Why do you wear all white?
from my teacher training on graduation day, taken by another student
I get this question often as a teacher of Kundalini Yoga. The answer is two-part: 1) Wearing the color white is supposed to expand your aura, since the color white is made up of all of the colors of the spectrum (also all of the chakras’ colors). Conversely, wearing black, which omits all of the colors of the spectrum, shrinks the aura. 2) Teachers of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan are required to wear white for reason #1, which sounds like a good reason to me.
Kundalini students can wear white to class as well. You may play around with the colors of the chakra system. For example, wearing white expands the aura, while wearing green projects the fourth, or heart chakra. (Read my series “Focus on the Chakras” under Categories to the right of the blog, to learn about colors associated with other chakras).
Why do you cover your head?
Is another question I sometimes get. The answer is for protection, and kind of to contain your own energy. At the top of the head is the crown chakra, and energy can enter into and out of our chakra system through it (I know this all sounds a bit spacey, but stick with me!). People project all kinds of energy -negative, positive, neutral. So, covering the crown chakra protects your own energy from any negativity, which is important for a teacher, trying to remain neutral and just teach. We don’t get caught up in the energy of our students, but hold our own.
For this same reason, some students wear head coverings as well.
me (in the middle) at teacher training with 2 other students, photo taken by another student
We are not required to wear a head covering to teach, but it is highly recommended. I will say that there have only been two times I have not covered my head to teach a class, and both times I felt a little odd and disorganized. So I just cover my head typically with a white bandana. Sometimes I wear a white turban, as many other teachers do.
I will admit, sometimes I find myself questioning these teacher “uniform” suggestions, but at the end of the day I know these teachings work in a powerful way for me in my life, so I decide not to mess with it.
Please let me know if you have any other questions that I could try and answer about Kundalini Yoga.
The Approximate Yogi 