Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #49 – Kundalini Yoga and Mental Health – Yoga in Argentina with Cori Giunti 

Welcome to Episode #49 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Cori Giunti onto the show. She is a yoga teacher from Argentina and a psychologist as well. My conversation with Cori was so touching as we took a deep dive into the spiritual world of Kundalini yoga, and the world of mental health as well. 

I hope that this conversation made you curious about the mind-body connection and how yoga can help process trauma and psychological issues. If you’re looking to tune into a podcast episode that is all about Kundalini yoga and mental health then this is the conversation for you.

Tell me more about Cori Giunti

Cori Giunti is a Kundalini Yoga instructor. She currently teaches weekly classes at the Yoga Center, Valletierra, applying other tools to awaken consciousness. She has been a practitioner of Kundalini yoga for 9 years, and did her yoga teacher training in Argentina, and has studied under Snatam Kaur. Her passion is to serve people in order to feel good, get better, and become more connected and more conscious. She is a psychologist as well as a yoga teacher.

She has a degree in Psychology from the Universidad del Salvador, and is an Organizational Coach from the Universidad de San Andrés (Fred Koffman’s Conscious Business Coaching under ICF International standards). She specializes in systemic theory, doing a postgraduate degree in Buenos Aires from the Mental Research Institute on Problem Solving Therapy. And she has trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Theory and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), tools necessary for intervention in self-limiting beliefs. Additionally, for more than 4 years I have been in continuous training and deepening in Family Constellations.

What to expect in the Yoga In Argentina episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast

Cori first came to yoga during her pregnancy, as a way to process her emotions and her own issues.  Luckily, the yoga studio in Argentina she practices at is right in her neighborhood! 

She tried different types of yoga, but Kundalini, in particular, made her feel the most calm. Kundalini is a holistic philosophy about our unique health, about learning to be calm and relaxed as a way for the body to heal itself. 

Cori and I then dove into what Kundalini yoga is and what practicing it is like. She defined Kundalini yoga as the yoga of awareness. And even though it involves physical movement and asanas, it’s not the primary focus. Kundalini includes a lot of mantras, chanting, singing, pranayama, and movement.

We then dove into how yoga has impacted Cori’s life, and how yoga can help her patients and people in general process trauma and work through the emotions that are blocked and stored in our bodies. 

I was amazed when Cori shared that Argentina has the highest number of psychologists per capita than any country in the world! Mental health is a big part of Argentina, and there is no embarrassment about talking about going to a therapist or an alternative therapist. It is very common, and it’s growing and growing. 

We then talked about what yoga is to Cori, a place where she feels safe and a place to feel a lot of love. 

Curious? Tune into the yoga in Argentina podcast episode on the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast! 

For the skimmers – What’s in the yoga in Argentina episode?

• What is kundalini yoga and kundalini energy?
• Kundalini: The Yoga of Awareness
• Yoga is a commitment to yourself 
• Don’t look outside all the time, the answers to your questions are inside of you
• The emotions we block settle in our bodies
• Yoga is a place of love, safety, and vast openness 

Favorite Quote From Cori Giunti

“On the other side of trauma is resilience. On the other side of pain is wisdom on the other side of depression is your most vibrant expression of self. On the other side of your blocks is your opportunities.”

Resources

The Body Keeps The Score book

Connect with Cori Giunti 

www.corinagiunti.com

https://www.instagram.com/mindlab_ok/

Want more?

https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

Everything you need is just one click away! Check out all the resources here: https://linktr.ee/wildyogatribe

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #49 – Kundalini Yoga and Mental Health – Yoga in Argentina with Cori Giunti 

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Namaste family. And welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. Today, I am excited to welcome Cori Giunti onto the show today. She’s a yoga teacher from Argentina, a Kundalini yoga instructor. She has been an active practitioner for nine years and she did her yoga teacher training in Argentina as well.

[00:00:22] She’s also a psychologist. And her passion is to serve people in order to feel good, get better and become more connected and more conscious. So thank you so much, Cori, for being on the show today. 

[00:00:36] Cori Giunti: I’m excited. Thank you, Lily, for having me here. It’s my first podcast. So I’m so excited. Thank you.

[00:00:46] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. Thank you. I am so excited to be with you. And just to start off the show together, could you tell our listeners how you first heard about yoga and how it first came into your life? 

How did yoga come into your life?

[00:01:00] Cori Giunti: Yeah. So it’s very interesting because by the time I started practicing yoga, I was pregnant with my second child and I was looking for something like a spiritual practice being a psychologist. I’ve done a lot of techniques on clients and patients, but in this case I was looking for something deep to process my own issues and emotions.

[00:01:26] That’s why I started with yoga. I try different types of yoga, but Kundalini in particular makes me feel more calm at the beginning. That’s why I started on and I keep doing it and I keep practicing. So that’s why Kundalini is so important for me because it’s a holistic philosophy about our unique health.

[00:01:56] It involves learning to be calm and relaxed. When you do that your body can heal itself. So it’s a connection between mind and body for me. That’s why I trust so much. And I share it with people.

[00:02:13] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wow. And for Kundalini to come into your life, was it just offered at a studio that was close to where you lived or you worked, or did you really have to discover Kundalini doing more research and really searching and seeking out a studio that offered that?

How did you find Kundalini yoga classes? 

[00:02:32] Cori Giunti: It’s close to home. Yes, it’s in the neighborhood. But in that studio they offer a lot of types of yoga. So I, that’s why I tried hatha, Vinyasa and then Kundalini, and also Iyenga r but this one was near my home. 

[00:02:52] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wonderful. And for our listeners who maybe aren’t familiar with Kundalini that maybe they’ve never heard of it or ever practiced it. Could you tell them a little bit more about what Kundalini is? 

What is Kundalini yoga?

[00:03:04] Cori Giunti: yes. The Linea is a form of yoga that involves chanting, singing, breathing, exercise, and repetitive poses. It’s proposed to, to activate your Kundalini energy, which is the spiritual energy that is said to be located at the base of your spine. So that’s also called yoga of awareness because we try to awaken that energy that sits in the base of your spine sleeping with a practice exercise and breathing techniques. We activate the energy. Which allows it to move up through the chakras along your spine. Helps balance these chakras and contribute to your wellness. So it’s basically a holistic approach, because we work in their nervous system. In our digestive system, it also makes us relax because eh, has a lot of benefits. Yes.

[00:04:18] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. And so it’s a practice that incorporates not just the asana, right? Not just the physical pose. So if you go to a Kundalini class, you wouldn’t just be doing the posture part of yoga, correct? 

What is going to a Kundalini yoga class like?

[00:04:33] Cori Giunti: Exactly. Exactly. That’s different from other types of yoga. That’s correct. Kundalini is spiritual. It still involves physical movement, but they aren’t the primary focus. Kundalini is more precise and repetitive and that’s why it includes a lot of mantras, the chanting, the singing, and with the breathing techniques and the movement, so that’s correct.

[00:05:08] Lily Allen-Duenas: Amazing. Yeah, Kundalini just two times before at Yoga Barn in Ubud in Bali. And so it was a really energetic experience, even though it is calming, it is relaxing. So much of it was with our eyes closed and focusing on different, rapid breathing or slow breathing and the mantra. So I think it’s very spiritual and involves your energy bodies at a different level, which was really special.

[00:05:38] So Cori, I’d love to ask you what made you want to teach yoga and to teach Kundalini yoga?

What made you want to teach yoga?

[00:05:45] Cori Giunti: Yeah, because through yoga, I’ve been able to help people as I do as a psychologist being of service. It helps people cope with depression, with anxiety, with trauma and it helps a lot to be aware of your body, your sensations and the connection mind and body.

[00:06:10] It’s really important for people to recognize the importance of being connected. So it’s something that I trust. Psychology is something that is recommended because we need to practice everyday in our health, well-being is not just and do workshops and learn something next and go home. It’s a compromise with yourself to do it every day or regularly. That’s why I teach it. 

[00:06:45] Lily Allen-Duenas: I agree that it is that promise you make to yourself to practice regularly or to practice every day. I know that something like that, it feels like if you, if you practice yoga or if you’re a yoga teacher, everyone’s so curious about how do you practice every day and it’s or how do you want to practice? It’s It’s something that always laugh at and enjoy answering, because I think a lot of showing up on the mat or showing up on the meditation cushion, you don’t always want to do it, but some days you just, you need it months in a row, you just are in just overjoyed to come to the mat and to come to the cushion.

[00:07:26] But then there can be a whole month where there’s resistance, there’s fatigue. With the seasons, with stress, with our lives, with work, personal profession, but no matter what it’s that honoring the commitment that will show up, even if it’s a shorter practice or instead of just doing, a long practice with asana, with pranayama and all the elements. Maybe instead, we’re just doing OM chanting for 10 minutes. I think we need to honor our cycles. How do you feel about that? 

Honoring our rhythms and cycles in yoga

[00:07:56] Cori Giunti: Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it’s like you say, it’s a commitment with yourself because we are automatic with our old patterns that sometimes, or most of the times, it doesn’t make us feel good. Our body and mind needs new information and new programming about how we think or whatever we want to do. Oh, to be more creative also.

[00:08:29] So it’s uh, a really important commitment to yourself. And not look outside all the time. All the questions could be answered inside ourselves. So most of the time we ask, even in the therapy sessions, I realized that people want an answer, but the answer is I don’t have the answer. That answer is inside themself. So that’s why I’m teaching it. And I tried to spread out why yoga is good for yourself. Good for your health.

How does yoga impact your life or your clients’ lives?

[00:09:07] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes. Yes it is. And so I was wondering how yoga impacts your life? Is there something, some gifts it has given you, or some challenges it has helped you overcome or for your patients as well? If there’s something you would like to share, uh, that doesn’t have to do with yourself. That’s okay as well. 

[00:09:28] Cori Giunti: So as a psychologist I realized the connection, mind and body. It’s really important because sometimes we try to work with our mind to get better. But sometimes if we move our body, we can work through your body for your better mind. So sometimes in trauma, there’s a lot of disconnection between the mind and body, because trauma is not what happened to you, trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.

[00:10:08] We try to get into your body and where all the emotions that we blocked in the past. Their breathing becomes shallow. They are up tight and frightened about their feelings inside. So we work by doing or practicing yoga. We can go to those places that even we don’t know hurts. There is a psychiatrist called Bessel van der Kolk who is the author of The Body Keeps The Score.

[00:10:49] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love that book. That is a powerful book. 

[00:10:52] Cori Giunti: And he examines how trauma affects the brain and the body. And looks at a lot of treatments including yoga. So he said that doing yoga in groups may activate the mirror neuron system of the brain, which is a certain damage caused by trauma. So practicing yoga, mediation in groups might give people a deeper sense of belonging.

[00:11:21] So that’s why it’s very very important to be in a group. If you can’t go to a studio and you do it at home, it’s okay. Also it’s fine. It’s better than nothing, but being a part of a group also helps us to keep the habits and continue with it.

[00:11:42] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. And I’m so glad you brought up that book because it. was very transformational for me as a person who has wounds and issues and traumas, but also as a yoga teacher. Because, as you said Bessel van der Kolk directly talks about how yoga itself is transformational for his patients and the people in his studies, it’s really enlightening. And if any of our listeners are looking for a good book, I’ll make sure to link that in the show notes. So you can find it on Amazon and give it a read and give it a look because there’s a lot in it. And so Cori since we’re talking about how yoga can help people process trauma is this something I know as a psychologist and as a yoga teacher, when, oh, and you’re a coach as well. Do you feel like you’re able to incorporate yoga and embodiment into people’s healing journeys in your practice, or is that something there’s maybe some resistance to, with your clients and Argentina? I’d love to hear more. 

[00:12:45] Cori Giunti: Argentina, let’s talk about our country. Therapy here is a big part of our life and the country has the highest number of psychologists per capita in the world. People don’t get embarrassed about saying, I’m doing therapy. I go to the psychologist. In this way, going or doing yoga and all the alternative therapies is very common here. And it’s growing and it’s getting after the pandemic also, it seems like it’s growing so fast. 

Do your clients use talk therapy and yoga together?

[00:13:27] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah. So do your clients like to use yoga and talk therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, or, if they like to use it together, or if that’s something to work with your clients directly to do ? . 

[00:13:40] Cori Giunti: Nice questions. It depends. It depends, but therapy is, most of the time, a place where we share our thoughts and sensation. We talk, sometimes we do some breathing techniques or exercise. It depends, but I recommend doing something else outside the therapy session. That’s what I. I try to transmit my patient that not all what we have can be solved in the session.

[00:14:20] That is what I think. It’s, you need to work with your body, that connection, mind, body, spirit. And so imagine that trauma involves a lifelong pushing down at tremendous waste of energy and not feeling that pain. So when we heal that same energy, we liberate that energy.

[00:14:51]  So the energy of the trauma can be transformed into energy of life. It’s something like it’s available. Otherwise you are blocked, you close down, you are not open. You know what I mean? So we practiced, with the exercise and could be mindfulness, could be any type of meditation, could be any type of yoga.

[00:15:19] We need to be, we need to be more aware that we need to do something about what happened to us in the present moment? On the other side of trauma is resilience. Resilience on the other side of pain is wisdom on the other side of depression is your most vibrant expression of self. On the other side of your blocks or your opportunities. So if we understand that. When I discovered yoga for myself I got that deep feeling. That I was thinking the way I’m living I don’t like it. I need something to relax, to stop my thoughts. I stopped my inner conversation that most of the time is painful. All the past. I didn’t know how to put it inside to understand. I needed something to take out my toxin and dirtiness. That’s the most important part of a practice that you can go wherever you feel you need it. That’s why I’ve tried to make people more aware of that.

[00:16:45] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh thank you for that. And thank you for your work doing that. It’s so vital. And I think what you said about the other side of depression is our most vibrant. Expression of life. And on the other side of our blocks are our opportunities. I thought that was so gorgeous. And I’m going to make sure to quote you on that in the future. Because it was so beautiful. Cori thank you for saying it that way. And I wanted to ask you too. What is your personal definition of yoga? What is yoga for you? 

What is your definition of yoga?

[00:17:19] Cori Giunti: Yoga for me, it’s the real connection with myself, mind, body, beyond. It’s the place where I feel safe where I can put all that I have and feel secure about it. I trust my feelings, sensations, emotions and I live with all of that. It’s acceptance about me, my body, what I am, and it’s bringing me a lot of calm deep sense of relaxation physically, but it’s creating more space for mentally and spirituality. So the sense of openness to be more open, to more available. I can’t describe it that well, because all we live insights sometimes it’s you don’t find the right words, but eh, we, you feel a lot of love when you practice practicing, you feel love about yourself. Love about others, love about life, love about even your pains.

[00:18:35] Lily Allen-Duenas: I agree. I agree, very moving and a lot of beautiful things like safety and love and that sense of vast openness. Also, I would love at this point to ask about yoga and Argentina. I know I was amazed when you said there’s more psychologists per capita than any other country in the world in Argentina, but in terms of yoga is practiced all over Argentina or only in big capital cities or only in, anything you have to share about yoga and Argentina. We’re all ears. 

What is yoga in Argentina like?

[00:19:10] Cori Giunti: Now all over, it’s all over the country. After the pandemic, like I said, it’s growing so fast. So you can find it online also. But in every part of our country, there’s a yoga studio. I know. So after the pandemic, they opened a lot of retreat centers. There are a lot of offers about retreats with different types of yoga methods, like Wim Hoff methods, there’s a lot of moving about that. And yes, it’s growing. Fortunately I think people know that well they need it for life.

[00:19:57] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yeah, they do. I’m glad that there’s more and more growth there, not just in the psychology world, but in the yoga world as well. And, for those of our listeners who may not know that much about Argentina or maybe they’ve dreamed of visiting it. Would you tell our listeners more about your beautiful country? 

[00:20:16] Cori Giunti: Buenos Aires especially, it’s a very European city, so you would find very good food here. But in Argentina we went to different places. If you go south, you get Patagonia which is like Switzerland. In the north, we got a month times with different color we got beaches . It is a cold sea, but it is still nice.

[00:20:48] We got so many places to go to the beach and also you can go to the south for skiing. So it’s a mix. You never get bored here. You always have something to do to explore. I know the music, food, places, and going out. It’s beautiful.

[00:21:09] I like it a lot. When I was 22, now I’m 44 when I was 22, 22. I live in the USA and, but I decided to come back. I miss my country a lot because of the mix, but for my family, of course, but it’s a really nice place to visit. So just let me know Lily, when you want to come.

[00:21:35] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you. I will. Oh, it’d be a dream. Thank you for that. I will definitely take you up on that, Cori, and for our listeners who want to get in touch with you, or have a question or want to learn more about you, I’m going to share your website and your Instagram, in the show notes and on my website, wild yoga tribe.com.

[00:21:56] But would you like to tell our listeners here, you know, on the show how they can find you? 

[00:22:01] Cori Giunti: Yes, I got my Instagram, which is Mind Lab. And you can find me with my name. Cori Giunti C O R I G I U N T I, and I’ll be glad to be in touch with all of you. 

[00:22:19] Lily Allen-Duenas: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Cori, for being on the show with me today, it’s been such a joy to be with you.

[00:22:26] Cori Giunti: Thank you, Lily. Thank you so much.

[00:22:30] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. My conversation with Cori Giunti, a yoga teacher from Argentina was so touching as we took a deep dive into the spiritual world of Kundalini yoga and the world of mental health. I hope that this conversation made you curious about the mind-body connection and about how yoga can help you process trauma, psychological issues, or anything else emotional you’re working through. Thank you for listening to the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast. Be Well. 

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