Introducing the 8 chakras, our energy centers, located in our upper body and around us. Each of them serves an important role in our physical and mental wellbeing, impacting our glands, hormones, blood and lymph circulation, nervous system, and vagus nerve.
They also express our mental wellbeing, corresponding to the levels of consciousness we are operating from, and telling about the traumas our mind and body has been through in life.
It is a fascinating and complex system that we can work with through breathing, meditation, and physical practice.
1st chakra
Imagine a root going deep, deep to the earth, connecting you with your ancestor line and the earth's wisdom. This is the 1 chakra. It is located at the base of the spine where the tailbone starts, so we are concretely sitting on it. The energy and the impact of the first chakra is the foundation of our life. Whether we feel safe or not, emotionally and physically. It is about accepting our life and the world around us as it has been and is at the moment. It is about forgiveness towards ourselves and others in our lives. Self-acceptance. Forgiveness can take time, it might be hard but is also needed to be able to forward without carrying the past load in our heart, soul, body, and mind.
For practicing forgiveness you can imagine the situation where you felt treated unfairly, feel how it felt, look at the other person, what happened? Take a deep breath and step into the shoes of this other person, what did s/he mean, what happened from his/her perspective? Take a deep breath and send this person love, so much love that you start to recede from the event and you can return to yourself. Take a deep breath. Feel how you feel. It is ok. Fears and cynicisim love to take over our minds, and we always can turn over to light and love instead of the darkness.
2nd chakra
Flow and creativity have their deep roots in the second chakra located just below our navel, in the middle of your lower belly. This is the home of your sexual energy, the energy of creativity, the energy of life. The first three chakras make up the lower chakra triangle which is the foundation of a balanced, happy life. In the second chakra, we make a choice of having a hard control over our life or trusting the flow which is taking us forward. It is the place of play, passion an,d abundance.
Our relationship with money lives also here. The word currency comes from the work current, meaning flow. So, also the money is meant to flow, not to behold or controlled. Again we may choose how we approach our finances, whether we always have enough vs. we never have enough, and whether we accept ourselves as sexual human beings or is there something blocking us to do. For us women, we might have been told to be the good, virtuous girls when we grew up, and we have shut down our channel of creativity and acceptance of sexuality. One of the most famous yoga teachers in Finland said in a chakra dance yoga class “I will rather be a sexy pitch, than a rigid, virtuous girl”.
3rd chakra
OMG, this chakra is a bomb! The third chakra is located below our chest, between the navel and the breastbone area. Our warrior power, grit, self-esteem, fire, commitment, and willpower live here. We can be very intentional about using our power in life by directing our thoughts to the future. Also, hatred and anger live here and with the other lower chakras. Again we can make a choice, reacting or proacting. Transformation starts here and it blows the energy for the upper chakras, igniting the fire of life within you.
You may imagine all the chakras being like wheels, spinning smoothly at their own pace. Imagine if any of your wheels have stopped, it doesn’t send the energy forward the following wheel and the energy within you slowly weakens, and you feel like losing your power. This what easily happens in our hectic lives. But when we are conscious about the chakra energies and power, we take care of them and your wheels will spin at just the right pace for you.
4th chakra
I hear “Love is all you need” from Beatles in my ears when thinking about the 4th chakra. The heart chakra is located in the center of our chest. Self-love, opening our heart, and emotional exchange in relationships, that’s what makes the fourth chakra spin smoothly. Our hearts might break several times during our lives, and it is so important to grief and accept what is, to be able to go forward when we feel so. Sometimes we get stuck on the grief without seeing the future-forward.
What might help, is to reflect what is the meaning of all this for me, to see others as our teachers and when they are done with their task, they will leave us. I believe we are here to clear our karma, and our soul will return to earth as long as we need to continue the clearing process to find peace in our heart, find our truth, and understand our task in the world. We choose our destinies from the love we have for ourselves, for others, and the Earth.
5th chakra
How often you can really speak your truth? The fifth chakra is located in our throat and it gives us the strength and power to speak from the heart, speak our truth. To say yes and no when you need. Using our voice starts from our stomach, connecting with the chakras below, using our power. The fifth chakra is about expressing who we are, what we need in life, and also our direction in life. Using and loving our voice brings self-confidence.
If someone told you, you can’t sing or there is something wrong with your voice. We tend to shut down, shy away. Forget it, that was not the truth, sing from the bottom of your heart, speak with pride. Your voice is your gift. Our words can intentionally hurt or intentionally love, you choose your way of speaking. Listen to how you speak to yourself, it’s never too late to change the speech from never being enough to always being enough.
6th chakra
Our third eye, the gateway to our soul and consciousness is the 6th chakra located between the brows in the middle of our forehead. Intuition, Inner Wisdom, and Knowing are the words well describing it. When we work with our 6th chakra we activate our pituitary gland in our brain and balance our serotonin production. Stable serotonin flow is important for us, it is the hormone impacting our moods and wants our mental wellbeing.
If you want to explore this magical place in your forehead, you may move your fingers 1-2 centimeters up from the middle of your brows and sense where your third eye locates. When your gut feeling says you have arrived, you may imagine breathing in and out to your third eye. Whenever you need clarity you may close your eyes and direct your gaze to it, inhaling and exhaling deeply and calmly.
7th chakra
Connection to the crown chakra may give us a regal sensation, a feeling of being filled with the universal energy flowing through us from the 7th chakra on the top of our head. As important as it is to connect with the universal energy, is to connect with the Earth. You may visualize your deep and calm inhales and exhales coming from the universe and flowing through your body deeply to the earth and back. It will be a great self-healing, energy cleansing practice.
7th chakra is about connection. There is no “I” in this world, it is the only US. We are part of the earth and the universe. We are connected with every grain of the sand, every insect, every drain drop, and every living organism. It’s a blessing. See and feel the connection in every moment with your every cell.
8th chakra
8th chakra is the magnetic field surrounding us, the aura, protecting us from the unwanted and also showing and sharing our light with others. When our aura is healthy, it shines bright our charismatic light and when we get sick or we lose our belief in ourselves, it fades and can even collapse.
Aura is about the boundaries, our own space, where we get to decide what comes in and what goes out. For me personally setting boundaries is a daily practice. If our aura has holes, it can be easily attacked, like a virus in the IT system, other people might take advantage of your energy. You can easily maintain your aura by becoming aware of it and making it whole again for example moving your hands from side to up above your head with inhaling and back down with exhale and continuing it for a while.
If I was able to wake up your curiosity towards the chakra work come and join my Chakrapath Kundalini Yoga weekly classes starting on Monday 15th of February 12 CET (8 subsequent classes) until 5th of April. You may drop-in or sign in for all the classes. Found out more here
It looks like a chakralicious and loving year 2021
Sending love and light,
Marika
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