Chakras are what advanced practioneers of meditation focus upon during their regular mindfulness exercises. They are not acknowledged in Western science. Empirical evidence on the chakra’s existence is limited although Western science has actually tried to link anatomical locations of the chakras to the physical body and believe that the mind influences the body in a lot of ways, like when we get butterflies in our stomach when we are feeling nervous. This is thought of as an unbalance in our solar plexus chakra which is located in our abdomen and western psychologists have also found links of how different parts of the brain send signals to other parts of the psychical body.
There are thought to be around 40 chakras. There are going to be 7 major ones to be written about in these series of articles from the root located at the base of the spine, or the tailbone, up to the crown chakra located at the very top of our skull. All 7 of these chakras have their own function and when they are balanced and working in unison, they all contribute to a perfect state of mind, body and spirit. The 7 are as follows – root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown.
Chakras can either be unblocked, balanced or overactive and it is easy to identify if each chakra is unbalanced. First of all, when you meditate on the root chakra you should empty your thoughts and slowly focus on the energy centre of the bottom of the tailbone, this exercise is not suitable for beginners as they should get used to transcendental mindfulness where they can consistently empty their thoughts for a sufficient period of time, just 5 minutes is enough. When the root chakra is focused upon, check for any signs of discomfort. Energy centres are thought of as like microbiological structures with an elliptical shape swirling around like neutrons in an atom; in a trance like state when you are in the deepest state of meditation without any distractions around you visualise a swirling golden light reaching up from the ground beneath you penetrating your tailbone, balancing your root chakra. Once you do this you then start to focus on the social aspects of what defines a healthy root chakra which is: financial security, grounding and happiness derived from the fundamental domains of basic survival. Financial insecurity and the anxiety that comes with that produces an unbalanced chakra, so what you can do about that?
The reasons for financial insecurity will happen to many people and for many different reasons. Sometimes it can be unprecedented for whatever situation one may find themselves in, you may be begging the question, how could meditation possibly pay your mortgage? Well, obviously it’s not that simple, collectively the balancing of the other chakras can help to improve your sense of belonging in a world that is full of suffering and malevolence and unfairness. The other chakras provide you with self-improvement tools like mantras that can feasibly change the re-programming of your highest self-confidence and belief to be the best person you can be. The heart chakra for example can you give a higher sense of compassion for other people, even strangers or distant relations and generally a wholesome love towards others; the throat chakra can give you more power to articulate your thoughts and with that can give better relationships and power to negotiate, demanding and receiving more respect giving others a higher sense of value upon you, so actually, when all these are in unison you have a better chance of being more successful in life and therefore making more money – it’s all linked.
If you are greedy, aggressively materialistic, and find an exploitation in power or are cynical you may have an overactive root chakra. People who suffer from gambling addiction also need to focus on their root chakra to balance it, meditation and yoga aren’t the only tools to empower this as other Eastern methods like acupuncture can have an impact.
Just like a building, making sure that your chakras have a firm foundation with a balanced root chakra is crucial to having a healthy open chakra system overall. If you feel controlling, quick to anger, undriven, and self-conscious your root chakra might need balancing. When your root chakra is balanced you have energy and self-confidence rather than arrogance or fear, feel calm, centred and ready for what life brings.
The best methods for balancing the root chakra are to get out to the great outdoors and partaking in invigorating exercise regularly, taking care of your feet is also very good as they are what helps ‘ground you’.
What is Grounding?
It is important to note that all matter in the universe can be traced back to the origins of time, we that contain all its matter are product of the big bang. When galaxies formed, planets followed and then life, then came us, intelligent life forms that have discovered advances in science that have caused controversial hearsay. When you observe the tiniest microbiological structures that exist in the universe, we see they are prevalent throughout all of matter. For example, humans share around about 33% of their DNA with mushrooms. Another interesting thought is that atoms are literally rushing through our physical body and rushing through the core of the earth as we speak at almost the speed of light; if you could see it, you’d be amazed. We are all spiritually connected to the universe because we are the universe, our bones, body tissue, blood cells, skin cells are all just a sophisticated formation of tiny atoms. Think about the difference in appearance between coal and diamonds, they both merely consist of the exact same element – carbon, however they look so different because the carbon atoms in diamonds are more bonded than that of coal. If you yourself or anybody you know who you may believe is going through an existential crisis then consider a technique called ‘grounding’, meditating on the root chakra is essentially all about grounding. It’s all about feeling the energy of the earth beneath your feet and feeling the energy that runs through you. When you activate your 7 chakras through from your root all the way up to the crown you can kind of visualise your body as a battery. The charge enlightens your soul. The root is the minus, the crown is the plus. Once you feel the charge of energy, you’ll feel part of a circuit board that is the universe, if you can’t feel it, you’re not on the right path to enlightenment yet. This is the first course of action you should probably consider.
Next month we’ll learn about the sacral chakra which is located just beneath the navel. It resembles creativity and sensual energy.
