Maybe you have a couple of examples in your life too when you can look back and say that that particular point in time was a key moment when everything changed. For me, it was connecting with the Golden Chain.
Rewind the clock to 2000. I was a stressed-out PR consultant/aerobics instructor/party girl/marathon runner. I was a very unconscious vegetarian (Starbucks muffin and coffee constituted breakfast many mornings, and ready-meal pasta for dinner) and was severely depleted. I had been suffering from increasingly severe digestive problems for the previous few years, but continued with the very British 'stiff-upper-lip' attitude of pushing through, believing that taking time off work was for pussies! The day I saw blood in the toilet bowl, I realised that the denial could go on no longer. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.
I started working with an incredible acupuncturist, whose sole purpose was to get me to chill out. 'Do yoga, Sara', he urged me every week. I did. From Hatha, to Ashtanga, Sivananda, and goodness knows what else. I tried classes, different instructors, different locations, and each and every time was left with the feeling 'Is that it?'. I felt that something was missing. I could get a great workout and stretch by myself as a fitness trainer, so what was all this fuss about yoga all of a sudden? Fast forward a few months of this yoga class groundhog day and I was ready to give up. One last try... I took myself off on a yoga holiday in Greece, which was Hatha and Thai yoga. Nothing new there, but it was worth a go.
It was nice, the sun shone, and we practiced on the beach, but it was still a workout and a bit of stretching. And then one day our instructor said we were going to chant. 'Chant!?! Oh my goodness, no, I'm British, we don't do chanting.' All of my defences were up and I felt intensely uncomfortable. She wrote the words on a board:
I had no idea what they meant, I just knew that I had promised myself to be open and try new things, no matter how weird or uncomfortable they felt. So I closed my eyes, put my hands into prayer pose at my heart centre, and opened my mouth to chant. The sounds came out, my voice mingled with those of the teacher and other students. And for the first time in my months of trying to 'get' yoga, I experienced bliss.
It came out of nowhere, it hit me full force like a speeding train. It left me breathless, speechless, confounded - and wanting more. I had found what I had been searching for in all those months of fruitless yoga classes that had left me empty. Kundalini was my path, I had come home, after not even realising I was lost.
Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo, also called the Adi Mantra, or the first or primal mantra, is known as the Golden Chain. It connects us to the teachings, and to the teacher, creating a golden chain through the lineage of instructors, all the way back to the Source.
This was the moment that changed me forever and upon which all my subsequent joys, successes, challenges, and growth have been based. What was yours?
If you are interested in learning more about the sacred technology of Kundalini Yoga or how it applies to freediving, join me at this year's Kundalini Awakening Teacher Training or via my online Yoga for Freediving training programme. Or join us for one of our live freediving events, or private coaching in Dahab or around the world.