Edited Jan 2010 to add a link to Yogani's "Solar" lesson (essential if you have a front body block), to add a significant new "tinkering" move (in the section titled "Tinkering Note"), and to lightly clarify some of the writing.
Edited Feb 2009 to add notes about Chi Nei Tsang, pilates, ayurvedic vs. chinese herbs, and, most importantly, I want to point to a posting I just made about how my interpretation of AYP pranayama instructions had been worsening the problem. read it here: http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=5135-------------
Many, if not most, kundalini awakening problems stem from a block in the front channel. The front channel is the pathway by which energy drains from the head down the front of the body to the root/perineum. If this channel is blocked when kundalini shoots up the back, the result will be an uncomfortable pooling of energy in the head (at ajna, crown, and/or top of the neck), which is unable to drain down.
Note that there is no practical difference between "opening the front channel" and "grounding one's energy". Energy grounds down the front channel. A block in front channel is a block to grounding.
It is possible to notice and deal with a front channel block before kundalini awakens, but, naturally, the problem becomes a lot more evident when energy really ramps up (i.e. kundalini awakening).
The following information is the result of 25 years of very hard work, including full-time attention for the past five years. I won't bore you with the details of my quest, but believe me when I say that I've tried every possible resource for opening a front channel. I'm not sure there's anyone alive who's worked harder on this issue, and I've found some solutions, which I'd like to share.
If you don't have a serious grounding issue, please ignore this (though you might want to bookmark it to point people to if they report these sorts of problems). One should go "under the hood" on this only if symptoms are serious. If your kundalini is awake and you have a front channel block, you will immediately recognize many/most of the symptoms below.
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE A FRONT CHANNEL BLOCK
You'll experience several of these symptoms
** feeling of trapped energy in head, headache, pressure between the brows or at crown
** weakened appetite and longer time required to digest (i.e. general cooling of the digestive fires)
** "upward" spinal breathing/pranayama is much easier than "downward"
** TMJ (pain in the jaw socket, sometimes radiating elsewhere in the head...this is from energy pooled in the jaw, unable to descend)
** feeling spacey and ungrounded
** water retention
** high blood pressure hard to explain by genetics, diet, and lifestyle
** sleep apnea
** difficulty (or, at least, mild aversion) with forward-bending asanas (which you perhaps have always chalked up to tight hamstrings)
** general kundalini overload symptoms (NOT symptoms of "wayward" kundalini, with very asymmetrical energy movements...for that, see my posting in this discussion:
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=3236 )
The first and best solution to front channel block and kundalini overload is the time-tested yogic solution: walking. Lots of walking, even miles per day. This gently grounds the energy down the front of the body and through the feet. Try this. It works well in light cases, and is really really good for you, and makes a fine counterbalance to meditation. Try to fix your attention, as you walk, onto the point of your heel the between the balls of your big and little toes. Press that point firmly into the ground as you walk. Another important element: engagement. Interacting with people is grounding.
If walking and interacting doesn't relieve the problem sufficiently for symptoms to be resolved (or you have medical issues preventing walking), there are some stronger measures to try, e.g. Tai chi and standing asanas. Anything grounding! But do try the following exercise (which I stole from Tai Chi):
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Stand with feet separated, knees comfortably bent into a slight crouch, pressing your feet firmly and evenly into the floor (advanced move: press down with the point in the lateral center of your foot, between the balls of your big and little toes, down right at the point where the arch starts to form). Keep your back more or less straight but tilt it forward, as if you were ready to pounce. Go for a low, stable, center of gravity, like it would be hard for someone to knock you over. But relax.
Bend elbows 90 degrees and extend forearms directly in front of you, parallel to each other and with palms facing, at navel level. Keep shoulders relaxed. Visualize a ball between your hands. Concentrate on that ball, and fill it with energy.
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The visualization is a fairly speedy solution, insofar as it works for you (the worse the block, the less fully helpful it'll be). Tai chi and standing asanas, of course, take longer to learn and implement. My advice would be not to invest TOO much hope on the intermediate solutions. If something seems to be helping a lot, great. But if not, keep reading.
NOTE ON PLACEMENT OF ATTENTION IN MEDITATION
It's important to bear in mind that AYP does not advocate placing attention on a specific chakra during meditation. But if you find that you can't resist focusing on ajna (between brows), then you may need to intervene (energy follows attention, and focusing on ajna, particularly during meditation, brings vastly more energy into the head, worsening symptoms). So, for a while, gently direct attention to the navel or the heart (i.e. "inhabit" the navel or heart). Make it a gentle change (no forcing!), and be ready to let go of this entirely once the habit of focusing at ajna is broken. In the end, meditation works best if attention isn't directed at all. It's better not to fool around with meditative attention (unless there's a serious health problem, per these instructions).
UPDATE: Yogani has recently posted a lesson entitled "The Solar Centering Enhancement".
http://www.aypsite.com/plus/368.htmlIt is a must-try for anyone with grounding issues. Yogani recommends directing attention to the solar plexus, and that's a much smarter option than either navel or heart (both of which can be overloaded).
I've posted a modification to Yogani's enhancement which I've been using. It seems to bring many of the benefits with much less overt placement of attention. I call it "Solar Lite".
http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=6715THE SOLUTION
This is a two part solution.
#1: Dilate your throat to open the energy flow
Front channel block is usually concentrated in the throat. And Westerners , it is said, tend to have blockage at the throat. So even if you don't perceive a block in the throat (I never did), it's very likely that that's where the problem is.
Consider how you dilate your ear canals on an airplane to equalize pressure. Take time to examine that action quite closely. And apply that exact sort of dilation to the front portion of the base of your throat, near the collar bone (concentrating on the back of the throat will increase energy flow up and into the head, which is the opposite of what we're aiming for, though a good action to engage in pranayama for those without front channel block symptoms). Make the dilation feel warm and yawn-ish. If possible, invest the action with loving bhakti. And learn to hold the dilation for longer and longer (but please see the note on self pacing, below, before you start lengthening your hold time!).
You should feel (if not immediately, then soon) a flow of energy waves down the front of the chest and abdomen, down to the perineum. If it doesn't make it to the perineum, move the dilation down to just beneath wherever you perceive the flow to stop.
Practice this first in quiet solitude, perhaps after meditation. Then practice it at odd moments around the house. Then at work, while shopping, while driving. Get to the point where you can easily do this action at any time. It should come to feel like you're easily stretching outward a tight rubber band that otherwise constricts your throat. Again, don't forget to self-pace.
Two notes:
a. if you do feel a downward energy wave after dilating the throat, know that there's still more work to be done. Even a tiny opening in a bad block feels like total flow. More flow is almost certainly possible. This is true of many yoga openings. Even a bit of opening feels huge. This is the reason for self-pacing (and do self-pace these instructions!): if slight openings feel big, obviously, too much opening happening too fast can be overwhelming. Moral of the story: don't stop, but don't race, either!
b. you may experience diarrhea and flu-like symptoms after a major release of blockage in the front channel. While I'm usually very careful to suggest medical attention even to issues that seem clearly spiritual, in this one case I need to very emphatically insist that you not medicate. It's cleansing/healing....you are flushing a lot of long-held junk (the worse the block, the more severe the flushing), and the result will be worth some temporary discomfort! Let the healing process play out. Medication will drive the block deeper in. (I speak from experience: within a day after a powerful opening - due to a qi gong exercise - of a severe life-long front channel block, I experienced very high fever, bad diarrhea, and throbbing kidney pain. My doctor was mystified - kidneys checked out fine in blood tests - and prescribed Cipro antibiotic. The result was that I was forced to later put in a heroic amount of non-stop work to complete the work on my front channel block.)
The throat dilation alone may be sufficient fix. But if you find you must keep consciously dilating to create a flow, and it never flows spontaneously, then you can move on to the next step. Do so, too, if you find that the flow doesn't naturally continue all the way down chest and abdomen (i.e. there may be more blockage below). And, of course, more help is definitely needed if the throat dilation has little or no effect in the first place!
#2: Chinese herbs
Yes, I know. It's shockingly easy and dismayingly materialistic. But trust me. Do it. Go to a Chinese herbalist and you'll be given tea to open the front channel. And that's that. Sadly, yogis don't ever seem to think of this.
You needn't talk to the herbalist about yoga, front channels, or kundalini. In fact, it's much better if you don't, as it will only confuse her/him. Stick to listing symptoms (headache, etc). The herbalist (if s/he is a real Chinese herbalist) will diagnose you via your pulse, and your pulse will reveal the issue, though not in terms a yogi would use. I could go into detail about exactly what the problem is, how it arises, and how it's addressed, from a Chinese versus Indian perspective, but it's not relevant. The upshot is this: your front channel block is manifesting as an imbalance, and the herbalist will easily diagnose the imbalance, and herbs will correct it per protocols developed over millennia. It's a no-brainer for a good Chinese herbalist. This is a bread-and-butter case for them (though they'll probably consider you an extreme case).
The Chinese herbs that will be given to you are, in yogic terms, satvic. Unlike western pills, they will not interfere with your spiritual practice. And, unlike some other "cures" for kundalini overload, they don't add MORE energy to an over-energized system. You will, in remarkably short order, find the block starting to crumble and the energy flowing more freely. I'd strongly suggest continuing work on the throat dilation to help the process.
You don't need a particularly "good" herbalist (because, again, it's bread-and-butter for them). But make sure they're Chinese. That's very important. This particular sort of imbalance is well known in Chinese medicine, but I can't vouch for other systems. So either look for a practitioner who's Chinese (any Chinatown anywhere has one) or else a non-Chinese who is deeply and exclusively trained in Chinese medicine (i.e. you really don't need some independent healer's "woo woo" kundalini theories tested out on you!).
Also, I'd avoid acupuncture, which more directly and forcefully adjusts energy flow (with unpredictable or even negative results in your case). A good Chinese doctor will know to treat these symptoms with herbs rather than acupuncture. But again, it's important to refrain from delving into details on kundalini, etc, with the practitioner. Just tersely state your symptoms and let him take your pulse. Avoid "holistic" healers who want lots of background from you. The Chinese herbal guys are no-nonsense, and, again, can easily glean the problem via pulse diagnosis.
Here's what I'm not sure of: the Chinese herbs worked quickly and effectively for me. Was this only because I'd done so much intermediary work on the block? I'm not sure. But that's why I've structured this posting as I have. Please do try walking - lots of it! - first. And try the ball visualization. And consider standing asanas or tai chi. Not that the herbs are such a severe/radical step, but I think those preliminary moves may "set the stage" for the herbs to work more effectively. But if your symptoms are truly horrid, you may want to move toward herbs (and throat dilation) sooner rather than later. This is just a roadmap...as always, pace yourself to fit circumstance.
Note: I've been unsatisfied with Ayurvedic herbs used for this application, and others (including Yogani) report the same. I'd strongly suggest sticking to Chinese.
PILATES
One indication of the enormity of my front body block was that my belly started growing...even though my diet was modest and healthy and I was exercising a lot. And I at some point noticed I'd lost my muscular control in the area. When younger, I could retract my stomach (per nauli and various bandhas). I lost that!
I first noticed this at a pilates class, where the teacher told me to retract the navel back to the spine, and I couldn't activate it, energetically, much less contract the muscles. After following the advice given in this post, I recovered that sensitivity, and have become a loyal Pilates student (both mat and reformer) in an attempt to tone the area and enhance my energetic connection. Good Pilates teachers keep your attention on the energetic pathways, and don't just have you "crunch" the abs muscles. Note that when Pilates teachers have you say "CHOOOS" upon exhalation, you can substitute an ujiya breath, and an experience of downward pranayama through to root. All of Pilates can be seen as a way to train you to maintain this downward connection in spite of activity and resistance. I highly recommend Pilates for people who've made some progress on front body block, and who want to speed up the process.
CHI NEI TSANG
Chi Nei Tsang is a Taoist abdominal massage that is specifically intended to help dissolve blocks in the area. It's expensive (around $100 per session), but extremely helpful. If you're an experienced yogi, you'll quickly understand the principles and be able to apply them to self-massage. I had two chi nei tsang massages after years of working on the above steps, and it REALLY hastened my progress toward torrent-like openness in the front. Here's an incomplete list of practitioners:
http://www.chineitsang.com/practitioners/index.htmlI recommend Karin Sorvik in NYC, who's not on that list. This is her operation:
http://www.taohealing.com/cnt.htmlTINKERING NOTE
Energy shoots up the spine like a phallic snake, thrusting through the gaping channel of spine toward ajna. If you try to move energy down the front channel in similar fashion, you'll find it frustratingly ineffective. While energy up the spine manifests as a phallic thrust, energy down the front manifests as a more passive vaginal suck. In the back, a thrust from root pushes to pierce and penetrate ajna. In the front, a sucking from root cajoles, entices, and pulls energy down the front. While the imagery will feel less sexual over time (though not before it starts feeling a lot MORE sexual, as the thrusting and sucking are experienced simultaneously...an, um, interesting sensation), the sexual perspective is convenient for harnessing bhakti to work through blocks and complete circuits. In any case, the thing to remember is, you can't really push energy down the front, as you can up the back. You can only pull from below (from root/mula). Oh, and when doing front channel tinkering, lightly hold the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Just in back of your teeth is good, but do relax your jaw. Full kechari mudra, I've been told by a very reliable source, will stimulate at least as much back channel activity as front. So for purposes of tinkering with front channel block, don't go all the way to kechari even if you can.
Here's a tinkering step to try. It may or may not work for you ("work" being defined as an experience of greater connection downward to root from above). It's not recommended that you "work on" this as a practice; it's a move to try, and to explore if it proves helpful. It was the last thing I tried, after the many, many options mentioned here, and it made the last traces of my block quickly vanish (my kundalini rash, too). It may be that the other steps described in this posting must first "loosen" things up for this to be effective. Its deceptively simple, and for doing, rather than for intellectualizing: on an exhalation, gently but firmly direct prana downward to your root (in mulha banda) VIA YOUR KIDNEYS. Sort of like a bank shot. If that doesn't work for you, imagine (again, while exhaling) gently squeezing prana from your kidneys toward your root (in mulha banda). Again, if you try it a couple times without effect, skip it and use the other steps in this posting. You can always come back to it later. If it does work for you, it's a good thing to invoke for your first few rounds of pranayama. Once the connection is made, let it go and proceed with pranayama per AYP instructions.
If you don't have a front channel block, I'd like to caution that this tinkering will likely be counter-productive. This circuit completes in time, anyway, with nothing more than diligent practice of AYP. But those of us with badly blocked front channels can use all the help we can get!
***FINAL PACING NOTE ***
When front channel opens in those with awakened kundalini, a vacuum is created which draws more energy up the back. If you're newly kundalini-awakened and feeling raw and sensitive, pace slowly and carefully on your front channel opening, so that you don't draw a heightened roar of energy through burnt-out pathways! Everyone else needs to pace slowly, too! Bear in mind that blocks don't dissolve smoothly, they dissolve in chunks. So if front channel opens a little, flow increases to fill the vacuum, and front channel closes down again, then you'll find yourself slightly worse off than before you started (much worse, if you've really overdone it). So TAKE IT SLOW (this is reason not to go to herbs right away, not to over-tinker, etc etc). And, as with all practices, be sure to leave yourself headroom. Upshot: you don't necessarily want the front channel to open up suddenly/dramatically all at once (any more than, in retrospect, you wanted the back channel to!). You would, however, presumably like it to take less than the 25 years it took me.
FINAL OBSERVATION
As my front channel opens, and the downward flow increases, I find that I have a very slight aversion to the feel of that flow. It's the mildest thing in the world, but it rubs me (oh-so-minimally) the wrong way to have energy moving that way. And I'm pretty sure that's what created this block in the first place. Mild favoring over a very long time can produce huge effects (e.g. the Colorado River etching the Grand Canyon). It's something to consider in all aspects of life.
If you try any of this, please report back your experiences here.
POSTSCRIPT: GENERAL OVERLOAD TIPS
Since a lot of people with energy overload issues may see this posting, I thought I'd add in overenergization tips not directly related to front channel.
1. avoid spicy food and alcohol (this is very important...they increase the energy/fire overload in the body). That may be sufficient; if not, do a web search for "pitta diet" for more dietary suggestions. But spice and alcohol are the biggies
2. cut back on duration of any spiritual practices you're doing (and don't do anything to cultivate more energy!)
3. eat heavy (in richness and in quantity)
4. sexual orgasm (not to excess, though)
5. lots of engagement with the world...talking, bustling around, etc. This is not the time to go monk-ish...we're trying to roll back spiritual energy, not cultivate it!
6. avoid inspiration, be it art, music, spiritual books, etc. Anything that might wind you up more should be avoided. In fact, do the opposite of everything you've heard of as aids toward spirituality. The items above are examples. Aim for the mundane for a while. Back to Earth, not further into the ether. Seek balance!
Things may feel chaotic for a while, but it will all eventually "bake in". I know, in the meantime it seems like a do-it-yourself project gone awry, and (gulp!) there aren't any experts you can call to come fix everything, nor can you abandon the project 'cuz the project is YOU! But handling things that come up calmly and methodically is part of what yoga's all about. Lots of stuff comes up! It's not like the new agey people say, all love and light and natural fibers. There are challenges, and you quickly learn to be dispassionate and resourceful. One of the great things about asana training is that it teaches unflappable calm problem-solving amid what seems like adversity and chaos.
You'll eventually find (if you haven't already) that there will eventually follow the opposite dilemma: a chaos of ecstasy that also must be calmly transcended as you walk this path. And that one's actually tougher!
