What is Chakra Balancing?

What is Chakra Balancing?

The Sanskrit word Chakra literally translates to wheel or disk. In yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda, this term refers to wheels of energy throughout the body. There are seven main chakras, which align the spine, starting from the base of the spine through to the crown of the head. To visualize a chakra in the body, imagine a swirling wheel of energy where matter and consciousness meet. This invisible energy, called Prana, is vital life force, which keeps us vibrant, healthy, and alive.

The Importance of the Main Chakras in the Body

These swirling wheels of energy correspond to massive nerve centers in the body. Each of the seven main chakras contains bundles of nerves and major organs as well as our psychological, emotional, and spiritual states of being. Since everything is moving, it’s essential that our seven main chakras stay open, aligned, and fluid. If there is a blockage, energy cannot flow. Think of something as simple as your bathtub drain. If you allow too much hair to go into the drain, the bathtub will back up with water, stagnate and eventually bacteria and mold will grow. So is too with our bodies and the chakras. A bathtub is simple; it’s physical so the fix is easy.

Keeping a chakra open is a bit more of a challenge, but not so difficult when you have awareness. Since mind, body, soul, and spirit are intimately connected, awareness of an imbalance in one area will help bring the others back into balance. Take for example, a wife, who has recently lost her husband. She develops acute bronchitis, which remains in the chest, and then gets chest pains each time she coughs. The whole heart chakra is affected in this case. If she realizes the connection between the loss and the bronchitis, healing will occur much faster if she honors the grieving process and treats that as well as the physical ailment.

Balancing your chakras improves your health and well-being, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Chakras are wheels of light located all over our body.  We have thousands of them in our body but the seven major ones are located along our spine from its base to the crown of the head. Each chakra is represented by a colour of the rainbow –  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

  • Crown Chakra – Top of Head – Violet
  • Third Eye/Brow Chakra  – Above & between eyebrows  – Indigo
  • Throat Chakra – Base of throat – Blue
  • Heart Chakra – Centre of chest – Green
  • Solar Plexus Chakra – Just above navel – Yellow
  • Sacral Chakra – Just below navel – Orange
  • Root/Base Chakra – Base of spine – Red

Chakras are like the power stations of our body, bringing it to life, and keeping it healthy. Each chakra is associated with different parts of us and they need to spin totally in balance for us to feel good.

The chakras absorb energy that comes from our thoughts, feelings and outside environment and feed this to our body.  Our body is affected by the quality of the energy that passes through the chakras. Our chakras also absorb energy from the environment.

We cannot avoid coming into contact with negative energy or feeling down sometimes, but there is a lot that we can do to change our feelings from negative to positive and to protect ourselves from harmful energy in the environment.  Keeping our chakras in tip-top condition is the key, in other words keeping them spinning in balance.  Chakra balancing is a bit like spring-cleaning the chakras and fine-tuning them.

Each chakra is associated with different body parts, emotions and life areas, so in balancing each chakra, you will be giving energy and help to any issues or problems you have. There are too many areas to discuss in one article, but very general associations are shown below:

  • Root Chakra – Survival, Security, Energy, Trust, Power to achieve
    Part of body – Skeleton, Legs, Bones, Spine, Large intestine
  • Sacral Chakra – Feelings, Self-awareness, Self-love, Creativity
    Part of body – Kidneys, Bladder, Sexual organs, Reproductive system
  • Solar Plexus Chakra – Personality, Self-respect, Self-confidence
    Part of body – Digestive system, Small intestine, Skin, Nervous system
  • Heart Chakra – Love, Compassion, Sharing, Forgiveness
    Part of body – Heart, Chest, Lungs, Arms, Hands, Circulation
  • Throat Chakra – Creative self-expression, Communication, Inspiration
    Part of body – Throat, Neck, Nose, Mouth, Teeth
  • Third Eye Chakra – Intuition, Understanding, Insight, Realisation
    Part of body – Eyes, Ears, Base of skull, Nervous system
  • Crown Chakra – knowing, wholeness, perfection, enlightenment, unity
    Part of body – Upper skull, Skin

The Chakras of Matter

The first three chakras, starting at the base of the spine are chakras of matter. They are more physical in nature.

First Chakra: The Muladhara is the chakra of stability, security, and our basic needs. It encompasses the first three vertebrae, the bladder, and the colon. When this chakra is open, we feel safe and fearless.

Second Chakra: The Svadhisthana chakra is our creativity and sexual center. It is located above the pubic bone, below the navel, and is responsible for our creative expression.

Third Chakra: The Manipura chakra means lustrous gem and it’s the area from the navel to the breastbone. The third chakra is our source of personal power.

The Fourth Chakra: The Connection Between Matter and Spirit

Located at the heart center, the fourth chakra, anahata is at the middle of the seven and unites the lower chakras of matter and the upper chakras of spirit. The fourth is also spiritual but serves as a bridge between our body, mind, emotions, and spirit. The heart chakra is our source of love and connection.

When we work through our physical chakras, or the first three, we can open the spiritual chakras more fully.

The Chakras of Spirit

Fifth Chakra: The Vishuddha chakra is the fifth chakra, located in the area of the throat. This is our source of verbal expression and the ability to speak our highest truth. The fifth chakra includes the neck, thyroid, and parathyroid glands, jaw, mouth, and tongue.

Sixth Chakra: The Ajna chakra is located in between the eyebrows. It is also referred to as the “third eye” chakra. Ajna is our center of intuition. We all have a sense of intuition but we may not listen to it or heed its warnings. Focus on opening the sixth chakra will help you hone this ability.

Seventh Chakra: The Sahasrara chakra or the “thousand petal lotus” chakra is located at the crown of the head. This is the chakra of enlightenment and spiritual connection to our higher selves, others, and ultimately, to the divine. It is located at the crown of the head.

Clue to Aligning the Chakras

Awareness to which of your chakras are out of balance is key to aligning them. Our bodies are in constant flux between balance and imbalance. Unless you have an apparent problem in one area of the body, imbalances can be difficult to detect. That being said, it’s good to bring awareness to your body/mind and start to learn its signals and clues.

For example, frequent constipation can indicate a blockage in the first chakra. A recurring sore throat leaves clues to a blocked fifth chakra. Frequent headaches around the area of the forehead may mean your sixth chakra is blocked.

Chakra balancing offers very positive results – improving your health and making you feel good about yourself.

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Manipura Chakra / Solar Plexus / Third Chakra / Naval Chakra

manipura chakraAlso known as the Solar-plexus or 3rd chakra, the Manipura chakra is located just above the naval and below the rib cage. It is our energy center and it radiates vital life energy (prana) through-out our entire body. The term Solar Plexus chakra or the Manipura chakra includes both the front and the back of the Solar Plexus chakra. The above mentioned chakra is situated at the hollow area between the ribs. And the back Solar Plexus chakra is located at the back of the front solar plexus.The Solar Plexus chakra/ Manipura chakra consists of 10 petals and contains red, yellow, green and blue pranas. A small amount of orange and yellow pranas is also present. It is where our Will Power comes from;  our ability to achieve, self-esteem, raw emotions, and self-discipline are all governed by the Manipura. It is where we can have a mental understanding of our emotional self. The Manipura chakra also controls metabolism and digestion.

The Manipura not only governs the emotional and mental aspect of your psyche but also your psychic experiences. Often a feeling of intuition or “gut feeling” in a certain situation will benefit you greatly if you listen to it. All aspects of the digestive tract, including the assimilation of nutrients, are controlled by the 3rd Chakra.

The Third Chakra, often referred to as the Navel Chakra or Manipura Chakra  and it has ten petals which match the vrittis of spiritual ignorance, thirst, jealousy, treachery, shame, fear, disgust, delusion, foolishness and sadness.

Manipura is associated with dynamism, energy, and will-power (Itcha shakti.) It is associated with the power of fire, and digestion. Manipura is said to radiate and distribute prana to the rest of the body. In this sense, it is roughly similar to the Chinese idea of the dantian in qigong.

It is associated with the following:

  • Deities: Vahni, Rudra, Lakini
  • Element: Fire
  • Color: Yellow
  • Bija Mantra: Ram
  • Body Parts: Pancreas, Stomach, Liver, Small Intestine, Digestion, Blood Sugar, Eyes, Feet
  • Planet: Sun & Mars

When this Chakra is in balance

You will be in complete control over your emotions and thoughts.You will know without a doubt, and accept your place in the Universe, have self-love and, in turn, have a great appreciation for all the people in your life and the uniqueness that they bring to world. When in tune, your Solar-plexus will radiate warmth and joy through-out your entire being, and to others who come into contact with you.

Over-active Solar plexus Chakra
If your chakra is over-active you may be judgemental or critical – and you will easily find fault in others. You may be demanding and have extreme emotional problems, being very rigid or stubborn (it’s either your way or no way). Often anger, or aggressiveness result from an over-active chakra. You may always be planning to do things, but never doing, and your work or interests become a priority over things you have to do (a workaholic). You may also be a perfectionist and can’t settle on something that is already good enough, it always has to be better.

Under-active Solar plexus Chakra

If this chakra is under active it can cause severe emotional problems. You may have a lot of doubt and mistrust towards the people in your life, and worry too much about what other people might think about you. You may also run on “auto pilot” avoiding your feelings of depression or anxiety; you may feel afraid or alone when you start to look at what you have been avoiding. You also may feel that you are not good enough and be seeking a constant approval of others, this can lead to a need or dependency on the people in your life.

Physical Symptoms of a Solar-plexus imbalance: When energy is not flowing freely from this chakra we have problems with self-esteem and confidence, our sense of adequacy, issues around responsibility and feeling “caught in the middle” and deprived of the sweet things in life. It is the power center of the body. Will power, being perfectionistic and self critical is a problem with a third chakra imbalance. You may feel weighed down emotionally and physically (weight problems). You may have diseases associated with the stomach (eating disorders), upper bowel (Crohn’s disease, diverticulosis, malabsorption/ maldigestion), kidneys, gall bladder, liver (all three organs can have stones), addictions, pancreas (diabetes) and adrenal glands. Excessive yang can lead to aggressiveness or greed. Balance of this chakra will give self-motivation. In  general it leads to Poor digestion, weight problems, ulcers, diabetes, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, arthritis, pancreas, liver or kidney problems, anorexia, bulimia, hepatitis, intestinal tumors, colon disease.

Balance

This chakra is fed by disengaging from responsibility, practicing loving and nurturing yourself- not depending on others to nurture you, doing things you are good at and that is rewarding to you. It is also fed by eating yellow and green vegetables, and daily exercise.

Practice acts of personal courage. Do what makes you happy, not what makes everyone else happy. When we fail to do so, we waste too much personal energy blaming others for not being able to do what we would rather be doing. Do it, be yourself! When you do so, others will recognize your individuality, and they will know what your limits are. They will respect you more because they will know what to expect of you. As long as you are allowing others to also be themselves, do not allow yourself to be swayed by accusation of “selfishness”.

Crystals and Gems

Crystals and/or gem elixirs which may help to balance the third chakra: Amber, Apatite, Aquamarine, Aragonite, Calcite (Yellow), Carnelian, Chrysoberyl, Citrine, Copper, Desert Rose, Diamonds (all chakras), Danburite (all chakras), Eilat Stone, Emerald, Gold, Golden Beryl, Goldstone, Hawk’s Eye (Falcon’s Eye), Hematite, Labradorite, Lepidolite, Malachite, Quartz-Clear (all chakras), Quartz (Smoky and Rutilated), Topaz, Yellow Onyx, Pearl (Gold), Peridot (Olivine), Pyrite (Fools Gold), Rhodochrosite, Sulphur, Tiger’s Eye (Yellow), Topaz (Golden), Variscite, Zircon (all chakras).

Planet

The Sun and Mars are co-rulers of the Third chakra; and very appropriately, it corresponds to the “solar” plexus. This is a chakra of personal “power” and indicates your ability to be “sovereign”. Think of the symbolic energies of the Sun and Mars. The Sun radiates its essence: it either blinds us (a negative expression of self-dominance), or it enables us to enjoy its presence by honouring our own inner essence (“Wasn’t it a beautiful day”?). Mars becomes the warrior principle that either enjoys shoving others around, or responding to life’s challenges with inner strength. People who lack courage to take a risk usually have a blocked Third Chakra; they are afraid to express themselves because they have not learned how to set limits. “This is who I am – and you can take it or leave it”! How many of us have the courage to let others know where we stand, especially when dealing with our families? We don’t want to be “I-sol-ated”. Where do you shine like the Sun, or do you hide your inner radiance?

 


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