by Donna Quesada: This article—the third in my series on Kundalini Yoga’s 10 Bodies—focuses on the “third body of light,” known as The Positive Mind.
In the ancient teachings of Kundalini Yoga, the Self is understood, not as one body, or even as a body and a mind, but rather, as 10 Bodies, three of which are the mental bodies. Those three mental bodies include ThePositive Mind, The Negative Mind and The Neutral Mind.
Taken together, think of the 10 Bodies as different aspects of our consciousness, all of which work together to cultivate our mood, way of being, and the way we see the world.
The practice of Kundalini Yoga gives us tools, such as meditations, breath-work exercises, movements and mantras, all of which strengthen our 10 Bodies for the purpose of keeping us “finely tuned” as humans, for a more fulfilling journey toward self-realization.
The Positive Mind facilitates our ability to see the good in all situations. In the American culture, being “positive” is lauded and encouraged. And there is good reason to have a strong sense of positivity… life isn’t always full of good news, and without the ability to see the good, life can quickly feel dark and dreary.
The Positive Mind is also referred to as “the projective mind” because when it is healthy, we are able to project our sense of hopefulness and our confident expectations out onto the world to magnify that positivity, spread it around, and bring about more positive outcomes.
To go a little deeper into the The Third Body, the positive mind… when it is strong, makes us feel like we’ve got a storehouse of energy to draw from. And for good reason. As the third body, it is associated with the third energy center, known as the solar plexus. This is the place in our belly where our vital energy is stored. In Chinese, it is known as the Tan Tien. In Japanese, it is the Hara. All of the magnificent feats in the martial arts are done through the mastery of breathing into this area and harnessing its power.
This place of hidden power is associated with the element of fire. This is where the expression “fire in your belly” comes from. This is also why so many Yogic breathing techniques focus on deep diaphragmatic breathing, which awakens that fire. Fire is power.
But we don’t want to overpower. When the third body is healthy, we feel strong, we have confidence and we can access our willpower and courage. But when our third body is weak, we feel insecure, low in energy, and our outlook tends to become dark.
For proper balance, the three mental bodies all have to work together. While positivity is necessary to get through life, there is such a thing as “toxic positivity,” which is the tendency to take positive thinking to such an extreme that we refuse to acknowledge real human emotions—which aren’t always happy… and to similarly ignore the reality around us, even when the proverbial “house is on fire.”
With a French partner, I can readily attest to the cultural contrast between the American tendency toward being overly positive and the French, whose reputation for criticism is legendary. While it makes plentiful fodder for jokes about cultural differences, the truth is that the French are usually just being honest. If they’re not “fine,” they’ll let you know…if the food is bad, they’ll say it. And when the shit really hits the fan, they’ll march… loudly—as any tourist knows, if they’ve landed in Paris to find that the Metro is down yet again because of another strike.
The point to all this, is that as I explained in the previous article in this series, on The Negative Mind (the second body), our ability to set boundaries, discern danger, and protect ourselves when trouble presents itself, is a must. Without The Negative Mind to balance out our perspective on reality, The Positive Mind can sometimes act the fool, imagining that everything is wonderful when it’s clearly not.
Each needs to be strong, know its limits, and work in conjunction with the other bodies for a clear world view, and a good plan of action when needed. The key is to find a good equilibrium between The Negative Mind’s tendency toward being overly skeptical and The Positive Mind’s tendency toward being overly permissive.
Any diaphragmatic breathing exercise will strengthen the solar plexus. But affirmations are also helpful for revitalizing our sense of positivity and can be done mentally… anytime, anywhere. Here is one of my own recordings on the topic of Joy:
It can be helpful to have positive affirmations playing in the car or in the background while doing other activities. If you enjoyed the track above, here is the entire album, which includes a variety of affirmations on other topics:
