Archive for the ‘Chakras’ Category

Extraordinary Chakra Meditation CD by Syl Carson of Bodhi Yoga

Written by Kate • June 29, 2011 •
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I was recently introduced to Syl Carson through Carol Tuttle‘s Chakra Resonance home study program.  During the session in which the focus was on the throat chakra, Syl brought in her [then] new Chakra Resonance Theta Healing CD.  She played part of the five-minute seed sound/Chakra Resonance for the throat chakra.  The hair stood on the back of my neck, it was so gorgeous. It was haunting, it was lyrical and I had to have it.

I thought about it and I hesitated because it actually is a CD and it appears there is no downloadable version of it any where. After some additional thought, I realized I can just buy the CD, like it’s 1999!

It arrived over the weekend and I’ve played the Throat Chakra and her Om Nama Shiva 2 again and again. It is just so lovely and so penetrating. The others are quite good as well but these are magnificent.

I wish it was on iTunes so you could sample it but it looks like Syl is still a bit old school. If you don’t mind taking a chance and spending $15, I highly recommend it!

 

 

Continuing on the First Chakra

Written by Kate • June 23, 2011 •
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Root Chakra- Image thanks to Rodessa4

Clarity Through Action

As I mentioned on Tuesday, as Marie Forleo likes to say, clarity comes from action, not learning. And if you’re anything like me, you read about the chakras but didn’t actually work on any of them the first time around. But getting clear: it’s in the doing, not the reading about doing.

So let’s continue taking another, deeper look at how to heal the root chakra. In Tuesday’s post, I created a 10 minute routine in which you can ground yourself with stillness and some serious self-love, through affirmations and movement. Here’s some additional work that you can use to ground yourself, especially when you’re feeling stressed and ungrounded. It doesn’t take any time at all in one sense but it takes commitment and self-awareness.

Honor Yourself

This may seem like a strange one but by telling the truth, facing what needs to be faced, we become more grounded. Lying, fibbing, and not honoring what we’re feeling lead to subtle but real “kinks” in our energy flow.  This is especially true about lying to ourselves.

So for one day only – try to tell the absolute truth for one day. This may require that you don’t say anything at all, in some situations.

  • Tell the truth in every situation. Are you eating because you’re hungry or because you’re upset? Tell yourself the truth. Do you want to go to that event or would you rather stay home in your jammies? Don’t commit to anything until you can tell yourself the truth.
  • Honor your commitments. If you’ve said you’ll do something, do it. This means eating well, or going to bed on time, or exercising like you said, or meditating like you said. By honoring your commitments, you can learn to trust yourself again.

Do you have any other methods by which you ground yourself? How have you healed your money or food or other basic necessity insecurities?

The 7 Chakras- Working on the Root Chakra

Written by Kate • June 21, 2011 •
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Image thanks to Rodessa4

Clarity Through Action

As Marie Forleo likes to say, clarity comes from action, not learning. If you’re anything like me, you read about the chakras but didn’t actually work on any of them the first time around. But getting clear, it’s in the doing, not the reading about doing.

So let’s take another, deeper look at how to heal the root chakra. In today’s and Thursday’s post, I’m going to create a 10 minute routine in which you can ground yourself with stillness and some serious self-love, through affirmations and movement. I absolutely know that trying to create another daily ritual for ourselves can be screamingly difficult, but taking care of yourself is a priority.

Creating Your 10 Minute Routine- Action

For the first 10 minute routine, you need to commit to the 10 minutes for just two days. Can you do that? I think you can and here’s how. First, create a game plan that you can really live with. So create 10 minutes for yourself for just Wednesday and Thursday morning, afternoon, or evening, which ever suits you best.

But truly figure out and commit to the 10 minutes you’ll take for yourself on Wednesday and Thursday.  And everyone can find 10 minutes in their day. So visualize it. Is it first thing? Right after you exercise in the morning? Is it just after you shower? Is it at lunch, before you’ve eaten? Is it the final 10 minutes before you go to bed?

On a Personal Note – My Routine

For me, my routine is in the morning. I get up and exercise immediately. No negotiating with myself, I just get up and exercise. Then after my blood is flowing and I’m no longer feeling the least bit sleepy due to the exercise, I meditate for 20 minutes.  Exercise and meditation- every day. It goes hand in hand for me.

But no matter when you do it, commit to your 10 minutes for just two days. Commit to doing imperfectly.

Root Chakra – 10 Minutes of Healing

Find Stillness/Grounding

  • Meditate for 5 minutes each day. Put the timer on your phone for 5 minutes and then release. If you’re new to it or not that good at it, don’t worry. Everyone starts from this place. The monkey mind wants to reign supreme and we all, all of us, get caught thinking rather that meditating. Just release that too. As you may know, there are plenty of ways to meditate. The important thing is to release thoughts as they come and be in stillness for just these 5 minutes.
  • After your 5 minutes of imperfect meditation, say the following loving-kindness affirmations to yourself -three times. This should take less than 1 minute. But put your heart into it and really bless yourself with these loving affirmations.
    • May I be well.
    • May I know peace.
    • May I be free from suffering

Bless Yourself and Your Day

Take the remaining 4 minutes and bless yourself and your day. Don’t worry if you’re not religious, or if you are. I don’t mean it in the traditional way.

I got this from Christie Marie Sheldon‘s, who’s Love or Above– in reference to David Hawkin‘s Power versus Force, I highly recommend.

  1. First, close your eyes and connect to your higher power – whatever that feels like for you. Let this higher power permeate through your entire body.
  2. Hold up your hands, bringing them together and then apart again and again until you can feel a ball of energy between your hands.
  3. Imbue the ball of energy with light and love and then naming it your day.
  4. Call on all the things you want for your day, including abundance, focus, loving feelings, power to complete projects, guidance from your guides, charisma, peace, restfulness – whatever you need to help you have the best day. Seed them into your day.
  5. Then bless this day with love, life, and source energy. Bless it 3 to 4 times, with feeling.
  6. Finally, put the ball of light into your heart chakra and have it suffuse your entire being with elements you seeded your day with.  Breathe it in.

And then enjoy your day, feeling grounded and peaceful!

 

The Seventh Chakra – The Crown Chakra

Written by Kate • June 16, 2011 •
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Thanks to FeelReiki for the image

Image thanks to feelreiki

The Seventh Chakra- The Crown Chakra

The last of the seven chakras is known as the Crown chakra. It’s located at the top of your head. The symbol for this chakra is a thousand petal lotus, like a beautiful multifaceted crown. Its function is opening to consciousness, enlightenment, spirituality and faith.  It is associated with the color violet.

This is the eighth of 10 posts on the 7 Chakras System. Here is the first post, an Overview of the 7 Chakras, the second post, the Root Chakra,  the third post, the Sacral Chakra, the fourth, the Solar Plexus Chakra,  the fifth post, the Heart Chakra,  the sixth post, the Throat Chakra, and here is the seventh post, the Third Eye Chakra.

The  crown chakra is the seat of consciousness, the location of our sense of connection with divinity, spiritual, or faith. It connects us to our higher purpose, to our sense beyond ourselves. It helps us understand the spiritual realm and helps us heal the false sense of duality between spirit and our body.  It allows us to transcend the constant chatter of the ego, the monkey mind, the internal committee that is our self -in contrast to our Self, the eternal Self that is connected to the eternal, at the essence of each of us.

Open or Closed

Your crown chakra is closed, opening, or open. It isn’t balanced or not. A closed crown chakra is characterized by a lack of faith, spirituality, or belief in a higher power.

An opening crown chakra can be seen in those who have begun or are on their spiritual journey, be it through prayer, meditation, the journey for enlightenment, devoutness. Those who are looking to live their life’s purpose and step away from the materiality that often characterizes the 20s and 30s for those in Western cultures are opening their crown chakras.

An opened crown chakra can be seen in those who rest in the sacred, who have a near total connection to divinity, who are open to Source/God.

Causes

An open or opening seventh chakra can be pursued through a spiritual journey, to connect to the sacred, the divine, and our life’s purpose.

Symptoms of an Open, Partially Open, or Closed Crown Chakra

The following statements are from Sonia Choquette‘s book, True Balance:

  • I have a deep sense of faith.
  • I do not worry often.
  • I sense the God or a divine energy is protecting me.
  • I understand all life experiences have a deep purpose.
  • I know there are no random occurrences, life is not a random event.
  • I follow my internal guidance, even when it doesn’t appear to make sense.

If you answered no to some or many of the above-listed questions, your crown chakra is probably only partially open or is closed.

Ways to Open Your Crown Chakra

Many of the opening methods below are technically simple but can be quite difficult, in practice.

Meditation

Meditation allows us to quiet the self, to distract the inner chatter, while allowing the true Self to transcend and for us to be truly present in the moment. By continuing to do this through a daily practice, you can begin to connect to the divine.

Pray/Connect to Source

  • Pray. This isn’t begging or asking some totally outside source to “fix” you. This is you blessing yourself, your family, friends, or the world. This is you drawing on your own source of divinity and actively praying and creating what you want to occur.
  • Take a quiet moment and connect to the light by visualizing the light of Source or God filling you up and permeating you down to the ground.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Unfamiliar with EFT? Check out this page to show you the basics, for free. There are many other sites that have a more thorough explanation of the technique but they require you to provide your email address. Your choice!

EFT at the highest level: you first state your concerns and that you deeply love and accept yourself. You then release each of the specific ideas, anxieties, and fears that you are feeling. Then you state affirmations or better ideas that should replace your anxieties and fears and that make you feel better, more empowered by thinking them.

Deeply Love and Accept Yourself

You first touch the karate chop point [as shown on the link] while releasing the block through stating, “Even though I feel _______ [like I have no connection to God, like I’m alone in the world, … etc], I deeply love and accept myself.

Release

Then go through each point tapping three or four times at each point; eyebrow, side of eye, under the eye, under the nose, under the chin, the collar bone, under the breast/ribcage, under arm, and crown – while releasing whatever it is you’re experiencing.

You can go around the tapping circuit a few times until you’ve fully release what you need to.

Starting tapping at the eyebrow and going through each point: I release the feelings that I’m cut off from God, lack of spiritual guidance, feeling like I can either have abundance or a spiritual life, lack of stillness, lack of ability to connect…etc [Keep tapping].

I release all of this from my body. [Keep tapping].

I release from my crown chakra, from my whole body:

less able than others to connect, overlooked by God, cut off from spiritual guidance, unable to meditate, praying isn’t for me, ____ … [fill in whatever you’re feeling that is keeping you from your connection, your spirituality, your divinity -as you keep tapping]

Affirmations

Now you begin replacing the feelings and beliefs you’ve just released through saying affirmations that work for you, while tapping through the entire circuit again.

[Start tapping] I am living my purpose. I am connected to Source/God. I can have money, integrity, and spirituality. I am important to God/Source…  [Fill in what works for you….]

Keep Going

Now that we covered the 7 chakras. In the next post, we’ll look at how to integrate each lesson we learned.

Next up: Pulling It All Together

The Sixth Chakra – The Third Eye Chakra

Written by Kate • June 14, 2011 •
2 comments

Image thanks to Shizan2012

The Sixth Chakra- The Third Eye Chakra

The sixth of the seven chakras is known as the Third Eye chakra. It’s located between and above your brows, which you can locate by putting your finger between your two eyebrows and moving your figure up to just above a slight indention in your brow. It should feel differently than the rest of your forehead.  Its function is to provide you with insights your “left-brain” can’t give you with its logical outlook, with an inner voice that provides guidance and clear seeing on what is truth and right for you.  It is associated with the color indigo and is associated with light rather than an earthly element.

This is the seventh post of 10 posts on the 7 Chakras System. Here is the first post, an Overview of the 7 Chakras, here is the second post, the Root Chakra, here is the third post, the Sacral Chakra, here is the fourth, the Solar Plexus Chakra, here is the fifth post, the Heart Chakra, and here is the sixth post, the Throat Chakra.

As Sonia Choquette states in her book, True Balance, the Third Eye chakra “is our headlight, so to speak, leading us out of the darkness of internal confusion and distortion and into a clear, thoughtful, and balanced world. It awakens our desire to look for the wonder and beauty in all things. It is the center from which we evaluate the conditions of our life, record our experiences, and activate our inspirations and direction, showing us our path and purpose…and it bestows upon us intuitive flashes, thus paving the way for action“.

Open and Balanced

When your third eye chakra is open and balanced, you have a strong internal voice that can guide, that you trust to follow, that you will be able to discern what needs to be, and helps you visualize and imagine where you need to go.

Unbalanced or Weak

Signs of an unbalanced or weak chakra are the loss of your internal voice or vision, feeling like you don’t have any intuition, trust other’s vision more than your own for how you should live your life, and over intellectualizing life. You may suffer from headaches, and feel tension in that area, as well as difficulty concentrating and remembering/feeling like your in a fog.

Causes

A weak or unbalanced sixth chakra can be caused by a generational belief that what you can’t see or touch is silly, or not true, or just plain weird. Our culture is such that we expect to be able to reason and intellectualize our way forward and if we hear a subtle voice inside saying that the “experts” or “they” are wrong, the small voice is often ignored. We can continue to do this so often that we no longer even hear the voice, ignoring it has been become ingrained.

We also put away creative visualization and imagination about what we want in our life and often instead just check out, daydreaming about something else rather than continuing to cultivate our imagination – which taps into the subtle voices and guidance provided by our body and spirit.

And when do take the time for stillness, for meditation, for turning off the busy, noisy urgent but unimportant tasks that swallow our day, weeks, months, and years? For it is in stillness that we hear the quiet, subtle voices of intuition and internal guidance- which get drowned out by TV, internet surfing, and busy work.

Symptoms of a Third-Eye Chakra Imbalance

The following statements are from Sonia Choquette‘s book, True Balance:

  • I see beyond the surface of a situation.
  • I have vivid dreams, often.
  • I see into people and situations.
  • I am open to another’s point of view.
  • I have an open mind.
  • I seek accurate information.
  • I trust my own thoughts.

If you answered no to some or many of the above-listed questions, your third eye chakra is probably out of balance.

Ways to Balance Your Sixth Chakra

Many of the balancing methods below don’t cost a thing and can take just a few minutes each day.

Trust In Yourself

  • Expect to receive valuable insight through intuition.
  • Listen to the small voice in your head and follow through with what you hear [so long as it’s healthy and not harmful]
  • Continually ask yourself for guidance, as in what’s the next best step. Listen and follow what comes up.
  • Imagine yourself as the best possible version of yourself. From that place of imagining your best you, ask yourself what is the next best step. “What would I do” from the best place?

Cultivate Stillness

  • Meditate for a few minutes each day, starting with 5 minutes. Grow that into 20 to 30 minutes. Meditation is a way to distract the intellect so you can hear the subtle voice.
  • Every hour or so, take a break from noise and distraction. Tune into your body and spirit and ask yourself, after centering yourself, what you have to say. Listen.

Exercise Your Third Eye

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Unfamiliar with EFT? Check out this page to show you the basics, for free. There are many other sites that have a more thorough explanation of the technique but they require you to provide your email address. Your choice!

EFT at the highest level: you first state your concerns and that you deeply love and accept yourself. You then release each of the specific ideas, anxieties, and fears that you are feeling. Then you state affirmations or better ideas that should replace your anxieties and fears and that make you feel better, more empowered by thinking them.

Deeply Love and Accept Yourself

You first touch the karate chop point [as shown on the link] while releasing the block through stating, “Even though I feel _______ [like others know better than me, like I don’t know what I want, like I’ve lost my way, like I’ve lost my intuition, like I’m disconnected from inner voice… etc], I deeply love and accept myself.

Release

Then go through each point tapping three or four times at each point; eyebrow, side of eye, under the eye, under the nose, under the chin, the collar bone, under the breast/ribcage, under arm, and crown – while releasing whatever it is you’re experiencing.

You can go around the tapping circuit a few times until you’ve fully release what you need to.

Starting tapping at the eyebrow and going through each point: I release the feelings that I don’t know, that I’ve lost my way, that I can’t discern the right path for myself, that others know better than I do …etc [Keep tapping].

I release all of this from my body. [Keep tapping].

I release from my third eye chakra, from my whole body:

Lack of seeing, lack of listening to myself, loss of creativity, judging others, giving my power away, ____ … [fill in whatever you’re feeling that is keeping you from following your own path, hearing your own voice, knowing that you can have intuitive leaps -as you keep tapping]

Affirmations

Now you begin replacing the feelings and beliefs you’ve just released through saying affirmations that work for you, while tapping through the entire circuit again.

[Start tapping] I see clearly. I trust my inner voice and my sense of intuition. I have released my limiting beliefs. I follow my own path. I don’t need permission to know what I know for me….  [Fill in what works for you….]

Keep Going

Continue with any of these suggestions from yoga to EFT, to help heal yourself so that you can hear, trust, and follow your inner voice. These balancing techniques will help balance your third eye chakra and make you able to feel more able to see and intuit the truth, and trust what you hear and see.

Once you feel balanced, with clear seeing, and able to trust your own voice, consider looking at your next chakra, the seventh chakra.

Do you follow your internal voice? Do you listen to the subtle energies and your intuition? How do you make space to hear your intuitive voice?

Next up: The Seventh Chakra- the Crown Chakra