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

you to the ground, the breath will be your strongest ally.
Long Deep Breathing
The very foundation of all yogic breathing techniques is the two-part breath we use in Long Deep
Breathing.
1. On the inhalation, breathing from bottom to top, fill and expand the belly, then the lower and
middle rib cage, and then the upper chest.
2. On the exhalation, proceed in reverse, emptying first the upper chest and then the middle and
lower rib cage, and then drawing the abdomen in to fully empty the breath from the belly.
Inhalation and exhalation are responsible for our life force itself and our very lives. With their
own characters and qualities, they ask for different kinds of attention. Inhalation for example, was
once synonymous with inspiration, reminding us that even in Western civilization the intimate links
between breath and spirit were once acknowledged. During inhalation the chest expands and the lungs
are filled with fresh air. But in the larger sense, inhalation signals the intake of vital energy, vital
force, which makes possible the body’s equilibrium and coherence, its activity and creativity.
The Kundalini Mantra
A mantra is a phrase repeated to aid in concentration. As you will come to know when you read the
chapter on meditation, the mantra and your faithful breath are your guides. If the breath is your anchor,
then the mantra is your compass. Sat Nam (literally, “true name”), which means “I am truth,” “Truth is
my name,” or “I honor the truth within,” is the central mantra most often used in kundalini yoga to
connect with the divine; it reinforces personal power, true embodiment, and positive action, on the
mat and off.
Applying the Locks: The Four Bandhas
Now that you’re familiar with the different breathing techniques we will employ in our practice, it’s
time to safeguard the jewels. When you want to protect your valuables, your important documents,
jewelry, mementos, what do you do? You lock them up. That is exactly what we are going to learn to
do with our body’s most precious possession by far: the breath. In kundalini yoga a lock is a muscular
contraction or sealing of certain parts of the body for the purpose of retaining the breath. The three
most common are the Root Lock, the Abdominal Lock, and the Throat Lock. When all three are
applied at the same time, it is called the Great Lock. What’s funny about learning the three locks in
kundalini yoga is that previously we learned how to open our energy portals to receive heaven and
earth chi, and here we are going to learn to seal them to further our energy cultivation abilities; we
are simply traveling from China to India now and giving the energy “portals” different names, but the