Chakra Journey

Chakras are both mysterious and yet simple - some see them as an esoteric code to be unraveled while others work with them as a map of our body's energy. They are our key to physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Planet's Chakras
 
Every living thing has this Life Force running through it; so it is not just us that have Chakras. Some people believe that Glastonbury is the Heart Chakra of the world, while Mount Shasta in California is the Root Chakra and Giza in Egypt is the world's Third Eye.

Although there are hundreds of Chakras within the body, we usually focus on the main seven that run from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, connecting us with heaven and earth - connecting us with our roots and ancestors and our spirituality.

Chakra is a Sanskrit word for spinning wheel of energy.

Although coming from Indian traditions, there are many global cultural links to Chakras including Judaism, Sufism and Native American Shamanism.

Often described as lotus flowers - the sacred flower of India - each chakra is depicted as a lotus flower with a certain number of petals, so for example the root chakra has four petals while the crown chakra is the thousand-petaled lotus.

How the chakras connect to us
 
Each Chakra is connected to a certain area of the body, physical ailments, a developmental stage or our lives and a series of emotions. When people work with their Chakras, they often talk about working through the lower Chakras up to the highest Chakra in order to become enlightened.

However, it is important to remember that there is no hierarchy among the Chakras. If we are too focused on the higher Chakras and reaching enlightenment, we may become ungrounded and have our heads in the clouds.

Working with the Chakras is a way of connecting to the Divine within. We can meet God - find the Divine within - through all the chakras as each gives us a unique understanding of our innate divinity. However, the first three chakras mainly deal with our lives in the physical world, our health and security. The higher chakras focus on universal consciousness. Our heart is where the physical and spiritual unite.

The Eighth Chakra - our aura

In Kundalini Yoga, we refer to the aura as the eighth chakra - the combined vibrations of the seven chakras unite to create a field of energy around the body - it can show our strengths and weaknesses. It's size, colour and strength changes moment-to-moment with our moods and energy fluctuations. It is our radiance or divine shine.

At different times of the day or in our lives, we might resonate with a particular chakra - it's energy and physical attributes. Alternatively, if we have issues surrounding security and money for example, it is likely that we will have an energy block in the root chakra and this is an area we can turn our attention to. We can melt energy blocks with awareness.

Using color to work with chakras

Working with a particular chakra - or all eight - can be as simple as bringing awareness to an area of the body, or to the colour associated with it, for example red for the root chakra. There are many ways to work with the chakras - yoga, breath, meditation, sounds, chanting. We can even bring our attention to the colours of the clothes and jewels we wear, or how we paint our walls as colour vibrations around us work on our subtle energy.

Where are you vibrating from?

Here's a quick-guide to the Chakras:

Chakra           Color         Element         Meaning  
Root               Red           Earth             Connection with Earth and ancestors
Sacral            Orange      Water            Health and sexuality
Solar Plexus   Yellow        Fire               Personal Will/Inner Power
Heart             Green        Air                 Love/Compassion
Throat           Blue           Ether             The Power of our Word
Third Eye       Purple        Light              Intuition/Psychic Abilities
Crown           White         Spirit             Spiritual Connection
Aura              Rainbow                         Protective Shield and Radiance

A simple chakra meditation

Sit quietly, close your eyes, go inside and bring your awareness to the base of the spine. As you let your awareness sink down, imagine a vibrant red colour filling this area of your body. Sink into the depth of the colour - the richest red.

Then let your awareness rise up to the belly, just below the navel, let the colour red melt a little into a deep orange colour - the orange of a monk's robes. When you are ready, bring your awareness to the solar plexus and imagine a golden yellow like the rays of the sun glowing at the very centre of your being.

Again take this sun energy and let it flow up to the heart, see the gold transform to a vivid green like Indian jade. When you are ready to leave the healing area of the heart, let your awareness move up to the throat and feel a blue like the deep sky above you, sink into this infinite blue, shyam, like the colour of Krishna.

Bring your awareness to the third-eye, the point between your brows, feel the blue warm its way into violet, an amethyst at your third-eye. Become aware of the very crown of the head and let all these colours diffuse into the purest clear crystal, glinting and shining in the sun's rays.

As this crystal sends rainbows around you, let your awareness sink back down into the body, feel your body as it sits and bring your attention to the skin and beyond you can move a little and play with the energy. Where does your energy end? Does it finish at your skin, or does it go beyond? Feel your energy vibrate beyond your skin, out into the world around you.

What colours permeate your aura? Which colours are you resonating with? Feel the colours of your own soul. When you are ready, come back to the body with long deep breathing and open the eyes.