Updated on November 6th, 2018

In Kundalini Yoga, I’ve discovered the bookTen Light Bodies of Consciousness*. It’s given me insights into matters I want to develop further in my life: My connection to That Which Is Greater Than Us – God, or the Universe. Fear is one thing that cuts me off from it. The book offers exercises to master this – they’re all about the breath – to be practiced daily for 40 days. This is what this practice is all about.

The book The Ten Light Bodies of Consciousness* says that we have ten bodies, really, and our physical body is just one of them. The other bodies are ethereal, and there’s an eleventh body which encompasses all of them. Author Nirvair Singh Khalsa says they’re not exactly layered around us like an onion, but there is some quality of that involved.

A holistic model for human excellence

I’ve learnt those same or similar concepts in non-yoga workshops about energy that I’ve participated in in the past. But this Kundalini-Yoga-based teaching is the first I’ve come across that links such knowledge to our life path and our purpose in life – via our birth chart. (I’m sure there are others equally valid ones too – please forgive my ignorance.)

Success and human excellence, according to Nirvair Singh Khalsa’s book, is when we’re operating healthily through all the Ten Bodies of Consciousness. That’s when our light shines most brightly; when we’re living our purpose in this life.

As a soulful life coach specialising in helping women in mid life to discover and create their very own authentic, purposeful, joyful life – and working to keep deepening and developing my own! – I am naturally intrigued.

My challenge: Connecting the Finite and Infinite

I am also personally interested in exploring and deepening my own spiritual connection to Life with a Capital L – That Which Is Greater Than Us. Perhaps you call this God, or the Source, or The Universe. It has many different and equally valid names, and connecting with it tends to become more important for many of us in and after midlife. It’s one of the things that can give our life purpose and meaning.

Coincidentally – but probably not! 🙂 – this is exactly where the simple birth chart I’ve constructed with help of the book says that I’ve got a challenge and a life task: Connecting the Finite and the Infinite. This means feeling the limited form of my life here on earth as being connected to the unlimited energy of the Universe. Feeling this unlimited energy in my own limited earthly body and life.

I have worked towards that in my life, in many years of search, study and learning through different spiritual and psychological disciplines and philosophies.

And I do feel connected to God and the Universe:

When I’m out in nature wondering at its miracles. When I sing Gospel songs and Yoga mantras. When I meditate or practice yoga. In a church or other sacred space. When I dance. When I’m deeply immersed in writing, or reading. When I radiate the love I feel for my family, my friends, my clients, or even a stranger whose path crosses mine in a meaningful way. When I’m having a meaningful, soulful conversation. And when I feel the love of others for me.

When I’m connected like that, I can feel this unlimited, Universal energy run through me like a joyful current. It’s like being in a delicious, unearthly flow!

But I also have times when I lose that connection: When I get fearful, or stuck.

Them the delicious flow stops, and my view of life and the universe somehow narrows. I can function, but I tend to lose my joy, and just plough through things as best I can in this limited world, forgetting that, really, I am an unlimited being.

Keeping my connection to the Universe strong and consistent is my task and my challenge.

The practice: 40 Days with my Breath

I like that the book calls this a challenge, fully implying that such challenges are part of being human, and that we can all successfully address and meet them. And I love that the book is giving us the tools and the practices to do just that. It’s kind of like coaching! 🙂

My challenge is in the 8th Body of Consciousness – the Pranic Body – which deals with the energy that comes from the breath. And therefore, reconnecting to this body involves exercises and meditations that are to do with… the breath! They’ll link me up properly with the Universe’s infinite field of energy through creating a well-functioning Pranic Body in myself.

This will, writes Nirvair Singh Khalsa, restore my confidence and deep knowing that I’m connected, belonging, abundant and secure. And it will make me fearless.

Because fearless is what I need to be to properly connect with my essence: my soul.

And that’s when I will fully express the gifts I’ve brought into this life, and fully live my purpose.

Becoming fearless: An experiment

The idea of fearlessness intrigues me.

In the book, I read that it’s not the same as courage, which is being afraid and doing it anyway.

I relate to that: Feeling the fear and doing it anyway has been my tried-and-tested way of getting through and over my fears.

Over time, some of those fears lessened or went away altogether, as I saw that what I’d feared wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined, at all. Other fears I still feel, but today I know from experience that I can manage and get over them and do what I want to do anyway, by getting over myself or using my courage.

But being fearless, as in: having no fear?

I can’t imagine what that would be like. And what else would then would be possible?

So I’m embarking on an experiment…

My intentions for my 40-Day Breathing Practice

I inted to embark on this practice to connect more consistently with my Pranic Body. It takes about 40 minutes each day and involves:

  • Tuning in
  • Gentle leg stretches
  • Flexing the spine
  • Pumping the navel
  • A 17 mins breathing series
  • Deep relaxation
  • Tuning out

My intentions are to:

  • Practice the exercises and meditations in the book daily, for 40 days without interruption
    and
  • Observe what happens, at all levels within myself and my life
    and
  • Write about and share my experiences daily as I do so

I am purposely NOT setting a goal of becoming fearless, or seeing any specific results in my life.

I know, as a coach and from personal experience, that by regular practice, progress is bound to happen, and I will be ok with whatever progress that is.

I also know from reading James Clear (Forget About Setting Goals, Focus on This Instead), that it’s repetitions and practice, and having a system that supports you in doing these regularly, that will bring about results for me.

I will cut myself a little slack here and not mind if I do my practice every day at the same time or not (although it would be beneficial for habit-forming if I did); the important thing is that I do it.

And if I fall off my daily practice, at any time, I intend to get back on it the very next day.

I am curious to observe my transformation as I start inhabiting my Pranic Body properly!

Coming soon:

To find out how it’s going, head over to: My honest daily practice experience…

 

Inspired?

*  The book I used to guide me is The Ten Light Bodies of Consciousness – A Guide to Self Discovery and Self Enlightenment, by Nirvair Singh Khalsa, NSK Productions, 2010

To learn more about Kundalini Yoga, head over to www.kundaliniyoga.net