Have you ever wondered what chakras are, or how to know if yours are imbalanced? Read on to learn about the human body’s energy centers and learn the practices you can use to keep them balanced.
Unveiling the Basics: What Exactly Are Chakras?
“Chakra” is a Sanskrit word that means “disc” or “wheel”. When we talk about chakras what we’re really talking about are wheels of energy.
We all have a physical body and an energetic body, which are interconnected. These wheels move energy throughout the “subtle” body, and the healthy flow of this energy keeps our bodies healthy. When the wheels aren’t spinning properly, stuck energy can become stagnant or overactive, which leads to physical symptoms of an imbalanced chakra.
The concept of chakras comes from ancient Indian traditions. The earliest mention of chakras can be found in the Vedas, which are ancient scriptures of Hinduism and yoga philosophy. However, chakras as we understand them today have been shaped by different traditions throughout thousands of years, and in more recent history have been westernized- meaning the way we think about chakras in the west is different than eastern traditions, and both are much different than how they were thought of thousands of years ago.
In our westernized chakra system there are 7 main Chakras that we usually hear about, but traditionally there are many more- maybe hundreds, or even thousands! Chakras occur all throughout the body but the biggest ones run along our spine, and above and below it. Let’s look at the 7 major chakras!
The Seven Wheels of Energy: A Deep Dive into Each Chakra
This is a basic overview of each Chakra- it’s location, color, time period it develops (if applicable), and what it influences. A couple of notes here- everyone is born with all chakras, but some chakras specifically mature and develop at certain phases of a person’s life. Also, each chakra usually influences all of the organs and tissues in whichever area it is located. Let’s dive in!
- Root Chakra (Muladhara): Located at the base of the spine (the tailbone). Associated with the color red. Develops in the womb and in early infancy. Influences one’s sense of safety.
- Sacral Chakra (Svadhishthana): Located at the sacrum. Associated with the color orange. Develops in early childhood. Influences one’s ability to feel emotion, pleasure & creativity.
- Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura): Located in the upper abdomen. Associated with the color yellow. Develops in adolescence. Influences one’s sense of personal power.
- Heart Chakra (Anahata): Located in the chest. Associated with the color green. Influences one’s ability to give and receive love, including self-love.
- Throat Chakra (Vishuddha): Located in the throat. Associated with the color blue. Influences one’s ability to express themselves.
- Third Eye Chakra (Ajna): Located between the eyebrows. Associated with the color indigo. Influences one’s ability to use their intuition.
- Crown Chakra (Sahasrara): Located at the crown of the head. Associated with the color purple. Influences one’s ability to connect with a spirituality or higher power.
The chakras are complex and there are many elements associated with them, from food, to Earth’s elements, to breath techniques and yoga poses. This list is a great place to start if you’re wanting to know the basics.
Balancing Act: How Chakras Influence Physical and Emotional Wellbeing
The health of your chakras and your energy can either help you or inhibit you as you move throughout your daily life.
If your chakras are balanced you tend to experience safety, health and are able to lead a life that feels fulfilling to you. However, if there are imbalances then you typically experience stress, health issues and/or have trouble creating the life that you want to live.
Each chakra is associated with a physical area of the body and affects the associated organs, glands, tissues and bodily functions. A balanced chakra supports the health and vitality of each of its corresponding physical areas, and an imbalanced chakra can hold stagnant energy and beliefs that ultimately lead to deterioration and disease. Chakras are also linked to emotional and psychological states, and imbalances or blockages in your chakras can manifest as emotional issues as well as physical issues.
Signs of Imbalance: Recognizing Blockages in Your Energy Centers
Chakras are shaped by the way we perceive the world. If we go through a stressful or traumatic period in our lives, the thoughts, memories and emotions associated with each chakra can get stuck and cause imbalances and disease over time if they are not healed.
An imbalance can look like a blocked or an overactive chakra, and can disrupt your healthy energy flow. Since the chakras work as a system, if one chakra is blocked or overactive it will affect all the others to some degree. It’s important for each chakra to be balanced as much as possible, and for all unseen and unhealthy thought patterns to be noticed and disrupted for optimal chakra healing.
The symptoms of blockages or over-activeness will look different depending on which chakra is imbalanced. Let’s take a look at a few basic ones:
- Root Chakra: Influences one’s sense of safety- an imbalance looks like a foundation of fear in everything one does. This can manifest as anxiety, financial trouble and fear around meeting survival needs, low back pain or issues with the legs and feet, and difficulty feeling grounded and present.
- Sacral Chakra: Influences one’s ability to feel emotions- an imbalance looks like emotional instability, lack of creativity, discomfort with intimacy and/or sexual issues, and repressed emotions OR explosive emotions.
- Solar Plexus Chakra: Influences one’s sense of personal power- an imbalance can look like feeling powerless in most aspects of one’s life. It can also look like low self-esteem or low self-confidence, difficulty making decisions or taking action, digestive issues and feeling victimized in general.
- Heart Chakra: Influences one’s ability to give and receive love, including self-love- an imbalance can look like difficulty giving or receiving love, holding onto grudges or being emotionally closed off, relationship issues or lack of empathy, or respiratory issues or heart issues.
- Throat Chakra: Influences one’s ability to express themselves- an imbalance could look like a fear of speaking up and difficulty expressing your thoughts and feelings, sore throat or frequent throat issues, and feeling unheard or misunderstood.
- Third Eye Chakra: Influences one’s ability to use their intuition- an imbalance could look like feeling confused, being indecisive, difficulty trusting intuition, headaches or vision problems, and overactive imagination or difficulty focusing.
- Crown Chakra: Influences one’s ability to connect with a spirituality or higher power- an imbalance could look like a lack of spiritual awareness, closed-mindedness, migraines or neurological issues, or a lack of meaning or connection to a higher purpose.
No one escapes this life completely trauma free, so most people have imbalances of some kind. That’s just life. Fortunately we are powerful beings and we each have the ability to heal ourselves from any energy imbalance with our thoughts and the actions we take each day.
There are lots of easy practices you can incorporate into your daily life to begin to balance your chakras. Let’s take a look at some!
Healing Practices: Techniques to Align and Unblock Chakras
Journal Prompts
Sometimes we have to uncover the root cause of our imbalances before we can heal them. Journal prompts are a great way to do this! It’s super easy to google or search on Pinterest for journal prompts for each chakra. Talking to a therapist is also a really good way to uncover the root cause of imbalances.
Affirmations
Repeating affirmations is reprogramming your mind and taking control of the thoughts you believe each day. Youtube is a great resource to find affirmations you can repeat to yourself while you’re getting ready for your day or driving to work, and you can find videos for each chakra.
Food
There are certain foods associated with each chakra, and you can try to eat them while you’re focusing on healing one chakra at a time. One week you could focus on root chakra foods like root veggies and red food. The next week, you could focus on juicy fruits and orange foods for the sacral chakra. Don’t forget to forget herbs and herbal teas as well! The possibilities are endless.
Rituals
Each chakra is associated with an element, so you could incorporate a ritual for each chakra into each day. For the root chakra you could go barefoot on the earth for a few minutes each day, and for the solar plexus chakra you could light a candle. These rituals don’t have to take long, even one minute will do!
Meditation & Visualization
You could sit down for a few minutes each day to meditate on each chakra. It helps to visualize the color of the chakra you’re focusing on, for example, green or green grass for the heart chakra, or the indigo night sky for the third-eye chakra. Incorporating breathwork into this is also extremely helpful- think about sending your breath into each of the chakras and visualize colors at the same time.
Movement
Doing something active each day can help you connect with the chakras. There are yoga flows for each chakra that you can easily find on YouTube, or you can get creative- maybe you’ll go on a hike for the root chakra, or dance to connect with the creative energy of the sacral chakra. Intention is everything so whatever you do just have the intention to heal one of the chakras, and use your intuition to feel out the best movement for you.
Reiki
Giving yourself Reiki or having a practitioner do it for you is a powerful way to help heal your chakras. If you aren’t attuned to Reiki, you could simply sit down for a few minutes and send your own positive and loving energy to the chakra you want to heal.
There are a million ideas you could try to heal each chakra, so here is just a short list of some things you could try to get started:
- Root Chakra- Visualize roots growing down your legs and connecting to the earth as you stand barefoot with your feet on the earth.
- Sacral Chakra- Dance each morning before you start your day and eat or drink plenty of fresh fruits.
- Solar Plexus Chakra- Light a candle and visualize your inner flame as your repeat affirmations for self-confidence.
- Heart Chakra- Practice gratitude for the people and things in your life, including yourself.
- Throat Chakra- Practice getting vulnerable and asking deep questions to your loved ones, and be prepared to share openly if they ask as well.
- Third Eye Chakra- Mediate, focusing on the area between your eyebrows and repeat affirmations for trusting your intuition and receiving spiritual guidance.
- Crown Chakra- Meditate, focusing on connecting to your higher self and oneness with all.
Conclusion
As always, you are the biggest key to your own healing. The intentions you set as you set out to heal each chakra will be the most important factor in your healing journey.
Chakra healing may seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Just focus on one practice at a time and adapt it to fit your schedule- it doesn’t have to be “perfect” for it to be impactful, and intention is everything.
There are many more ways to heal your chakras than are listed in this blog post. What are some of your favorite ways to connect to each chakra? Let me know in the comments!