Introduction To Guided Meditation & Kundalini Yoga Class Syllabus – Course #101
Online Meditation and Kundalini Yoga Class
Introduction to Guided Meditation and Kundalini Yoga Class – Course #101
Welcome everybody to the Free Online Introduction to Guided Meditation and Kundalini Yoga Class. All the material for this class is available via the links on this post and you can start anytime you wish. The course covers 2 weeks, but you are of course welcome to continue on. In this post I will provide the class objectives, class details, course syllabus and participation guidelines. Please read through everything carefully so you will be able to get maximum benefit from the class. I am glad you all have taken advantage of this opportunity to deepen your spiritual practice and I hope you will make full use of it. There is, without a doubt, no material equivalent to the rewards that this path bestows.
To register please just leave a comment on this post that you are going to start the course or just send me an email at anmol@anmolmehta.com so I know what kind of participation there is.
You can read the original post here (Free Online Guided Meditation and Kundalini Yoga Class) for when the class was first introduced. Please note that the class is now ongoing and you can start anytime. I and other experienced practitioners will field all questions and issues on this feedback post in the comments section below.
PLEASE ALSO READ THE FAQ below. It addresses many of the common questions about the online classes:
FAQ For Free Online Guided Meditation & Kundalini Yoga Classes
Class Objectives:
- Pranayama Breathing exercises to build your energy and awareness.
- Kundalini Yoga Kriyas for an overall workout and building your core abdominal strength.
- Guided Meditation Techniques to promote peace, joy and insight.
Class Details:
Class Structure:
Each class/session will consist of 3 sections: Breathing exercises (pranayama), Kundalini Yoga Kriyas (sets) and Guided Meditation Practice. There are a wide range of students participating, from beginners to experienced yoga practitioners, so the exercises are designed to allow you to pace yourself. The total time will be 45 minutes / day. Most important, walk the middle path with regard to each session. DO NOT OVERDO OR OVER STRAIN and at the same time don’t have it be excessively easy either.
Required Reading:
Introduction to Kundalini Yoga
10 Important Guidelines to Kundalini Yoga Practice
Legal Disclaimer
Course Syllabus:
The following describes the 3 sections comprising the 45 minute daily yoga and meditation session for week 1 and week 2. The approximate total times for each section and set are also given. Take more rest if you need to, or if you feel comfortable do the poses and exercises a little longer within the alloted time. Each breathing exercise, Kundalini Yoga Kriya and Guided Meditation technique below is a link to the article with all the details you need.
Week 1: Each day of the first week do the following…
Breathing Exercises Section (Pranayama): Total time 5 Minutes
- Sodarshan Chakra Kriya Beginners Version: 3 minute
- Rest: 1 minute
- Breath of Fire Breathing Exercise: 1 minute
- Rest: 1 minute
Kundalini Yoga Section: Total time 20 minutes
- Spinal Warm-up Kundalini Yoga Exercises: 10 minutes
- Morning Wake-up Kundalini Yoga Exercises: 10 minutes
Guided Meditation Section: Total time 20 minutes
- Zen Meditation Technique: 20 minutes
Week 2: Each day of the second week do the following…
Breathing Exercises Section (Pranayama): Total time 5 Minutes
- Sodarshan Chakra Kriya Beginners Version: 3 minute (if you feel ready you can try the Intermediate or Advanced versions but only for 3 minutes).
- Rest: 1 minute
- Breath of Fire Breathing Exercise: 1 minute (if you feel ready do Breath of Fire for 2 minutes and then without rest move onto the Kundalini Yoga Section).
- Rest: 1 minute
Kundalini Yoga Section: Total time 20 minutes
- Spinal Warm-up Kundalini Yoga Exercises: 10 minutes
- Core Abdominal Power Yoga Exercises: 10 minutes
Guided Meditation Section: Total time 20 minutes
- Sound Awareness Guided Meditation Technique: 20 minutes
Participation Guidelines
Following are the guidelines which I suggest we follow…
- Please post all comments, questions and feedback of a public nature in the comments section of this post. This way all will benefit from the discussion. Feel free to ask questions or discuss issues, as that is one of the main reasons for this particular class format. Of course, you are free to email me as well if you would like the discussion to not be public.
- If you like, you can indicate with a comment that you have completed your daily session. Could be as short as “did it”, or of course could be questions, issues or more detailed feedback. The hardest part with a daily yoga and meditation practice is establishing consistency and regularity and I think having to acknowledge that you completed your daily sadhana (spiritual work) will help in facilitating that. In addition, your comments could inspire others as well.
- I will post all information regarding the class in the comments section below as well, so please check periodically for updates.
- Before starting your daily yoga and meditation session, take a moment and tune in to your higher self for guidance and protection. At the end of every session, visualize yourself and the world as you would like it to be.
- Do the best you can and modify the class as you require. It is more important to do something, than be overwhelmed or not do anything at all.
- I wish you all a wonderful learning and transforming experience.
im taking this class, thank you for the amazing resource
Hi Reba,
Trust me, I know this is not a small step by any means :-). Great to hear you were able to action your intentions. Lots of people have great ideas, very few actually put in the work to carry them out. Great start.
Best,
Anmol
I just wanted to say, that although it may seem like a very small step, I actually woke up before my children and did my yoga this morning!!!
Hey Matt,
Great to hear. Keep Going!
Best,
Anmol
Hi Amit,
Some answers to your questions.
1. Astral travel does not happen with the soul. The soul is just an extension of the infinite and in way separate from the Source. Astral travel happens with the astral body, or energetic body. These techniques can be learned through yoga if you are interested.
2. Chakra activation is the igniting of various regions of the brain. So chakras, although lie along the spine, can be thought of switches which correspond to various brain regions and when balanced, cause those brain regions to awaken. So any chakra will affect personality traits.
A balanced chakra system is a balanced human being. You can read some of those details in the following article…
Kundalini Yoga Seven Chakra System Overview.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Anmol
Hi Sara,
Glad you have decided to join the online yoga and meditation classes. Welcome aboard.
Please feel free to ask any questions that might arise or if you run into any issues.
Any other feedback is also appreciated.
All Good Wishes,
Anmol
Hi Patricia,
Vivid dreams… not to get you too excited, but they are a natural occurrence on the journey to enlightenment. They often are a precursor to enlightenment experiences.
The 3 states of consciousness are, waking, dreaming and deep sleep (with the 4th stage “turiya”, begin awareness of deep sleep stage).
As your awareness is refined and grows, you naturally are able to be more aware of your dreams (leading to lucid dreaming).
Enjoy vivid dreaming (lucid dreaming). My favorite part of the day, is often when I retire to bed, because thats when the inward journey really kicks in.
Best,
Anmol
Good morning Anmol, I find that the meditation I have been practicing has been making my dreams more vivid. Since I am new to this I am not sure what to think of this.
Patricia
Thank you so much for offering these classes free of charge. I have always wanted to learn yoga and meditation but never seemed to have the money. I will treasure these classes! I am starting this class today. Thank you again
Hi Anmol,
My name is Amit and I’ve been searching for a guru from sometime who could guide me with kundalini jagran.
I came acroos your site whilst searching on the net. I have few questions, and I would appreciate if you could clear my confusion with answers to those.
People says when kundalini is activated you can leave your body and wander with your soul. Is that true? What spiritual difrences is there before and after. Also, is there a change in personality when all the chakras are activated or it starts from activation of fist chakra?
There are lots of books/articoes etc explains how to do it but none explains what happens when chakra is activated in a true sense. It would be good to know from someone whose all chakras are activated.
OR
It’s all just a myth and nothing more than chemical reaction in our barin which makes us believe what we want to.
I am not sure who but I hope someone some day will read my forum posts and my search will last.
Thanks
Amit
Finished week 1
Hey Mike,
Great to hear of your passion for healing others and the work you are willing to do to master this art. Kundalini Yoga will certainly help with refining and increasing your energy.
In addition there are some Kundalini Yoga Sets designed to increase your power to heal. I will attempt to get those online soon.
Let me know if you run into any issues with the courses.
Best,
Anmol
Hey Anmol,
I’m currently a college student and also a certified reiki healer. I’ve been looking in to Kundalini Yoga as a way to possibly increase my energy levels during healing sessions so that I may give more to my patients. I just have to say that after much searching this class seems absolutely amazing and well put together! I’m going to start first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks so much for your dedication to sharing knowledge.
Namaste,
Mike
Hi Reba,
Great to hear you are making time despite having 3 little ones. I have 2 and I can just imagine how busy you must be!
One of my fellow students in the teacher’s training program was a Rabbi. It was wonderful practicing with him. He was a terrific chanter. I feel it is fine to “customize” the yoga so it “speaks” to you more.
Please feel free to email me any questions you have, I would be happy to help.
Thank you for your feedback.
All Good Wishes,
Anmol
I am a mom to three young children under four years old. In my pre-mommy days, I got my yoga teacher certification, and after having my first baby, taught baby mommy yoga. I always used kundalini yoga in my class because I felt it was the quickest way to get a good result. Hatha Yoga never fully “spoke” to me even though I enjoyed it and received benefits from it. I have no time to go to a teacher training, and really not even a class, but I am dedicated to finding an hour every day for practice at home. I read voraciously whatever I can find on Kundalini Yoga, and that is how I found your site. I would love to use your class as a structure to my daily practice.
I am an Orthodox Jew, and one of the things I love about Kundalini Yoga is that it is tied to the Sikh religion that recognized the One True G-d. This is very important to me in my personal spiritual practice. I always try to integrate yoga into my practice of Judaism (for instance, I say “EMES” instead of “Sat Nam” and “Baruch HaSHem” instead of “Sa Ta Na Ma”). I also want to continue to find ways to use yoga in my children’s daily spiritual practice…helping them to integrate spirit and body. I don’t want to raise “talking heads”!!!
Also, I have some questions I would like to ask, but not on a public forum, if that is okay…..
Thanks,
Reba D.
Hi Bell,
Great to hear you are starting this course. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or run into any issues. Any other feedback is also appreciated.
Best,
Anmol
I am beginning the yoga online course. *does not know what else to say*
Hi Steph,
Great to hear that you are sticking to it. That is the biggest challenge… to keep going.
1. To help with the tension in the hip flexors, sit on a hard cushion so that the hips are raised above the knees. This video demonstrates that posture…
Zen Meditation Technique Video
2. The pace should be slow at first. Like stretching forward and holding for 2-3 seconds and then back for 2-3 seconds. As you get warmed up, you can pick up the pace to a comfortable level (which can be 100 or more repetitions in a minute, where one repetition is a full cycle of going forward and back). Should have videos on these kriyas up in the next month or two which I think will be a big help as well :-P.
3. For the neck rolls, dropping your head back is optional. Mine is crunchy too, due to a football injury. The crunchy can also be calcium deposits popping in which case its good. But here it’s up to you, I would roll the head back gently only, especially if it feels at all uncomfortable.
4. If you are able to breathe in a rhythm, that is great, but pick the following rhythm if you can.
1-2-3 during inhalation, 5-6 during exhalation (skip 4). Where it takes 3 seconds to inhale, 2 to exhale so 5 seconds per cycle, 12 breaths per minute. This is the famous 3SRB (3 step rhythm breathing) which is optimum for taking in prana into the energetic body. More articles on this here (3SRB Tagged Articles).
During Zazen though, you must let go of all “forcing” and let the breath flow naturally. A way to do this would be to give up counting all together… although this is an advanced version, it may be worth trying if you can retain your concentration (until you can break the “forced” rhythm at least). Let me know, else will come up with different ideas.
Best,
Anmol
Hello,
I have just completed my first week (well, I did the first week’s syllabus 8 times just to make sure I had it right) and I have a few questions.
In general for all the crossed-legged exercises, I have noticed a tension in my hip flexor muscles. (It is especially apparent when I’m in Zazen and I feel like wiggling!) Do you have any recommendations for this issue, or for any stretches that can help?
Also, I am a bit unsure of what is meant by a comfortable pace. For example in the camel ride should we be doing around 15 cycles a minute with long breaths, or should we be approximating one cycle per cycle of natural breath, or even paced more quickly like one cycle per breath of fire?
My neck gets a little “crunchy” as I am rolling my head back during the neck rolls. It doesn’t hurt but there is a bit of a sound. Should I continue with the neck rolls, or should I modify them a bit?
Also, during corpse and also in zazen I find it difficult to not count through my breaths…i.e. I am “forcing” a four-count inhale and exhale. It’s as if I’m conducting the music of my lungs, but am insisting on a 4-4 time. I know counting is essential to beginner zazen, but I’m double counting…1 (234) 2(234) 3(234) etc. Any tricks for this?
Thanks!
Steph
Hi Alicia/Kay,
Happy New Year!
Great to have you both join the online class. Please let me know if you run into any issues or have any questions.
I also look forward to feedback, positive or negative, so that I can improve the classes further.
All Good Wishes,
Anmol