Feel Great Yoga!
About Cindy
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An Accident, Acceptance and Kirtan Kriya.
 Or "When your world turns upside down,
take time to appreciate the view." by Cindy Krulitz
"Acceptance brings peace. I know this from personal experience. I'll start by telling you my story. I am an active, middle aged woman who had a rollerblading accident and landed on my head. I don't remember the accident. I do remember waking up in the intensive care unit at the hospital. I didn't know where I was, why I was there or even how long I had been there. It turns out that I had what they called 'moderate brain trauma'. "I went from being an intelligent, fit, person to one that couldn't watch TV because the flickering lights and images freaked out my brain, couldn't read a book because my eyes wouldn't track on the page and I couldn't remember what was happening in the story. Moving my body was slow and pretty limited. No balance. "I could have reacted in a number of ways. I could have gotten deeply depressed. After all I was a single mom who couldn't drive, get groceries, cook, do laundry, let alone oversee the kids and get them where they needed to go. My sons were 12 and 15 at the time. I could have been angry or frustrated. "Instead I chose to experience acceptance. This is what I can do right now, in this moment. What could I do?? I could meditate. I had signed-up to start Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training at KYL in Chicago prior to the accident. We were given a meditation to do for the 40 days before the start of the course. The meditation is called Kirtan Kriya and uses the syllables Sa Ta Na Ma. [click for meditation]. "It didn't matter if I couldn't sit up in a 'traditional' meditation posture. Reclining on the couch worked just fine. I kept working with the idea, 'what can I do right now?' I would try something and if I couldn't do it, I accepted it for that point in time. I meditated - some times more frequently than once a day. I could do it. I did it a lot! "It turns out that Kirtan Kriya--the meditation that I was diligently practicing since I couldn't do much else except watch the fish and sleep--was exactly what my brain needed. Kirtan Kriya is designed to heal the frontal lobes. My left frontal lobe was the part of my brain damaged by the accident. I’m no doctor, but, even I could see how different it looked from the rest of the brain when I saw the CAT scan when they took out the stitches and staples. "I told my brain to heal itself. I have an obedient brain and it did as it was told. I gave it the tools to do so--Kirtan Kriya. Little by little the things that I could do started outweighing what I couldn't do. I kept up with the meditation regardless. I started Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training 7 weeks after the accident. I realized that falling on my head taught me many of life's biggest lessons--including acceptance. "It doesn't matter how old or young you are. There are always things that you can and cannot do. The question is really do you accept where you are right now? Things change with each moment. Start observing each moment and don't be judgmental. Realize that this is the way it is right now. This is your chance to start practicing acceptance. "You may find some parts of a meditation or kriya* simple. You may have limitations that make some parts not physically doable. Visualize your body doing the meditation or posture even if you can't do it right now. Keep the breath moving as directed even if you need to take a break at some point. You will reap the benefits so long as that is your intention. Listen to your body. You are your own teacher." *In Kundalini Yoga a ‘kriya’ is a sequence of postures, breath and sound that are integrated together to allow for manifestation of a particular state, for example, a clear mind or a healthy liver. |
New Students are always welcome!
Call if you have questions
Cindy Krulitz
(765) 714-6095
ckrulitz@yahoo.com