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Yogi, Healer and Writer Mahani Khalsa Shares Enlightening Personal Journey
By Andrea Marvin
Since childhood, yogi and writer Mahani has practiced Kundalini yoga. She has taught tens of thousands of students how to heal through yoga, and her work has attracted A-list celebrities.
For the past 30 years, students have turned to her for breath work, meditation techniques, energy healing, spiritual psychology, and somatic trauma processing.
To expand her reach, Mahani founded the Blue Lotus Healing School, an online space where anyone can join from the comfort of their homes on a transformation journey of profound personal growth and healing.
She’s also in the process of writing her first book, Queen of Myself, (working title) a story that reflects on her personal journey with kundalini yoga and the trials and tribulations she has gone through.
Mahani has overcome sexual abuse within the Kundalini Community, survived a near-fatal accident, and she has navigated a chronic illness.
Queen of Myself unpacks the trauma Mahani experienced and the path she chose to take to reach forgiveness. She hopes the story encourages others to find the light within themselves during difficult times and how leaning into yoga, meditation, and spirituality can help.
An interview with Mahani reveals her human side, which makes her more relatable to people trying to find their way during periods of darkness.
The methodologies she shares to regain peace do not require hours on the mat and are manageable for people who only have small moments in the day to find their balance.
Please share a bit about your journey and background with us. What led you to the path of healing and yoga?
I was born and raised doing yoga. I grew up in a spiritual kundalini ashram with about 28 other people. We'd wake up at 3:00 am, have a cold shower, and do two hours of yoga before the day started.
As my mom says, I was on a sheepskin in this practice every morning by age one. Yoga is in my blood, I did it pretty much daily for my whole life.
I wore a turban to elementary school then went to boarding school in India away from my parents for 9 years.
Have you been consistent with your practice or was there a period when you stopped yoga and returned to it?
When I was 18, I wanted to be normal. That said, I went to college for a year, was on the crew team, and was not into yoga at all.
Then, around age 25, I had some health paralysis issues with my leg and turned to yoga again. The practice helped me heal and that's when I realized the power of it.
When I was raised, yoga was just what we did. It wasn't like, Oh, you're doing this to have more energy and a clear mind. When I returned to it after my health issues and experienced the benefits, I wanted to teach it and help others.
What led up to you starting the Blue Lotus Healing School?
I wanted to teach people how to soften toward themselves and have a better day. Whether that's forgiving someone or forgiving oneself – what if we are open to forgive 2% for the “unforgivable”? This allows us to feel better and have joy and freedom.
This is why I chose to speak up about my story and start the Blue Lotus Healing School.
I have been in the spiritual healing yoga teaching world for 30 years. I was following two male teachers and their paths and building their empires.
A few years ago, I spoke up about the abuse that happened to me and others. I realized how I put these men on pedestals for so long, and I wanted the fame and power they had. They told me that I would be the next master or the ordained.
When I spoke up about the abuse, I didn't even like myself very much. I had a lot of chronic pain and didn't realize that sexual abuse could have an impact on my body years later.
What brought you back to yourself during that time?
I would say doing other practices outside of kundalini yoga. After I spoke up during COVID, I taught every day online on Instagram in my pajamas. It was raw, and I found my speaking voice.
I found I didn't need to teach like my teachers; I could relate to people who were having heartbreak or facing a time of suffering in their lives and felt I could help them in an honest, grounded way.
That year helped me find my speaking voice, and I realized I still had so much to offer. But in a different form by not having a spiritual hierarchy or a patriarch.
We can have healthy Spirituality. Healing is possible but we must get to the root of the trauma or issue.
You were recently featured in the HBO documentary, Breath of Fire - tell us about that.
The documentary is about the rise of kundalini yoga and focuses on a misguided guru who was popular on social media.
When the interviews started for the documentary, the producers realized there was much more to the story. People like me who were born and raised in a yoga cult for 50 years. It shows a glimpse of my story and the abuse within the Kundalini Cult.
The documentary has two storylines; I'm part of that second story with a few others. A lot of the documentary is about the current affairs of the issue, and then there are a few of us in it who were born and raised and mesmerized by this spiritual man.
Did you find it challenging to share your experience with the world? Did you find it healing to tell your truth?
After telling my story to one woman on the Board of Directors, she believed me. I felt like I didn't have to lie to myself anymore. It was like a huge weight came off me instantly.
That was the biggest internal freedom because I lied to people for decades. If people asked if something was wrong, I would say no. I was still brainwashed, still admiring and promoting this guru who was part of my profession. Some call this Stockholm syndrome.
The documentary was difficult to watch on the big screen during the premiere with other people in the audience. Watching all four episodes was a bit re-traumatizing.
It’s one thing for me to share with somebody what happened, but seeing it on the screen and knowing that potentially thousands, if not more, people will be watching it was raw, vulnerable, and scary.
After this, I started wondering how I would go out into the world again and what I would publicly say to people about it. I feared telling my story because there are still a lot of non-believers and people who are against the truth.
But overall, I've gotten some great feedback and comments from people that it was inspiring and helped them see the truth. So, I'm happy that I participated in it.
I feel like I'm portrayed in an authentic, vulnerable way that was inspiring and helpful to myself and many others.
Have you ever questioned your path after your experience with kundalini yoga?
To be honest, I convinced myself the abuse wasn't abuse for so long, and I was so devoted to the cause and the mission to help people grow with kundalini yoga and the Yogi Tea empire.
I thought that as long as I could hide the truth, I could still help people. But I realized I was hurting myself in the process.
You have practiced yoga all your life and have helped thousands of people, including well-known celebrities. Can you share some of the transformative practices you teach and how they can benefit individuals in their daily lives?
For a while, I was doing a lot of deep work. At times 20 hours a day of deep meditation for six days to become enlightened. But there was also a period a decade ago when I didn't have time to go to a yoga studio for a 2-hour practice and needed something that worked for me at that moment.
Within all the teachings, I found little breath work exercises that were three minutes or less. I realized all you need is a few moments to shift.
I found something to carry myself out of a bad mood or an obsession with a negative thought process. We all get there, at a low point, a couple of times a day.
For example, if I get stressed ten times a day, doing two minutes of breath work is way more effective in those moments than doing a two-hour practice. I draw, do breath work, or even go outside.
It's different for each of us. But I found within myself and my students and teaching that it works.
For example, when driving or before a meeting, you can pull over, do these practices, and balance yourself. It has become my passion to help everyday people shift themselves to a better place with these techniques.
I wrote a book called 3 Minute Start with lots of techniques for anyone anywhere to feel better.
What type of practices do you encourage your clients to do?
I encourage clients and students to remember that they are already enlightened, perhaps a bit distracted and that they have all the resources of healing themselves and their lives by remembering who they are.
I have spent lots of time distilling all I have learned in 30 years to create practices that are relatable and simple to practice without any religious dogma.
I teach mindfulness, how to stabilize stillness or the meditative mind, using breath work, kundalini awareness, Spiritual psychology and somatic trauma practices like balancing your vagus nerve.
There are little ways we can shift. It may be breath work, a mantra – finding your own toolkit. So, I show people the tools that have worked for me.
I have them observe themselves before, during, and after and notice if their stress level has decreased.
I am inspired to help people recognize the impact of spiritual practice and question what methods work for them.
Tell us about your new book Queen of Myself. What does it focus on?
The story has taken many different shapes and forms and redrafts. My objective for my book is to share a bit of my story of how I've gone from severe abuse and trauma to a path of forgiveness.
I’ve recognized the light within myself through spirituality and how others can do the same regardless of any trauma they’ve experienced in their lives. Because we all have a story.
I currently have taken a pause from writing my book, Queen of Myself (working title). Since taking a little space from it, I’ve realized the voice is a little negative. I want to do a rewrite that’s more inspirational. And I am working on a screenplay about it as well.
Is there anything else you want to share with our readers?
I would just encourage people to think about their main stress points during any given day. What's the cause of tension and suffering, and how can you take a step back from it and observe the story you've created about it? Then how can you soften toward yourself and have a better day.
I still have bad days, too. I get stressed and tense, but then I use the tools I'm teaching and remember I can soften. And in turn, everyone I encounter will have a better experience with me, too.
At the Blue Lotus Healing School, certification and training begin in April for people interested in Learning to Heal within to change your life for the better.
The curriculum covers powerful topics such as family tree healing, money and abundance, manifestation, elemental balance, chakra healing, and the art of Shuniya.
Mahani has also created a community for healing online, particularly on Instagram. Through short videos, she teaches people how to use breath work to feel better and observe their stress patterns and triggers through the meditative mind.
Other topics include the power of healing through sound. Thousands of her followers tune in weekly.
For more information: www.MahaniYoga.com.
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