I love to meditate. Humans are complicated beings. We have mind, body and spirit. Learning to balance and listen to the needs of each of these parts is absolutely necessary to find peace, harmony and balance both in turbulent times and times of rest.
 
Meditating through each chakra is a beautiful way to become in touch with all three entities. It really doesn’t matter if you are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or if you do not identify with any particular organized religion. All humans are made up of these three parts and each of us has a duty and responsibility to manage them. You can absolutely respect your faith-based system AND meditate at the same time and I will teach you how.
 
Our society as a whole starts with each individual person. Being the best version of yourself and learning to impact your environment in positive ways is crucial. Make sure you read the post preceding this to learn details about the 7 chakras and their effects on emotional, spiritual and physical health.

​I saw a college student years ago who struggled with an overactive sacral chakra (sexual promiscuity) due to sexual trauma. She suppressed her emotions and became bulimic (multiple chakras: keep reading) as a means to control the situation (solar plexus & root). Not being able to speak and organize her abuse (throat chakra), doing the journey of pain alone without her loved ones’ help (heart chakra) affected many of her chakras. Instead of feeling internalized power (solar plexus) she used sex as a way to feel powerful over guys (sacral). Her shame kept her from helping out in church and she eventually stopped praying and believing in God (crown chakra). This created a wedge between she and her parents (heart chakra) and helped her shut down even further. By the time this kiddo came into therapy, she was making decisions that sabotaged her own sense of self and well being (3rd eye, solar plexus and heart chakras). All of this made her feel shaky and ungrounded. She often turned to alcohol and later drugs to just get her feet back on the ground (root chakra). Talking about the chakras was HUGE in her recovery.
 

​Notice how our above example listened to ALL of the chakras to see the impact on her body and energy systems. During a chakra meditation, one sits quietly without distraction, and systematically thinks about each chakra system one at a time, starting with the crown chakra. Knowing what the chakras’ purposes are before doing this is important (read this post first if you haven’t already). 

​Your space needs to be quiet and without interruption, which means no kids and no phone. Choose the time of day wisely. Have things with you that will help you reach a spiritual place. This may be prayer beads, a Bible, candle, etc. Next, choose music that influences spiritual emotion and energy for you. This could be drumming, Tibetan chanting monks, acoustic Christian music, etc. Choose wisely because with repetition, this music will become the vehicle that alerts your brain that it is time to meditate. If the music doesn’t fit, change it.

 ​Where you sit is up to you. Some like to sit in a chair and others on the floor. I add movement into my meditations by bowing, raising my hands to the heavens, etc. while others remain still. Follow your instincts (3rd eye & crown) and obey what feels right.
 
As each chakra is approached, with closed eyes place your hand on this part of the body and take deep slow breaths. Think through the day or week to see how this chakra may have been impacted. As this meditation progresses, my actual descriptions will lessen as you begin to learn the rhythm of the meditation.

​Sit in a comfortable spot and with closed eyes, begin breathing slowly for a few moments. Start the meditation with a little prayer. Respect the origin of your spirituality here and pray or reach out to whomever/whatever feels right. Ask for guidance and for presence during this meditation. Picturing the space above your head or in your mind’s eye looking into the heavens is relevant during this prayer.
 
Next, picture a beautiful white light. Your spirit guide/God is giving you the gift of light. Picture it coming into the body from the top of your head. As it enters the body, it is soothing and protective. Picture the light travelling down your face, down the arms and chest, through the torso, down past the bottom, down each leg and the feet until you are completely covered in this protective white light. Next take a deep breath and watch the whole body brighten in the light. Feel the presence of your higher power or spirit guides. If at any time during the meditation a feeling of darkness comes, tell it to leave. Use your language here. Only that of light and love may be present with me, all else must leave. Now I will continue on with the meditation in my language and will walk you through what this meditation would look like if I were doing it. Please adapt to yours and your faith base as necessary. 

Crown Chakra
I’ve just said a prayer and filled my body with white protective light. It is time to think of the crown chakra. With my hand on the top of my head, I let myself think through all kinds of scenarios. This is not a time to change anything, just a time to sit and become aware. How has my spititual path been this week? Have I meditated, participated in yoga, did I read anything to nurture my spiritual side? How about connection. Did I sit with my colleagues in peer or 1:1 and talk about my spiritual path? Am I teaching my kids how to strengthen their gifts and am I patient with my husband as he makes sense of all of this? Did I experience any physical symptoms in this chakra? If at any time another chakra is interwoven into my experience, I recognize it for what it is and then return to the chakra at hand.
Allowing myself to recognize when more than one chakra is relevant helps the practice to really take root and affect me in the real world.
 
3rd Eye Chakra
With my eyes still closed, I would move my hand down to my forehead and breath deeply and slowly. I might process how I felt I used my wisdom this past week. Did I step out and speak (think of the throat chakra for a brief moment and then return to the 3rd eye) with wisdom? Did I trust my instincts or ignore them? I might think about how I was with clients in session or how I parented. Did I react to situations or did I sit back and allow my intuition to be heard? I would also question if I used intuition too much without using my spirit guides, angels or God (crown chakra). Here we are looking for balance and attempting to notice if this center is underactive, overactive or balanced. The goal is NOT to change anything, just to create awareness. To get into a habit of listening and noticing is the immediate objective.
 
Throat Chakra
After I feel I listened enough to the 3rd eye, I would move my hand to my throat area. With closed eyes and slow deep breaths, I would think back to how I communicated through out the week. What communication did I like? What communication did I dislike? Did I become overly emotional and reactive by yelling, screaming or speaking in passive aggressive ways or did I speak with wisdom (3rd chakra) and self control (solar plexus)? Did I close off this chakra and mute myself or did I speak with love and compassion even when the news to deliver was difficult (heart chakra). When you begin to feel like you understand the different chakras and when they are coming into play, allow yourself to make that chakra connection and then continue .
 
Heart Chakra
Next I move my hand to my chest area. How have mt interactions been with those I love or care about? Did my feelings get hurt or did I hurt another? Did I meet someone new? Am I worried about someone I care about? How did I handle this? How is my care for my community, church, workplace, etc?
 
Solar Plexus Chakra
How powerful have I felt or not felt? Did I exhibit self-control and respect for others? Did I allow others to walk on me or did I stand up for myself and what I believe? Am I people pleasing or strong in my convictions? Am I fair?
 
Sacral Chakra
How is my romantic life? Is it meeting my expectations? Do I feel sexually fulfilled, rejected, am I proud of my sexual connections, behaviors and endeavors? How about my creativity? Am I finding ways to be creative? What activities have I done? Have I incorporated creativity and passion in my work and parenting or am I feeling lost
and drained?
 
Root Chakra
How grounded do I feel? Has anything impacted my basic needs? Did a new huge bill come? Is my work and my spouse’s work stable? How are my children? Are they ok or do I worry about their grounding? How predictable is my routine and how settled do I feel? Is my life stale or nicely steady? Chaotic and wild or calm and serene? Do I have balance?
 

​Once you have walked through each chakra, it is time to flush out the energy that was just loosened. With eyes still closed and breath deep and slow, go back to the crown chakra. Systematically picture your light moving through the top of the head. It is going to move through each chakra and carry any loose debris with it. We are going to then send it down into the earth to be recycled and renewed.
 
The light begins at the crown chakra. Follow the light as it moves slowly down through each chakra. When you reach the root chakra, picture a strong root system shooting out of your bottom side and into the earth. It travels deep into the center of the earth. Your debris exits the body through this root system and finds it’s way into the center of the earth where the heat and power of the earth itself filter it. Feel free to do the debris cleanse again if you feel like there may still be residue. Allow the earth to filter and cleanse and watch as the clean energy surrounds your roots and swirls around them from tip to top. The new clean energy penetrates the pores of your root system and the new energy is then taken back up into your body.
 

Phew! After this meditation, you may want to sit in silence and let it all sink in and initiate healing. Turn this mediation into your own. Add your own flavor and flair to it. Learn the chakras ahead of time so that you can feely and creatively flow through the meditation. Practicing this meditation often will help you think of your chakras while you are in the midst of life. As you can tell, learning to listen at this level can absolutely affect your relationships and emotional health. Our bodies are often trying to tell us something. Today is the day to listen.
 
About the Author: Gabrielle Anderson is the owner of and a therapist at the Family Therapy Center in Ashburn, Virginia. She is a married mother of two and lives in the Northern Virginia area. Gabrielle can be contacted here.

​In my opinion, everyone can benefit from learning about the chakras because we all have them. Chakras are not religion or gender specific. I will teach you how to respect your religious practices, understand your chakras and meditate through them, all the while respecting your God or higher power.
 
I am a licensed counseling therapist. In my practice, I often help individuals learn the difference between energy and emotions, because quite frankly, without knowledge and education, they can feel the same. Read this post to learn more about the differences here. It’s fascinating information.
 
Some people release intense energy that is palpable. This energy penetrates into those around quickly and effectively. Have you ever been around someone who was grossly negative or powerfully upset? The energy from individuals like this looks to ground itself and sometimes picks other people to do it. You can feel the intensity in your body just by being around them and can sometimes feel it just by walking into the room.
 
Some of us are more sensitive and porous than others. As a therapist, I often think of myself as a lightening rod for intense energy and emotion. I feel it buzzing around inside my body during session and then ground it to the earth. We are about to explore what this looks and feels like and then will discuss how to get it out of your body (blog article #2). If you suffer with traditional anxiety, depression, ADHD or simply feel overwhelmed or stressed out, keep reading.

​Our bodies are full of energy and energy systems and the chakras are specific energy centers located in different places in the body. When these energy systems are open and free flowing at an even capacity, we can experience calm balance. If too much energy exists in one area of the body or chakra or if there is a blockage, physical symptoms can arise. These symptoms can easily be wrongly explained away by an emotion/mental health diagnosis or can be thought of as a physical illness. Learning to listen to your body at all three levels is important.
 
We have 7 main Chakras within our bodies. I will systematically discuss each one and will explain how each benefits us and also what it could look like if it is out of balance or closed off and protected. We will then learn a meditation to re-balance the energy and ground the excess. We will start from the top of the body and work our way down. 

​Those who are learning to cultivate their spiritual side and are able to sit in the presence of something larger than themselves, are utilizing their 7th chakra. This chakra is located at the top of the head. This is the place where we receive spiritual energy from above. For some this may be God, to others angels, to others still the moon, stars or sun. It really doesn’t matter how you classify the origin of the spiritual energy that uplifts and rejuvenates you. Your individual path of faith is important to respect and deepen.
 
Those who have an open and free flowing crown chakra have a strong faith base and belief in something or someone higher than the human self. To strengthen and mature this chakra takes faithful prayer, meditation, spiritual readings, etc. Those with a closed chakra may struggle to believe in a spiritual life.
 

​The 3rd eye is located central on the forehead just above the two eyes. This is our place of wisdom and intuition, when the logical, left hemisphere of our brain is integrated with the creative right side of the brain. You can see how this chakra could absolutely react to the depth of the crown chakra. Those who can easily tap into intuition and trust the wisdom coming from within or above are cultivating the energy in this chakra.
 
I saw a 30 year old mother of two a few years ago for therapy after leaving her husband due to domestic violence. After talking abtou the chakras, she noticed that her wisdom had been silenced and muted during the abuse. The way she parented her children gave her evidence that this chakra needed more attention and that she needed to understand the memories with her husband that made her begin to close this off. As she began to heal these memories and her chakra began to open, she experienced physical feeling in her forehead area. Off and on throughout the first week, she felt a dizziness come and go. We watched it to see where it would go, making sure it wasn’t an illness related dizzy and sure enough, when her chakra opened again, the symptoms subsided.
 

​Located in the throat, this chakra is about our ability to communicate effectively. Are we speaking from the heart (next chakra) effectively, honestly and with love or are we screaming and hurting those around us? An overactive chakra (yelling, swearing at others, etc) can be just as detrimental as one that is closed (when we shut down and don’t talk about the issues). Think about the times you’ve had a “lump in your throat” (throat chakra) when something is painful (heart chakra), just before you speak about it. Sometimes physical symptoms arise when the chakra is out of balance. Sore throats and frequent illnesses in this area could be looked at through the lens of this chakra.

​The heart chakra is located in the chest area. Not necessarily over the heart itself, but over the chest in it’s entirety. The place we feel love, hurt or care for others, a need to give.
 
A dad sat in my office learning of his teenage daughter’s secret drug problem. He began to breath deeply and as he did, his hand went over his heart. Why? Because he felt a deep pain for his daughter…the one he loved and his heart chakra became activated. Was it his natural heart? No. His heart chakra at this moment was letting him know that it was being affected. Becoming aware of something like this in the moment will help the situation stay at this level. Noticing how this chakra feels is important so that it does not become overly activated or close itself to more energy.

​This chakra is located below the rib cage and above the belly button. I think of this chakra as my power seat. An overactive solar plexus would look bully like and thoughtless. Think about how this would impact the throat chakra (saying mean and hurtful things) as well as the heart chakra (I just don’t care how I hurt you). Sometimes we need to strengthen and speak to this chakra to feel more independent and powerful and to stay committed to what is important. Someone with digestive, stomach or other symptoms in this part of body may look at the solar plexus and sacral chakras to see if they might be chronically out of balance.

​This is our place of passion, emotion and creativity. It is where sexual energy is expressed and enjoyed and where creativity is cultivated.  The sacral chakra is located below the belly button and above the tailbone. In the sexual realm, an overactive sacral chakra may look like someone who doesn’t respect the power of sexuality and sleeps with multiple partners. This could also be one who has been sexually abused and is still triggered often. One with a closed sacral chakra may be sexually repressed or may lack luster and passion.
 
This moves us to the passion/creative side of the chakra outside of sexuality. When creativity and passion are rich, and emotions are authentic, this chakra is flowing nicely. When life feels dead and dark and drive is at a minimal, this chakra could be sluggish or closed. You can see how these chakras speak to the heart chakra and even the 3rd eye. All chakras impact each other!

​This is our place of grounding, safety, survival and security and is located in the tail bone area. When we worry about our basic needs, our root chakra is involved. When we lose our footing and have too much going on around us to feel grounded, this is our root chakra begging to be balanced. Fight or flight responses are impacted in this chakra.

​Imagine the opposite extreme, not to lose our footing, but to feel cemented and stuck. Being rooted does not mean becoming rigid and legalistic. “We will never have enough money”, says the man with six figures saved in the bank and a healthy retirement plan. Interestingly enough, he grew up poor worrying about losing electricity and trying to think of how he could work to help the family AND play football. Healing the chronic impact made to this chakra can be an important piece in the healing path. Learning to listen can be priceless.

​This article doesn’t stop here! Now that you understand the chakras uses and effects on mental and physical health, you can learn how to sit quietly and listen to each of them. The next article walks you through a meditation designed to create awareness of how each of the chakras have been impacted.
 
Remember: meditation is NOT specific to any one religion or spiritual group. Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and those not identifying with any religion can safely benefit by sitting and listening to the body. We have a duty to be the best humans we can, to make the world better because of our existence. Meditating through the Chakras can be part of that process.
 
Gabrielle Anderson is the owner of and a therapist at the Family Therapy Center in Ashburn, Virginia. She is a married mother of two and lives in the Northern Virginia area. Gabrielle can be contacted here.