Exploring the Chakras
The Chakras
Common sensations that you may experience such as having “butterflies in your tummy”, “a gut feeling”, or “a knot in your stomach” are all representations of either an energy blockage or an energy flow in your body vessel. It’s a great start to be able to recognize these feelings, and as you do more inner work you will be able to figure out what triggers these feelings, how to let go of them, and which of your chakras need support in connection with them.
Energy flow in the vessel allows for the light and natural state of being, while energy blockages cause a heavy and warped state of being. In my experience, painful sensations in the vessel that come with a high heart rate are energy blockages, while settled sensations in the vessel that allow a steady heart rate are energy flow.
To understand Chakras, you must understand Nadis. The root of the Sanksrit word Nadi is Nad, which means “to flow”, and has also been interpreted as “a flowing river”. Thus, Nadis are the channels through which energy flows within the body. Chakra is also a Sanskrit word, meaning “wheel”, which refers to the circular shape of each chakra in the body and how it spins to generate energy. The Chakras generate the energy that is transported by the Nadis throughout the body, as shown in Figure 4.
If we think of energy having all of water’s properties, we gain a better understanding of the energy system in our bodies and beyond:
Imagine that your ideal and heavenly vessel is a river without any rocks in it. The water flowing is your energy in flow, and energy blockages come in the form of boulders being put by you into the river. The boulders being put in are self-sabotaging behaviours such as eating foods you know will make you sick, picking fights with loved ones, hating your body, feeding into limiting beliefs about yourself, or surrounding yourself with people who don’t inspire you to be better. The water still flows as these huge rocks are being put in, but not as powerfully. As more rocks get put in, the water flow becomes increasingly weaker and more dysregulated as an energy dam is created.
In the vessel, the metaphor above can look like your energy levels decreasing and your pain sensations increasing as you continue to pursue self-sabotaging behaviours that add boulders to your river.
As you stop taking care of your self and stop protecting your energy, the water barely trickles, the chakras become blocked, and the Nadis don’t have much energy to transport.
Somatic work
On a brighter note, there is much hope! If you choose life, the energy will never stop flowing within you! As I choose life every day, the world of somatic work opens more and more to me, so that is currently how I am taking the boulders out of my river.
Somatic work is any type of work that allows one to consciously connect their body to their mind and spirit. It helps one understand how emotions show up within their body and how movement can help those emotions pass through the energy system without adding any more boulders to one’s river.
Somatic work can look like yoga, stretching, Pilates, running, going to the gym, performing Reiki, having Reiki performed on you, breathwork journeys, and more. The key is to be fully conscious and aware of your body as you do these exercises. The gentler you are with yourself, the easier it will be to remove the boulders from your river and experience the joy of a more powerful energy flow within you.
With the intention to keep removing boulders every single day through somatic practice, you can bring attention and awareness to your Chakras, which creates energy to flow within your Nadis.
Be sure to check out my Chakra activation series on Instagram!
My experience with both
Exploring and unlocking the chakras through somatic work has been a quintessential part of my journey.
Until about four years ago, I used exercise as a punishment to make my body look skinny. There was sometimes the feeling of spiritual euphoria that comes with a fantastic workout, but it was mostly drudgery. Though I could have used exercise to release blockages, the self-hatred stopped me from doing that. So, during workouts, my body would be in pain, begging for me to look inwards and begin my inner work. Instead of beginning my inner work, I would try to physically exert my emotions out of my body. Let me tell you… trying to physically exert yourself into healing without doing ANY inner work will ONLY cause injury. My right shoulder can give you a testimonial.
As I grew into a woman and began to love myself unconditionally, exercising my body became a source of happiness and an expression of self-love. Eventually, I was able to pair exercise with spirituality. That allowed me to create harmony during my workouts that helped me to gently release trapped emotions, unconsciously. I worked out without pushing myself as much because I knew it would make me feel better during and afterwards. But at this stage, I wasn’t sure why I felt better after exercising.
Now, as I am diving deeper into somatic work, I become more conscious of each emotion present as I flex or extend each body part. For example, during my shoulder exercises, feelings often arise that come with carrying too much of someone else’s burdens (lack of personal boundaries). Thus, I resonate deeply with the saying, “take the burden off your shoulders”. As I accept every emotion, love it, and set it free, I release trapped emotions from each of the little storage facilities in my body. The release is what helps me feel better after each exercise.
Reiki as a complement to somatic work has helped me reach the above-mentioned level of emotional consciousness and I’m sure it will help me explore depths of myself that I never could have thought of.
As I journey through somatic work, I begin to value more and more the ability to be conscious of every single part of one’s body. And by become conscious, I mean to really feel how each body part takes up space in relation to the 3D environment, the other body parts, and the emotions present. Through the conscious engagement of each body part through somatic experiences, “we can create space, an ‘allowing’, an expansive way of relating universally, a mode of relating that feels total and not just of the intellect, using the whole body to ‘allow’ with.”
As I become more conscious of my body, I gain access to the shadowy depths of my inner world, and my deepest, darkest emotions. Perhaps that can even be added to my list of mantras.
The awakening of my heart chakra has been exponentially healing. It has flown me forward by eons. It has been the most difficult, and the most worthwhile. It has allowed me access into other chakras. Though I have been getting in touch with my heart for a while now, I still have slight kyphosis, which means that my shoulders are slightly caving in to protect my heart. In a way it’s cute that my body wants my heart to be protected so well. It has served me well in the past. But now it’s time to shine my heart out into the world. I am healing myself. That is the power of somatic work.
Final thoughts
The spirit message for this blog post is:
There is no beginning and no end to healing and unlocking chakras, just like there is no beginning and no end to stillness. Luckily, there is a beginning and an end to emotion. Thus, if we allow/give ourselves permission to let emotions come and go through our vast entity of stillness, we can begin to unlock the sacred joy that comes naturally in our unblocked chakras.
Thank you for reading!
Love,
Lauryn