Fire up your energy chakras to rebalance your energy and feel more alive.
BY PHYLLIS S. QUINLAN, RN, PHD
As someone who counsels caregivers, I’ve found that many suffer energy deficits that I can “see” in their aura. Everyone has an aura, an enveloping, protective field of electromagnetic particles that can extend from a few inches to as far as several yards beyond our physical body. Each person has a dynamic, unique aura that vibrates and changes in response to one’s health, attitude, environment, and life experience. The aura is constantly shifting in size, shape, and color, depending on a person’s thoughts and emotions. The frequency at which your aura is vibrating can influence what and whom you attract into your life.
Our aura consists of seven major layers, each powered by one of the corresponding seven major energy centers known as chakras. When a chakra is “blocked,” a wide range of mental, emotional, and physical conditions can present. Maintaining a healthy, balanced chakra system can result in sustaining a bright, vibrant aura fully capable of enhancing your perception and achieving harmony while protecting you from harm.
So what is a chakra?
Chakra is a Sanskrit word that means spinning wheel. These cone-shaped rotating energy vortexes control the flow of subtle energies that serve as a connection between our spiritual and physical bodies. They are vertically aligned and are located at strategic points from the base of the spine (root chakra) to the top of the head (crown chakra). Each center vibrates at a frequency that is usually undetectable by the human eye and produces a resonance to a specific color, scent, and sound as individual as a fingerprint.
They represent energy
Each chakra is a focal point for spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental energies, the network through which the mind, body, and spirit interact as one holistic system. Each corresponds to specific aspects of our consciousness and has their own individual characteristics and functions. The goal in working with and understanding chakras is to create a sense of wellbeing, integration, and wholeness within ourselves, to help us make our choices and decisions from a place of being centered, balanced, and aware, rather than being influenced by external forces or out-of-control emotions.
An Overview of the Chakra System
| Chakra | Location | Color | Governs | Too Open | Blocked | Balanced |
| 1St Chakra
Base/Root |
Base of the spine, coccyx | Red | Physical security, survival, sense of belonging | Materialistic, self-centered, bullying | Fearful, low self esteem, needy | High physical energy, grounded, self-mastery |
| 2nd Chakra
Sacral |
From below the navel to above the hips | Orange | Group relationships, humor, self-control, ability to flow with change | Manipulative, strong personal power needs | Overly sensitive, hard on oneself, feels guilt for no reason | Trusting, expressive, understands ones personal needs, creative, honors relationships |
| 3rd Chakra
Solar Plexus |
From above the navel to below the sternum | Yellow | Relationship with yourself, acceptance of your place in the word, self esteem | Angry, controlling, workaholic, judgmental | Overly concerned about the opinions of others, needs constant reassurance | Spontaneous, respects self and others, has true personal power |
| 4th Chakra
Heart |
Across the chest extending to the fingertips | Green | Love, ability to forgive, compassion | Co-dependent, possessive, offers love on condition, withholds emotions to punish, dramatic | Feels unworthy to receive love, fears rejection, | Loves unconditionally, nurturing |
| 5th Chakra
Throat |
From above the shoulders to below the nose | Blue | Communication clear expression | Self -righteous, dogmatic, arrogant | Cannot speak ones truth, inconsistent, | Good communicator, artistic, inspired |
| 6th Chakra
Intuition |
From above the nose to the level of the eye brows | Indigo | The ability to perceive and understand what is going on around you, understanding spiritual information | Excessive worry, intense dreams, anxiety, phobias | Fear of success, undisciplined | The ability to have insights & experience unusual phenomena, highly intuitive, little attachment to material things |
| 7th Chakra
Crown |
Top of the head | Violet | Connection to higher power, spirituality | Difficulty dealing staying in and dealing with reality | Inability to make decisions, materialism | Magnetic personality, at peace with self |
Methods for Balancing Your Energy Centers
Whether you’re an exhausted caregiver or just someone whose chakra energy is unbalanced, there are specific things you can do to rebalance your energy and feel better.
Eat Food Rich In Color:
- Eat and drink as many foods and beverages with color as you can so that your chakra centers stay well fueled. This is especially important during the winter months when so much of what we see is black, white and gray.
- If you feel the need to enhance the energy of one particular chakra, increase the intake of that particular color. For example, when you are feeling closed off from your intuitive ability, eating indigo-colored food such as eggplant, and drinking indigo-colored beverages such as grape juice, can help you unblock that center and reconnect you to your sixth sense.
Use Color Breathing:
- When you sense that one center is a bit out of control, envision yourself breathing that chakra’s unique color in through the anatomical area corresponding with that center, and then envision exhaling the chakra color of the center you are looking to strengthen.
- For example, when you feel your heart racing, visualize that you are inhaling the color green through your sternum and then visualize exhaling red through the soles of your feet. This will help to remove the excess energy from one center (heart center) and anchor or ground you more to your base (mother earth) center. This is especially helpful when you feel yourself becoming angry or anxious, or when you need to focus when you are feeling distracted.
Do Yoga:
- Many of the yoga poses help open or strengthen your centers. Yoga poses can help you stretch and tone your internal and external body. In addition, yoga exercises can help you to flush your body of the physical, emotional and mental tensions that maybe blocking your chakras. Many biofeedback approaches to wellness are based in this approach.
Bring Color Into Your Environment:
- Invest in a maroon or red chair for your office or workspace. Placing this color close to your root chakra helps keep you grounded during busy, stressful days. Surround yourself with color. This does not necessarily mean painting every wall a different color. You can bring color in through art, pillows, plants, and decorative accessories.
Do Visualization Exercises:
- When you are in the shower, envision that the shower water is the brilliant white light coming from the Universe and washing over you. Invite this pure white light to enter through your crown chakra at the top of your head and saturate all subsequent lower chakras to refresh and balance each center. You can add a citrus scented shampoo to this exercise for an added boost. Citrus has a unique added characteristic of being able to cleanse energy fields.
Adopt a Mantra:
- The word mantra is taken from the original Sanskrit and means “sacred counsel.” A mantra can be a phrase or even a single word that embraces or represents the changes you wish to manifest in your own life. Reciting a mantra can help settle you during trying moments of the day, and refocus your energy on the new direction and goals you have set for yourself. Some recommendations are: I accept myself unconditionally, I deserve happiness, I am patient and compassionate.
Caregiving is a marathon not a sprint. It is vital that you take good care of yourself so that you can remain healthy while caring for others. I hope these simple methods help you begin to achieve that sense of health, happiness, and wellbeing that is your birthright. All the best in the New Year from my home to yours, Om – Ma – Ni – Pad – Me – Hum: I honor the life force within you.
Phyllis S. Quinlan specializes in caregiver needs, focusing on the emotional impact of compassion fatigue. Her books, Rediscover the Joy of Being A Nurse and The Delicate Balance: A Mindful Approach to Self-Care for Professional & Family Caregivers are available on her website and Amazon.com.
Website: www.mfwconsultants.com
Email: mfwconsultants@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/askdrphyllisRN
| The 7 Layers of the Aura | The 7 Chakra Energy Systems |
