Chakras for Beginners

What are chakras and why do they matter?

The word chakra means "wheel" in Sanskrit. Some traditions believe there are anywhere from 50 to 108 chakras; however, you usually only hear about the 7 primary physical energy centers (root, sacral plexus, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown).

Think of your energy system like electricity. Chakras act as the circuit boards with meridians that connect them to each other or send energy throughout the rest of your body. When a chakra, or circuit, is blocked or out of balance is affects the flow of energy through your body. These imbalances may create power surges or outages, which could also affect our emotional and physical health.

The Chakras & Their Correspondences

Root

Color: red

Location: base of tailbone

Theme: safety and stability

Emotional Effect: depression, inability to stand up for oneself, feeling unsafe, inability to provide life's necessities

Physical Effect: chronic lower back pain, sciatica, constipation, hemorrhoids, knee problems, weight problems, immune-related disorders, adrenal gland issues

Sacral Plexus

Color: orange

Location: 2 inches below the navel

Theme: creativity and emotions

Emotional Effect: guilt and blame, creative blocks, yearning for power and control

Physical Effect: gynecological problems, impotence, uterine/bladder/kidney problems, reproductive organ issues

Solar Plexus

Color: yellow

Location: 2 inches above the navel

Theme: willpower and confidence

Emotional Effect: inability to trust, feeling fearful, low self-esteem/confidence, sensitive to criticism, unable to care for self or others

Physical Effect: arthritis, gastric or duodenal ulcers, diabetes, digestive disorders, liver or adrenal dysfunction, adrenal fatigue

Heart

Color: green or pink

Location: center of chest

Theme: love and compassion

Emotional Effect: inability to love self or others, resentment, grief, loneliness, holding grudges

Physical Effect: congestive heart failure, heart disease, lung disease, breast cancer, high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, bronchial pneumonia 

Throat

Color: blue

Location: over the throat

Theme: truth and expression

Emotional Effect: unable to express self, addiction, criticizing self or others, unable to make decisions

Physical Effect: raspy/sore throat, TMJ, stiff neck, gum disease, thyroid disorders, swollen glands, mouth ulcers

Third Eye

Color: indigo

Location: between the brows

Theme: intuition and wisdom

Emotional Effect: inability to learn from experience, feeling inadequate, closed-mindedness

Physical Effect: stroke, neurological problems, seizures, headaches, blurred vision, spinal difficulties, deafness, blindness

Crown

Color: violet or white

Location: top of head

Theme: connection to the divine

Emotional Effect: inability to trust life, selfishness, lacking faith, uninspired, lacking courage, ignoring one's values or ethics

Physical Effect: energetic disorders, depression, sensitivity to light and sound, confusion, alienation, apathy

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Has reiki ever helped you emotional or physical imbalances?