Meditating Through the Chakras: Learning to Listen to the Needs of the Body

Meditating Through the Chakras: Learning to Listen to the Needs of the Body (Blog Article 2 of 2)

6/1/2017

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.

Tying the Chakras Together: Learning to Listen

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.

Meditating Through the Chakras: Balancing the Flow

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).

Create a Quiet, Spiritual Space

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.

Sit Quietly in Your Space: It is Time to Meditate

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.

Starting the Chakra 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.

Breaking Down the Chakras

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?

Flushing out Energetic Debris Through Meditation

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.

Allowing Meditation to Affect Your Daily Activity

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.

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