Signs and Symptoms of a Kundalini Awakening

8 Signs of a Kundalini Awakening

Below are eight signs of a kundalini awakening:

1. Feelings of Crisis or Unraveling

Part of the kundalini awakening process can look similar to a mid-life crisis or a Saturn return in your astrological chart, where everything that you had committed to previously begins to dissolve or be taken away.

Old habits and addictions, relationships, family connections, diet, work, career, and essentially everything comes up for review. If it’s not in alignment, it will most likely be removed from your life.

We can resist this process out of fear, but usually, that only makes the changes more painful. This is the beginning of a journey that will take courage, discipline, and support to make it through.

2. Physical, Emotional, and Energetic Symptoms

Some people will experience energetic and physical symptoms at this point. Some can be emotional rather than physical sensations (anxiety, depression, despair), but many people speak of very obvious signs (shaking, visual disturbance, inability to relax, a rush of energy, or a near-death experience).

The nervous system is unable to handle the amount of energy that is wanting to move, and this can show up in a myriad of ways.

For some people, the experience is slow and steady, but for others, it is intense and immediate. The important thing is not to obsess over the symptoms but to find ways to open chakras and allow energy to flow throughout parts of the body. Instead, focus on energy moving and releasing blocks that are preventing the body from healing. Western medicine will often resort to prescription medications that do nothing to address the root cause of the blockages.

3. Open to Try New Things

The intensity of these experiences will often be enough to drive people to try new things.

People seek changes in diet, look for healers, leave relationships, and change jobs — all done in an attempt to respond to what is happening on the inside.

When what we know isn’t working, we tend to become more open to doing our work.

4. Support and Synchronicities Appear Unexpectedly

Once we are desperate enough to be willing to try new things, we become available to receive support and miracles from unexpected sources. We meet the right people, attend the right workshop, stumble across the right book, find the right yoga studio…whatever we need shows up at the right time in the right way.

5. Increased Sensitivity to External Stimuli

Once we start to make these changes, we can expect to become more sensitive to things that we used to be able to tolerate. To help with these sensitivities, learn to cook wholesome, vegetarian food and become more aware of the media you might be consuming. During this phase, many of us find that we have to change our “playmates and playthings” as our system adjusts and we learn to stabilize a new homeostasis. Perhaps we realize we need to move out of the roommate situation and find our own apartment so that we have space to take care of ourselves. We might also find it necessary to avoid watching violent TV shows or being around large crowds of people. The nervous system is undergoing changes to be able to handle more energy, and this leads to increased sensitivity. This isn’t a sign of weakness but a sign of increased awareness and potential.

6. Awareness of Internal Energies, Intuition, and Inner Truth

Not only are we more aware of what’s happening around us, but we become more sensitive and attuned to the thoughts, feelings, and energies within us. We know when our old habits are starting to sound enticing or when our heart is beginning to shut down. We pay more attention to our intuition and begin to develop a relationship with our soul, our Inner Teacher. What other people say or think about us becomes less important to us because our inner compass is more reliable and clear. Perhaps we become aware of areas of the body that need some attention, especially in the lower chakras. If we feel ungrounded, we tune in to what we need to feel more stable and connected to our body and the Earth. If we feel a lot of shame and our creativity is blocked, maybe we need to work on negative past experiences (sexual trauma or wounding). If we feel blocked in moving forward with our lives, maybe we need to work on our core, our navel area, to feel more connected to our personal power.

We become our own healers by becoming aware of what we need at the moment and learning the skills to take care of ourselves.

For many people, this includes a daily yoga and/or meditation practice. We need time daily to work with our energy, quiet the mind, and allow ourselves to look beyond ego and personality to our deeper selves. In the Kundalini Yoga tradition, this time is called Sadhana, meaning a daily personal practice or discipline. Knowing the tools that lead to inner transformation is a first step, but to actually heal and evolve, we need to use them regularly.

7. Increased Compassion, Altruism, and Recognition of Oneness

When we become more aware of ourselves, we become more aware of the world around us. Our energy has healed through the lower chakras, and now it can move into our Heart Center. Our compassion for ourselves leads to compassion for others. We wake up to the suffering of others, and because our heart has been opened, we feel it more intensely. This naturally leads to a desire to help and give others the help we’ve received along the way. The age-old truth of the interconnectedness of all beings becomes an inner knowing instead of just a thought.

Knowledge has become wisdom through our experience, and we desire to use our wisdom and compassion in service to others.

Once we feel more settled into our bodies, we feel a closer connection to Mother Earth, which supports our bodies and lives in every way. We can no longer turn away when we see injustice or environmental degradation. The challenge comes in balancing our commitment to self-care while protecting and preserving what is sacred to us.

8. Sense of Purpose and Destiny

The final indication of the kundalini awakening is a growing sense of purpose. The master of Kundalini Yoga, Yogi Bhajan, called it destiny. When we have worked on ourselves to heal our past, know the tools to clear the energy in our body regularly, and have made a connection to our heart and our Soul, then we are ready to “deliver our destiny.”

We can express who we are and feel our connection to the Divine more and more. We can begin to do what we came here to do.

Maybe that means we become a yoga teacher, a writer, or an artist. Perhaps we run a non-profit organization, become a great parent, or volunteer in our community. Yogi Bhajan said, “By giving from the heart, we reconnect to that source, elevating our soul and fulfilling our destiny.” When we are living out our destiny, we feel a sense of purpose and energy, a willingness to do whatever it takes to be of service and show up with our gifts. The Universe tends to support us in doing this, giving us opportunities to share what we have learned and experienced. The point of a kundalini awakening isn’t to be able to see people’s aura colors or have esoteric powers but to show up and be a steward to our world. To become who we were meant to be. To live in integrity with our spirit.

What to Do If You Are Experiencing a Kundalini Awakening

Try out a Kundalini Yoga class. This ancient modality was designed to clear out the energetic blocks and stimulate your healing potential. If you are experiencing anxiety and uncomfortable symptoms, stay in the body, not in your head. Pay attention to what bothers your nervous system and avoid those things, especially before bed or upon waking.

Consider cultivating the energy gathered from your awakening by training your second and third chakras (the sacral and solar plexus), which are rooted in logic and emotion, grounding us in the material world. Unblocking these chakras is crucial to reaching transcendence. Additionally, focusing on the upper chakras, including the heart, throat, third eye, and crown chakras, is vital, as unblocking them can be challenging; cultivating them without fixating on specific outcomes is recommended. Meditation plays a key role in this process, helping you surrender, quiet, and focus the mind, leading to mental stillness, enhanced mental clarity, and a smoother internal energy flow.

Increase self-care. Beware the mind’s tendency to overthink or get obsessive. Take it easy. Decrease stress. Find ways to serve others. Trust the process. Find others who are like-minded either in person or through a virtual community. Develop your daily practice of yoga and meditation. Eat well and let go of old habits and addictions. Know that you are not alone and that more and more people are being called to leave their old lives behind them and step forward into the life they are meant to live.