by Karena Virginia: This Kundalini Yoga kriya, or sequence, from teacher Karena Virginia will strengthen your aura and protect you from bad energy…
Are you ready to discover your life’s purpose and activate your fullest potential? Kundalini Yoga is an ancient practice that helps you channel powerful energy and transform your life. And now there is an accessible, easy way to learn how to incorporate these practices into your practice and life. Yoga Journal’s 6-week online course, Kundalini 101: Create the Life You Want, offers you mantras, mudras, meditations, and kriyas that you’ll want to practice every day. Sign up now!
If you would have told me 20 years ago that healing my aura would bring back my joy, I would have said, “That is some New-Age hype, and I need to go sit in church where my spirituality feels safe.” But then I began studying Kundalini Yoga In this practice, the eighth chakra is considered your aura—or the electromagnetic field that surrounds your physical body. Kundalini yogis, and many others, believe that your aura is the source of your radiance—it is the glow that comes from your soul—and that the energy it surrounds you with has the power to help you manifest what you want and need.
For example, when you radiate love from the core of your being, the energy you present to the world—or your aura—is an extension of that, and you begin to attract more love in your life. But your auric field may also hold limiting imprints from your ancestors and childhood, as well as energetic and emotional toxicity. By clearing and strengthening your aura, you may be able to heal past wounds and open yourself up to more harmony and vitality
Kundalini Yoga: How I Learned About the Power of Our Auras
My journey to understanding this began in deep personal crisis. In my thirties, after the birth of my second child, I lost my glow and luster for life. At the time, my heart was in excruciating pain as I witnessed my father dying. The man who loved me unconditionally and always took away my pain was fading. And I couldn’t help him. The grandfather to my children was not able to come over anymore. I longed for him to make me laugh again, and to say my name the way he had always said it—with love—in his Italian accent. I became paralyzed by a growing sadness and did not recognize that the radiance of my aura had been replaced with emotional blockage and trauma.
When I discovered my husband and I were having a third baby, my heart felt a sense of hope. Maybe my father’s soul would return as a new being—full of life, wonder, and warmth. Just as my belly began to expand and I told the children they’d soon have a baby brother or sister, my father took his last breath.In a state of despair during his funeral, my knees gave out and I fell to the ground. Then I miscarried.
At that moment, I lost my faith. My energy was at its absolute lowest, and I was overcome with feelings of shame, loss, and failure. All I could focus on was numbing my pain, andI hit rock bottom. Knowing I desperately needed to heal, I began studying ancient breathing techniques from a healer in India along with Kundalini Yoga.
This is when I learned that when your aura is strong, it is symmetrical and round. And when it is imbalanced, there can be dimples, pockets, and tears, which cause it to dim. When we clear fears, ancestral energetic imprints, and other things that are no longer serving us, we expand and strengthen this energetic field. Through practices, like the one here, profound and incredible shifts can begin to happen.
When I first experimented with these ancient techniques, I started to feel a sense of hope. Rather than reaching for a second glass of wine, I found my time with God again. My glow returned. I found my spirit shining from the inside out, and I recognized that same spirit in others—an important step in any healing journey, regardless of what big-picture outcomes you may strike out to manifest. Ultimately, when you are stuck and feeling like you can’t muster the energy to face another day, experimenting with different practices and lifestyle changes until you find something that works for you can quite possibly save your spirit. And that spirit-saving practice might just be an aura cleansing.
Kundalini Yoga for strength and security
Your aura will attract positive outcomes and repel negativity when it is bright and strong. Think of it as your shield. This sequence—called a kriya in Kundalini Yoga—is designed to strengthen and brighten that shield. These exercises can generate a powerful clearing effect in your electromagnetic field, which will help your aura become so expansive and radiant that you’ll be able to re-energize and start attracting everything you need with ease. Try this powerful, 30-minute sequence—transmitted from Yogi Bhajan, the founder of Kundalini Yoga in the West—for a few days, and experience its transformative effect for yourself.
Tuning Out
2. Divine Grind
Sit in a crossed-legged position and breathe deeply to connect with the source of all life flowing through you. Place your palms on your knees, and from the base of your spine rotate your lower back in circles, keeping your shoulders relaxed. Inhale as your spine flexes forward and to one side; exhale as your spine extends back and to the other side. By doing this, you expand and compress the abdomen and rib cage. Continue in one direction for 26 or more circles, and then repeat on the other side. To finish, inhale with your spine centered, and hold your breath, elongating through your spine while expanding your belly. Exhale, and relax your entire body.
3. Cat-Cow
Come onto your hands and knees with your knees directly under your hips and your hands directly below your shoulders. Feel the stability of this posture as you root yourself to the earth on all fours. Inhale, and open your heart toward the sky, lifting your chin and expanding your rib cage. Exhale as you round your spine upward like a cat, tucking your chin to your chest and your tailbone toward your navel. Try to move one vertebra at a time as you repeat these movements for 1–3 minutes.
4. Heart Opener
On an inhalation, lift your right arm up, and look up toward the sky. On an exhalation, lower your arm down. Do this for 1 minute, allowing your heart to open. Then, repeat on the other side.
5. Aura Charger
Take a comfortable seat, keeping your spine long. For 1 minute, close your eyes, and begin observing the flow of life force (prana)with each breath in and out. Then, curl your fingers so that your fingertips touch the pads of your palms, just below each finger. Extend your thumbs away from your palms, and stretch your arms up from your shoulders so they form a wide V shape. Keep your elbows locked and your arms straight, elongating the distance from your heart to the tips of your thumbs. Hold this position and start Breath of Fire (rapid inhalations and exhalations through your nose) for 3 minutes. When you are finished, deeply inhale while stretching your arms straight up overhead with the tips of your thumbs pressed together. Suspend your breath, and apply Mula Bandha (Root Lock) by contracting your rectum, navel, and sex organs. Stretch your spine up from your pelvis. As you exhale, extend your fingers with your palms facing down, and sweep your arms out and around you, visualizing light coming out of your fingertips. Comb through your aura with your fingers, removing toxicity and negativity. As you clear the negative energy with your hands, imagine you are releasing it down into the earth below you. To finish, lower your hands onto your thighs with palms facing up. Feel your energy circulating out into your aura. Visualize the pure and beautiful light you have created.
5. Open Your Three Eyes
Bend your elbows out to the sides at shoulder level. Spread your fingers wide, and place them in front of your eyes. Then, move your elbows, bringing your hands out. Move between the two with a rhythmic motion, keeping your upper arms parallel to the floor. Continue this rapid movement for 3 minutes. This exercise works to strengthen your physical eyes so you can open your third-eye point—the spiritual eye that can see beyond the illusions and pain of the world.
7. Archer Pose
Stand up and take a wide stance with your left foot facing forward. Bend your left knee so it’s directly over your toes. Turn your right foot inward so it’s at a 45-degree angle with the front of your mat. Raise your left arm straight out in front of you, and make a gentle fist. Then begin drawing your right arm back with your elbow bent. Keep your eyes open, and focus forward on what you want to manifest in your life. From this position, straighten your left knee and then bend it again, continuing this motion for 2 minutes. Then, repeat on the other side.
8. Cobra Pose
Come onto your belly with your legs straight, feet together. Place your hands beneath your shoulders, and arch your spine from your neck to the base of your sacrum (at the base of your spine) until your arms are straight. Stay here for 2 seconds.
Triangle Pose (Downward-Facing Dog Pose)
Raise your buttocks up into the air into Downward-Facing Dog Pose (called Triangle Pose in Kundalini Yoga). Stay here for 2 seconds, then return to Cobra Pose. Alternate between Cobra Pose and Triangle Pose at a speed of about 2 seconds per posture for 5 minutes.
Meditation
Sit in a crossed-legged position with a long spine and silently say the mantra: Wahe Guru, Wahe Guru, Wahe Guru, Wahe Jio. This mantra means: Wow! From darkness into light. Wow! From unconsciousness into consciousness. Wow! From fear into love. Wow! It is happening now in my soul.When you silently repeat the words Wahe Guru, activate your Root Lock. Relax during the silence between the words. Repeat this for up to 14 minutes. This meditation celebrates the light in your auric field and moves energy from your solar plexus out into your aura. When you feel resistance, move through it. You are healing!
11. Deep Relaxation
Lie on your back, and allow your body to completely melt into the earth. Place your arms alongside your body with your palms facing upward to receive light and healing. Slow your breathing, and visualize golden light all around you. Each time you inhale, imagine that light bathing your cells. As you exhale, allow the light to expand into a larger auric field of illumination all around you. Feel the love of the universe bathing your aura, clearing out any lingering debris. Stay here for as long as needed. When you feel ready, bring yourself back to conscious movement very slowly. Rotate your wrists and ankles, and then briskly rub the souls of your feet together while doing the same with the palms of your hands. Hug your knees in toward your chest and rock forward and back a few times to completely integrate and reset your magnetism and vitality. Then, rock yourself up into a seated position with your hands together at your heart center.
