Seda Aksut suggests we meet at a small Italian restaurant near the Hermosa Pier. It turned out to be a delightful choice, wood-lined and uncrowded on a Wednesday afternoon,  but a slight surprise — a deviation from my expectation of meeting in a cold-pressed juice bar or organic tea shop. I had the lasagna.

This experience feels in line with my experience of Seda as a Kundalini teacher. With her glossy blonde good looks and effortlessly chic presentation, she passes as a typical fit Southern Californian. Yet, after attending her classes for over a year, some differences began to register on my radar: a touch formal, and, at times, a voice in a slightly different register. Was that an accent?

Her nearly undetectable accent is more pronounced when she’s under stress or fatigued, she admits. Seda grew up in Istanbul, her family long-established in the area. “We go back 500 years. We were a secular family — spiritual, but not religious in a country that is 90% Muslim.” Poised between Europe and the Middle East, Turkey has a unique vantage point on the world, and her roots there may explain her perspective as a Kundalini yoga teacher in the South Bay.

When speaking with Seda, it becomes obvious that her father has been a strong influence in her life. Although he died over a decade ago, he seems to be the strand that unites her past, present, and future. Her father, a successful businessman with his own construction firm, insisted she pursue a practical course of study. She showed an aptitude for numbers, so it was decided she would study math and economics at Bogazici University. A full scholarship and teaching stipend for graduate school at the University of Washington in 1997 offered her a chance to move to the United Sates, a country she had visited throughout her childhood and a place she dreamed of living. Her studies in Social Psychology were a compromise between her father’s strong business ethic and her pull toward a more humanistic understanding of the world.

She graduated with a master’s degree and moved to Los Angeles with her then-boyfriend, a software engineer. Here, she embraced the corporate lifestyle, working the standard 40+ hour week as an executive search consultant, with a 90 minute commute from the South Bay to Century City. “I’d be driving to work, thinking, ‘What is the point? I’m making plenty of money, but something is missing’.”

Into this overloaded but not atypical Angeleno existence came a bombshell: her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He moved in with Seda and her by-then-husband into their Redondo Beach home and began radiation therapy at USC. At the end of the course of radiation, his tumor was deemed untreatable, and he returned home to Istanbul with a year to live.

Her father’s sudden plunge into mortality (he was a 53-year-old in seemingly excellent health, an exercise enthusiast, and body builder) that sent Seda into a state of crisis—and into therapy for herself and a search for alternative treatments for her father. Even though he succumbed to brain cancer within the predicted year, the effects of her search transformed her life.

Yoga became her major solace. “I would take yoga classes almost every day. The peace yoga instilled in me, along with its amazing effect of putting everything in perspective, made me a more centered, balanced person over time.”

“During the difficult times, when I was losing my balance, I used to wake up and practice only balance poses for the first 15 minutes of waking.”

Her wish to assist her father through his illness led her to study Reiki, a pivotal moment in her personal transformation. “I wanted to learn a technique that combined meditation and healing, to work on him, myself, and the whole family to ease the process.” Reiki offered healing benefits for the entire family, so much so that Seda remarked on how the healing energetic work continued after his return to Istanbul and even after his death. Reiki continues to be an important personal practice for her, and she incorporates that same concentrated energy and attention into her group work as a yoga teacher.

She had already completed a 200-hour Hatha training in Bali through YogaWorks when she found her way to a Kundalini class in 2003. The combination of meditation, chant, and physical exercise had a strong appeal. “The breath, the postures, the meditations, the chants, all the elevating qualities made sense.” In her continuing interest in psychology and the scientific method, Seda emphasizes the depth of the practice. “Yoga in the West has often been streamlined to just mean the physical. Kundalini is not streamlined.” Recent studies at UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania suggest powerful healing happens along that mind-body continuum, pointing to Kundalini as a useful therapy for both Alzheimer’s and depression. Seda makes a point of quoting these studies in class. At a recent workshop, she casually quoted Nobel-Prize-winning scientist Roger Wolcott Sperry on the link between a healthy brain and a supple spine.

Many healers find their way to Seda’s class. I talked to Elizabeth Cartabiano, a massage therapist and Ayurvedic practitioner about what brings her to Seda’s class at LYFE Yoga in Hermosa Beach. “Seda brings lots of tools to class,” she enthuses. “Psychotherapy, a strong physical practice, pranayama and positive affirmations. It is powerful therapy — for therapists as well.” Vanessa King, a local marriage and family therapist, finds the meditative aspects of Kundalini “opens a lot of space for healing,” especially useful in her couples work.

In my own experience as a PhD, writer, and perennial bookworm, Kundalini provides a precious opportunity to turn off the incessant internal commentary. When I describe the combination of elements used in Kundalini–the rapid, forceful breathing combined with extended chanting — to my father, a psychiatrist of 30 years, he explains that Kundalini students are putting ourselves into a light trance. Seda uses her Reiki and psychology training to maintain eye contact and speak soothingly for extended periods, enhancing that trance effect.

The chants vary from Gurmukhi syllables to English affirmations like “I am the light of my soul.” The mantras contain an energy of peace and connection. What they have in common is the ability to hold your attention just enough to provide relief from the constant stream of ego talk.

For the musically susceptible like me, the wash of melody offer a final experience of bliss. “I choose music and mantra for each class deliberately so that they are the right vibrational match for the breath and meditation we practice that day. They are designed to uplift and elevate.” Aksut explains.

For Seda, leaving the corporate path meant also shedding many aspects of her life. “Universe first pulled everything apart, then Reiki, Yoga, Meditation and Breath acted as miracles to bring forth a blessed life. Creating the life I envisioned required immense faith and daily practice… since then I have been on a journey to share what has healed me and to raise others as I continue to raise myself.”

Her desire to become a channel through which other lives can be positively touched has evolved over the years. “It’s not possible to heal someone who is not ready… all I can do is hold space for synchronizations so those who are ready to receive, show up.” One of the recipients was Kiya Knight, a motivational coach and fitness instructor. “When I hit my upper limit, I didn’t have the tools to break free from anxiety. Deep depression started to settle over me. Simply put, working with Seda has changed my life and put me into a higher state of consciousness than I thought was possible.”

“Above all,” Seda says, “ I feel this immense gratitude that I get to teach. Teaching is the most powerful daily practice, a prayer, a privilege and a responsibility all at once.”

Seda Aksut regularly teaches at LYFE Yoga in Hermosa Beach and offers workshops & trainings in various studios in LA. Her home studio in Redondo Beach is the base for Private Spiritual Counseling Sessions, Reiki Certification Trainings, and 20/30hr Kundalini Intensives on Mantra, Breath, Movement and Meditation.

Connect with her on Facebook: Facebook.com/sedaaksutkundalini. Upcoming Workshops: September 20th and October 27th 3:00-5:30pm at LYFE Yoga in Hermosa Beach: lyfeyoga.com

Grace Lovelace is a South Bay resident and longtime kundalini practitioner. She writes about movies at Lovelace Redux (lovelaceredux.blogspot.com)

Grace Lovelace

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