We often think of balance as measuring out daily activities appropriately. With this simple Chakra balancing practice we find balance in a harmonious feeling within ourselves.
When I was on vacation in Seattle and Portland and eating all sorts of crazy stuff in these wonderful foodie towns (i.e. gluten-free pancakes with chocolate chips we made right there on our table!), I started looking forward to my fall cleanse. But then it hit me: there’s way more to detoxing than just eating healthy food for a while.
A wise woman once told me that “babies aren’t made from food, they’re made from Consciousness.” Yes, the body is taking the energy from the food we eat and using it to create life, but it’s the energy itself that’s the material. So it makes sense that our energy has a huge affect on what we are experiencing and who we are becoming.
So right then and there, in the middle of my vacation, I decided to start a month-long energy cleanse. Besides going to an Ayurvedic spa and enjoying a week of pancha karma or going to a yoga retreat, the best way I know to find balance is to re-unite with our old friends, the Chakras (pronounced like the “ch” in “cha cha cha”). If you don’t know them, you are going to love them – I promise.
The Chakras are energy centers in the body that have to do with specific aspects of who we are. We know some of them intuitively – we say “I felt it in my gut” or “my heart is broken” or “I got weak in the knees” (the knees are not a Chakra but they do have to do with fear – we usually don’t say “I got weak in the elbows” or “we broke up my belly was broken”).
The way we harmonize our energy flow through these centers is with vibration, or sound: considered in yoga to be the first step when we take anything from potentiality to manifestation
The way I see it, each of us is a unique instrument, and our job in life is to find the “sound” that we do best. To do this, each chakra has a “seed mantra” (bija) that acts sort of like a tuning fork. We are not all supposed to sound the same, but when we are each tuned to our inner vibration, there is beautiful harmony. Each chakra has its own “note” that we want to harmonize with so that energy can flow with ease.
Below are the main chakras and what they’re about:
Chakra 1: Find Balance by Allowing Yourself to be Held by the Earth
Abundance/Nurturing – The first chakra, from pelvic floor downward, is our connection to earth energy. When it’s clear, we feel nurtured and held in the abundance of the universe; we also nurture others easily. When it’s out of balance or blocked, we feel that there isn’t enough – and we aren’t enough. Remember the abundance of everything and that you are an expression of that.
Chakra 2: Find Balance by Shaking Your Booty Playfully
Sexuality/creative flow – The second chakra, just below the belly button, relates to our ability to let our creativity, sexuality, and emotions flow with ease. When this is blocked, we have pent up emotions, and we aren’t finding expression for our truth. When it’s open, we can share authentically what’s within us for the good of the world.
Chakra 3: Find Balance by Trusting Your Intuition
Clarity/Intuition – Above the belly button to the sternum, the 3rd chakra, is where we get hits of understanding and intention. When this area is clear, we have mental clarity and power. Think of “I felt it in my gut”. Exhale and breathe into the back of your body, our connection to that more universal part of ourselves. Listen. Even ask questions. Trust what you sense is the answer.
Chakra 4: Find Balance by Opening Your Heart
Love/Connection – The heart center is the place that we point to to say “it’s me!”. It’s where we can connect to the whole world from a place of love and authenticity. When our heart chakra is open, we feel loved and we can love easily. When we close off our heart, rounding our shoulders forward, we feel afraid to connect. Literally breathe this area open, sliding shoulder blades down the back. From here, you can access all the Chakras below and above.
Chakra 5: Find Balance by Humming
Self Expression – The throat center is about sharing what is arising within you, whether it’s through speech or song, art, music, dance or writing. When this chakra is clear we allow what is in our heart, our intuition, our emotions and our nurturing energy to flow out to the world, with the result of creating more truth, goodness and beauty.
Chakra 6: Find Balance by Visioning
Vision – Above the eyes in the center is our 3rd eye, where we can see far and wide. What do you see when you picture the future? Visioning is something you can do to create clarity, opening up possibilities.
All Chakras: Find Balance by Harmonizing
The word “Chakra” means wheel. Think of our energetic channels – 72,000 “nadi’s” in yoga – as freeways. The Chakras are like traffic circles where energy comes from all different directions, and we want it to keep flowing around the circle and off to where it needs to go.
Since Chakras are wheels of energy, it makes sense that there is a certain vibration or frequency of each one.
A frequency is a sound wave, and according to yoga each Chakra has a unique “seed mantra” that can help you find balance for all of your Chakras.
All you need to do is repeat this sound while bringing your awareness to that Chakra, connecting with its energy flow and inviting in spaciousness and flow.
I also offer my memory trick that I use to connect each sound to the meaning of each chakra, in case it’s helpful to you. Warning: they are pretty goofy and you will NOT find them in any yogic texts…
1st: La-La-Lahm (Land – nurturing and abundant support of earth energy)
2nd: Va-Va-Vahm (Vitality- sexuality, creativity, emotions)
3rd: Ra-Ra-Rahm (Roar – mental power and clarity)
4th: Ya-Ya-Yahm (Yum – sweet love and connection)
5th: Ha-Ha-Hahm (Hum – your song of truth, goodness and beauty)
6th: Ohm (Ohhhhhh – and then keep the sound going when you close your mouth, until you feel a vibration in your head). See what is and what could be.
(The 7th is soundless – it’s our connection to the un-embodied, fully free ocean of Consciousness that flows through us.)
And – because I’ve always had a brazen streak – I offer you a new Chakra!
It might seem new – and yet it might just be the first word you ever spoke.
It represents Mother Love in almost every language.
It’s egg-shaped, nurturing energy all around your body.
It’s YOUR energy, yet its nurturing you, holding you lovingly.
It sounds like this:
Ma-Ma-Mahm.
OK, so now you’re ready to find balance in all of your Chakras!
Go through the above – each one 3 times, and the whole set 3 times. “Hang out” in each Chakra as you’re chanting its seed. Vision harmony within each, and with all.
This Chakra Chant is so powerful and helpful to find balance.
I have heard and read reports from people who say they would never have written their book, or stayed together with their spouse, or gotten off anti-depressants if they hadn’t started chanting the chakra seed mantras.
Here is the Chakra balancing practice I am doing for my 30-day energy cleanse! It’s great if you can sit in lotus or cross legged. Feel your pelvic floor first by inhaling and drawing in the muscles of your anus 3 times. Then root down and rise up from there. But if you don’t have time to sit, mama – do it while doing the dishes, going for a walk or during commercials.
1. Say the above mantras out loud from 1-6 like you are climbing a mountain, pausing to consider the meaning of each one for a moment “Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, Om, Mahm“.
2. Now, going down from the top, say or whisper them 3 times:
Om
Om ha ha ham
Om ya ya yam
Om ra ra ram
Om va va vam
Om la la lam
Om ma ma mam
3. Finally, a little quicker, say or whisper 3 times:
Om
Ha ha ham
Ya ya yam
Ra ra ram
Va va vam
La la lam
Om ma ma mam
Now, sit for a while and feel the vibrations settling into beautiful harmony within you.
I promise you will feel a difference in the areas that you noticed in the beginning were challenging. Even after a few days of this Chakra balancing practice I noticed a lot more loving interactions and a clarity I did not have before about this coming school/harvest year.
Let me know how this chakra balancing practice goes for you mama! Here’s a video by Ambika Wauters for more on the chakras (I loved her book Chakras and their Archetypes), and for specific info about this chanting practice and others, check out Bri. Maya Tiwari’s The Path of Practice: A Woman’s Book of Healing with Food, Breath and Sound.
Enjoy – and remember, finding balance on the deepest level isn’t about equalizing time in your activities – it’s about harmonizing energy within you.
