chakras

The Sanskrit word "chakra" means a wheel or disk. According to Ayurveda, the chakra system holds your body’s energy and actions to keep it balanced. Seven chakras run alongside the spine, starting from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. These wheels also extend through and past the front, back, and both sides of your body.

The chakras are a spinning vortex of energy that are invisible to the naked eye but can be felt and sensed with intuition. "Prana" is the invisible healing energy and a vital life force that keeps us healthy, vibrant, and alive. It influences our actions, behavior, health, career opportunities, relationships, and more.

The Chakras hold your feelings, thoughts, memories, experiences, and actions. They play a vital role in determining your past and future, emotional health, actions, and also influence your mindset and behavior. Our actions depend on how we process, transmute and release the life force in each chakra.

"Chakra healing" is the practice of connecting with our internal energy that helps us in understanding how our past influences the future and present. It explains how our inner reality influences the outer reality. Keeping a chakra open is not easy. Since our mind, body, soul, and spirit are intimately connected, creating a balance in one area through chakra meditation will help bring the others into balance.

The chakras or the wheels of energy are the massive energy centers in the body. These seven main chakras contain several nerves and organs, and they control your psychological, emotional, and spiritual states. The chakras should always stay open, properly aligned, and active. If they are blocked, the energy flow will be restricted.

For example, a wife who has recently lost her husband develops acute bronchitis, which affects the lungs. She gets chest pain every time she coughs. The whole heart chakra is affected in this case. If she understands the connection between the pain of her husband's loss and acute bronchitis, healing will happen much faster.

Chakras are the centers of our consciousness that can be experienced through meditation, visualization, yoga, Reiki, crystal healing, sound healing, acupuncture, and several other ways. Sometimes, you can feel the swirling energy in your mind's eye or the vortex with your hands when you hover the hands over your body. You can also feel mental and emotional shifts that correlate with the chakras. Chakra journaling helps you to connect with the thoughts and emotions stored in each vortex.

When you start to sense the chakras, their flow may seem underactive or overactive. A healthy chakra system will include chakras that are bright in color, balanced in size, and flowing at a healthy speed.

It is a fact that each chakra holds emotions, beliefs, and memories related to specific areas of our life. The lower chakras are related to matters such as survival, sex, and power. The top chakras are connected to higher consciousness, truth, intuition, and purpose, while the heart chakra bridges the two worlds with empathy, love, and compassion.

• First Chakra: Known as the Muladhara, this chakra is related to your stability, security, and basic needs. It encompasses the first three vertebrae, the bladder, and the colon. You feel safe and fearless when this chakra is open.
• Second Chakra: Known as the Svadhisthana, this chakra is your creativity and sexual center. Located above the pubic bone, just below the navel, it is responsible for your creative expression.
• Third Chakra: Known as the Manipura chakra, which means lustrous gem. It’s the area from the navel to the breastbone. This chakra is your source of personal power.
• The Fourth Chakra: Known as the Anahata, this chakra is the connection between the matter and spirit. Located at the center of the heart, it is in the middle of the seven chakras. It connects the lower chakras of matter and the upper chakras of spirit. It serves as the bridge between your body, mind, emotions, and spirit. The heart chakra is your source of love and connection. The spiritual chakra opens fully when you work through your physical chakras.

• Fifth Chakra: Known as the Vishuddha, this chakra is located in the throat. This chakra is your source of verbal expression and the ability to speak the truth. It includes the neck, thyroid, and parathyroid glands, jaw, mouth, and tongue.
• Sixth Chakra: Known as the Ajna, this chakra is located in between the eyebrows. Also called as the third eye chakra, Ajna is your center of intuition. Focusing on opening the sixth chakra will help you hone your intuition.
• Seventh Chakra: Known as the Sahasrara, which means the “thousand petal lotus.” This chakra is located at the crown of the head. It is the chakra of enlightenment and spiritual connection to your higher selves that is the divine.

Your body is in constant flux between balance and imbalance. Being aware of the chakras that are out of balance is key to aligning them. Only when you experience an apparent problem in one area of the body, you can detect the imbalances in the chakras. Your body and mind should be completely aware of the signals and clues that help in aligning your chakras.

For instance, frequent constipation is an indication of blockage in the first chakra. A recurring sore throat indicates a blockage in the fifth chakra. Frequent headaches indicate that your sixth chakra is blocked.

The healing process for chakras should start with the root chakra and explore the ideas related to safety, nourishment, belonging, finances, and family. Then, you may move up the spine to the sacral chakra and so forth. To keep the upper chakras in proper health, the lower chakras must be in good health. It is wise to open the third eye or crown chakra when you sense grounding, stability, or safety issue.