Chakra is a Sanskrit word that means “wheel”. You can imagine a chakra as a wheel that allows energy to flow through your body.
In our bodies there are seven main chakras that have their own theme and colour. You can find these main chakras along the spine. From your perineum, all the way up to the crown of your head.
Apart from these seven chakras, we have hundreds of energy points in our body. All these energy points help our energy flow through our system.
To keep yourself in balance, to not fall ill or depressed, it is important that the chakras are working well. This will allow the energy to flow well through our bodies.
Chakras are also called lotus flowers, because when they open and close they look like the petals of a flower.
A balanced chakra is a chakra that’s not too open and not too closed. An open chakra means it is overactive and a closed chakra means it is inactive. Whether the chakra is open or closed, can cause different behaviour and blocks.
Each of them have their own corresponding colour and element.
After accumulating energy from outside of our bodies, chakras channel it to our centre. From our centre, chakras can then channel energy throughout our bodies.
You can think of chakras as a network for receiving, retrieving and transporting life energy. The information that is going through our chakras is determined by our daily behaviour.
Chakras hold onto information from our childhood through the present. All of this influences how our chakras work and how we behave.
Getting to know your chakras.
When one of the chakras is affected, you often see that the chakras above or under it, are affected too. This is caused by a stagnation of energy flowing from the affected chakra. When you want to balance your chakras it’s important to understand the relationship of the chakras that need attention. Here’s a simplified illustration: when you start to get mad quickly (third chakra) and this is unusual for you, you can think back to whether or not you have been connected with your inner strength lately. Maybe you allowed others to influence how you do certain things. This could affect how you feel (second chakra), and how you behave towards yourself (fourth chakra). It is important to give attention to all three of these chakras during balancing. But it’s most important to start with reconnecting with the root chakra first. This is where all balance starts.
Once we learn how to read our chakra system, we can use it as a map to self-healing and self-balancing. This is why I incorporate a lot of chakra work in this platform. When you learn how to read and balance your chakras, you work on getting to know yourself better. By getting to know yourself better, you learn how to take care of yourself.
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The Seven Chakras
Below you will find a short overview of the seven chakras.
- First Chakra, Root Chakra or Muladhara in Sanskrit: you can find this chakra at your perineum. The element and colour that belongs to this chakra are earth and red. In short this chakra stands for a sense of safety. When this chakra is closed, you will feel anxious and restless.
- Second Chakra, Sacral Chakra or Swadhistana in Sanskrit: you can find this chakra in your lower belly and at your sacrum. The element and colour that belong to this chakra are water and orange. In short this chakra stands for our emotions, creativity and sexuality. When this chakra is closed you can feel fear to change or feel drained.
- Third Chakra, Solar Plexus or Manipura in Sanskrit: you can find this chakra between the diaphragm and navel and at the centre of your back. The element and colour that belong to this chakra are fire and yellow. In short this chakra stands for your inner strength. When this chakra is closed you have little energy and it’s hard to accomplish a task.
- Fourth Chakra, Heart Chakra or Anahata in Sanskrit: you can find this chakra at the centre of your chest and in between the shoulder blades. The element and colour that belong to this chakra are air and green. In short this chakra stands for love and compassion towards yourself and others. When this chakra is closed you can be critical and less tolerant towards yourself and others.
- Fifth Chakra, Throat Chakra or Vishuddi in Sanskrit: you can find this chakra in your throat and neck. The element and colour that belong to this chakra are sound and light blue. In short this chakra stands for non-violent and open communication and creative expression. When this chakra is closed you can fear to speak up or have a weak voice.
- Sixth Chakra, Third Eye or Ajna in Sanskrit: you can find this chakra between your eyebrows or at the centre of the back of your head. The element and colour that belong to this chakra are light and indigo blue. In short this chakra stands for visualisation and your intuition. When this chakra is closed you can experience lack of imagination, bad memory and eye-sight.
- Seventh Chakra, Crown Chakra or Sahasrara in Sanskrit: you can find this chakra at the crown of your head. The element and colour that belong to this chakra are knowledge and purple or white. In short this chakra stands for unity and visions. When this chakra is closed you can have difficulty in learning or have fixed beliefs.
When working with your chakras, you can use their corresponding colour or element during your meditation to help balance them.