Understanding Your Chakras and Spiritual Energy

Spiritual energy is distinct from physical energy that you use to move your body around, lift things, and so on. Spiritual energy is often called "prana" or "chi" (among other names). I personally feel most comfortable with the label "prana," which is a Sanskrit word meaning "breath." Spiritual energy is the breath or life force of your spirit the same way that blood is the life force of your physical body. Blood carries oxygen and vital nutrients to all parts of your physical body, just as the chakras transmit and receive prana throughout the body. Chakra is another Sanskrit word that means "wheel," and they are energy centers located in your torso and head. The chakras can be thought of and understood as "energy converters" too, as the chakras connect your spiritual body to your physical body and help to convert and transfer physical energy and prana between the different parts of your physical and spiritual body.

When you use your psychic abilities or engage in other spiritual functions, you need to use the prana stored in your body. Some psychics report feeling "drained" after using their spiritual gifts, and others have reported a very sharp increase in their physical appetite after performing these spiritual functions. The reason for that is you are using your available prana for these psychic and spiritual tasks, and your spiritual energy can become depleted. The increased appetite many spiritualists experience is a sign that the prana has been significantly depleted and the body requires more energy--that energy can be obtained by taking in physical energy (in the form of calories that fuel your body for all its physical functions), and this physical energy can then be converted into prana through your chakras in order to replenish the supply.

When there is a disturbance or blockage in your spiritual energy, your chakras can become unbalanced, weak and damaged and that can lead to disturbances in your physical body in time. The most common example of this is the effects of toxic emotions. When toxic emotions are not healed appropriately, they are often "stuffed down" and ignored. Where do those toxic emotions get "stuffed" or "bottled up"? They go straight to your Sacral Chakra, which is located in the center of the abdomen, just beneath the navel. Over time, these emotions can damage the Sacral Chakra, and harmful energy is then able to attack your physical body and result in physical injuries, illnesses and diseases.

When my brother died, I could not cope with the loss in a healthy manner and I stuffed all the pain down into my Sacral Chakra--where I'd been storing up toxic emotions from my early childhood even. My Sacral Chakra became overloaded and experienced what could be described as catastrophic failure. Very soon after the death of my brother in my late teen years, I became afflicted with the disease endometriosis. I discovered through conversing with many other women who suffer from endometriosis that all the women I have talked to did experience some type of severe emotional and spiritual trauma prior to the onset of the disease. I experience chronic abdominal pain and light internal bleeding (although it often doesn't feel light, it is not life threatening) as a direct result of my damaged chakra! When my Sacral Chakra became overloaded by the toxic emotions, it was no longer able to protect my physical body from the harmful effects of the prana of those emotions. Thankfully I have been aware of the damage and have been working on healing my Sacral Chakra for years. The physical disease, endometriosis, still requires physical intervention and treatment from skilled medical professionals, but I must also heal the damage to my chakra in order to prevent the illness from reoccurring.

Here is an illustration of the chakras that connect the spirit body to the physical body. You will notice colours and symbols representing each chakra as well. Each colour from the spectrum is represented because there is a special task for each of our seven major chakras, and each one converts and transfers a specific type of spiritual energy. Just as the Sacral Chakra deals with the toxic emotions or traumas, as well as relationships of all kinds, joy and creativity, the other chakras each have specific purposes and tasks. The colours perceived in your aura reveal what type of spiritual energy or experience is dominant for you right now, and your aura changes colour as you experience different things. You can access and strengthen each kind of spiritual energy by visualizing the colour associated with the chakra you wish to use or strengthen. Meditate on the area of your body where the chakra is located and visualize a spinning vortex of coloured light corresponding with that specific chakra and emanating from the chakra and spreading throughout your body.

There is a great deal to know about each chakra and I cannot give you a complete education about each of them in one short article, but I would like to introduce you to the basics of each chakra, and encourage you to continue your own personal research and study about the chakras and how prana is used by the physical and spiritual bodies.

The Root Chakra is located near the base of the spine, near the perineum. The colour of the Root Chakra energy is vibrant or deep red, and it deals with the energy of earthly and material things. A strong Root Chakra indicates a person who is well grounded or in touch with the physical world. An imbalance in this chakra can lead someone to be obsessed with the acquisition of material wealth, power and control, and they may also act out sexually because the Root Chakra connects to physical creation and sexuality too.

The Sacral Chakra is located in the center of the abdomen, just beneath the navel. The colour of the Sacral Chakra is deep, rich orange, and this chakra deals with emotional creativity, joy, sensuality and spirituality. A strong Sacral Chakra indicates a person who has a healthy balance between dependence and independence, and experiences deep joy, emotional harmony and spiritual devotion, and possesses great creative energy for things like art, music, and writing. An imbalance in this chakra can represent as depression, insecurities about the body and sexuality, poor self esteem and self image, and social anxiety and withdrawal or isolationism.

The Solar Plexus Chakra is located in the mid-torso, near the diaphragm. The colour of the Solar Plexus Chakra is bright yellow, and this chakra deals with awareness, intellect, and will power. A strong Solar Plexus Chakra indicates a person who is confident, intellectual, observant and courageous. An imbalance in this chakra can manifest as perfectionism and a high level of self-controlling behaviour (that is usually not helpful to the individual at all), mental confusion, and excessive fears and cowardice or avoidance behaviours.

The Heart Chakra is located in the center of the chest, near the heart. The colour of the Heart Chakra is vivid green, and this chakra relates to love, nature, healing, compassion and also the connection between your will and God's will. A strong Heart Chakra will manifest as a very loving and generous nature, harmony, calmness, a deep concern for the environment, and can often lead an individual to experience prosperity because of being powerfully connected with the highest good. An imbalance in the Heart Chakra can cause you to feel jealousy, experience discord in your personal relationships, and impair your ability to make decisions from the heart.

The Throat Chakra is located in the center of your throat, between your collar and your jaw. The colour of the Throat chakra is deep blue, and this chakra relates to communication, honesty, and diplomacy. A strong Throat Chakra enables a person to express themselves freely and be honest, respectful and inspirational in their speech. An imbalance of this chakra can cause a person to be dishonest and disrespectful in their speech, to keep feelings and ideas hidden, and can result in a feeling of disconnection from Spirit as well as other people.

The Third Eye Chakra is located in the center of your head, near the center of your forehead. The colour of the Third Eye Chakra is indigo, and this chakra deals with all the psychic functions, as well as actions resulting from decisions--you will rarely hear about the Third Eye in any sense other than the psychic, mind you. A strong Third-Eye chakra enables you to perceive the bigger picture and make clear decisions based on intuitive wisdom, and will definitely cause one to develop some or all psychic functions that are your birthright. An imbalance in this chakra will lead to the blockage or impairment of all psychic functions, and can lead to confusion, faulty reasoning, and sometimes even an inability to see reason or make sense of the world around you.

The Crown Chakra is located at the top of your head and is the location through which your spirit entered your physical body when you were conceived, and this chakra deals with higher thinking and spirituality. The colour of the Crown Chakra is bright purple, although many people perceive the Crown Chakra as white. The reason is that pure spiritual energy is white (containing all colours from the spectrum), and we will take another look at white energy in a moment. A strong Crown Chakra indicates a person who is completely connected with Spirit and possesses spiritual wisdom. A strong Crown Chakra will enable you to connect with your Higher Self and experience higher consciousness all the time. An imbalance or blockage in the Crown Chakra can result in an inability to connect with the divine, and over-emphasising the material and physical world.

Because the spirit enters the body through the Crown Chakra, this is also a passage between the physical and the spiritual. When a person has a strong Crown Chakra, they can receive pure white prana from God flowing down through the body from the top of the head. Balancing all of your chakras will enable your spiritual energy to become purified and white energy will flow through your entire physical and spiritual body. For this reason, meditating on white or white light can assist you in balancing the energy of all your chakras.

I will write more about chakras, colours and meditation, but for now I encourage you to think about the colours you're most drawn to right now. What colour do you prefer to wear or decorate your environment with? How do different colours affect your moods? What insights can you glean from these colour attractions and association that you have, now that you know more about the colours of energy? A strong attraction to a particular colour could mean you have particularly strong energy of that type, or it could mean you need to increase that energy in order to achieve beneficial balance of your prana. Does your favourite colour indicate a strength or a weakness for you? I invite you to share your experiences in the comments for this post.

~*~Monica Who~*~