Kundalini Imbalance

[yogani]

Hi All:

Here is an interchange from my email:

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Q1:
I have just ordered both your books and look forward to receiving them.  A search on Kechari Mudra led me to your site.

I have a question about Kundalini.

I had always been a very relaxed and laid back guy.  Slowly I got interested in Yoga, then meditation, pranayam...As my practice deepened, I became more and more calm, more content and peaceful.  Then one day, about 2 years after starting my practice, all this changed.

I started feeling a pressure in the throat area, as though someone was gripping my throat.  It feels somewhat like having a lump in the throat, when someone is about to cry.  I started becoming very anxious and mentally agitated.  I also started suffering from insomnia.  Since that day (almost 2 years ago) I have been  trying to cope with these things.  To this day I still feel as though there is a blockage in my throat.  I don't remember the last time I felt physically relaxed.

I was wondering if it's possible my symptoms might have been triggered by kundalini coming up to fast.  I am a sensitive Vata type person and perhaps my nervous system was not strong enough to handle the kundalini what was being roused from all the pranayam and to a certain extent, meditation.

Would starting my practice up again only agravate the these symptoms if in fact it were related to kundalini?

A:
Thank you for writing and sharing, and welcome to AYP!
 
Yes, it does sound like a kundalini imbalance and/or energy blockage in the throat area. Since I do not know the particulars of your practices in the past, it is hard to say what has caused the difficulty -- how things got to be imbalanced. However, the important thing is to to move forward correctly from here, and AYP can offer quite a few suggestions on that.  
 
AYP includes a lot of preventive and curative measures for kundalini, including managing the inner energies in a progressive and safe way. Check lesson #69 for a review of some of the factors and possible measures for dealing with an energy imbalance. Near the top of the list for remedies is spinal breathing, which is a core practice in AYP. It has very good balancing properties and can help resolve blockages like you have described, and also help with the emotions and sleep problems that often come with energy imbalances. These are caused by having too much energy running around inside without balancing the ascending and descending energies in the nervous system. Spinal breathing addresses this directly and immediately.
 
Also, in the particular case of a throat blockage, the "chin pump" practice, done in moderation, can be very effective for clearing up the problem. See lesson #139 and related followup lessons on that.
 
Normally I would not recommend jumping around in the lessons like that, but these are two that come to mind that might offer you some measures for immediate relief. It would also be wise to take the lessons from the beginning and go straight through. That way you will have the whole picture and see how all the practices are interrelated and logically managed in AYP using "self-pacing." It will also give you some useful perspectives on the practices you have been doing in the past, and help you reach decisions on where your practice should go from here. These are all your choices. AYP is not a rigid tradition. It is an open resource for independent practitioners.  
 
If you don't mind, I'd like to post our interchange anonymously in the AYP forums so others can benefit from this discussion. You can read and interact with many practitioners from beginning to advanced in the AYP forums.  
 
Please let me know if it would be okay to post this there.
 
I wish you all success on your chosen spiritual path. Practice wisely, and enjoy!
 
The guru is in you.

Q2:
Thank you for your advice.  I have no objections against posting our exchanges on the forum.  I felt it was somewhat strange that I had felt so peaceful and calm, and that in one instant, that all changed.  hopefully, with your suggestions, I will be able to go back to remove any blockages in the throat and help the energy circulate more freely.

[Victor]

Wow! This person sounds as if it could have been me writing! Almost exactly the same symptoms though thankfully not all the time. AYP and *especially* the chin pump helped me quite a bit with these symptoms!

[Jim and His Karma]

There are asanas that can gently help ease blockages in the Visuddha (throat chakra), and might be a less drastic step (than chin pump) to try first. Just an idea fwiw.

[yogani]

Here is more with the same correspondent:
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Q:
Prior to my problems arising, I was well established in abdominal breathing. I was breathing from the belly most of the time. Since that  day, it seems my breathing has been confined to the area  of the upper chest and  just below the adam's apple. Trapped. Even when  trying to consciously  breathe from the belly, it is difficult and not as natural as it had once been.

A:
That also should become better as the energies are balanced via the means suggested. Everything is connected -- mind, body, emotions, breath, etc. This connectedness throughout the nervous system is a fundamental principle in yoga. See "connectedness of yoga" in the topic index for lessons on that.

All of your symptoms point to energy being "up" without enough downward flow to balance it. This is a common ailment in a yoga culture that is dominated by the idea that enlightenment is a one way journey -- upward, with practices skewed that way also. The worst in all of this is often a premature focus on crown practices which can create a real kundalini mess, epitomized in the problematic journey chronicled by Gopi Krishna about 50 years ago. The problems associated with premature crown practices are discussed in the AYP lessons. Check the topic index again, this time for "crown practices (avoiding premature)."

Lesson #69 on kundalini symptoms and remedies is mostly about "grounding" the energies by various methods, some quite mundane (yet effective) like exercise and diet, and then picking back up with practices that are more balanced for moving forward.

Also, if you are going to use chin pump as mentioned in the first posting above, I suggest you do the "lite" version without breath retention (kumbhaka), at least starting out. This is covered in a follow-up lesson to the main chin pump lesson (#139). Breath retention is a kundalini stimulator. While breath retention is fine when everything is going in the right direction (and chin pump will help with that), it is not necessarily the best thing to be doing during a period of imbalance.

All the best!

The guru is in you.

[ycloutier2000]

Hello group, Yogani.  Thank you for your comments and suggestions regarding these problems.  I have learned to live with these problems, but obviously it would be nice if I didn't have to.  I will definitely try the chin pump and spinal breathing.

You know come to think of it, around the time that these things started happening, I also developed some food sensitivities and also itching of the anus that are still with me to this day.  Again I had battery of tests done and had no physical problems, no parasites or candida.   Perhaps these are also due to Kundalini affecting my nervous system.

If the issue is in fact improper flow of kundalini, then it brings me hope.  It means that it can be manipulated to flow properly through some practices.  The situation is not hopeless, as this is another avenue to explore.

[yogani]

Hi Y:

Yes, food sensitivities and anal itching can be common kundalini symptoms too. Which is not to say these things can't happen for other reasons.

The good news is that the practices here in AYP, if done with good self-pacing, do lead to many fewer uncomfortable symptoms, while at the same time much more energy flowing and refining to ecstatic bliss. It takes some time though, depending on how far out of kilter things are now and what the underlying state of purification in the nervous system is.

Keep in mind that the cultivation of inner silence in deep meditation is the ground state of all the progress we are discussing here. Kundalini is really the tail on the big dog of pure bliss consciousness. If we put the tail in charge of the dog, what happens?

That's is why I am frequently cautioning folks about doing energy practices without deep meditation in the picture. Most kundalini cases demonstrate this point.

The same can be said of spinal breathing, which is by far the most effective means for awakening the ecstatic energies in a balanced way. But even that should not be the primary focus over deep meditation. That is the AYP point of view.

There is lots of hope around here. Dip in and take a nice long cool drink.    

The guru is in you.

[Jim and His Karma]

Man, between the anal itching, the urine drinking, and the nasal flossing, this forum really isn't safe for mealtimes (SFM?).

Re: anal itching, at least the kundalini kind, the thing to use is aloe vera gel (preferably the kind with witch hazel).