PPW Articles

What is Chakra

A chakra is the human bodys energy axis that receives, interacts with and conveys life force between an individual and his/her environment. Its direct English translation means a spinning wheel. Furthermore, ancient Hindu writings reveal that of the bodys 88,000 chakra points, there are seven which are considered of primary importance.

Although there is no common denominator between the ancient Hindu and Chinese cultures, they are very similar in their interpretation and explanation about the role of these energy points in our health and lives in general. Both the Hindus and the Chinese look at the bodys major energy points as playing important roles in our conscious and subconscious experiences. And that these seven energy points are the keys to a healthy and successful life.

The seven major energy points of our body are the root, navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, and crown and they are located along the length of the spine. These energy points continuously receive and transmit life form energies resulting from their direct and indirect interaction with other elements and life forces of our environment and are believed to have a direct bearing on our physical, emotional and spiritual makeup.

Since the chakras are constantly in motion regardless if we are awake or not, their constant activity influences our bodys structure and appearance, glandular processes, physical disorders, even our thoughts and conduct. Therefore when one or more of our chakras malfunction due to any number of reasons, the result is an imbalance that becomes manifest in all aspects of our being.

The reason for this is because each of the seven major chakras is linked to a corresponding endocrine gland in our body. Any imbalance in the function of a chakra affects our physical and emotional processes and manifests a disturbance in the usual pattern of activity or behavior through the endocrine gland linked to it.

Taking Proper Care of our Chakras From the preceding point of view promoted by the ancient Hindus and Chinese traditional medicine practitioners alike, we can conclude that a good number of our illnesses are in one way or another related to a malfunctioning chakra. Although physical symptoms may be absent or minimal at the very least, they are signs that something is wrong with us physically, spiritually or emotionally.

Since not all of our illnesses may be physical, they can also be on the emotional level brought on by repressed incidents that brought us undue pain or disappointment during our lifetime to eating the wrong types of foods and being obese for example. Lack of self confidence and self esteem can also be considered an illness in the broadest term. Certainly, there is only one way to combat these illnesses and that is to remove their physical or emotional triggers from our system.

Chakra Healing is Good for Our Body We can directly influence our chakras and their functions and through them our health and lives by employing techniques such as Reiki healing, aromatherapy, color therapy, chakra balancing with the aid of a pendulum, crystals or gemstones.

Some people prefer to attend yoga exercise classes as the breathing and physical exercises used in the practice of yoga are beneficial to maintain chakra balance in the body.

Other methodologies of chakra healing are meditation (keeping the mind focused on an object of thought or awareness for a certain period of time), guided visualization (done with the aid of audio tapes or CDs to promote natural healing and relaxation techniques to reduce stress, promote relaxation and harness the power of the mind).

Despite the fact that we can not physically see or touch our chakras, they can work independently to sustain our body.

Since our diet affects our body and our system, they also affect the stability and synchronization of our major energy points. The food we eat can either make them work better, slowly or not at all!

Our root chakra thrives on root-type vegetables and protein-rich foods. Sweet fruits, nuts directly affect our navel chakra while our solar plexus chakra is enhanced by a healthy diet of breads, dairy product and cereals.

Green, leafy vegetables, plenty of liquid, fruit juices and green tea are beneficial for our heart and throat chakras.

On the other hand, our third eye chakra is get nourishment when we eat blueberries and grapes and drink wine or grape juice. It is equally important to nourish this chakra as it makes feelings and senses sharper.

The spiritual and emotional center (our crown chakra) of the human body however does not need nutrients but requires detoxification by means of fasting.

These everyday methods, which admittedly are vey simple since they are an extension of what we already perform daily are some of the basic ways we can heal our energy points so that we can reap the benefits of possessing a healthy functioning chakra for a more productive and healthier life.