Chakra Week!
A handful of years back, I was doing a body scan meditation. I was going from feet up to head. Upon scanning my diaphragm area, all of a sudden, my heart started beating out of my chest. I had been at a very peaceful calm resting heart rate, and then all of a sudden it was going a mile a minute, and banging so hard. Almost simultaneously, I was flooded with a million emotions, and I had no idea where they were coming from. I pretty much immediately started sobbing, and was totally clueless as to why.
I stayed focused on that area for a bit, until I calmed down. Then, I continued on up to my head. Upon moving away from my diaphragm, the heart rate went back to normal, and I stopped crying. It was one of the most odd sensations I had ever felt while meditating, and I had no idea why.
I decided to spend some more time focusing on this area, and fell into a deep trance. In that trance, all of a sudden, the words “solar plexus” appeared to me. I found this odd, as I didn’t know what these words meant, and if I had ever heard them before, I didn’t remember it. It definitely was not part of my vocabulary at the time.
Upon coming out of the meditation, I decided to look up “solar plexus” and find out what it meant. Turns out, it is one of your chakras. I had heard of chakras before, but literally knew nothing about them. I found it so odd that I was given this message, when I had absolutely no knowledge about it whatsoever. I was so curious and intrigued, so I jumped into the rabbit hole of information on the internet about what a “solar plexus” chakra is.
For those of you reading this who don’t know about chakras, I highly recommend Googling it, as there are so many resources online that do a far better job than I. I will simply say, for any readers who aren’t aware and need a basic, cursory definition in order to continue reading, that Oxford dictionary defines the chakras as, “(in Indian thought) each of the centers of spiritual power in the human body, usually considered to be seven in number.” To explain a bit further, Fiona Toy describes chakras as “the energy centers of the body. A sanskrit word, ‘chakra’ means wheel, and each chakra moves with a spinning motion, forming a vortex. These vortices filter the energy of the environment around us and disperse it through our body. There are seven major chakras - one enters the physical body at the top of the head, and the other six occur along the vertical midline of the body, with energy entering the body from the front and back.”
The Krista definition is that they are “powerful, energetic, spiritual centers of your body - the root is at the base of your spine, the sacral is in the pelvis/lower abdomen area, the solar plexus is in your diaphragm area, the heart is in your heart area (duh), your throat is in your throat area (also duh), your third eye is in between your eyes in your forehead, and your crown is the top of your head. Each of these energy centers is responsible for different things in your body from a physical, mental, spiritual and emotional point of view."
Upon researching the solar plexus chakra, I found out that it was responsible for your self-love, self-worth, self-esteem, confidence, will-power, and sense of your place in this world. I found out that when it is blocked you feel bad about yourself. You don’t have any of the above mentioned attributes. You are overly sensitive to everything people do. You experience everything as criticism and rejection. You have no confidence. It also effects your digestion and gut health.
These were literally all of my biggest problems at that time. For those of you that know about my journey to self-love and body positivity, etc, this was the catalyst to that. This was back when I absolutely hated myself, and everything that everyone said would hurt my feelings all the time. I had absolutely no ability to function without the approval of others. And I was majorly lacking in courage, strength, and self-esteem. This was from around 2015-2018 I wanna say. I think I became aware of all this around 2017, and spent about a year or more working on unblocking this chakra. That’s not to say everything was perfect after a year. It’s just that I had removed the majority of the issues that were holding me back.
Wow! This was potent and powerful information to me. Everything resonated 100%. It was a period where I was feeling completely undesirable sexually and romantically. I inadvertently chased every potential suitor off because I hated myself and couldn’t believe that they wouldn’t hate me too. I would look in the mirror and say the meanest things to myself. I would do stand-up comedy and completely self-deprecate myself to the point of shameful degrading on stage. In fact, one of the many reasons I left stand-up comedy is that once I healed my solar plexus chakra, I didn’t need stand-up anymore. It had been an unhealthy outlet for me to make fun of and degrade myself so that I could release that pain through laughter. I didn’t need that any more.
So, I found some guided meditations to cleanse my solar plexus chakra. One of the most helpful was envisioning a faucet coming out of that part of your body. You turn it on, and all of the terrible, hurtful, toxic emotions and feelings and memories and hurts and people just come flowing out. You picture this brown/black, gunky, gross, disgusting water just flowing out of you, and it is releasing all of those toxic things. As those memories come up, you think about them and you really let yourself feel the hurt of them.
When I tell you I sobbed for an hour doing this, that is an understatement. All of a sudden things were pouring out of me that I didn’t even know were an issue. Obviously, some were on the forefront of my mind. However, some had been buried deep and I didn’t even know it was a thing. I let this faucet run until the water was clear. Then, I filled my body with the color yellow, and the water running was a beautiful, sparkly, glittery yellow. This is because each chakra has a color associated with it, and the SP chakra is yellow.
In addition, to the cleansing meditations, acknowledging my feelings, releasing hurts and pains, journaling, and quitting stand-up comedy - I also found a therapist that specialized in body and eating issues. I had been eating all of my pain, which is one of the things that happens when your SP is blocked. It correlates with your stomach and digestive system, and I had been coping with all my pain by eating unhealthy foods. So this new therapist worked with me on all of my self-hatred issues, and boy oh boy did we conquer that shit. I unblocked the crap outta my SP chakra.
So, just because I did a huge cleansing of the SP chakra in 2017/2018, doesn’t mean it can’t get blocked again. We are inundated every day with messages from this world that we aren’t good enough. No matter what you do, and how hard you try, you cannot escape those messages. And despite your best efforts, some do start to creep in, and after enough time and enough messages, you can be a little bit blocked again. It’s like vacuuming, you can’t just do it once and your floors are clean forever. You gotta keep doing it every so often to keep the paths cleared.
The exact same thing goes for each and every chakra in your body. They each represent their own type of energy, behaviors, and actions. And you should do a big primary cleansing of each, that can take several months to several years to sort out each one. And, after that, it is good to check in with them regularly and do maintenance and upkeep, and make sure you are keeping the channels cleared, so that energy can flow through you freely and healthfully. Then you will be a much more balanced and stable person. It has brought me a lot of happiness.
Over the years, I have done work with each chakra, and done all of my initial cleansing stages. Beyond those initial clean-ups, now I am in maintenance mode. And I decided, for fun, that I would make this week “Chakra Week” for myself, and spend each day on a different chakra for seven days. I did a bunch of homework and research and preparation. And I want to share the fruits of my labor with you. Below is a recap of each day - what I did, why I did it, how it felt, etc etc. I went in order of the chakras, from bottom up, as I believe, through my research, that is the best way to do it. Feel free to do your own research, if interested.
Day 1 - Root Chakra - Your root chakra is located at the base of your spine, and is responsible for your legs, feet, and bottom of your spine. Basically, it’s the base of your body. It is associated with your most basic fundamental needs. Your health, stability, foundation, physical body, financial stability, etc. The parts of the body that it regulates are your lower back, adrenal glands, immune system, blood, skeleton, feet, knees, hips, rectum, and spine. It is about your connection to the earth and your basic needs for survival. It is associated with the color red, and the “oo” sound. If this chakra is blocked, you can feel ungrounded, spacey, weak, unhealthy, and unstable. If this chakra is overstimulated, you may be too focused on material things, and unable to progress to things that matter more in life.
So, for the whole day, I focused on this chakra. I started by turning on root chakra music on Youtube, I wore all red, grabbed my crystal that corresponds with the root, poured some Vitality blend essential oils in my diffuser (this was an earthy scent that includes ginger, black pepper, and cedarwood. I thought this went well for the root chakra) and turned the diffuser light to red, and then I lit my red chakra candle. Then I lit some palo santo, and used it to do a cleansing of my body, mind, and spirit. Then, I drew one tarot card (reversed Empress) in which the questions were “what do I need to know about my root chakra? What is going on there? How can I help it?” (Please keep in mind that I have done thorough cleanses and check-ins with all of my chakras several times, prior to this week. Which is why I chose to focus on one a day. But more about that later). Then I drew one of the root chakra cards from my chakra deck which includes mantras I can repeat that will help with the root chakra. Then I looked up my astrology reading for the day. Based on all of the information I got from those three sources, I made note of some important components, and I used those in my meditations and manifestations.
So, once I had all of these pieces in place, I set out on my meditation and check-in with the chakra. I held the crystal to the base of my spine, closed my eyes, and did deep breathing and chanted the “oo” sound several times. Once I was in a relaxed state, I did the previously mentioned faucet meditation. I envisioned it coming out of the base of my spine, and I turned it on and let all of the toxic energy and blockages pour out of the chakra. I envisioned things like my long-haul Covid health problems, my financial instability, and other negative things that correspond with this chakra pouring out of the faucet. I allowed myself to feel the pain and anguish that these things have caused me, I let the tears flow, and I just envisioned all of the negative energy leaving my body through that faucet. Once it was done, I imagined clear water coming out. Then I turned off the metaphorical faucet.
After that, I pictured a beautiful red sky, raining down on me with sparkly, glittery red raindrops. These raindrops formed a protective red bubble around my whole body that keeps all the good things in, and all of the bad things out. Next, I imagined a strong red beam of light coming out of my root chakra and connecting to lots of floating red crystals all around. Finally, when I took a deep breath in, I visualized a bright red light coming up through the core of the earth into the bottom of my feet like tree roots in the ground, and running up and throughout my entire body. On the out breath, I envisioned the red light going out the top of my head like branches on a tree and shooting the red light up into the sky, and then it rained back down into the ground. It soaks into the ground and comes up through my feet again, creating a perpetual circuit of this red light cycling through my body. It clears my blockages and replenishes me with stable energy.
Then, while still meditating, I focused on thinking about the things my root chakra needs and manifesting them all to improve: improved physical health, strong immune system, financial stability, and better sleep. I envisioned these things all improving and how it would feel. I also focused on the messages from the tarot card and my astrology. After that, I gently brought myself out of the meditation, and then repeated the mantras on the root chakra card I drew.
Once this was complete, I headed out on a slow gentle walk. My chakra book said that was the best physical activity for this chakra. I took the time to connect with nature, and check in with my body. I didn’t walk fast and use it as aerobic exercise. Instead, it was about slowing down and appreciating nature. It was quite cold out, so I didn’t go far, but even the little bit I did, was really helpful. I also made sure to include some red foods in my meals throughout the day.
At the end of the day, before bed, I sat back down, and repeated everything I had done that morning, and did a final check in with this chakra. I felt pretty good about the day, and like I was in a pretty good place with all this stuff. I didn’t feel any lingering issues or blockages, and felt excited for the next day.
Day 2 - Sacral Chakra - Your sacral chakra is located in the lower abdomen and pelvis area. It is responsible for your kidneys, bladder, genitalia, and sex organs. It is associated with your creativity, inspiration, artistry, sexuality, pleasure, desire, and passion. It is about nurturing your creativity and pleasures in life - don’t go overboard and don’t deprive. It is associated with the color orange, and the “oh” sound. If this chakra is blocked, your creativity, pleasure, passion, and inspiration feel stifled and deprived. If this chakra is overstimulated, you may be overdoing the pleasurable desires in life and not able to limit yourself. (Oh all the jokes I want to make right now about the days that this chakra was overstimulated for me. But, I am trying to keep this article respectable for once.)
I repeated everything from Day 1, but just with the sacral chakra components: sacral chakra Youtube music, wore all orange, ate orange foods, orange crystal, orange diffuser light with Women’s Balance blend aromatherapy (this one is supposed to be good for hormonal imbalances, so I thought it would be a good fit for this day - patchouli, geranium, rose and frankincense.), orange chakra candle, palo santo cleansing, drew one tarot card (reversed Page of Wands) with the question of what do I need to know about my sacral chakra, drew one of the sacral chakra mantra cards, and looked up my astrology for the day.
Once again, I used all of this in the same way I did the day before. Starting out with meditating and deep breathing while chanting the “oh” sound. Envisioning the faucet, colors, and adding in the messages from the day’s readings. I focused on manifesting a better balance with all of the components related to this chakra. I especially focused on my creativity and inspiration.
After meditating, the physical activity that my book associated with this chakra was dancing. So, I put on some music really loud, and danced around my room. All of a sudden, tears came gushing out of my eyes. I was sobbing and laughing and dancing all at the same time. I realized that, even though I had done a lot of work on my chakras in previous years, things can come back and block them again. You aren’t just one and done. You have to keep checking back in, and re-aligning. I realized how much my passions and things that delighted me have been drastically reduced due to my current health and life circumstances. While I am very happy with, and grateful for, a lot of the people and things I have in place, I also needed to grieve the huge losses I have had with the things in life that I find pleasurable that aren’t possible right now. So I just cried and cried and cried and let all of those emotions come flowing out of me, while I danced to Rihanna! LOL! If you had seen me, you would have thought I was even crazier than you already do.
Beyond dancing, you should do other things that delight you on sacral day, too. I didn’t have a lot of options, but I did manage to find a few things. Watched a really good movie, took a nap, ate a few cookies, etc.
I repeated all of the morning rituals before bed. All in all, I was a little surprised the level of emotions I had this day. I didn’t realize this chakra was as “out of whack” as it was. So, I am glad I checked in with it, and helped balance it out again.
Day 3 - Solar Plexus Chakra - Your solar plexus chakra is located in the diaphragm area, as I discussed at the beginning of this article. It is responsible for your digestive system (pancreas, stomach, liver, spleen, gallbladder, small intestines - not sure if all of those are part of the digestive system, cause I have forgotten everything I have learned in school, but the SP is responsible for all of these areas. I know that because of the chakra poster on my wall.) and your back. As you already know, it is associated with your inner critic, confidence, self-esteem, self-love, worthiness, and courage. It is the color yellow, and the “aw” sound. If this chakra is blocked or out of alignment, you could be overly critical of yourself and/or others, feeling worthless, extra sensitive to perceived rejection or slights from others, and have low self-esteem.
Did all the same things as previous days except all with yellow and things pertaining to SP chakra. Aromatherapy was Optimism blend - grapefruit, jasmine, and black pepper. Tarot card that was drawn was Upright Sun (all tarot cards drawn ended up being so on the money, but holy shit was this one apropos. Not only is it yellow and describes everything having to do with the components associated with this chakra, but in the Biddy tarot description, it actually says this card is the one associated with the solar plexus! Damn!)
Did the same envisioning with meditation, but with the things associated with SP. This particular one felt really good. I didn’t feel like I was having any issues with this chakra. I think because this was the first one I was ever aware of, and I did SOOOOOOO much work on it in therapy, it has stayed in decent shape. So this was by far my most happiest and joyful day of the week. I was feeling all the positive sunny energy and vibes.
Physical activity was the cat/cow exercise, so did that one in the morning and before bed. I really spent the day envisioning the life I want to live, and summoning the courage to go for it. I also put a lot of my mental focus and emphasis on my digestive system, and picturing it working well.
Day 4 - Heart Chakra - Your heart chakra is obviously located in the heart area. It is responsible for your heart, lungs, circulation, chest, and upper back. It is responsible for your ability to give and receive love, be open to love, unconditional love, forgiveness, inner peace, balance of masculine and feminine (this one I can’t remember if I read that somewhere or if I made that up), and letting go. It is predominately associated with the color green, but some use pink for this one, and the “ay” sound. If this chakra is blocked you could be overly empathetic and too giving to others, or you could be unsympathetic and closed off with others.
Did all the same things as previous days except all with green. Aromatherapy was a blend of eucalyptus and ylang ylang. Tarot card that was drawn was reversed Judgement (so apropos). Wore a lime green mumu!
This was the hardest day for me. I knew it would be. On this day, I attended a friend’s virtual “celebration of life” event. She pretty tragically passed away about a week prior, and it was a really emotional service. Additionally, this chakra is always the hardest one for me. Always. I have a lot of issues with forgiving people and letting things go. I have even more problems with being open to love. And even though I have worked with this chakra and cleared it MANY times, this one keeps on blocking up again. So I was pretty emotional, sad, and troubled most of the day. I let myself feel a lot of feelings that I usually push down. In the past, I have had a tendency to give too much, and be too empathetic. After being burned enough times, I turned to not being empathetic enough, and really closed off and selfish. I have a hard time finding the balance. And I have a really hard time forgiving shitty ass people! I have a lot of anger and sadness stored here.
Physical activity was singing, so I hopped in the car and took a long drive around just singing my heart out. I went to Smoothie King and got a green smoothie. And I tried to be as gentle with myself as possible. I spent a lot of time just resting on this day.
In retrospect, this one needed more than one day, as I will find out in the upcoming days. The first 3 were in decent shape, and one day per each was fine. But heart chakra needed longer before moving on to throat. And the upper chakras definitely started getting overwhelmed by moving too fast, which I will get more into as this goes on.
Day 5 - Throat Chakra - Your throat chakra is located in the throat area, duh. It is responsible for your throat, mouth, teeth, jaw, neck, tongue, shoulders, bronchial tubes and thyroid. It is associated with your expression, communication (verbal and non-verbal), and speaking your truth without being hurtful. It is the color blue, and the “eh” sound. If this chakra is out of balance, overstimulated, or blocked you could be over-talkative or not speak enough, unclear communications, not truthful or too hurtful with the truth, sharing too much or not sharing enough, and/or not good listeners. It is important to tune in to which ones you are. Cause a lot of people would think it is about speaking up more, and telling the truth all the time. But it can also be about shutting up and knowing when to just let something go without a comment.
Once again, the routines, rituals, meditations, etc. were the same, but I focused on the aspects of the throat chakra and with blue. Aromatherapy was a blend of eucalyptus and lavender. Tarot card that was drawn was upright Wheel of Fortune. Wore a blue mumu! Physical activity was neck and shoulder massage. Sadly, was not able to go out and have this done professionally, so did the best I could on myself. In addition to trying to eat some blue foods, I made myself a yummy butterfly pea flower tea drink!
I was still reeling from heart day. So I used this day to look for healthy ways to communicate what was in my heart, which was a nice blend of the two chakras. I focused on what issues were in my heart that needed to just be let go and weren’t worth conversations and dredging up the past, and what things did need to be communicated with people. I journaled to get my thoughts out, and processed a lot of pent up issues.
My issue with the throat chakra tends to be that I over communicate. The thing I usually need to work on is discerning what is worth talking about, and what isn’t. It isn’t always worth it to have a conversation with someone. Some people really aren’t worth the conversation, or they aren’t able to have it. I don’t owe explanations for everything to everyone. I don’t need to share every little thing all the time. So I reflected on that, and journaled what I need to get off my chest. I also had a really lovely conversation with my dad about a book I am reading (“Attached” by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller).
Day 6 - Third Eye Chakra - Your third eye chakra is located in between your eyes, on your forehead. It is responsible for the eyes, nose, head, face, sinuses, and pituitary glands. It is associated with your intuition, wisdom, knowledge, imagination, extrasensory, and connecting to a higher source. This one is indigo, and the “ih” sound. If this chakra is out of balance you could spacey, disorganized, narrow-minded, make decisions out of ego or fear, and have tunnel vision.
As per usual, did the same stuff but with the third eye concepts in mind, and indigo as the color. Aromatherapy was the Focus blend - rosemary, spearmint and orange. I drew the upright Chariot tarot card. And, in my endless supply of mumus, I found an indigo one! Yoga was the recommended physical activity, so did a little bit of that along with my meditation. Ate an acai bowl for the indigo color!
I have always had a very special connection with this chakra, as I have beyond stellar intuition. My problem was always whether I listened to it or not. I didn’t really tap into it and start using it appropriately til my early 30’s, and I am now approaching 40 and still honing it daily. I have had a lot of really cool other-worldly and psychic experiences with it the more I have leaned into it.
However, as of late, the block in my heart chakra is causing a bottleneck situation for the chakras above it, and these chakra theme days are snowballing a bit. This is the point in the week where I realized I definitely should have dedicated more than one day to each of these. No matter how many years I have done this type of work on myself, and no matter how much I have already cleared, there will always be new things that come up that need to be addressed, and they take the time they take. You can’t assume it will be a day. I still love my idea of chakra week, but going forward, I will allot more time for each.
On this day, I started getting way too emotionally stimulated. All of the things that surfaced from the previous ones were still festering and it was all too overwhelming, so my intuition felt like it was short circuiting a bit. As such, I really just tried to focus on giving space to all of my feelings and sat with everything, rather than trying to take action on it. Throat chakra day had me wanting to talk about feelings that came up from heart chakra day. But my intuition needs more time and space to decide what’s worth talking about and how to go about it. So, I focused on trying to calm my overstimulated third eye.
Day 7 - Crown Chakra - Your crown chakra is located at the top of your head. It corresponds with your brain and central nervous system. It is associated with spiritual enlightenment, highest consciousness, serenity, full potential, and personal development. It is the culmination of all of the other chakras, and finally reaching the divine connection. This one is either violet or white, and the “ee” sound. In this chakra you are fully in your power, inner peace, and wisdom. You can release your dysfunctional patterns from your psyche, and manifest your dreams.
I chose to go with white as the color, and did all of the same routines as every other day. Aromatherapy was the Meditation blend - vetiver, sandalwood, orange, black pepper, and frankincense. The tarot card was the reversed 2 of Wands. I wore a white nightgown, and the recommended physical activity was “feet over head”, so I sat upside down in a chair! LOL!
Today was the final culmination of all the days, chakras, and feelings. I focused on calming my overstimulated central nervous system, and meditated a lot on letting go of the patterns and people that are not serving me. I was emotionally exhausted from the week at this point, but I was able to release a lot of things and really give myself a lot of love and grace on this day. I focused on what I want to manifest for my future, and reflected on what I need to level-up in my personal development.
One of the mantras for this one was “Without any need to change, I am who I am, unique and perfect.” While that might seem antithetical to saying I need to level-up, it isn’t. It is about meeting yourself where you are at. Accepting yourself for where and who you are right now. Knowing that you are doing the best you can. You don’t have to completely change who you are, you just need to always be on the quest to reach your full potential. Every day just trying to do a little better than the day before, and forgiving yourself for not always being able to. Because some days will be steps backward. But, in the overall journey, striving forward slowly but surely is the goal.
Conclusion - I learned a lot this week - Give myself more than one day per chakra was a big one. I realized there were a lot more emotions hidden than I thought. And that I just need to be even more gentle with myself than I already was. Even though this essay was SO long, believe it or not there were even more amazing things I learned that I didn’t even touch on here. But, this is already way too long, and some of them are intensely personal. Gonna work on the part of me that wants to over-share, and keep those things to myself. ;)
What’s next? I have an appointment scheduled with a healer for a massage and some reiki to help me deal with everything that just came up, and to get some help ridding my body of these toxins. I highly recommend working with a therapist and a healer if you are going to start doing this kind of spiritual work on yourself. You cannot handle it on your own.
My final piece I want to say is a disclaimer. I have been studying chakras and this kind of work pretty steadily since around 2017, I think. I have worked with a lot of healers on it, and done a lot of these methods on myself for several years. They work for me, but I am by no means an expert (as I clearly found out when I took on way too much at once). I am still a novice at all of this. So, if you read this and decide you want to try any of these, please take it very very slowly, do a lot of research, and definitely make sure you have a healer and/or therapist to work closely with. Once all of your repressed shit comes up, you need someone to talk to about it. Also, when you start releasing all of these toxins in your body, please plan for your poop to be very weird colors.