Did you know that some meditations are proven to reduce stress? Today Christian Yoga Instructor, Katy Willis, teaches us the Kirtan Kriya.

If you would prefer to watch today’s episode as see the techniques Katy teaches, watch the YouTube version here:

Episode Discussion Points

• Katy tells us how she got into Yoga and Meditation and how it helps her
• Katy teaches us the interactive and proven method of the Kirtan Kriya meditation
• How the chants in this particular meditation relate to Jesus Christ and Christianity
• How our mind is uniquely wired and our Savior can help us as we learn to process things in our unique way.
• Why it is important to find stress relieving techniques that work for us so we can build our mental reserves for the challenges we face.

If you would like to hear Katy's story, you can listen to it here: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/katy-willis-how-to-be-still-amidst-trauma

If you would like to hear Katy’s intro to breathing techniques, you can listen to it here: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/stressed-try-these-3-breathing-exercises

Resources

• Meditation write up: https://mindworks.org/blog/different-types-meditation-technique/
• Katy’s free 11 minute Kirtan Kriya recording: https://soundcloud.com/user-820416336/11-minute-kirtan-kriya Be sure to click on the picture to find the links to the studies that have been done on this meditation as well as
• Amazing proven benefits of the Kirtan Kriya: https://kripalu.org/resources/incredible-power-kirtan-kriya-conversation-brain-health-and-longevity-dr-chris-walling
• The written instructions for the Kirtan Kriya: https://www.3ho.org/kirtan-kriya
• Katy’s "Rooted" yoga therapy course I mentioned during the interview where we address the mind from both the "top down" and the "bottom up:" https://be-still.teachable.com/p/http-be-still-teachable-com-p-roots
• Instructions to other Kundalini yoga meditations: https://www.3ho.org/kundalini-yoga/meditation/featured-meditations
• Katy’s favorite mantra translation site: http://www.spiritvoyage.com/mantra
• Katy’s other top three recommendations for beginners (Kirtan Kriya is #1)
• #2 is Sat Kriya: https://www.3ho.org/articles/everything-kriya-sat-kriya and
• #3 is Long Ek Ong Kars: https://www.3ho.org/kundalini-yoga/sadhana/aquarian-sadhana/long-ek-ong-kars;
• Other great meditations
• #1 The Meditation for Healing Addictions: https://www.3ho.org/3ho-lifestyle/health-and-healing/meditation-healing-addictions-0
• #2 Meditation for Release of Cold Depression: https://www.3ho.org/3ho-lifestyle/healthy-happy-holy-lifestyle/happy/meditation-release-cold-depression

#tamarakanderson #storiesofhopeinhardtimes #podcast #hope #God #hardtimes #meditation #kirtankriya #stressrelief

Transcription

You can find the transcription of today's episode here: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/need-a-proven-stress-reliever-try-kirtan-kriya

How many of you out there could use a another

stress relieving technique that you could tuck in your back

pocket so you can do it when you're really feeling stressed

or something to help you avoid stress? Today I have a special

treat for you. I have a friend who is a Christian and a yoga

instructor and she's going to teach us a cool form of

meditation called the Kirtan Kriya. Stay tuned. You won't

want to miss this.

Welcome to Stories of Hope in Hard Times, the show that

explores how people endure and even thrive in difficult

times--all with God's help. I'm your host Tamara K. Anderson.

Join me on a journey to find inspiring stories of hope and

wisdom learned in life's hardest moments.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Tamara's Takeaways.

I'm your host Tamara K. Anderson, on the Stories of Hope

in Hard Times podcast. And today, I have an extra special

treat for you. Because usually I just do a takeaways episode all

by myself. I've been researching some more amazing stress

relieving techniques, because I feel I need it. And I know

everybody else probably does, too. And so I thought it would

be so fun to bring Katy Willis back on today because she has

some specialties that she's willing to share with us. And

the cool thing about Katy is she has such a huge and broad

background not only as a nurse, but she's also a certified

Kundalini yoga instructor. She's a certified practitioner in

quantum neuro reset therapy. And she is also a Christian. And so

what is cool about this is she can kind of give us a

Christian's take on meditation, which I love it, but I don't,

you know, I don't know as much about it as she does. So, Katy,

thank you for being with us today.

Again, so much for having me. And wow, what a warm

welcome. Well, this is so fun.

Now, Katie is going to talk to us today about

meditation. And I have to tell you, I've done just a tiny bit

of meditation, minimal instruction, I know it's like

pausing and thinking and my meditation, don't laugh usually

ends up more like a prayer. I'm like, okay, Heavenly Father, I

want to set the intention to . . .and I just go about it that

way. And I know the lady that was teaching me once said,

You're not supposed to start with a prayer. I don't know how

else to do it.

Oh, I like that.

Anyway, so so my meditations that I've done so

far, and granted, I am just a so novice at meditation. So tell

me, how did you find meditation and and tell us kind of some

tips and techniques of how we can use meditation as a form of

stress relief.

So I found meditation at the same time that

I found yoga. And if you're jumping in, and you haven't

heard the other episodes that we've done together, I found

yoga, nine months after my husband had relapsed with

addiction. And it had come across my path multiple times

from people in my life who I trusted. Did a little bit of

research. You know, at the time, it was like, This is so weird.

And here, I'm this Christian, are we allowed to meditate? You

know, but as I did a little bit of research felt good about it,

I ordered my first DVD, which was a yoga class, and then also

included meditation in every class. And so as I started doing

this, I'll, I'll explain as we go along, and maybe it'll make

more sense. But this first introduction was to a form of

yoga, which is called Kundalini yoga and meditation. But it was

so you know, out there, and I'm like, this is kind of weird, but

I feel awesome. So I just kept doing it day after day after

day.

I feel like with meditation, you know, it's funny, you sit down

to meditate, and you're like, dang it, my nose itches. What's

going to be on my grocery list, you know, when I go to the

store? Or Oh, I'm so mad at that person, or, you know, having

gone through trauma, like in meditation, then sometimes some

of those heavy, hard things that haven't fully been integrated

are coming up. And so in terms of meditation as a lifestyle and

bringing meditation off of the mat into our daily living. I

feel like for me, I roll up that yoga mat, but because I have

practiced during my meditation, sitting in the discomfort,

rather than running away, turning to distraction, turning

to coping, because I've stayed in that discomfort and the

Things that I really like about the Kundalini Yoga meditations,

is almost every meditation has an anchor point built into it.

We are intentionally breathing. So anytime that that discomfort

is coming up, or my mind starting to wander, I can gently

escort my attention back to my breath, or a lot of Kundalini

Yoga meditations use what's called mantra. Mantra is

something that we are saying, and I love looking up. Most of

the Kundalini Yoga meditations are in different languages. Most

of them are in Sanskrit, some are in a language called

gurmukhi. Summer in English, but I love looking up the

translations and knowing what I'm chanting. And where this is

a Christian audience. I was trained that when we chant

mantra, we chant with devotion. That's where the power comes.

And Kundalini Yoga is a form of yoga that talks about God. And

so for me, when I'm chanting mantra, that one, I feel like

when meditations include mantra, I can do that one piece of cake,

because I love all of those things that I feel like mantra

represents to me.

And then the third thing is what's called mudra. This is

finger or hand positioning, sometimes it also includes our

arms. And so as we are meditating, and we have that

discomfort coming up, or our tendency is to turn away,

distract away, we can find these anchor points to escort our mind

back. I am more aware of my thoughts and I've learned how to

sit in discomfort. So when that discomfort comes up, as I'm

interacting with somebody else, I'm ready to meet that in a

different way. Because I've already practiced sitting

through discomfort, so I can stay here rather than turning to

my favorite coping mechanisms, which may or may not even be a

full blown addiction. I'm not running towards the stories that

my mind is telling me, you know, that "Oh, you're an unlovable

person," or stories about other people and villainizing them, or

stories about, you know, the way that the world works. I'm not

running towards that.

Yeah, I think so. So why don't you give us an

example and maybe walk us through a Kundalini yoga,

meditation?

Okay, awesome. Let me tell you a little bit about

this meditation. And then we'll segue into, there's a mantra

that we chant, before we do any Kundalini Yoga meditations, and

then we'll teach you how to do that meditation. So this

meditation is what's called kirtan Kriya. And it is the

Kundalini yoga meditation that has been studied more than any

other Kundalini yoga meditation. Well, we'll link in the show

notes. I did a recording that's available on Soundcloud for

free. And within that link in the description, I gave links to

the research that I'm alluding to, and then also a link to

written instructions, that you can also see that there, okay,

this is great.

So when we get ready to do anything Kundalini

Yoga, we start by rubbing the palms of our hands together,

there are 72,000 nerve endings on the palms of our hands. So as

we rub them together, we are activating those nerve endings.

So as we rub our hands together, pressing palms together, this is

waking up, left and right side of our brain. And so it is

helping to neutralize the mind. We will bring all of our fingers

together except our thumbs will be apart from our other fingers.

And there's a little notch on our sternum bone, that bone that

links all of our ribs together. So we find that little notch at

the bottom of the sternum and we hook our thumb up our thumbs up

and in

So kind of where your thumbs hit your

diaphragm or where your ribs hit your diaphragm.

Yeah, just about that area a little bit up for

me. It's maybe I'm trying to measure maybe an inch.

Okay.

But it's it's a little bit tender when we hit

that point.

Okay, yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I'm glad you asked. Closing the

eyes, if it feels safe, or softening the gaze of eyes

remain open. If we close the eyes, then we might choose to

focus our gaze up and in at that point that's just slightly up

from the bridge of our nose between our eyebrows that brow

point is what we call it in yoga. And taking a moment here,

noticing our breath. Beginning to inhale and exhale from our

nose if we aren't already really rooting down on our sit bones.

And as we talked about briefly in the yoga class, by engaging

our abdomen--that core, it frees up the tailbone to point

straight down to the earth, pressing deeply into the ground.

And we're able to also lift the sternum up, to reach our thumbs,

shoulders drop down and back, slightly, tucking the chin back,

aligning ears over shoulders.

We will repeat the mantra called Adi mantra, it's "Ong Namo Guru

dev Namo." We'll take a slight breath after namo. This

translates to "I bow to the wisdom that's innately inside of

me." And the way that I would describe it is we're tuning into

our body. We're tuning into our mind. God within us. So I would

invite you to maybe listen to the first round, and as you feel

comfortable, and you might join in the second and the third.

So inhaling through our nose, holding the breath for just a

moment, releasing, letting go of the breath. Inhaling a second

time, gently holding and releasing out through the nose.

And inhaling to begin this first time. "Ong Namo Guru dev, namo,"

inhaling "Ong Namo guru dev Namo," inhaling, "Ong Namo guru

dev Namo."

Inhaling, and we might suspend the breath for just a moment.

and exhaling slowly opening the eyes releasing hands. That's

just the tune in but man, I don't know about you, when I

take that moment to do the tune in, to breathe intentionally, to

check in with my body, my posture. Just even that tune in

I feel amazing.

I think the reason why kirtan Kriya is the most highly studied

Kundalini Yoga Kriya is because it is such an interactive

meditation. And kirtan Kriya is tapping into that because

there's a mudra. We're doing things with our fingers. And

this particular meditation, we're using all 10 fingers. Each

finger lights up a different part of our brain, we're using

10, ok.

There's also a mantra. And mantras are so powerful. There

are 84 reflex points in the mouth. When we're chanting

mantra, it's vibrating. What's on the other side of the roof of

our mouth? It's our brain. So there is a complex cascade of

events that happen just simply by chanting mantra. We're

activating the brain in specific ways. We are also getting into

the release of hormones through the glandular system. We're

strengthening not only the nervous system, but also the

immune system. Simply by chanting Mantra.

we need that

I know, Amen. So this meditation is tapping into

mood drop mantra. And then additionally, there is an eye

focus. So this particular meditation is loaded in in the

benefits that we are getting to literally rewire our brain,

because we are activating so much of it at once. So our

mudra. We start by touching our thumb tips to our pointer finger

tips. And then we will move thumb to middle fingers, thumbs

to ring fingers, and thumbs to pinkies. And then we always

start back with thumb to pointer fingers. Okay? So you always

start with pointer and always end with Pinky. We're doing both

hands at the same time.

The mantra lines up with the mudra the mantra is Sa, Ta Na,

Ma. SA Ta Na, ma. So as we say saw, we're touching pointers. Ta

we're touching middle na we're touching rings, Ma, we're

touching pinkies. Okay? I would rest my hands on my knees while

I'm doing the mudra. Sa means birth. Ta means life. Na means

change or death and ma means rebirth. For me, as a Christian,

I love this because I feel like it's a reminder as I'm chanting

it, of the power that every day and every moment can be

different. I don't have to be who I once was. Every inhale

that I am taking into my body, I am literally saying yes to life.

And because of Jesus Christ, I don't have to be who I once was,

even who I was the last breath before this one. There's always

chance for change, and to be reborn, from moment to moment.

We will be chanting the mantra out loud, for part of the

meditation, whispering for part of the meditation, and then what

we call mentally vibrating for part of the meditation. It is

incredible the way that our brain is set up. When we think

about something or silently read our scriptures. It creates the

same physiological cascade, as if we are saying the words out

loud, pretty incredible to me. So when we are mentally

vibrating, for that portion, we will keep the mudra going. But

we are thinking in our mind Sa, Ta, Na, ma. Lastly, the eye

focus, eyes closed, focused up at that brow point. So just

slightly up from the bridge of the nose between the two

eyebrows. We'll do a three minute version of kirtan Kriya

here. So we will chant out loud for 30 seconds. You just heard

me heard me chant it there's a melody to that part.

Sa, Ta, Na, Ma

30 seconds of whispering I'll warn you

whispering "sa, ta, na, ma." One minute of mentally vibrating and

then we sandwich it. 30 seconds of whispering again. 30 seconds

of chanting out loud. And then we'll follow that with a minute

of silence.

Let's try it.

Okay, closing the eyes if that feels safe,

focusing at that brow point again, thumb and pointer ending

on pinky starting on pointer. Here we go. Inhaling to begin.

Sa Ta na ma, Sa ta na ma. Sa, ta, na, ma. Whispering: sa, ta,

na, ma; sa, ta, na, ma; sa, ta, na, ma. Mentally vibrating.. . .

. . .

Continuing with the mudra Sa, Ta Na, Ma; Sa, Ta, Na, Ma; Sa, Ta,

Na, Ma; Sa, ta, na, ma; inhale, you might hold the breath for

just a moment.

Exhaling, relaxing the hands, taking a minute here. Sitting in

stillness that we've created. As we're ready, slowly opening our

eyes if they were closed. Well, how was that?

I was cool. I've never done a meditation

like that.

And that one, again, is very interactive. But

can you see what I mean? There were plenty of anchors, right?

To bring our attention back to. Now, You know, we didn't mention

previously, there are a number of schools of thought when it

comes to mindfulness and meditation. Some people really

try to promote that we just clear the whole mind away, and

it's blank. And I don't know about you, my mind does not work

that way. And I believe that our minds were not designed to be

that way.

Yogi Bhajan, who brought Kundalini Yoga to the west, he

says that for every wink of the eye, so every time we blink,

there are 1000 thoughts coming at us. So rather than trying to

stop our mind altogether, I believe that we can learn to

slow the mind down. I feel like maybe we just experienced that,

right? We can slow the mind down. And I don't feel like we

can clear it away to the point that it's necessarily blank. But

I believe that we can find that stillness point. And, and,

again, taking meditation off the mat. I don't know about you, my

days can get pretty crazy. But bringing meditation in as a

lifestyle practice means I can find that point of stillness,

even when other things are swirling around me.

Yeah, thank you for that. And All right, so

we've learned all about meditation and Kundalini today

and tell me what websites would you point us to? We'll obviously

linked to your SoundCloud with that 11 minute full thing that

will also give us the science behind it. But are there any

other websites or apps, you would point us to with

meditation?

I've created a whole entire course, about the

mind. And I'm a life coach. And so part of the course we focus

on what I call approaching the mind from the top down, that

means we're looking at our patterning our programming, and

we're being more intentional about that. I build a tool into

every class. So there's a tool that we can whip out in the

moment. And then in every class, there's also kind of a lifestyle

tool, things that we're doing intentionally every day that we

might incorporate into our self care routine. That's going to

help us to have a different experience with the mind. And

then the other portion of the class, we're focusing on what

I'm calling from the bottom up, we are getting into meditation.

And we are working with a number of meditations that help us to

work with our individual psychology. It's

I didn't realize until recent years, just like nobody has ever

lived in your body or will. And we have to learn how to care for

our specific body. Nobody has your mind. And even though we

can work with professionals, like therapists or other

individuals who can kind Pick out the patterns, that is

territory that we get to go with our Savior. So this is also a

Christian based course. And there are a ton of different

types of meditation that we can experience. Experience them all,

because they're all different and working with our mind and

our brain in different ways.

Oh my goodness, wow! we'll see what you get in

just a short amount of time? You get the windows of meditation

open to you. But The cool thing about learning new and different

ways to relieve stress is that you will find ones that work for

you. And that you can then apply in your life whenever you need

them. Especially at times, like now, when times are more

stressful, sometimes we need to find new tools. And as we apply

these new tools in our lives, and are able to decrease our

stress, or able to increase our capacity to deal with the

pressure or stress, then we can build our own hope. It's like

we're building the reserves of our own strength to deal with

life's challenges that surround us-- resilience, almost Yeah,

what I would call it. And so this helps us build hope. Thank

you so much for being with us today and for sharing these

amazing techniques and meditation. Katy, you're

awesome.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Tamara.

Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's

show. If you like what you heard, subscribe so you can get

your weekly dose of powerful stories of hope. I know there

are many of you out there who are going through a hard time,

and I hope you found useful things that you can apply to

your own life in today's podcast. If you'd like to access

the show notes of today's show, please visit my website

storiesofhopepodcast.com. There you will find a summary of

today's show, the transcript and one of my favorite takeaways.

You know, if someone kept coming to mind during today's episode,

perhaps that means that you should share this episode with

them. Maybe there was a story shared or quote, or a scripture

verse that they really really need to hear. So go ahead and

share this podcast. May God bless you, especially if you are

struggling with hope to carry on and with the strength. Keep

going. When things get tough. Remember to walk with Christ and

He will help you bear the burden. And above all else,