A Day in Kundalini Training

12:00 pm
Ah, noon. What a great time to start class. I have had my 9 am Kundalini class  and a cup of yogi tea. I try not to drink coffee before class when I know we are going to have a long meditation or a particularly tough Kriya early in the day.

12:05 pm
Everyone has settled in and we begin as we do every class, with the Adi mantra. "Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo," resonates through the room and out the door, washing the vibration over us, bringing us to the same space and energizing the group consciousness. After the third repetition, we suspend our breath and release in one big sigh, all together.

We start the day with the Awakening the Ten Bodies Kriya. If you have ever done this set of exercises, then you know how difficult it is! We manage to pull through together.

2 pm
Midday continues with a lecture from Mehtab over the Yogic diet. He is a powerful presence in the room; subtly commanding attention, with the kind understanding that comes from years of instructing students and teachers in the ways of Kundalini yoga.

prana, or life energy, in our food and what it means to be sattvic, rajasic or tamasic, two of the students walk around the room with trays of small snacks: a fresh date, a cut of ginger, a strawberry and a dried raspberry. We are instructed to eat each piece of food and close our eyes to experience the flavor, texture and the way it affects us.

The lecture is engaging and full of humor; Mehtab can be quite the comedian. He finishes by bringing us back to the food and the sensations in our body now that the prana of the food has had a chance to integrate into our bodies.

4 pm
We have just finished with a 61-minute meditation and I am not sure which way is up at this moment. My arms are tired and have been held in one position for virtually an hour straight. But then there's that blissful feeling again, reminding why I'm doing all this hard work.

We are about to take our second break for the afternoon, after which we are finishing up with a lecture over yogic lifestyle to follow-up the diet lecture we had this morning.

4:30 pm
Well, as often happens after a meditation, people are buzzing with energy and the lecture on Yogic Lifestyle has become a lively debate on the role of food, meditation and asana in our daily lives. Everyone has taken a different approach to how they integrate yogic philosophy in their lives and it serves as a reminder that this truly is for all of us collectively and yet remains so individual.

6 pm
We are in our final savasana of the day and the gong is resonating throughout the room. As the final waves of sound trickle down and around me, my breath becomes long and deep and I am smiling from ear to ear. My body is tired, but nourished and happy. My mind has been stretched to infinity and back, but I am more firmly grounded than when I came in the door.

We say "Sat Nam" at the end of the day and many of us are hugging goodbye. There is a true sense of community here. I am thankful for the exhaustion, the other students in the program with me, and that I have a place like Yoga Yoga to come and grow myself as a yogi.