February 12, 2025 • 50 mins
Step into a world of transformation with celebrated Kundalini Yoga teacher and healer, Karuna, as she enlightens us on the power of spiritual maintenance through Kundalini Yoga. Karuna opens up about her journey from the fast-paced life in New York City to the serene spiritual waters of India. Here, she found profound healing and growth, which she now shares with others. She emphasizes the importance of embracing both light and darkness, guiding us to navigate this transition with authenticity and compassion. Her insights on creating balance and a partnership with the divine feminine offer a roadmap for personal and spiritual growth during challenging times.
This episode highlights the critical theme of healing the healer through the lens of holistic practices.
• Exploring the challenges healers face in prioritizing their own well-being
• Understanding the significance of emotional awareness in healing
• The role of sadhana in personal and spiritual growth
• Transition from Kali Yuga to Aquarian Age and its implications for healing
• Importance of community support in healing journeys
• Personal stories and transformative experiences shared by Karuna
• The necessity of self-care for individuals guiding others in their journeysThis episode encourages us to trust our journeys and appreciate the unexpected ways the universe supports our healing, offering a deeper appreciation for the connections and energy centers that underpin personal growth.
Check out Heallist.com for digital tools created just for holistic healers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Yuli (00:04):
Welcome to the Healist Podcast, where we inspire and
guide healers through businessexpansion.
We give voice to incrediblyabundant healers to share their
stories.
We dive into the quantum fieldto unlock the energies of
conscious creation.
We also develop digital toolsto help you grow, which you can
(00:25):
find on HealLesscom.
I'm your host, Yuli, and I'mgrateful you chose to join this
space.
Now let's go deep.
Hello, my dear friends, excitedto welcome you back to another
episode of the Healist Podcast,and I'm really thrilled today to
(00:45):
introduce Karuna.
She's a radiant force ofcompassion and transformation in
a holistic healing world.
She's a celebrated KundaliniYoga teacher, healer and global
retreat leader.
She's also the author of anupcoming book and Kundalini yoga
manual and the developer of thespiritual maintenance practice,
(01:07):
which beautifully engages inhuman kindness and compassion.
We're going to dive into herinspiring journey and the
incredible work she's doing touplift and empower others and I
gotta tell you, just from ourfew minutes chatting before this
recording, she's been alreadyuplifting me in so many ways.
(01:28):
So, karuna, please welcome tothe podcast.
Karuna (01:33):
Oh, I'm so happy to know you.
I love listening to you and Ilove hearing what you say and
how cozy you make us all feel.
So thank you for engaging inthis book of mine that's just
been published number one onAmazon for yoga right now Light
(01:54):
on Kundalini.
You know it's your lifestyleguide to yoga and awakening.
You know you are so welcome toask me and engage your viewers,
your listeners, to those aspectsof what gets us through every
(02:15):
block.
You know, how do we, how do welike dive into?
Wow, that really, you know,bothered me.
How do I, I, what do I do rightnow?
Just to like squeeze thisfeeling without pushing it away
with, with sitting with it, withrecognizing it and
understanding that it's a partof me, it's a conversation
(02:36):
within me already.
What's come up for us?
So let us, let us dive in.
I'm super psyched to be here.
Yuli (02:44):
Amazing.
Well, I'm really grateful foryou bringing this up and also
just to mention to our listenerswho might be listening later on
or, who knows, maybe years fromnow, we're actually recording
it on the inauguration week,like a day after and day after
MLK day, right, I feel likewe're in such a state of light
(03:06):
and darkness right now for somany people, and it just came up
in our conversation before andI think I couldn't imagine a
better guest to kind of guide usand show us the lights maybe,
and then be focused on the lightwhile not ignoring the darkness
.
We don't want to be ignorantpeople, we welcome all worlds,
but it seems to me that you haveso much wisdom.
Focus on the light while notignoring the darkness.
We don't want to be ignoringpeople, we welcome all worlds,
but it seems to me that you haveso much wisdom and I think it
(03:31):
was meant to be scheduled todayso we can share some of this
wisdom in the world it is justso blessed to have these
challenges come up for us,because how else are we going to
siphon through to purity, tothe sattvic guna, you know?
Karuna (03:52):
are we going to this whole idea about sitting with?
You know what is in yogicpractice, in lifestyle?
I take this yogic practicesuper seriously, I suppose, but
I don't even notice when I'mdoing yoga or not doing yoga
anymore.
(04:13):
You know, I'm basically righthere with all of us in the same
way.
I just want to be supernaturalin my approach and organic.
And how can I become you knowthat more purely and satisfy my
words to get to you, to get tothe true you, and you know, I
(04:37):
know we can sit and retreat, andwe do every December in Costa
Rica, and you know we go all theway to the blue zone and we
trust that.
But the sweet potatoes, they'rein the oven right now and
they're also a part of the bluezone.
You know the purple sweetpotato that you know gives us
longevity.
So what do we want to do?
(04:57):
Do we want to sit in judgmentand dwell in that darkness, or
do we want to somehow find arelationship, a partnership if
you like, with divine, fierce,divine, feminine?
Comes through right now, like,okay, yes, she's bringing
(05:18):
everything up for us to look atand clear.
And so this is when I know thatsadhana works.
Sadhana in yogic practice.
Everyone will tell you thatthere's a 4.45 am sadhana
practice wherever Karuna isteaching.
Wherever I am, you can come tomy yogic sadhana practice,
(05:41):
whether you're taking my retreator not, or we're, just because
I invite you to sit with yoursoul to line up those demons
every morning before the sunrises, to use the technology and
the grace of light.
We're seeing the pinnacle of thePiscean Age, which is the dark
(06:03):
age, the Kali Yuga, and we'removing to the Aquarian Age.
We're in the Aquarian Age.
It actually was activated righton the day of the pandemic,
march 20th, 2020, right, 2020,was it?
I can't remember anymore 12years ago, wow, and that told us
(06:26):
we had some cleaning up to do.
And so, you know, in my book Imention my own experiences that
have taken me to my knees.
You know we're watching thefires burning in LA.
I lived in LA.
My soul now, after living inthe Colorado Rockies for the
(06:47):
last 30 years, literally hasbecome super sensitive to the
darkness, you know.
And yet we're going to turn itaround.
So the phoenix is rising in LA,right, we're going to get rid
of all that materialism, right?
No, it's hard, it's hard.
It's hard not to see yourfriends in their homes again and
(07:11):
what everyone is facing likeCOVID changed us, this is going
to change us, and yeah, so it'sauspicious to be here with you
today, divine timing, Amazing.
Yuli (07:24):
And you know, when we talked about what are the
overarching themes that we wouldlike to make it about today,
you just said right out, yousaid it's heal the healer and I
said this is what we do.
I couldn't.
I couldn't say it moreperfectly.
So we're here to heal thehealers and I think you
(07:45):
absolutely said it moreperfectly.
So we're here to heal thehealers and I think you
absolutely describe it sobeautifully, some of your
emotions around it, and Itotally agree with you with some
of the yogic tools and I feellike the healers sometimes don't
use their own tools.
I don't know if you've seenthat, because we have a lot of
tools.
Karuna (08:03):
Oh yeah, honestly, honestly, the tool here and is
getting up, that's the tool youneed is to, you know, the, the,
what do you call it?
The forklift.
Become the forklift, so like,get yourself out from horizontal
to vertical to the altar andrelease that.
(08:26):
You know, that tendency to livein those subconscious patterns.
So, yes, we have to heal thehealer, because the healer
sometimes is so busy healingothers that she forgets about
herself or himself.
To take, you know, thoseincredible therapeutic moments
(08:49):
to walk, to breathe, to bathe,to do the Ishanah you know, to
do the, you know, to sit at thealtar and pray.
It's not, you know, it's nospecific religion.
All of them are welcome, andthat's why I love kundalini yoga
, because it takes us back tothe 10 gurus that were back in
(09:14):
the 15th century, up until the17th century or whatever.
However, but there's no livinggurus anymore, and guru govind
singh was a latin, was a tenthguru, and each one of these
gurus represents the ten bodies.
And so the ten bodies inkundalini yoga is the soul, body
(09:38):
at the base, first guru, good,economic, negative mind,
positive mind, neutral at theheart.
Fifth body, physical body, andI know you've done this yoga
practice.
So, sixth body.
Is that beautiful, those arclines, ladies, we have an arc
line across our chest Never,ever defeat, always rise, Always
(10:02):
.
Let it come up right from thebase.
And so when we're in theseupper chakras, in this upper
triangle, we activate thatwillingness to surrender.
And yes, in kundalini yoga, asyou know and experience, we hold
our arms up for a while and youknow, sometimes you get a
(10:27):
broken arm in your life andsometimes you can't hold your
arms up and there's, you know,this idea of okay, now what do I
do with my practice?
How do I heal the healer that'sbeen wounded?
And yet, if we reverse thevocabulary, turn the situation
(10:49):
around, to know that we askedfor it in the first place, to
switch it up, to bring in somenew ideas new not necessarily
concepts, but just medicine, asmeditation is medicine, if we
can digest that in itself, byjuicing or, again, mindful
(11:13):
walking, using other masters.
It's one I love, love, you know, that relationship with the
Plum Village, his community, ourcommunity, what we're gathering
here today, inviting newcommunity in.
Why would we ever ever turn andlook at what the gossip?
(11:37):
I've always been.
I've never been asked about thegossipy part of Kundalini Yoga
ever, because I guess thestudents just know that I'm sort
of like ancient wisdom, notsort of like that's what's shy
in me, but to really own thatancient wisdom, to polish those
(12:00):
antiques inside of us, thosewisdom keepers, and just to
really believe that kundaliniyoga is 5,000 years old.
And those gurus, those 10 gurus, all sacrifice so much.
As Buddha reminds us, sufferingleads to compassion.
(12:20):
And when I received my name,karuna, I literally had to take
my own canoe across the Gangabecause I missed the group,
which is not surprising totravel with them in Varanasi on
Mahasivaratri in March 2004 andreceive my name, which I didn't
(12:46):
know how it was spelled even,and really like what does it
mean?
And that then there told me Ineeded to learn and study and
become compassion.
And when I took that vow tobecome Karuna, believe me, it
(13:09):
was easier, being all the othernames I had before it.
Because when you surrender to ayoga practice, you watch the
gossip and you make sure youdon't get involved with that.
It isn't unknowing, it isn'tgood knowledge, wisdom Grace is
(13:34):
very generous.
She'll teach us how to dealwith gossip and how to use the
practice of angles and triangles, kundalini yoga, to release,
but we do have to have aconversation about it because it
does bother our sensitive souls, like the destruction, you know
(13:56):
, of any burning fire.
It's the agony, it's the fire,it's the second chakra, it's the
negative mind, and we feed it,and we feed it so much and we
compete as women to get thehierarchy of a yogic practice.
Nothing, if we blend, let'sblend.
Yuli (14:17):
Really, you and I, we blend well it's because our egos
have been in check over many,many years of practice.
Right, and I think this iswhere I find personally, the
more I operate and you know Icross between the I walk between
world, the business world andthe healing world a lot and it's
it's constant, the reminder,right, and I find that the ego
(14:41):
is the major source of darknessthat we're seeing in all kinds
of worlds business world, youknow.
Politics, the world you name itright, and I think what I made
my personal practice and I alsotry not to attach too much to,
you know, certain traditions,leaders, gurus, styles.
(15:06):
You know, it's all aboutcreating that balance, that
coherence and working on, youknow, putting your ego in check
and not being led by it.
Right, it's leading from theheart.
That's been like the hardestpractice for me and it doesn't
matter if I do you know I go toa Reiki practitioner or I do my
own yoga or meditation.
(15:26):
It's all about, you know, know,connecting with my heart and
also keeping that ego in check.
So you said it very beautifullyas well and I wanted I had so
many like follow-ups as you weretalking.
There were so many thingspopping in my mind because you
were literally talking aboutlike events in my life, things
(15:47):
that happened.
I was like, oh, I know exactlywhat she's talking about and
let's just kind of dial back.
It's kind of.
First of all, the fact that weboth discovered Kundalini Yoga.
I did in 2005 on a trip to India.
It wasn't very nasty, it wasRishikesh, but I went to India
(16:07):
as a frustrated New York Cityyogi who just went to every
single studio and I just couldfeel with my own I don't know
born intuition that it wasn'treal.
Like, what I was taught was apackaged, like a processed food
versus like give me thewholesome version, right, give
(16:28):
me the real thing, the wholesomeversion, right, give me the
real thing.
So I book like a 30 year olddoes I book a ticket to India,
pack a little you know backpackWell, a large backpack actually
and just go, go to find the realyoga in India.
It took a couple of stops buteventually I ended up in.
(16:48):
Well, I wanted to end up inRishikesh because I had a
feeling that's where I reallyfind and I go to a couple of
other ashrams to try differentstyles and don't really connect.
And then I stumble upon aKundalini Yoga school and it was
like from the moment I had thatclass, like everything changed.
It was the first time in mylife that I could feel you know,
(17:09):
my chakras and reallyunderstand, like all my energy
centers, and really, really feelthe energy moving in my body
which I never had experiencedbefore.
I can't say I had the fullKundalini awakening.
That would be amazing.
Story right, my first class.
Some people do, but that'sreally the story.
(17:29):
The story goes, but it wasamazing to be able to feel that
energy and I was hooked.
And you know, when I came backto to the city I found Kundalini
Yoga School and then I startedpracticing, you know, every week
and you know it's been.
It's really built who I am.
It builds a lot of myperceptions about what you know
(17:52):
prosperity means, for example,and how spirituality and
abundance work together, whichwas confusing me for a while,
and it really cleared andcreated this beautiful ground.
And then another thing that youmentioned is about the arms up,
how inundalini yoga we practicea lot with our arms up and how
(18:13):
difficult it is.
It was so funny because thelast like big kundalini yoga,
like group event that I've donewas actually right before the
pandemic.
It was the very last whitetantric yoga workshop that was
done in new york city rightbefore the pandemic in 2019.
Right, and it was a thousand.
How you need it?
Yeah, perfect, oh, my god.
People and you're sitting and,of course, you know I booked the
(18:36):
ticket way in advance.
I'm so excited to finally do myfirst one and I get a frozen
shoulder, like a couple of weeksbefore, and I'm thinking how am
I gonna be doing?
And, for those of you who arelistening, this is about we're
talking about like 10 hours aday basically sitting in this
intense intense.
Karuna (18:56):
You can't get any more intense.
Yuli (18:58):
No, it's definitely the most intense thing I've ever
done and I haven't run amarathon, but I feel like this
is harder.
So I get there with my frozenshoulder and you know just, I'm
just gonna trust the divine thatyou know.
I know I'm supposed to be there,I don't know how, and literally
I sit down and I came without apartner and this is something
(19:19):
you do in a partnership, ofcourse and so they usually they
just find somebody else who camealone, right, and they put in
front of me and my teacher sawme alone, and he puts, he points
to this woman and says come,sit there.
And she turns to be the mostamazing like body alignment,
(19:41):
chinese medicine and whateveryou want to name it healer.
And she looks at me we starteddoing the first exercise and she
feels my pain because at thatpoint I was just after a first
hour, I was ready to screamright with my shoulder, and
she's like oh, what's up withyour left shoulder, your right
shoulder, let me take a look atit.
(20:02):
And at that point I was likewhoever wants to take a look,
please, please, do something.
And she literally takes it andshe turns a couple of times, she
does a little massaging alittle movement and I got to
tell you within the next hour Ifelt no pain.
(20:22):
And we finished the 10 hour, youknow, white tantric yoga
workshop and it was the mostamazing, like elevating thing
I've ever done.
I just felt so cleansed, socleared and this was just divine
there for me.
You know, healing the healer,so it just came to me.
(20:44):
When you said that, I was like,okay, I have to tell this story
because that was actually got meinto realizing the power of
holistic healing because upuntil then, you know, I've seen
it, I tried it, I believed in it.
But this was the mostmiraculous thing that happened
to me and I started working with, still friends with with that
(21:06):
woman and I started, you know,being closer with her and trying
to see how can I help you.
Right, you just literallyhealed me with your two hands.
How can I help you?
And some of the early ideas ofHealist really sprung from that
I mean just digest that.
Karuna (21:24):
Everyone, like I, have to digest this because this
conversation is so important forus right here and now.
To trust I'm going with my pain.
I've been warned, I know it'sgoing to be the hardest, longest
day of my life, but I'm goingwith it and I'm not bringing
(21:47):
anyone there with me.
It's going empty.
And I'm arriving and somebodypoints to somebody and they sit
in front of me and I open myeyes and I look in their eyes
and we're across from each other, knee to knee.
That's how close we are andthis compassionate healer sits
(22:11):
across and heals me and I end uphealing with 10 hours of
Kundalini Yoga, white Tantricpractice, which is designed for
the next 40 days.
After that tantric practice toheal all the rest of you in 40
(22:34):
days, continues to work on youand it changes your habitual
patterns that bring us to that.
You know, panic, place that,anxiety, the stressors, and then
, for some reason, I show up asI am, with my pain and I receive
(22:56):
this miracle.
And that is what I talk aboutin my book.
You know it is the light onKundalini, it isn't the darkness
, it isn't the idea that onewill be awakened overnight with
a yoga, you know, awakening thatchanges their life.
(23:17):
Many women, young women, havecome and sat with me, either in
one-on-one, mostly classsituation, retreat situations.
My parents don't know what todo with me because I've had an
awakening and I see these womennow, 20, 15, 10 years later and
(23:39):
they're in relationship, they'rea mother, they're living a
healthy, happy, holy life.
It works, kundalini yoga, likethat.
It is a mastery and it does.
I can give you so many factsabout it that in six months you
understand it, versus 22 yearsof practicing hatha yoga.
(24:03):
It doesn't.
It challenges your brain, yourmind, your right left hemisphere
challenges your brain and yourmind, your right left hemisphere
.
You know, it balances you, yourglandular system, on its own.
When she adjusted you, she wasguided by Guru Ram Dass, the
miracle of the fourth Guru thatbrings in the compassion.
(24:27):
He used to go out every nightat midnight, escape from all his
guards and everybody inAmritsar, india, and he would go
out and feed the poor and scrubtheir feet.
So humble, because why not helpthy neighbor?
Why not serve?
You know, and, yes, because youcame as pure pain.
(24:53):
The pain paid off, you know,and it's just a miracle.
Thank you for sharing thatstory Because if anyone can go
do white tantric yoga and wantto change their life, just go do
white tantric yoga and find it.
Life.
Just go do white tantric yogaand find it.
And there's a winter solsticein Florida and a summer solstice
above Espanola, on Ramdak Pari,where we all sit and do white
(25:20):
tantric for three days and it'sphenomenal.
It's not 10 hours, sometimeslast year was eight to nine
hours.
It was intense and always itbrings the weather you know.
So the conditions, your intenseand everything like that are
challenged.
We're wholly fully challengedand that's holistic, that's
(25:45):
Ayurveda, veda.
That's the purest way that wecan get into the mud and become
that lotus and bloom, you know,and grow out of that muddy
situation and it's just such a,it's such a balancing factor.
It gives you a strong navel, soyou don't have back pain.
(26:06):
You come with pain, buteventually you pump that navel
in breath of fire or pranayama,you know, and we're in this nine
year, 2020, for the nine year,and in this nine year it's the
subtle body.
So things aren't going to looklike they're changing at all,
(26:27):
but you are going to wake updifferent every morning from
your dream state, from yourawakened state, blending the two
together and I think you knowit's relevant to say that,
kundalini overwork.
It's very important to hear thatbecause we are in situations
(26:49):
now that subdivision, separation, don't bring you, you know,
money, greed, the one percent,what the heck you know it's like
.
Share that stuff.
You know, support each other.
Send somebody on retreat if youcan't go, think, be outside of
(27:10):
the box.
Somebody on retreat if youcan't go, think, be outside of
the box.
And how do you expand in that?
You know, how do you thinkoutside of the box because the
box is so tight and we're so,we're so rigidly in that.
Yuli (27:22):
So let's talk about your box.
How were you able to expand itover the years, you know, from
finding this magic of KundaliniYoga?
How did you become this name,this, you know, practice leader,
who does retreats classes, youknow, holds spaces for so many
(27:44):
people, has such a beautifulname, image, mean I'm allowed to
say brand, because I think weare, you know, in the space as
as a healer, although a lot ofpeople deny that.
But we all have a personalbrand, that that you know, it's
our outer shell that peopleperceive.
(28:05):
So how did karuna come out as abrand and as a leader in this
space?
Karuna (28:12):
Luckily, thank you, thank you, luckily.
Pamela says it in her letter toCaroline in my book you know
something about being lucky, youknow I gave her, she gave me a
nickname called lucky and andnow she thinks she's a lucky one
(28:34):
, which is so sweet the letterto in the book is just so sweet
from Pamela.
But Pamela found me in Boulder,colorado, selling Paquette
pants, polyester pantsuits tolittle old ladies at the time
and said you know, can myboyfriend and I take your
picture?
There's an agent in Denver whowants to, you know, to meet new
(28:58):
faces and and send people toParis.
And I was like, yeah, pamela,just to tell our listeners who
Pamela is.
Yuli (29:06):
Just to tell our listeners who Pamela is.
Karuna (29:10):
Yes, pamela Hanson.
She's an incrediblephotographer.
I mean, her latest and greatestis Beyonce's whole campaign.
But she's just, she's a shifter, she just you know, she just
gives you this courage and whenyou get, you know, in front of
her camera, you bring out thebest in you.
Same thing with yoga when youget in front of your own yoga
(29:34):
practice, you bring out the bestin you, and I think that was
really important.
To go on with a one-way ticketto Paris and know that I knew
nothing about anything, anythingseriously, and literally lost
all my luggage, lost everything.
Talk about hanging out in thesame outfit for a very long time
(29:59):
in Paris, of all places.
And it's just an exception tothe rule about we navigate
through.
I started when I was certified.
I started bringing teachers toBoulder, colorado, and I started
(30:22):
doing teacher training programswith other teachers, because I
wasn't qualified at the time tolead my own, to lead my own, and
so there's this 3HO and there'sthis KRI institutions that run
the way you do things, and I was, so I was the facilitator, but
(30:44):
I had always remembered thatbecoming a teacher is the
highest caliber of our being anykind of teacher, and so I
thought let's get these studentsthat I was teaching to come to
become teachers and take theirlife into their own hands and
responsibility of their familiesas householders, to understand
(31:07):
that we can get, make it through, you know, with as little as we
might have at times and that itis never, it's not always
pretty what you see in KundaliniYoga Teacher Training Program.
It's hard work, it's, you know,it's long days, starting with
sadhana and it goes like yourtantric practice, 10 hours a day
(31:29):
.
And I was in Rikikesh runningsome of these teacher training
programs, assisting also, andthe weather was horrendous and
the wind and the rain inEspañola, where I did my, you
know, did the teacher trainingprogram was her.
I mean every, all the elements,all the tapas on the fingertips
(31:50):
or twin fire, water ether comeinto.
So how did I get to where I amtoday?
As a happy, content woman,working on divine feminine
projects, working with theFounding Mothers movements,
working to empower women intheir voice, chakra, to open up
(32:12):
their truth and authentic self,and know that inside of every
one of us there's thatbrilliance.
You know, rarely do I usegenius, but I love that you
brought, you know, light onKundalini up as a brand.
We need to be profitable, weneed to create and live into our
(32:36):
own witness of creation.
And yes, you know, we havementors, but most of the time
and this is the hard partmentors just moved on and I was
like, oh my, my god, I'm here onmy own.
And then I would.
(32:57):
You know, I had wonderfulfriends and have wonderful
friends that we can sit on thephone, and one friend, you know,
taught me how to speak on thephone for about three hours
actually, because I was alwaysin a rush.
So everything started to slowdown.
Everything became so much moreconscious of my doings.
(33:20):
Even juicing in the morningtakes 45 minutes To juice your
own juice, to clean your ownhouse.
And, you know, in our 30s, andmore so in our 30s, 20s, 30s,
we're rushing everywhere.
We're thinking this is it.
I'm going to become a yogi.
(33:41):
When I was a model in New Yorkwith Ford, I was a model in New
York, I was like, but I realizedthat I was living right next to
the Integral Yoga Center.
For a reason, there wassomething about that.
I was getting become, you know,vegetarian, vegan, organic and
(34:02):
just allowing that, you know,grief to come through, which is
that cough.
Right then, and there I justwant to acknowledge that, that
wisdom and that grace of healers, the healer in us, and to
really drop into how we walkaround New York City, how we
(34:25):
walk around Gold Hill with thisawareness of how we have to rest
and relax and bundle up, as yousee me here, yes, easy, as you
call it, cozy.
Yuli (34:39):
You look very cozy.
But I find the biggestchallenge is and I still visit
my beloved New York City everyother week is to have that peace
and slowness right.
It's almost the second you getto those places.
Everything you learn in thewoods and the mountains where we
(35:00):
are, goes out of the door andyou get soaked in this beautiful
, vibrant energy that is veryfast-paced and very competitive
and ambitious.
Karuna (35:14):
And I'm really glad you brought that up, because I'm
still not so good at handlingthat, if I can be really honest.
I'm like, yeah, let's go.
You know, and it's so much funto be in New York City or to be
in Ibiza dancing, you know, inthe night, but yet yet there's a
(35:38):
way, when we used to do that inthe 80s, that you know we just
go straight to work, you know,from Studio 54.
But now it's like oh no.
But now it's like oh no.
Still, the fabulous idea ofremembering that we had that in
(36:00):
our youth and we struggled.
I remember being 25, you know,in New York City, going what
next?
And by the time I was 27, I wasmarried.
The time I was 27, I wasmarried and I didn't know that
even that person at 25, when Iwas lying there on my birthday
going asking.
These questions are so relevantto who you are today and how you
(36:25):
manage it.
And the toughest situation isto move on from a relationship
that isn't working.
As women and men sufferingtoday and these, you know,
violence of of not being able tohearing the, the call whisper,
(36:50):
the angelic whisper of the soul,and not being able to respond
to it would be so tragic.
And now everyone has to goinside and hear that voice and
be honest with it.
Be satnam, be.
Truth is my identity.
Be truthful to the response ofthat voice.
(37:12):
It's hard to watch violentthings on television or in
movies.
It's disruptive to the psycheand it, you know, prompts a
question of how you are and whatyou're doing with your life.
You start to question yourmeditation because you got
(37:34):
suddenly hooked on an idea thatit was someone else's meditation
.
No, this is you, this is pureyou, and when you sit with you,
you link, you get to feel thatthe blessing of you, which
(37:55):
becomes we, which becomesuniversal, which becomes oh.
I need some skill set, I needsome strategy.
I need to become the manager orthe defender or the leader or
the teacher or the artist or theactor right now, here and now,
or the actor right now, here andnow.
(38:22):
And I can say that there ispractices that I have called the
81 facets of the mind that takeyou through the nine aspects
that lead you down to the 27projections.
Each aspect has threeprojections that go with it, and
the science is why Light onLight magazine that I co-founded
, and working with the UN onInternational Yoga Day and all
(38:44):
these women coming forth and saythis stuff works and it's not
woo-woo, it's science.
So there's a stability in thepractice.
I just taught a 90-year-oldwoman, who's an author of 11
books, kundalini yoga and it'sthe way I integrated what she
(39:10):
already knew into what I lenther an idea around to meditate
with.
And this is important because aswe get older we start to lose
things, not only in devastatingfires, but loved ones, mothers,
fathers, you know, siblings,children no, God forbid.
(39:36):
But you know, things in thisworld happen and we need to
protect ourselves and we need tohave a practice that when
things are devastatinglyimpossible to move around, like
your frozen shoulder going intothat sitting with your soul,
(39:57):
with yourself, we need to knowwe can shift and we need to know
that, that we have support witheach other in community, and
that's what I talk about.
It takes a village, you know,but we get into those rabbit
holes, those warrants, and wejust really get into them and
then we isolate ourselves andtoday we need each other
(40:23):
absolutely so beautifully said,and you know this is why
building a community is a partof a big part of my mission, and
I mean this podcast is acommunity.
Yuli (40:32):
There's a community of listeners, a hundred percent
Exactly, yep, and you know it's.
It's a really beautifulexperience and the more I work
with healers, I realize how muchthat community is needed,
because a lot of them work solo.
A lot of them or they feelisolated.
In addition to working solo,sometimes they feel isolated
from their friends.
Even their family might not beunderstanding or trusting.
(40:56):
It's not the easiest path tochoose and I feel like a lot of
people that chose this path.
They kind of had no choice andtheir soul chose it for them a
long time ago.
But there is that earthsuffering that comes with that
decision, with that path, and Ithink the more, the stronger we
become right, and both in ourspiritual practices but also in
(41:18):
our earth skills.
And this is where I see mycontribution to this community.
Right, because the importanceof being strong in the earth
skill skills, this is what givesyou that, that confidence, that
proactiveness, like right.
Well, what you said, okay, whatdo you do with it?
Like if you decide to become ateacher, a healer or a leader,
(41:39):
whatever it is, but it's thenext action step sometimes is
really challenging, and this iswhy we're trying at Healist, at
least to bridge that gap, and Ithink you're one of those.
You know people that actuallymanage to blend the two really
well into something that is, yes, it's your path, but it's also
(42:04):
something that is providing foryou and something that is which
is, I think, extremely important, and it's part of the self-care
(42:29):
right, but also build thiscommunity around you of
supporters and students andteachers, and I find that to
that and more, and it's alsonever too late to change
whatever you were doing orthought you meant to do in your
life, because you took a big 360from being a top model to, you
(42:49):
know, being this kundalinileader.
And I always love sharing thosestories because I think a lot
of people in addition to whatyou said about people being
stuck in a relationship theyalso often stuck in a
relationship with a craft or ajob that they have a really hard
(43:09):
time breaking up with, eventhough they know that's not
their truth itself and that'snot their true path.
So I always admire people thathave that courage to make a
shift and choose this path.
Karuna (43:25):
Yeah, thank you for saying that.
Thank you, that gives mecourage to go out and teach more
, to dive in deeper.
You know it's very interesting.
As human beings we are soafraid to dive into something
new.
It's crazy.
(43:46):
And I always get, you know, newpeople in my Costa Rica retreat,
people in my Costa Rica retreatand and you know they range
from early, you know, late 20sto late 70s and they how dare
you bring me here?
You know you should have warnedme these kind of aspects of
(44:09):
conversation that are just soout of my league of
understanding to even put thatfire out.
It's not necessary.
That is exactly what you wantto hear from a student is like
oh my God, what have I gottenmyself into?
Because if you're saying thatand you know you're in the right
(44:33):
place and that brings such asmile to myself and my inner,
you know love and compassion forthat.
You know you work by gettingthere.
70% of your practice is gettingthere.
(44:54):
Did you know that 70% is doingit?
Do it the best you can do it.
But your psyche, your soul,knows you're doing it and
therefore is so congratulatorythat it's, you know, applauding
your every move.
It doesn't matter how you do it.
It doesn't matter how you do it, it doesn't matter if you keep
(45:16):
one arm up because the other armdoesn't matter, it's just.
What matters is that you showedup for yourself and that your
children see you.
You know your community seesyou and you know I don't know.
You just share this willingnessto say I'm learning, I'm a
(45:41):
perpetual student in thispractice of life and that's why
I call it Lifestyle Guide, thisbook, because this is just a
guide, because this is just aguide.
This is just a guide for yourauthentic self to open up, to
learn.
And with the manual coming out,it's.
(46:03):
You know you're seeing a womanin her 50s and you know doing
yoga.
You're not seeing like.
You know when we used to dothat other stuff, you know that
they called yoga.
You know when we used to dothat other stuff, you know that
they called yoga.
You know you seem like do thebest you can do and know that.
You know everything is a lifenerve stretch.
(46:25):
Everything you do is isoffering you an opportunity to
bend back, bend in a way inwhich it's changing the
conversation on how you seethings.
That linear practice of yoga isnot necessary anymore.
(46:46):
We're talking about indigenousteachings here.
We're talking about, you know,woman that speaks from her heart
, my Lakota name.
We're talking about living withthese names and walking these
paths, and it doesn't matter ifyou're sleeping well and if
(47:08):
you're getting up well early,and there's none of that stuff
that they call like grumpy.
I was always wondering wheredoes grumpy come from?
You know, I mean, that's justthe craziest idea that someone
would get up unhappy.
I just think that when weregulate our patterns and see
(47:33):
our wrinkles in the mirror, tellme go, I love you, I love you.
You deserve those lines in yourface.
You worked hard for those lines.
Never, ever, change who you are, because what you're becoming,
every breath you take, issomething spectacular that
(47:55):
sounds like oh, I know that'slike.
That's so far-fetched tobelieve that, and I'm going to
say I'm going to say that thatis true.
Yuli (48:06):
So beautifully said Karuna .
Well, we love you.
I love your energy.
This has been like a healingsession.
I love those episodes, but Iget to get healed too.
And your energy.
This has been like a healingsession.
I love those episodes, but Iget to get healed too.
Karuna (48:17):
And your energy is just so beautiful good, good I'm so
grateful, yeah, I'm grateful forthis connection and anything
else, any parting words ofwisdom for our beautiful
audience just say here, let letme read, let me just put the
mala of the heart to my thirdeye point and let me open it.
(48:39):
Hold every thought, dear friend, and let's see, between living
and dreaming there is a thirdthing, guess it.
That's so funny, antonioMachado saying between living
and dreaming there is a thirdthing, guess it.
(49:01):
So I guess I'll leave you withthat.
Oh, wow, okay, that leaves.
That's an open.
That was not planned, right,that's yeah, all of the heart.
That's a beautiful poetic book Ido want to leave you with.
May the blessings of this day,in this most sacred way, serve
(49:24):
you.
May we walk the path of light,knowing that there is a way
through every block, just done,there is a way through every
block, just done.
May we give each othergratitude, longitude and
latitude and flexibility tocreate practice, create business
(49:45):
, create prosperity and be onetogether and holding each other
in that space, really supportingeach other, loving each other.
Yuli (49:58):
Beautiful.
Well, thank you for blessing uswith your very uplifting energy
today that we all needed, andme particularly, sending so much
love to you, Julie.
Karuna (50:11):
Thank you for serving the world with your podcast.
I just love it.
Thank you for having me.
Yuli (50:19):
And I hope to have you again soon.
Absolutely.
Karuna (50:23):
Blessings to you, thank you.
Welcome to the Healist Podcast, where we inspire and
guide healers through businessexpansion.
We give voice to incrediblyabundant healers to share their
stories.
We dive into the quantum fieldto unlock the energies of
conscious creation.
We also develop digital toolsto help you grow, which you can
(00:25):
find on HealLesscom.
I'm your host, Yuli, and I'mgrateful you chose to join this
space.
Now let's go deep.
Hello, my dear friends, excitedto welcome you back to another
episode of the Healist Podcast,and I'm really thrilled today to
(00:45):
introduce Karuna.
She's a radiant force ofcompassion and transformation in
a holistic healing world.
She's a celebrated KundaliniYoga teacher, healer and global
retreat leader.
She's also the author of anupcoming book and Kundalini yoga
manual and the developer of thespiritual maintenance practice,
(01:07):
which beautifully engages inhuman kindness and compassion.
We're going to dive into herinspiring journey and the
incredible work she's doing touplift and empower others and I
gotta tell you, just from ourfew minutes chatting before this
recording, she's been alreadyuplifting me in so many ways.
(01:28):
So, karuna, please welcome tothe podcast.
Karuna (01:33):
Oh, I'm so happy to know you.
I love listening to you and Ilove hearing what you say and
how cozy you make us all feel.
So thank you for engaging inthis book of mine that's just
been published number one onAmazon for yoga right now Light
(01:54):
on Kundalini.
You know it's your lifestyleguide to yoga and awakening.
You know you are so welcome toask me and engage your viewers,
your listeners, to those aspectsof what gets us through every
(02:15):
block.
You know, how do we, how do welike dive into?
Wow, that really, you know,bothered me.
How do I, I, what do I do rightnow?
Just to like squeeze thisfeeling without pushing it away
with, with sitting with it, withrecognizing it and
understanding that it's a partof me, it's a conversation
(02:36):
within me already.
What's come up for us?
So let us, let us dive in.
I'm super psyched to be here.
Yuli (02:44):
Amazing.
Well, I'm really grateful foryou bringing this up and also
just to mention to our listenerswho might be listening later on
or, who knows, maybe years fromnow, we're actually recording
it on the inauguration week,like a day after and day after
MLK day, right, I feel likewe're in such a state of light
(03:06):
and darkness right now for somany people, and it just came up
in our conversation before andI think I couldn't imagine a
better guest to kind of guide usand show us the lights maybe,
and then be focused on the lightwhile not ignoring the darkness
.
We don't want to be ignorantpeople, we welcome all worlds,
but it seems to me that you haveso much wisdom.
Focus on the light while notignoring the darkness.
We don't want to be ignoringpeople, we welcome all worlds,
but it seems to me that you haveso much wisdom and I think it
(03:31):
was meant to be scheduled todayso we can share some of this
wisdom in the world it is justso blessed to have these
challenges come up for us,because how else are we going to
siphon through to purity, tothe sattvic guna, you know?
Karuna (03:52):
are we going to this whole idea about sitting with?
You know what is in yogicpractice, in lifestyle?
I take this yogic practicesuper seriously, I suppose, but
I don't even notice when I'mdoing yoga or not doing yoga
anymore.
(04:13):
You know, I'm basically righthere with all of us in the same
way.
I just want to be supernaturalin my approach and organic.
And how can I become you knowthat more purely and satisfy my
words to get to you, to get tothe true you, and you know, I
(04:37):
know we can sit and retreat, andwe do every December in Costa
Rica, and you know we go all theway to the blue zone and we
trust that.
But the sweet potatoes, they'rein the oven right now and
they're also a part of the bluezone.
You know the purple sweetpotato that you know gives us
longevity.
So what do we want to do?
(04:57):
Do we want to sit in judgmentand dwell in that darkness, or
do we want to somehow find arelationship, a partnership if
you like, with divine, fierce,divine, feminine?
Comes through right now, like,okay, yes, she's bringing
(05:18):
everything up for us to look atand clear.
And so this is when I know thatsadhana works.
Sadhana in yogic practice.
Everyone will tell you thatthere's a 4.45 am sadhana
practice wherever Karuna isteaching.
Wherever I am, you can come tomy yogic sadhana practice,
(05:41):
whether you're taking my retreator not, or we're, just because
I invite you to sit with yoursoul to line up those demons
every morning before the sunrises, to use the technology and
the grace of light.
We're seeing the pinnacle of thePiscean Age, which is the dark
(06:03):
age, the Kali Yuga, and we'removing to the Aquarian Age.
We're in the Aquarian Age.
It actually was activated righton the day of the pandemic,
march 20th, 2020, right, 2020,was it?
I can't remember anymore 12years ago, wow, and that told us
(06:26):
we had some cleaning up to do.
And so, you know, in my book Imention my own experiences that
have taken me to my knees.
You know we're watching thefires burning in LA.
I lived in LA.
My soul now, after living inthe Colorado Rockies for the
(06:47):
last 30 years, literally hasbecome super sensitive to the
darkness, you know.
And yet we're going to turn itaround.
So the phoenix is rising in LA,right, we're going to get rid
of all that materialism, right?
No, it's hard, it's hard.
It's hard not to see yourfriends in their homes again and
(07:11):
what everyone is facing likeCOVID changed us, this is going
to change us, and yeah, so it'sauspicious to be here with you
today, divine timing, Amazing.
Yuli (07:24):
And you know, when we talked about what are the
overarching themes that we wouldlike to make it about today,
you just said right out, yousaid it's heal the healer and I
said this is what we do.
I couldn't.
I couldn't say it moreperfectly.
So we're here to heal thehealers and I think you
(07:45):
absolutely said it moreperfectly.
So we're here to heal thehealers and I think you
absolutely describe it sobeautifully, some of your
emotions around it, and Itotally agree with you with some
of the yogic tools and I feellike the healers sometimes don't
use their own tools.
I don't know if you've seenthat, because we have a lot of
tools.
Karuna (08:03):
Oh yeah, honestly, honestly, the tool here and is
getting up, that's the tool youneed is to, you know, the, the,
what do you call it?
The forklift.
Become the forklift, so like,get yourself out from horizontal
to vertical to the altar andrelease that.
(08:26):
You know, that tendency to livein those subconscious patterns.
So, yes, we have to heal thehealer, because the healer
sometimes is so busy healingothers that she forgets about
herself or himself.
To take, you know, thoseincredible therapeutic moments
(08:49):
to walk, to breathe, to bathe,to do the Ishanah you know, to
do the, you know, to sit at thealtar and pray.
It's not, you know, it's nospecific religion.
All of them are welcome, andthat's why I love kundalini yoga
, because it takes us back tothe 10 gurus that were back in
(09:14):
the 15th century, up until the17th century or whatever.
However, but there's no livinggurus anymore, and guru govind
singh was a latin, was a tenthguru, and each one of these
gurus represents the ten bodies.
And so the ten bodies inkundalini yoga is the soul, body
(09:38):
at the base, first guru, good,economic, negative mind,
positive mind, neutral at theheart.
Fifth body, physical body, andI know you've done this yoga
practice.
So, sixth body.
Is that beautiful, those arclines, ladies, we have an arc
line across our chest Never,ever defeat, always rise, Always
(10:02):
.
Let it come up right from thebase.
And so when we're in theseupper chakras, in this upper
triangle, we activate thatwillingness to surrender.
And yes, in kundalini yoga, asyou know and experience, we hold
our arms up for a while and youknow, sometimes you get a
(10:27):
broken arm in your life andsometimes you can't hold your
arms up and there's, you know,this idea of okay, now what do I
do with my practice?
How do I heal the healer that'sbeen wounded?
And yet, if we reverse thevocabulary, turn the situation
(10:49):
around, to know that we askedfor it in the first place, to
switch it up, to bring in somenew ideas new not necessarily
concepts, but just medicine, asmeditation is medicine, if we
can digest that in itself, byjuicing or, again, mindful
(11:13):
walking, using other masters.
It's one I love, love, you know, that relationship with the
Plum Village, his community, ourcommunity, what we're gathering
here today, inviting newcommunity in.
Why would we ever ever turn andlook at what the gossip?
(11:37):
I've always been.
I've never been asked about thegossipy part of Kundalini Yoga
ever, because I guess thestudents just know that I'm sort
of like ancient wisdom, notsort of like that's what's shy
in me, but to really own thatancient wisdom, to polish those
(12:00):
antiques inside of us, thosewisdom keepers, and just to
really believe that kundaliniyoga is 5,000 years old.
And those gurus, those 10 gurus, all sacrifice so much.
As Buddha reminds us, sufferingleads to compassion.
(12:20):
And when I received my name,karuna, I literally had to take
my own canoe across the Gangabecause I missed the group,
which is not surprising totravel with them in Varanasi on
Mahasivaratri in March 2004 andreceive my name, which I didn't
(12:46):
know how it was spelled even,and really like what does it
mean?
And that then there told me Ineeded to learn and study and
become compassion.
And when I took that vow tobecome Karuna, believe me, it
(13:09):
was easier, being all the othernames I had before it.
Because when you surrender to ayoga practice, you watch the
gossip and you make sure youdon't get involved with that.
It isn't unknowing, it isn'tgood knowledge, wisdom Grace is
(13:34):
very generous.
She'll teach us how to dealwith gossip and how to use the
practice of angles and triangles, kundalini yoga, to release,
but we do have to have aconversation about it because it
does bother our sensitive souls, like the destruction, you know
(13:56):
, of any burning fire.
It's the agony, it's the fire,it's the second chakra, it's the
negative mind, and we feed it,and we feed it so much and we
compete as women to get thehierarchy of a yogic practice.
Nothing, if we blend, let'sblend.
Yuli (14:17):
Really, you and I, we blend well it's because our egos
have been in check over many,many years of practice.
Right, and I think this iswhere I find personally, the
more I operate and you know Icross between the I walk between
world, the business world andthe healing world a lot and it's
it's constant, the reminder,right, and I find that the ego
(14:41):
is the major source of darknessthat we're seeing in all kinds
of worlds business world, youknow.
Politics, the world you name itright, and I think what I made
my personal practice and I alsotry not to attach too much to,
you know, certain traditions,leaders, gurus, styles.
(15:06):
You know, it's all aboutcreating that balance, that
coherence and working on, youknow, putting your ego in check
and not being led by it.
Right, it's leading from theheart.
That's been like the hardestpractice for me and it doesn't
matter if I do you know I go toa Reiki practitioner or I do my
own yoga or meditation.
(15:26):
It's all about, you know, know,connecting with my heart and
also keeping that ego in check.
So you said it very beautifullyas well and I wanted I had so
many like follow-ups as you weretalking.
There were so many thingspopping in my mind because you
were literally talking aboutlike events in my life, things
(15:47):
that happened.
I was like, oh, I know exactlywhat she's talking about and
let's just kind of dial back.
It's kind of.
First of all, the fact that weboth discovered Kundalini Yoga.
I did in 2005 on a trip to India.
It wasn't very nasty, it wasRishikesh, but I went to India
(16:07):
as a frustrated New York Cityyogi who just went to every
single studio and I just couldfeel with my own I don't know
born intuition that it wasn'treal.
Like, what I was taught was apackaged, like a processed food
versus like give me thewholesome version, right, give
(16:28):
me the real thing, the wholesomeversion, right, give me the
real thing.
So I book like a 30 year olddoes I book a ticket to India,
pack a little you know backpackWell, a large backpack actually
and just go, go to find the realyoga in India.
It took a couple of stops buteventually I ended up in.
(16:48):
Well, I wanted to end up inRishikesh because I had a
feeling that's where I reallyfind and I go to a couple of
other ashrams to try differentstyles and don't really connect.
And then I stumble upon aKundalini Yoga school and it was
like from the moment I had thatclass, like everything changed.
It was the first time in mylife that I could feel you know,
(17:09):
my chakras and reallyunderstand, like all my energy
centers, and really, really feelthe energy moving in my body
which I never had experiencedbefore.
I can't say I had the fullKundalini awakening.
That would be amazing.
Story right, my first class.
Some people do, but that'sreally the story.
(17:29):
The story goes, but it wasamazing to be able to feel that
energy and I was hooked.
And you know, when I came backto to the city I found Kundalini
Yoga School and then I startedpracticing, you know, every week
and you know it's been.
It's really built who I am.
It builds a lot of myperceptions about what you know
(17:52):
prosperity means, for example,and how spirituality and
abundance work together, whichwas confusing me for a while,
and it really cleared andcreated this beautiful ground.
And then another thing that youmentioned is about the arms up,
how inundalini yoga we practicea lot with our arms up and how
(18:13):
difficult it is.
It was so funny because thelast like big kundalini yoga,
like group event that I've donewas actually right before the
pandemic.
It was the very last whitetantric yoga workshop that was
done in new york city rightbefore the pandemic in 2019.
Right, and it was a thousand.
How you need it?
Yeah, perfect, oh, my god.
People and you're sitting and,of course, you know I booked the
(18:36):
ticket way in advance.
I'm so excited to finally do myfirst one and I get a frozen
shoulder, like a couple of weeksbefore, and I'm thinking how am
I gonna be doing?
And, for those of you who arelistening, this is about we're
talking about like 10 hours aday basically sitting in this
intense intense.
Karuna (18:56):
You can't get any more intense.
Yuli (18:58):
No, it's definitely the most intense thing I've ever
done and I haven't run amarathon, but I feel like this
is harder.
So I get there with my frozenshoulder and you know just, I'm
just gonna trust the divine thatyou know.
I know I'm supposed to be there,I don't know how, and literally
I sit down and I came without apartner and this is something
(19:19):
you do in a partnership, ofcourse and so they usually they
just find somebody else who camealone, right, and they put in
front of me and my teacher sawme alone, and he puts, he points
to this woman and says come,sit there.
And she turns to be the mostamazing like body alignment,
(19:41):
chinese medicine and whateveryou want to name it healer.
And she looks at me we starteddoing the first exercise and she
feels my pain because at thatpoint I was just after a first
hour, I was ready to screamright with my shoulder, and
she's like oh, what's up withyour left shoulder, your right
shoulder, let me take a look atit.
(20:02):
And at that point I was likewhoever wants to take a look,
please, please, do something.
And she literally takes it andshe turns a couple of times, she
does a little massaging alittle movement and I got to
tell you within the next hour Ifelt no pain.
(20:22):
And we finished the 10 hour, youknow, white tantric yoga
workshop and it was the mostamazing, like elevating thing
I've ever done.
I just felt so cleansed, socleared and this was just divine
there for me.
You know, healing the healer,so it just came to me.
(20:44):
When you said that, I was like,okay, I have to tell this story
because that was actually got meinto realizing the power of
holistic healing because upuntil then, you know, I've seen
it, I tried it, I believed in it.
But this was the mostmiraculous thing that happened
to me and I started working with, still friends with with that
(21:06):
woman and I started, you know,being closer with her and trying
to see how can I help you.
Right, you just literallyhealed me with your two hands.
How can I help you?
And some of the early ideas ofHealist really sprung from that
I mean just digest that.
Karuna (21:24):
Everyone, like I, have to digest this because this
conversation is so important forus right here and now.
To trust I'm going with my pain.
I've been warned, I know it'sgoing to be the hardest, longest
day of my life, but I'm goingwith it and I'm not bringing
(21:47):
anyone there with me.
It's going empty.
And I'm arriving and somebodypoints to somebody and they sit
in front of me and I open myeyes and I look in their eyes
and we're across from each other, knee to knee.
That's how close we are andthis compassionate healer sits
(22:11):
across and heals me and I end uphealing with 10 hours of
Kundalini Yoga, white Tantricpractice, which is designed for
the next 40 days.
After that tantric practice toheal all the rest of you in 40
(22:34):
days, continues to work on youand it changes your habitual
patterns that bring us to that.
You know, panic, place that,anxiety, the stressors, and then
, for some reason, I show up asI am, with my pain and I receive
(22:56):
this miracle.
And that is what I talk aboutin my book.
You know it is the light onKundalini, it isn't the darkness
, it isn't the idea that onewill be awakened overnight with
a yoga, you know, awakening thatchanges their life.
(23:17):
Many women, young women, havecome and sat with me, either in
one-on-one, mostly classsituation, retreat situations.
My parents don't know what todo with me because I've had an
awakening and I see these womennow, 20, 15, 10 years later and
(23:39):
they're in relationship, they'rea mother, they're living a
healthy, happy, holy life.
It works, kundalini yoga, likethat.
It is a mastery and it does.
I can give you so many factsabout it that in six months you
understand it, versus 22 yearsof practicing hatha yoga.
(24:03):
It doesn't.
It challenges your brain, yourmind, your right left hemisphere
challenges your brain and yourmind, your right left hemisphere
.
You know, it balances you, yourglandular system, on its own.
When she adjusted you, she wasguided by Guru Ram Dass, the
miracle of the fourth Guru thatbrings in the compassion.
(24:27):
He used to go out every nightat midnight, escape from all his
guards and everybody inAmritsar, india, and he would go
out and feed the poor and scrubtheir feet.
So humble, because why not helpthy neighbor?
Why not serve?
You know, and, yes, because youcame as pure pain.
(24:53):
The pain paid off, you know,and it's just a miracle.
Thank you for sharing thatstory Because if anyone can go
do white tantric yoga and wantto change their life, just go do
white tantric yoga and find it.
Life.
Just go do white tantric yogaand find it.
And there's a winter solsticein Florida and a summer solstice
above Espanola, on Ramdak Pari,where we all sit and do white
(25:20):
tantric for three days and it'sphenomenal.
It's not 10 hours, sometimeslast year was eight to nine
hours.
It was intense and always itbrings the weather you know.
So the conditions, your intenseand everything like that are
challenged.
We're wholly fully challengedand that's holistic, that's
(25:45):
Ayurveda, veda.
That's the purest way that wecan get into the mud and become
that lotus and bloom, you know,and grow out of that muddy
situation and it's just such a,it's such a balancing factor.
It gives you a strong navel, soyou don't have back pain.
(26:06):
You come with pain, buteventually you pump that navel
in breath of fire or pranayama,you know, and we're in this nine
year, 2020, for the nine year,and in this nine year it's the
subtle body.
So things aren't going to looklike they're changing at all,
(26:27):
but you are going to wake updifferent every morning from
your dream state, from yourawakened state, blending the two
together and I think you knowit's relevant to say that,
kundalini overwork.
It's very important to hear thatbecause we are in situations
(26:49):
now that subdivision, separation, don't bring you, you know,
money, greed, the one percent,what the heck you know it's like
.
Share that stuff.
You know, support each other.
Send somebody on retreat if youcan't go, think, be outside of
(27:10):
the box.
Somebody on retreat if youcan't go, think, be outside of
the box.
And how do you expand in that?
You know, how do you thinkoutside of the box because the
box is so tight and we're so,we're so rigidly in that.
Yuli (27:22):
So let's talk about your box.
How were you able to expand itover the years, you know, from
finding this magic of KundaliniYoga?
How did you become this name,this, you know, practice leader,
who does retreats classes, youknow, holds spaces for so many
(27:44):
people, has such a beautifulname, image, mean I'm allowed to
say brand, because I think weare, you know, in the space as
as a healer, although a lot ofpeople deny that.
But we all have a personalbrand, that that you know, it's
our outer shell that peopleperceive.
(28:05):
So how did karuna come out as abrand and as a leader in this
space?
Karuna (28:12):
Luckily, thank you, thank you, luckily.
Pamela says it in her letter toCaroline in my book you know
something about being lucky, youknow I gave her, she gave me a
nickname called lucky and andnow she thinks she's a lucky one
(28:34):
, which is so sweet the letterto in the book is just so sweet
from Pamela.
But Pamela found me in Boulder,colorado, selling Paquette
pants, polyester pantsuits tolittle old ladies at the time
and said you know, can myboyfriend and I take your
picture?
There's an agent in Denver whowants to, you know, to meet new
(28:58):
faces and and send people toParis.
And I was like, yeah, pamela,just to tell our listeners who
Pamela is.
Yuli (29:06):
Just to tell our listeners who Pamela is.
Karuna (29:10):
Yes, pamela Hanson.
She's an incrediblephotographer.
I mean, her latest and greatestis Beyonce's whole campaign.
But she's just, she's a shifter, she just you know, she just
gives you this courage and whenyou get, you know, in front of
her camera, you bring out thebest in you.
Same thing with yoga when youget in front of your own yoga
(29:34):
practice, you bring out the bestin you, and I think that was
really important.
To go on with a one-way ticketto Paris and know that I knew
nothing about anything, anythingseriously, and literally lost
all my luggage, lost everything.
Talk about hanging out in thesame outfit for a very long time
(29:59):
in Paris, of all places.
And it's just an exception tothe rule about we navigate
through.
I started when I was certified.
I started bringing teachers toBoulder, colorado, and I started
(30:22):
doing teacher training programswith other teachers, because I
wasn't qualified at the time tolead my own, to lead my own, and
so there's this 3HO and there'sthis KRI institutions that run
the way you do things, and I was, so I was the facilitator, but
(30:44):
I had always remembered thatbecoming a teacher is the
highest caliber of our being anykind of teacher, and so I
thought let's get these studentsthat I was teaching to come to
become teachers and take theirlife into their own hands and
responsibility of their familiesas householders, to understand
(31:07):
that we can get, make it through, you know, with as little as we
might have at times and that itis never, it's not always
pretty what you see in KundaliniYoga Teacher Training Program.
It's hard work, it's, you know,it's long days, starting with
sadhana and it goes like yourtantric practice, 10 hours a day
(31:29):
.
And I was in Rikikesh runningsome of these teacher training
programs, assisting also, andthe weather was horrendous and
the wind and the rain inEspañola, where I did my, you
know, did the teacher trainingprogram was her.
I mean every, all the elements,all the tapas on the fingertips
(31:50):
or twin fire, water ether comeinto.
So how did I get to where I amtoday?
As a happy, content woman,working on divine feminine
projects, working with theFounding Mothers movements,
working to empower women intheir voice, chakra, to open up
(32:12):
their truth and authentic self,and know that inside of every
one of us there's thatbrilliance.
You know, rarely do I usegenius, but I love that you
brought, you know, light onKundalini up as a brand.
We need to be profitable, weneed to create and live into our
(32:36):
own witness of creation.
And yes, you know, we havementors, but most of the time
and this is the hard partmentors just moved on and I was
like, oh my, my god, I'm here onmy own.
And then I would.
(32:57):
You know, I had wonderfulfriends and have wonderful
friends that we can sit on thephone, and one friend, you know,
taught me how to speak on thephone for about three hours
actually, because I was alwaysin a rush.
So everything started to slowdown.
Everything became so much moreconscious of my doings.
(33:20):
Even juicing in the morningtakes 45 minutes To juice your
own juice, to clean your ownhouse.
And, you know, in our 30s, andmore so in our 30s, 20s, 30s,
we're rushing everywhere.
We're thinking this is it.
I'm going to become a yogi.
(33:41):
When I was a model in New Yorkwith Ford, I was a model in New
York, I was like, but I realizedthat I was living right next to
the Integral Yoga Center.
For a reason, there wassomething about that.
I was getting become, you know,vegetarian, vegan, organic and
(34:02):
just allowing that, you know,grief to come through, which is
that cough.
Right then, and there I justwant to acknowledge that, that
wisdom and that grace of healers, the healer in us, and to
really drop into how we walkaround New York City, how we
(34:25):
walk around Gold Hill with thisawareness of how we have to rest
and relax and bundle up, as yousee me here, yes, easy, as you
call it, cozy.
Yuli (34:39):
You look very cozy.
But I find the biggestchallenge is and I still visit
my beloved New York City everyother week is to have that peace
and slowness right.
It's almost the second you getto those places.
Everything you learn in thewoods and the mountains where we
(35:00):
are, goes out of the door andyou get soaked in this beautiful
, vibrant energy that is veryfast-paced and very competitive
and ambitious.
Karuna (35:14):
And I'm really glad you brought that up, because I'm
still not so good at handlingthat, if I can be really honest.
I'm like, yeah, let's go.
You know, and it's so much funto be in New York City or to be
in Ibiza dancing, you know, inthe night, but yet yet there's a
(35:38):
way, when we used to do that inthe 80s, that you know we just
go straight to work, you know,from Studio 54.
But now it's like oh no.
But now it's like oh no.
Still, the fabulous idea ofremembering that we had that in
(36:00):
our youth and we struggled.
I remember being 25, you know,in New York City, going what
next?
And by the time I was 27, I wasmarried.
The time I was 27, I wasmarried and I didn't know that
even that person at 25, when Iwas lying there on my birthday
going asking.
These questions are so relevantto who you are today and how you
(36:25):
manage it.
And the toughest situation isto move on from a relationship
that isn't working.
As women and men sufferingtoday and these, you know,
violence of of not being able tohearing the, the call whisper,
(36:50):
the angelic whisper of the soul,and not being able to respond
to it would be so tragic.
And now everyone has to goinside and hear that voice and
be honest with it.
Be satnam, be.
Truth is my identity.
Be truthful to the response ofthat voice.
(37:12):
It's hard to watch violentthings on television or in
movies.
It's disruptive to the psycheand it, you know, prompts a
question of how you are and whatyou're doing with your life.
You start to question yourmeditation because you got
(37:34):
suddenly hooked on an idea thatit was someone else's meditation
.
No, this is you, this is pureyou, and when you sit with you,
you link, you get to feel thatthe blessing of you, which
(37:55):
becomes we, which becomesuniversal, which becomes oh.
I need some skill set, I needsome strategy.
I need to become the manager orthe defender or the leader or
the teacher or the artist or theactor right now, here and now,
or the actor right now, here andnow.
(38:22):
And I can say that there ispractices that I have called the
81 facets of the mind that takeyou through the nine aspects
that lead you down to the 27projections.
Each aspect has threeprojections that go with it, and
the science is why Light onLight magazine that I co-founded
, and working with the UN onInternational Yoga Day and all
(38:44):
these women coming forth and saythis stuff works and it's not
woo-woo, it's science.
So there's a stability in thepractice.
I just taught a 90-year-oldwoman, who's an author of 11
books, kundalini yoga and it'sthe way I integrated what she
(39:10):
already knew into what I lenther an idea around to meditate
with.
And this is important because aswe get older we start to lose
things, not only in devastatingfires, but loved ones, mothers,
fathers, you know, siblings,children no, God forbid.
(39:36):
But you know, things in thisworld happen and we need to
protect ourselves and we need tohave a practice that when
things are devastatinglyimpossible to move around, like
your frozen shoulder going intothat sitting with your soul,
(39:57):
with yourself, we need to knowwe can shift and we need to know
that, that we have support witheach other in community, and
that's what I talk about.
It takes a village, you know,but we get into those rabbit
holes, those warrants, and wejust really get into them and
then we isolate ourselves andtoday we need each other
(40:23):
absolutely so beautifully said,and you know this is why
building a community is a partof a big part of my mission, and
I mean this podcast is acommunity.
Yuli (40:32):
There's a community of listeners, a hundred percent
Exactly, yep, and you know it's.
It's a really beautifulexperience and the more I work
with healers, I realize how muchthat community is needed,
because a lot of them work solo.
A lot of them or they feelisolated.
In addition to working solo,sometimes they feel isolated
from their friends.
Even their family might not beunderstanding or trusting.
(40:56):
It's not the easiest path tochoose and I feel like a lot of
people that chose this path.
They kind of had no choice andtheir soul chose it for them a
long time ago.
But there is that earthsuffering that comes with that
decision, with that path, and Ithink the more, the stronger we
become right, and both in ourspiritual practices but also in
(41:18):
our earth skills.
And this is where I see mycontribution to this community.
Right, because the importanceof being strong in the earth
skill skills, this is what givesyou that, that confidence, that
proactiveness, like right.
Well, what you said, okay, whatdo you do with it?
Like if you decide to become ateacher, a healer or a leader,
(41:39):
whatever it is, but it's thenext action step sometimes is
really challenging, and this iswhy we're trying at Healist, at
least to bridge that gap, and Ithink you're one of those.
You know people that actuallymanage to blend the two really
well into something that is, yes, it's your path, but it's also
(42:04):
something that is providing foryou and something that is which
is, I think, extremely important, and it's part of the self-care
(42:29):
right, but also build thiscommunity around you of
supporters and students andteachers, and I find that to
that and more, and it's alsonever too late to change
whatever you were doing orthought you meant to do in your
life, because you took a big 360from being a top model to, you
(42:49):
know, being this kundalinileader.
And I always love sharing thosestories because I think a lot
of people in addition to whatyou said about people being
stuck in a relationship theyalso often stuck in a
relationship with a craft or ajob that they have a really hard
(43:09):
time breaking up with, eventhough they know that's not
their truth itself and that'snot their true path.
So I always admire people thathave that courage to make a
shift and choose this path.
Karuna (43:25):
Yeah, thank you for saying that.
Thank you, that gives mecourage to go out and teach more
, to dive in deeper.
You know it's very interesting.
As human beings we are soafraid to dive into something
new.
It's crazy.
(43:46):
And I always get, you know, newpeople in my Costa Rica retreat,
people in my Costa Rica retreatand and you know they range
from early, you know, late 20sto late 70s and they how dare
you bring me here?
You know you should have warnedme these kind of aspects of
(44:09):
conversation that are just soout of my league of
understanding to even put thatfire out.
It's not necessary.
That is exactly what you wantto hear from a student is like
oh my God, what have I gottenmyself into?
Because if you're saying thatand you know you're in the right
(44:33):
place and that brings such asmile to myself and my inner,
you know love and compassion forthat.
You know you work by gettingthere.
70% of your practice is gettingthere.
(44:54):
Did you know that 70% is doingit?
Do it the best you can do it.
But your psyche, your soul,knows you're doing it and
therefore is so congratulatorythat it's, you know, applauding
your every move.
It doesn't matter how you do it.
It doesn't matter how you do it, it doesn't matter if you keep
(45:16):
one arm up because the other armdoesn't matter, it's just.
What matters is that you showedup for yourself and that your
children see you.
You know your community seesyou and you know I don't know.
You just share this willingnessto say I'm learning, I'm a
(45:41):
perpetual student in thispractice of life and that's why
I call it Lifestyle Guide, thisbook, because this is just a
guide, because this is just aguide.
This is just a guide for yourauthentic self to open up, to
learn.
And with the manual coming out,it's.
(46:03):
You know you're seeing a womanin her 50s and you know doing
yoga.
You're not seeing like.
You know when we used to dothat other stuff, you know that
they called yoga.
You know when we used to dothat other stuff, you know that
they called yoga.
You know you seem like do thebest you can do and know that.
You know everything is a lifenerve stretch.
(46:25):
Everything you do is isoffering you an opportunity to
bend back, bend in a way inwhich it's changing the
conversation on how you seethings.
That linear practice of yoga isnot necessary anymore.
(46:46):
We're talking about indigenousteachings here.
We're talking about, you know,woman that speaks from her heart
, my Lakota name.
We're talking about living withthese names and walking these
paths, and it doesn't matter ifyou're sleeping well and if
(47:08):
you're getting up well early,and there's none of that stuff
that they call like grumpy.
I was always wondering wheredoes grumpy come from?
You know, I mean, that's justthe craziest idea that someone
would get up unhappy.
I just think that when weregulate our patterns and see
(47:33):
our wrinkles in the mirror, tellme go, I love you, I love you.
You deserve those lines in yourface.
You worked hard for those lines.
Never, ever, change who you are, because what you're becoming,
every breath you take, issomething spectacular that
(47:55):
sounds like oh, I know that'slike.
That's so far-fetched tobelieve that, and I'm going to
say I'm going to say that thatis true.
Yuli (48:06):
So beautifully said Karuna .
Well, we love you.
I love your energy.
This has been like a healingsession.
I love those episodes, but Iget to get healed too.
And your energy.
This has been like a healingsession.
I love those episodes, but Iget to get healed too.
Karuna (48:17):
And your energy is just so beautiful good, good I'm so
grateful, yeah, I'm grateful forthis connection and anything
else, any parting words ofwisdom for our beautiful
audience just say here, let letme read, let me just put the
mala of the heart to my thirdeye point and let me open it.
(48:39):
Hold every thought, dear friend, and let's see, between living
and dreaming there is a thirdthing, guess it.
That's so funny, antonioMachado saying between living
and dreaming there is a thirdthing, guess it.
(49:01):
So I guess I'll leave you withthat.
Oh, wow, okay, that leaves.
That's an open.
That was not planned, right,that's yeah, all of the heart.
That's a beautiful poetic book Ido want to leave you with.
May the blessings of this day,in this most sacred way, serve
(49:24):
you.
May we walk the path of light,knowing that there is a way
through every block, just done,there is a way through every
block, just done.
May we give each othergratitude, longitude and
latitude and flexibility tocreate practice, create business
(49:45):
, create prosperity and be onetogether and holding each other
in that space, really supportingeach other, loving each other.
Yuli (49:58):
Beautiful.
Well, thank you for blessing uswith your very uplifting energy
today that we all needed, andme particularly, sending so much
love to you, Julie.
Karuna (50:11):
Thank you for serving the world with your podcast.
I just love it.
Thank you for having me.
Yuli (50:19):
And I hope to have you again soon.
Absolutely.
Karuna (50:23):
Blessings to you, thank you.
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