Chakra healing is not a recent exploration, rather it has existed for many centuries. It has its origins in India from 1700 to 1100 BCE. The word chakra means wheel, or a disc. Thus the chakras are energy systems that exist in our human body.
It can be understood with an example of seven dragon balls that make up the universe of Goku. In their individuality, they are merely just ordinary dragon balls that are not unique, that have no meaning.
But it is only after you have found all the seven balls that you shall realize the importance of them, you’ll be granted that Eternal Wish.
And there is a reason why they are scattered all in different places of earth, for if it were so easily available would anyone undergo all the hassle to find them? To fight for them?
NO! Right?
In the same way, our human body has chakras or pools of energies that function and govern three paths of our life, ie, the physical, mental and spiritual realm of life.
Talking about chakras, there are seven pools of energies stored inside this ocean of our body, they’re ever-flowing or evolving, but only if one has understood or established a correct channel for them to flow.
When not allowed or when chakras are blocked, the result can be dependent upon the type of chakra that has been blocked due to stress or outside stressors.
For example, the symptom of a blocked throat chakra can be sore throat, to mouth ulcers and could also include, not being able to express one’s true self effectively or could make one indulge in gossiping or shying away, or just being silent.
So which are these seven chakras?
To start with, the first one is Root chakra:
It is located at the base of the spine and it deals with survival, i.e. the basic fight or flight response according to psychology.
It’s similar to the trust v/s mistrust phase of Erickson.
Wherein, if the growing kid was exposed to a trustful environment and allowed to trust or look back to their immediate kin for help, then their trust develops.
However, if the kid was left to fend for him/ herself or the environment in which he was brought up was emotionally unavailable and lacked the necessary resources to provide them the material to grow up, then the kid is likely to mistrust others in life and be scared or rigid about trusting others.
Same way, if your foundation, ie, ROOT chakra is blocked, you are likely to feel nothing you do is good enough, you would also not be active to take the first step into something for the FEAR of what if something wrong happens, would consume you, which would then trigger physiological changes, ie, increased heart rate, feeling pain in pelvic area, feeling lazy or procrastinate or delay things at hand.
The root chakra is related to the excretory system and the urogenital system, thus the problem associated could be in the colon, kidney, etc.
You are more likely to feel either restless or plain lethargy could occupy you.
One would also experience that they are occupied by their thoughts and they linger around for quite some time; depression and anxiety are also related to this chakra.
Next, we come to Sacral Chakra,
But before that, a question,
Is there something in the world that you blame yourself for?
This is where you’d find the key to unlock your Sacral Chakra deals with pleasure, creativity, and sensuality.
It is positioned right below the navel. Another name for this chakra is Water Chakra, for it is this chakra that creates a smooth flow of peace within us which is then reflected in our dealings with the outside world.
One way to understand the working of this chakra is by comparing it to ocean tides. At times they glide so smoothly, at times they are violent and turbulent, at others they are just static.
This is the same way the energies in this chakra work, if your sacral chakra is smooth and free-flowing then you are likely to feel very compassionate, open to new ideas, and feeling a zest to achieve new endeavors, either in your sexual life or your emotions.
Whereas an overly active or turbulent sacral chakra would make a person indulge in sexual addictions, grow unhealthy attachments or attract emotionally unavailable or jealous people. Mood swings or feeling that you are being controlled by your feelings.
Signs of an underactive or static sacral chakra are lack of creativity, low or no sexual interest or desire, finding it difficult to express one’s wishes or find it difficult to openly communicate or feel that one does not feel happy or content.
Thus one is likely to be overly emotionally dependent upon others and develop a fear for change.
Next, the Solar Plexus Chakra is also known as the Fire chakra.
It is located in the stomach right up to the breastbone. It deals with willpower, courage, discipline, authenticity, and self-esteem.
So a healthy solar plexus functions in the way of letting go of unnecessary power control or not setting impossible barricades or trying to live up to our “SELF PROCLAIMED “ expectation.
Rather living by accepting our SELF that is WORTHY of all the amazing things in life.
But is blocked by shame.
What according to you are your biggest disappointments with yourself?
Try to unravel all those disappointments, and setbacks, accept all of you, even the past mistakes, accept the part you don’t like about yourself and remember what makes you, YOU.
It may not be the ideal concept of yourself but that is the REAL you, which makes it even more beautiful and different.
Heart Chakra: It deals with love, the love we have for ourselves to the love that we receive from others, which is a reflection of the one we have out.
But we are blocked by GRIEF, we often feel burdened by the past mistakes, the ones we loved, who didn’t love us back, the ones we have lost and we could not cope with, thus we tend to beat ourselves up for these and block our heart chakra.
A blocked heart chakra would show up in the form of pushing away meaningful friendships or relationships in life for you would feel you ought to be alone and should stray away from everyone else, this could be because you feel you are not worthy of them or feel guilty you are not doing enough.
The sadness you felt in life, the loss you experienced in life. All the trust issues, problems with forgiveness are all indicators of a blocked heart chakra.
Thus, the opening of a heart chakra would bring in feelings of empathy, love, ( the one that is not selfish or greedy), and an ample abundance of forgiveness, towards yourself and others.
Throat Chakra: It is located in the throat and deals with the truth, but is blocked by lies. The question that came to my mind while researching about this topic was, which lies?
The answer was, ALL OF THEM.
Right from the ones we tell ourselves to the ones we say to hide from them or save ourselves from others.
Have you ever felt that you were unable to speak the truth or speak for yourself, especially in a situation wherein you thought it’d be useless?
That no matter if you speak the truth or just lie, people would not care anyway,?
The most common lie I have observed people blurt out which even I do a lot of times, is,
I AM FINE.
You’d say that even though you would be hurting or would want to express your deepest resentment or anger or irritability, yet you would lie, saying you are fine.
This is what blocks the throat chakra even more, which results in physical ailments too, such as sore throats, mouth ulcers, thyroid, etc.
Thus a healthy or unblocked throat chakra would aid the person to talk and communicate efficiently, without being too rude or without trying to suppress their thoughts.
They would also be open to expressing their discomfort more efficiently and also would not take part in the worldly affairs of GOSSIPS and LIES, for they block the energy flow of you throat chakra.
The next chakra is located right where your eyebrows would end, one would feel that is the centre of your forehead, but it is actually the centre of your Third Eye Chakra.
It deals with insight that is blocked by illusions. The illusion of separation or parting away.
As Iris Murdoch correctly quoted, “We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”
This chakra deals with unraveling those tightly held illusions that we have catered or nurtured.
Think of the time you were not able to concentrate on things at hand, it is like being forced to attend a rock concert whilst you are trying to meditate, is there a way you can meditate peacefully?
No, right?
In the same way, when our negative thoughts take control over us there is a tendency to get carried away by them.
The result is that you are not able to concentrate, you would be prone to make too logical arguments to get out of it or rather let your emotions control it and end up losing the real sight of your problems.
Thus, the third eye chakra deals with higher levels of consciousness, it deals with or allows us to see the bigger picture of the speckled ones that we often pay attention to.
Lastly, we come down to the Crown Chakra.
It deals with pure Cosmic Energy, it is a conjunction wherein you and the higher self of consciousness meet.
When your crown Chakra is blocked you would experience a feeling of apathy, wanting to isolate yourself to be away as possible.
You would also tend to oversleep or have a poor sleeping routine, and feel exhausted.
Now, what does one do in Chakra healing?
Well there are many ways, in which a trained Chakra healer or a psychotherapist will
make sure they unblock the trapped energies, a few of them include, guided self-reflection, A way in which your mentor will guide you to delve into your greatest fears, disappointments, worries, etc, and will act as your guide to help you lead your own path of self discovery, towards the real you.
Pranayam is also one of the most widely used techniques for chakra healing, along with mindful meditation and yoga.
Lastly, does it work?
A survey conducted in 2018 to check the benefits of Chakra healing upon clients who had chronic anxiety and had trouble in focusing or falling asleep found that more than 70% of the total participants in the study felt relieved of their initial symptom, ie, feeling anxious or triggered by external stressors.
So what does that leave us away with?
Chakra healing is indeed a very powerful and unique tool of coming face to face with our greatest fears to also welcoming and appreciating our healed self,
as Osho once clearly pointed out,
“ YOU ARE THE GOAL,
YOU ARE THE WAY,
YOU ARE THE LIGHT
YOU ARE THE WHOLE”
Just believe in yourself and it shall happen.
