We all know sticking to a healthy diet and maintaining an active lifestyle are the key to wellbeing, right? I believe that most of us know how to care for our bodies via nutrition and fitness, even though we don't always do all the things. No shaming here. I am with you!
However, I was much older when I realized that there were unseen parts of my body that need to be cared for in order to really improve and maintain overall wellness. I remember sitting in my first yoga class and thinking, WHAT THE F is my chakra?
Now I understand the need to understand our chakras, even though I don't think I FULLY get it. I get it and I know when mine are off. I am learning, growing and understanding this part of me more every day.
To really rid ourselves of stress, anxiety, depression, and all other things nasty — it’s important to learn about chakras, what they are, and if they’re blocked or unbalanced. This might come as a surprise, but our chakras can significantly affect our mental health and overall wellbeing.
So what Are Chakras?
With the popularity of yoga today, chakras have become more well-known. The two are associated with each other because life force energy travels throughout the body whenever we do yoga and intersects at points of intensified energy. These are known as “chakras.”
In short, our chakra is the energy center of our body and corresponds to specific organs and nerves. The word “chakra” translates to “disk” or “wheel” in the Sanskrit language and needs to be open or balanced for us to function at our best.
There are seven main chakras in the body, namely:
Root Chakra: Popularly known as the Muladhara, this chakra is found at the base of our spine, in the tailbone area. Our root chakra influences our survival issues, such as our money, food, and financial independence.
Sacral Chakra: The sacral chakra (or Swadhisthana) is located about two inches below our navels in our lower abdomen. This chakra is responsible for controlling our sense of wellbeing, sexuality, pleasure, and abundance. It also controls how our emotions relate to others.
Solar Plexus Chakra: The solar plexus chakra (or Manipura) is located in our upper abdomen in the stomach area and controls our self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth.
Heart Chakra: Known as the Anahata, the heart chakra is located in the center of our chest and affects our feelings of inner peace, love, and joy.
Throat Chakra: The Vishuddha is located in our throat and controls our communication, truth, and self-expression.
Third-Eye Chakra: Located in the forehead between our eyes, the Ajna is the eye to our soul and helps us connect with our intuition. This chakra also affects our wisdom and imagination.
Crown Chakra: As the highest chakra in our body, the Sahasrara is located at the very top of our head. This chakra controls our inner and outer beauty and spiritual connection.
The Signs of Blocked or Unbalanced Chakras
The condition of the chakras in our bodies can significantly affect our wellbeing, so knowing when something is wrong is pretty important. In fact, we aren’t able to achieve optimal health and wellness if we choose to live life with blocked or unbalanced chakras.
In general, if one or more of our chakras spin too quickly, we feel overly nervous, tense, and hyper. Think too much coffee, too much work, and no outlet! This will eventually result in burnout. On the other side of the coin, if our chakras are spinning too slowly, we often feel ungrounded, tired, and lack creative energy. Over time, this will adversely affect our productivity.
Having blocked or unbalanced chakras in our bodies can affect our wellbeing in many different ways. For example, a blocked or unbalanced root chakra can cause pain and stiffness in our legs and feet, and create a feeling of being stuck in life. A blocked or unbalanced sacral chakra can cause pain and stiffness in our hips and lower back, while a blocked on unbalanced solar plexus chakra can result in digestive issues, abdominal pain, and overinflated ego.
The Causes of Blocked or Unbalanced Chakras
The most common causes of blocked or unbalanced chakras are chronic stress and anxiety. This can tighten the tissues in our body and restrict the Prana (life force) and Qi (spiritual energy) from flowing. Stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions will hinder us from focusing on the movement of energy in our bodies.
Excessively eating unhealthy foods and poor physical posture can also lead to blocked or unbalanced chakras. Unhealthy, sugary foods get me every time!
When left untreated, blocked or unbalanced chakras can increase our risks of physical diseases, illnesses, and mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.
How Can I Heal or Balance My Chakras?
It goes without saying that functioning at our best with blocked or unbalanced chakras is challenging, which is why we should look for solutions the moment we notice symptoms. We don’t want all of our efforts to eat right and stay active sinking down the drain because of our chakras, right?
As soon as we notice that our chakras are blocked or unbalanced, we should change our lifestyle immediately. The sooner we pay attention to our chakras, the easier it is for us to heal them.
Here are some easy yet effective ways for us to heal or balance our chakras:
Practice Mindfulness
You knew I was going to bring up mindfulness, right? Contrary to popular belief, healing or balancing chakras doesn’t require complex or expensive processes. Often, practicing mindfulness meditation is enough. Mindfulness meditation is an excellent way for us to relax our mind and body and reduce stress.
To practice mindfulness meditation, we need to find a quiet place to settle in and breathe gently. The goal is to focus our attention on each inhale and exhale and let distractions go. Subscribe to this site and follow us on social media for weekly mindful practices!
Improve Diet
Our chakras are also associated with different colors. This is one of the reasons why we should consume foods of the same color as the chakras we’re trying to balance. We can harness the power of color and use this to improve the chakras in our bodies.
Listed below are the colors associated with each chakra:
Root Chakra: Red
Sacral Chakra: Orange
Solar Plexus Chakra: Yellow
Heart Chakra: Green
Throat Chakra: Turquoise or light blue
Third-Eye Chakra: Purple or dark blue
Crown Chakra: Violet and white
Use Essential Oils
Many use essential oils to heal or balance chakras. Essential oils are used to relieve chronic anxiety and stress and impact specific energies present in our bodies, so this makes sense.
Some of the best oils we can use to improve our chakras are khus oil, sweet orange, sandalwood, lavender, and lemon oil. We can topically apply essential oils to our bodies or inhale them.
Prioritizing Chakras
Chakras are important even if we don't fully understand them! Like our mental health, we need to put adequate energy into keeping this part of ourselves well and balanced. When our chakras are balanced, we can release any negative emotion and have access to higher states of consciousness. In short, having balanced chakras can become the key to remaining mentally and physically healthy and making the most out of life. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to visit our site or send us a message!
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