When I signed up for Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa's class on past lives, I thought we'd be spending most of the two hours in meditation, envisioning who and what we were in a previous lifetime. But the Kundalini guru had a different plan in store for us. She told us right off than anyone we had imagined (or had been told) we were in a past life was likely true because each of us has had 8.4 million past lives. If we thought we were a sage from India, we likely were; but we'd also been murderers, business people, animals, you name it.

So, instead of trying to figure out who we were, she led us through a practice to rid ourselves of any negative energy attached to a past life.

I thought this class would be mellow, but these seemingly simple exercises we did with our arms and legs were so intense that I still feel sore! Dressed in a beautiful white flowy sari, Gurmukh is soft-spoken and lovely—but she teaches a surprisingly tough class. The funniest part was that, after she wore us out silly with squats and arm raises, she coached us though a free-style dance jam; so, I was in two dance parties before lunchtime: Duncan's and Gurmukh's. Different as the classes were, I marveled in the shared yogic impulse to dance one's bliss.

We slipped into a deep sivasana at the end of the class. I didn't learn anything about my past life, but I did get a few hits of insight about my present one. And I am sure I will sleep well tonight.