From Me To You – Gracefully Navigating Polarities

Sat Naam and Greetings!

As 2021 draws to a close, I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and happy.  

One of the topics I have been meditating a lot about lately is polarity.  As was predicted, this start of the Aquarian Age that we are living in is really exaggerating the extremes.  Almost every topic seems to stir extreme reactions of “this is right” and “that is wrong.”  Politics, public health issues around COVID, and closer to home, how people are viewing and relating to Yogi Bhajan.  

It is critical that we all learn to effectively handle polarities.  Not getting “stuck” thinking in black and white terms, or absolutes.  In this Age, we all must get comfortable with being uncomfortable.  We must consciously overcome our instinct to over-simplify issues and problems and maintain enough complexity.  

For me, the annual cycle of the seasons and the coming New Year are fantastic reminders of how we can dance with polarities rather than futilely struggle to find an “answer” on one side or the other.  Winter isn’t better than, or worse than summer (no matter how much I prefer the warm weather)!  They are both necessary and important.  They work together, when in the right rhythm, to enrich and enliven.  

So whether you are hot in the Southern Hemisphere or cold in the Northern (or basking by your pool in the tropics), I encourage you to use Kundalini Yoga and meditation, and some reflections on the turning of the calendar, to train yourself to work with extreme polarization.  Take every seemingly black and white issue and find the yin/yang symbol in it.  Don’t try to pick one over the other, and don’t try to pull them into some mushy grey compromise in the middle.  Can you practice seeing the dance between the rhythm that underlies both sides?  Every coin has two sides.  Kundalini Yoga and meditation can train your brain to see both sides – from which you can discover your own inner freedom to act, rather than react.  

Of course, all of us at KRI are very passionate about bringing the benefits of kundalini yoga to as many people as possible.  Therefore, I am very excited to share with you a new program that KRI will be launching in 2022 – Kundalini Beyond Borders.  This is a grant-giving program that KRI is setting up to support getting all the amazing benefits of Kundalini Yoga to underserved populations.  We will share all the details of this program in the first months of 2022, and be open for grant applications by the end of March.  A committee of KRI teacher trainers will evaluate the applications, which can be for either new or ongoing projects.  

Everyone at KRI is very happy to be able to support the service of our certified teachers, and look forward to helping all of us getting known for our service!  You can be a part of building this new program as a community.  You can donate in our year-end fundraiser, where 100% of your donation will be given out as a grant to some Kundalini yoga-spreading program.  And you can help by spreading the word, so that all the worthy work that is already happening is encouraged to apply in a few months for these grants.  

Have a blessed holiday season, and a very happy New Year.  I hope you can spend time relaxing with your family (of birth and/or of choice), rejuvenating and preparing for a great 2022.  May you be a lighthouse of hope and blessings to everyone.  

Teacher