Month: January 2020

Week four brings us to the midpoint in the chakra system!

The heart chakra is in the middle of our chakras and is always seeking balance.  It will let us know if our inner world does not match our outer environment; or if there is inequality between our upper and lower chakras.  It will also lead us to others who can create balance, however, that isn’t always a good thing!

Looking back over my own life, I can see where people entered my life to create a balanced system that actually needed HEALING…not balance.  For example: there were many years where I was unsure of myself and believed others could only see my shortcomings.

What happened?

I attracted people who were only more than happy to point out all the ways I didn’t measure up.  Did they create balance by giving me the “truth” I thought I needed?  Sure.  But this is where I needed healing…not someone to sit on the other end of my self hate teeter totter.

The heart chakra sits in the region of our physical heart, not in the heart itself but more centered.  Think of where you feel the emotion of heartache and you have found it.  It is associated with the element of air, which makes sense since it sits smack in the middle between our lungs.  The heart chakra is focused on love.  Big love.  Not just love of others, but also love for ourselves.  It symbolizes empathy, universal love, self-knowledge, inner peace and emotional openness.

 

The right of the sacral chakra is TO LOVE AND BE LOVED.  The work is to release grief.

When this chakra is BLOCKED:

• Fear of relationships or getting too close
• Feeling unloved or unlovable
• Feel jealous or lonely
• Fear of getting hurt
• Testing others to prove their love
• Lack of empathy
• Trust issues
• Intolerant

When this chakra is OVERACTIVE:

• Falling in love too quickly
• Poor boundaries or focus more on other’s needs
• People pleasing or being a martyr
• Being too trusting

And when it is JUST RIGHT, a BALANCED heart chakra looks:

• Peaceful
• Compassionate
• Loving
• Tolerant, open and warm

This week try writing yourself a love letter, honor and accept the different parts of your personality, practice self-care as an act of self-love, volunteer in the community, make a list of things that bring you joy, fly a kite or drive with the windows down to feel the air.  Visualize a ball of green light glowing in your chest that grows to wrap the world in peace and love. Perform random acts of kindness.  Repeat to yourself:

I am open to love

I am peaceful

I deeply and completely love and accept myself

I accept things as they are

Check the Facebook and Instagram pages for more ideas!

The third chakra sits above the navel, below the rib cage.  It focuses on the balance of our self-confidence and ego. Our self-control and sense of personal power originate from this area.  When we are balanced here, we feel confident, in control, driven and have a good self image.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I often feel a little uncomfortable talking about this chakra due to the emphasis on the word “power” that is often attributed to it.  I am more comfortable thinking about that power as being like electricity running through my body and this chakra is the battery that fuels it.  When I think about my inner strength, I feel more empowered…but…I also feel a little uncomfortable focusing on myself.  This is not because I hate myself (although, I can think of plenty of things I’d like to change a little too easily).  I just feel like I “should” be thinking more about others.  It’s “rude” to think about myself too much.  Then we throw that word “power” in, and I’m running headfirst down a path of guilt about my privileges in life.  Obviously, I have more work to do in this area to get over some of those inner judgements that diminish my own inner strength.  Anyone else???

This chakra is the source of our will to ACT.  To do the difficult things. To face our challenges.  To own our choices.

How do we know if this chakra is blocked?

• We might feel helpless, irritable or have low self esteem
• We might have a hard time bringing our dreams to life or finishing projects we start
• Imposter syndrome
• Lack of energy
• Fear of being alone
• Victim mentality or feeling disliked
• Being passive in decision making

Sometimes this chakra can be over-active leading to:

• Being power hungry
• Perfectionistic
• Critical
• Controlling
• Driven by shame

SO HOW DO WE GET THERE????

• Positive affirmations “I respect and care for myself, I accept myself, I stand up for myself, I direct my own life”
• Actions: Set goals and make steps toward meeting them, get out in the sun, engage in self care, say “no” to things that you don’t really want to do, stretch the front of your body to improve posture and stand up straight

Visit the Facebook and Instagram pages for more ideas on how to support your solar plexus chakra, or schedule an appointment to come in and discuss how to best get this energy unblocked!

Welcome to week 2 of our chakra exploration!

This week we focus on Svadhishthana (aka) The Sacral Chakra.

Sometimes this gets sensationalized as our sexual chakra.  While that is true, there is so much more going on in this energy center!  The sacral chakra is linked to our emotions.  I love that this is also linked to the element of water, because in therapy we often visualize our emotions ebbing and flowing like water.  This helps remind us that emotions are not static…they are always changing.

 

The second chakra is also the chakra of change.  The root and the sacral chakra are close to each other, which might explain why how we feel about our emotions is so closely linked with our sense of safety.  We are meant to feel all our emotions because they are linked to our survival needs.  We fear getting stuck in a negative emotion forever, yet it is in the water-like nature of our emotions to change.  Unfortunately, we also fear change.

Explore your second chakra this week and allow yourself to feel, to create, to flow and to embrace what comes next!

The right of the sacral chakra is TO FEEL.  The work is to release guilt.

When this chakra is BLOCKED:

• We fear intimacy
• no creativity
• feel isolated
• difficulty with change or experiencing joy
• emotionally shut off

When this chakra is OVERACTIVE:

• Over-emotional
• manipulative
• thoughtless pleasure seeking
• excessive guilt, shame and emotional instability

And when it is JUST RIGHT, a BALANCED sacral chakra looks:

• creative
• passionate
• optimistic
• open to new things

This week try being around water and noticing the movement.  Challenge yourself to create something. Repeat to yourself:

I am creative

I am balanced

I am in charge

I am exactly where I need to be

Check the Facebook and Instagram pages for more ideas!

We are starting our chakra exploration at the root of the issues!

The first chakra sits at the base of our spine, right at the tailbone.  It connects us to the earth and our feeling of belonging.  Often we call this “grounding”; that feeling of not being lost in thoughts, but present in our body at the moment.  The root chakra also is in charge of our survival instinct.  This chakra lays the groundwork for the development of all the other chakras.  How Muladhara forms is based on experiences from our first year of life.  Most of us have no idea how our needs got met during our first year, so we might not know where our life patterns come from.

So, what does this mean for our emotional health????

Well, this energy center addresses our right to have and our right to be.  How often do we feel guilty about if we “deserve” something or not?  Anyone else ever question whether or not they are ‘in the way’ or don’t ‘belong’?  This chakra represents how comfortable we are in our physical body and our day to day survival.  Traumas that occur throughout our lives can further affect how energy either moves or gets stuck around our root chakra.

Here are some questions to ask yourself or journal on:

• How do you feel about your body?
• Do you feel safe?
• What do you deserve to have?
• What are your fears?
• What does prosperity look like to you?

Because this chakra is aligned with our survival instinct, the emotion it either activates or blocks is…FEAR.  Our work at this energy level is fear vs trust.

How do we know if this chakra is blocked?

• We might be overly fearful or try to be overly practical to hide fears
• We could be flighty, disconnected, distracted or depressed
• Low energy or easily angered
• Inability to hope or dream, cynical
• Tied to old habits, feeling stuck
• Poor physical health
• Financial instability or greedy, materialistic

When our chakra is in balance, we feel: full of energy, secure, stable, healthy

SO HOW DO WE GET THERE????

• Positive affirmations “I am safe, I belong in the world, I have all that I need”
• Visualization: Try picturing a ball of warm red light at the base of your spine connecting you to the core of the earth.  As you inhale, pull bright white light from the earth to you to nourish you.  On your exhale, picture the warm red light moving back into the earth to feed your roots.
• Being in nature:  Go for a walk or run outdoors, foot rubs to activate the sensation of a deeper pull from gravity, exercise or eat food that feel like they are enhancing the physical health of your body

I know it is a little wet and chilly here in the Pacific Northwest right now for prancing barefoot through the grass, but it will certainly get that root chakra charged!

Visit the Facebook and Instagram pages for more ideas on how to support your root chakra, or schedule an appointment to come in and discuss how to best get this energy unblocked!