Much of what we work with in Kundalini Global is in waking clients up to the possibility that they can change how they feel.
Realising that you don’t like how you feel is the first thing. Often, those who come to yoga may have got to that point. Choosing to change how you feel is what comes next. This can start on the mat. Over time it can be taken off the mat and into how we experience both our internal and external realities.
Realising you don’t like how you feel and making a choice to change is the beginning of exploring neural plasticity.
You could have a moment where you think ‘I’m feeling really stressed, my partner is really irritating me. You may, from there, act out:
‘Can you please fuck off and leave me alone?’
You could slam a door and go and sit in your room and think ‘the world is against me. I hate you all’.
Or you can begin to notice and take yourself on.
Over time you might start to think ‘that’s interesting, I don’t like how I feel!’
Carolyn Cowan, Kundalini Global founder and therapist, often invites us to consider a specific question here: ‘How old do I feel?’
‘How old do I feel?’ is a question to come to at the beginning of neural plasticity, at those moments of noticing that you’re triggered, overwhelmed, offended, horrified.
Making a Separation
When you become aware you are on an interesting and transfomrative path because you’ve made a separation.
Previously you got triggered and you were in a child state of being – feeling 7,5,3 years old. And in that state you were behaving like a child. As neural plasticity kicks in you can say ‘that’s interesting I feel about 3. Is that valid? Do I want to behave as a 3 year old right now?’
Because that’s what we do.
‘That’s interesting I’m upset.’
‘OK, I feel anxious and I feel stressed. What could I do? I could stretch, I could breathe. Any number of things I could do…’
The ability to recognise the chid state is where the neural plasticity is starting to work.
Take Over The System, Take Care of The Child
The core of what we work with in Kundalini Global is to show you how to take over the system. We go in and say to the 5 year old or to the 3 year old or however old you feel ‘you’re good, and I’ve got you and I’m going to take care of you’. To think ‘I’m not going to let the 3 year old make that decision. I’m not going to have the tantrum in the supermarket’ and so you can say ‘we’re going to breathe and we’re going to stretch and twist. And I’ve got you and you’re safe.
Neural plasticity is actively understanding that you can change how you feel. Activating neural plasticity is starting to be able to say ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m going to behave differently. I’m going to take the child. Put them behind me. Protect them. The child doesn’t get to make the decisions. I’m going to behave differently’.
Lessen The Overload
In behaving differently you lessen the overload. You lessen the overload to the brain.
When we make the choice to change how we feel again and again, we end up with a very differently functioning brain in the long term.
We end up being able to regulate and to self reflect rather than self obsess.
When you come along to a Kundalini Global class you could begin to pay attention to the individual practises that work well for you: a breath, a stretch, a prayer… and perhaps you could consider holding on to a few of them to work with, to play with when you notice that you don’t like how you feel and can make the brave, conscious, decision to make a change.
