What are these things called Chakras? And how do they actually affect us in our day to day lives? In the spiritual world the word Chakra is commonly used, but most people are unaware of what they actually are, and their role in our lives.
The word Chakra means 'spinning wheel of light', and its origins can be traced to the Sanskrit, and ancient Indian language. Chakras are powerful energy centres, that overlie major nerve plexuses and organs in the body. They have their own unique colours, frequencies and functions. Chakras regulate the functioning of our entire being - the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual parts of ourselves. They receive energy from the outside world through our aura (the subtle energy field surrounding our bodies), and transform it into energy that can be used for our varying systems. There are seven main chakras that are most commonly referred to and worked with, running vertically through the centre of the body from the base of the spine to the crown of our heads.
It is now proven that energetics play a big role in our lives. The universe and everything in it is composed of energy, and so is the human body, it is literally all around and within us. Our body's are in a state of constant energy flow, from our cells, organs and systems. Our Chakras are precious energy centres, which harness, distribute and utilise life force energy, also called Prana. When properly aligned and balanced, this Prana provides and sustains all aspects of existence for mind, body, and spirit.
From the strains and stresses of life, it is not uncommon for one or more of these chakras to become unbalanced, having either too much energy flow or not enough, or as I prefer to say, excessive or deficient. It is so important to find out and shift what the root cause of why the chakra is out of balance in the first place. This can range from many situations such as an illness, injury, fear of abandonment, a relationship breakup, an addiction, a sexual assault or a trauma. An unbalanced chakra can cause various issues that I will discuss below.
Root Chakra
Located between the base of the spine and the genitals, and is red in colour. It manages the body's basic survival needs, such as food and water, shelter, and instincts such as 'fight or flight'. It is related to the earth element and responsible for grounding you.
When the root chakra is deficient, we experience blocked abundance, commonly have significant family dysfunction, feel ungrounded and lacking vitality, often feel incapable of day to day activities, suffer arousal issues, weight imbalance and fatigue.
When there is excessive energy present, we may experience addictive behaviours, feel insecure and lacking confidence, excessive concern about material wealth and status, have body image issues, never feel safe and have gastrointestinal issues with no obvious cause.
When balanced, we look after ourselves physically, are grounded in the present moment, have a healthy immune system and solid family relationships.
Sacral Chakra
Located in the lower abdomen, below and behind the belly button. It is orange and represents the water element. It is the source of our emotional and creative energy, passions, desires and pleasure. It is supportive in developing our personality and sense of self, along with our ability to form healthy relationships with others. Our sexuality, sensuality, desire and intimacy are all regulated at the sacral chakra.
When the sacral chakra is deficient we commonly experience inability to form physical and emotional intimacy, suffer low sex drive, lack of creativity and passion, often isolate ourselves, depression, reproductive issues, slow digestion, bladder and kidney issues, hormonal imbalance and chronic back pain.
When excessive we are prone to addictions; in particular sex, food, alcohol and drugs, mood swings, are overly social, avoid being alone, inability to focus on one thing and finish what we started, anxiety, loyalty issues, hormonal issues, inflammatory issues of the kidneys, bladder and reproductive organs.
When balanced, we feel emotionally balanced and stable. We have a strong sense of who we are, and are creative, friendly and imaginative. We are able to form healthy and loving intimate relationships. We are fuelled by our passions, and experience balanced functioning of our reproductive organs. Nurturing ourselves and others comes easily to us.
Solar Plexus Chakra
Located over the stomach just below the ribcage, the solar plexus chakra is yellow and represents fire element. This chakra is one of our main power centres, and distributes energy to the other chakras. Our confidence, empowerment, identity, ambition and determination are all from the sacral chakra.
When deficient, we may feel inadequate and insecure about who we are, have weak boundaries and are easily influenced, be our biggest critic and engage in low self worth, have envy and spite of others, a fear of conflict, suffer sluggish digestion and fatigue, prone to drug addiction.
When the solar plexus is excessive we tend to be close minded, domineering, abusive, insensitive. We may be successful but it will never feel like enough, quick tempered, we violate the boundaries of others, push ourselves too hard, social and economic status is highly important, we frequently engage in conflict, may feel tired but hyperactive at the same time, can be prone to inflammatory digestive issues and behaviours such as alcoholism and gambling.
When balanced we experience strong sense of self, healthy boundaries, have energy and drive to achieve and pursue our passions, have healthy digestive systems and manage our stress well.
Heart Chakra
This chakra is situated in the centre of the chest, just above the heart, is green and represents the air element. It determines our relationships with ourselves and others, enables us to give and receive love, forgiveness and compassion.
When deficient we may feel grief, sadness, oversensitive, heavy hearted, afraid to trust, resistant to having loving relationships, trouble expressing kindness, emotionally closed off. We may have issues with heart illness, cancers, fatigue, common contraction of viruses and respiratory illness.
Excessive heart chakra may cause us to violate our emotional boundaries, feel acute emotional pain when hearing of harm to animals and the planet, feel a desperate need to be loved, our emotions are easily triggered, too trusting of others and don't trust ourselves. We may be prone to heart attack, strokes and asthma.
When balanced we are able to love, nurture and forgive ourselves and others, have healthy emotional boundaries, we feel secure in ourselves and maintain healthy cardiovascular health.
Throat Chakra
Located at the centre of the throat, the throat chakra is blue and represents the ether element. Our ability to express ourselves, communicate, listen, be honest, have self awareness and authenticity are governed here. It also governs our connection to higher guidance and the spirit world.
When deficient we can experience blockages in speaking our truth, being our authentic selves, lack of boundaries, creativity and articulating when asked to speak. We don't accept compliments and are prone to lying. We may suffer tonsillitis, and throat, nasal and bronchial issues.
Excessive throat chakra can cause us to be domineering, demanding of our needs, unable to listen to others, need to be the centre of attention, have tension in the neck and have regular inflammatory throat issues.
A balanced chakra results in honest and expressive articulation of our wants, needs and desires, strong creativity, able to listen to others. During spiritual connection we are able to receive and listen to intuition.
Third Eye Chakra
The third Eye Chakra represents the light element, is purple and located in the middle of the forehead. Visualisation, dreaming, logical and abstract thinking are all regulated here. It is a strong centre for our psychic abilities.
A deficient third eye may cause us to feel blocked with our intuition, have a fear based inner dialogue, have difficulty remembering dreams, experience learning difficulties, have a very limited perspective and outlook on life and may develop eye and ear issues.
Excessive third eye can result in projection of our problems on others, be suspicious of others, being absorbed in our personal dramas, have a lack of clarity. Our intuition may actually be excessive, causing burnout. We may have frequent headaches and eye strain.
When balanced, our memory and attention span is focused and detailed, we have an ease with learning and grasping new ideas and information, we are able to visualise with our minds eye, we have free flowing imagination and remember most of our dreams. We have strong intuition and are open to our psychic abilities.
The Crown Chakra
The Crown Chakra is situated on the crown of the head and is violet, white or gold. It is our divine connection to higher consciousness. It supports our connection to life, spirit and the universe.
A deficient crown may influence low self trust, being easily led by others, issues with codependency, blocked spiritual growth, resistance to believing in a higher power. We may experience hair growth or loss issues and headaches.
When excessive our crown chakra may cause us to feel ungrounded, insufficient accountability, believe our own morals and beliefs are superior, we may feel dizziness and vertigo and be prone to mental illness.
A balanced crown chakra allows us to see things from a higher consciousness, we have belief in the world and people, we have connection to past life memory, we have belief in a higher power, we have healthy energetic boundaries and high morals.
Reiki is one of the most powerful tools for returning chakras to balance. A Reiki practitioner who has chakra knowledge will be able to feel the energy output of a chakra, to determine whether it is excessive or deficient or balanced. They will then use Reiki life force energy to supply the chakra with the energy it requires to function in a healthy manner.
Usually the energy output from the chakra (whether deficient or excessive), is backed up by the symptoms the client is facing in their lives as listed above. For example, I often find clients who have been through a significant relationship breakup have a very deficient heart chakra, which requires a significant amount of healing energy to allow free flow through again.
It is important to note it takes a variety of daily changes, techniques and treatments to keep chakras in balance, there is no 'quick fix' even though some practitioners may promote their ability to do so. While a Reiki treatment may unblock your chakras during a session, I often see clients coming back after several months with a blockage in the same chakra, if they haven't addressed the underlying issues causing the blockage. This is one of the areas where my Coaching business works so beautifully along side my Reiki treatments, to help guide and shine light on the root cause, if needed. I then work towards a plan for long term chakra health.
Keep an eye out for my blog on ways to balance your chakras.
Much Love,
Sophia x
Very interesting, never thought about having excess in the chakras always assumed issues were only around deficiencies.