Beginner’s Kundalini Yoga Exercise for Emotional Health
Beginner’s Kundalini Yoga Technique
Yoga Pose for Emotional Health & Balance
Although the following Kundalini Yoga exercise is something that beginner’s can easily practice, it is also an exercise that is recommended by yoga to be done everyday regardless of your level of expertise. This is because of the important benefits that this simple exercise bestows.
Cat-Cow yoga exercise is the sixteenth entry of our Free Online Illustrated Kundalini Yoga Exercises E-Book and, as it is also a part of Hatha Yoga practice, it is also part of the Free Online Hatha Yoga Poses E-book.
The most important benefit of cat-cow is that it helps cleanse emotional debris that we end up accumulating in our gut/diaphragm region. This emotional debris then creates blockages in the flow of energy both up and down our main chakras (see Kundalini Seven Chakra System Overview for more details on chakras).
By dissolving these blockages in our energy pathways, cat-cow, helps to not only resolve remnants of old emotional traumas, pains, jealousies, anger and hurts, but also helps restore balance to the entire system.
Below you will find two illustrations of cat-cow pose. The first picture is of cow pose and the second, is of cat pose. Details of how to practice this exercise are in the instructions below.
Beginner’s Kundalini Yoga Exercise Video
DIRECT YOUTUBE LINK –> SIMPLE YOGA FOR SPINE AND DIGESTION
Yoga Cat-Cow Pose for Emotional Balance
Illustration #1: Kundalini Yoga Cow Pose
Illustration #2: Kundalini Yoga Cat Pose
Kundalini Yoga Cat-Cow Technique Practice Details:
a. Step-by-Step Instructions for Kundalini Yoga Cat-Cow Technique:
- Come onto the floor on all fours. Make sure your hands are directly under your shoulders, about shoulder width apart and knees are directly under your hips, about hip distance apart.
- Now come into cow pose by bringing your head up, while at the same time pushing your stomach down (as in illustration #1 above). Your eyes should be open and you should be looking upwards, thus giving your optical nerve and eye muscles a toning massage. Inhale deeply as you come into this posture.
- Next bring your head down and your chin towards your chest as you arch your back up like a cat (pressing your stomach up as in illustration #2). Exhale fully as you come into this pose.
- Start off at a slow pace, holding each position for a few seconds or more, and then begin to move faster as you feel yourself warming up. Only go as fast as you find comfortable, moving between cow pose and cat pose.
b. Duration for Kundalini Yoga Cat-Cow Technique:
- 1 minute – 11 minutes.
- Start slowly and build up your time steadily from there.
c. Benefits of Kundalini Yoga Cat-Cow Technique:
- Clears emotional debris, thus promoting good emotional health and balance.
- Clears blockages in the energy pathways caused by unresolved emotions, thus helping energy flow to take place between the higher and lower chakras.
- Excellent exercise for your entire back and spine. Massages all 72,000 nerve junctions that lie along the spinal cord.
- Helped me cure whip lash I once got :-D.
- Great for the optical nerve and eyes. Gives you sparkly eyes.
- Good to regulate and balance the thyroid gland.
- Good for your arms and shoulders.
- Good for your digestive system.
d. Practice Tips for Kundalini Yoga Cat-Cow Technique:
- You can do this exercise, by either holding each position for a comfortable duration of time as you move between the poses, or doing the exercise by rapidly moving between the poses.
- Cat-Cow is a terrific exercise to start off your yoga session with. It warms up the cerebrospinal fluid which is absolutely essential to charge in order to get the most out of your yoga workout.
- The biggest mistake that yogis make, is that they rock back and forth. You should simply by arching your back and moving you head as indicated. You will also find this exercise demonstrated in the Free Online Yoga Exercise Videos in the Video for Spinal Warm-up.
- All the breathing should be done through the nose.
Online Kundalini Yoga Kriyas Using Cat-Cow Pose:
Hello all of you,
I’ve just read your excellent explanation on the benefits of Cat-cow. Just found a statement, where I would like to ask for the reference (what author, what book). “Excellent exercise for your entire back and spine. Massages all 72,000 nerve junctions that lie along the spinal cord.”.
What is meant by nerve junctions. I know we have 72.000 Nadis, is this what the author meant?
Thank you for your reply.
Thank you for all the free exercises! My husband is a physical therapist. I will show him this web page so he can tell his patients.
Great to hear you are benefiting from and enjoying Mastery of Meditation and Yoga. Must start whit this!
Thanks!
Hi Ken,
Great to hear you are benefiting from and enjoying Mastery of Meditation and Yoga.
40 days of Sat Kriya is a great commitment and will give you a great deal of insight into the workings and benefits of Kundalini Yoga.
Thank you for your feedback as well.
Best,
Anmol
I just discovered this website and am frankly blown away by the quality and quantity of the materials you have posted here, thank you!
I started doing Kundalini Yoga recently with a local teacher, and am doing a daily practice of a basic set and have committed to 40 days of Sat Kriya. The real reason for me starting this practice is to clear up a major emotional blockage I have around my diaphragm. I always feel it there, as a physical, emotional and energetic tightness, which also causes tightness all the way up to my head (it ‘appeared’ during a long meditation retreat some years ago). I’m going to add this cat-cow exercise to my practice, it sounds perfect for my current ‘challenge’.
Thank you again for this great blog!
Hi Avani,
Not sure what it is that you tried. In Yoga the emotional debris is cleared via prana being driven through the nadis and channels. This coupled with the movements targets particular areas (this is explained in more detail in the following article)…
Introduction to Kundalini Yoga
Let me know if you need more information or what like to discuss further.
Best,
Anmol
I am curious, how is the emotional debris cleared? I had tried something earlier which resulted in me getting very emotional and sometimes short tempered (usually I am not so). So, how does this exactly work?