Kundalini Awakening
What is a Kundalini Awakening?
A kundalini awakening is an Eastern described spiritual awakening where primal life force releases from the base of the spine. As it travels up through the subtle body it reveals limiting mind-body patterns and unleashes new consciousness. I unexpectedly experienced this in 2007 and while some people describe it as a pleasurable awakening, I describe my experience as a crisis. This “awakening” was sudden and severe. In a matter of days my whole life was upturned and that wasn’t in my plans. It’s true it opened my heart and led me on a new path in life. It’s true great things have come of it and I am grateful for that but you’d be hard pressed to get me to sign up for that experience again. In my memoir, Orchid of Fate, I call it “The January Incident.”
During the winter solstice, I was in discussion with fellow meditation teacher and author, Bev Janisch. Like all good spiritual coaches, Bev has a way of getting to the heart of a matter.
“Well outside of your book, have you written about your Kundalini crisis?” she asked.
“People need to know what you went through. This will help people,” she said.”
Help people how? I wondered. Really?... yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized Bev had a point. It had never occurred to me to think of “The January Incident” as helpful to others who might be going through something similar, because I never imagined anybody else was. Now with the Covid chaos it seems the whole world is experiencing an existential crisis… or at least the potential for one is very ripe.
As I see it, spiritual awakenings are similar to diseases. I’m sorry that sounds so harsh, but it’s true. They will quickly turn your world upside down and leave you pleading, “I just want my old life back.” They can and do affect people of all ages, races, genders, for any number of reasons, most of them unknown, at any time of the day or night and you will become a participant, not a leader who is in charge. While this may not sound popular, surprisingly people all over the world attempt to raise their Kundalini, through various practices, including Kundalini yoga.
If you truly do release your Kundalini, or it releases for you, your experience will challenge others to their core. Most people will not understand what you are going through… or how you have changed. A true “awakening” isn’t just a one off event that goes away when it’s over. If the people in your life have not experienced anything similar then they will not know what to say to you or how to help you. If you are curious about Kundalini I recommend you practice with a master. Your friends and family, people who you have always turned to for guidance or support will not be of service and may even fall away completely. While you may never get used to it, practicing loads of self compassion will help. The medical community in its limited effort to categorize and diagnose something outside it’s model, will fail. In traditional western medicine there is no paradigm for a “spiritual crisis.” Don’t worry about it, you’ll be better off in the long run and there is no cure for mystery anyways.
As I write this, I feel resistance, the topic of spiritual awakening is massive. If you are going through a Kundalini or spiritual crisis or went through one and don’t know what to do about it, I want to help you. The difficulty is, the whole point of a spiritual awakening, is to dissolve the veils of ego that keep you from your true or essential Self. This process doesn’t feel helpful but you have to be with it and learn to value it to make any spiritual progress. Here’s my top ten list to help with your journey:
YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Spiritual awakenings are happening around the world, just this month I’ve heard in Vancouver and Calgary.
You are in a process that is transformative and life giving, but like Buckley’s mixture, it’s hard to swallow.
Seek out guidance from those who’ve been there. Trust yourself to find that right person. Reach out.
Read, write, walk, reflect on your experience. Trust that you are part of something bigger.
Don’t over analyse, practice being with. In other words if you are in the ocean and your boat flips, notice that you are still alive, that you have choices, but don’t waste your energy swimming against the waves. Feel them and let them carry you.
Give yourself time to integrate. It took me close to a decade, but we all go at our own paces.There is no formula for “getting there.”
Learn to love your new found differences and practice self compassion daily.
Accept that change is scary and whether you like it or not a spiritual awakening is change.
Lighten up. Life is sacred but you don’t need to take it so seriously all the time.
Go forward with gentleness, kindness and love, for yourself and others. Always.
As Hafiz say’s, “stay close to the sounds that make you come alive… let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” And Mary Oliver, “learn to love the soft animal that is inside you.” I’ll meet you there.
