Tag Archive for: Guru Prem Singh sadhana

 

Have you ever found yourself spinning out of control and stressing out on your projects? If you anything like me, a type A personality, then you probably know what I’m talking about. In fact, I found myself doing just that recently. 

 

Earlier last year, I embarked on a journey to expand my yoga accreditation and enrolled in Kundalini yoga teacher training. For me, Kundalini yoga is totally amazing and I LOVE the way it makes me feel. It’s quite different from traditional hatha or vinyasa yoga which I’ve been teaching since around 2007. Kundalini is known as yoga of awareness. It’s actually a science. It uses a mixture of movement, breath work, mantra and meditation to calm the body and elevate the spirit. The benefits are remarkable! After a class, you leave feeling incredibly revived and connected to the inner guidance within your heart and to the higher universal energies. Honestly, its magical!

 

Well… that’s the way I felt about it up until I signed up for the training. Now let me start by saying, my teachers are great. The best in the world! I have so much respect for them. The practicum is fabulous. But as per my usual type A personality, I started to stress out about it… all the reading, the final test, 12 hour days in class. My mind went into overload and I thought, oh God, can I really absorb all of this.

 

Why Do We Put So Much Pressure On Ourselves?

 

You see, right out of the gate, I started to worry about the end result. Nine months of work if ya look at it all at once is of course overwhelming. And the final test, YIKES. Why was I worrying about that now? So much unnecessary pressure! I was taking all the fun out of what I came to do… to learn more about this beautiful practice so that I can grow in my spirituality and in turn help others to grow. But here I was, getting all freaked out. 

 

Does any of this resonate with you? Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? 

 

As I explained this to a dear friend who is also a Kundalini yoga teacher, she looked at me quizzically and said, “Why in the world would you get so caught up on the tests? You said yourself you love kundalini yoga. You’ll learn more by living it, going to the classes, submerging yourself in the lifestyle… and then it will come to you naturally and organically.”

 

She proceeded to tell me a poignant story about her college days. That she did all kinds of things that were good for the resume. Becoming student president, joining clubs, doing all sorts of extra curricular activities. But she didn’t do all of these things because she felt she had to for her resume, rather she did this because she was enjoying all of them. 

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Conversely a friend of hers had done all the same, but attached a ton of stress to it. You see, this person was doing it because she felt she had to do it. She overloaded herself not only with the workload, but with non-productive anxiety and pressure. Unfortunately for this girl, she crashed and

and actually dropped out of school.

 

Which brings me to a simple realization, we don’t have to fight through life. Do the things you love, because you love it. And let your grip release from the end results. You’ll be much more apt to enjoy the process. Stress out and put undue pressure on yourself, and you may very well crash and burn and perhaps lose the entire benefit or love for what you started out doing to begin with. And what a shame that would be!

 

My mantra for today is “Let go and do what you love for the love of it. Period, end of story. Attach nothing to it and let it all unfold beautifully.”

And do help you smoothly sail along your journey, here are three of my top three tips to Keep Calm…

1. STOP OVER ANALYZING AND START DOING. Yogi Bhajan would say, “When the time is on you, start and the pressure will be off.” Just by consciously engaging in the relationship of your project puts you in the game. Work on it, put your energy into it. The act of starting and taking steps everyday will get you closer to the finish line. 

2. CHOOSE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT YOU CAN HUMANLY GET DONE. Break it down. In my case, the training is broken down into 9 months. That’s a lot of time to get all that work and study done. In that 9 months, we break it down to weekly, and then monthly goals. So get out a pen and start to dissect your project into digestible, realistic chunks.

3. REWARD YOURSELF. What happens to a car if you drive it non stop? You will run out of gas of course. Set rewards for the work you have done. Once you’ve finished a chunk of the work, give yourself a gift. Maybe a walk to the park, have dinner with a friend, take a yoga class. And repeat this Love Mantra, repeat it until you believe it. ” have done great work. Congratulations. (insert your name here).

I hope you can translate this into your own life and KEEP CALM and do it for the LOVE.

 

If this story resonates with you, you think it could benefit someone else, feel free to share. After all sharing is caring and it just may help someone you know. 

Shine on,

Jewels Bertrand 

colorado mudra

 

burned, got sick

 

As some of you know, I have recently committed to expanding my yoga teaching accreditations to encompass Kundalini Yoga. I’m in a 9 month training course studying under some of the best Kundalini Teachers in the world. Guru Singh, Amrit Khalsa, Guru Prem Singh and Simran Khalsa, just to name a few.

 

Discipline 

As part of this intense teacher training, we were required chose and perform a specific 40 day kriya (physical yoga practice) along with a meditation. The direction was to do this practice for 40 days straight. If ya miss a day, ya have to start over. Needless to say, The discipline it took to finish this 40 days was at times extremely difficult and arduous.  And being the over achieve that my nature dictates, I chose a rather rigorous kriya. Ugh, what was I thinking???

 

No Time

Often times when I mention that I’m a yoga teacher, people tell me… “Oh, I wish I could go to yoga, but I just don’t have the time.” 

 

Ya know, life is pretty much always full. We manage our home life, personal life, work life, social life, deadlines and commitments. Most of us have a pretty full plate. But if we don’t take care of the most important aspect of our lives, YOU, what do you have? 

 

But what if…

And what if by doing spiritual practice like yoga or meditation it actually helped you along in your life? Helped things to move in and out more freely, helped you to feel better, be more peaceful and calm. And what if it actually helped to open doorways and opportunities for you? Wouldn’t it be worth it?

 

That’s pretty much been my experience with my spiritual practice since I first began my yoga journey almost 10 years ago. Oh I’ve gone through sh*t storms just like everyone else. But somehow, when I keep in my practice, I can draw the power to center myself in the eye of the storm. Chaos swirling all around me, but steadily and gracefully I stand. And just if by magic, things turn out just the way they should.

 

Transformation

During my actual 40 day Kundalini spiritual practice, I have experienced such transformation. I was joking to my fellow students during our last meeting. Saying that with all the change and movement, uncertainty and shedding that I’ve gone through this month, the old me would have mentally broken down or hid in bed. But with the Kundalini yoga and meditation, I was able to keep up and spiral up. 

 

I mean, my plate was full. I had to travel back and forth across the country, pack up and move from my Manhattan apartment I loved and called hOMe for almost a decade, sell all of my furniture, get through Christmas, entertain guests, start a new business, move my life to my new home and still go through 14 hour days of teacher training. 

 

Powering through

I needed to be extremely disciplined and dedicated. Yet during every single aspect of it, I endured. Oh trust me, at times I cursed it. Screaming up to the heavens to the beloved Kundalini yogi master, Yogi Bhajan saying, “I am too tired, can’t I just skip a day?”  LOL.  And then there were the times that I cruised through the practice with joy and ease. 

 

Victory 

I can proudly say, I finished it! And all I can say is, wow. I feel so radiant, so calm and strong. I have a sense of freedom. Like I unleashed the inner warrior within me and I’m ready to take on the world. 

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I read a lot of books and articles about practices of successful people. And low and behold, ya know one common thread? A daily spiritual practice. Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, Gabby Bernstein, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Russell Simmons, Arianna Huffington, Russell Brand, Hugh Jackman, Gweneth Paltrow, Richard Gere, Sting, Orlando Bloom, Katie Perry, Howard Stern, I could go on. 

 

I’m telling ya, this stuff is powerful!!!

 

I leave you with these words by Yogi Bhajan referring to Kundalini Yoga. I find this quote so comforting

 

“Keep up and you will be kept up”

 

Please Share

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What Is Your Experience

I’d love to hear your insights. Do you have a daily practice or ritual that elevates you? The conversation continues below. Something you bring up may help someone else in their journey.

Sat nam,

Jewels Bertrand