The word chakra is Sanskrit, meaning “wheel” or “disk” and refers to the vortices of energy that intersect the physical body with your aura. The chakras denote a point of intersection where body and mind meet. Chakras have also been called lotuses and compared to these flowers. The beautiful lotus flowers are sacred in India and are metaphorically used to describe the opening and closing of the chakras. Keep in mind that everything is energy and our bodies are surrounded by an invisible enteric field.

The seven main chakras start at the base of the spine and move on up to the top of the head. At the base of the spine is the first chakra or the root chakra energy center. At the top of the head is the seventh chakra or your crown chakra. Chakras are spinning wheels of energy and when one or more of your chakras get out of balance or alignment it affects your emotional balance and mental state. It can also affect your mood and eventually your spirituality. Eventually a distorted or blocked chakra can show up on the physical level as some health condition or a sickness. If the distorted or blocked chakra condition stays fixed for years it can worsen and eventually turn into a life-threatening disease.

Summer is a good time to talk about the first chakra as one of the ways to balance the first chakra is to spend some time in the outdoors and connect with nature. The first chakra is all about being grounded and feeling safe. Key first chakra issues are safety, trust, home, family, and material issues. The first chakra grounds us. Another name for the first chakra is the root chakra as roots ground plants to Mother Earth.

The first chakra is our connection to the divine feminine Mother Earth or Gaia. When the first chakra is disconnected from the feminine Earth we can feel motherless and orphaned. We do not have a sense of belonging and we can look for security from material things. Someone that hoards material things or buys excessively, usually has a first chakra that is distorted or blocked.

Besides grounding us to Mother Earth the first chakra is all about belonging to a group or family. The first chakra is our connection to an identity and feeling of belonging to a group. In the past this group was often your family but it can be so much bigger than that. It can be a group that you identify with in a geographical location or connect to with the Internet. Groups that trigger an emotional response in you when you are interacting with them affect the energy of your first chakra. These groups can give you an identity, a sense of belonging, and a sense of safety. Have you ever listened to the national anthem being played and felt an emotional response? You may have been plugging into the pride and joy you felt by belonging to the United States or identifying with the team that the national anthem was being played for.

The first chakra is all about feeling grounded, belonging, and feeling safe. Someone with a weak first chakra will often not be grounded properly. You may feel like you want to escape and that you do not want to be here. Do you ever wonder why so many people in the United States use antidepressants? This is most likely first chakra issues as so many of us have lost touch with the earth, our families, and lack a sense of belonging to a group. Today so many children are not allowed to play outside because of crime and sexual predators. Thus kids now spend an enormous amount of time watching TV and playing video games. We work and live under artificial lights and spend little time in the outdoors. Many of us also don’t know what it is like to live in the present moment. It is no wonder so many of us feel anxiety, depressed, and disconnected.

Can you relate to any of these following statements?

• Do you often have the feeling of not wanting to be here?
• Are you escaping with some major addiction? An unbalanced first chakra can lead to excessive drinking and destructive behaviors.
• Do you have an eating disorder?
• Do you have any phobias or an obsessive-compulsive disorder?
• Do you feel fearful and anxious a lot of the time?
• Were you subjected to any kind of physical and emotional abuse from a group? Various mental dysfunctions and illnesses come out of family and group dysfunction.

If you can relate to any of the above scenarios, you may want to start working on creating a more balanced and vibrant first chakra. One must first work on getting basics like money.  Without your basic survival needs being met, it is hard to focus on balancing the first chakra.  But once you have your basic needs met, a little bit of work to balance the first chakra goes a long way. The more you can get your chakras balanced and aligned, the easier it will become to attract abundance into your life. Spending five to ten minutes a day working on your first chakra can do wonders for grounding and making you feel safe.

Much of the work that needs to be done to balance and create a vibrant first chakra has to do with grounding and destressing yourself. We need to make and take the time to bring balance back into our lives. On your day off try to include some activity in the outdoors that connects you to the earth. A barefoot walk on the beach or a walk on a trail in a forest will do wonders for you. Try to focus and connect with the sand, leaves, pine cones, and flowers in the outdoors. Connecting to earth and the outdoors is one of the best ways to heal your first chakra and keep it functioning properly. The great thing is that for most of us, using the outdoors and connecting to nature is relatively cheap.

Other things you can do to help your first chakra are:

• Meditating and visualizing that you are grounded into the earth. Visualize your feet connecting with the earth and grounding you during your meditation.
• Have an evening at least once a week where you can curl up with a good book.
• Turn the TV off and journal for 15 minutes.
• Join a yoga class or go to the gym.
• Walk barefoot in the house.
• Go out in the backyard and sit with your back against a tree.
• Focus on your breath – even for one minute at a time.
• Get a foot massage as it is especially grounding.

The basis of our belief of who we are, how safe we feel, and the manifestation of our reality, is based on the condition of our first chakra. A balanced and vibrant first chakra gives us the feeling of being supported and belonging to this world. It is important to nurture this chakra by clearing and energizing it regularly.

Russel Bruhn is a clairvoyant, Angel Therapy Practitioner (ATP) and an intuitive healer. He is a Reiki Master, Certified Hypnotherapist and trained in the area of Integrated Energy Therapy (IET).

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