Unblocking Your Chakras
What Are The Seven Chakras and How Can You Unblock Them?
Chakras have only recently become more well-known, with the growth in popularity of yoga and New Age philosophies. However, the concept of chakras comes to us from the yogic literature of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions from thousands of years ago, having first been mentioned in the Vedas, the ancient sacred texts of spiritual knowledge dating from 1500 to 1000 BC.
Chakras are a complex and ancient energy system found in everyone, and these centers receive, transform and distribute the universal life force throughout your body. Chakra (cakra in Sanskrit) means “wheel” and refers to energy points that should stay open and aligned, as each corresponds to a bundle of nerves, major organs, and areas of our energetic body that affect our well-being.
You can imagine your chakras like wheels of free-flowing positive energy. Some say there are 114 different chakras; however there are seven main chakras that run along your spine, each playing a role in the flow of energy throughout your body. Each chakra is responsive to a different color, musical note, mantra, sensory experience, essential oil, crystal or mineral, spiritual lesson, and astrological sign. Those located at the sites of the major endocrine glands, correspond to particular states of consciousness, personality types and endocrine secretions.
What Is The Difference Between Open & Closed?
When all of our chakras are open, energy can run through them freely, and harmony exists between the physical body, mind, and spirit.
A healthy chakra can be identified by its clear and vibrant color, and the speed and smoothness of its movement, indicating your life is flowing smoothly. An unhealthy chakra is usually seen as having murky coloration and erratic or sluggish movement, or its vibration is weak, and the imbalance can show up as a physical symptom affecting a particular area of your body, or as an emotional or psychological symptom affecting your outlook.
The health and vibrancy of each chakra is influenced by both the energies that surround you and the energies projected from your own belief system (your thoughts and feelings.) This combined energy is then recorded and stored in your body and consciousness affecting how you feel and experience life. The more aware and informed you are about the state your chakras are in, the happier and healthier you will be.
How Do Chakras Work?
Each chakra rotates in a spiral vibration, originating outside our auric field and then flows into various points along the spine, which are connected to the nervous system. Every one of our chakras vibrate at a different frequency; the first chakra vibrates at the slowest densest vibration in the aura, moving up through the seventh, which vibrates at a faster, more refined frequency.
Each chakra has a specific tone, color and filter, which allow a person to organize and digest information energetically and use it in our physical world. The first three chakras are oriented towards the physical experience which is a more dense energy frequency, so they naturally move slower than the middle and upper chakras. The heart chakra acts as the bridge between the physical chakras and the etheric spiritual experience which are centered in chakras five, six, and seven.
What Are The Colors Of The Chakras?
The chakras teach us that our bodies are made up as rays of light. Each chakra has a color that resonates with a specific frequency on the color spectrum. As this light is refracted it moves through our chakra wheels, the corresponding color appears due to the varying degrees of this wave-like energy.
For example, the crown chakra reflects white/violet because it has the shortest wavelength, and white is the highest color on the color spectrum. Respectively, the root chakra reflects the color red, which has the longest wavelength, as red is the lowest color on the color spectrum.
The colors that come through our chakra system affect us deeply, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. This spectrum of light throughout each chakra affects every living cell within our body. Because of this we can use color frequencies to rejuvenate our chakras and help us move toward wholeness.
The particular color of each chakra corresponds to the classic color spectrum:
7. Crown - Violet (white/gold)
6. Third eye (Brow) - Indigo
5. Throat - Blue
4. Heart - Green
3. Solar plexus - Yellow
2. Sacral - Orange
1. Root - Red
How Can I Unblock My Chakras?
Start by answering the following questions in your journal:
Which of the seven colors is the easiest for you to imagine?
Which is your favorite color?
How does that color make you feel?
What color is your least favorite?
When surrounded by that color how does it make you feel?
As you explore these questions, allow your third eye (your sixth chakra) to activate and open. See if you can recall specific memories associated with your favorite and least favorite color. Write these memories down in your journal.
Now, trusting your intuition, what does your attraction to specific colors and resistance to others tell you about your chakras? You may wonder if your interpretations are accurate, but remember to trust your first response and the awareness it brings to you, and you will energetically feel whether or not your insights are valid. No one knows your chakra system better than you, even if you are new to conscious awareness of your chakras.
Another great way to promote balance in a particular chakra is to create alignment in your physical body through:
yoga postures
breathing practices to encourage the flow of energy
meditation to bring about clarity of mind
Each chakra has yoga poses that may help fine-tune its energy. Here are some poses that may help unblock each of your seven chakras:
7. Crown - Savasana, or Corpse Pose in order to connect you to your higher self, reminding you where you came from and where you’ll go.
6. Third eye (Brow) - Poses such as Forward Fold or Folded Eagle are great for manifesting a dream into a physical reality, so we can invite a new reality into your life by dreaming up different possibilities.
5. Throat - Communication center: Plow and Fish Poses open up the back and front sides of your neck.
4. Heart - Heart openers such as Camel Pose or Wheel, to open us up to deeper connections with others, and integrate our lower chakras with our higher chakras. Or Cow Face Pose and Humble Warrior, which help open your chest, shoulders, and arms so you can more fully embrace others.
3. Solar plexus - Inner Fire: Boat or Triangle Pose for firing up your abs and strengthening your core.
2. Sacral - Reproduction, creativity and sensuality: Bridge Pose to strengthen your pelvic floor, or hip openers like Pigeon Pose or Lizard Pose.
1. Root - Your base and foundation: Tree Pose or balancing poses, like Mountain or Warrior, to establish a relationship with your body’s foundation.
If you are still not sure where to start, or just want to know more about your chakras and how they may affect you, consider working with a professional energy healer, such as a reiki practitioner, or a certified yoga instructor. Consider attending a Reiki Circle, as Reiki meditation helps you to declutter any physical, physical, emotional, or spiritual blocks, and will get the energy flowing. When the energies flow freely, it helps your body to create harmony within and it releases imbalances created by negative influences.
Fortunately, there are many things you can do to rebalance and stimulate the vibrational flow of your chakras. You can do the work with each chakra to bring your life back into harmonious and healthy flow. The result is that you will start to feel more confident, energized, and peaceful—at every moment and in any situation.