Part 2: Kundalini Awakening and the 6 Guiding Principles
Like I mentioned in the first part of this series, Kundalini is a divine force within us that’s here to support our journey towards Self-Realization.
Before I get into the signs and symptoms of Kundalini awakening, or about how to ground and balance the energy in your body, or speaking about ego death, and mystical experiences, it’s important that I provide you with some perspectives that you can fall back on in the midst of difficulty.
So today’s part of the series is all about the guidelines for a smooth Kundalini awakening process.
This journey involves an intense transformation on every level - energetic, physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual.
The Kundalini awakening process can be subtle and gradual for some, and for others, it can be rapid and very intense.
In either case, it’s important that you have a grasp of how to approach this energetic transformation with wisdom and understanding so that things can unfold smoothly, and when challenges arise, they can be navigated safely.
Naturally, things are going to get imbalanced and challenging. It can’t be avoided, it’s part of the process. So I don’t want you to feel as if you’re doing something wrong when things are difficult or uncomfortable. It’s just important that you understand how to approach the process with wisdom.
So these guidelines will serve as something to fall back on when you find yourself feeling challenged by the process.
Respect
We need to acknowledge the significance of the journey that we’re on when working with Kundalini. It’s no joke. It doesn’t go away. It’s not a hobby, side project, or just something you explore sometimes.
When Kundalini awakens and begins moving through your system, this becomes a 24/7 endeavor that requires your attention, curiosity, love, and support.
Most importantly, it requires your respect.
This energy is very powerful. Of course, its intention is to transform you so that you can experience the oneness of existence, become Self-Realized, know God, and all of that. It wants to bring you to this state of being.
But, if you do not participate in the process with wisdom, the Kundalini can make your life very, very difficult.
I don’t say this to scare you. There’s no place for fear here, unless it’s being burned up. I don’t say all this to make you afraid.
I say this to inspire you to have respect for the process you’re on, respect for the Kundalini.
The Kundalini is often depicted as a snake, for many reasons. One of the reasons I feel, is that even though you may be a fearless person, when you come across a venomous snake on your path in the wild, you don’t approach it carelessly. Despite your fearlessness, you still act with caution, knowing that it can bite you, and make things very difficult for you. This is respect. Not fear.
You don’t have to fear the Kundalini. By nature, it is a very nurturing and motherly energy. It is here to support you, to give birth to a new you. But you must respect it.
Surrender
In the West, we sometimes have a difficult time with the idea of surrender. We’ve got ideas like “never back down, never give up, never surrender”. And for some, surrender can be associated with weakness.
Well, these are all egoic ideas that will be challenged and eventually released on the Kundalini path.
Surrender is what a caterpillar does when it enters into the cocoon. It acknowledges that there is a process that it must undergo, and that the process will support it. And so it lets go and relaxes and allows something greater than itself to carry it through.
You must acknowledge that on the Kundalini path, you are like a caterpillar entering the cocoon at first, transforming inside the cocoon, and then eventually breaking out of the cocoon in a new form.
So over and over again, you will come to difficult challenges, and you will need to remind yourself that you’re supported and taken care of by a Divine force that is holding you perfectly, all the time, and will never fail you.
If and when you forget this, and begin to resist or fear, it’s not the end of the world, but it will make things more difficult for you.
The ego needs to give up control and this is what surrender is. The ego cannot transform itself. It needs to be transformed by a greater force. That force is the Kundalini. The ego also cannot stop this process.
When you’re on the Kundalini path, it’s like you are floating down a very powerful river. The river is going to go where it's destined to go and you’re going to end up there regardless of how you feel, think, or act, while you’re floating along.
You can kick, scream, or even try to swim upstream. But you cannot keep up with the force of this river. You’re going to make it to your destiny regardless. This is how destiny works.
There are things that are meant to unfold according to Divine Will. But this doesn’t mean that you don’t have any free will. You do. Your free will determines how you act, feel, or think on your way to your destiny.
So if you’re working with Kundalini, you’re destined to go through the transformation. Depending on your approach, that transformation can happen smoothly, or it can happen with great difficulty.
Either way, it will be a success and for this reason, it’s best that you simply surrender to the process, lay on your back, and float down the river, instead of fighting.
Observe with Unconditional Loving Awareness
As the Kundalini begins to transform your system, it is going to begin purifying and cleansing you of all of the suppressed emotions, beliefs, and impressions that are lodged within your chakras, within your system.
The way that this purification works is that all of the buried pain that you hold will be brought up to be expressed in your awareness before being released into the light of consciousness, resulting in you being healed and freed from it. So things from your past, from childhood, and even past lives, may surface.
Traumatic memories, feelings, and thoughts will all arise from time to time, in waves, in chunks, sometimes subtly, sometimes very intensely. Regardless of what arises, your job is to observe it all with unconditional loving awareness.
Let’s talk about what that means. Unconditional means without judgement. This awareness is silent, without comments such as “these are bad memories/feelings/thoughts, I shouldn’t be having them”.
All is welcome within the space of unconditional loving awareness, no matter how dark or painful.
Love is Divinity recognizing Divinity. All is Divine. So to bring unconditional loving awareness means to recognize that even the most negative, even violent, thoughts, feelings or emotions, are part of an aspect of the full spectrum of the light of Divinity.
So even when dark things arise, we don’t label them as something separate from the Divine, because nothing is. We don’t push things away, because that’s resisting the work that the Kundalini is helping us with. And we also don’t identify with what’s arising.
We simply observe and allow the purification to unfold, knowing that nothing we experience will last forever, and remember that when things arise and are then released, we will be free and they will no longer influence our relationships with ourselves and others.
Meditate
In meditation, we bring unconditional loving awareness and use it to support our process very powerfully.
Throughout the Kundalini awakening process, you must remember that meditation is your safe place and that it is always available for you.
When I say that meditation is a safe place, I don’t mean that it will be peaceful. I mean that it will be safe because you won’t be causing any sort of chaos with other people in your life as a result of your emotional ups and downs.
In meditation, you create space for yourself to feel, think, or express anything that may arise, no matter how negative it may be. Meditation is where you work with your Kundalini to release a lot of pent up stuff within you.
You may have ideas of meditation as only being a very peaceful practice. But that’s far from the truth. Real meditation can be grueling. It can be like performing surgery upon yourself to remove a tumor at times. But it is necessary.
Eventually, your meditations will become deeper and more peaceful and blissful. But you must be willing to experience challenging meditations in order to experience more graceful ones.
Develop a simple meditation practice that involves bringing awareness to your breath in your belly or your Heart center while allowing all thoughts, feelings, or emotions to come and go.
Listen
Kundalini will transform your ego. Part of this transformation involves humility.
It’s important that we are humble enough to listen to the guidance that will come from within as we go through this process.
Equally so, it’s also important that we use our discernment to listen to others that may be more ahead on this path than we are.
Ultimately, it’s important that we seek guidance from something other than our ego mind. That guidance can come from within, or it can come from external sources.
It’s important that we remember a couple of things when listening - the guidance will never come from a place of fear, it will never be about harming yourself or another, and it will feel right in your heart.
Feel
Kundalini will demand that you develop your ability to feel on every level.
Feel the energy moving through your body. Feel your emotions. Feel the presence of Divinity everywhere. Feel love in your heart.
When things get difficult, you must feel it all fully. Feeling directly is the doorway through challenging experiences.
Have courage and be willing to dive deep into whatever feelings may arise and let them flow through you.
We came here to taste and feel all of the flavours of life. Don’t shy away from it.
When things get a little messy, know that they won’t last forever, and feel everything. And when there’s stillness, feel your breath rising and falling. Feeling is key when working with Kundalini.
So those are the 6 guiding principles that I have for you today. Throughout the series, I will have some more tips and perspectives for you, but these 6 are the foundational ones that I wanted to lay today.
In the next part of this series, I’ll be talking about how to maintain energetic balance across all of the chakras in your system, to stay grounded when things get a little too intense and the energy is too much in your head, causing instability.
Contact me with any questions about your Kundalini awakening process.
Find out more about meeting with me one-on-one here.