An intro to the world of Chakras.

But what is a Chakra? I hear you cry. Chakra is the sanskrit word for 'wheel' and when translated from Hindi it means: 'Wheel of energy'. It is believed by many Eastern cultures that on an energetic level, our bodies are made up of these energy centres, or 'chakra'. The human body consists of 114 of these energy centres, but for the sake of this blog post and upcoming blog posts we will be focusing on the seven main chakras that run up the centre of the human body.

"There are 7 main chakras that run up the centre of the human body."

Each of these 7 main chakras operate at different frequencies, show as different colours, and are linked to different organs dependant on where that chakra is located, thus creating different physical and emotional responses. I will be delving deeper into the individual chakras in my upcoming posts, but for now we shall be looking a little more broadly into the system of chakras and how they work. Imagine if you will for a moment, that the entire body is filled with energy. These 7 chakras are the main energy channels where that energy flows. Picture this energy as it enters your body through the crown of the head (crown chakra) and travels all the way down to the root chakra that is located at the base of the spine. As it makes its way down, this energy that begins as very spiritual, becomes more and more physical. The higher three chakras connect us to spirit and the lower three chakras keep us connected with the physical world in which we live.

Here is the English name of the 7 main chakras, their locations and the colour at which they vibrate.

Let's begin by looking closer at the lower three chakras that correspond to the Physical Body. These are the chakras that keep us grounded and connected to the people and the physical world around us.

They are situated as follows:

At the base of the spine you will find the Root Chakra, Above that in the area a couple of inches below the navel is situated the Sacral, and above that, just below your rib cage is the Solar Plexus.

The Root Chakra relates to your relationship with the world around you, where you fit in with your 'tribe' or community, how safe you feel, and matters of finance. The Sacral Chakra relates to your self esteem, sexuality, creativity and ability to manifest.

The Solar Plexus relates to your personal power, instinct and fear.

The top three chakras are the Spiritual Chakras, these chakras are what connect you to the divine, your higher self and your purpose for being here in this world. They are situated as follows:

The Throat Chakra is located at the throat area, the Third Eye is located in the areas between your eyebrows and slightly up, and the Crown Chakra is situated at the Crown of the head.

The Throat Chakra represents your ability to communicate, your willpower, and how connected you are to your own personal truth.

The Third Eye relates to your intuition, spiritual wisdom, vision and perception. The Crown Chakra is your connection to spirit, you spiritual awareness and faith.

We then have the Heart chakra. The Heart Chakra is located in the chest area and acts as a bridge uniting the Spiritual Chakras and the Physical Chakras.

The Heart Chakra is responsible for self love, forgiveness and love for others.

These seven chakras all work in unity to keep our body, mind and spirit healthy. However if one isn't working as it should be then it can send the whole system out of sync. This can cause a myriad of issues in all areas of life including emotional, spiritual, financial and physical.

By taking the time to work through your chakras to ensure that they are working as they should be, both individually and as a whole, we can find that our entire lives begin to change.

There are a number of ways that we can bring our chakras back into balance, these can include yoga, colour therapy, diet, energy healing and crystal therapy. You can go as deep into this as you wish, but the process can begin by looking closer at the location of the chakra that you wish to work on and your own knowledge of the organs that reside in that area, when it comes to colour you can begin by wearing an item of jewellery or clothing in that colour or eating some healthy food that is in the colour of the chakra you are working with.

There is an excellent Chakra yoga sequence that I like to regularly do by 'Black Yogi Nico Marie' . This well thought out 30 minute sequence will certainly assist you in bringing yourself back into alignment, and having recently discovered that she also offers yoga sequences targeted at the individual chakras I am looking forward to delving into more practices with her. Here is the link if you would like to take a look at her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Umo4nGx2A I will also be delving deeper into the individual chakras and how you can heal them in by upcoming blog posts, starting with the Root chakra in two weeks time. Until then I hope that you have found this post useful and until then I look forward to hearing your feedback below.