oficina de kundalini yoga 3 (Photo credit: Alex Czajkowski (Amrit))
Whenever we introduce our bodies to more health, our bodies respond by kicking out its defenses, coping mechanisms and stored illness. This is usually not so pleasant, unless you have a great mind-set.
There are however some ways of dealing with the symptoms of detox. Kundalini Yoga helps us to get deeply into the sensations of our bodies. Through breathing and movements that massage our internal organs and gently loosens up our joints and spine, we are primed up for a release that we can cope with and manage more comfortably.
I know this through experience. I have felt the heat on my skin and the radiant strength pulling through in the midst of some ugly detox symptoms due to my own desperation to go to my Kundalini toolbox. The simplest of techniques works for detox and intense kriyas may not be the ideal step in these circumstances. Spinal Kriya, I believe is one of the best activities to do during an intense detox or cleanse. All of the traditional Kundalini Yogi warm-ups also work well. Chanting and any form of breathwork is great…especially alternate nostril breathing.
One thing I want to mention however is that everything is not detox. Sometimes the symptoms we experience are in relation to toxicity entering our bodies rather than being expelled. In this way we may feel that Kundalini Yoga is failing us, or our bodies are just too toxic and we may as well give up on it and live complacently until we die.
Just because you’re eating raw or more raw foods doesn’t mean that everything you’re eating is high quality or safe for human consumption. There are lots of scams out there in the raw world and the best I can say without going into too much detail(for this blog post) is simple is better.
Just like in the yoga world, certain traditions have endured for good reason. And this is not to say that anything new is fake or fraud, but when it comes to the body our internal conditions need simple maintenance with the natural foods designed for us and that we were designed for. There are no villainous fruits and veggies and there are no elite exotic superfoods that you need for health.
How could these be evil? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What we need is to listen to, trust and nourish our bodies. We obviously need lots of water, sunshine, sleep, laughter and nutrition in our lives. We also need to trust that the universe is abundant in what we need to survive and not just those who can afford expensive, exclusive products. Kundalini Yogis are vocally open about raw food nutrition.
In a class I took with Gurmukh she mentioned the superiority of raw food nutrition. In the same studio, Anahata the studio’s owner had experience with Ann Wigmore’s raw food movement of the 70’s. My very young yoga teacher trainer Jeffrey was in communication with Gabriel Cousins and included raw foods as a part of his teacher training and his teacher Siri Gian Singh is a raw chef. I believe I have even heard Yogi Bhajan talk about raw food.
Unfortunately there are also people like David Wolfe going around claiming what Kundalini is, and I’ve gathered there are several others out there getting on the bandwagon just to use the name of Kundalini to sound shnazzy. This is not to say that eating superfood products is the doom of civilization, but some raw food leaders (who are called gurus strangely enough) recommend an extremely high percentage of “superfood” products, supplements and practically condemn simple fruits and veggies.
So, I believe Kundalini Yoga can really help a person decipher the real healing from the fake. It can take some time however to shift through it all, if you are connecting to the truth of raw foods and reading the soap opera version of the philosophy. The same way people can connect to the philosophy of yoga, but are turned off by trendy, shallow commodities.
oficina de kundalini yoga (Photo credit: Alex Czajkowski (Amrit))
I have experienced transitions within my body in adapting my eating patterns to a raw and fruit-centralized style. However, before I became a fruitalini, I was a nutalini and consumed high quantities of fat and processed superfoods. I suffered with what I believed was detox for a really long time and was so paranoid about doctors and stuck in the paradigm of “this is so expensive, how can I get help” that I wouldn’t get help and figure out what was really going on with me.
Once I found the fruitalini way, through 80/10/10 by Doug Graham, I was free from constant pain and detox. This doesn’t mean my body didn’t cleanse. It did, and when it did I decided to write this post about how the discomfort was cradled by my Kundalini Yoga practice.
I am not eating 100% raw right now. I am still cleansing every now and then as I add and subtract from my fruit-focus. When I cleanse, I get on the floor, with fire breath and spinal twists and my bodily sensations erupt with an action that clearly creates a response to help me “Stay calm and carb up!” or “Stay calm and keep up!” After 3+ years in the high carb, low-fat raw style, I am a million times more stable in my eating and health. I know how to be reasonable with my self and enjoy what I’m doing. I’m ready to challenge myself to up my raw intake again, so it will be fun to share my detox/cleanse days and show what is realistic and helpful during this time.
~~Sat Nam~~And May the Fruit Be With You~~
Sign up here for updates on this post: Weekly Newsletter
- Sound Healing Saturday (fruitaliniyogi.wordpress.com)
- Describing Kundalini Yoga, Pt. 1 (fruitaliniyogi.wordpress.com)
- Gratitude Detox – Review (spinachandyoga.com)
- Withdrawal (iwontdiet.wordpress.com)
- Summer Time Kundalini Yoga Events (fruitaliniyogi.wordpress.com)
- The RAW Food Diet… common-sense or non-sense? (simplypurelyhealthy.wordpress.com)
- vegan/raw detox day 15 – 21/28 (paperclipsuk.wordpress.com)
- What Are Raw Foods? (jennsadventures.wordpress.com)
The Aniweda Dream 