The rainbow within

I've studied energy work for many years, now. I use it as I help people in the adoption process , I use it with my kids when they get a boo-boo, and I try to find, as Carolyn Myss and Louise Hay suggest, the symbolic meaning when I hear of someone experiencing illness or dis-ease.

So I am periodically going to present another way of looking at wellness, at ego, at energy, at vibrations, at the intersection of physics and metaphysics, and consciousness. For starters, I open today a series on the chakras.

Energy centers

"Chakra" is an ancient sanskrit word meaning "wheel." There are seven primary chakras, or energy vortices, that correspond with seven colors of the rainbow, seven notes of the scale, seven sacraments , and even portions of the Kabbalah. Carolyn Myss set out in her research to find Truth, hypothesizing that one finds Truth (capital T) in all traditions because Truth emerges out of the essence of our human-ness, our Source that is embedded in each of us.

Now, some may roll their eyes when they hear "chakra" and assume I eat only granola and wear only birkenstocks and never shave my legs. But remember -- I love mojitos! I have gym shoes on at the moment and I epilated my legs yesterday. I'm mainstream. My husband jokes that my sisters and I are the only known New Age Republicans (although I can not now support either major party -- a topic for another post). And I aim to present chakras in a non-foo-foo manner that is embraceable by other "normal" people. So keep reading.

Each chakra, or energy center, influences various organs and parts of the body. The chakras lie along the body's vertical axis, from the base of the spine to just on top of the head. The seven major chakras are:

• 1st: the root chakra
• 2nd: the sacral chakra
• 3rd: the solar plexus chakra
• 4th: the heart chakra
• 5th: the throat chakra
• 6th: the third eye chakra
• 7th: the crown chakra

Dis-ease in the body first appears in the energetic body (which surrounds the physical body), and can be treated there before the body shows symptoms. Physical and emotional healing can be aided by promoting the flow of energy, focusing on the seven chakras. Energy blockages create areas of imbalance, with either too much or too little flow resulting, like boulders in a stream.

What blocks energy? Fear. I'll be writing much more about this in future posts in this series. Next I'll have a post that focuses on the Root Chakra.

For now, here's a Chakra Evaluation Test I found while researching this post. It's a simplified way for you to begin thinking about where your blockages might be, which thought patterns you hold that may be standing in your way.

(BTW, as I write, I have 4 open, 2 under-active and 1 over-active chakras -- how about you?)

This lovely painting, which I find striking, was created by Lisa Brown-Olsen. Her work is featured at Green Mountain Yoga.
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