How To Open Your Chakras

I recently finished up a series of posts about the chakras describing their aspects and some magnifications if they are “unbalanced.”

In this post I’d like to talk about different ways in which “open” your chakras and realize their true potential.

Yoga, meditation, pranayama (breathing exercises), chants and visualizations are practices you can do to clear any negative or inhibiting energy from our subtle body. By focusing on the opening and clearing of the seven main chakras or energy centers within our energetic field of being, you can learn to heal yourselves on a deep level as well as evolve our consciousness into the spiritual realms of being.

These main wheels of energy vortices are located along the shushumna nadi, the main river of energy, which is synonymous with our central nervous system within our spine.

Root Chakra

We start the journey with the first chakra which is known as the Muladhara Chakra or root chakra.  This energy center is located at the base of the spine toward the perineum and represented by the color red.  It is associated with this area down toward our feet. It governs our survival skills and needs, feelings of security and sensuality, sexuality and lust, our sense of grounded-ness and our feelings of our rights to be here on Earth.

It connects us to the Earth.  We can practice chanting the bija (seed) sound or mantra, Lam to stimulate this area as well as perform yoga postures that open this area such as supta baddha konasana, reclined cobblers pose, setu bandhasana, bridge pose, any of the standing postures that connect us with our sense of balance and stability and any seated posture that focuses on the stretching of the legs.

Sacrum Chakra

The second chakra is called Svadhisthana which means sweetness.  It is located at the sacrum and has a fluid, watery quality that is represented by the color orange.  It is our creative center, as well as our place of reproduction, governing relationships, addictions, pleasure and our emotional needs.

It deals with the genitals and hips, a place of much holding and tightness.  We can chant Vam as a means to access this center.  Cobra pose and nauli kriyas will really activate this area through these deep cleansing exercises of the navel.

Solar Plexus Chakra

Moving up to the third chakra, called Manipura, which literally means “city of gems” is located at the solar plexus, governing many internal organs and systems such as digestion, the adrenals and the pancreas.  The element represented here is fire and the color is yellow, like the Sun!  This is where we harbor our self-esteem, sense of self, anger, fear, personal power and anxiety.

The breath of fire, kalapati breath, abdominal strengthening poses and backbends like bow pose, urdhva dhanurasana, will open and energize this center.  The seed sound to be chanted when focusing on this chakra is Ram.

Heart Chakra

The fourth chakra is the bridge between the bottom three chakras which govern more base instincts and functioning and the top three chakras which connect us more to the spiritual realm and subtle bodies.  The Anahata Chakra, is located at our heart center and means, unstruck, unshaken or unbeaten.

It is our center of love, compassion and empathy and where we feel loss, despair, ecstasy, panic, intense emotional sensitivity and grace.  It energizes the blood and circulatory system, the arms hands, lungs, immune system and thymus gland.  The color is green and the element is air.

Any posture that is performed in a reclined position using a bolster or a block to support the opening of the heart will stimulate this area.  Nasagra Bhastrika, or bellows breath which incorporates rapid breathing to pump the lungs will bring heat into the heart center and open our heart energy, stimulate the cardio-vascular system and increase circulation. Yam can also be chanted to move energy to and from this center.

Throat Chakra

At the throat is Vishuddha Chakra and there is no English word to translate its true meaning.  It is considered a place of purification where we learn to speak our truth and is the center for our communication and higher discrimination.  It is represented by the element space or ether and is the color of light blue, like the sky.

Ham is the mantra to be chanted when focusing on this area to increase wisdom, self-expression and learning.  Shoulder stands, plow pose, fish pose, chanting, khecari mudra and jalandhara bandha all stimulate the neck and throat area to keep the thyroid gland healthy and awaken spiritual energies.  These practices help move the mind into a state of universal consciousness.

Third Eye Chakra

The third eye center is where Ajna Chakra is located to govern the eyes, head, lower mind and pituitary gland.  This is the seat of our intuition, clear thinking, the bridge between the hemispheres of the brain, gives us access to “see” all realms as the pure witness, visualization, imagination and telepathy.

Ajna means beyond wisdom as we use positive visualization, meditation, forward bends, child’s pose, eye movements and the sound Sham chanted to open this center to more receptivity.  The color here is of a violet hue and we move beyond the elements here.

Crown Chakra

At the crown of the head is Sahasrara Chakra.  Our limitlessness, boundary-less-ness, ultimate freedom and conscious evolution culminates at this energy center.  Here are the antennae of receptivity and giving. Headstands, meditation and the sound of Om stimulate the pineal gland and upper parts of the brain.

The color is white or pink or golden light. Ego is lost here and one begins to merge into the state of Oneness. Transcendence and universal wisdom can be accessed at this point.

Chakra’s and their energies are vital to understand and use to create the spiritual and emotional strength required to live a life of power, purpose and passion!

I hope this post helped in someway.