This article gives an overview of the 7 Chakras for beginners, and an understanding of the concepts of how these energy centers influence your life. Once you’ve had the Chakras explained, you can begin to work with them on the physical, mental, or emotional levels. As you go deeper into Chakra experience, you will find that there is always more to discover about yourself.
Introduction
The 7 Chakras are seven major energy centers in the body. The word ‘Chakra’ means ‘wheel’ in Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, and relates to how the Chakras look and feel in the body – somewhat like “spinning wheels” of energy.
When the seven Chakras are all equal and balanced, it means that energy is running through them freely and seamlessly. That creates harmony in your body, mind, and spirit. When you hear of a “blocked” Chakra or an “unbalanced” Chakra, it means that life-force energy is getting stuck somewhere in one or more of the Chakras.
If you observe closely, you’ll be able to detect a blocked Chakra in a person by noticing the symptoms. The symptoms could be:
- Physical – relating to the body
- Mental – relating to the mind and thought patterns, or
- Emotional – relating to feelings.
Once a blockage is identified, one can bring them back the balance through some of the tools and techniques explained here.
The concept of Chakras explained
The idea of Chakras was first mentioned in the Vedas, the ancient spiritual texts. These are thought to be written between 1,500 and 1000 BC. Through the practice of yoga, the knowledge of Chakras was carried to today, with quite many adherents to new age spirituality working with the Chakras.
The basic understanding of Chakras is simply that they are spinning wheels of energy that can have profound effects on our life!
The 7 Chakras of our body
The seven chakras run up the spine of the body, in an energy channel known as Sushumna. Each Chakra holds its own unique energy that makes it an individual power center.
You can work on all your Chakras, or target an individual Chakra that you think needs to be strengthened. As you go through the list below, think about which qualities you would like to invite more of into your life.
These 7 Chakras and their location
- Root Chakra (Muladhara)– Located at the base of the tailbone. The qualities of Muladhara are grounding stability and safety.
- Sacral Chakra (Swadhisthana) – Located in the pelvis, just beneath the navel. The qualities of the Sacral Chakra are creativity, sexuality, and balancing the masculine and feminine within you.
- Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura) – Located in the belly, above the navel. The qualities of Manipura are motivation, determination, and power.
- Heart Chakra (Anahata) – Located in the heart center. The qualities of Anahata are unconditional love, openness, and giving and receiving.
- Throat Chakra (Vishudda) – Located in the throat. The throat chakra qualities are expression, speaking your truth, and clear communication.
- Third Eye Chakra (Ajna) – Located between the eyebrows in the center of your forehead. Ajna Chakra’s qualities are intuition, visions, and physic abilities.
- Crown Chakra (Sahasrara) – Located at the crown of your head, in the center. The qualities of Sahasrara are connection, unity, and oneness.
Working with Chakras
There are quite a few ways to work with your Chakras, allowing different people to connect on different levels to their own Chakras.
You can practice yoga poses, use meditation and visualization, work with healing stones and crystals, use scents and oils, chant mantras (sounds) and use mudras (hand gestures). You can also use specific journaling questions, create an altar, move your body and listen to healing Chakra sounds.
You can choose how to connect with your Chakras. You can benefit by combining a few of these techniques and create a personal Chakra ceremony for yourself around the Chakra you are working with.
You can do this alone or you can invite your friends to join you as you create space for a healing journey to unfold.
Some ideas and inspiration for Chakra Ceremonies
- For the Root Chakra, a ceremony might include connecting with the earth in some way, thereby grounding into nature.
- For the Sacral Chakra, you might like to dance and move and go with the flow as you immerse yourself in a body of water.
- For the Solar Plexus, bring fire into your ceremony! Do a burning ritual by a bonfire or light a large number of candles around your home.
- For the Heart Chakra, you can drink cacao, a heart-opening tonic, and practice giving and receiving unconditional love.
- For the Throat Chakra, you can sing or chant and allow the expression of your voice to travel far and wide.
- For the Third Eye Chakra, work with visualizations and creating a set vision of your future.
- For the Crown Chakra, you can meditate upon the image of a lotus and imagine it opening up and receiving all that it needs from the universe.
As you can see, there are a number of creative ways to work with the Chakras. If you do try one of the suggested ceremony ideas above, take time afterwards to reflect on the insights that surface and how you felt during the activities. That will give you an indication of the Chakra, whether it’s balanced or not.
Top Chakra-related problems and solutions
Chakra problems really depend on the specific Chakra they are related to. Let’s take a look at some of the common problems people experience with each Chakra.
Problems for each Chakra
- Root Chakra – Ungrounded, a feeling of instability and lack of structure in your surroundings. Physically it may be connected to your lower back pain or discomfort in your legs and feet.
- Sacral Chakra – Lack of creativity, lack of sexual energy, and rigidity. Physically, it could show up as problems with the sexual organs or reproductive issues.
- Solar Plexus – Lack of drive and motivation, procrastination, and excessive anger. Physically this can be seen as digestive issues.
- Heart Chakra – No empathy, cold and closed off the heart (lack of love), and inability to give or receive from others. In the body, this can manifest as cardiovascular diseases or heart problems.
- Throat Chakra – Low confidence in speaking, inability to discern truth from lies, and struggling to express yourself. Physically this can show up in losing your voice, excessive coughing, throat clearing, and a sore throat.
- Third Eye Chakra: Inability to see clearly, no connection to intuition or inner wisdom, and lack of foresight. Physically this can affect vision and memory.
- Crown Chakra: Feeling disconnected from your life and disassociated from your body. This can also present itself as depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
If you see any of these problems in your own life, know that it is okay, for they can be healed. To restore a Chakra to its balanced state, you can the ceremony ideas above or read more deeply into specific practices that you can use to stimulate that Chakra.
Summary
Working with Chakras is a journey that grows with experience. The more you read about them and apply your understanding of Chakra to your own self, you’ll get a deeper understanding of how Chakras work. To facilitate your journey we’ve created an online course on Understanding Chakras, which will help you delve deep into the subject and get valuable insights too.
