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Pregnancy
yoga
Using
the Khalsa Way
By Natalie Stawsky
Every year between forty and sixty women come to Los Angeles from
places like Iceland, Denmark, Brazil and different parts of the United
States to participate in a full week of training for pregnancy yoga
teachers. This annual gathering is organized and conducted by Gurmukh Kaur
Khalsa, the instructor of a revolutionary method she called The Khalsa Way.
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Khalsa is a derivative of a Sanskrit word that means pure. But pure
means conscious she says, so wake up; you have the power to have this
baby, you don't need to buy into western medicine that you cannot do it:
you can do it because God gave you the power to do it.
(Related article: Pregnant
after 40)
Even though some of her ideas may sound too unconventional for the
typical American mother-to-be, Gurmukh says that what they teach is not
that out there, but rather just practical knowledge. Baby wants mama,
baby wants milk, baby wants to sleep. So we teach basics, things that
people in so many countries are already doing. Instead of dividing the
practice in trimesters as normally happens in Hatha Yoga, her method
allows women to practice most of the asanas up to the last stages of
their pregnancy. (Related article: Yoga
for weight loss)
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 Gurmukh's story on how she started working with pregnant women goes
back 35 years in time: "Yogi Bhajan called me in New Mexico and said: I
want you to deliver babies. I told him that I didn't know how to deliver babies. But he said to me:
Yes, you know how, so I thought, well... maybe I do know from another
lifetime and he knows that." (Related:
How to
raise twins?)
Soon after, she started training with a doctor and a midwife, assisting
in home deliveries and examinations all around New Mexico. But with the
passing of the time she understood that what Yogi Bhajan really meant
when he talked about her mission was not necessarily to physically deliver babies: I think he wanted her to deliver their souls.
(Related:
Mommy Makeover)
Gurmukh and Davi Kaur (registered nurse and certified childbirth
educator) started this training five years ago, with the intention of
empowering women's natural wisdom on this matter (How
to make a baby), and bringing back one of
the biggest dynamics that were taken out of the process of birthing:
God, the creative force of the universe; I don't care if you call it
Mother, Father, Infinite, Creator, Supreme Being... there is something
bigger that makes us, that makes the soul, so wouldn't that be what helps us
to bring the soul out? (Related article: Weight
loss after pregnancy)
The training, that starts on a Saturday and ends the following
Friday, not only includes Gurmukh's teachings and classes. Each year, she
brings about 15 presenters, from acupuncturists and doctors to midwives
and chiropractors, all sharing their knowledge and experience with the participant yoga teachers. Some of the trainees happen to be pregnant
during the training; others want to embody pregnancy or reach out for
past birthing experiences. The work done during that full week includes
pregnancy yoga classes, exploring the power of meditation, chanting, different kriyas and prayers, and exercises hard enough to make you go
into your own core and understand how powerful we are. As Gurmukh says, a
tight schedule and the rigor of 60 hours of training does not affect
the camaraderie which the participants felt with each other, the friendships, and the togetherness. (Related:
Yoga
lifetyle)
With regards to
birth itself, Gurmukh proposes to put aside all the misconceptions
we've been given throughout time, so the woman can reeducate herself and remember who she is. Insight comes out through the
yoga, through the classes, through watching the birthing movies... we start
rebirthing our own birth, our own life, our own soul, our own direction, so with that there is gladness, there is sadness, there is a
forgiveness aspect, and there is also a wanting to reconnect, maybe with our
parents or with our families.According to Gurmukh, all of us can reach into a place within ourselves
where courage is a limitless resource, and we need that courage to get
rid of our conditioning to pain and fear. The Khalsa Way aims to
overcome those misconceptions so we can find our own, natural way of bringing
a soul out to life. Related
articles: Taking
care of your body during pregnancy Kundalini
yoga Reiki
Neuromuscular
integrative action (NIA) Pregnancy
for obese women
Celebrity moms
Yoga wear
Infertility Cure book review
Maternity pantyhose
Liv Tyler plastic surgery
How to get pregnant after 40
How
to get my body back after pregnancy
Sex during
pregnancy
My breasts
have sagged after childbirth
Angelina Jolie
pregnancy sex About the author: Natalie Stawsky received her yoga certification from White Lotus
Foundation, Sacred Movement Center for yoga and Healing and The Khalsa Way
with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa. She teaches classes in Spanish and English at Goda Yoga in Culver City
and also Spanish classes at Santa Monica Yoga. She created the first Yoga video in the United States in Spanish called
Natalie Stawsky Yoga para Principiantes that is
available from Lindisima.
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