Category: Savitree - URBAN YOGA CHICAGO

Trouble Sleeping? Part II: the Shabad Kriya.

3/23/2019

by Savitree Kaur

A month ago, I shared some night-time ritual tips to help with sleep. Here is an excellent breath + silent mantra meditation to add to your practice toolbox if or when you have trouble sleeping. It's called the Shabad Kriya.

The ideal time to practice this is at night right before bed.
The real is when you will be most consistent with it.
A regular, daily practice is best.

Time: 11 to 62 minutes
Posture: seated with a tall spine
Mudra: hands on lap, palms up, right on top of left, thumb pads touching.
Mantras: Sa Ta Na Ma and Wahe Guru
Dristhi: focus your eyes on the tip of the nose

The Meditation:
Inhale through the nostrils in 4 segments as you silently chant Sa Ta Na Ma (4 counts).
Suspend the breath at the top of the inhale as you silently chant Sa Ta Na Ma 4 times (for a total of 16 counts). Keep the throat open and relaxed, not clenched shut.
Exhale through the nostrils in 2 segments as you silently chant Wahe Guru (2 counts).
Continue for 15 minutes and up to 62 minutes.

Kriya notes:
It is taught that the more you make it a regular discipline in your daily life, the better you will sleep and your nervous system can deeply relax, giving it the space to regenerate during your sleep.
Once you have practiced it for a few months, you will have greater control of your breath, and as you sleep, the rhythm of your breath will be synchronized with the rhythm of the mantra. The rhythm of your breath and this internal mantra will become woven into the fabric of your day and you will begin to hear the mantra rhythm subconsciously, diminishing anxiety and stress throughout your day.
This meditation has a 22 beat rhythm [4 count inhale, 16 count hold, 2 count exhale].
This is a multiple of 11. In Tantric Numerology, 11 is the number of Infinity. T
he number 22 is the mastery of the mental realm.
This 22 beat breath gives the mind the power to stretch to the Infinite.
--From Yogi Bhajan's Class: April 1, 1974

Want to practice together?

Meal Planning Part 2: Life

3/21/2019

by Savitree Kaur

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Meal Planning and how putting a little time up front planning the menu for the week can save a lot of time and reduce emotional stress throughout the week. It takes out the thinking and negotiating of what to eat down to pure execution (bonus if shopping is already done for the week), which is helpful when you are tired and want to choose the quickest, easiest and most cost effective way to fill the stomach.

Similarly, when our core UYC team members talk to each other about the planning of the upcoming week(s), one of us might say something like, "I'm meal-planning my blogs."

Life happens, and front-loading your most important commitments (the stuff that really matter to you) can mean the difference between making them happen and making excuses (legitimate though they may seem). Meal-planning can mean the difference between continuously experiencing a sense of accomplishment or of failure; of experiencing feeling in control of your life or of feeling like life is controlling you; of seeing intentions manifest versus intentions fade. Unintended life occurrences can be looked at as a sign that it "wasn't meant to be," or we can decide that we are our own self-authority, and we can meal-plan what's important to us. It offers us flexibility and a better chance at flow with a lot less emotional stress and drama.

Trouble Sleeping?

2/20/2019

by Savitree Kaur

Try the following:

Avoid watching or reading news at the end of day. "Catch up" on it during the day instead.
Have dinner earlier, and ideally before 8 pm (try sometime between 5 and 7 pm). The later you eat, the more your body has to work during sleep time to digest the food-- that's exhausting! If at all possible, having a lighter dinner than lunch is a better set-up for better sleep.
Massage your feet under cold water for a few minutes. Let one foot massage the other.
Brush your hair before bed.
Drink hot water before bed.
Avoid lying in bed with social media. But if you must, turn it into gold. Tune into #meditatewithme with SachKiret Kaur (Anna Gratzl on FB) on Wednesday nights at 10 pm. Then practice it for the rest of the week until the following Wednesday when she introduces the next meditation.
Meditation is a wonderful way to end the evening, to quiet the mind for a peaceful snooze. It's a way of taking out the trash at the end of the day so that your body may have a better chance at working on restoring rather than processing. After meditating with SachKiret, commit to put your device down once it's over. No last minute scrolling. Let your head hit the pillow, and give your mind and body permission to dwell in the clarity that comes with this ritual.

Sat Nam.

Three 1000-day worthy game changing practices

2/11/2019

by Savitree Kaur

There are 3 meditations in kundalini that are game-changing.

Sat Kriya
Kirtan Kriya
Sodarshan Chakra Kriya

While they don't have to be practiced in that order (I didn't), they build on each other that way.

The Sat Kriyacleans you out. It detoxes your mind and body, balances your lower triangle, strengthens your nervous system, and calms emotional disarray. It essentially prepares you for acceleration into your next most radiant Self.

The Kirtan Kriyarewires your brain and changes your thought patterns and habits.

The Sodarshan takes you to a new level of neutrality, to being able to see trajectory, and strengthen communication. This is an advanced practice. Come to us first to make sure you are ready to take this one on. You may want to precede this with the Suspension of Breath Series.

While you can do these for shorter periods of time, I encourage you to level up and do more for yourself. You are more than worth it. 11 minutes, 22 minutes, 31 minutes. 90, 120, 1000 days. We are here to support you and to celebrate your commitment.

What a 1000 day practice does.
When you brush your teeth, you don't ask yourself, how many more days?
It becomes a part of your life. You may be too tired to do it some evenings, but you do it (hopefully). It's good hygiene, and it equates to good health and wellness.
Same with these practices.
When we stop saying to ourselves, how many more days?and carve out sacred time for spiritual hygiene, no matter how much we tantrum or how much the world pulls at us, we emit a certain radiance that turns us into a beacon of light for others to follow in our example. We start dropping the justifications and start building constancy and self-authority. We start seeing more potential and beauty in the world, which changes the world accordingly. We become the change agents simply through our own inner change.

With Love, Grit and Gratitude,
Savitree Kaur

KYTT: What if you knew that you were enough?

2/2/2019

by Savitree Kaur

I just listened to a powerful Rich Roll podcast episode with guest Dr. Zach Bush (who is phenomenal). Dr. Bush, who's had experience bringing patients back to life, said that, no matter where they came from, and whatever their background, these patients had the same first thing to say, which was: Why did you bring me back?

As they recalled their experience on the other side, they went on to tell their families, "Being in the white light... I felt completely accepted for the first time in my life."

His take-away: We are all walking around lonely as hell.

What if we could know that we are enough? What if we could know this before we die?

This is what we develop through Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training, which starts in less than 2 weeks.

Through our teacher training, you get to experience this at a cellular level, allowing you to live inspired, engaged, connected and feeling more whole. In so doing, you become a teacher through your very presence. You get to experience the knowingthat you are enough.

It is both an amazing gift and a responsibility to heal and transform yourself, and in so doing, this planet.
Won't you take the call?

With love, grit and gratitude,

Savitree Kaur

May the Force Be with You

1/21/2019

by Savitree Kaur

There are a series of 4 suspension of breath exercises that does an amazing job strengthening the Pranic Body, which resides in the lungs next to the heart. The Pranic Body relates to our endurance and energy levels, or life force. It impacts how fearful or fearless we are, how alive we feel, how relaxed or anxious we are, how motivated we are, whether or not we can see our projects to the end, and how connected we feel with our physical body and our Spirit.

These 4 suspension of breath exercises come in order of difficulty, getting more challenging with each one, and by what they develop, building on top of the previous. They are:

Meditation for a Calm Heart: teaches stillness
Caliber of Life Meditation: teaches concentration and endurance
Meditation for a Stable Self: teaches constancy and visualization
Composite Polarity Meditation: teaches subtlety and command

Visit us here and scroll down to the Suspension of Breath Series meditations. You will find two videos per meditation. One is the tutorial, and the other is the practice that you can follow along with us.

You might consider practicing these, in order, for 40 days each, or continue one for longer than the 40 days, advancing to the next level only after you feel some mastery over the previous. Taking these practices slowly gets you to your goal faster than rushing through. It's about pacing, not racing. Building an intimate relationship with the breath has a payoff that is well worth the dedication. It is the bridge that connects your physical self to your true, essential Self.

How to take the pressure off

1/6/2019

by Savitree Kaur

The pressure is on... to get things done, to share when you don't feel worthy, to communicate something difficult, to figure out how to feel better, to alleviate the overwhelm and make a decision... to not take things too seriously and give yourself permission to enjoy life. I share with you a few powerful, actionable quotes.

When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off. --One of 5 Sutras of the Aquarian Age.

I heard my 16 year old son saying this several times the week before we went away for winter break - dare I say, it was his mantra for the week - and he had an overwhelming amount of work to get done with an unreasonable amount of commitments to manage. He started, and he completed.

When you want to learn something, read about it.
When you want to understand it, write about it.
When you want to master it, teach it.
--Yogi Bhajan

This quote changed my life. It gave me the permission to teach when I didn't feel I was good enough.

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. --Rush song Freewill.

Decide to choose intentionally rather than by default. Overthinking is just your ego wanting to keep its current job as head honcho. Your ego exists to be your servant, not your boss.

Choose the wellness approach over sickness; build your life rather than fight your life. It's easier on the wallet and makes for a much better quality of life that is both healthful and on your own terms. It puts the power back into your hands and cultivates self~ love and authority.
And yes, allow yourself to enjoy life. In Ayurveda, one of the 3 tenets of good health is BLISS. Because without it, are we truly well?

Pressure? Let it out, make a choice, start, and enjoy the ride.

With love, grit and gratitude, Savitree

Delving Deeper with Allies: Contact Lenses for your Blindspots

1/2/2019

by Savitree Kaur

We all have blind spots. No matter how much work we’ve done, they exist. Happily ever after happens with commitment and follow through, and by letting your ego to crack open again and again. That cracking is not fun, and in fact it often comes with some unwelcome physical symptoms.

In order to push past the part where you normally get stuck and where the self-sabotage begins… or in case you don’t recognize it as such… where the cycle begins because a behavior or situation outside of you is totally unacceptable so you find yourself responding in a way that is totally justified but also looks familiar…

you will need to break that pattern and respond in a totally different way. That’s transformation.
In contrast, as they say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

We are blind to our blind spots, and we will defend our position no matter how many times we find ourselves there. Trying to shift out of our recurring issues on our own doesn’t often work because our thinking got us there. That’s why having mentors and coaches is invaluable. Unlike friends, they aren’t afraid of your rejection. They have one job, and that is to place the mirror in the right place so that you can see that blind spot. They are there, not to do the work for you, but to give you the opportunity to do the work yourself by bringing light to it and then by holding vision for you to get there. They assume you are capable and will hold you to that standard.

Even better is when you get to share with others what you’ve learned through your own transformation. Not just the solution, but more importantly the process. Paying it forward is the best part. Because working through your blind spot with a mentor and getting unstuck from a recurring cycle is just the beginning. You get to take that experience and help others through your unique angle, and in so doing, you will find that you continue to help yourself even more than you help the other person. Likewise, your mentor is helped more than you. It’s a beautiful thing.

Looking at irritations to find out what you have been holding back from yourself

11/28/2018

by Savitree Kaur

Life is pretty irritating. The significant other is irritating. The children are irritating. Work is irritating. The cars and cyclers on the road are irritating. Deciding to find time to make dinner (which goes with deciding on what to make) otherwise deciding to spend money to eat out: irritating. How the body feels is irritating. The state of the world: forget about it.

There’s only so much (dark) chocolate one can eat to soothe an irritation.
So, how do you deal with life’s irritations? Is what you do for it a momentary fix, or does it build on you to find a different way to be?

Can these irritations reflect back to you what you need to see in order to grow into a better version of yourself while at the same time examine and love what you are today?

That which irritates you offers you good information on where or how you may not be taking care of yourself. They offer up a worthy challenge to practice proper self-care and self-advocacy, which sets the healthy boundaries necessary to create enough space for what you need to do for yourself and to encourage a more loving and respectful back-and-forth between you and everyone else.

Dig deep. Irritations are a two way street. People and things irritate, and in so doing, they hold up a mirror to take a closer look, giving you a gift opportunity to find what you’ve been holding back from yourself.

The human hunger. The human gift. See the other person. See yourself.

11/1/2018

by Savitree Kaur

Treat the next person you talk to as someone whose trust and respect you wish to earn. This means you won’t take them for granted, nor make any assumptions based on “they should know…”
That person wants to be treated like a human being, and all human beings want to be seen, heard and understood. What if you could gift them this experience?

Here’s an exercise:

Go in to your next interaction without any agenda but to be fully there. Take an exhale, surrender into that moment, look at that person with genuine happiness to be there with them, smile, and say, how are you, or ask any real question, and truly want to know.
There are no thoughts running through your mind on how you will respond or what you wish to say. Just listen intently because you care. This is your opportunity to really see the other person. As well as yourself.
Make eye contact. Let the breath respond while they talk.
If you feel so compelled to interrupt, offer a solution, or talk about yourself, even if it’s something related to what they were saying… first ask yourself, what is your need? What are you hungry for? Can you hold back for now to be the fulfiller? Can you stop your thoughts in your tracks about what you will say when they’re done? Can you trust that you will have something worthwhile you say later if you do that? Or will this be about you? You decide. Compare and contrast how it feels to interact this way versus another.
Holding space for someone like this, even upon saying hello, is a good skill to cultivate. Try it with a client, a friend, your significant other, co-worker, family member, anyone. You may find that you get a lot more back in return, and you will learn a lot more about them (as well as yourself), in the process.

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Kundalini Yoga Quotes:

“I’d never felt anything like it; it was just an opening of energy and a feeling of such liberation.” -Marika Bethel, owner, Glowing House

“Within the first ten minutes, I thought, ‘[kundalini yoga] is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,’” -Gabrielle Bernstein

"Kundalini Yoga is the crack cocaine of yoga; if Hatha is a mild weed high, Iyengar is a deep hash glow and Ashtanga is amphetamine, Kundalini Yoga blows the F*@&ing doors off." -Russell Brand