Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

5
unleash and transform: kundalini yoga
I first discovered the magic of kundalini in the late 1990s, at a soundstage in Los Angeles, while I
was working on the shoot for the world’s first-ever Pilates video. Famed yoga teacher Gurmukh, Yogi
Bhajan’s primary female disciple and kundalini maven, was on the set next door, and through the
walls our whole cast and crew could hear the cacophony of babies crying, mothers chatting, and
directions being shouted across the room. We were ready to start filming, and just as our head of
production left to ask next door for quiet on the set, a perfect stillness settled over the entire space—
and not just Gurmukh’s space, but everywhere. We were all hypnotized by the mellifluous sound of
voices united in singing, “AUM.”
Compelled by the pure sound, I rose from my seat and went to see with my own eyes how the
miraculous change had happened. Thirty mothers sat cross-legged in a large circle with their new
infants in their laps. Like a human incarnation of the Third-Eye Chakra, beaming out into space, right
there at the center of the circle was Gurmukh, glowing in her white turban and dress. She smiled
peacefully, eyes twinkling and luminous, looking at least twenty years younger than her then fifty-eight
years. I stood in the doorway, transfixed, as she began the warm-up exercises. I watched this
gathering of women moving in unison with eyes closed, gyrating to awaken their kundalini shakti, the
primordial feminine energy, which she promised would activate their life force and deliver the power
to manifest great health, creativity, and abundance.
Sign me up now! I thought. The exercises appeared to be so simple and accessible, but at the
same time clearly very challenging. As I watched the women perform an exercise that made them look
like birds ferociously flapping their wings, it struck me that they were assuming the “alpha role” with
their bodies—not beating them into submission, but showing them that they were coming along for the
ride no matter what and that it was something for their mutual benefit.
Now, this doesn’t exactly sound like an endorsement, but it really looked as though they were
doing battle on the mat, confronting themselves in order to be able to make it through the rigors of
what she was asking them to do. Though the challenge was clearly daunting, they periodically broke
into determined smiles, urged on by what had to be a strong belief in the payoff. It was compelling.
What won me over was Gurmukh’s strong narration as the women pumped their arms up and
down rapidly, many of them clearly looking as if they wanted to quit. “It’s the mind that wants you to