Unveiling the True Self

Hello. Welcome to Kundalini Rising on Yoga Anytime. I'm Kara Looney. I'm excited today to work on a set with you that helps us unveil our authentic nature. We're going to get rid of some of those masks that we wear on a regular basis. A lot of our responsibilities, our obligations, our insecurities cause us to put on masks and believe that we have to portray a certain state of being or a certain manner of personality in order to move through the day. And what that does is it disconnects us from our authentic self. Today's work is going to bring that authentic self to the forefront and wipe away any of those masks that compromise our true authentic self. I look forward to working on this with you. Let's rub our hands together, stimulating 72,000 energy channels, closing down the eyes, lengthening the spine, preparing to tune in with the Adi mantra, our sacred invocational mantra, Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo. I bow to the divine teacher within. We're calling on that high self to step forward and shine its light. Let's bring the thumbs into the sternum, gentle tuck of the chin toward the chest, eyes a third eye. Let's take a deep breath into the nose to begin. Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo, Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo, Aung Namo, Gurudev Namo. Take a deep breath in through the nose, and release. With today's set, I'd like you to be able to reconnect to that most authentic place within yourself. I think so many of us go through so many roles and have so many responsibilities in our lives that we actually forget how it feels to be in our authentic expression of our true nature, balanced, relaxed, being able to live spontaneously, react and respond in love. Let's start with our warm-up and get all of our energy channels and our nervous system prepared for the work, and then we'll get down to our first part of the practice. Take your hands on the knees, and let's begin rolling in Sufi circles, inhaling forward, exhaling back, starting in a direction that feels organic. There's no right or wrong direction to go, just whatever feels right. Eyes are drawn up to third eye space, stimulating glands in the brain, rolling through the chest, feeling the shoulders nice and relaxed, relaxed in the neck. Let's go for four, three, two, and one. Hold center, inhale, and reverse the direction.

Nice beautiful Sufi circles. Always a great way to start our practice, opening through the heart, releasing tension in the low back and the hips. Let's take four, three, two, and one. Inhaled, center, spinal flex forward, spinal flex back. Four, three, two, and one. Inhale, lift high through crown of head. Exhale, shoulders down away from the ears, and hands come up onto the shoulders. Inhale, twisting left, exhale, twisting right, eyes at third eye center.

Four, three, two, and one. Hold center, inhale, reach those arms up to the sky, and let's sweep from side to side, charging up the energy field around the body, opening up the intercostal muscles in the rib cage, having that nice, beautiful lateral flexion through the spine. Eyes are closed, drawn up to third eye center, and we sweep through the energy field. Nice deep breathing, four, three, two, and last time, reach the arms high overhead, inhale, exhale, hinge, bow forward, let's come on to tabletop. Hands are under the shoulders, knees are under the hips in a tabletop position, starting with a neutral spine. I'd like you to start with the left leg and extend it all the way back, stretching through pointed toe, engaging in the belly, engaging in the glutes and the hamstrings. This is our inhale. Exhale, we round the back in a modified cat cow, tuck the nose to the knee. Inhale, extend, exhale, contract. Here we go. Full extension with that leg. Four, three, two, hold on the extended leg, inhale, and exhale, release the leg down. Let's do the same thing on the other side. Extend that right leg all the way back, navel engages, feeling the glute and the hamstring engage. This is our inhale. Exhale, tuck and doom. Inhale, extend. Let's go for four, three, two, and hold on the extended one and release. Please come back to a seated cross leg position. Let's begin our practice with a powerful ego eradicator. And as I've mentioned before, ego eradicator is not eradicating the ego, right? We need it. We need it to be able to show up to work and pay our bills and maintain our responsibilities. But what this process does is it brings the ego into balance. So it's under the service of the high self, as opposed to being under service of our graspings, our resistances, our addictions, our fears. All right, let's bring the arms up 60 degrees, shoulders down away from the ears, really reach those arms long, try and take any bend out of the elbows. Let's bring the fingers into the palms, thumbs extend toward one another and envision just an arc of energy from one thumb to the other above the top of your head.

Eyes drop to third eye center. We're going to begin a rhythmic pumping breath of fire through the nose. If you're pregnant around the first three days of your menstruation, instead do a longer, deeper breathing. Here we go. Soft in the shoulders, long in the arms, little smile on the face. Breathing at a sustainable pace for you. Let's take 30 more seconds. Take a deep inhale, suspend the breath, third eye, join the thumbs to touch over the top of the head, reach the fingers, keep the breath held, maintain the posture, exhale, inhale, suspend, root lock, third eye, reach the arms, keep the posture one more time, exhale, inhale, now suspend and direct the energy up and exhale, gently release those hands down through the energy field, ground the fingertips, gently bring the hands onto the thighs for a moment and just sit in a state of reflection, sit in observation of your being, of your energy, of your quality of mind, state of comfort, and gently blink the eyes open. Next part of this kriya, we're going to take a really beautiful mudra, we call this the lotus mudra, so I'd like you to bring your hands in front of your chest and let the wrists touch, the inner wrists touch, and then you join the pinky finger and the thumb finger to join and let the rest of the fingers kind of blossom out so it looks like a lotus flower and it's right in front of the throat. Our eyes, instead of being focused at third eye center, are going to be focused down at the tip of the nose, so I'd like you to think about crossing your eyes and then closing those eyes down so you're gently looking through the lashes at the tip of your nose. And this focus is creating a little bit of tension in the optic nerve, stimulating the glands and the brain in a very specific way. We're going to chant a mantra Haraji Hara Hara Hara Hara Hara Haraji Haraji Hara Hara Hara Hara Hara Hardaji Eyes at the tip of the nose long spine chin to the chest, take a deep breath in through the nose to begin. Haraji Hara Hara Hara Hara Hara Hara Haraji Haraji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Harajcks.

Haraji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara ji. Haraji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara ji. Haraji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara ji. Haraji Hara Hara Hara Haraji Haraji Hara Hara Hara Hara Hara Haraji Hara Hara Hara Hara Haraji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Haraji. Haraji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Haraji.

Haraj poverty. Haroor Ji Hara Hara Hara Hara Ji Four more rounds. Haraji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara ji. Hara ji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara ji. Hara ji, Hara, Hara, Hara, Hara ji.

Harajji. Harajji. Harajji. Harajji. Now take a deep inhale. Suspend the breath, third lock, third eye, focus. And exhale, release the hands down. Chin gently tucks to the chest. And blink the eyes open. The last part of our Kriya is a powerful self-healing Kriya. We have the ability to self-heal. That is evident in any scratch or scrape that you've ever received. Your body regenerates, self-healing. We're also self-healing energetically, emotionally, spiritually. And this meditation brings us into a space to cultivate all aspects of our self-healing capabilities. Again, we're going to employ a very powerful mudra. I'm going to join my thumbs to touch, my index finger to touch, and my middle finger to touch. My ring and my pinky fingers remain extended and far away from each other. My eyes are going to drop strong to third eye center. I take a full inhale through the nose and I hold it as long as I can without creating anxiety. So you're not going to turn blue in the face. I'd like you to just inhale and hold until it feels complete. So let's take a full inhale. Suspend full belly eyes at third eye. And then exhale through the nose. Continue like that. Inhale through the nose. Suspend. And release.

Create a slow, nice rhythm for yourself. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Let's take four more breaths. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Full inhale and suspend. Press those three fingers together, root lock, third eye. And exhale, gently release. Palms face up on the knees.

And just notice the presence you've cultivated. Notice that authentic aspect of yourself present and accounted for. The more we gain connection with this authenticity, the more we are able to express ourselves from this space. Gently blink your eyes open and come laying down onto the 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. Gentle awareness of the crown of your head. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Gently wiggling your fingers and your toes.

If we can't fully love ourselves, we can't fully love anyone or anything else. Roll on to one side into fetal position. Taking a full inhale, sigh it out through the mouth. Gently use the top hand. Press yourself up seated. Join me in cross-leg position or any other seated position that feels comfortable for you. And let's close out with our blessing.

May the long-time sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the pure light within you guide your way on. We tune out with three powerful expressions of Sat Naam. Let that vibration ripple out into the universe, delivering the message far and wide that truth is your identity. Let's take a deep breath in through the nose to begin. May the long-time sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the pure light within you guide your way on. Guide your way on.

Guide your way on. Sat Naam. Sat Naam. Sat Naam. Take a deep inhale through the nose.

Suspend the breath and bring folded hands to third eye center, a blessing that you'll be guided by intuition and have the wisdom and courage to follow it. Exhale bowing forward. Sat Naam. Namaste. Rising up. Thank you so much everybody. Sat Naam.