San Diego Professional Editors Network
Quick Stress Release for Editors: Kundalini Yoga
Wednesday
July 16, 2008
Wrists lock while fingers clack away for hours on a keyboard. Eyes fixate on a flickering monitor as tense shoulders and neck hold head rigidly in place. Body slowly slumps into chair. Sound familiar? Perhaps not as familiar to many are the myriad styles and techniques for stress reduction available to hardened desk jockeys. From therapies to treat chronic pain, such as acupuncture, chiropractic, and massage, to preventive practices you can do on your own, including yoga, meditation, and just plain old exercise, a number of ways are available to avoid a life of stress-related aches and pains.
Once the domain of granola-chomping hippies and trendy yuppies, yoga has been in the mainstream for quite some time, and in Southern California, yoga studios are cropping up all over the place. If you like to sweat . . . a lot . . . there’s Bikram. Asthtanga is another great modality for the power yoga types. Then there’s venerable Hatha, the image that pops into most Westerners’ mind when it comes to yoga. One technique that most people likely haven’t heard of is Kundalini yoga.
Kundalini literally means “the coil in the hair of the beloved,” a metaphor that refers to the reservoir of life energy believed to reside at the base of the spine, which when released uncoils upward like a rising serpent. Combining components of many other yoga modalities, Kundalini yoga offers an integrated system of physical exercises, breathing techniques, and meditations to help open and strengthen the body to facilitate the energy’s ascent, improving the practitioner’s vitality, physical health, and emotional well-being.
Not feeling limber enough to do yoga? Fortunately, with Kundalini yoga, if you can move your body (or even only parts of it) and breathe, you can do it. Certainly, some people are masters who can perform the more advanced techniques for extended periods of time, but benefits are quickly realized by beginning students who spend just a few minutes doing some of the most basic exercises.
For the July 16 meeting, SD/PEN member and certified yoga teacher Chris Zook will introduce attendees to the benefits of Kundalini yoga for relieving the effects of stress. After a brief discussion, he will take students through a series of easy warm-up exercises to loosen stiff muscles and joints; these exercises can be done sitting in a chair or standing. He will then lead a simple and brief set that will work the wrists, arms, shoulders, and lower back to help balance the body’s energy system. It is recommended that attendees wear loose comfortable clothing to the meeting.
Chris has been practicing Kundalini yoga since 2001 and received his teaching certification through Yoga Alliance in 2005 after completing over 200 hours of training. A freelance editor and copywriter for the past year, Chris previously worked for seven years as public relations manager for the San Diego Museum of Art, where he wrote press materials and e-newsletters, edited the museum’s quarterly magazine, and managed all Web site content. He currently composes the Balboa Park e-newsletter and writes as Cosmo, the voice behind the park’s new Doggie Blog.