How Tantric Yoga Helps Me Be a Better Person

I never used to like yoga. Yet I have fond memories of my grandmother wearing a black leotard and sitting cross-legged in her lounge room, as I, age three, attempted downward-dog.

Maybe the types of yoga that I did when I was older weren’t the best for me. I’ve always been active and up for challenging myself, but I often felt like yoga was hovering between awkward and jarring. There was no flow or synchronicity.

That was until I started doing Kundalini and tantric yoga. 

Kundalini Yoga

About five years ago, I went to my first Kundalini yoga class. While some are familiar with the Sanskrit word, which literally means coiling, like a serpent, it’s the untapped energy that each of us has lying at the root chakra or the base of our spine. Basically, it’s like a vast pool of creativity and the foundation for our consciousness.

A somewhat sacred practice, Kundalini yoga was first introduced to Western society by Yogi Bhajan in about the late ’60s. Based on kriyas (yoga sets), it combines specific breathing techniques (mostly through the nose and often includes the rapid breath of fire), asanas (physical postures ranging from a seated pose to jumping around), mudras (hand gestures), mantras and meditation.

When practised correctly, the idea is to awaken and expand the Kundalini energy and align all the chakras to realise our fullest potential.

I know that by the end of that first Kundalini yoga class, energy was starting to spiral all the way from my root chakra to my crown. An inner pulsating — a vibration — was alternating between my third eye and crown. It was uplifting, serene and spiritual. I felt like I’d started to reconnect with myself. I’d found a yoga for me.

Then I discovered tantric yoga.

Tantric Yoga

To some degree, I’ve always been interested in the ancient practice of Tantra. That sense of tapping into a more conscious way of being and creating a deeper, more authentic connection within myself and with others — without being a religion or dogma — has always held immense appeal.

While sex is an aspect of Tantra, it’s not the total sum of it.

In saying that, given sexuality is such a potent force, it’s through Tantra that we can tap into it from a healthier, more fulfilling perspective; a place of reverence. With that in mind, it’s also important to understand that there are various ways in which Tantra has been practised throughout the ages. It’s about finding what works for you.

Since wholeheartedly reacquainting myself with Tantra in this last year, more specifically tantric yoga, with the unique and holistic The Awaken Series, I have literally started to evolve from the inside out. Again, it relates to awakening the Kundalini energy within. But this particular tantric yoga, a remarkable fusion of asanas, breath-work (pranayama), mudras, meditation and some mantras from specific practices, including some aspects of Kundalini yoga, dives deep into all aspects of our being.

It provides an accessible and effective framework to live more consciously in every area of modern-day life.

The emotional and energetic shifts that I experienced from my first tantric yoga class were profound. From the get-go, we were encouraged to make any sounds and let any emotions go as they arose, be it sighing, crying or laughing. And yes, yogasms are likely.  

So there I was standing in one of the early asanas, eyes closed, keeping an open mind and raring to go. And then suddenly I felt an internal heat rising. I was pissed off. Maybe this wasn’t for me. But I instantly turned that resistance into “What is it I need to let go of?”

Muladhara (the root chakra), the very foundation and basis of our being, was activating like never before.

I persisted and breathed deep. I moved my way through the asanas as we gradually worked from the lower to upper chakras. Breathing into Anahata (the heart chakra), fat tears slid down my face and neck.

Just as a lotus grows out of the mud and its petals unfold to bloom and radiate in the warm sunlight, I too was gradually opening myself up again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

White lotus flower. Image by Kristin Lee.

For the following weeks, energy ebbed and flowed. Anger, grief, guilt, fear, all of which had virtually been forgotten, surfaced. It was like a flood of emotions releasing from my connective tissue, muscles and cells, even my liver.

Instantly, almost miraculously, physical issues, including painful sciatica that had started a few months earlier, resolved with the release of the emotional connection behind it.

Like anything, everyone has their own journey. What overwhelmingly came up for me was that I wasn’t being fully seen or showing up in my fullest, truest version of myself.

Tantra is all-encompassing on the physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual planes.

For me, it’s been the key to authentic self-alignment. That’s because it has allowed me to tune in to my truest essence, really feeling and embracing the light and dark, the solar and lunar, the yin and yang, the Shiva (masculine) and Shakti (feminine) aspects that we have within us.

But what I’ve really come to love about tantric yoga is that I never know what I am going to get. Often it’s blissful; other times it stirs a wellspring of untapped emotions. And that’s okay. It keeps me real and helps me to stretch, reach and grow, both on and off the yoga mat.  

Overall, it helps me to observe the truth of where I’m at without being hard on myself. Tantra enhances a more fulfilling way of relating in life and love; it helps me feel more empowered, present, receptive and complete. My creativity, intuition and sense of wellbeing, as well as my occasional Kundalini practice, are heightened.

I’m certainly not perfect but I am a better person for it.

And for someone who never really liked yoga, I now incorporate some sort of daily tantric yoga practice.

I’ve found the one for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image by Kristin Lee.

How does your yoga make you feel?

By Kristin Lee

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