What is a Chakra?
Chakra in English means wheel, disc or vortex. There are many chakras in the body but there are 7 main chakras. These wheels in your body help move your energy, or prana, up and down. These subtle energy centers are depicted in the front of your spine where bundles of nerves, or ganglia are located. They are based around the endocrine systems and hormones that balance your life.
These 7 main chakras guide you in your personal and spiritual growth. Anodea Judith says they are “a center of organization for receiving, assimilation, storing and expressing energy”. Your chakras connect the two polarities of your body and your consciousness. These energy centers can be used as a map to reconnect with your truest, most authentic self and the piece of the divine that is inside you.
The chakras are all interconnected and can get blocked. Childhood traumas, how you were raised, limited belief systems, as well as physical and emotional injuries can cause blockages of your energy in these centers. In order to deal with these conditions and stressors in your life you develop strategies to cope. When the energy isn’t expressed and released out of the body, you shut down.
Muladhara Chakra
Muladhara, or root chakra, is the 1st chakra located at the base of the spine. The other 5 chakras rise up from there and the 7th is located in the ether above the crown of your head. Muladhara means to support or foundation. It provides a foundation for all the chakras above it. In the physical body, it is located in the feet, legs, tailbone, and bowels.
The symbol of the root chakra is the four petaled lotus in a square with a downward pointing triangle. A square sits solidly on the ground creating a strong base. In the physical yoga practice, you create a solid foundation by pressing into the floor with the 4 corners of your feet and/or hands which makes a square. When you stand or lay on the ground, you have the four corners of the body with the two shoulders and two hip bones.
Your Body is a Container
Your body is a container for your prana, or energy. Muladhara’s element is earth. Earth matter is stored energy. You can push down into the earth and generate energy in your body. That energy from the earth can nourish you and the solid foundation gives you stability and security. The root chakra is based on our most basic needs for survival.
The root chakra represents safety, truth, and boundaries. It is connected to birth and the first year of life. This safety and security is based on the relationship you have with your primary caregivers. This chakra symbolizes how you nourish yourself. It reminds you to have boundaries to identify what is healthy and unhealthy for you and to protect your own energy.
Strong, healthy roots of a plant provide nourishment from the soil for the plant to survive and thrive. This structured foundation allows for the plant above the soil to grow taller.
“Just as a plant must have deep roots in order to grow taller, your ability to root down into the ground will allow you to reach higher toward the upper chakras.”
Anodea Judith
Deficiency in Chakra 1
Deficiency in the root chakra is when the chakra contracts so energy can’t move through. Fear causes the body to contract and constrict energy. When you feel threatened, you either contract or build and store energy to cope. It manifests itself in the earth plane as avoiding responsibilities. People with this deficiency can have trouble staying organized because daily details are less important. They are more focused on fantasy and dreams than day-to-day tasks. They are spiritual and live more in their heads than being connected to their bodies.
Excess in Chakra 1
Excess in Muladhara means the chakra expands too much as a coping strategy. Even though the chakra is in expansion the energy is still trapped and cannot move up or down. The energy is in a chaotic state with nowhere to release to. This chaotic trapped energy manifests itself in the earth plane as hoarding food and materials and eating to feel safe.
Balance in Chakra 1
When the root chakra is damaged, people have issues with feeling safe and secure even if there are no real threats. Basic survival issues including health, money, housing, and jobs will be a concern. But when the first chakra is balanced a person is grounded and secure but also thriving and alive.
On the Mat
You can use yoga to expand your body so you can have more spaciousness to hold more energy and feel more alive. In your asana practice, you can drop into your body with movement instead of staying in your thoughts. You can use your breath to connect to the present moment of life. You can press down through the feet and/or hands and feel the body charge up from the earth. The more you push against the floor or mat, the more charge you create. In every pose the earth is the foundation. Gravity pulls you down toward the earth but also is solidly holding you up at the same time.
Try this out in your body the next time you practice. Are you in the present? Are you engaged? What does it feel like to push down through the legs and feet? Do you feel the energy charge up in your body? When you are in savasana, can you surrender and allow the earth to hold you? Can you surrender to gravity?
Much love & health,
Carrie
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Resources for today’s blog:
Harris, G. (2019). The Language of Yin. Lumineery Press.
Jago, E. (2019) Angelus: Experimental Chakra Workbook. Baker & Taylor Publisher Services.
Judith, A. (1996). Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self.
Judith, A. (2020). Chakra Yoga. Seventh Printing.