Chakras defined
Chakras are energy centers in the body that influence your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. To be in touch with your seven chakras and to understand how they impact you on a physical and spiritual level is to really know yourself. When you are tuned into your mind and body via your chakras, you’re a co-creator of your life instead of just reacting to what life is dishing out. When you know exactly which chakra is not operating as it should, you have leverage on healing yourself or solving a problem.
One way to think about chakras is that they’re a way to separate your body into sections so that you, or a healer, can intuit what is happening in your space, how it’s affecting you, and why it’s happening in the first place.
The chakras are windows into how you relate to all the different aspects of yourself and the world around you.
Mechanically speaking, they are circular wheels of energy that start at the root of your spine and end at the top of your head. There are additional chakras above your head, but I’ll only be discussing the seven chakras in your body today.
History of chakras
The use of chakras goes way back.
Chakras have been used as a focal point in meditation for thousands of years. The concept dates back to ancient India, where they were first described in the Vedic texts. These ancient Indian religious texts describe seven primary chakras resting along the spine and extending to the limbs. Each of these seven chakras regulates the flow of energy within the body and maintains balance. All seven are associated with a specific emotion or physical function.
The concept of chakras was further developed in the Tantric and yoga traditions over the next handful of centuries. The Tantric practice identifies seven chakras and associated symbols, which all release and balance energy within the body. The yoga tradition also recognizes the seven chakras and emphasizes the power of meditation to open, balance, and cleanse the chakras.
Today, chakras are widely accepted and studied by those interested in energy work, healing, and spirituality. Various types of healers use different approaches to understand and work with chakras, including visualizations, affirmations, breathwork, and even crystals.
I use chakras in my clairvoyant, or intuitive, practice to first see what is going on with your chakra(s) and how each chakra is affecting your mood, body, or thought patterns. I next walk you through visualization-based meditation to clean and reset it.
Seven chakras explained
Various schools of thought relate to chakras slightly differently. Below is how I view the chakras based on my training via The Boulder Psychic Institute.
The lower three chakras (1-3)
These are the biggies that manage your basic human experiences—they cover survival, your emotions, and how you get things done. I’ll go into more detail below, but if unregulated or untended, they’ll make a pretty noticeable impact on your day-to-day life. Generally speaking, the lower three chakras tend to be overactive in a large part of the Western population. During meditation, it’s nice to mentally turn these down to quiet that “OMG, I’m overwhelmed and need to do All The Things RIGHT NOW” feeling that a lot of us struggle with much of the time.
1. Root Chakra – This chakra is located at the base of the spine and is associated with your connection to the physical world and the earth itself. This is your foundation and your sense of stability. Your first chakra reflects how you are meeting your body’s most basic human needs: food, water, shelter, sleep, and your “place in the pack.” Living out and realizing the role you’re best suited to play within a group is a basic part of evolutionary survival.
If you experience a lot of anxiety, that might be a big hint that your first chakra needs attention. That anxiety is usually pointing to the fact that your body does not feel safe depending on what is going on with you individually.
I’m a big fan of the first chakra; it gets overlooked because it’s not as flashy as some of the upper chakras—but it matters! If your first chakra isn’t being tended to, there ain’t nothin’ going right in your life.
A mindfulness practice rooted in your first chakra can take you to spiritual mastery. Loving and tending to your body, aka your temple, is not just about your health—it’s about making yourself a good host for love, creativity, intuition, and a relationship with the spiritual world beyond your five senses.
Entire spiritual awakenings can happen just by slowing down and mastering this chakra. Gratitude practices built around your everyday experiences of having clean water to drink, air to breathe, and sunshine to view are more powerful than you might think.
2. Sacral Chakra – This chakra is located in the lower abdomen, just below the navel. It governs your creativity, emotions, and sexuality. It helps you to feel passionate, joyful, and connected to your inner desires. Your second chakra is your emotional center—it’s a window into how you handle your emotions. It shows if you hold them all in, blow them out everywhere, and to what degree you hold on to other people’s emotions. Are you processing your mom’s emotions through your body (yes, that’s a thing)? Or are you just working through your emotions? Learning to validate and be curious and neutral to this chakra is life-changing, especially if your emotions, or lack of emotions, are ruling your life.
3. Solar Plexus Chakra – This chakra is located at the solar plexus, just above the navel. It governs your sense of personal power. It helps you to feel confident, strong, and assertive. The third chakra is your DO chakra. It shows how you get things done, how you use your body, and how active you are.
If it’s overactive or too big, you may be trying to control others and everything around you too much. An underactive or blocked third chakra may make you feel stuck, depressed, lethargic, or insecure about how you’re showing up in a relationship or at work. Your to-do list lives in your third chakra.
It’s fairly common to see people’s second and third chakras smooshed together—this may cause a reaction of feeling like crap if you don’t accomplish what you think you should in a day, year, or lifetime.
Upper chakras (4-7)
These are the chakras that help you get into the Big Stuff—spiritually speaking (but remember, you can’t get here if your first chakra is a hot mess). How you love, and your ability to tap into your intuition, see beyond your five senses, and channel creativity all happen above the belt. I’ll break each one down one by one.
4. Heart Chakra – This chakra is located in the center of your chest. It governs your ability to experience love and is associated with compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance. It helps you to feel connected to your innermost self.
This is the chakra that represents your affinity with yourself and your sense of self-worth. How you view yourself will directly affect how you love others and vice versa. Your heart chakra will show how healthy your relationship with you is. Your heart chakra reveals to what degree you can give and receive love, as well as life’s other blessings or miracles.
I often view this chakra as my “home” chakra. If I’m going through something difficult or feel out of touch with myself, I will do a meditation where I bring my point of awareness back to my fourth—my most intimate aspect of myself–and just sort of chill there to feel more grounded and soothed.
5. Throat Chakra – This chakra is located at the base of the throat. It governs your ability to communicate and express yourself. It helps you to be authentic and truthful with yourself and others. The fifth chakra will show what your inner dialogue is like and how you communicate or express yourself outwardly via speaking, writing, creating art, and expressing body language.
If your fifth isn’t working as it should, you’ll have trouble speaking your truth and often won’t feel heard or understood. You might be processing too much or too little dialogue. Y’know when you’re up at 3:00 am with racing thoughts?! That’s your fifth going all willy-nilly on you.
6. Third Eye – This chakra is located between the eyebrows. It governs how you see the world and your ability to use your own intuition and imagination. Your third eye shapes your worldview. If it’s full of energy that doesn’t belong up there, you may have a negative worldview, which will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If your sixth chakra is healthy, you can see reality for what it is without being clouded by your own judgments or confusion. Seeing clearly is a gift—it helps you take your next step with certainty and confidence. This is also the chakra associated with clairvoyance!
7. Crown Chakra – This chakra is located at the top of the head and is associated with the divine. It governs your connection to the spiritual world and helps you to feel a sense of oneness and spiritual wonder. Your seventh chakra is the interface between you and Spirit or Source.
How you define the divine is up to you. Regardless, this chakra is where you connect with your own truth, wisdom, intuition, and the world beyond your five senses (also known as the astral world). Your seventh will show how much you are operating within your own truth.
Understanding and even crafting your own truth is an ongoing practice. When you are in your own truth, you’re on your way to self-mastery!
How are the chakras used in a clairvoyant healing practice?
A clairvoyant, or psychic, can use visualizations of these chakras to see where a person’s energy is blocked, identify the source of any emotional issues, and create a healing plan. They can use the chakras to help you access and release any stored trauma, provide insight into your emotional and spiritual health, and help you make decisions and take action.
If you went to a medical doctor and said, “I feel sick,” the doctor would need additional information to know what is happening in your body and why. They would ask you several questions to narrow down what is ailing you to prescribe the best protocol.
Energy work is the same. If you come to me and say, “I just broke up with my partner,” or “I lost a loved one,” or “My career is a mess,” or “I just feel meh,” I will take a deeper look under the hood to get more insight on what is going on. The first thing I look at is your chakras. Which one is lighting up the most, and what is gumming it up? Sometimes it’s surprising what I find!
If a chakra is too big or too small or has a bunch of junk in it, there is a reason that is happening. Energy doesn’t get stuck in our chakras randomly.
Foreign energy, or energy that doesn’t belong to you, often sticks in your chakras because you have a belief that you picked up somewhere that isn’t true for you. That belief can come from any number of places, but it’s a lie in your space.
Those stuck beliefs are usually bold sweeping statements that you may have never challenged and will limit your mobility in life.
“I’m not worthy of love unless I’m in service to others,” or, “the world is a broken dangerous place, and my body is not safe,” or, “life is hard, and I’ll never catch a break,” are all examples of what a stuck belief can look like.
These beliefs are bits of sticky energy that attract a similar or corresponding energy to that particular chakra—thus compounding negative patterns.
Depending on which chakra the sticky foreign energy is living in, these beliefs will play out in your thoughts, actions, and even the parts of your body that correspond to that chakra.
This is why it’s important to clean out your chakras routinely!
Can you heal your own chakras?
Yes, you can! Taking care of your chakras is part of what is considered psychic hygiene. It’s simple, effective, and feels good. I’m happy to teach you how to clean out your chakras during meditation so you can learn the power of visualization to keep your engine running smoothly. It’s like brushing and flossing—but for your soul.
So there you have it. Chakras—what they are and why they matter!
— Three Brodsky, Spiritual Coach
If you would like to get a reading on what your chakras look like or bring a particular issue to me to work on, schedule with me here.