Maya Fiennes Kundalini Yoga: A Journey through the Chakras

Are you like me, highly sensitive? If so, then this may just be the perfect workout for you. Yes, it is a workout. Make no mistake about that. I've been using these dvds 5-7 days a week for almost five months. There are still kriyas (or exercise sequences) that are extremely challenging to me. I've become far stronger and more flexible, both in mind and body. My posture is better than it's ever been, and the back pain that has always plagued me, as a scoliosis sufferer, is far more manageable. I used to see a chiropractor once a month for that reason. I haven't felt a need to do that since beginning this yoga. No other sort of yoga I've tried has worked with the spine in such a direct and gentle way. So, the DVDs have already paid for themselves.I've tried many varieties of yoga throughout the years. There is no one style that will resonate with everyone. In Kundalini Yoga, however, I have found my personal home. I am a highly feeling and sensitive person, and Kundalini Yoga is unique in the way that it addresses the safe and positive release of emotions often deemed "negative," like fear, worry, and anger. This yoga series addresses the whole person, mind, body, heart, and spirit, in such a gentle way -- it shows how to transform those feelings or passions into acceptance and bliss. My highly skeptical husband and my nephew, who are both complete neophytes to yoga, do the yoga with me regularly, and they are coming to love it as I do. There may be people who, like my husband, find talk of chakras woo-woo. That's okay. You can understand the chakras however you want. This DVD series does an excellent job, though, of explaining the emotions and processes governed by each chakra in the chakra-specific narrative portion of each dvd.This first dvd set in the series is easily the most physically challenging one.Just a note, when I say that the yoga is gentle, I mean it, but Kundalini yoga is *extremely good* at getting to those emotions. You may find yourself almost yelling the mantras sometimes, or tears may come to your eyes. Embrace that release -- it means that the yoga is doing its job. Honestly, this is nothing to be feared or ashamed about -- even in public classes I've attended, this sort of emotional release is extremely common. The yoga is designed to get those feelings out, so don't hold them back. Maya urges her students to TRUST THE PROCESS. You will be challenged, there may be times you feel like giving up, but take a breath and rejoin the kriyas when you can and more likely than not, you'll find yourself relaxed, energized, and blissful at the end. The wonderful music, which she writes, sings, and performs herself, is very supportive of the process. Play it a little more loudly, especially during the mantra sections, and you may find that music encourages you to keep up.There are a few minor quibbles that I have. I think that the meditation sections are far too short. In my household, we've solved this by having a mantra queued up and ready to go on the stereo. You can pause the dvd in between the exercise and mantra section for a deeper meditative experience. There is also a spot in the 1st chakra exercises ("Courage") where she does an exercise for one leg and not the other. Overall, though, this series is the BEST.

Maya Feinnes is a gifted healer and teacher. Through regular practice with Maya's Journey Through the Chakras, along with the next two sets which round out the series, I have found a calm within. My body, mind and spirit feel great! The DVDs are soothing, fun and challenging all at the same time. Maya is a concert pianist and amazing musician and singer. Her music and mantras, along with the simple elegance of the production, make these DVD's a great "time out" from a busy and stressful life. I highly recommend all of Maya's DVD's to anyone seeking a strong, soothing presence to guide them through home yoga practice. Alternating these with a few Ravi/Anas and Gurmukh makes a complete home practice with loads of variety and inspiration to keep at it every day. Oh, and did I mention that she will whip you into shape too?! That, I feel, is simply icing on this big beautiful cake!Yes, you have to buy three at once here - but you will want to buy them all anyways! This way you don't pay the extra shipping - so go for it - get the whole series now and enjoy!

I love the one-DVD-per-chakra concept and the excellent organization and flow of the workouts, which other reviewers have described. I would have rated this a 5-star series except for a few detractions.(1) The whited-out background, which actually hurt my eyes (when they weren't shut) and reminded me of the old adage about a polar bear eating marshmallows in a snowstorm. So wearying on a day-to-day basis!(2) The music. Too much, too loud, too foreground, too distracting from my yoga experience. Also,I kept wishing Maya had used different music for each chakra. The repetition of certain music (usually the song I liked the least) was irritating.(3) It would have been helpful for Kundalini Yoga beginners if Maya, like Raviana, had suggested modifications for some of the more advanced poses. I am not a beginner, but certain poses (such as the accelerated plough pose on the first disc) just didn't feel safe. (I modified that one by doing spinal rolls, Happy Baby pose, and finally a full Plough.)I'm not at all sorry I purchased this series, but whereas I had originally planned to use it exclusively for several months, because of the detractions I'll probably use it only for one 6-week rotation per year.NEW THOUGHTS--MAYA MODIFIED (15 March 2013):Having hit a plateau with kundalini yoga workouts, I decided to try something heretical: creative modification, using light hand weights, bands, a stability ball, variant positions. My new approach has worked like a charm, particularly with Maya's "Detox and Destress" and "Journey Through the Chakras". Although each of her workouts is well designed, my "heretical" modified versions energize me much more than the originals ever did. I especially recommend the bone-loading benefits of adding light hand weights to the arm movements, when safe to do so. Mudras (symbolic hand configurations) are all well and good, but as a 66-year-old woman, "why waste an opportunity for bone-loading" has become my new motto!