by Tara Springett
Kundalini awakening symptoms include strange body sensations like shaking, tingling or the feeling of moving energy. On the psychologically level we often experience greatly intensified emotions and a general over-sensitivity to ‘everything’. And on the spiritual level we may experience a great increase of spiritual interest but also a lot of confusion.
The first thing that I explain to all my kundalini clients is that a kundalini awakening and its symptoms can be compared with the awakening of our sexual drive during puberty. Both processes have a lot in common.
Can kundalini go away?
First of all, both processes are irreversible. No matter, how much we yearn to go back to the carefree innocence of our childhood, puberty endows us with strong sexual urges that cannot be ignored. In the same way there is no going back once kundalini has made its presence known in our body and mind.
Many of my clients ask me whether kundalini can go away and the answer to that is quite straight forward: just as with puberty, the only way is forward and the more willingly we embrace the challenges that both these processes entail, the easier and more rewarding the outcome will be.
Gaining more power
In both processes, puberty as well as kundalini awakening, we are endowed with a lot more power than we previously had. In puberty we develop the awesome power to create a new human being and during a kundalini awakening we receive powers like clairvoyance, supernatural abilities and ultimately the ability to manifest ourselves as a divine being.
But until we are able to harvest the full rewards of these newly awakened powers we have to change radically. As we all know, the transition from being a child to a happy parent usually entails many years of difficulties until we learn to channel our sex drive into loving relationships. Everything has to change during these years – our self-image, our relationships, our ability to take responsibility for our actions and generally our entire outlook on life.
The same can be said about kundalini. Until we can harvest its rewards we will have to work through an enormous amount of challenges that were previously stored in our unconscious mind. All our emotions will appear magnified and we will have to learn to deal with them skilfully.
Live a wholesome life
In order to manage this process it is paramount to live as peacefully, lovingly and healthily as possible. Anything that could upset ourselves further like taking drugs, having promiscuous sex or experimenting on our mind with meditation without the help of an experienced kundalini teacher should be avoided.
It is good to have a spiritual outlook on life and develop trust in a divine power. But it is important not to overdo spiritual practices as they make the kundalini stronger. If you feel inclined to meditate daily it is paramount only to do this under the guidance of an experienced meditation teacher who has gone through a kundalini experience themselves.
Do ask your local meditation teacher if they have gone through this but do not be surprised if they haven’t because real kundalini awakenings are still very rare. Luckily, in the age of the internet you can also try to find a teacher online and build a trusting relationship in order to get guidance about how to meditate.
Avoid energy healing and breathing exercises
It is particularly important to avoid any form of energy healing like reiki or acupuncture. These forms of healing are devised for 
people who are not in a kundalini process and often do a very good job. But once we have become over-sensitive during a kundalini process these healing modalities can aggravate us severely.
A comparison with puberty can explain why this is. Imagine being upset about your emerging sexual needs and you go to an energy healer to get rid of them. It is obvious that this is doomed to fail. Our libido, as well as the kundalini, is far stronger than these approaches and we will only end up in even more suffering if we try to remove of either of them.
Another thing to avoid is breathing exercises like re-birthing or yogic breathing. Both are powerful ways to alter our body and brain chemistry and can have disastrous consequences if used even slightly in the wrong way. Breathing exercises can be compared with prescription drugs. They should only be used when administered by a skilful physician and certainly not to someone who is seriously challenged by a kundalini process.
Don’t read horror stories about kundalini
I have had many kundalini clients who read all sorts of horror stories on the internet and were very afraid. It is this fear that makes kundalini symptoms far worse than they need be. Just think of how a teenage girl would feel who is repeatedly told that there is the risk of being murdered by her own husband. While this may be true in extremely rare cases, it is not helpful to frighten young people in this way.
The same can be said about kundalini. In rare cases people may deal with it so badly that they end up in a very painful place. But in order for this to happen a lot of negative factors have come together and it is not useful to frighten yourself with these ideas on top of the challenges that kundalini entails anyway. So I strongly advise people to stay away from reading any frightening material about kundalini.
Find a personal guide
A kundalini awakening is a very individual and personal process, just like the development of a satisfying sexuality after puberty is a very personal process. People usually benefit a great deal from personal guidance in both processes.
For a kundalini awakening, you need an experienced spiritual teacher who has gone through this process themselves – just like all youths need guidance about sexuality and relationships from someone who has mastered these areas themselves.
People also benefit from guidance about how to deal with their budding clairvoyance, which can be very confusing and frightening for the unprepared mind. However, the biggest challenge is always the very personal material that emerges from one’s unconscious mind during this process, requiring personal advice.
Finally, it is paramount to adjust your spiritual practices to accommodate the kundalini so that it flows calmly and steadily and does not erupt in fits and starts. In order to do this, you need a personal relationship to a kundalini teacher who can guide you in this way.
Tara Springett is a fully qualified and licensed psychotherapist and Buddhist teacher who has specialised in working with kundalini awakening symptoms. She offers skype/phone sessions.
Check out Tara’s book about kundalini awakening here
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