Healing Addictions with Yoga
When Kundalini Yoga Master, Yogi Bhajan, came to the West in the late 1960’s, he developed a program called SuperHealth to help people break free from addiction.
Mukta Kaur Khalsa travels around the world teaching this unique yogic approach to healing addictive tendencies.
One of the many countries Mukta Kaur visited was India where she conducted drug de-addiction classes in Punjab in collaboration with the Amritsar Mental Health Hospital.
Hi Mukta, I’m happy we got a chance to speak. I first wanted to ask why you focused on addiction treatment. Have you ever suffered from addiction?
No. I sometimes wonder about that myself. Why did I get this sliver of the teachings [from Yogi Bhajan]. It’s an important part of the teachings. Addiction is something that modern day society is struggling with all over the globe. I’ve come to understand that every part of the world is struggling with some kind of addictive behaviour. Even if it’s just the way we think. We get into worry, or stress, or negative self-talk, or relationship problems, control issues, food issues, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs. It’s endless.
In that sense everyone is an addict.
Somebody once asked Yogi Bhajan about using the word addict and his response was, “Who is not?” Basically, “What is your drug of choice?” It could even be computers or media gadgets where you can’t stop, you can’t shut it down and walk away. It’s addicting. That’s why he said, “Who is not?”
It’s not just about us and them. We’re the together people and they’re the addicts, they’re the problem. No, we’re all in this together.
So the material that you’ve compiled and the help that these tools provide can be used for hard-core drug addicts as well as people who just want to stop being on the computer all the time and stop eating fast food?
Basically it’s about how to live a more fulfilled life. Usually, when there’s something out of balance in a person’s life, that is when a problem comes. So our job at SuperHealth is to work with them to coordinate all aspects, physical, mental and spiritual. To bring balance so a person can be in control of their life and feel fulfilled without depending on anything else to get them there.
Yogi Bhajan called it “self-autonomy.” This is about being self-autonomous, independent and connected within your own self to your spirituality so that you feel complete within yourself and you don’t need to look outside for answers.
Usually we run and search after things that aren’t in our best interest. Money becomes our god, and our power becomes our ambition. We search after that and many times we attain it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we are happy or fulfilled, or without addictive tendencies, behaviours and problems. It’s best just to be in balance physically, mentally and spiritually so that you can be content and complete within your own self.
Can you tell us anything about the techniques in the book that help one achieve this?
The techniques in the book are very, very simple.
We have 12 very simple meditations, 12 nutritional tips and 12 inspirational quotes from Yogi Bhajan that work on body, mind and spirit. For instance one meditation uses the breath. Many times we feel stressed out, we feel anxious, we feel worried or panicky, or reactive because some situation happened. If you notice, people often forget to breathe at that point. That’s one of the first things he says to do, to actually breathe, take in a long deep breath. It’s very, very simple, but what happens is more oxygen goes to your brain and you’re able to think more clearly in that situation. This helps us to not be so reactive in that situation. It’s a practice, that if a person can commit to do every day, even if it’s for 3 minutes a day.
It’s not so important how long you do it, but that you do it consistently. That develops a consistency in behaviour, in character, in attitude, and in caliber. We need that kind of consistency to get us through the challenges of everyday life. So it’s a commitment your own self. The days where it’s the most difficult for you to do, and you do it, is the day you gain the most. That’s the day you obtain your strength. That’s the day you know who you are.
A person must begin to know who they are. Not try to convince people who they are, but to actually know who they are.
What kind of results have you seen from using these techniques?
About 35 years ago our program developed into a hospital based yogic program for substance abuse and addictive behaviour. The second person who ever came into it stayed for 3 months. He searched me out 2 years ago and said, “Hi, this is so-and-so, do you remember me?” I said, “Certainly, I do.” And he said, “I was there 35 years ago. I’m doing really well. I’m married. I have a family. I have a business. I’m successful. But…” he said, “my daughter is now struggling with some problems and the only thing I thought of was to have her come to you.”
You never know what you’re doing at the time or what kind of effect it’s having but you do the best you can. Yogi Bhajan used to say, “Are you willing to carry people on your back until they can walk themselves?”
This one woman who was in our facility, eventually we permitted her to bring her child to stay with her. Her child was about 2 years old and every night the child was screaming and crying. The mother, who was a former heroin addict, was getting unnerved and she didn’t know what to do. The daughter was waking everybody up and the mother was getting very, very frustrated. Then we asked her, what are you feeding the child for dinner? She said, “Well I feed her some vegetables and then I give her some fruit for dessert.” We said, “Well, that may cause gas. Why don’t you give her vegetables or fruit but not both combined. Her system is very young and sensitive.” So she gave her daughter vegetables without the fruit. And her baby slept perfectly.
It was such a beautiful situation.It was so simple for us, yet if this mother hadn’t known about that, the frustration and stress could have caused her to use drugs again. So sometimes it’s just the simple stuff. People need the support, if they feel there is someone they can go to that they trust. Yogi Bhajan said, “When a person trusts you 50% of their problem will go away.” I mean 50%! You don’t even need to say anything if they trust you!
Our responsibility is to become trustworthy, dependable, and reliable so that when we do extend our hand to help another person they know that they can trust us. They know that we’ll come through, that we will live to our word, that we’ll do what we say we’re going to do. That alone gives them hope and inspiration to become like that, too.
I know that you had brought SuperHealth to India one time. Can you tell us how that was received?
Yogi Bhajan arranged for us to have a collaborative effort with the Amritsar Mental Health Hospital. They gave us a pilot project for 90 days, 10 beds. Hospital based, all male program. We had a team of 8 volunteers come from America, Europe and India. The 8 of us volunteered to be there with them and to help these gentlemen wean off alcohol and various drugs.
They were not familiar with Kundalini Yoga. Yet living in the Punjab, they grew up around so much of this yogic science, even if they didn’t practice it, they knew someone who’d done it.
Recently, one of the gentleman contacted me and wished me happy Diwali and told me he’s doing well. That was over 10 years ago, so you never know what effect you’re having. We have the technology that is effective and proven successful. So we do the best that we can. Whatever Guru Ram Das does after that has nothing to do with the quality of care that I’m going to try and provide to each and every person.
So you feel the hand of Guru Ram Das in this work?
It’s all Guru Ram Das. It’s all Guru Ram Das. It’s our blessing from God and Guru, and the teachings of Yogi Bhajan that we’ve learned and experienced ourselves. This allows us to even do this work and to have the experience that we live this life and we try to improve it every single day as a commitment, as a Sikh. It’s all the Grace of Guru Ram Das.
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Mukta Kaur will offer a specialty teacher training based on the SuperHealth model in Espanola, NM, USA from April 2-9, 2016. This teacher training program counts towards CEUs in the United States for the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA), the NAADAC; and the State of California Board of Sciences for MFTs and LCSWs.
Mukta Kaur has also published a book based on the SuperHealth teachings, titled: Meditations for Addictive Behavior.
This book includes meditations for the mind and body. It also gives food tips which are very easy to do.