“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
~Les Brown
It’s a squally day here today, with the last front that came off the east coast pushing huge swells, winds and rain showers our way. It’s perfect weather to talk about the 1st Chakra, or Root Chakra, symbolized by the color red. When life’s circumstances cause this chakra to come out of balance, we too, will find ourselves fearful, in stormy weather.
If you think about the American Medical Association, you might recall that the symbol for medicine is a staph with spirals running up it, sometimes symbolized with an eagle on top. This symbol actually is representative of the yoga system of kundalini energy coursing up the body, from the sacrum to the crown of the head. This symbol carries an important message to energy healing, acupuncture, chakra balancing and chiropractic. The two snakes are representations of the spinal tracts known as the ida (Yin) and the pingala (Yang). These two snakes are coiled around what is referred to as the sushumna, or main spinal tract or cord.
Where the two snakes cross each other (7 times) as they entwine and coiling up the body, the crosses represent the location of a chakra.
For a visual overview of the chakra system, click here:
http://www.natural-health-zone.com/chakra-colors.html
To give a quick overview, the journey through our 7 chakras is essentially an expedition through the rainbow. Each of our seven chakras has a corresponding color that follows the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (or white). ROYGBIV.
To a person who sees auras, the depth of color of a chakra indicates our current physical, emotional, and spiritual state. When the chakras are balanced, energy flows into and out of each of these 7 centers harmoniously.
Our job as a yogi is to balance the flow of energy around each chakra, to release the kundalini energy, where at the crown, self-realization, or our ability to be one with God occurs. Anyone who meditates will find themselves drawn to what is known as the “third eye”. As we close our eyes and relax, focusing our attention to the point between our eyebrows, we will see the color indigo. This is said to be the gateway to the soul.
As each color is vibratory energy, so the colors of the chakras relate to sound. The tones create a resonance (“frequency following response”) of the chakras – each responding to a certain note. It is important to keep our chakras healthy, balanced and flowing, and we do this by using tools such as singing bowls, which have special properties of healing and regeneration. The vibrations caused by the different frequencies directly affect the cells of the body. The sound notes as they correlate going up the chakra rainbow are C, D, E, F, G, A & B.
As an example, when my shoulder was out, the area in the body most closely related to shoulder is the heart chakra and throat chakra. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I had been doing much work in the 1st – 3rd chakras through Debbie Ford’s book “The 21 Day Consciousness Cleanse”. And I undoubtedly was now experiencing problems in the next two energy centers – 4th & 5th or heart & throat – releasing what I had come to understand about myself and offering forgiveness. My teacher placed the quartz bowl, tuned to G and the heart chakra, right on top of my chest, and resonated the tone. I was able to release and finally begin the path to healing the following week. This experience sparked a great interest in holistic healing, reikki and chakra balancing.
So getting back to our first Chakra, or Root Chakra, this relates to our self-confidence and courage. When it is out of balance, we can feel fearful. This chakra is our connection to traditional family beliefs that support the formation of identity and a sense of belonging in a group. Depending on our upbringing, this chakra can be the source that grounds us. If we had a turbulent upbringing, with unstable parents, maybe divorce, we may likely experience some difficulties when working with this energy center.
Or as we continue our path of adulthood, and begin living our own belief systems, if this is in disharmony with our parent (or tribe’s) beliefs, we will find ourselves working in this energetic area. We may experience fear of failure or inadequacy, fear of success, of not being good enough, fear of our own power, fear of being ourselves.
Associated illnesses that can then show up include: constipation, colitis, diarrhea, crohn’s disease, appendicitis, hypertension and nose bleeds, stokes, kidney stones, panic attacks, female problems in that area, sometimes foot problems. I’m guessing that every person diagnosed with the catch all “fribomyalgia” should begin working with healing in the 1st chakra.
Meditating on the color red, along with sound note of C, can help gain strength over our fears. Yogi poses, that work to assist and balance the 1st chakra are: Shalabhasana (or locust pose), Janu Sirsasana (or head to knee pose), Bandhasana (bridge pose, moving into full backbend), and Savasana or Yoga Nidra (total relaxation pose, aiding grounding and trust).
Here’s wishing you a very grounded Friday
