Here’s what you need to know about Kundalini awakenings: “It’s your consciousness,” spiritual teacher and author of Transcendence Calling Monique Rebelle puts it. “Everything that you are, you think, you remember, that you can visualize—anything—that’s your consciousness,” she adds. “That’s Kundalini.” She explains that this energy, which is traditionally thought to be feminine (sometimes called Kundalini Shakti), is only able to flow freely when one’s chakras are totally clear and open. “The chakras are like gates to the dimensions of perception,” Rebelle says, noting that for many, blocked chakras do not allow Kundalini energy to flow. As Kundalini yoga teacher Krishna Kaur explains to mbg, “The Kundalini rising is an automatic thing that happens—and it can happen under any type of spiritual discipline, any style of yoga.” So, it’s not something you should necessarily seek out. Through the practice of enriching your spirituality and inner world, you may eventually become so neutral and so balanced “that you know you’ve reached a place of total awakened-ness,” Kaur notes, adding that she does not teach people to raise their Kundalini energy with an awakening as the goal—and doesn’t think people should attempt it. It’s not always possible to know if our Kundalini energy is rising or we’re going through a different kind of spiritual experience. “We can have the instances of Kundalini awakening, and then we can also have instances of upper chakras opening,” Rebelle says. “They don’t have to be related but can be.” According to her, upper chakras opening can manifest in sudden realizations, visions, insights, connecting with spirits, psychic insights, experiences of a sudden feeling of love out of nowhere, and more—but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s Kundalini. To put it simply, a Kundalini awakening can be classified as a type of spiritual awakening, but a spiritual awakening isn’t always related to Kundalini. If you’re unsure what you’re experiencing, the best method would be to seek the guidance of a spiritual teacher or guide. Rebelle notes this is one thing she addresses with her students who are trying to figure out if they’ve experienced Kundalini rising or another type of spiritual experience. Rebelle echoes this sentiment, explaining, “If people try to awaken Kundalini on its own, it’s very often not a good idea. For 99.9% of us, when we try to awaken Kundalini by itself without training and cultivating the upper chakras, often people feel the stiffening of the body, they feel heat in their back, in the spine, they have all kinds of physical reactions.” This happens when Kundalini is awakening “but it’s not going through the chakras; it’s just all over the place,” she adds. All that said, the following are some ways you can cultivate your spirituality and consciousness more generally:
