I am so grateful I found this site and practices. About a year ago now, after 15+ years of Iyengar yoga, I had a kundalini experience. First, I had a minor skin problem and went to the dermatologist that prescribed a medication that resulted in an allergic reaction that didn't stop after ending the use of it fairly quickly. I had these heat waves that came up causing intense flushes and lots of energetic flutterings all over. My doctor said I had a histamine reaction. At that time, I heard a little voice tell me your life as it is will never be the same. A while later, I went to a yoga retreat and during my trip, went to see Amma, the hugging saint, just as an interested bystander. Well, I had a huge heart experience followed by a dream with Amma in it that was more like a vision. After that though my heat and energy resulted in not sleeping well for weeks. I searched for help (in all the wrong places) for awhile but then listened to my inner guidance, scaled way down on my practices, etc. I was on my way to feeling a lot better, still revved up a bit, but the AYP practices are stilling the waters even more. My heat problems are almost entirely gone and my nervous system is calming down. I teach yoga but am taking the summer off to reconsider how I teach.
During all the inner commotion, I started asking my yoga teachers about having a "balanced" practice. They would give me technical suggestions that didn't feel right. This process has changed the way I've viewed finding balance -- its becoming much more organic, fluid to me now. My teachers have taught about the yamas and niyamas as if they are out there and suggested ways to work with them that never quite seemed up close and personal. I like what yogani said about (my paraphrase) that they come alive from the inside as a result of our practices. I think this balance thing is an inside occcurence as well. I'm new to all this but feel as though all my years of the Iyengar system has brought me to this place of truly wanting to live from a place of the broader system of yoga, the eight limbs.
Just wanting to express my ponderings,
Jan
