Our journey through
the chakra system begins at the Root Chakra. The Sanskrit name for this
chakra is Muladhara meaning “root support”, so it is the foundation for
the entire chakra system as well as our connection to our physical body. Each chakra has a number of different
qualities and characteristics. The
root chakra is located at the base of the spine. The color for this chakra is red (having the longest
wavelength and slowest vibration), and the element for this center is earth. So, it is in charge of the very solid, tangible aspects of our
being. It governs over the solid things in our bodies such as bones, muscles, legs and feet. The
root chakra deals with how we interact with our physical existence through
things such as our body, home, finances, work, environment, etc.
The root
chakra is not only where our journey begins, but it’s also where our journey
often ends. “Mula” means root, and
can refer to the root of all of our actions. The roots of our actions are our thoughts. Anything we do begins with a single
thought. We take this thought and
turn it into action, and then through our action we (ideally) manifest into
physical form what it is we originally thought about.
Our chakras can either be deficient (not enough energy is flowing in this area), excessive (too much energy is flowing) or balanced. Three possibilities, but in our dualistic way of thinking, we tend to see it as our chakra is either good (balanced), or bad (deficient or excessive). I was talking to a student about this yesterday who was a little concerned because they saw themselves on the “bad” end of the spectrum. My initial response was to say it’s human nature for us to identify immediately with the weaknesses in ourselves - we always tend to look at the things we need to improve instead of the things that we are awesome at. But, the more I thought about this, the more I disagree with this initial thought. When I think about my 5 year old nephew or my 3 year old niece, I think about how they can easily see themselves as a superhero or a princess. They know that they have these amazing qualities and energy within themselves to really be these things. Somewhere along the way, we lost this ability to see how amazing we are and how amazing we can potentially be.
The demon of
the first chakra is fear and can also show up in our lives as worry - things
that are created in our mind from our thoughts. Thanks to my
student and our discussion, I’m starting to realize that the root chakra has everything
to do with our thoughts. Our thoughts
create the foundation for our life – we either create a strong, solid base, or a
weak, shaky one. I was originally
going to list some of the deficient, excessive and balanced characteristics of the Muladhara chakra when I was first thinking about this post, but realized that most of us would
be looking at the deficient, excessive lists trying to find ourselves
here. One of my chakra books
recommends when working with the root chakra to do some self-inquiry work to identify
“clear deficiencies” in the areas related to this energy center such as our
health, family, home, finances, and trust issues. I don’t disagree with self-inquiry. In fact, I think it’s extremely
important when doing this kind of work, but I think before we look at what it
is we’re lacking, we should first look at what it is we are strong in, or where
we have abundance. Wouldn’t the
base and foundation of our life be stronger if we first recognized how amazing
we are, how strong our bodies are, how lucky we are to have a supportive
family, a place that keeps us warm, access to nourishing food, people who love
and support us? Wouldn’t it be
easier for us to look into these places in ourselves that need work if we’ve
first established that we have a lot of awesomeness to fall back on during
those periods of self-inquiry that may get difficult? I realize that we all have different life circumstances and
are in different stages, but I also know that we all can find at least one
thing to be grateful for in our physical existence.
So, my
challenge for you over the next week in our work with the root chakra is to
find something you are grateful for in your life everyday, no matter how
small. One of the projects I
currently have going on is a 365 gratitude project on Instagram. You can find me there at shine8out, or
see some of my pictures on the sidebar of this blog. My husband will attest that I am “good” at worrying (hello
root chakra issues!), so for reasons I can’t even remember I decided to embark
on this project. I’m currently on
day 105 and have noticed a definite change in the way I see things and how I am moving towards creating a foundation built on gratitude instead of on fear. Give it a try and let me know how it
works out for you.
Roxanne
Interesting article. I agree, we are way to negative about ourselves, instead of looking at the positive. Difficult but important to do.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately in our society it's almost like we're trained to see the negative, encouraged to feel less than we are, and convinced we won't be happy until ________ (we've reached some kind of goal or obtained some kind of item). So, you're right it can be difficult, but I will tell you finding one thing to be grateful for everyday (and some days it is challenging) has totally changed my outlook. I'm starting to look at things a bit more differently now.
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