The Three Essential Components to a Daily Kundalini Yoga Sadhana

There’s good news and bad news about developing a daily sadhana.

The good news? Daily practice really will change your life, and pretty quickly, even if it’s a short practice. When I first committed to sadhana, I was working an incredibly stressful and time-chained job as a criminal defence lawyer, and most days all I could manage was 3 minutes of Aerobic Capacity and Efficiency or Sitali Pranayama (I still practice both frequently!). And it worked– some days, all I could manage would be to sneak into the office gym change room and do a quick 3-minute practice, and I was a new woman once I returned to my desk.

But a full-spectrum sadhana, of the kind recommended in the Kundalini Yoga practice, really will repair your metabolism, strengthen your nerves, balance your hormones, stimulate your lymphatic system, de-age your body, and set you projection in the direction of your highest destiny.

Wow GIF from Wow GIFs

Yup! As I look back on my life over the years, there has been a quantum up levelling in all areas of my life since I got serious about my practice, in all arenas– money, love, creativity, health, clarity. To be clear, that does not mean that there haven’t been ebbs and flows and low points– but I kept practicing through them, and was able always to hold a perspective of clarity and dignity and transmute conflicts.

The bad news? Let’s go back to that wise adage from Alcoholics Anonymous: it only works if you work it. Yup, sadhana is no quick fix, and definitionally it only works if you do it every single day. Not almost every day. Not four days a week. Sadhana is not a temporary fix. It’s not like “yoga three days a week, CrossFit twice a week, Pilates once a week.”

Sadhana is a daily, long-term relationship with yourself.

Sadhana sends a vibrational command out from your personal energy field into the quantum field, and that command needs to be consistent. As an added benefit, having the integrity to sustain a daily practice builds a firmament of trust in your psyche. You know you’ll show up for yourself, even if you don’t feel like it. That baseline of self-trust broadcasts from your aura, and others pick up on it without you saying a word. They want to hire you, invest in you, date you.

So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of it all, shall we? Here’s what an ideal sadhana contains.

(And no, you don’t have to do Sadhana at 4am. It’s true that the 2.5 hours before sunrise are traditionally the most potent time to practice, but please don’t worry about this if it’s not sustainable for you. I practice around 6am most days).

1. Pranayama / Breathwork

Well… obviously I was going to put this first! But a good pranayama practice packs the biggest punch: it will clean your blood, boost your metabolism, anchor your mind, enhance your energy and circulation. A few of my favourites:

Meditation to Brighten Your Radiance (wow, this one sends me out into outer space every time!)

Sitali Pranayam (supercooling and liver cleansing)

Ego Eradicator (the OG, an ‘aura quick fix’)

2. Yoga Set / Kriya

Kundalini Yoga Kriyas are unique in that they work on all Ten Bodies (blog post on those coming soon!) simultaneously, so you get a very holistic physical experience. My experience is that for true, real-life transformation, it’s necessary to do a daily physical yoga set rather than just meditate because energetic imprints of old thought forms leave a residue. Think of it like a soiled washing machine drum– it might clean your clothes a bit, but eventually, the drum is going to re-stain your clothes. Imprints in the aura, arcline, or physical body work in much the same way. You might clear your psyche out some with meditation, but you need to purify on a physical, cellular level for permanent vibrational shifts.

Luckily, there are incredibly effective KY sets that you can finish in under 10 minutes. My favourites:

Master Gland Set #1 (DESERT ISLAND KRIYA. One woman I know dropped fifteen pounds in a year just from doing this set every day, not changing anything else. The meditation at the end is optional.)

Kriya to Make You Enchantingly Beautiful

Adjust the Heat in the Body for Improved Digestion and Weight Loss (The only kriya I know of that mentions weight loss, and actually super gentle and meditative.)

Strengthening the Aura

Nervous System Overhaul (I make everyone I know do this set. Strong nerves give you the ability to hold more of everything you want- love, prosperity, energy).

Don’t have ten minutes? No problem. Just do three minutes of cat-cow, which stimulates collagen, awakens the spine and resets the glandular system.

Teaching cat-cow to our group of Radiant Beauty women at Lotus Yoga Centre

3. Meditation / Mantra

After your energy is buzzed up from pranayama, your ten bodies are balanced, and chakras are online from your yoga set, it’s time to meditate. I currently practice several forms of meditation– I’ve practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM) daily since learning it two years ago, I practice Breathwork, and of course, I chant Kundalini Yoga mantras. TM gives me spaciousness of mind and makes my brain feel like it’s had a bath. Breathwork deeply soothes my nervous system and gives me an organic high and access to different dimensions of consciousness. And mantras stimulate the meridians on the roof of the mouth in specific patterns and align me with my highest destiny track vibrationally.

One of the cool things that initially drew me to Kundalini Yoga as a technology and what I’ll recommend in choosing a meditation is that this tradition has a meditation for every granular goal under the sun. Meditation to Prevent Aging? Check. Meditation to Manifest Money? Check. Meditation to Heal Ancestral Karma? We’ve got an app for that! (And to be clear, I have practiced all of these meditations for at least 40 days, and all of them really do deliver the specified results).

So really, just pick any meditation you’re drawn to, because you will be inherently motivated to practice it every day.

Because the truth is, all of the Kundalini meditations will eventually get you to the same destination- healthy, happy, purified of low-vibrational thought forms, prosperous– but some are a bit more direct routes.

And if you don’t know where to start, consider one of these three fundamental meditations that you honestly can’t go wrong with:

Kirtan Kriya (this one has been extensively studied for its neuroprotective effects by UCLA, but honestly, its effects could fill libraries..)

Sodarshan Chakra Kriya (I always have crazy dreams when I practice this one)

Sat Kriya (instant magnetism + confidence booster)

And that’s it! Here are a few suggestions of “model Sadhanas” based on how much time you have. Remember, 10 minutes 7 days a week is better than 2 hours twice a week! If even setting aside ten minutes feels daunting to you, do three minutes. You’ll start to create an inner spaciousness and rhythm even in three minutes, and plant the seed for a more fulsome practice when you are ready.