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.
Chakra #1: Muladhara
Muladhara, or root chakra, is the 1st chakra located at the base of the spine. 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 root chakra is based on our most basic needs for survival. It represents safety, truth, and boundaries.
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.
Chakra #2: Svadhisthana
Svadhisthana, or sacral chakra, is the 2nd chakra located just 3 cm above the 1st chakra, between the coccyx and the sacrum, and 2 inches below the navel. This chakra rules your emotions, sexuality, desires, pleasures, and sensations.
The first chakra, Muladhara is the container to hold the water element in chakra 2. You move from Muladhara with stability and foundation into chakra 2 where you flow and let go. You begin to feel that fluidity which creates movement that stimulates your energy, or prana.
The second chakra reminds us that it is okay to feel. That it is okay to feel whatever feelings may come up for us but to not get stuck in those feelings. Giving yourself permission to feel allows your energy to be released and tension to be relieved.
Chakra #3: Manipura
The Manipura Chakra is the power chakra. It represents confidence, purpose, choice, your personal power, and will. It is located at your solar plexus and radiates out 7 cm below and above your navel. The solar plexus is often called the “brain of the body”. You know the saying, “follow your gut”? This chakra is where you listen to your intuition and use your knowledge to help combine your thoughts and will in alignment. From this aligned place, you can transform and take action.
The element for the third chakra is fire. In Hindu theory, digestion is accomplished by heat. It says that both food and ideas are burned to make vital energy. Fire can destroy but also transform and make space for something new. The purpose of this chakra is to use your inner power, or tapas, or transformation. Tapas is your inner fire, your self-discipline, will and action. Your tapas is unique for you. This transformation can be personal or in the outside world. The power in Manipura sends your energy and helps it rise to the higher chakras above it.
Chakra #4: Anahata
Anahata Chakra is the energy center of love and relationships. Not just romantic love and relationships, but also the love and relation that we have to friends, family, the world at large, and to ourselves. It is in this chakra we use our heart to make decisions.
In the fourth chakra, the lower 3 chakras integrate with the upper 3 chakras. The lower chakras help you have more self-awareness and security. Your energy continues to move up to Anahata chakra. The heart chakra unites masculine and feminine energy, spirit and matter, and heaven and earth. It is here you can learn to make decisions from an empowered, spiritual position instead of a reactive place based on needs and wants.
Chakra #5: Vishuddha
Vishuddha chakra is often referred to as the throat chakra due to its location around the shoulders, neck, and jaw. It is the narrowest part of the chakra system which can create a bottleneck for your energy to move up to chakras six and seven or move down through the fourth to the first. Energy moving up from the lowest to the highest is called the current of liberation. Energy flowing down is the current of manifestation. If your energy is not expressed out of the body, it gets stored as stress.
This chakra is the center for communication and creativity. One of the ways you express yourself is through speaking and using your voice. Vishuddha means purification. To cleanse the toxins in your body, you need to speak truthfully and authentically.
Chakra #6: Ajna
Ajna means ‘to command’ or ‘to perceive’. It is the command center for all the other chakras. Ajna chakra is located at the very top of the spinal column, around the medulla oblongata. People focus on the mind brow point to activate this energy center. This is often referred to as the third eye center.
In this energetic center, dualities collapse and come into singularity. You no longer see ‘bad’ vs. ‘good’ and ‘I’ vs. ‘you’. You can see what truly is. You step into witness consciousness. From this energy, you are no longer a victim of your thoughts. You can hold a clear vision for your own life. Instead of being clouded by fear, judgement, doubt, societal norms, etc., you access your intuition to help guide you and create your future from a place of knowing who you truly are.
Chakra #7: Sahasrara
The seventh chakra is often referred to as the crown chakra due to its location at the crown of the head or floating 4 finger widths above the crown. This chakra manages the head, brain, and nervous system.
It has not always been considered a main chakra. It was thought of as an elevated energy center that was closely connected to the lower six chakras.
Sahasrara’s purpose is awareness. It can connect you to the Divine and its intelligence to reach a higher understanding and meaning. You can access this current of manifestation to bring the wisdom from your higher power down into the chakras below. This can help you work through your dharma and assist you in your life on earth.
Conclusion
When your energy can flow freely through the chakras, they can be used as a road map to reconnect with yourself and to the piece of the divine inside you.
If you would like to dive deeper into any of these energy centers, visit the links attached to each heading.
Much love & health,
Carrie
Resources:
Judith, A. (1996). Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System As a Path to the Self.
Dale, C. (2021). Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Chakra: Your Definitive Source of Energy Center Knowledge for Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Evolution. Seventh Printing.
Judith, A. (2020). Chakra Yoga. Seventh Printing.
Judith, A. (2022). Wheels of Life. Llewellyn Worldwide.