Ever feel like you struggle to speak your truth and say how you really feel for fear of rejection or lack of courage? Ever know someone who has a strong need or desire to control others? Our human struggles can often be traced to imbalances in our chakras, and learning about them while practicing yoga poses that correspond to each chakra can realease these blocks while clearing the path for greater clarity and awareness.
What are Chakras?
By Amy Younkman
My study of the chakra system began in earnest during yoga teacher training. The more I read, explore and experience the chakras in my own life, the more powerful and interesting they’ve become through the years. Chakras are seven wheels of energy that parallel our spine and are depicted with certain colors. To truly appreciate the chakras, I recommend experiencing them first hand while being guided through a study of this ancient Indian system which is part of our subtle energy body. In so doing, we gain insight into our personal issues that require our attention, and we can use the techniques of yoga to bring our chakras and lives back into balance.
Each chakra is associated with particular functions within the body and with specific life issues and the way we handle them, both within ourselves and in our interactions with the world. Through external situations and internal habits, such as long-held physical tension and limiting self-concepts, a chakra can become either deficient or excessive – and therefore imbalanced. These imbalances may develop due to situational challenges and be temporary, or they may be a chronic imbalance that surfaced from childhood experiences, past pain or stress, or internalized cultural values.
A deficient chakra neither receives appropriate energy nor easily manifests that chakra’s energy in the world. There’s the sense of being physically and emotionally closed down in the area of a deficient chakra (think of a child who has continually been uprooted and feels ungrounded.) When a chakra is excessive, it is too overloaded to operate in a healthy way and becomes a dominating force in a person’s life (think of an overly controlling person.)
Through the practice of specific yoga poses and mantra meditation, we can break through these blocks of stuck energy and stimulate an imbalanced chakra, gaining greater insights into our own lives as well as greater understanding of others. Once you truly understand the chakra system, it becomes almost second nature while providing a valuable self-help tool to bring your life back into balance.
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