Another season has changed. We find ourselves raking leaves, trimming bushes, storing outdoor furniture, blessing the gardens for all their beauty bestowed upon during the summer season. We change our attitudes to allow ourselves to get ready for the colder weather, spend more time indoors, clean our closets and get rid of the dust bunnies that hid under our beds and behind the furniture. Why not clean out your chakras during this time? Each of us is surrounded by an energy field that feeds and nourishes the cells of our bodies. This subtle energy field, or aura, is multi-dimentional and multi-colored. There are seven main energy centers of this field that anchor in our bodies as spinning vortexes of energy. These are called Chakras.
Chakras have been known on the planet for thousands of years, but few people understand what the chakras are and how they affect their life. Understanding and working with the chakras are key to healing your fears and limitations. You allow yourself to open your life's possibilities and free you to achieve your dreams. The word chakra has its roots in the Sanskrit language coming from the Hindus thousands of years ago. The Hindus thought of the chakra as a wheel of spinning energy, or energy center, where consciousness resides governing various attributes of individual physical and spiritual aspects. The chakras are not physical but part of the subtle anatomy or what you may simply think of as an energetic point of consciousness within the body where the spirit and physical worlds meet.
There are seven major energy centers or chakras, with five aligned vertically along the spine and two residing in the head area. The base, or survial chakra, resides at the base of the spine and connects or grounds you to the earth. The crown chakra, at the top of the head, is partly not within the body but in the spiritual essence serving more as a gateway to everything that is Divinity or God. The other major chakras are the sexual-creativity chakra in the naval area, the emotional chakra in the solar plexus area, the heart chakra in the heart area, the throat chakra in the throat area, and the third-eye chakra in the middle of the forehead. Each of these major chakras uniquely influences various physical and spiritual aspects of your life.
You place perceptions upon your experiences. The perceptions of all your experiences from all your lifetimes are stored in your chakras, which in turn shape your reality of how the world works, how you create, and the boundaries of your existence in the world. Learning what the chakras are, how they affect your life and methods to work with your chakras to transform and clear the effects of your perceptions can have a big impact on your life, enhancing your spiritual growth and your ability to handle the concerns of daily life.
Originally, the chakras were created for the sole purpose of defining experience and allowing expression within the physical dimension. As humanity became concerned with its ability to exist whithin the physical, fear raised its head and means were created in an attempt to insure safety. The consciousness of humanity began to live and process experiences within time: forming perceptions of experiences to be used as a basis for evaluating how one's safety may be affected by present or future experiences. For this process of evaluation of experiences based on perceptions to work, a place was required for storing the perceptions and making them readily available for evaluation. The chakras were adapted to serve as containers for storing the perceptions of your life's experiences.
As you can see by this diagram, the colors are similar, if not identical, to the major colors of the rainbow. Each color has a different vibration, just like the stones and crystals. For example, if a person has a blockage of the blue-colored fifth chakra, blue stones would be most beneficial for working in that area.
The chakras serve the purpose of allowing the spiritual essence, or Divine Mind, to flow through your being while in the physical. Blockages in the chakras can prevent or distort this flow. There are two effects to having blockages within the chakras: one prevents or distorts the flow of Divine energy through your being (more predominant in the upper three chakras); the other is a source of distorted information, through the perceptions stored within the chakras (more predominant in the lower three chakras); limiting the possibilities in your life.
First: Root Chakra - base of spine - red
Relates to survival instincts and our sense of grounding and connecting our bodies to the physical plane. Issues include strength, survival needs, self-preservation, material and monetary concerns, physical health, beauty, stability.
Second: Spleen Chakra - below belly button - orange
Relates to emotions and sexuality. It connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation and movement. Issues include creativity, obsessive/compulsive behavior, indulgence, sensuality, reproductive drive and romantic issues. We store our emotions here.
Third: Solar Plexus Chakra - mid-abdominal below the sternum - yellow
Called the power chakra; rules our personal power, will and autonomy as well as our metabolism. Issues include willpower, confidence, sense of reasoning, sense of identity or self-image, self-trust, trust of intuition, shyness, exaggeration, egotism, clear thinking, temper and decision making. A block in this chakra can cause digestive problems and ulcers.
Fourth: Heart Chakra (gateway to the soul) - located over the heart and thymus gland - green
Relates to love and is the integrator of opposites: mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity. Issues are growth and balance, peace of mind, compassion, self-control, sharing and adaptability. All life energy is processed through the breath of this chakra. A block causes the immune system to be suppressed, heart problems, high blood pressure.
Fifth: Throat Chakra - in the neck at the Adam's apple - sky blue
Controls the person's ability to express himself fully and creatively. Issues include taking responsibility for personal needs and integrity, bridging the mind and emotions, speech, self-expression and communications, as well as how we perceive others.
Sixth: Third Eye Chakra - located in forehead between eyebrows - indigo
Relates to the act of seeing both physically and intuitively; psychic powers rest here. Issues are intuition, perception, devotion, inspiration and the door within.
Seventh: Crown Chakra - top of the head - purple
Relates to consciousness as pure awareness. It is our connection with the greater world beyond; associated with highest level of spiritual perfection.
When any of the Chakras are blocked or damaged, the result is the root cause of mental, emotional and physical disease. Take time each day to allow your soul to heal and be refreshed. Love yourself and feel the chi flow through your meridians, breathing perfect love throughout your being. Embrace the goodness and feel the release of all unwanted energies leaving out the tips of your fingers and toes. Thank the universe for all its blessings. Take responsibility to be the best you deserve to be. Breathe in, breathe out. Namaste. xo
