During a 75-minute kundalini yoga and meditation class at Lighthouse Yoga Center in Washington one Saturday morning, eight women stood and bent at the waist, letting their arms hang loosely as they swung them side to side in gradually larger swoops for about seven minutes.
This twist through the thoracic spine opens the shoulders and chest, instructor Julie Eisenberg told the group — pretty standard stuff for a yoga class. But this move has another goal: to “get the lymph flowing through your body to pick up toxins and get them out,” Eisenberg said.
The movement is called a kriya, or sequence of exercises. Kundalini, which roughly means “energy,” is based on kriyas, which can be a static pose or a repeated movement held for three to 11 minutes. They work to stimulate not just muscles but deeper internal systems.
“When you leave, you feel lifted,” said Cathy Berry, 42, of Silver Spring, Md., a student and teacher at Lighthouse. “It’s almost like a natural high.”