What are the 7 chakras?
The seven chakras are the main energy centers of the body. You've probably heard people talk about "unblocking" their chakras, which refers to the idea that when all of our chakras are open, energy can run through them freely, and harmony exists between the physical body, mind, and spirit.
The word Chakra is Sanskrit. Chakra translates to wheel or disk. Chakra refers to wheels of energy or spinning energy disks throughout the body.
“Be like a tree. Stay grounded. Connect with your roots. Turn over a new leaf. Bend before you break. Enjoy your unique natural beauty. Keep growing.”
Chakras are the circular vortexes of energy that are placed in seven different points on the spinal column, and all the seven chakras are connected to the various organs and glands within the body. When the harmonious balance of the seven chakras is disrupted or damaged, it can cause several problems in our lives, including our physical health, emotional health and our mental state of mind.
The Root Chakra
The root chakra, or Muladhara, is located at the base of your spine. It provides you with a base or foundation for life, and it helps you feel grounded and able to withstand challenges. Your root chakra is responsible for your sense of security, stability and basic needs. It influences our passion, creativity, youthfulness, vitality and most importantly, our basic survival instincts. The root chakra is comprised of whatever grounds you to stability in your life. This includes your basic needs such as food, water, shelter, safety, as well as your emotional needs of interconnection, and being fearless. Moreover, it is also symbolic of our physical strength, our sexuality and the flight and fight response that tends to activate within our body when we sense danger. This root defines our relationship with Mother Earth.
The Sacral Chakra
The sacral chakra or the Swadhisthana is located below the navel, where the perineum is. It's believed to be the second chakra in the human body. It's thought to govern how you experience creative expression, emotions, and more. The Sacral Chakra is symbolic of the water elements present within the human body. It also influences our desires, sexuality and our reproductive functions amongst others. the sacral chakra is associated with several characteristics like sensuality, sexual intimacy, and giving and receiving pleasure, creativity and unstructured expression, birthing environments, things that wax and wane, and the principle of non-permanence, healthy emotions and the inner child, the divine feminine and synchronicity. Shadow issues — or negative qualities — associated with the sacral chakra include: wounded emotions, secrets, fear of judgment, getting into trouble, or being “found out”, repression, inability to experience emotional or sexual intimacy, nightmares and not remembering or understanding dreams.
The Solar Plexus Chakra
The Solar Plexus Chakra, known as the Manipura is regarded as one of the most powerful chakras that has profound influences on our personal power. It is located in your stomach area. It's responsible for confidence and self-esteem, as well as helping you feel in control of your life and our sense of sight.The Solar Plexus chakra represents our personal abilities and powers, and it influences both our personal and professional success. The solar plexus is tied to the adrenal glands and the lungs. The fight-or-flight response to stress can result in poor breathing. This can lead to pain or other gastric symptoms like nausea or vomiting during episodes of anxiety. It symbolises this energy vortex and its connection with energy, fire, and charge amongst other powerful emotions.
The Heart Chakra
The Heart Chakra, also known as the Anahata Chakra represents transformation and love energy, it's associated with the element of air within the body, and it has the most profound influence on our professional and personal relationships, unconditional love, compassion, and joy. It is the source of deep and profound truths that cannot be expressed in words and is located at the center of your chest. If the heart chakra is weak and fragile, it can ruin our relationships with negative emotions, such as jealousy, envy, anger, distrust and wrath. The Heart Chakra impacts our sense of touch, and it is connected to several glands, including the lymph and thymus glands.
The Throat Chakra
The throat chakra or Vishuddha symbolises our true inner voice, and our ability to communicate with others. When it is in a harmonious balance, allows human beings to enjoy a beautiful voice, artistic potential, creative ways of expression, and the ability to reach a higher spiritual abode with an acute sense of spiritual awareness. The Throat Chakra is connected to several organs and glands, including the throat, jaws, neck vertebrae, thyroid, teeth, ears, oesophagus and the ears. Your throat chakra is connected to your ability to speak your inner truth, when there’s an imbalance in this chakra, you may notice you have a harder time communicating effectively, you may experience outbursts of emotion or even the opposite: extreme quiet or refusal to speak.
The Third Eye Chakra
The Brow/Third Eye Chakra, also known as the Ajna is associated with our sense of thought, our ability to rationalise, use logic and conduct an analysis to reach reasonable conclusions. This Chakra is connected with various glands, particularly the pituitary and pineal gland. The third eye chakra can provide wisdom and insight, as well as deepen your spiritual connection. you can run into problems if your third eye chakra is blocked. This can include confusion, uncertainty, cynicism, lack of purpose, pessimism. Meditating is very good to open your third eye chakra and balance everything!
The Crown Chakra
The Crown Chakra, known as the Sahasrara is connected with the element of light, and it is associated with several organs and glands within the body, including the brain, the hand, the nervous system and the pituitary gland. This chakra is all about spiritual connection and transformation. It lifts and inspires you, connecting you to the divine (you might call this angelic energy, the Source, or God.) This chakra also gives you a sense of your own divinity, the awareness that you are a soul in a human body. A person with a balanced Crown Chakra brings spiritual understanding and peace with a clear perspective. A person with a blocked Crown Chakra may experience unwillingness to be open to other ideas, thoughts, or knowledge. The signs such as psychosis, dissociation from the body, being disconnected and ungrounded are also manifested when the Crown Chakra is unbalanced.