Confront your fears and find inner peace with the latest (and oddest) keep-fit fad
We must connect with your fear, the yoga teacher advises: ‘What are you afraid of?’
Personally, at this precise moment, I’m afraid I’ll be left holding this uncomfortable position forever. I’m crouched over my yoga mat in a squatting position, with my arms out in front of me, parallel to the floor.
It’s an excruciating stance to hold, and we’ve been in it for several minutes.
Unusual keep-fit fad: Snake yoga, or 'Kumara serpent healing', is a new twist on the popular exercise class
But there’s another reason to feel a little uncomfortable: in front of us, just a few feet away, is a basket full of snakes.
Yes, you read that right. Very real boa constrictors, pythons and corn snakes are laying curled up together under a blanket, waiting for their cue to join in the class.
Forget Bikram or power yoga. If you want to be ahead of the crowd, snake yoga is the newest — and most unusual — class in town. Officially called Kumara Serpent Healing, it’s an offshoot of Kundalini Yoga — a branch of the form which mixes adopting physical positions with a focus on breathing, meditating and chanting.
It was devised by self-confessed ‘mad snake lady’ Kwali Kumara, who sits at the front of the class today dressed in flowing white robes and a spiky Medusa-inspired piece of headgear.
The aim of the class is, according to Kwali, to ‘deepen our connection to the spirit and natural world,’ using her ‘friendly, healing snakes’ as our guides.
Overcoming your natural aversion to the snakes will help ‘unblock your chakras’, allowing energy to flow freely throughout the body — which can apparently improve every area of your life. Well, so the story goes, anyway.
The lights in the room are dimmed and the students sit in a crescent shape around Kwali. I notice she says nothing about a fear of snakes. Many in the room are terrified of them — I know because I saw them freaking out in the changing rooms.
Even the tall Teutonic blond fellow who gave me an unsteady smile as I took the mat next to him is frightened — once I’d sat down, I could see he was shaking.
So, why are these people here? ‘If people are scared of snakes, they are scared of their own spirituality,’ explains Kwali later. ‘Having the snakes involved connects people to what is going on inside.’
And so we begin. Tonight is the first in a course of eight workshops to correspond with the eight chakras, a common focal point for any Eastern discipline from yoga to acupuncture. Chakras are energy points, which reach up through the body in a vertical line from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.
The belief is that energy should flow freely through all eight chakras, but in most people there is a blockage somewhere that causes all sorts of problems — it might make us unhealthy or miserable, incapable of pursuing and achieving our dreams.
Anxieties can cause these chakra blockages, and overcoming them can help energy flow more freely — hence the snakes.
Flow of energy: Snake yoga follows the same principles as a usual yoga class - with the creatures said to help 'unblock your chakras'
We start by getting to grips with the first or base chakra, located at the root of the spine. After Kwali places a drop of scented oil on our foreheads, we begin ‘mulbandh squeezes’ — otherwise known as pelvic floor exercises.
Then it’s on to the painful crouching position, the ‘crow’ pose, throughout which we have to stick our tongues out and breathe out rapidly, panting and pumping our stomachs. This isn’t for the easily embarrassed.
The snake is integral to kundalini which believes energy sits dormant, coiled at the base of the spine like a serpent.
The point of this yoga is to release this energy and ease the stresses and strains of a hectic life.
After a tough beginning, I’m relieved that there’s a long relaxation period. Then it’s on to a meditation to music. Because the yoga is so intense — we move quickly between tough postures — I realise I haven’t given the snakes a second thought.
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After the chanting we’re ready for the ‘meditation to remove fear’. For this we sit cross-legged with both arms held up at our sides, making the peace sign with our fingers.
‘We then move our index and middle fingers together and apart swiftly, as if snipping away with a pair of scissors.
After a few minutes, I forget about my aching fingers, because something strange is happening. I am overcome with a feeling of an intense calm.
The yoga and relaxation has done its bit, and the people who were sweating at the idea of having to handle the snakes — which come out towards the end of the class — look much more ready to get to grips with them.
We sit in a circle, and Kwali warns us that when we next open our eyes, she will have a snake around her neck. Sneaking a look around the group, I spy a mixture of grimaces and smiles.
We are asked to open our eyes and there the snake is. In all, there are 11 snakes in the basket — three boas, four royal pythons and four small corn snakes.
We make ‘chhh’ and ‘sssss’ sounds as the snakes are brought out, to make them feel more comfortable.
I take hold of a Brazilian Rainbow boa. At first I hold the snake away from me, but I soon realise that he is as intrigued by me as I am him.
It feels very smooth and responds quickly when you want to move it around. We spend about 20 minutes playing with the snakes and, by the end, everybody has held one.
At one point I look at the woman next to me and am reminded of something by the corn snake with a pretty pink and beige pattern she is holding. It’s just like the snakeskin trim on a very expensive handbag I bought last year.
I’d looked at this bag for about a week before returning it to the shop — it was stunning, but there just seemed to be something really wrong about it. Lucky I did — I couldn’t have faced these guys with that cold, snakey blood on my hands.
Kwali Kumara teaches Kundalini Yoga at Alchemy in London on Friday evenings, alchemythecentre.co.uk Contact her through kwalikundalini.net