Another system for understanding the messages of the body is the Hindu Chakra system which recognizes seven main centers of energy or consciousness arising from the base of your spine (first chakra) to the crown of your head ( seventh chakra). Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel.   In western medicine, these same centers are recognized as nerve plexuses, meeting places within your body of many, many nerve endings.  Given that nerve impulses are our bodies’ messengers, these areas may be thought of as information control centers.  Each center is associated with a body system and issues with deeper meanings.

These  beautiful Chakra images are from www.sacredcenters.com, if you are interested, please visit this site for further information on the chakras and healing)

The first chakra, the root chakra, is located at the base of the spine. It is associated with the element of earth and relates to issues of survival and safety. Food, clothing, shelter are the issues of existence on earth. Danger involving the possibility of death will trigger this chakra to open. For example, if you were crossing the street and a car was rapidly approaching, your first chakra would react, open wide and move you quickly out of the way.  People with experiences of Post Traumatic Stress may have this chakra activated by dreams, sights and sounds and other triggers associated with the life threatening event.  Survivors of abuse may have difficulty recognizing danger and life threatening events due to the unpredictability and danger in their early childhood family systems. The insanity of living in a family where the person who is supposed to keep them safe is the one who hurts and threatens you makes later life experiences hard to assess.  The first chakra is where we learn to ground and give form and structure to our existence.  An imbalance may be indicated by physical sensations such as joint pain, leg, foot, lower back or bowel disorders.  First chakra issues often have great fear and anxiety associated with their symptoms. 

 The Sanskrit sound associated with the first chakra is lam.  We include these Sanskrit root syllables as tools which have been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years to clear and balance the chakras.  They have no inherent meaning as words. heir healing is derived from the vibration of the sound as the mantra is repeated inwardly or aloud.

 The color associated with the first chakra is red.  Color has been included as a therapeutic modality for centuries across culture.  Bodies may be painted with colors to represent energies for healing and transformation.  It might be suggested that a person surround themselves with a particular color or wear a color for 3-7 days to invite its healing vibration. Name the color that is most comforting to you and notice if this color is represented in their home and work environment.  A single swatch of the color or a flower could be a start to affirming nurturance and healing.  When visualizing a color in meditation always suggest that it be transparent ;so, that light can flow through the color.  Opaque colors can block energy.

Sound and color therapy rely on universal energy principles relating to the interaction of vibrations of color and sound with the physical, emotional and mental and spiritual body.  With any type of therapeutic tool, go slow and experiment.  If something does not feel in alignment with your body, mind or spirit, do not use the technique.  Do not overdo any of these techniques.  More is not always better.  When you are working with subtler forms of energy and healing, slow gradual steps and increased awareness are the desired methods for change.

  First chakra issues are very traumatic and may continue to heal over the course of a lifetime.  They are truly core lessons and directly connect to our  survival and purpose. 

The second chakra, the sacral chakra is located below the navel in the abdominal area. Within the abdominal and pelvic area, we often confront issues of self care, boundaries, empathy and creativity.  The lower back, hips and pelvis continue to give the body stability, support, structure and house the creative center for life.   The second chakra is the seat of empathy, sexuality and reproduction. The element associated with it is water. Feelings flow and connect and often must be guided, contained and understood.  When one has been traumatized in this area, the second chakra may develop a physical response. In sexual abuse survivors, whose second chakra may have been opened too early and against their will, we often see issues of gender identity, difficulties with reproductive organs, blocked creativity and problems with trust and attachment to intimate partners.  An imbalance may be indicated by physical sensations such as abdominal cramps, constipation, depression, and exhaustion.  Other people manifest the imbalance through excessive seductiveness, being too compliant or pleasing, or being deceptive and manipulative.  Second Chakra issues frequently involve the inability to know and set appropriate boundaries.  It is important to learn to set limits and be safe.    The Sanskrit sound associated with this chakra is Vam. The color is orange for vibrancy, vitality, joy and connection.

This is a very powerful center for all of us, particularly, for women, as it is the home of our uterus and ovaries.  For many years, there has been a denigration of the process of menstruation.  It is considered inconvenient, a mess, painful and irritating.  Stronger medications have been offered to take away the sensations and even stop the flow.  Rarely, if ever, is it honored and revered for being connected to the cycles of universal wisdom, the tides and the moon.  Girls and women are not give time to retreat, to dream and to nurture the womb of humanity and creation.  In Native American tribes, there was a honoring of Moon time and the dreams and visions that emerged from such a deep connection to the universal rhythms.  Dreams of moontime were considered to have special medicine and were honored as guidance for the tribe.  I fear we are rapidly losing this wisdom.  New drugs are being marketed and approved to stop these cycles for women altogether.  No one knows what cost this will have to fertility, to women and to society in general.  I cannot believe this is a good thing to move even further away from a connection with the planet.   I do not say this from a place of inexperience. I know how miserable the hormonal cycle can make you feel. I know that there is not a built in system to accommodate these monthly rhythms.  Yet, I cannot help but think that getting rid of this natural process through drug intervention is only going to further cement the judgment against women and women’s wisdom. What I have learned is that if you do not take time to pause and reconsider, if you only mask the pain of your mind and body, the time required for healing will compound.   The challenges can get much more difficult until you have no choice but to stop and reconsider and heal.   It is crucial to value our feminine being, its relatedness and the truth that comes through intuition, silence and retreat.  As women and those who love them, we must try and find ways to nurture and honor ourselves and each other. This will be a great benefit to ourselves and humanity

.

Continuing up the body, we enter the area of the stomach, ribs and solar plexus. The third chakra, the power chakra, is located at the solar plexus. It is associated with fire, power, and the physical body. It is the source of our Agni, the Ayurvedic concept of digestive fire. The third chakra is considered to be the seat of power where we digest and respond to life’s experiences.   Many gods are represented across cultures with big bellies.  This often represents wealth and abundance, an ability to accumulate and digest life experience.   It is a place of strength and structure and personal will.  Many of us experience upset and issues in these areas from having too much fire or having too little.   Sometimes life throws more at us than we can assimilate or digest.  The third chakra opening can make one feel forceful and intimidating or relaxed, confident and powerful.  All of the chakras have balancing points and information that allow us to be in harmony with ourselves, each other and the world at large.  Disturbances in the third chakra can result from trying to do too much, trying to enforce your will on another or trying to digest too big a portion of life’s experiences too quickly. The physical sensations can be that of being "hit in the gut", heartburn, and indigestion.  People can harbor a lot of anger, resentment, cynicism, judgment, prejudice and expectation in this chakra.  A wise understanding of self and others and a balanced relationship to power is most desirable. The Sanskrit sound associated with this chakra is ram. The color is like the sun, the giver of life. This color is associated with happiness, joy, power, and expansiveness.

Moving into the heart and lungs, leads us to the seat of intuition and emotion.  The fourth chakra, the heart chakra is located in the chest, the heart and runs down the arms through the hands. It is the bridge between the first three chakras of physical experience and the top three chakras of understanding and communication. This chakra is associated with fire, reaching out, loving, giving and having compassion for self and others. It is the center of intuition, the inner knowing of personal right and wrong. It helps us make sense of our experience. It guides with an internal understanding of integrity.  Many of us have had wounds to our hearts when we have taken the risk of loving another and felt that we have been burned.  Others may struggle with giving , receiving and allowing the flow of the universe to operate throughout our lives.  We may have fears of loss, rejection or scarcity.  The physical symptoms often manifest in heartache, collapsed or rigid shoulders strained by over responsibility, or difficulties with our elbows, wrists and hands.   The Sanskrit sound associated with this chakra is yam. The color is green flowing through the abundance of nature . It is associated with growth and connectedness.

For many years emotions and intuition have taken a back seat, to analysis and bowed to consensual reality.  People were discouraged from trusting their inner sense and encouraged to consult experts or wisdom outside of themselves.   Emotions were confined to a particular area of the brain and were encouraged to be mastered, overcome, ignored or repressed rather than honored as a valuable guide and source of information.  In recent years, we are seeing that there are not sharp divisions between emotions and knowledge, that, in fact our bodies and emotions react before their wisdom is processed through the brain.  The brain is an interconnected translator of wisdom and experience and should not be disconnected from direct experience.  Science based upon reduction and analysis alone misses the synthesis of the whole.  The heart is a center of synthesis.  When the heart stops, so does this physical life. 

At the neck and throat, we arrive at a whole new opportunity for communication, self disclosure, health or disturbance. The fifth chakra is located in the throat, and radiates through the sinuses to the ears. It is associated with the element of air. It is where we communicate, where we hear others, our inner voice, and, perhaps, the voices of our guides.  It is the creative center as our words gives form to our thoughts and experience.    Many people close down the inner voices and act in ways that feel disingenuous to self.  We may wear masks of false smiles, gritted teeth, locked jaws, averted gazes or blank stares.  It has been oft quoted that people worse fear is public speaking that it outranks death in terms of dread in the general public.   Why is it that we fear giving voice to ourselves in front of others?  Sore throats, being ‘choked up” or finding life hard to swallow are all messages from the fifth chakra.  When we speak and give voice to our truth, we take the risk to be all of who we truly are.  When we get "choked up" we often need to let our feelings out and give them voice.  When our throats are sore, it may be time to embrace silence.  When our thyroids are imbalanced, we may need to regulate our periods of creativity and rest, giving and receiving, speaking and listening. When our necks are tense and cracking, we may need to let go  and relax into a more formless flow.  The fifth chakra bridges our heart chakra to the sixth chakra, the place of higher vision.  If there is a conflict between our perceived and felt reality, it may get caught or stuck in our throat and need to be expressed. Again, the guidance is to look below your symptoms while continuing to have physical symptoms checked out with a physician.  It often follows that when the symptom is relieved that you can make further progress on any other identified issues.   The Sanskrit sound associated with this chakra is HAM. The color is royal blue flowing through both sky and water.

   The sixth chakra is located in the center of the head and is sometimes called "the third eye". If you imagine a line intersecting vertically and horizontally in the exact center of your head, you will experience the 6^th chakra center. It is located where the four lobes of the brain meet. This area is associated with the pineal gland and the forehead.  It is the center of clairvoyance, the ability to see clearly.  It is where we get a different picture of the world and is associated with the objectivity of air and the understanding of ether. When we over- think or over- analyze a situation or when we feel someone is trying to force an idea or perspective on us, it will often produce a tension headache.  Pulling back from the details and grasping the larger whole, can help alleviate this worry.  Constantly trying to adjust our view of reality to another’s perspective, can produce ongoing difficulties and discomfort.  Remembering that we only play one piece in the universal symphony of creation can relieve some of the tension. Occurrences on the quantum or subatomic levels are impacted by expectation and the observer.  There are many people, who honestly believe they have your best interest at heart, when they are directing you to follow a path that supports their higher vision.  In some cases, that may work well for you .  However, if you notice your involvement with a loved one, friend or partner is constantly making you feel off balance, stressed or nauseous, you may want to consider clearing their agendas out of your space and getting a clearer picture.  

     Later, I considered the Hindu practice of putting a mark or decoration in the center of the forehead that was referred to as a bindi, which is the feminine form of bindu, meaning dot, which is the term used for the center of a Mandala, a geometric representation of the cosmos or universe.  In Mandala meditation, you begin by gazing at the bindu, the center dot representing unity, and slowly allow your gaze to expand.  Reaching the edges of the sacred Mandala, you bring your focus slowly back to the center.   It occurred to me that the sixth center is the center of our own personal reality from which our life and all the patterns, details and events emanate.  We can expand our vision to see the whole or focus it back to the center.  It is the discriminating nature of the sixth chakra that allows us to define our reality and appreciate the subtlety, nuance and beauty.  The Sanskrit sound associated with this chakra is SHAN and the color is deep indigo for solitude and contemplation.

Sri Yantra Please visit www.chopra.com for more information on Mandala Meditation.

Finally, we reach the top of the head.   The seventh Chakra, the crown chakra, is located at the top of the head, the crown, or the fontanel which is open at birth and slowly closes for greater protection and self definition. This is where our souls enter and leave the body.  We can breathe deeply bringing in the warmth and light of the sun and letting it radiate through our backs down our center and out the souls of our feet into the roots that connect us to the earth.  We can then bring the energy back up filling the fronts of our bodies and showering out the top of our heads with light iridescent, golden many colored sparkles.. In the Yoga Mudra, you lean forward on knees with your arms interlaced behind your back and roll forward massaging from your sixth chakra to your seventh; opening relaxing and realigning your vision with a sense of all that is.   This area is associated with the element of ether or pure spirit. Here, we experience our direct connection to God, our higher power or universal consciousness.  We may experience the seventh chakra as timelessness or a tingling from the top of ours head to the bottom of our toes. It usually points to an experience of direct truth, insight, knowingness, or an “aha experience”. Respect and honor your need for sacred space.   The Sanskrit sound associated with the chakra is AUM, the universal syllable considered to contain all sounds within it.  The color is violet or white for healing and acceptance.  White is a color associated with divine protection.  Violet is often considered a karmic cleanser and or eraser and is used in many religions to denote sacredness. You may note that the spectrum of colors associated with the chakras is the spectrum of visible light. Everything is connected within us and without. It is rarely blocked except in the cases where an individual has chosen to give up their personal authority to another dominating human being such as a cult leader.  At these times you may feel that the person you knew is ‘no longer at home’.   Be very gentle as seventh chakra cleansing is an entirely personal experience.  Only you have the privilege and ability to determine your relationship to the divine and all that is.

 RETURN TO CHAPTER III JOY AND CONSCIOUSNESS: A Transpersonal DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE