Chakras
“One person sitting, walking, eating, and breathing as a free person can make an impact on the whole environment around him.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
Chakra Summary
The word “Chakra” comes from the ancient Sanskrit word for “wheel”. Individuals with clairvoyant abilities, who can see chakras, have described them, throughout the ages, as spinning wheels of color and light.
Seven main chakras exist in the body, along with many other minor chakra centers (as many as 88,000!). However, we shall be focusing primarily on the seven main chakras.
Chakras are specialized energy centers throughout our bodies. They absorb subtle life force energy from our environment and then distribute it to every cell in our body.
Each of the seven main chakras are associated with a variety of emotional and spiritual challenges and issues, and they are also directly linked to a different region of the body, as well as to major organs and endocrine glands. This explains why our emotional health strongly affects our physical and mental well-being.
The quality of the flow of energy through our chakras is influenced and demonstrated by how we relate to others, ourselves, and the world around us.
First Chakra
Our first chakra creates the foundation for the growth of our other chakras. It is related to our survival instincts, and connects us to our bodies and the physical plane.
Without a strong, rooted foundation, little else can be accomplished.
Lessons and challenges of this chakra relate to how well we manage our physical world, how we survive socially and professionally and how we let our thought forms and beliefs affect our actions.
Ideal/healthy function of this chakra brings us health, prosperity, security and a dynamic energetic presence. Thus creating a strong foundation from which we can develop.
The energy of this 1st chakra asks us to connect with our bodies, the foundation of our being here on this planet and connect with our family (biological or otherwise), which formed the foundation of our beliefs from which we perceive the world. Many of us have closed ourselves off in order to protect ourselves from inconsistencies, falsities and conflicts in our infrastructure that reveal themselves to us through our interactions with the external world. Maturing through this chakra we re-examine our foundations to make sure they are sturdy enough for the journey ahead. We let go of what is not working for us and cultivate new healthy ground to build upon. In this way, our journey through the 1st chakra is vital to our souls’ growth.
Second Chakra
The second chakra connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation and movement.
Lessons and challenges apply most strongly to sexual relationships, friendships, business or financial partnerships, and any other kind of one-to-one interaction that requires a need to express ourselves.
Ideal/healthy function of this chakra brings us fluidity and grace, depth of feeling, sexual fulfillment and the ability to accept change.
The second chakra develops when we are infants as we begin to discover the world that exists outside of our primary relationships with our mother and father. During this time we also begin to learn to crawl and walk; we become mobile. In other words we begin interacting with the external world beyond getting our basic needs met. This is an exciting time!
At first we don’t have words as a way to communicate with this expanding world so we use our emotions. We express our likes and dislikes, our wants and our needs. We have a world of possibilities available to us and what we choose for ourselves is a creative act in itself.
Third Chakra
Located in the solar plexus, this chakra rules our personal power, will and metabolism. Related to the fire element, this energy center holds the belief patterns we have about ourselves, including our physical appearance, intelligence, abilities and skills. This chakra is the center of our self esteem.
Lessons and challenges of this chakra are found through the process of developing compassion for ourselves and not sacrificing our own personal power by putting others needs and desires before our own.
Ideal/healthy function of this chakra brings us effectiveness, spontaneity, self confidence, non-dominating power and personal conviction.
Those of us who are people pleasers are working with the lessons of the third chakra. Having inner power, honoring yourself, knowing who you are and standing up for yourself are key to having a balanced energy flow within this chakra. It’s about developing a healthy practice of selfishness.
Fourth Chakra
Our heart chakra is a gateway between the 1st, 2nd,& 3rd chakras that deal with the physical world and the 5th,6th & 7th chakras which are of the spiritual realm.
Lessons and challenges of this chakra are to learn compassion, the value of forgiveness and the meaning of conscious love, also referred to as unconditional love.
Ideal/healthy function of this chakra enables us to love deeply, feel compassion, and have a deep sense of peace and centeredness. This truly makes the heart a universal instrument of goodness.
All emotions eventually find their way up through the first three chakras to the heart chakra. It’s like a big generator with all sorts of positive and negative emotions spinning in it. Most of us are working with the lessons of this chakra. Challenges from the heart chakra can vary from having a basic lack of feelings to more subtle actions of emotional manipulation. In order for us to spiritually develop, we first have to truly look into our hearts and address issues we have with whatever negative emotions we may be holding or experiencing about past or present situations or people. This is no small task, a journey many of us never take; this requires personal integrity and honesty.
Fifth Chakra
The Fifth chakra is related to communication, personal will power and faith.
Lessons and challenges of this chakra are to learn how to differentiate between the voice in our hearts and our thoughts; to express our ideas clearly, to trust in faith and have the will power to “stick with it”.
Ideal/healthy function of this chakra enables clear communication of our thoughts, will power, self trust and faith in our feelings and intuition.
Thoughts turn into words, and words turn into action. Positive thoughts return positive energy, negative thoughts return negative energy, so its important to use will power in directing life force consciously into positive thoughts and communication.
The fifth chakra asks us to stretch, expand and most importantly to trust, to take ourselves beyond our comfort zones. Learning to make choices in our life based on faith rather than fear will eventually deepen our faith in ourselves and the universe and will prepare us for deeper spiritual growth. For effective results in whatever we wish to achieve we must have the courage to trust ourselves and communicate our truth.
Sixth Chakra
Located between eyebrows, the sixth chakra relates to insight and intuition, to seeing beyond the visible.
Lessons and challenges of this chakra ask us to reconsider beliefs in which we have invested energy, allowing us to be open to learn other, truer beliefs.
Ideal/healthy function enables us to be familiar with deeper levels of being and consciousness, to understand that reality exists behind our eyes, not in front of them.
Referred to as the third-eye, the sixth chakra teaches us right seeing, or seeing Truth. This Truth is that we are not separate from each other or the Divine. Our higher self knows that we are all expressions of One energy and hold the same powers of manifestation, healing and wisdom. Through the practice of detachment, we come to find Truth within and no longer look for it outside of ourselves. “Detachment does not mean ceasing to care. It means stilling one’s fear driven voices. One who has attained an inner posture of detachment has a sense of self so complete that external influences have no authority within his or her consciousness. Such clarity of mind and self is the essence of wisdom and the sixth chakra.” -Caroline Myss, Anatomy of the Spirit.
Seventh Chakra
Located at the crown of the head, this chakra relates to having a deep awareness to the Source that we have always been connected to, and a realization of our energetic bodies and the spiritual plane.
On our journey to balance and awaken the first six chakras, the seventh naturally unfolds. We need this time to prepare and mature for the powerful vibration of the crown chakra. When we find ourselves truly working through the seventh chakra it is the vibrant light that guides us on our spiritual path. Deepening our yearning for a connection with the Divine it challenges what we think is true, what we value, what we feel. It questions our reality as we know it. This can cause anxiety, confusion and sometime depression. For this reason it is not suggested to work solely on the seventh chakra.
Ideal/healthy function, when developed in this chakra brings us knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection and bliss.
Through meditation, prayer and devotion, our path toward the Divine becomes one of grace rather than discomfort.
