When our chakras are fully opened and balanced, we are in a state of harmony.
Conversely, when the chakras are closed and out of balance, we are in a state of disease.
ROOT CHAKRA
The First, or Root Chakra:
Red in color, and located at the base of the spine. It supplies energy to the spinal column, the adrenals, and the kidneys. This channel feeds the live-giving system - our will to live - and our fundamental instincts for survival. This chakra is the storehouse of chi energy.
The essential life issue is SURVIVAL. The essential characteristics of this chakra are vitality, kundalini energy, or the Life Force. Arenas of healing include circulation, low blood pressure, colds, and shock. If you are troubled in any of these areas, your first chakra may be obstructed or out of balance.
The Root Chakra is all about grounding and growing our energy roots. 'Kundalini', or vital life force energy is stored here. Deep transformation can occur when our root energies are aroused and allowed to rise up within us. Whe the Chi of Kundaline energy is flowing, it empowers the higher chakras, so that spiritual growth and awareness of other levels of energy and perceptions can occur. The First Chakra channels our most basic life force, and drives everything else.
When this chakra is balanced you experience security, prosperity, and vitality. When this chakra is imbalanced, you experience fear, lack, limatations and low immunity.
This chakra is orange in color and associated with the sexual organs and the sacral area of the lower back. Simply stated, this is where joy comes from. It is associated with creativity, reservoirs of life energy and sexual expression.
Healing connections include the muscles, reproductive organs, body detoxification, restoration of emotional balance and sexuality. Physical location of the second chakra is directly between the hip bones. This chakra vitalizes not only the sexual organs of reproduction and our sexual expression but it facilitates our deepest breathing (sometimes called pranha) which in turn vitalizes the entire system of major and minor chakras. Singers know that the deepest breath comes from the belly. Thus, the second chakra is our source of “inspiration” or the breathing in of energy.
When the second chakra is flowing, we experience a high state of self-esteem and well being. When the second chakra is open and balanced, you experience personal effectiveness, power of expression, spontaneity, and glowing self-esteem. You can experience joy.
When this chakra is closed or imbalanced, you experience over sensitivity to the expression of others, feelings of repression and immobilization. You are unhappy and ineffective in the world.
Yellow in color, this chakra vitalizes the sympathetic nervous system, which activates our involuntary muscles and gets the body ready for activity – (adrenaline).
The issue here is power: everything having to do with our ability to get things done and to order our world in a harmonious way. This chakra is characterized by energies of inspiration, intellect and wisdom. It is also that point at which psychic experiences flow into our minds.
The connections for healing include digestion and stomach problems, bowels, headaches, adrenal glands and the pancreas, gall bladder, and the nervous system.This chakra is the channel for so-called gut feelings, fight or flight reactions, and raising emotional levels. The questions that center in this chakra are those of will, intention, and integrity. We ask ourselves, am I in integrity here? What do I feel about this course of action? What is my GUT telling me? Is this a person I can trust or someone I need to avoid? Issues of self-esteem, self-respect and integrity are central to the third chakra.
When the third chakra is closed or out of balance, we lose our ability to feel our gut and we get lost in our heads. Negative feelings associated with imbalance in the third chakra manifest as shame, inadequacy, self-consciousness and fear of others.
When this chakra is open and balanced, we experience effectiveness and spontaneity. When this chakra is closed or out of balance, you experience worry, agitation, and a sense of purposelessness.
HEART CHAKRA
The Fourth Chakra – or Heart Chakra:
Green in color, this chakra vitalizes our lifestream through the pumping of the heart and controls the circulation of the blood. The heart feeds all cells within the body. Energy flowing through the fourth chakra vitalizes the vagus nerve, the largest nerve in the parasympathetic nervous system.
When open, it helps us remove fear blocks and brings compassion in the form of spiritual love. Through our heart chakra we can feel a connection and sense of oneness with others. This is the energy center of love and relationships. It is vitally connected with love, healing, balance and akashic memory: the memory of all we have experienced throughout all eternity.
In terms of healing, this is where we go to deal with heart trouble, lungs, hypertension, blood disorders, and the circulatory system. In spiritual terms, this is the channel for unconditional love, self-acceptance, and higher levels of connection with the Divine. The heart is the mother in all of us. Here we find kindness, forgiveness, love, peace and harmony, along with laughter and playfulness.
When this chakra is open and in balance, you experience compassion, empathy and trust in other people and in the universe.When this chakra is closed or out of balance, you experience self-pity, obsession with self, paranoia, and even insomnia
THROAT CHAKRA
The Fifth Chakra – or Throat Chakra:
Blue in color, this chakra is located at the throat. It vitalizes the lungs and the voice. The energies of this chakra communicate feelings and thoughts felt in the gut or the psychic field, and are thus connected to our highest being. This is the vast field of communication. It is connected with the power of clairaudience, and the ability to hear our inner voice.
The power available here is to cool and relax our interactions with others by simply being real and allowing what is real to flow.
In terms of healing, the fifth chakra affects the throat, fevers, asthma, lungs, thyroid, and autoimmune disorders.This has been called the mother chakra and is closely connected with female energy. You can inflict pain or kindness with the voice. What is more important to know is that the voice represents our Intent. We will decree a thing and it will be so. It is truly said that “thoughts become things” and speaking your thoughts, particularly with the force of intention, has everything to do with creating your reality. Our life experience comes directly from our thoughts, followed by speaking our intentions, and finally, action in alignment with our thoughts and intentions. This is the realm of the throat chakra.
When this chakra is open and balanced, you experience creativity and inspiration. You feel free, independent, and in harmony with the truth.
When this chakra is closed or imbalanced, you experience feelings of self-righteousness and a need for secrecy. You may tend to be vague and evasive with others.
THIRD EYE CHAKRA
The Sixth Chakra- or the Third EyeChakra:
Indigo (blue purple) in color, this chakra is all about knowledge, clear seeing, truth and intuition. The third eye helps you to see all circumstances around you and is the key to wisdom and controlling/ directing the life-force energies. If your body were a ship, the sixth chakra would be the bridge from which you could see all directions and steer your life.
The physical location of this chakra is the center of the brow ridge, above and between your eyes. This chakra is the center and source of intuition. The so-called third eye has long been known as the center point of clairvoyance and spiritual insight.
Health issues associated with this chakra include blood and coagulation problems, obsessions and circular thinking, sinus issues, headaches and strokes. This chakra is most closely associated with the brain and upper head and affects our higher thinking. The sixth chakra vitalizes the cerebellum (or lower brain) and central nervous system which consists of the brain fibers connected at the base of the brain and top of the spinal cords. While meditating and doing mental work, the chakra energies, colors, pictures, and feelings together with an “inner knowing” will come to you through the third eye.
When this chakra is open and balanced, you are open, perceptive, intuitive and capable of deep resonance with others. When this chakra is closed or imbalanced, you may tend to be skeptical, naïve, and rigid in your thinking.
CROWN CHAKRA
The Seventh, or Crown Chakra:
Violet in color, the Crown Chakra vitalizes the cerebrum (or upper brain) and anchors the “etheric stream”, or energy flow from the spiritual world into the physical body. It is the direct connection to our higher self and brings reverence for all life, knowledge of infinity and insights form the spiritual self. It constitutes our energetic connection with God or ALL that IS.
This chakra is physically located at the top of your head. Spiritual connection is the essence of the Crown Chakra; it is the source of Christ consciousness and divine inspiration. It is important to the healing of every physical condition and is generally a channel for the soothing of the disorders of the nerves, stress, mental confusion, neurosis, insomnia and all other body problems.
The Crown or ' Diamond' Chakra connects us with immortality, angels, grace, divine forces, and ultimate self-realization. Through the crown chakra one can literally reach the heavens or other energy realms and can project healing and pure, unconditional love energies anywhere in the universe. This is where the Power of Prayer is focused and projected; the center of all spiritual connection.
When this chakra is open and balanced, one is capable of the deepest understanding, devotion to others, and acts of generosity. This is the point from which one projects love and caring into the universe, friends, family and all people on the planet.
When this chakra is imbalanced, one is haunted by self-destructive thoughts and feelings, frustration, and disappointment in self. One can feel lonely and isolated from the community, friends and family. This is the ultimate space of anger, fear and self-loathing.
What is a chakra? What does it do? Why should we balance our chakras?
The chakras are the interface between our physical material bodies and the spiritual and energetic world of which we are a part. By harmonizing the vibrations and energies of the seven chakras, we are bringing ourselves into alignment with the highest realities of our spiritual selves, which know only complete wholeness and healing.
Chakras are the physical, emotional, and spiritual energy centers of our bodies. Ancient texts dating back 2600 years indicate anatomically accurate correlations to currently known medical knowledge of the five major spinal ganglia and upper and lower brain centers controlling all bodily functions. It is important to understand that we all experience well being or dis-ease based entirely on the clear flow of energy through these seven centers of vitality. When chakras are imbalanced or blocked as a result of negative life experiences, emotional distress, mental confusion, or physical challenges, necessary life-giving energy may be diminished or impeded to the extent that, over time, the body may no longer be able to sustain life. The entire spectrum of life as it may be experienced in a body – from a joyful, peaceful heart and healthy vitality to the pain of emotional despair and even physical illness is directly connected to the state of alignment or imbalance of the chakras. A happier, healthier, more satisfying life can be created by tuning and harmonizing these energy centers essential to all physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual processes.
The human body that we know, is in fact, a “denser” incarnation of a multi dimensional, multi level energy field that connects us to the larger universe. This energy body exists within and without space and time, and is the core of our eternal being. The energy body is a matter of fact, and not merely the doctrine of some strange eastern religion or the pronouncement of bearded metaphysical gurus. Quantum physics, the science of the energy fields that constitute all reality in the infinite universe, accepts the human energy field as provable reality. The universe that we know is created by our consciousness.
The human form has multiple aspects, each section expressing a range of frequencies or vibrations. The body is the vehicle which enables the soul to see, touch and feel in what we call the physical world. The ability to shift awareness from one level to another, is a learned ability. Some older mystics have called these levels “spiritual planes”. In the same way that we can travel between these planes, we can focus on and tune into the chakras.
Our physical bodies are actually nothing more than focal points, resonators, or receivers which reflect higher realities into the material world that we know. We find references to these realities in many ancient texts and religious writings, which repeatedly teach us to use the gift of the physical body and the gift of the energetic body wisely. In the simplest terms, the chakras are points of connection that link together all of our multi layered energy states, and channel our life energy. They are perceived, by those who can actually see them, each as a localized, swirling vortex, with its own characteristic color.
Our highest state of being is often called the Spiritual Mind, or the “Higher Self”. The chakras are channels, or connections to that higher self. When these connections are open, we able to: 1) have intuitive insights which are clear, and bring us new perceptions of truth in our relationship with All That Is, and 2) to channel creativity and inner strength through concrete thinking. When our chakras are opened and balanced we are in a state often called “being centered” or simply “being in our bodies”.