to me, did it require male form? And upon entering a sacred space did I feel the male gaze? Was the masculine an aspect of my relationship to the sacred? I believe it was, but that experiences I have had over the past 12 months, including attending two series of Prayer Workshops with Carolyn Cowan, have challenged, taken apart and begun to reassemble that relationship in ways I am finding extraordinary.

Take Me to Church?

If we think of rituals performed within mosques, churches and other religious buildings we will likely believe, and largely rightly, that they are most often performed by men.

Our mind may visualise a male figure when we reflect. Plus, of course, women’s access to such spaces has often been limited by rules imposed by men. Women in Islam, for example, do not lead prayer and, in larger mosques, where women are welcome, they are usually segregated, sitting at the back or out of sight entirely.

Mormon women are, to this day, expected to wear skirts or dresses to worship services and inside temples and, until recently, India’s Sabarimala temple banned women and girls of menstruating age from entering at all.

Forgive me for speaking in the binary during this post, by the way, I do not mean to exclude anyone on the basis of gender identity, and ultimately what I am interested is how the divine feminine, an energy that transcends gender, comes to play in sacred space but in general terms it’s tricky to avoid talking man/woman when we look at the concept of sacred space though history (and I, for one, hope that is something that changes!)

Women can and do create sacred spaces and always have, be they more subjective than, for example, a Gurdwara, which we may assume most would consider a sacred space, if they of Sikh faith or not and regardless of if they experience it as sacred upon entering in to it. My perception is that women’s sacred spaces, or perhaps ‘feminine’ sacred spaces, may not have the boundaries of manmade walls – they may be universal. They may be invisible. They may not have real permanence and they may move with the individual who considers them to be sacred (for example, a yoga mat).

Through time we can look at endless examples of women not as passive occupants, forced to the back of man-made sacred spaces, but as the creators and holders of them. From the home, as a place of self expression and reflection, and altars placed within them, to sites of protest, to nature itself, the feminine sacred space is an area with great potential in bringing forth positive change. At this moment in time, with the women’s movement, from #MeToo, to the Everyday Sexism Project, to the rising discourse on the topic of male privilege and through climate change, which we may consider a manifestation of the destruction of the feminine by a masculine, consumerist, society, we have an opportunity for the creation of the sacred space on an individual level, to become mainstream, and for feminine space (even ‘Mother Earth’) to be not just created, but reclaimed.

Whilst I was on my Kundalini Global Level One Teacher training I became fascinated by the concept of feminine sacred space: what it may look like, what characteristics such spaces may share. For me, with the enormous popularity of yoga worldwide, considering the role yoga teachers could and do play in the creation of sacred space and the amazing opportunity that presents is powerful.

Again, I can speak to my own experience: that I create sacred space, both personally, and for classes I teach, with the goal of facilitating safety, stillness and connection for myself, as an act of self care, and for those who choose to come and join me in class and gift me the ability to hold the space – to allow them, potentially, a new experience of themselves.

On a binary level, looking at ‘space’ we can see gender being assigned certain characteristics in polarity as male or female, to give a few examples, public or private, built or natural, heaven or earth. Despite the patriarchal histories of modern religions, and women’s lack of agency woven in to them, it is easy to see many recurring methods employed by women to create sacred space, to ‘make a home for the spirit,’ that each share characteristics that differentiate them from traditional, male dominated, worship space.

By exploring the concept of sacred spaces through a gender lens, and looking at the divine feminine manifest within them, we are able to consider such space not only from the physical, boundaried, perspective, admiring the stained glass windows in a Catholic cathedral, but to take a more fantastic, visionary and abstract look at the architecture of space. My own view could be described in part as the creation of, and stillness in, sacred space is done as a means to make manifest the indescribable. What opportunities does this present to us, then, if the space itself is beyond description too?

By embracing the feminine in the realm of sacred space we can be powerful in a movement to untie the concept of physical homes for the divine beyond the realms of organised religion into unboundaried, empowering environments that allow a stillness for experiencing the divine within us.

Making The Ordinary Sacred

By claiming or perceiving what may be described as ‘the ordinary,” Sacred spaces created by women often display characteristics that make them easily distinguishable them from male/masculine created worship space. Many could be considered subjective, considered sacred to the individual, and not outwardly so to everyone (or indeed anyone) else. Such a space can therefore be contested (“what’s the problem with me stepping on your yoga mat with my muddy boots?”) whereas, as I said at the start of this post, most traditional worship space may be more broadly respected and considered sacred by all (“of course I will cover my head and take off my shoes”).

Feminine sacred spaces is often not confined to rooms within walls, and whilst they are often physical, e.g. the home altar, they can also be transient and unmeasurable, like a connection with another person and what happens in the space between you or when you come together. The feminine sacred space is often immeasurable. The internal connection to the divine, and the space inside that allows that, may well be considered to be sacred, but can, if she chooses, exist in every place and in all time for the women who find it.

As discussed, patriarchal societies have regularly made problematic women’s occupancy of traditional, religious, sacred space. However, this appears to have allowed for attention to go inward to find space for the spiritual. Yoga is a good example to make a case for how, over time, such gendered power inequalities have led to increased female participation in spiritual movements, where the separation of the sacred and secular is not confined by doors. The explosion of yoga in the West since the 1960s, recognised (not always but often) as a spiritual practise distinct from religion, has coincided with the women’s rights movement. So women’s lack of agency within traditional sacred space, combined with their growing autonomy, has caused the sacred spaces which they created, appropriated and visited to become ‘a womb for their spiritual development’.

But even such movements are not free of the dogma inherent in male dominated religion. In Yoni Shakti, Uma Dinsmore-Tuli makes a powerful case for the empowerment of women’s yoga practise through ‘explortion, welcoming, open sharing, honouring and recognition’. This partly in response to countless stories from yoga studios of disempowerment, disrespect and disregard for the feminine. One story, for example, looks at a case of several women on a male-led retreat not feeling safe to share they were menstruating, and therefore not having an opportunity to take part in practise that would soothe their experience.

Beyond that, stories like that of Bikram and Yogi Bhajan, powerful men who played powerful roles in bringing yoga practise to the West only to abuse that power and the women who they taught, only furthers the disconnection between yoga practise facilitating a stillness that allows inner connection, and the spaces offered by those in power in which to practise, which appears to have often been far from either sacred or safe. In a practise dominated by women at a rate of 9/1, it is important to consider how a space can be made both sacred and safe for the women entering in to it. It is true, as Dinsmore-Tuli, states, that for many women the freedom to practise the yoga that nourishes their awareness can be beautifully experienced within the boundaries of a traditional hierarchy, just as many women have found connection inside themselves within the walls of religious buildings, but many women undoubtedly feel their own consciousness is stifled by structures, sexual abuses and power imbalances within the lineage hierarchies.

It feels quite justifiable, to me, to consider that anyone facilitating yoga practise for others should reflect on women’s empowerment and how to create spaces (physical, e.g. an altar, or ethereal, e.g. the offer of accessible alternative postures for peri- post- and menopausal women) that welcome it.

Another idea that Dinsmore-Tuli explores is the disconnection inherent in contemporary yoga, which is reflected in the physical spaces classes occupy, often located in a studio or gym, but traditionally taught within ‘sacred philosophical frameworks’ in the context of the temple, or, very interestingly, the forest hermitage. As she states, ‘many yoga centres feel more like a health club than a temple or a forest ashram’. But does this matter when women have long created their own spaces to name and experience as sacred? I would argue that yes, it’s very important because the power of women coming together to practise yoga creates a unique opportunity to create a safe, sacred space in which all students can explore self-inquiry through a feminine lense, with 90%+ of teachers and their students identifying as female, why should the space not be created after deep reflection on the feminine, and on how to create sacred space in which it can be expressed and explored, rather than allowing in the same dogma and walls that have the ability to stifle it. As Dinsmore-Tuli succinctly puts it – we have created forms of yoga mirroring our own disregard for our inner guide. I would argues the same has sometimes happened for the spaces we practise in.

But how do we make a change?

Many wonderful yoga teachers and women make efforts to create and sustain the sanctity of a space before, during, and after class. It will ultimately always come down to the practitioner to listen to their own inner teacher to consider what steps can be taken to best support safety, connection and empowerment for the space they are holding. But we can look to other women, and the spaces they have created too, we can discuss, deconstruct and start anew. If we free ourselves from the bricks and mortar idea of the place of worship, the possibilities for how feminine sacred space can look become infinite.

If we consider climate change as opportunity to reclaim mother earth from the clutches of capitalism, we can so too consider the increasing number of accounts of sexual misconduct, and abuses of power by men in hierarchical yoga traditions as an opportunity to reclaim yoga as a sacred and safe space for women. In an article published in 2019, Miss Rosen makes this powerful call to action: “Mother Earth, like the sea, are historically considered feminine entities – a telling truth in a patriarchal world. What Western society has sought to exploit and oppress, perhaps William Congreve said it best in 1697: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” But why wait until it’s too late?” and just like the invitation, published in the Kundalini Global Level One Training Manual, to ‘get altars in every home…to have a place in our own world where we anchor ourselves and take stock. Where we turn inward and meet out soul. No rules, no regulations…’ it feels the time is now to truly reflect on how such practises could create massive shifts in energy for everyone. If we let the feminine sacred space thrive, free of dogma, free of walls.

What can you expect in a Kundalini Global class?

Published on by Sara-Jayne Edwards3 Comments

I have always loved yoga, but I haven’t always gone to classes. Until I found Kundalini I was often too scared to try.

What often held me back from joining classes when I moved around during my earlier years (I moved house roughly 15 times before finally settling where I am now) was that I would worry. ‘What will the teacher be like?’ ‘What should I wear?’ ‘Will everyone be more flexible than me?’ ‘Will I be able to do it?’ And on and on I’d go.

I don’t want anyone to hold themselves back from trying out a class. And the joy of teaching online is that you can dip your toe in (or, indeed fully submerge yourself) without leaving the comfort and safety of your own home. You don’t even have to turn your camera on if you don’t want to. I can assure you that all Kundalini Global classes will be taught in ways that mean every single person can ‘do’ it… each posture has many options and variations to accommodate every person there.

Beyond offering classes online, I thought it might be helpful to explain what Kundalini Global classes look like. A ‘what to expect,’ so-to-speak,

Come sit down with me.


I will always arrive at classes, whether in person or online, at least 10 minutes before so that we can, if you choose to, say hello and have a chat before we begin.

If you prefer to join only seconds before that’s totally fine too, but the invitation is there to connect not only with me but with others in the class. It can foster a real sense of community over time.

Sacred Space

In Kundalini Global classes we open a sacred space. This is important. Now, you may think to yourself ‘that sounds a bit strange’ or ‘what does that mean?’ I get it, I’ve. been there too.

What it means is that we are setting an intention that the experience of the class will be special. We are choosing to take this time, collectively, to sit and connect with ourselves, to consciously choose to change our relationship to ourselves. It is an act that is bound in both respect, love and gratitude that we have this amazing opportunity. And it is not at all weird.

Opening the sacred space involves a practise that has become known as The Kundalini Global Stretch. A simple practise, on the surface, that acts to completely reset the stress system. This stretch, that takes only a matter of seconds, releases dopamine. one of the ultimate ‘feel good’ hormones, in to our blooddstream. It means that, however stressed you feel, however bad your day has been before you come sitting on your mat, you will start the practice reset. Ready for change.

After the stretch we bow forward in gratitude 3 times: to the divine within, to the divine outside, externally, and to the infinite, the universe, the quantum field of possibility. It may be that the concept of any divine force is uncomfortable for you, and that is totally fine. This practise of gratitude can be framed in a way that works: is entirely personal to you and your own belief system.

The Power of Intention

At this point in a class we set an intention for the practise in relation to the series that we will be moving on to. This is a brief but powerful statement of Intention – it may be that we are going to work with the Intention ‘I Restore my Heart’ or ‘I Can Sit in Stillness’, or ‘I can create my own change’. The possibilities really are endless. Having this intention for the class really changes the experience of every breath and posture we work though.

Pranayama/breath/breath of fire

Most classes will open warm ups with a practice of a very Kundalini breath – breath of fire. This is an amazing breath, a breath that really quickly makes you feel amazing, but is something that is learned. It takes practise. It comes in to classes a lot and so we tend to spend a few moments practising the breath towards the start of a class.

Warm up

I love warm ups, they are always really fun. And really effective for making us feel really relaxed and safe before we begin the series.

The aim of warm ups is to get us to a place of gentleness, we relax at the end in a flood of lovely hormones like serotonin and endorphins. On a practical level, warm ups will act to gently release the fascia, open up the hips, the pelvic floor. They allow us to be kind to our bodies and minds at the start of the practise.

The Series

We come then to the yoga series. It will be relevant to the Intention we have set. In a 75 minute class a series will usually involve 6-8 postures worked though for around 3 minutes each, with rests in-between. This is not a ‘flow’ – each posture tends to stand alone. As if it is a complete practise in itself (because it is).

Breath/meditation/prayer/relaxation. 

After the series, either before or after a beautiful, extended, gentle, relaxation, we may close with a short breath, meditation or non-denominational prayer practice. This will also be complimentary to the series and Intention. 


Finally, we close the sacred space. Again, with three bows of gratitude. 

Do let me know if you have questions about any of these parts of a class. I really believe the best way to know if it is for you is to come and try a class. But I’d love to hear from you if you have any questions at all.

The classes, beyond this detail, are magical beyond words. They feel safe, fun, and leave you feeling so relaxed, it has to be experienced to be believed.