7 Chakras Journey
How to enhance healthy Chakra function through conscious connection.
You may have heard of Chakras, but still be wondering exactly what they are. We are asked so many questions every week at Balipura, so we thought a “Journey Through the Chakras Series” was in order!
Each month we’ll share a post focusing on one of the main Chakras. If you don’t know what Chakras are, these posts will be a nice overview. And if you’re already savvy, we’ll hopefully give you some interesting ways to explore and experiment with them. Finally, we suggest some simple tools to get you started on your journey.
Below, you will find:
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a basic overview of what a chakra is
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where they are located on your body
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why it’s important to pay attention to your energy centres
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how to start recognising alignment and disharmony in your energy system
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some tools to help along your journey
In subsequent months we’ll do a deep dive into each chakra and share ideas on how to consciously explore your chakra system.
Ready?
What is a ‘Chakra’?
‘Chakra’ is a Sanskrit for wheel. Chakras are circular energy points along spine from the coccyx to the crown of your head, and are connected to various organs and glands internally. They also radiate out from the body. Ideally, these energy centres work in unison to allow life force energy to flow.
But perfect function is impeded by our imperfect lives, and imbalances in flow mean chakras can become under or overactive. Harmonising and balancing the activity within each energy centre results in the optimal condition for body, mind and spirit equilibrium.
They’re responsible for distributing life energy (also known as chi, qi or prana). These invisible wheels of energy keep us healthy and vibrant, and can also reflect illness and disruption in our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or etheric systems.
Each chakra has its own Sanskrit name, symbol, colour and associated meaning and regulates energy of a specific frequency. When the chakras are open and working properly, there is a fluid, easy flow of energy that results in a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life.
So while there are many references to our bodies having over 100 distinct chakras, we will focus on the generally agreed seven main chakras, starting at the base of your spine and extending to the crown of your head.
Where are the chakra points on my body?
Each chakra corresponds to a very specific area of the body. In future posts, we’ll take a deep dive into each of these chakras but for this introduction, here is a summary:
1. Root Chakra – Muladhara – RED: bottom of the tailbone, perineum/cervical area. Connection between body and earth.
2. Sacral Chakra – Svadhisthana – ORANGE: few inches below navel. Creativity, pleasurable connection with life.
3. Solar Plexus Chakra – Manipura – YELLOW: roughly 3 fingers width above navel. Seat of self confidence and personal power.
4. Heart Chakra – Anahata – GREEN: area of the breast bone. Centre of love emanation in the body.
5. Throat Chakra – Vishuddha – BLUE: centre of throat. Self expression; voicing your truth; communication.
6. Third Eye Chakra – Ajna – INDIGO: between eyebrows. Intuition & connection to the pineal gland/spirituality.
7. Crown Chakra – Sahasrara – WHITE/VIOLET: crown of the head. Pure consciousness, universal connection point, transcendance.
Why is paying attention to my Chakra balance important?
Because awareness of our chakras gives us another tool to help us live our best lives. Theres no need to micromanage your chakras… they have been working away whether you know about them or not! However, if you’re interested in feeling and functioning at your best, learning how to sense when your chakras need some support is a great awareness to tap into.
Generally, chakras need to stay open and balanced to feel great, and if they are under or over stimulated or somewhat blocked, suboptimal physical or emotional symptoms can result. I’ve read information talking about ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ chakras, or unblocking blocked chakras… to me, this makes it seem like we can control them (for example) like an eyelid – but they don’t exactly work that way. They’re never fully shutdown and non functional (if you’re alive it means your chakras are functioning!). BUT you can direct intention and energetic awareness to them in order to facilitate balancing and better energy flow.
So think about free flow versus stagnation.. optimal vibratory rate versus vibrating too fast or too slow. Trapped energy within a chakra is like a blockage in a river, which creates a dam upstream, and too little flow downstream. And it’s the imbalanced flow which triggers various physical and psychic issues.
For a much deeper dive into this subject, Llewellyns Complete Book of Chakras comes highly recommended.
The feeling of well aligned Chakras
First, let’s take a quick tour through the feeling of well functioning chakras:
Root: responsible for your sense of security and stability; feeling grounded and able to withstand challenges. You’re energetic, motivated, and adventurous.
Sacral: regulates how you relate to your emotions and others emotions. Feeling creative, sensual, and sexually fulfilled.
Solar Plexus: reflects your self esteem, the sense of being in a good relationship with your life. Feeling confident, assertive, and decisive.
Heart: generates the ability to love and feel compassion. Feeling grateful, empathetic, wanting to extend to others. Relationships feel harmonious and sincere.
Throat: empowers verbal communication. The ability to speak and express your truth without fear.
Third Eye: responsible for intuition. Focusing on the bigger picture. Perceiving easily, strong gut instincts and a good imagination.
Crown: the doorway to spiritual connection with yourself, others, and the universe. Feeling in alignment with your values and a sense of your life purpose.
Sensations of imbalance in the Chakras
Yoga as therapeutic medicine specialist Diane Malaspina shares the opinion that its useful to think of chakras as being out of balance versus ‘blocked’.
“There can be a depletion of energy flow or too much energetic activity in a chakra — each will manifest into different outcomes”.
Here’s her great example: if the root chakra (security, stability in life) is under-active it can express as depression and insecurity; if it is overactive it could result in physical recklessness or hoarding in response to too much focus on physical security. She goes on to explain that imbalance in a chakra may impact organs, bones, joints, and tissues located nearby.
Root: feeling angry, fearful, anxious, ‘lack mentality’; constipation, fatigue, substance abuse, addictions.
Sacral: feeling irritable, low creativity, intimacy issues. Low sex drive, painful periods, reproductive challenges.
Solar Plexus: feeling anxious and indecisive, low self-esteem. Digestion issues.
Heart: feeling unforgiving, lonely, unable to love. Lacking empathy/ compassion. High blood pressure, heart disease, respiratory issues.
Throat: misunderstood or inauthentic communication, fear of speaking up. Thyroid issues, throat, neck or dental problems.
Third Eye: feeling moody, confused, inflexible habituated thinking. Vision problems, headaches, nightmares.
Crown: spiritual disillusionment, apathy to life, overwhelm and confusion. Cognitive or psychological disorders.
Going on a 7 Chakras Journey… tools for the road
Our chakras are pure life force and powerful beyond measure–but they’re also sensitive receptors and transmitters. Learning to focus on and attune your chakra system is a huge tool for your personal care and healing toolkit!
So, you can tune in to them with nothing more than some relaxed quiet and introspection. However, many people find specific tools are helpful to make and maintain a stronger connection. Kirsten Nunez has a nice article about techniques for ‘unblocking the 7 major chakras’ and we will go deeper in future blogs, but a summary of all the literature I’ve read basically focuses on creating alignment in your physical body to influence energy flow in the chakra body:
- yoga postures
- breathing practices to support energy flow
- specific crystals that communicate well to the different energy centres
Guided meditation is also a quick and easy way to help this process. It involves focussing on each chakra individually and breathing into them with your full concentration.
MindValley offers a free Masterclass titled ‘Unlocking the Healing Power of your Chakras with the lovely and knowledgeable Anodea Judith (please note, you need to create an account with mindValley to view the masterclass.. Balipura is in no way affiliated, but we do enjoy their work).
Balipura 7 Chakras Range
Our range (view here) is a convenient way to simplify and focus your own ritual at home, but designed specifically so you can take your Chakra work with you wherever you go!
This range contains the energy of 7 Crystals, each specifically chosen for its beneficial effect on the corresponding Chakra. As a result, realignment and healing can occur through the Auric field which helps us feel aligned, in flow, and unblocked. Read more here.
To conclude, learning to recognise the signs of energy centre congestion and tools for working with them. Hope you’ve enjoyed this overview, and we look forward to presenting “Step One Mulhadara: the Root Chakra” in depth next month!