What Are Chakras?
And how they affect your physical and mental health
A chakra is the energy center in the body. There are seven major chakras, each corresponding to a different organ or glands and an aspect of life. The root chakra, for example, corresponds with our foundation and security needs while the sacral chakra corresponds to our creativity and sexuality. Any imbalance within these centers can lead to a wide range of health problems as well as mental and emotional issues.
These centers, which begin at the base of the spine and end at the crown of the head, govern different aspects of your physical and emotional health. Chakras can be under-active, over-active, or well-balanced.
Chakras help maintain a balance between body and mind by connecting areas such as spirituality, sexuality, creativity, willpower, and intelligence with those governing physical functions like digestion or breathing. They also connect with personality traits such as self-esteem or empathy for others.
The goal of balancing your chakras is to create harmony within yourself so you can be happy from your inner being outwardly — even if things seem chaotic on the outside!
Over-Active and Under-Active Chakras
An over-active chakra is when it’s spinning out of control. The result of this is often too much energy in one area, which can lead to mental or emotional imbalances. An example would be someone who has a fiery temper and tends to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. At the same time, they may suffer from depression because they feel so alienated by their uncontrolled anger.
Under-active chakras are just what it sounds like — when an energy center isn’t spinning quickly enough, you experience problems in that area of your life. For instance, if you have trouble making decisions it could indicate an under-active third eye chakra (the part of our consciousness associated with insight).
As you may have guessed, a balanced chakra is one that isn’t spinning too quickly or slowly. When the energy centers are in balance you feel comfortable with yourself and clear about your goals in life. You can use visualization to affect chakras because they all connect to a color that relates to a vibrational property. For instance, blue crystals help stimulate the throat chakra while pink stones strengthen the heart center.
The Seven Chakras and What They Do
The seven chakra centers include:
- Root chakra
- Sacral chakra
- Solar plexus chakra
- Heart chakra
- Throat chakra
- Third eye chakra
- Crown chakra
One: The Root Chakra
The root chakra, represented by the color red, is located at the base of the spine.
The root chakra is associated with our foundation and security needs. This includes our sense of safety, stability, and belonging in this world. When we feel insecure or unsafe we can become tense and irritable.
This chakra also relates to issues such as self-esteem, fear (including the fear of death), money beliefs, addictions, sexual identity, and family relationships. It governs physical functions like circulation and reproduction.
Imbalances within the root chakra can cause problems such as lethargy, low libido, menstrual difficulties, arthritis, constipation, back pain, and stiffness, along with feelings of insecurity and having no sense of control over one’s own life.
One of the most common imbalances within this chakra is fear, especially a fear of speaking in public or feeling judged by others. When energy is blocked here, it’s often due to feelings of insecurity or being overwhelmed with fear. This can also manifest itself as an intense need for control or addiction issues. You may even feel neglected, abused, abandoned, or suffer from low self-esteem. These things not only affect us physically but keep our root chakra out of balance and prevent us from thriving in every area of life!
If you’re open to them there are many effective traditional methods along with modern therapeutic tools that can help restore balance in your root chakra including meditation, (especially Kundalini), yoga, aromatherapy, Reiki healing, past life regression therapy, chakra cleanses, and color.
One of the simplest ways to balance your root is with the use of essential oils or incense that correspond with this chakra. Some key essential oils include rosewood (for self-esteem), sandalwood (for grounding), and frankincense (to boost spirituality).
2: The Sacral Chakra
The sacral chakra is located below the belly button at the naval and is represented by the color orange.
The sacral chakra governs our creativity and sexuality as well as issues such as relationships, infertility, sexual identity, intimacy issues, pleasure vs guilt issues, trust in yourself and others, and personal empowerment. This is also the chakra of imagination and creativity which affects our attitudes, moods, thoughts and behavior, as well as the way we process information.
Imbalances here can lead to feeling insecure or unworthy of love and affection, being overly needy in relationships due to a fear of being alone, trouble communicating your needs effectively, obesity or eating disorders, or frequent urinary tract infections because you aren’t able to let go of stress easily. In addition, this chakra governs your ability to feel joy as well as express yourself freely and creatively through dance movement, art, song, etc.
When this chakra is imbalanced it’s often related to feelings such as low self-esteem/worthlessness/lack of purpose which leads to feeling disconnected from the world around you, resentment toward others, or even hatred of the world. This can also be due to feelings of being stuck in life and never accomplishing your dreams or desires along with emotional issues such as power struggles within relationships.
Imbalances here are often accompanied by behaviors that inhibit creativity including perfectionism, an inability to accept compliments, low self-confidence, repression of sexual expression, inflexibility/rigidity which leads to frustration because nothing ever seems good enough. Other symptoms include pain or numbness in the lower back especially during ovulation, urinary tract infections (in women), kidney problems (in men), sciatica pain caused by compression of the nerve running through this area, and/or trouble digesting certain foods or with addictions.
One of the best ways to help restore this area is simply by expressing yourself creatively in whatever form it takes for you. If you’re not sure where to start, journaling can be a great place to begin. Other helpful tools include meditation, yoga, singing, dancing in your underwear when no one else is home (only if you feel comfortable doing so), and painting or coloring (especially mandala/flower designs). You may also find that exploring past life regression therapy and hypnosis is very helpful as well which often provides insights into your root imbalances along with releasing them on a deeper level. Lastly, massage work such as reflexology, acupressure, and Reiki can also be very beneficial in clearing blockages in the sacral chakra.
3: The Solar Plexus Chakra
The solar plexus chakra is located behind your stomach at your solar plexus and is represented by the color yellow.
This area governs our personal power as well as issues such as addictions or compulsive behavior, self-esteem/self-respect/personal boundaries, digestion especially liver function (which delays toxin buildup in the body), emotional issues with control and codependency, mental processes including decision-making ability, memory recall, trust in yourself and others, emotions in general along with feelings of guilt or remorse when necessary to show you that you’re out of alignment with your true self or that you’ve done something harmful to yourself or others, and nostalgia for the past that may be holding you back from moving forward in life.
It also influences our physical health by affecting the digestive system, pancreas, liver, gallbladder, stomach lining, and abdominal region in general.
When this chakra is imbalanced it’s often accompanied by feelings such as betrayal or abandonment which can manifest through compulsive eating or lack of appetite along with emotional issues such as low self-esteem/self-respect due to feeling unworthy of love/admiration/support from others. Other symptoms involve being overly domineering over others in order to feel powerful when really you just need to empower yourself, an inability to move forward in life, digestive problems including bloating, ulcers, cramps, nausea along with issues with the liver and gallbladder, especially during menopause.
One of the best ways to clear blockages in this area is by removing toxic people from your life (whether they’re friends or family members) who don’t value you for who you are or make you feel like you can be yourself around them. If someone is constantly taking advantage of you emotionally, financially, etc. then it’s probably time to end that type of relationship once and for all. Similarly, if someone is causing more stress than good feelings sometimes distance is necessary even when it’s difficult. It may also mean allowing yourself complete relaxation on a regular basis.
You may also find that journaling, acupuncture, massage work such as polarity balancing or acupressure can be very helpful in balancing your solar plexus chakra.
4: The Heart Chakra
The heart chakra is located at your chest and is represented by the color green just like the physical heart organ itself except on an energetic level instead of a physical one. This area governs our ability to love unconditionally which is necessary for the highest spiritual growth possible. It’s the center of our soul while also being the key to enlightenment which means by opening your heart chakra you are allowing yourself to be fully connected with all of spiritual life in this universe/multiverse.
On an energetic level, blockages in this area may mean that you’re resistant to forgiveness and refuse to let go of past issues for whatever reason including resentment towards others — or maybe even yourself — which can turn into self-hatred due to feeling unworthy or unforgiven. It can be difficult to recover from trauma especially if you refuse to allow yourself to move past it and keep reliving the same experiences over and over again. You may also find that your health is suffering as a result of not being able to express love towards others or yourself because deep down inside you’re sending out self-loathing signals that affect everything, including your physical well-being.
In order to remove blockages, meditation is usually very effective as well as using essential oils such as rose, jasmine, neroli, and lavender. You can also do a chakra meditation focusing on visualizing the area spinning in both clockwise and counterclockwise motions.
Five: The Communication Chakra
The throat chakra is located in your neck just below where it meets your shoulders and is represented by the color blue. When you’re unable to express yourself or put your thoughts and feelings into words it’s often a sign that this chakra is blocked in some way and may manifest itself through stomach ulcers, colds/flu, throat problems such as laryngitis, hoarseness, etc. You can’t expect others to understand what you want them to if you aren’t able to communicate these desires effectively.
On an energy level, blockages can prevent you from expressing your creative urges as well as self-expression through art or other means. You might feel as though no one is listening to what you have to say even when really they’re just not getting it, which may lead to frustration and anger. It’s important to remember that everyone has different experiences in life so just because something makes perfect sense to you doesn’t mean that others will automatically understand — especially if they haven’t gone through similar situations themselves.
If your throat chakra is blocked then there are several ways to unblock this area including singing, chanting, talking with friends or loved ones about your feelings, or simply practicing deep breathing exercises for half an hour every day until the blockage dissolves.
Six: The Third Eye Chakra
The third eye or brow chakra is located right between your eyes somewhere along the center of your forehead, which means it’s associated with sight even if you’re not physically looking at something.
This area governs our imagination, intuition, psychic abilities (including dream interpretation), and insight into the past/present/future, so when blockages occur, it becomes difficult to be receptive to this information, especially when there are other people involved.
While some might say you have an overactive imagination this could also mean that you don’t take enough time to relax and go within for answers, resulting in feeling disconnected or lost.
On an energetic level, blockages in this area mean that you’re unable to use your imagination, can’t visualize future events because of fear of the unknown, and/or are overwhelmed with anxiety about the past, which prevents you from enjoying the present moment.
You may also find that events in your life don’t unfold the way you feel they should (e.g., “it felt like something was off”), which means you’re not able to trust yourself long enough to let fate take its course.
Opening up through meditation is usually very beneficial when it comes to clearing blockages in this chakra, as well as using essential oils such as frankincense, pine, and sandalwood.
Seven: The Crown Chakra
The crown chakra is located on the top of your head and as its name suggests, it’s associated with higher consciousness. In other words, this area governs our beliefs about ourselves as well as what we believe to be possible for us, which could be anything from attracting certain people into our lives to being financially successful.
On a physical level, symptoms include migraines or the sensation that someone is standing over you even when they’re not there which can leave you feeling exhausted because it drains your energy. This sense of exhaustion may also lead to high blood pressure and hormonal imbalances. When blockages occur in this area, not only do you feel disconnected from your spiritual self but you might also start giving up hope because you feel like no one is listening to what you have to say, which can result in feelings of depression and/or low self-worth.
Opening up the crown chakra through meditation is almost always enough to restore this area back to normal, but there are also several techniques that can be used such as sending love and light into your body using visualization or simply taking time out for yourself on a daily basis (e.g., treating yourself to something special just for you).
Conclusion
The seven major chakras all have their unique qualities, but when these areas are blocked or not in alignment with your higher self, then you can begin to experience physical, emotional, and spiritual difficulties.
While some of these problems may seem fairly obvious, others are not so easy to detect because they’re either buried deep within your subconscious or you’ve become so used to living with them on a daily basis that you don’t even notice the impact anymore.
Once you identify the source of your chakra blockage then there are several ways that you can work through it including using crystals, essential oils, aromatherapy, yoga and deep-breathing exercises, and other methods.
The power of the chakra system can be used to bring balance and harmony into your life. Understanding how you are feeling physically, emotionally, or spiritually is an important first step in figuring out which chakras may need attention.
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Janet Mary Cobb (she/her) takes big life lessons out of everyday experiences in a way that’s easily digestible and easy to read.