Hello everyone, I just joined this site and wanted to weigh in on Crystalcat's original post.
Generally speaking, I think that the quickest way to speed up the awakening of Kundalini shakti is through either more intense concentration or meditating for longer periods of time. A good way to meditate more effectively if you don't have a lot of extra time to spare for longer meditation sessions is by doing lots and lots of trataka. I've found that in my own practice, trataka has been the most effective way to reduce stray thoughts both during and outside of meditation, and that after a good amount of trataka practice my meditation sessions become exponentially more intense.
Another very powerful technique you may or may not be making extensive use of is kumbhaka, or breath retention. When we are very concentrated on something we naturally hold our breath, and we can take advantage of that in meditation too. Our thoughts are intimately connected with our prana. By stilling prana we can drastically reduce and finally stop the thinking process entirely. Even though kumbhaka and trataka are very basic techniques, they are very powerful and should not be overlooked.
Of course, without knowing the details of either your practice or your personality it's tough to say what would be the most effective for you, but for most people I'm certain that what I've said would be helpful.
