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THE  CHAKRAS
The Seven Windows of the Soul
By Genevieve Simperingham.

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Understanding our chakras and our energy system gives us a better understanding of ourselves and those around us.  The understanding of how the chakras affect us gives us the clear understanding of ourselves as a complex, harmonious blend of energies.  It allows us to see and understand ourselves to be energy beings, embodying and manifesting the essence of our soul. Understanding our energy system allows us to see our body as a map of our consciousness.

C. G. Jung describes chakras as the “Gateways to consciousness, receptive points for the inflow of cosmic energies.”

This Article Covers:
What are Chakras?
What is the Aura or Human Energy Field?
The effects of Trauma on the Chakras and Aura
Repairing the Chakras and the Aura
How our Early Childhood Affected our Chakras
The Open or Closed Attributes of Each of the Seven Chakras and ways to open each chakra:
Base Chakra
Sacral Chakra
Solar Plexus Chakra
Heart Chakra
Throat Chakra
Third Eye (Brow) Chakra
Crown Chakra

The word chakra is Sanskrit for wheel or disk and signifies one of seven basic energy centers in the body. Each of these centers correlates to major nerve ganglia branching forth from the spinal column. In addition the chakras also correlate to levels of consciousness, archetypal elements, developmental stages of life, colors, sounds, body functions, and much, much more. In Indian tradition the chakras are centres of specific consciousness forces.  A person’s spiritual development is linked to these focal points. 

A chakra is an energy point in the human body/energy system through which power and life-force flow. Chakras are energy centres within and outside our bodies. They are focal points which affect our quality of life and how we cope with life. For optimum health, strength, confidence, well-being and spiritual connection, it is important that the chakras operate in a harmonious flowing manner and are not blocked by stress or dis-ease of life. To assist our chakras to operate to their full capacity, we can become more aware of their state, learn to diagnose them through dousing and recognizing the symptoms of a blocked chakra. 

We can then consciously work towards clearing and freeing their energy.  There are myriad ways that we can enhance the openness and functionality of the chakras, through meditation, visualizations, connection with nature, yoga, conscious movement (even walking), sounds, singing and generally raising our self awareness (and hence vibration).  The subtle forces of the Chakra System can be enhanced by the use of the relevant colours in dress, light or environment.

The Human Energy Field

Just as the human skin has seven layers, one on top of the other, the Aura is like a sheath of layers of colours which surround the body, except that the outer ones also encompass the inner ones.  The Aura is an electromagnetic field of colours, of energy, which extends to the reach of the outstretched arms.   
 
This vibrating field of energy represents the most subtle form of existence, of life and responds to and interacts with all other energies around us.  We merge energetically with the people, places and energies around us, particularly those we most identify with.  We literally resonate with them.  When the energy field and our self esteem are weak, we can feel subject to being changed and imprinted powerlessly by those around us.  When our energy field is strong, we are centred in our hara and strongly aligned with Spirit, God, Goddess, Nature then we bring a positive, uplifting and enlightening influence to the energies around us. 

Certain traumas can damage, tear and weaken the aura. Severe shock causes us to clamp down our emotions, locking the trauma in, thus catapulting our life-force up and out of the body with such a panic that our energies can become ripped in the process.  The locking down of emotions in the body causes a certain emotional anesthetic or numbness.  This can be to our benefit in emergencies, for instance, the person who has a car crash and can calmly take the necessary action to get the children out safely etc without having to deal with the emotions.  But it’s important that the person later comes back to being present to the true emotional reactions from the situation, to give them expression and release, allowing the energies of the body to come back to balance and alignment. 

Childbirth is another example of the process of dissociation. The woman may feel fantastic and euphoric for a couple of days after the birth and then the extent of what she’s been through hits her (opens up in her) and she can’t stop crying. The crying is essential, it is the body's natural mechanism for releasing the trauma and hence gaining the necessary insights, the pearls of wisdom that every extreme situation teaches us.  When people experience physical, sexual, verbal or energetic violation, this often creates rips or holes in the aura. 

Being in nature is very healing and reparative to our aura (energy field) and the chakra system. The aura rebuilds much faster in this beautiful energy, the power of the healing dependent on our presence and depth of connection with Mother Earth.  In the bush or the ocean, we are bathed in rich healing energies that weave us back to our true nature again and reawakens our knowing.  Creating healthy experiences of feeling held, supported and loved by others is also powerful in healing the aura.  Like all healing, becoming aware that the healing is needed brings the light of conscious awareness and from this place we can take action that brings us back into resonance with our true self.

When our chakras are open, we feel fed by life, nature, beauty, other people’s happiness and growth.  When the chakras are open, relationships enrich and feed our soul. 

When our chakras are closed or weak, it is difficult to feel or receive energy.  We can’t as easily receive love and energy from life, Spirit and nature because our chakras are not receiving energy.  Our inability to appreciate and trust energies from life closes us down even more and we can easily fall into a downward spiral.  When our chakras are closed, relationships can become very difficult and complicated. To gain an experience of feeling seen, heard and validated by others can seem like very hard work and we can consequently speak or act out of our integrity, which causes us to shut down even more. We may feel as though we need to sacrifice our own needs and better judgment and feel compelled to give to others not from the heart, but in the hope that we may receive in return.  This also is a downward spiral because in operating in this way (be it unconsciously) we are overstretching ourselves and loosing even more of our life-force, closing the chakras down further making it difficult to receive energies.  Others sense that their attention, good will etc is not being received or trusted and hence pull away.  The reality is that when the chakras are closed down, a person cannot see, feel, receive or appreciate the positive energies coming to them from others.

THE BASE CHAKRA
Governs the Adrenals, Spinal Column, bones, teeth, intestines, kidneys, prostate gland legs.
Element:  Earth.  Colour:  Red.

When the Base Chakra is open, healthy and strong:

We have a solid feeling of Security, Structure, Stability  and Will to live.  When in the positive state we feel held and have a strong sense of belonging.  “I fit in”.  We feel strongly rooted and identified with our family roots, the places we grew up, the land we live or lived in, our heritage, our culture, our current house and land, our community, our country and the planet.  This part of ourselves is the most primal and tribal.  We value our primal instincts and needs.  We value our tribal sense of belonging and our need to feel that we hold a strong place in our tribe, ie family and community.  In the positive we fee our feet firmly on the ground.  We feel grounded, solid and strong.  We have a good sense of time, order, constancy and commitment.  We feel confident and powerful.  People with an open healthy base chakra are very visibly seen and felt when they enter a room.  “I am here”.  In our Root Chakra, we carry the tribal and racial attitudes passed down through the generations.  We can then follow or transform these attitudes consciously.

In the negative state, the Root Chakra is closed or weak and there is a deep rooted fear for our survival, a fear of our world falling apart.  Problems in relationships, quickly expose the fear of loosing the person.  Problems with finance, quickly expose the fear of loosing everything.  There is a general insecure fear of things falling apart and loosing our footing.  Foundations in current life situations are shaky.  We feel unhinged, ungrounded, in chaos, at the mercy of other’s holding strong.  The theme of “I don’t belong” will surface in one situation after another.  In the negative we feel drained of energy, weak and unmotivated.  Double bind of needing help, but receiving help equals being used and enslaved or admitting defeat.  At the mercy of life’s demands.  Unable to “make a stand” because we are not strongly in our hips and legs.  Confidence and power are based on approval from others, especially those we associate as authority figures.

To heal the Base Chakra we must focus on and responsibly tackle the details of everyday life.  Being practical and realistic.  Focus on building a strong foundation for your life, your family, your future.  Bring awareness to soles of your feet as you walk anchors your soul's energy right down to your feet, strengthening your base chakra.  The name “sole” is not accidental!  The Base Chakra is where we must anchor our Soul within our body.  Another easy technique is to jump up and down on the spot, this is very good for opening the base chakra. Also, wearing red, eating red food, carrying a red crystal in your pocket, focusing on the colour red or visualizing a sphere of red energy encompassing the chakra will bring about healing.

All forms of meditation have a positive effect on the chakra system, but the second track on the Mountain Meditation CD is specifically designed to clear old blocks and negative patterns relating to each of the chakras in turn.

SACRAL CHAKRA
Spleen,  Reproductive System, Ovaries, Testicles, Bladder, Kidneys
Element: Water.  Colour: Orange.

When the Sacral Chakra is open and healthy:

We feel centred in ourselves, our energy is centred in the hara or Tan Tien.  We have an abundance of physical vitality and creativity.  There is literally a well of creativity in a feeling sense that springs forth from within us.  Our emotional energy is strong and healthy and fluid.  We easily access how we feel about things in all situations in life.  We are in touch with and respect our gut feeling and intuition. The Sacral Chakra is very much about pleasure and when this chakra is open and healthy we derive much pleasure from just being ourselves, from being alive, from life.  

Being centred in the sacral chakra gives us a feeling of pleasure as the emotional energies are either calm or flowing easily.  This chakra is about sweetness and having pleasurable and sweet feelings in just moving our bodies and being part of life.  Babies and toddlers often demonstrate this very well and remind us about the value of being present and enjoying life and our natural desire to be in this state.  In the West, we’ve associated sensuality, nearly wholly, with sexuality, this has caused much confusion and dysfunction.  We need to separate them out so that we can allow, receive and give pleasure through affection in ways that are appropriate and clear.   Because sensuality, affection and sexuality have been so clumped and infused together, people, particularly teenagers often become involved sexually in seeking affection and loose their sense of dignity and integrity and become very confused.

Indian mothers massage their babies for 40 days after birth, helping the baby gain a sense of their own bodies, learning to associate life and their body with pleasure, peace,  nurturing, connection and happiness.  The Sacral Chakra also determines our ability to give and receive sexual pleasure. 

When the sacral chakra is dysfunctional a person literally looses their sense of self, they can’t get a clear feeling of how they are or who they are.  This emotional energy body is very fluid and then person can become flooded or swamped by their backlog of unreleased emotional hurts, including unexpressed love, desires, excitement, creativity, all energies become painful when they can’t find an outlet.  This chakra needs to be working in cooperation with the solar plexus, so that the person can easily apply logic to their emotions, but there is often a split between these two chakras causing us to be either in our logic but out of touch with our feelings and intuition, or at the mercy of our emotions and unable to access clarity of thought.  When this chakra is particularly closed down, this literally causes depression.  The person has lost the energy to express their feelings, to release them, they can’t release their anger or their tears and the mind becomes more and more foggy. 

To heal the Sacral Chakra we need to focus our awareness on having a positive appreciation for our feelings, our gut reactions and our intuition. It is important to get into the habit of tuning in to your self on a regular basis and listening to your feelings. When there is a big backlog of unexpressed and unreleased emotions from childhood, then it is advisable to get help from a healer (who is empathetic), a counsellor, rebirther or another practitioner who values the safe release and expression of painful emotions.

All forms of creative expression can be healing for the sacral chakra, for example, painting, drawing, making things with your hands, singing, dancing, writing. Whatever brings you a warm and sweet feeling about yourself is positive. Healthy touch like massage, reflexology can be good. Also, it is very important to create healthy connected intimacy in relationships and to heal any feelings of shame around the body and sexuality.

SOLAR PLEXUS
Pancreas, Stomach, Liver, Gallbladder, Nervous System.
Element:  Fire.  Colour:  Yellow.


The Solar Plexus Chakra is associated with clarity, knowing, logic, intellect, insight, personal power and self worth. 

When this chakra is open and healthy we are strong in our belief systems, morals and philosophies.  We have a clear sense of fitting into and being supported by the Universe.  We will not allow or seek for others to make important decisions about our life.  We are strong in our own self authority and are not easily swayed or intimidated by other people’s beliefs.  We find it easy to say “no” and have a clear sense of our boundaries.  When a child is allowed to have their own opinions and is allowed to say no, this has a healthy effect on the development of this chakra and consequent psychological attributes.  This person will then walk through life with the feeling of knowing their perspective is always valid and important for them and will not easily interpret the beliefs of others as a threat.  We then hold an appreciation of the validity of opposing beliefs and see “the truth” as being a complex but beautiful mandala of many different perspectives, viewpoints and data.  I respect my beliefs.  I respect your beliefs.  I’m strong in my beliefs and allow others to be strong in their beliefs.

If however, there was more focus on the importance of learning facts and passing exams as an indication of intelligence and self worth to the exclusion of valuing the child’s unique thoughts and perspectives, then the person grows up to equate their self worth or the lack of it with knowledge, which goes against the natural sense of self worth based on the person just being themselves. True and strong self worth needs to be based on valuing yourself as a person independent from what we know or what other’s think of us.  When we lack their secure self esteem based on just being ourselves, then regardless of whether we can show the world our successes or not, their will always be an underlying fear of failure. 

When the solar plexus chakra is in the negative, closed or weak it manifests as fear of failure, worry, mental arguments, confusion, fear and anxiety.   We can’t see a way through our challenges. Mental confusion and congestion happen when we were overloaded as kids with concepts that were over our heads.  If we were made to listen to theories that we couldn’t grasp, without the permission to ask enough questions, this could have caused blocks to learning and clear thinking.  The confusion, frustration and anxiety built up because of feeling overloaded in our education becomes associated with learning in general.  Therefore, being in new situations in life where there is much to learn can bring up a lot of anxiety causing the person to immediately feel overloaded, making it very hard to think clearly and take things one step at a time. 

Many people today have problems with the solar plexus chakra because they were fed too much information that they couldn’t assimilate as children. It is very frustrating for a child in a class room situation where the teacher is explaining things that the child cannot understand, but the child does not feel like they can ask questions or generally gain help assimilating the information. All situations similar to this can cause clogging and tension in the solar plexus chakra. When children (or adults) lack of opportunity to explore and integrate new ideas and information in practical ways, this same problem can result.  Most people had this problem in school and early childhood, which has lead to general stress, tension and anxiety in everyday life as an adult.  When we’re worried and confused, our minds go round and round trying to figure things out causing increased tightness and tension in the solar plexus, inhibiting our ability to think clearly.

The solar plexus chakra governs digestion and just as our digestive system discriminates the separation and breakdown of our food intake, taking in the nutrients that are needed and rejecting what we don’t need or is unhealthy, so our solar plexus is where we choose what we assimilate and take in to ourselves or what we reject as not needed or unhealthy.  When self esteem is strong, we easily reject that which does not enhance our well being.  We are at peace saying no.  People who allow themselves to be overloaded by others may also not be able to say no to themselves around food, alcohol, etc.  These people need to practice saying no as well as allowing themselves to feel and release the underlying feelings, ie fear of saying no, the frustration of having not asserted a boundary.

To heal the Solar Plexus Chakra, a person must start to become very aware of their boundaries. How do you feel about saying no? Can you prioritize your own needs over others when it is important to do so? Is there a good balance between taking in information and putting that information into practice? Do you rely more on information from others than your own knowing?

Begin balancing the information you take in from the world around you with your own knowledge and experience and begin giving more value to your inner knowing and seek guidance from your own subconscious (through dreams) and communication with your Higher Self. What can you do to increase the feelings of trust and hope and minimize your worries about the future? Again, meditation is very good for calming the logical mind. Read about the Chakra Meditation on my Mountain Meditation CD, which is specifically designed to heal unhealthy patterns in the chakras.

HEART CHAKRA
Heart, blood, circulation, Endocrine Gland: the immune system, thymus gland, skin, hands
Element: Air.  Colour:  Red or Pink

The heart chakra is associated with unity, love, sharing, caring, and brotherhood. 

When the heart chakra is open and healthy, we have a love for others, a love for people in general as well as our close relationships and feel connectedness with all of life.  We have a love for animals and nature and the whole earth.  We care about healing our family tree and bringing about positive change and growth in our community and on the earth.  When this chakra is open we are filled with the beauty of nature and the awe and wonder of the world around us.  We are easily touched.  Through the heart chakra we feel unconditional love, we have so much love for others, we want to share it and truly care about their wellbeing. 

Through the heart we relate to others in a higher way.  The psychological attributes related to the heart chakra concern developing and building relationships.  At the sacral level we are associated with how we feel about others and our emotional reactions.  Here at the heart, we can bring that information together with our clarity, understanding, wisdom and can expand to also put ourselves in other people’s shoes, have empathy for others and genuinely seek to understand and work with other people’s perspectives.  Human beings are now developing their heart chakras and becoming interested in learning more about and developing relationships, parenting, understanding couple and group dynamics, etc.  When this chakra is open and healthy, we have access to feelings of joy, bliss, brotherly love and compassion. 

When the heart chakra is closed and weighed down with grief, we also wish for those close to us to be happy, but this is very different in that the need is based on our fear or unmet needs. We may be walking on eggshells in the relationship or need their love and approval because our self worth depends on it.  These are valid needs that need to be felt, healed and parented by yourself, but actually tend to block unconditional love.  When, as young children, our love for our parents and others was not received (because the parent’s chakras were not open and receptive), then we may have learned to block our feelings of love for others and love.  In this case, loving another becomes associated with emotional aloneness. 

Babies and children need for their parents to feel, receive, allow, appreciate and reciprocate their love.  When parents have a lot of love for their children, but can’t allow themselves to feel loved by their children because their heart chakra is blocked, this causes grief for the child and leads to more problems.  If the parent is not in touch with their baby or child’s love for them, they can easily feel that it’s a thankless relationship and judge the child to be always needing and pulling out of the parent without giving anything back. 

When the parent’s heart chakra is open, then even though they are the one who is doing everything for the child in an active sense, they will receive so much genuine love, joy and happiness from their child and allow the connection to stay alive, strong and grow.  

Relationship Conflict: Unresolved conflict in relationships causes a feeling of heartbreak in the heart area.  If, in relationships, interactions are primarily from the first three chakras without the emotional security of unconditional love, then this causes the person to close down the heart chakra.  In relationships where the relating is happening much more at the heart level, this speaks to the heart chakra and can help an opening.  This also can open up a lot of repressed grief, the grief of not having experienced this kind of love in relationships in the past.

THROAT CHAKRA
Thyroid, throat, bronchial and vocal systems, lungs.
Element:  Ether.  Colour:  Blue.

When the throat chakra is open and healthy, we easily and effortlessly express ourselves, express who we are, express our individuality, our creativity, our beliefs and our feelings. 

Through the throat chakra, we express to the world who we really are, what we think and feel.  Through the heart we express our love for others and for the world.   Through our throats, we not only express our personal truths and beliefs and thoughts and experiences, we also express the feeling tone and energy behind our actual words.  If we grew up with positive role models who freely expressed their individuality and creativity, regardless of family and society pressures and expectations, then we also we have been instilled with the courage and freedom to do the same. 

If our parents and other prominent figures in our life allowed us to express ourselves freely and treated us with respect without shaming or responding with skeptical or cynical looks, then we would have learned that it was safe and healthy to explore all kinds of self expression.  When we are free to express ourselves, we participate more fully in life.  We can enjoy singing, dancing, creative endeavors, games and new experiences.  When we truly honor and validate our feelings and individuality, we express ourselves to the world joyfully and without shame.  The more freely we allow ourselves to express ourselves and explore our self expression, the more we get to know ourselves and learn to identify with and develop the qualities and hence gifts that bring us the most joy and expansion.  A good example is the teenager who experiments with different styles, looks, moods, music, social groups on a regular basis like a person in a clothes shop who tries in lots of different kinds of clothes, exploring how different styles may bring out different moods or aspects of self.  The more we validate and express our feelings and creative endeavors, the freer we are to accept others. 

The throat chakra is also about expressing our soul, our true self.  We are all ultimately working towards being more and more in touch with and expressing to the world who we truly are and our unique gifts.  The more we share with the world our unique passions, gifts and generally the things we enjoy most, the more of our soul's essence we shine through.

The throat chakra is associated with self responsibility.  Because feelings of inhibition and repression from others inhibit our self expression and cause us to feel gagged and bound, we are pushed to break free and realize that allowing others to dictate who and how we must be has never and will never work.  Developing the throat chakra is about valuing and fostering our own uniqueness and taking full responsibility for our lives.

Suppressing, swallowing our feelings leads to problems in the throat area; sore throats, swollen glands, thyroid problems, stiff and sore necks, ear problems and colds.   When the throat chakra is closed, the person has learned to invalidate their thoughts and feelings.  They learned that their thoughts and feelings were not allowed or appreciated or worse still, attracted sarcasm, shaming or public humiliation from others.   When a person is blocked in their throat chakra and blocks their own expression, they will constantly scan and scrutinize others to try and figure out what’s acceptable and what’s not in the group, relationship, etc.  When a person is freer in the throat chakra, less time and energy will be wasted looking around and trying to determine what everybody else may or may not think about us.  When the throat chakra is blocked and anti-clockwise, then we project our judgment of our self expression onto others.  Our buttons will be pushed when others express themselves more freely and we may judge them as being “over the top”, manipulative or looking for attention. 

When a whole society or cultural group is repressed in terms of self expression, the tall poppy syndrome kicks in.  It then takes a lot of courage to step forward and begin expressing your uniqueness when it differs from others, but the more people who do this, the easier it becomes for the group at large.  When the throat chakra is blocked and communication breaks down in relationships, we are greatly inhibited from continuing to grow more and more into being and expression our true self, our Spirit.  This is why it happens that when people focus on connecting with and developing their spirituality, they feel strongly pushed from within to clear the blocks that inhibit them from being honest and being themselves in their close relationships, it’s a necessary gateway we must all pass, or series of gateways more appropriately, leading to higher spiritual development.

When adults sexualize their children, for example the adult looks to another adult with an eyebrow raised and says “oh, he’s very popular with the ladies” with an air of insinuation, referring to the little boy playing with the little girl.  Children are affected by this energy even though they may not understand the comment.  This happens when the adult is unable to really understand the differences between child mind and the adult mind and project adult themes, thoughts and beliefs onto the child.  This robs the child of their innocence and can leave the child feeling emotionally alone, misunderstood and confused.  When adults sexualize a child, the child is not being seen or understood for who they are individually and can take on these energetic and verbal false accusations and unconsciously weave them into our identity.  These kinds of patterns created in childhood can strongly affect a person’s ability to express themselves freely as adults.  When people have been shamed as children, in whatever way, they become prematurely self conscious and awakened to adult themes that are beyond their understanding and begin filtering and discriminating their self expression, which is hugely inhibiting. For instance, the same little boy whose mummy has projected that he "enjoys" the attention of the girls, may start to feel ashamed and confused when he plays with girls, even his sister. When children have been sexualized, they can tend to appear older than their age.  They learn to generally suppress themselves and calculate whether or not they should say or do this or that, based on fear of humiliation or exposure of the things about themselves they’ve learned to feel ashamed about.  This shame can relate to all their difficult feelings if they’ve been shamed for being upset, needy, angry, etc.  

BROW CHAKRA
Pituitary Gland, Ears, nose, nervous system, eyes, lower brain.

The brow or third eye chakra allows us to see the big picture in life situations. 

When this centre is open and healthy, we can easily visualize or create the image of things they want to create.  This chakra is developed, the person is in touch with spiritual wisdom and receives visions or glimpses of the path they must follow.  Enlightenment is associated with the brow chakras.  This is where we align our brain mind with our higher mind and the mind of God and Oneness.  Through focusing on the brow chakra we can heighten and expand our understanding of ourselves and life greatly.  Through the brow chakra, we can gain the higher insights that bring with them huge amounts of light and vitality to take appropriate action based on our higher understanding. 

The brow chakra is associated with spiritual and emotional growth and transformation.  The height of creativity and spiritual wisdom is brought about when the mind, emotions and physical body resonate harmoniously together, giving a heightened sense of well being and wholeness.  The mind then has the fullest potential for creative manifestation.  When the brow chakra is open, our thoughts are being illuminated constantly, anchoring more and more of our divinity into our life and our actions.  When the brow chakra is awakened, it gives conscious control over every cell in the body.  In this way, we can open ourselves to receiving divine healing.  This enhances our vibrational quality so intensely that we become like radiant suns, spreading joy wherever our light shines, wherever our thoughts focus.

When we see life situations through the eyes of our soul and the goodness and perfection of life, then we can see the big picture and hence distil wisdom from life’s learning experiences.  From this wise perspective we can see clearly all situations, all aspects and perspectives without having to block out the “negative”, we have trust in our vision and the mandala of life, knowing that when we see all sides and see everything for what it is, the light literally shines through, all pain and negativity leads to greater release and enlightening of the places that have been cut off, not seen, but can now, because they are seen, be brought back to the light and transform.
If this centre is closed, the person may get the feeling for creative endeavors, but find it difficult to clearly imagine it, they may have the feeling for a song or a drawing or a business idea, but can’t quite make it real or bring it together. 

CROWN CHAKRA
Upper brain, Pineal Gland, Harmonious function of whole body

Universal Identity.  Consciousness as pure awareness.  This chakra brings us universal knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection and bliss. 

In Yoga, this centre is referred to as the Thousand Pedaled Lotus, representing purity, refinement and beauty. Through the crown chakra a person expresses their spirituality through the lightness and brightness of their energy.  The crown chakra is related to the integration of the person’s whole being, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  When this chakra is open, the person will probably have an experiential connection with their spirituality. When a person’s spirituality becomes associated with tangible beautiful experiences, then the effects of all dogma begin to fade away and their understanding and focus of their spirituality will increasingly be focused on the feelings that connection with Spirit gives them.  These experiences literally transcend the physical and give the person a sense of wholeness, faith, purpose, clarity, peace and a sense of the perfection of existence.   

If this chakra is closed, spiritual connection will only be theoretical and they will not have that “cosmic feeling”.  Their connection with their spirituality will not be personal, it is something out there.  Without the feeling sense, we can’t really have an understanding of our spiritual connection, this needs to be developed through opening the crown chakra. 

When the crown chakra is closed the person can feel very disorientated, feel faint or dizzy easily and can experience headaches, heaviness and pressure in the head.  This also negatively impacts on the whole body because they are not plugged into the Source.  They may have fears about life after death and lack deeper meaning in their life.  They can’t see their life and their actions as having a significant impact on others, on life and cause them to feel cut off from working towards the greater good. 

To open the Crown Chakra, the person needs to develop their spirituality, to nurture it and focus on any sense of peace or calm they gain, valuing this above all intellectual understanding.  When the person realizes that their spiritual understanding and connection will naturally well up from the feeling of peace and calm that they gain through moments in meditations, in nature, then they can bring more and more attention of bringing peace to the mind, hence opening and developing their connection with their Spirit Self through their Crown Chakra.

How our Early Childhood Conditioning affects our Chakras: The main cause of clogged, closed or weak chakras is blocked energy and the main cause of blocked energy is blocked and repressed emotions. When a parent can cope with a child's strong emotions and validate them, they constantly allow and encourage a free flow of the child's energy. If our parents responded supportively when we were in a downward spiral of hurt as children and could recognize with empathy and love our frustration, this would have allowed the natural releasing of built up negative energies (frustration) and would have brought us back to balance in a healthy way. If this happened, we would have learned  that love and sweetness brings us back to balance and we would thus as adults naturally self sooth and know how to bring our emotions back to peace and calm again. 

We would have grow up with the ability to validate our states of hurt and chaos as a normal part of being a human without feeling deep shame and fear of isolation and rejection. 
We would have grown up with a spacious feeling of allowing those niggling hurts and frustrated feelings to surface in the knowing that release of tension and frustration is in sight and with the release comes the clarity of what it was that caused the imbalance.  When a person gains clarity, the next step inevitably is to then take appropriate action, which is always easier once the repressed energies have surfaced giving you both the clarity of what has been out of balance and the necessary energy to take right action or express clearly what needs to be expressed.

However, if as children our parents did not have an understanding and trust in this more natural and therapeutic process (through no fault of their own) because it’s not something they’d been taught, but instead they’d been trained by society to punish, reject or harden to children when they were seen to be “acting out”, then we would have learned to associate our pent up hurts and frustrations with being rejected and punished. When the exposing of hurt feelings becomes associated with rejection, the obvious thing to do is to hide them to avoid disharmony.  However, hiding our feelings causes feelings of aloneness and resentment, causing us to build up even more pent up frustration and hurt.  When our emotions and hence energy field are on a downward cycle of being held in and compressed further and further without release, this can create a deep feeling of being trapped. 

Our outer world is a mirror of our inner world: When we feel trapped and frustrated inside, but cannot show these feelings, we then tend to create trapped situations in life (relationships, jobs, etc) in an unconscious attempt to have an external situation that validates the inner feelings.

The combination of feeling the huge strain of holding in an accumulation of hurts and a lack of recognition or validation for the feelings can cause a huge confusion of identity.  We internalize our parents dislike of our frustration, neediness, weakness and general “acting out”.  We learn to respond to our emotions in the same ways that our parents responded to our emotions as children. If, as children we learned to repress and deny the uncomfortable feelings as they arise, this would have more than likely created a split between our emotions and our minds, hence cutting ourselves off from our natural systems of maintaining health and wellbeing within us.  In so doing, we also cut ourselves off from our intuition, our creativity, our innate wisdom and we loose more and more of our life force. 

Triggering: If our parents had themselves learned to repress their painful emotions, then our hurts and frustrations would have more than likely triggered our parent’s frustration and powerlessness, provoking their own store of compressed unreleased emotions. Triggering happens when something happens that arouses a person's old hurt feelings because it looks, sounds, smells or feels similar to an experience that the person holds uncomfortable body memories of. This triggering may cause a parent to loose their equilibrium, they are no longer able to ignore the locked away repressed feelings and the feelings can threaten to overwhelm the person as they surface. It is much easier for people if they can keep painful feelings repressed and enjoy the false security of numbing out these feelings. When a parent suddenly experiences the full force of old repressed feelings, this is when they can easily either snap at the kids in anger or with a tight compressed breath and body, push the emotions down further and firmly shut off emotionally from the child. 

Addictions: You can probably easily imagine how dysfunctional parent child dynamics can accumulate to the point where everyone in the family feels like they are at the mercy of a threatening volcano inside and the desperation to escape the wrath of anger (their own or others) can lead family members to extremes of behaviors and to dependency on whatever appears to bring temporary relief or further dissociation, hence addictions like tv, alcohol, drugs, coffee, food or other obsessions.

Our responsibility to heal: It is our responsibility to ourselves and especially to our children (for parents) to begin to release and detoxify the backlog of condenses and repressed emotions and energies in our bodies and energy fields. When we take on this journey, we will begin to realize that we need to lighten and brighten the energies in and around ourselves on an ongoing basis.

Today, there is so much help available to those who are on this journey of healing as the whole consciousness of humanity is slowly but surely waking up to the importance of healing.

You can also well imagine how the release of some of this backlog of repressed compressed emotions (energy blockages) can be quite euphoric.

 

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CD and MP3   Chakra Meditation to specifically heal unhealthy blocks and patterns in each of the seven major chakras