Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning spinning wheel. These are a system of seven energy centres located along the spine. Each chakra corresponds to an area of the body, a set of behavioural characteristics and stages of spiritual growth. Practicing yoga and focusing your energies during different postures can help you to align your chakras and get all the wheels spinning in the same direction and speed. Understanding how to fine tune and control your chakras through yoga and meditation can help bring balance and peace to your mind, body and spirit.
There are seven chakras, each associated with a different part of the body along the spine from the perineum to the crown of your head. Each chakra is associated with a particular body location, a colour, a central emotional/behavioural issue, as well as many other personal aspects including identity, goals, rights, etc.
The seven chakras are:
- Muladhara- base of the spine
- Svadhisthana- abdomen, genitals, lower back/hip
- Manipura- solar plexus
- Anahata- heart area
- Vishuddha- throat
- Ajna- brow
- Sahasrara- top of head, cerebral cortex.
Through the movements and postures of yoga, you can learn to focus your concentration and energy to and from the various chakras in your body. This can allow you to compensate for areas that may be out of sync with the rest of your body or not active at all. By balancing the energy among all seven of the chakras, balance can be achieved.
This spiritual energy is known as Kundalini energy. In its dormant state, it can be visualized as a coiled up snake resting at the base of your spine, the Muladhara chakra. Since the chakras act as valves or pumps regulating the flow of energy through your system, controlled and purposeful movements such as yoga can be extremely beneficial in realigning your chakras in a way that can cause great benefits to you in your physical and emotional wellbeing.
Chakra Healing
The art of chakra healing has been used for centuries to balance the important chakra energy centres in our body. We can use a number of different tools such as stones or meditation during chakra balancing. The end result can lead to a physically healthier body and a happier, more peaceful you.
The seven primary chakras correspond with vital areas of our bodies and emotional and spiritual aspects of our lives . They form a line from the base of your spine to the top of your head. Each Chakra has a colour, vibrational frequency, and symbol. For example, the first chakra is found at the base of the spine and is known as the root chakra. This chakra governs the spinal column, kidneys, legs, feet, rectum, and immune system. So, when this chakra is out of balance, it may lead to lower back pain, varicose veins, leg cramps, rectal conditions, depression, as well as immune related disorders. A lack of balance in the root chakra may be caused by feelings of low self esteem, insecurity, or family concerns.
As outlined above other chakras include the sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, and crown chakras. Each energy centre must be vibrating at the proper frequency independent of one another in order for the entire body to vibrate in harmony. Therefore, each chakra is equally important to optimal functioning of the body according to the chakra healing tradition.
Many powerful tools can affect the vibration of the chakra, and that’s where chakra balancing comes into play. Chakra stones, the human voice, music, chants, mantras and chakra meditation bring the frequency of the chakras back into proper vibrational alignment. For example, the root chakra is greatly affected by the hematite, onyx, ruby or garnet gemstones. During chakra healing a practitioner may use one or all of these chakra stones to cleanse your root chakra and bring it into harmony.
Chakra meditation may also be used to open up your chakra centers and improve the flow of positive psychic energy in your body. During meditation you simply concentrate on each of the chakras starting with the first one and working your way up to your crown chakra. By imagining the flow of energy from chakra to chakra, you are helping to remove blockages in each energy center that might be causing pain and disease.
Because the chakras govern every organ and system in your body, chakra healing has far reaching health implications. Chakra balancing can lead to improved heart, lung, brain, immune and digestive function and may also help with depression, anxiety, and other emotional imbalances. Many believe that the chakras have the power to transform your life both physically and spiritually. It is only when our chakras are in sync that we can truly access higher levels of consciousness.
If the powerful art of chakra healing sounds intriguing to you, visit an experienced chakra healer. A good healer will ask you plenty of questions about your health in order to pinpoint which of your chakras are the most blocked or unbalanced. From there he or she may employ any number of tools to help lead your energy centers into harmonious vibration.
Using Meditation To Clear Chakra Blockages
There are seven basic Chakras in our bodies. Each has a location, a function, an influence, and color. They are the seven centers of energy in the human body.
The chakras symbolize the different stages we are to go through to attain the ultimate nirvana. We start at the base center and work up. The ultimate is the crown center, which is almost impossible to attain.
In meditation we focus on the base center, bring a bright light up through each chakra to the crown center and back, taking deep breaths through your nose and letting go through our mouth slowly while only focusing on the light and the chakras.
If there is a blockage you will feel it. This is why you need to understand chakra meditation before you start. It’s a wonderful way to cleanse your body of blockages. If one of your chakras is blocked you will feel a strange sensation, or different feelings, just relax and either stop or continue on by focusing on just that chakra to find out what the problem is.
Any blockage can be worked out and healed. This is why people feel out of balance. One or more of their chakras are usually blocked. When you do the meditation you need to be in a peaceful and quiet place.Sit with your feet on the ground and the palms of your hands facing up. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths before you start so you can relax. Then visualize a bright light and begin your chakra meditation.
Chakra Meditation To Recharge The Soul
Chakra meditation helps to strengthen weak chakras and will benefit your health, wisdom and happiness. If you need to recharge your body, mind and soul then using chakra meditation is an excellent way to revitalize you from the inside out.
How to perform a chakra meditation:
The first few times you practice a chakra meditation, make sure that you have an expert to guide you, face to face or using an online video. You need to make sure that your chakras are left more in balance at the end of the meditation than they were when you started!
Start your meditation by sitting down, cross legged in a quiet, dimly lit room. Make sure that your spine is straight, but not stiff. Close your eyes then take a deep breath and start to relax. Now, go through each chakra in turn, starting with the root chakra: -Imagine that you are drawing energy up from the earth, through the root chakra and that this is building up in the base of your spine.
-Then the navel chakra: feel the concentration of energy building up around your navel and visualize a flow of warm lava out of this chakra center.
-Moving on to the solar plexus chakra, let your stomach muscles relax deeply and sense the movement of the energy through your diaphragm.
-Next is the heart chakra. Imagine your heart getting stronger with every breath. See and feel a bright light radiating out from this area.
-Progressing on to the throat chakra, breath in with force. Then gradually relax your tongue, shoulders and neck.
-For the brow chakra, keeping your eyes closed, focus on your “third eye” (the point between your eyebrows). Endeavor to see this area even though your eyes are close and observe what you are seeing.
-Finally, it’s the crown chakra. Visualize a beautiful lotus with a thousand petals blossoming from the tip of your head. As you visualize, see the color change from a deep violet through to a brilliant white light.
Done correctly, the chakra meditation can bring you into union with the Spirit. It is a very powerful form of meditation and helps you to stabilize your body, bringing an inner peace and harmony to you.
