Kundalini Yoga for Getting Grounded

This Kundalini Yoga practice supports grounding by bringing your attention back into the body through breath, movement, and steady focus. It helps regulate the stress response and reduce mental overload. With consistent practice, many people notice greater stability, clearer thinking, and less reactivity. You finish feeling more present, anchored, and connected to your body.

Transcript

This is your reminder to take your nervous system seriously. You are likely on a healing journey. You are likely a spiritual person. Likely you've been to therapy, Too. And some combination of that has landed you here in the middle of the Kundalini Yoga universe. Hi, Everybody. My name is Salima, Yoga therapist. Here's what I want to tell you. Your body is always trying to keep you safe. That is its number one priority. The number one priority of your nervous system is keep this individual alive. And the way that your body does that is by slowing down your heart rate, Picking up your heart rate, Changing your breathing patterns, Making you mobilized to move or making you mobilized to stay. All of those things are happening in the body. So if you've gone to therapy and you found it was helpful to talk things through, But you couldn't quite make a change as a result of that, I have news for you. That's because a big part of your learning needs to come from the body. In some ways, It's very simple. If it happened to the body and we make a shift in the body, Everything else can change. So that's what I want to share with you today. There are four different ways that our nervous system responds to a threat or a distress signal. And there are four things that you can do. Once you are alerted to the fact that that's what's happening. Okay, So stay with me. This is going to be a working model where we talk about one particular response. I give you a couple of different ways where you can work with your body to move through it, And I'll cover all of them. And this is information that's helpful. If your partner responds in a way that's different from yours, Your kids do something different, Then you have a whole basket of different ways that you can help each of them work a little bit more in the style that's helpful for them you also to feel regulated, Feel steady and grounded. Okay, So remember that your nervous system is designed to keep you safe. And in response to external threats, We have four different responses. You probably heard them. Say them with me. Fight, Flight, Freeze fawn. Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn. Four Fs. The first one, Fight. This is where you see the threat coming and you're mobilized to argue, You're mobilized to throw stuff, You're mobilized to. . . Go on the defensive. And that's well within your right. And at the same time, We all know that there's some moments where that's not appropriate. In fact, Many where going full on with how you feel is probably going to end up causing more trouble. And at the same time, While that's natural, We want to have ways that help us to diffuse that level of threat so that you can come back into your conscious mind. So this is what happens when your nervous system gets. . . Flooded then we react without thinking if we can slow that process down even just a little we can come back to our conscious thinking mind our cognitive brain and we can think through what's the outcome if i do this maybe i want to do something else right Okay, So if you find yourself in fight mode, Here's what I recommend. Take your hands like this, Bring your thumb underneath your baby finger, And squeeze, Tense, And hold. Maybe give it five or six seconds and let it go. Exhale. Two more. Squeeze, Tense, Hold. Excel. One more time, Inhale. Good. And immediately you're going to find a shift. I did. I didn't even feel like fighting and I felt the shift. So this is a really good way to diffuse whatever's going on and allow yourself a little bit of grace before you say the thing or do the thing. What thing escalates, Okay. So that is your first remedy for a fight response. Now, A little word. If you want to teach your kids, It's a really good idea to do that. And it's always a good idea to do it outside the heat of the moment. So in other words, When your child is really upset and angry about something, It's not the time to teach them. The time to teach is in quiet moments, Bedtime moments, It's sitting in the car and you're just talking about stuff. That's a good time to do it. But not in the heat of the moment. It's very difficult for them to learn when they're in that. Highly highly engaged place. Okay, So that's your fight response. The second one is your flight response. I'm out of here. This is unsafe. I need to get the heck out of here. And again, Very respectful. You've seen the harm coming and the best thing you want to do, The best. . . Decision your body can make is, Let's go, Let's get out of here. Here's a little technique to help you with that. And that is simply to feel your feet on the ground. You can't see my feet right now, But I'm tapping my toes on the floor. I'm reminding myself that I am right here. And whatever is in front of me, Whatever my body is reacting to, Doesn't negate. How I felt in the past, And it doesn't mean that I have to do anything differently right now. And maybe, Just maybe, This is a whole new take on holding your ground. Holding your space, Holding space for yourself and whoever it is that you're in conflict with or whatever is happening, That you can actually feel your feet on the ground. You have enough body awareness and consciousness about you that you can feel. Save right here. Or at least study. Okay, So that's the second one. The third one, Is in your freeze response. Now, A freeze response sounds just like what it is. Everything has gone into slow mode. Heart rate is down, Breathing is slow, It's become shallow, And the best thing you can do is just In some cases lie there, In some cases sit there. So here what we want to do is a small activation. Small activation. I'll give you two options. One is to quicken your breath. Two sniffs, Pow. You can increase it. That was three. You can increase it. I was four. You can start very small, Just two. And as you work up to feeling a little more enlivened, A little more enlivened, A little more defrosted, A little more defrosted, You may add more and then feel eventually like, Okay, I can sit up. Or I can make a move to go to the bathroom, Or I can make a move to. . . Acknowledge somebody else's presence. Do you want to start off short? And then as you come back to your conscious awareness, Then you can add a few more counts. Okay, So that's number three. The final one is when you fawn. Now, Fawning is when you have assessed that there's danger. And your option. The option that's being presented to you by your body is to go and. . . Calm the other person down. And that is to. . . Hey, Are you okay? Maybe your voice gets a little higher. Maybe you go in with a cuddly kind of idea. Hey, Would you like a glass of water? Or can I get you something? Kind of diffusing the situation by fawning, F-A-W-N, Fawning. And here, Is almost the opposite of freeze. What you want to do is Stand still. Do nothing. Assess. Look at what's happening. Make eye contact if you can. If that's safe. And as you do that, Ask yourself. What is mine to fix? And maybe it's nothing. Maybe in that moment where you've collected yourself, You could say something like, You know what? Let's come back to this later. You know what? I need to think about this. You know what? I'm out of words. Any kind of combination of those things. I want to say a few things here. First of all, None of these techniques are here to require you to tolerate somebody else's bad behavior. If there's a threat of harm against you, Your children, Your property, Your sense of self. These are not the techniques. We need to. . . Escalate. These techniques are when you are in situations with people who you know are trustworthy. Who you have some history with and who you're willing to do a little bit more. Navigating and negotiating with. If you are in a harmful, Abusive situation, You can use these to patch yourself through, But it's not the long-term fix. There are bigger things that need to be changed. What my hope is, Is that you have now a few tools that you can put into practice when you're at work and handling something challenging, When you're at home and something challenging comes up, Or among strangers, Or you're listening to the news. That these techniques help you to navigate those spaces. And if there's something more serious, That you take more serious action. So again, These are to help you. These are to help you think about what your body is signaling to you and how you can maneuver through in a slightly different way to bring about different kinds of outcomes. Whatever you're feeling, It's legitimate. Whatever you're feeling, You are. . . Okay to feel. What is important is that you find other ways to work with the dynamics around you and find ways to shift. And if this was of help to you, Then I'm grateful that you listened. Thank you for tuning in. I'll see you next time.

Reviews

Incredible. This is exactly what I have taught others for years. But to sit and listen to have your soothing voice and your method was a wonderful experience. I will be sharing this with many. Thank you 🙏 x

She knows what she’s talking about and is a great teacher.🙏🏼