Part II: Chakras 101: How-to Heal Your Chakras
& Cultivate positive energy
“What you believe,
you receive.”
-Gabrielle Bernstein
I know.
I left your head swirling from my previous blog, Part I: Chakras 101: Meet Your Seven Chakras.
The truth is, I left my own head swimming right alongside you. So much so, that I went straight to two sources that are well-versed and knowledgeable on the subject at hand (literally, they are both practicing energy healers known as Reiki Pracitioners). Danielle, at The Third Eye Energy, and Rivka, at Rivka’s Mystical, provided me with educational insight so that I could avoid falling into the black hole of energy abyss (and lend you a helping hand out, too!).
I cut straight to the chakra truth with them.:
1. What is the overall goal of chakras? I feel as if it is nearly impossible to harmonize all of the chakras at once.
2. [To continue on the above...] Are we one big ball of messed up energy? I found that I checked the box with several of the "blocked chakra" examples.
3. How do we know when a chakra is balanced? Is it as if you just know, like you are about to get married and just know everything is how it is supposed to be?
These are addressed in-detail at the bottom of this blog.
Before we dive into their wisdom, I didn’t want to leave you hanging any longer. I heard you, I see you, I received messages like:
“Help! I feel as if I have a headache, which means my Third Eye is blocked, and I am feeling a wee bit insecure lately, OH and I feel like my lower back hurts. How can I resolve these issues?!”
{This is where I feel compelled to tell you: I am NOT a medical professional, nor is the following the be-all and end-all for your ailments. I believe in the superhuman powers that the medical community possess and have utmost respect for them. BUT the following are additional ways of considering what may be causing some hiccups in your flow. They are alternative ways of viewing what makes up your being and for me personally, have brought me comfort. Take from it what you may, but for Pete’s sake, please visit a doctor if you are undergoing health concerns.}
So, let’s get to it…
How can you balance / harmonize / clear out / remove blockages within the chakras?
Chakra Healing 101
The ancient wisdom of chakra healing, or cleansing, and riding yourself of unwanted bodily pains, funks, blocked / stagnant energy or what some people refer to as “joojoo,” can be achieved through various practices including:
Reiki
“A technique called palm healing or hands-on healing through which a "universal energy" is said to be transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the patient in order to encourage emotional or physical healing.” - Wikipedia. As my wonderful Practitioner / Reiki Master, Danielle, explained to me, a Reiki Master is a {spiritual} person who undergoes training and certification processes in order to administer Reiki. Essentially, she explained that her role is to clear out blocked energy: “Think of your chakras as one, long interstate. Sometimes, accidents happen (traumas, poor experiences, heavy emotions, etc.) and it is my job to be the police or ambulance to arrive to the scene and clear out the accident and traffic so that everything can flow once more.” (truly, a brilliant visual!)
To learn more about Reiki, read my blog on experiencing it for the first time here.
*Spoiler alert, I get this done once a month for maintenance, virtually, and I swear by it!
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine in which thin needles are administered to specific points in the body. It is most frequently used to alleviate pain, but also can be known for opening the chakras up.
As the Mayo Clinic explains further: “Traditional Chinese medicine explains acupuncture as a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as chi or qi (chee) — believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, acupuncture practitioners believe that your energy flow will re-balance.”
Rather, Western medicine states that it stimulates the release of the body’s natural painkillers.
I believe in both views: Acupuncture has provided me with solace and peace of mind. I have come out of sessions feeling incredibly relaxed and at ease. These sessions can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour: a licensed acupuncturist administers the needles (a lit prick, no pain) to certain points of your body to address concerns you have spoken to ahead of the session. Once all of the needles have been placed, you lay still, in a meditative state, while the needles promote the blood flow to those specific points targeted, and once complete, the needles are removed.
I suggest making an appointment towards the end of the day, because after you get it done, you usually feel so Zen that you want to ride the wave without work disruptions.
Meditation
What physical exercise is to the body, meditation is to the mind. It allows you to train your mind to induce a mode of consciousness in order for you to obtain a benefit.
For instance, “I am feeling anxious right now.”
Benefits occur as a result of deep breathing techniques that lesson the blow of the stress hormone, cortisol, being released in your body allowing you to feel centered and more relaxed.
When you meditate with the purpose of clearing your chakras, it is called Chakra Meditation. Those well-versed in with Chakra-clearing suggest at least a twenty-minute meditation focused on chakra cleansing. A variety of these are offered on a free meditation app call Insight Timer. They essentially walk you through visualizing each chakra and releasing the energy that may be stored there.
I take part in Chakra cleansing meditations whenever I am feeling low-energy and would say 8/10 times I come out of it more energized and clear-headed (the other two times usually mean I need to get more sleep haha). To learn more about meditation and its’ benefits, view my blog here.
Yoga
Ever wonder why yogis are such peaceful people? It’s because they are balancing their chakras constantly! They keep an ongoing, healthy chakra system moving or “in flow.” It is said that yoga helps to move energy throughout your body. I like to think of yoga as an “active meditation,” by holding specific poses associated to certain chakras, you are helping to move the energy through that chakra and reduce blockages.
Although I have practiced yoga for a number of years, I did it to largely get a good stretch in and feel toned (I didn’t exactly pace my breathe alongside each movement or focus heavily on each pose, which led to monkey mind a lot of the time). Now, I have an entirely different appreciation for yoga. I largely do Sun Salutation Yoga {almost} every morning. It is the one thing I do fairly religiously each day, when I first wake, that allows me to wake up, ease into the day and into my head and create a relaxed start to my activities ahead. No matter how crazed a day may be, I find it centers me.
This article from The Yoga Journal is a helpful reference for me when I want to target specific chakras and the poses that help me to flow through them.
Crystals
As stated on Live Science.com “Crystal healing is an alternative medical technique in which crystals and other stones are used to cure ailments and protect against disease. Proponents of this technique believe that crystals act as conduits for healing — allowing positive, healing energy to flow into the body as negative, disease-causing energy flows out.” They essentially allow us to get grounded through their natural properties (of mother earth) and are said to have the ability to attract and draw out unwanted energy.
There are quite a number of crystals and each crystal is said to be tied back to specific chakras. Within crystal healing, you lie down on your back, place the crystal(s) on the area of the chakra you are targeting, and meditate. You can again, do a fully body / chakra meditation as noted above on Insight Timer or, can focus on one specific chakra you know you need to open up, and mentally fixate on it.
I personally am starting to acquire such a large collection of crystals that I could open a rock quarry. However, call it the placebo effect (which scientists do consider crystal healing to be as there is no current evidence that crystals actually heal), it has given me an extra boost of confidence when I most needed it and acts as a visual reminder to slow my roll, get grounded and breathe.
Essential Oils
This one was the hardest for me to wrap my mind around (Shocking, right? I was able to understand how carrying a rock in my pocket would help me, but not oils). Within my Chakra’s 101 book, it states that “essential oil therapy is an ancient healing practice that involves using natural, often fragrant compounds, that exist in many types of plants for their curative properties.” Again, like in crystal healing, there are essential oils that tie back to each chakra. In order to heal that specific chakra, you mix a couple of drops of the oil with a carrier oil (because essential oils can be so strong, it can cause you to have a sensitive skin reaction: I’ve read that coconut and jojoba oil are good carriers, both you can get at Trader Joe’s *What can’t you get there?) and place that mixture in the area of the selected chakra.
I am a lover of lavender and a sucker for eucalyptus, but I have yet to actively attempted essential oil healing. What I can say is that lavender does the trick every night on my wrists before bed and that I do find myself relaxing ahead of a message when they asked me to breathe in the oil they selected for me (when I have to pick out of three oils, I always got overwhelmed). There are two bonuses involved with this one: feeling good AND smelling good.
If this has captured your attention and you are feeling called to investigate further, I suggest the following steps first:
Continue studying the chakras. My Reiki Master, Danielle from Third Eye Love, suggested that my learnings start with the book: Chakra Healing: A beginner’s Guide to Self-Healing Techniques that Balance Chakras. It provided me with an easy and interesting overview on Chakras so I could open myself up to receiving suggested healing properties thoroughly and wrap my mind around what was going on. For me, knowledge has been power, as I can visualize what my goal is when I am tackling an energy funk or roadblock.
Identify the symptoms you are experiencing.
Educate yourself on which chakra is blocked.
Heal yourself through suggested practices. Maybe something you read in the list above stood out to you, tickled your fancy per say. If it did, explore it more, is that an area you may want to investigate further?
This article from Chopra was also such a good read for identifying Chakra blockages and providing healing remedies.
In summary [and in great news!], there are countless ways that you can get your chakras in tip top shape. Some of the above may be foreign to you, some may make you roll your eyes, however, some may surprise you as you notice yourself letting go of your tight grip little by little and allowing relaxing properties to flow through you.
If there is one thing I know, there is the act of doing something to do it, and then there is the act of doing something with intention. With heart, energetically granting yourself permission to “go there” and as a result, to open yourself up to receiving the gifts it may bring.
Be open.
Be present.
& Be energy cleansers (!)
CHAKRA Q&A
Still craving more? Me too! That’s why I went directly to the source of my energy healing, to my friends and Reiki Practitioners, Danielle from The Third Eye Energy and to Rivka, from Rivka’s Mystical, who is also a Tarot Reader and Licensed Esthetician (and my Esthetician for three years!).
{HUGE thank you to these two beautiful souls, for being light-workers and spreading the positive message of healing from within. I could not recommend them both more.}
1.) What is the overall goal of chakras? I feel as if it is impossible to harmonize all of the chakras at once.
Danielle @thethirdeyeenergy: “The overall goal is to have all of our chakras aligned. I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, I would say it’s a long journey to get there. What we need to focus on is actually our Root Chakra, Solar Plexus Chakra and Heart Chakra. Our Root Chakra is most important because it is what brings us stability and security. It is our foundation of the body. For example, when we build a house, we need to set the foundation because if we don’t the house will fall.”
Rivka @rivkas_mystical: “[Chakras] are connected and make up part of our electromagnetic field/aura; kind of like our energetic plumbing system. When you get a reiki session, you’re working on the energetic plumbing to allow energy to flow properly. This is essentially the goal, with or without reiki.... To allow for a healthy (“high vibes”) and proper energy flow in your system allowing you to feel good, healthy, and balanced.”
{Which leads me to my more urgent question:}
2.) Are we one big ball of messed up energy? I feel like I check the boxes with several of the “blocked energy” examples.
{“Help me! I’m [energy] poor” -Bridesmaids}
Danielle @thethirdeyeenergy: “Haha I wouldn't say that, I would say that if we work on the root of our past traumas, we will be able to fully align our chakras and become our true authentic self. This is also something that takes time. We also have to consider that these "roots" created a tree trunk that grew branches and those branches grew branches. One major trauma could have led to an underlying emotion that led to a reaction that could have led to another trauma. In other words, we still deal with day-to-day life in which any little emotion or action due to triggers we may have from past traumas (in this life or another) can cause an imbalance in the chakra. This is when reiki, acupuncture, meditation, yoga, essential oils, salt baths, and nature walks come into play. We can use these modalities to help move and clear unwanted energy so that our Qi can flow freely.”
Rivka @rivkas_mystical: “Many of us are. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying everyone is messed up and broken and we should all just go home and be miserable. Having “off energy”, blocked or stagnant energy doesn’t mean that we are completely imbalanced. That doesn’t mean we aren’t trying, wanting, deserving of healing. And that certainly doesn’t mean once tangled, we can’t untangle.
Humans have layers and layers of programming (good & bad), habits we’ve acquired, traumas that have happened, ways of thinking, being, living as a result of our own personal and unique journey. Many of us are so turned about, we don’t even realize something is in need of healing. And if we are self-aware enough to acknowledge the need for healing, often people don’t know what to do about it and often get overwhelmed. Luckily, there are tools. These tools can be anything from therapy, yoga, meditation, a visit to your Doctor, a reiki session, journaling, etc.
Keep in mind, an important thing when it comes to healing is that someone must be willing, ready, and ask for it. Once there, we have to seriously be mindful not to let our “ego” run the show. Our “ego” is part of how we dug our hole to begin with.
When we talk about energy blocks, or stagnant energy, especially in the chakras, it is very easy to say “My third eye is blocked!” and jump into third eye healing. This can be the “ego” trying to run the show and say “I know what my third eye needs to heal!”. [You need to remember,] It took you a certain amount of time to get you where you are and it will take time to get out.
No. So, it’s not just about healing the symptoms, it’s about healing the cause. What actually caused that block in the third eye? Was it a trauma that actually started in the root when you felt like your world was toppled over and your sense of security was blown? Or was it when you started giving away your power from your solar plexus to people who threw your Sacral/relationship center out of wack? Which then lead to worry, fear, anxiety of the future taking you out of the present moment, turning you all around. And now you can’t see clearly through the situation and are getting major headaches, and “OMG MY THIRD EYE IS BLOCKED!!!!
So ultimately...to answer this question.....Yes, we can easily be a big ball of yarn. Some of us are unknotted, balanced and flowing....others are tangled and stuck.... and everything in between.
And remember, we are all here having a human experience. Things can and will change day to day. You may feel out of wack one day and balanced the next. But here’s the good thing..... We can heal. We can feel better. We can feel good. Anything can be learned and unlearned. This is why it is so important for someone to ask for healing, to show they are ready for healing. No one can be healed unless they want to be healed. (And not wanting to be healed will block).
Maintaining your energy is to be worked on daily. Just like you brush your teeth, take a shower, cleanse your body.... the same must be done for your energy. Rely on your tools (meditation, nature healing, reiki, therapy, support systems, etc.) You can feel better more consistently, you can heal, you can balance. It is wonderful to feel good, high vibe, positive flow. I wish for everyone to feel good, feel better, feel balanced.
3.) The last question pertains to the knowing behind when we feel as if all of our chakras are in harmony: How do we know when a chakra is balanced?
Danielle @thethirdeyeenergy: “Each chakra symbolizes something different. For example, if we have an unbalanced solar plexus, we may feel insecure about ourselves because the solar plexus represents our confidence in who we are as a person. Sometimes we don't know we are unbalanced because we are not present and aware of our bodies and emotions. Outside factors can block our ability to know what's going on inside. However, when we are balanced and aware of it, we have this sense of feeling that everything connects with each other. Things that you desire are put in front of you by the universe and you feel this sense of comfort and security that things will work out. You feel secure about who you are as a person and you speak your truth authentically. Like I mentioned in the previous question, I would start with balancing your root chakra. This is your foundation and your soul's connection to earth. Keeping your root chakra balanced will make it easier to balance the others.”
Rivka @rivkas_mystical: “Often, we focus on the negatives and how a chakra may be stagnant or blocked. Sometimes we are so used to seeing the negative, we don’t even know what better, good, balanced, or flow looks like. And many of us get hyper focused on the “ultimate goal” of being balanced that we forget we are having a human experience and end up blocking our flow.
Now let’s talk about that human experience we are all having. Life if complex. The wheel is always turning. Things will happen in life that you can’t control. These things will impact you in all the different ways. Energy work has to consistent and ongoing. You don’t take a shower on Tuesday and expect to still be clean next May.
That being said.....There is an aspect of “you just know” to it. However, the better in tune you are with yourself, your patterns, your higher self, doing your meditations and Journaling, using your energetic tools, the better you will be able to manage your energy.
With these energetic tools (ie meditation, journaling, reiki, workouts....activities that help activate chakras and unblock) you can start to recognize the move in energy. When you have that “wow, I feel better.”, that’s your energy shifting in the right direction, with better flow, moving towards balance. Sometimes it’s a small shift, sometimes big. No pressure. Be kind to yourself and know the small steps are equally necessary and important as the big. The whole point is to feel better.
It is that shift up in energy you want to look for. Ask yourself, “Do I feel better?” “Do I feel good about this?” “Does this make me feel good?” If yes, you’re a step in the right direction. The more you practice looking for ways to heal and feel better, the easier it will be to bring your chakras back to balance when life kicks your ass.”
“If you want to attract positive things into your life, then begin now by spreading positive energy about.”
{Sources: Chakra Healing: A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Healing Techniques that Balance Chakras by Margarita Alcantra, Crystal Healing: The Stone-Cold Fact About Gemstone Treatments by Elizabeth Palermo on Live Science.com, The Beginner’s Guide to the Seven Chakras and Their Meanings, The Mayo Clinic}