What is a Chakra?
There is so much content out there about chakra meanings that will tell you the colors that are associated with them, chakra meanings around body parts, even chakra meanings around psychological themes. Everyone knows that chakras are a thing, but even with all of this content, I feel like they are under appreciated. I want to go deeper and showcase their real, day to day, value. I want to bring the chakras to life for you. If you can recognize the moment you feel a chakra off in your body, then you can do something to address it. That is where the magic happens. You are a powerful energetic being and can control your energy, and ultimately your entire reality.
There is such richness to each chakra that as you go deep on this journey you will uncover. But for the purposes of this article, I have chosen one or two examples to demonstrate their energy.
Root Chakra
You are having a chaotic moment. You feel overwhelmed. You feel like your feet aren’t even on the ground. You are a spinning top, just trying to dodge whatever is going to be thrown at you next. It may be a moment, but many people live their entire lives this way (I did for most of my life). In these moments, you are experiencing an underactive root chakra. You are not rooted. You are not steady. The best thing you can do is to connect with the Earth. I spent many moments sitting on my kitchen floor, as a coping technique during overwhelming moments. I didn’t know it then, but connecting the base of my body (base of spine, legs, and feet) to the floor was helping me to experience an activated root chakra, which made me feel more calm and stable. You can also go outside and get your feet on the ground. If you are Reiki attuned, you can send energy directly to your root chakra. Afterwards, you will find your steadiness and more easily address life’s challenges.
Learn more about the Root Chakra
Sacral Chakra
You want to experience something in life, but you are feeling guilty about it. You feel you don’t have enough time in life to make space for this thing that brings you joy. Maybe you feel guilty about enjoying yourself due to social pressures of some kind. Guilt kills pleasure. Guilt tends to bind up our Sacral Chakra. If you are experiencing guilt, your Sacral Chakra is not activated. You can bring Sacral Chakra activation by allowing pleasure. If you simply choose to do the pleasurable thing, in that moment, your Sacral Chakra will be activated. As human beings, part of our purpose is to experience pleasure. The Sacral Chakra has many layers to it and is also associated with our sensuality, sexuality, and emotional experience. Many people struggle with the delicate balance of the Sacral Chakra, and tend to bounce between being underactive and overactive. But being aware of these concepts from an energetic perspective can allow you to make the pivots you need to maintain balanced energy in this chakra. Reiki helps the sacral chakra maintain balance over time. Shadow Work is especially helpful in bringing balance to the Sacral Chakra as it uncovers the root of difficult emotions so that we can fully process them, rather than repressing them or endlessly reexperiencing them.
Learn more about the Sacral Chakra
Solar Plexus Chakra
The Solar Plexus is about our personal power. The activation of the Solar Plexus is visually seen through our posture. When feeling powerless you may hunch over with your shoulders dropped forward, making your frame appear smaller and weaker. This is an underactive Solar Plexus. Here you would benefit from doing activities that may make you feel more powerful. Perhaps taking on a leadership role of some capacity, weight lifting, running, etc. On the contrary, when you are feeling confident, you will have a straight back and your shoulders will be pulled back. This demonstrates Solar Plexus activation. The simple act of making space for your Solar Plexus to flow by straightening your back, and sitting up tall, can improve the flow of your Solar Plexus.
Learn more about the Solar Plexus Chakra
Heart Chakra
An underactive heart chakra is characterized by that feeling of pain in your heart from heart break and grief. You may have an overly active heart chakra where you endlessly pour love into others, but don’t fill your own cup. The answer to any heart chakra imbalance is to find self-love. The ability to have compassion for yourself for what you are going through, and to also love yourself enough to make choices that make self-love a priority, will bring your heart chakra into balance. Reciprocity is an important theme that mirrors the balance of the heart chakra. There must be give and take. You must nurture and be nurtured. Love others, and feel loved by them. I think of the balance of our breath, the in and the out. In addition to conscious choices around the heart chakra, Reiki and breathing exercises help to move the energy around the heart chakra, making space for more balance.
Learn more about the Heart Chakra
Throat Chakra
Sometimes we choke on our words. We experience a restriction of the muscles in our throat and feel it is hard to speak. This is an underactive throat chakra. In these moments, energy healing to the throat can help us to more effectively express ourselves. The throat chakra is also associated with truth. It is about being true to ourselves, and living a life where we are truthful. So if you experience pain in your throat, upper shoulders, jaw, or ears (all associated with the throat chakra), you may want to consider how you may be lying to yourself, or hiding the truth of who you are by fitting into a societal mold. Reiki helps shift the energy so that we can do the uncovering work needed to find balance and relief in the throat chakra. It is also helpful to do neck massage and jaw movements to release blocked energy.
Learn more about the Throat Chakra
Third Eye Chakra
Busy thoughts represent an overactive third eye. Imagine these thoughts as energy. This excess energy brings too much activation to the third eye. In addition, many of us live with our consciousness in our minds instead of our entire body, which from a chakra perspective brings an excess of energy to the region that can cause headaches and sleep disturbances. Shifting the energy down through our bodies into our other chakras through energy healing, embodiment work, visualization, or meditation can bring balance and relief.
Learn more about the Third Eye Chakra
Crown Chakra
The crown chakra is really about trusting that we are a part of something bigger. This is expressed through our energy being in a space of either trust or resistance. When we lose something, we either resist the loss by experiencing pain, or we trust that it no longer served our highest good. When life is shifting, we embrace the flow, or we fight it. The physical experience of an imbalanced crown chakra can manifest through migraines as well as chronic exhaustion. Resistance takes a lot of energy, so we may feel very depleted. If you are noticing that you are in a space of depletion and resistance (which is almost always associated with imbalances in other chakras as well), making the conscious choice to trust and surrender, paired with energy healing at the crown can be very helpful. Both meditation and embodiment work can be useful to bring balance throughout our energy systems.
Learn more about the Crown Chakra
To experience the flavor of each chakra, check out the meditation Journey through the Chakras (see below).
You can book a Reiki session with me to bring your chakras into balance and know more about your unique chakra flow from a physical and psychological perspective.
For a deeper dive, you can book an Akashic Record Reading with me to understand exactly how your chakra blocks may have been carried over (from this life or a past life), so you understand what energies need to be shifted so that you can balance your personal karma to overcome these blocks. You can also book Energy Coaching with me to help keep your chakras in balance over time. In this service, I use a variety of methods to support you on your path, which may include energy work and shadow work.