 Wonderful New Kundalini Yoga DVD |
| Review Date: February 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Lucie, San Francisco, CA |
What a lovely new gift from Ana and Ravi!
I have been practicing Kundalini Yoga daily as taught by Ravi and Ana for several years and think all their DVDs are wonderful - and this one is certainly no exception.
As mentioned in the description, it contains KY warm-ups, Two Transformer Sets, a very powerful set called Born Free, Deep Relaxation, a Beautiful Gobinday Chant and then a surprise - a more powerful yet Purify Your Past Set.
The warm-ups include traditional exercises we learned in other Ana and Ravi's DVDs - stomach grinds, spinal flexes, twists, rag doll, etc - all very pleasant.
The Transformer 1 and Transformer 2 sets include exercise that work both emotional and physical, some are done standing, some sitting, some lying down - movements include second position plie squats with arm and breath movements (modifications are offered), navel center exercises (leg lifts and a modification of a stretch pose), etc. I really like the commentary - Ana and Ravi explain how these movements work on both physical and emotional levels.
Then comes the Born Free part with two exercises, both with the same breath pattern - inhale through puckered lips, exhale through the nose - the first one designed to evoke and transform inner anger (and it's also excellent for the lymphatic system) and the second one to help one be focused and fearless.
Nice long Deep Relaxation follows, and then we do the beautiful Gobinday chant.
The main workout seems to end there - credits follow, then the breath primer - and then another set came on - Purify Your Past. The exercises in this set were definitely challenging and I think really powerful. They are designed to get rid of holding patterns in the past and "everything we no longer need" (on a physical level they'll make your shoulders and upper body stronger than any number of push-ups).
The set is the same as in the latest 3 DVD releases - beach scene, blue skies, lush greens.
The music is very pleasant - some instrumental, some vocals - I am not an expert, but one would probably describe some of it as tribal, some traditional Indian. I miss Ana's signing.
The narration is wonderful! Ana's demonstrations are impeccable, she looks beautiful and radiant as always, and Ravi's commentary made me feel absolutely blissful not even 15 minutes into the workout.
I think the DVD is very doable for all levels, even if some of the longer performed exercises require a little practice. Can't recommend it enough.
Thank you so much, Ana and Ravi, for such a wonderful new gift of Kundalini Yoga! |
take it to the next level and be transformed
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| Review Date: February 2, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Desert Dancer, |
Here is another wonderful DVD from Raviana. This is so helpful in moving on from past habits and feelings and achieving fulfillment. It is a great workout both in mind and body! Ana and Ravi have really outdone themselves in their three new DVDs. I am so impressed with each of them. I chose the title for this review as "take it to the next level and be transformed", because I feel after doing this DVD it has taken me to a new level in my body, life, and mind. The exercises are challenging, yet doable and satisfying. While working your body you are also working your mind and healing your emotions. It works on all levels, so you can really feel and be transformed to be wholly you. The background music is beautiful chants mostly and nice instrumentals as well. I also really like all of Ana's outfits in these three new DVDs. Ana looks incredible and glows, which gives a wonderful motivation for doing the exercises, because she is showing by example that these exercises work. I don't think anyone would be disappointed in buying this. It's an incredible DVD.
Here are the details, in case some of you want to know just what is on the DVD.
There are PRE-SETS:
GETTING STARTED: 56 min.
INTERMEDIATE WORKOUT: 54 min.
QUICK UPLIFT: 40 min.
TRANSFORMER EXPRESS: 40 min.
TRANSFORMER EXPRESS 2: 35 min.
TUNING IN first of course: chanting "ong namo guru dev namo"
WARM-UPS: 10 minutes
seated spinal grinds, spinal flexes, twisting with arms up and parallel, rag doll exercise(seated forward bend bringing alternate legs into the thigh and leaning forward), then bending over one leg with Breath of Fire(rapid breath through nose), then lying on your back for one minute.
TRANSFORMER PART 1: 9 minutes 30 seconds
you start standing with feet hip width apart, toes facing out, heels raised. you maintain this posture while doing hand movements. then you come seated doing a spinal flex but also with the neck moving forward and back. Then, staying seated, you do arm movements while saying "Har". Next you lie on your back and raise the legs 6 inches off the floor and hold doing Long Deep Breathing.
TRANSFORMER PART 2: 8 minutes
lying on back, ankles crossed, you raise and lower your legs. Then, still lying on your back, you sit up but keep your legs on the floor(you only raise your upper body), then you sit up with your legs bent and arms behind you and lift your hips up and down. Then you stay in the up position with Long Deep Breathing through an open mouth, then with Breath of Fire panting through an open mouth. Next you sit with your arms rounded overhead, thumbs thumbprint to thumbprint.
BORN FREE: 16 minutes 30 seconds
seated, you are circling your arms with hands in rigid claws. You are circling them around each side of your head. You are inhaling through puckered lips and exhaling through the nose. Then you do the previous exercise from the Transformer Part 2(the arms rounded overhead one).
DEEP RELAXATION: 4 minutes 22 seconds
so peaceful and healing!
BEAUTIFUL GOBINDAY CHANT: 5 minutes 50 seconds
this chant is beautiful to do. Mantras really do something special. When I first started yoga, I skipped the mantras, but after trying them I realized they do a special work that is very important. The sounds vibrate certain places in the body and welcome transformation in your life.
There is then the CLOSING PRAYER(1 min. 11 sec.)
There is also a BREATH PRIMER(5 min. 30 sec.)
Also, PURIFY YOUR PAST segment (9 min. 50 sec.):
your hands are together in prayer pose with the heels of the hands at the naval. You move your hands up and down rapidly. Then you extend your arms straight out to your sides parallel to the floor, palms facing up, doing the Breath of Fire. Then you tilt your head back and do Long Deep Breathing through an open mouth. Next head back to normal with Long Deep Breathing. Then you sit quietly. The words Ravi speaks throughout this are so amazing. It brings past habits, hurts, and issues to the front to be dealt with and healed. I think this meditation will help so many people come to terms and be free of the past. |
Works on the negative tension build up in the shoulders
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| Review Date: February 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Sincerely Yours, |
You can only begin to transform if you learn to let go of your negative emotions. many women store their negative emotion in their shoulders and solar plexus: this kundalini dvd really works in these areas through meditative moves and breath work. Dont be deceived by some of the meditative moves as I was working up a sweat to keep going and to hold the position! I felt great after an hour of a matrix combination, as I usually do; great mentally, physically and physically. For those new to kundalini and to Ravi and Ana, please watch the breath primer as this is such an important integral part of kundalini yoga and finish any matrix work out with the relaxation, chant and closing prayer: all my favorite parts to complete my yoga moment. As always, the instructions always provides alternative positions for those who are a stiffer than Ana, like me.
I loved this dvd to work on my stiff upper back and shoulders (lots of stored negative energy) and I certainly felt lighter afterwards once the emotions were released. Haha, you may find that you are replaying those negative scenes as you work through the program: this is not untypical! I had to force my mind back onto the yoga and try to keep my mind still. Lovely to see my own transformation as I am working through the program. When I am working on the section: transform yourpast, the release of the tension in my shoulders is through a huuuuuuge yawn/mouth stretch! No kidding, the release was palatable and boy did it feel good.
This new dvd has many of my favorites parts and three new routines and moves with the usual great explanation of what each move provides. Thank you for printing the lyrics for the chant!! I LOVE the great experiences and benefits that I get from Ravi and Ana's teachings: so blessed to have another great teaching dvd to choose from my growing Ravi and Ana collections in my daily spiritual journey.
Great for beginners and especially if you know you have emotional issues to deal with. I also recommend the yoga cleanse as this helps to clean out toxins in your organs that are also created from stress. |
leave old negative patterns behind forever!!
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| Review Date: March 5, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Alex Grayson, Los Angeles, CA |
Those of you already familiar with the glorious strangeness of Kundalini yoga will be right at home with this class; it has the classic warm up series I love (sufi grinds, spinal flexes, ragdoll sciatic stretch, washing machine twists, etc) and some new moves that I found challenging but approachable. I was doing this set with my man, who is completely new to Kundalini (as in he's only done it two or three times in his life so far) and I'm on the other end of the spectrum, having done it regularly for over ten years now and did teacher's training, so I got to observe how this set feels for a newbie and an old Kundalini addict, lol. We were both pretty amazed at how hard you can work when it looks like you're doing nothing! :)
There are already reviews on here with a detailed description of the sets themselves so I won't waste time or space with that, but suffice it to say that this one felt pretty aerobic to me. Anything that engages the large leg muscles for long periods will do that, at least for me, and the unusual asanas where you are in a wide plie squat while up on the balls of the feet (if possible), held for a long time while doing arm movements and breath of fire (and it repeats with a slight variation)...well, that felt great! Got the blood flowing, felt strength building in the legs, opened my hips, engaged the core...really thorough for one move. And it gets better...
When I read another review on here about how this set includes some of the best shoulder work out there, I had NO idea just how intense that would get. In teacher's training we did some pretty crazy-long meditations with arms extended and the shoulders were on fire, so I got somewhat accustomed to breathing through that sensation. But honestly, combining the Purify Your Past segment with some of the earlier work I'd say you do about 25 minutes of shoulder work! Please don't let that scare you away, it was tough but also invigorating and somehow you just manage, or you stop as you need to and start again. But the focus was on anger and grief, bringing those up, confronting them through the sensations and the breathwork, and I found it to be remarkably effective, especially after a particularly annoying day at work where I went home really frustrated. I was able to focus on the things I was still carrying and see them burn away "the way the morning sun burns away the mist" as Ravi says. He's right. It works. There's even a moment where he invites you, gently of course, to "find the source of your deepest pain" just as you are in the throes of some major shoulder and arm burn and just having that intention brought up so many emotions and thoughts that were then channeled into the breath and movement...it was one of those experiences that's difficult to encapsulate into words because it was so beyond a purely physical one.
The navel work was also good; doing stretch pose with long deep breathing is oddly more challenging than doing it with breath of fire, and in all my years I'd never done it that way. I also very much enjoyed the feeling of doing leg lifts for the navel center with the ankles crossed; just felt more stable while really engaging the core.
I should also mention that Purify Your Past begins with a rather vigorous movement in which you hold your hands against your navel in prayer pose with the fingers pointing away from you, and you rapidly rub the heels of the hands up and down the navel center for an extended period...not an easy thing actually and while it feels a bit odd and more things were jiggling than I'd have liked, once I stopped, I felt the magic; that wonderful feeling Kundalini brings where you feel like a gong after being struck, with a delicious vibration moving through. I always tell people new to this type of practice that you have to just trust in the wisdom of the teachings; even when you feel like an idiot, relax, breathe and keep going...you'll understand WHY you're doing what you're doing in a matter of moments.
At the end, I was pleasantly surprised at the intensity level of this class, and how emotionally purgative it was for me. I felt grounded, balanced and utterly calm; nothing like I had been at the beginning. And somehow my shoulders are not terribly sore today. I usually find that with Kundalini, likely due to the enormous amount of deep breathing, I have little deep soreness as an after effect no matter how tough it seems during the class. I feel that lovely sense of physical fatigue, that I really worked DEEP last night before bed; I'm still devoid of tension, but no annoying soreness. Just happy, loose muscles that worked hard.
If you are in need of something to help you release the tensions of the day, build up your nervous system to be able to gracefully sail through the waves and work to pull the weeds of past negative emotions and habits, this is a truly powerful, valuable healing tool.
UPDATED as of 3/18/10
I wanted to add that this has become one of the yoga sets that my boyfriend, a TOTAL newbie to any form of yoga, now requests after particularly difficult days, lol. It kicks his butt, as it does mine, and we both sweat and shake, and our shoulders are on fire beyond belief, but somehow we both find this so therapeutic and helpful...so much "ick" is cleared away at the end. Last night, I was beyond cranky and we'd both had horrible days so we didn't feel like doing yoga but knew that was why we needed it for sure; we did this whole set, including Purify Your Past, and within 10 minutes I looked at him, smiled and said "I feel better already". By the end, I had laughed uncontrollably (trapped energy from the diaphram exploding on me) and cried unexpectedly (during Purify Your Past, towards the end, and not from the aching shoulders either), and we both felt this was one incredibly powerful class. Just had to share that. ;) |
Some things take time...
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| Review Date: February 22, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Ana Lewis, Tucson, AZ USA |
I am a HUGE fan of Ana Brett and Ravi Singh's, so when I heard there were new DVDs coming, I was eager to pre-order. The Kundalini Yoga Transformer was one of the DVDs I pre-ordered and anxiously awaited its arrival.
This DVD's purpose is to transform negative events in your life into positive growth. As Ana states (and I paraphrase), the things that have happened to us in the past may not have been our fault, but they do become our responsibility. Doing this DVD is taking your responsibility seriously and getting rid of anger, and negative baggage.
Well... the first two times I did it, I felt very anxious afterward, so I wrote to Ana and Ravi and asked them what this meant. They replied quickly: "What you have been experiencing as a result of doing the Transformer DVD is no doubt residual "stuff," being processed out. Please be assured that this is only temporary and that you will lighter and healthier for your effort. It is far better to deal with old stress and emotions in a controlled fashion, even though it may involve a little bit of discomfort, than to have it compromise our lives or health later on."
I continued doing the Transformer DVD (and will continue doing so to complete a 40 day cycle), and I am so glad I did! One week later, I began to feel completely different. More at peace - and the exercises are becoming easier for me, too.
I wrote to Ana and Ravi again to thank them for their recommendations and let them know about my experience. They were kind enough to respond again with the following.: "We are so happy to hear that you are getting good results with Kundalini Yoga Transformer! Joseph Campbell said that to exist is to be in process. Sometimes Kundalini Yoga gives us the gift of letting us see what had been buried as it is being processed out. In psychotherapy, this is known as "retracing." We feel it is important for people to understand that a little bit of discomfort in the context of work on oneself can actually be a good thing!"
I wholeheartedly recommend the purchase of this DVD. I have a collection of over 20 Kundalini Yoga DVDs and have been practicing for years - this one is STILL a standout.
Sat Nam Everyone. |
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