Chakras

Chakras are energy centers located on our body and some outside of it. Energy (prana) flows through these centers via energy paths (nadi). Chakras and energy paths aren’t actual body parts, but they are located on the same positions as nervous plexuses. This to me is very interesting, because thousands of years ago, when chakra practises started, they presumably did not have any such knowledge on the inner workings of a human body.

Main chakras and their locations:

• Root - base of the spine
• Sacral - lower abdomen
• Solar plexus - upper abdomen
• Heart – chest / heart area
• Throat - throat
• Third eye – between eye brows
• Crown – above head

Development of chakras

It is thought that chakras develop as we grow up. Each chakra corresponds to a certain part of the body and mind. Chakras connect the body and the mind. This has been a great help to me in finding my body-mind connection, more than anything else. I have done yoga, meditation and acupunture to help me in this work. 

Many theories of psychology also fit well with how chakras are thought to evolve. Personally, I also see a lot of similarities with chakras and life traps. Many of the problems with chakras are the same as problems with life traps. Personally, I have started to think when I work with chakras, I also work with life traps and vice versa.

It is interesting to think that chakra practises, which were developed thousands of years ago, fits so well with the teachings of modern medicine and psychology. For a western person, like me, the concept of chakras has been more approachable when I’ve been able to compare them with already familiar concepts.

I first became acquainted with the chakras through Anodea Judith’s book Eastern Body, Western Mind. In my opinion, the book is really good because she knows how to explain chakras so that it is easy to undestand with the Western way of thinking. She has also studied to be a psychologist and in her book she compares chakras a lot with psychology. She is also very good at explaining things through metaphors e.g. comparing chakras to computer software (this really warmed the heart of an IT person, such as me). I can warmly recommend reading this book.

Basic info on chakras

You can find many chakra tables describing the different features of the chakras on the internet. I wasn’t able to find such table in Finnish so I made one myself and translated it to english also. The sources I have used for this table are Anodea Judith's books, her Sacred Centers website (eg pictures on the table are from there,) and the following site: lizinlotus.com  -sivustoa.

In the table, there is a description of every chakras function, when it is balanced, blocked or overactive. You should also know, that it is possible that one chakra is partly blocked and partly overactive. You might f.ex. be fearfull and anxious but also materialistic. Meaning that your root chakra is partly block (fear and anxiousness) and partly overactive (materialism). If you are familiar with life traps, I’m sure that these will sound familiar to you.

Finally

I also want to note that I am describing here my understanding of chakras. Most of my understanding comes from Anodea Judith’s books, different meditations and websites. There are a lot of differents undestandings on chakras, this is mine. If you are interested, I encourage you to search for information in different sources, there is a lot to find. Here are a few links:

Anodea Judith’s Sacred Centers: Chakra BasicsSacred Centers | Tools for Conscious Evolution (en)

Beginners Guide to the Seven Chakras ⋆ lizinlotus.com (en)

Chakra – Wikipedia (fi) Chakra – Wikipedia (en)

Chakraopas: Mitä chakrat ovat? | Voi hyvin (terve.fi) (fi)

Chakrat: 7 loistavaa energiakeskusta – Mielen Ihmeet (fi)

For myself, chakras have been one of the most important tools in my journey to finding my own power. I am sure I will write a lot more on this subject.