Understanding Chakra
A chakra is the human body's energy axis that receives, interacts with and conveys life force between an individual and his/her environment. Its direct English translation means a spinning wheel. Furthermore, ancient Hindu writings reveal that of the body's 88,000 chakra points, there are seven which are considered of primary importance.
These seven major chakras are root/base chakra, sex/navel chakra, stomach/solar plexus chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra, brow/third eye chakra, and the crown chakra. These major chakra points in our body take in and transmit energies to and from the general surroundings including the people and elements around us. As such, they directly influence and affect an individual's corporeal, psychological, intellectual/emotional and spiritual/mystical activities.
One interesting aspect of the explanation and characterization of chakras is the uncanny similarity reached by both the Hindus and Chinese that they are an integral part of man's conscious and subconscious experience. Add to this the fact that both civilizations use the same theory for promoting a healthy and successful life of an individual.
Since the chakras are constantly in motion regardless if we are awake or not, their constant activity influences our body's structure and appearance, glandular processes, physical disorders, even our thoughts and conduct. Therefore when one or more of our chakras malfunction due to any number of reasons, the result is an imbalance that becomes manifest in all aspects of our being.
Since each of the major chakras corresponds to a particular endocrine gland in our body, any variance in their normal function or behavior directly affects our health as well.
Maintaining Chakra Balance Using the above as our starting point, we can then safely conclude that most of our major illnesses and ailments are chakra related. Although there may not be enough physical manifestations of the illness or imbalance (yet) there may be emotions and concerns from way back our childhood that affect us today -physically, spiritually or emotionally.
These factors could be anything ranging from repressed traumatic incidents during early childhood to wrong diet, unhealthy lifestyle and the like. One thing is certain, and that is we have to remove these physical or emotional toxins from our bodies because they affect us greatly.
Benefits of Chakra Healing One important aspect to note is that we have the capability to manipulate our chakras and their functions. By doing so, we are also directly controlling their functions in order to achieve good life.
Some people prefer to attend yoga exercise classes as the breathing and physical exercises used in the practice of yoga are beneficial to maintain chakra balance in the body.
Other methodologies of chakra healing are meditation (keeping the mind focused on an object of thought or awareness for a certain period of time), guided visualization (done with the aid of audio tapes or CDs to promote natural healing and relaxation techniques to reduce stress, promote relaxation and harness the power of the mind).
Despite the fact that we can see or touch our energy points, aside from the above there are other ways that we can keep them healthy in order for them to better support our body.
Since our diet affects our body and our system, they also affect the stability and synchronization of our major energy points. The food we eat can either make them work better, slowly or not at all!
Our root chakra thrives on root-type vegetables and protein-rich foods. Sweet fruits, nuts directly affect our navel chakra while our solar plexus chakra is enhanced by a healthy diet of breads, dairy product and cereals.
Green, leafy vegetables, plenty of liquid, fruit juices and green tea are beneficial for our heart and throat chakras.
By eating blueberries, grapes and drinking wine or grape juice, we help nourish our brow/third eye chakra which is responsible for making our third eye senses sharper and more attuned to our psychical abilities.
Our crown chakra, the center of our spiritual and emotional center needs detoxification through fasting and/or ritual inhalation of incense and herbs.
These everyday methods, which admittedly are vey simple since they are an extension of what we already perform daily are some of the basic ways we can heal our energy points so that we can reap the benefits of possessing a healthy functioning chakra for a more productive and healthier life.
By Anne-Marie Laureaut
