In kundalini yoga we like to hold poses for extended amounts of time. It could be 3 challenging minutes of Stretch Pose or leg lifts... or an 11-minute meditation with both arms up over your head... or even 62 minutes in some awkward position, like with your right arm outstretched and index finger pressing on the third eye of the person sitting in front of you (I've actually had to do that once, and let me tell you, it was only amusing for the first 20 seconds).
Yes, kundalini yoga can get pretty intense. And weird.
As you hold a pose, sooner or later your arms, your legs, sometimes your whole body starts to tremble. It can be anything from a slight tremor in the muscle, to an entire limb that jerks around uncontrollably.
I've always heard my teachers say that if you tremble, just let the trembling happen; don't try to stop it. It's the nervous system repairing itself. I also tell my students this.
And that's one of the most important benefits of kundalini yoga: it gives you a strong, stable nervous system. You shake during yoga so that you don't shake in your life. So that when you're interviewing for a job you really want, you are calm and clear-headed. So that when your partner is standing in front of you telling you they want to break up, you are composed enough to remember to breathe. So that no matter what challenging situation life presents, you maintain your grace, your composure and your clarity.
About 6 months after I started taking kundalini yoga classes, I got to experience first-hand what it means to have a strong nervous system.
One evening, I was riding my bicycle down Santa Monica boulevard, on my way to an evening shift at the bookstore where I worked. It was rush hour and I was running late. At a major intersection I rode into the left-turn lane and waited for the light to change. I was surrounded by cars: there were cars in front of me and behind me waiting to turn left; there were cars facing me on the boulevard; and there were cars on my right waiting to cross the boulevard. Cars everywhere, and me on my little bike in the midst of it all.
When the light changed, my lane of cars started to move forward to turn left, and I along with them. I got to the middle of the intersection when suddenly... my back wheel locked. I pressed on the pedal and the wheel just would not turn.
Here I was, in the middle of a busy intersection, cars moving everywhere around me, and my bike wouldn't budge.
I quickly got off and started to push my bike forward. I literally pushed and dragged the thing to the side of the road. It couldn't have taken more than a few seconds, but it felt like I was blocking traffic for ages.
When I got out of the traffic I was relieved... but more so, I was astonished that I felt so calm. No racing heart, no trembling hands, no sign of any panic whatsoever. It was as if hardly anything had happened.
That's when I understood the benefit of having a strong nervous system. In the midst of the most terrifying of experiences, I was totally calm. Nothing could shake me. Kundalini yoga was giving me the ability to be able to handle anything.