S7.2 Chakra One, lets rock on lads!

We look at a few main themes for the First Chakra, Muladhara,  that can help us identify and inquire into them.
 
Click here for the link to the Gunas episode  in case you want to go back into that basic rabbit hole of the principles of life itself!

The chakras are seven energy centers where a whole lot of stuff happens..and these centers can help to point towards ways of healing ourselves just with small tweaks of, our awareness, our mindset, our meditation, pratyahara, our physical balance, our breathing...

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Transcript

Kelly Marie Mills: 0:00

This is the dosha life, a podcast for wellness seekers and happiness curators interested in tools tip and remedies coming from the wisdom of Yoga & Ayurveda...I am Kelly Marie mills from Yoga Ayurveda Living, welcome to my happy place! 

This is series 7, episode 2 you are on Chakra one…

This is a big plunge into the characteristics of the chakras through Yoga Ayurveda and it's a big part of The Dosha Life. 

I think it's a long episode so I decided to give you some takeaways in case you decide to exit and come back when you are doing your ironing or some other activity to give you a time to drop in…

Chakra one- it's about the manifestation of the earth element in our body. 

It relates to our pelvis and anything in our pelvis, our legs, our feet, our spine. If any of this area has an imbalance, this is one chakra that can be affected and it is one chakra that can help take you aside and say hey, why don't you look at this remedy and see if it helps.

This chakra beckons us to look at our right to be here, our right to live well and to find security which means enough money for all our basic needs, our basic human rights and also our inner sense of community safety, and ability to feel stable…

Overactive signs show weight gain, which can relate to needing to feel earthed to support what is happening in our life, 

Overativity comes as Rajas...disperse all of the energy, anxiety and maxed out stress related problems =symptoms like losing the plot, feeling unhinged, deranged, crazed ...or simply unbalanced...all are not earthly concepts.

Under active the base chakra comes as Tamas, containment of all energy, inertia, depression, melancholy, gloomy, dread the days, despondency, the blues...all portray the accumulation of earth not moving at all…

Simple remedies...for overactive chakra - lay on the grass the floor, hum, breath out long and slow into the bones of your pelvis legs and feet 

Eat foods from the earth, vegetables, grains, minerals 

For underactive uses scents to lighten the mind and body...such a s cedare cinnamon, cloves, sandalwood, basil,

Begin to move by walking near the ocean if possible but getting out into any nature, focus on pulling in your pelvic floor to strengthen the base of the body to help energise and tone the area in which the energy of this chakra is related to.

This first chakra, muladhara, the energy centre that has to do with the earth element. so this refers to the essence, the energetic powers of the physical realm of life. And we can connect quite easily by simply reviewing and keeping track of what we know about our physical health from the pelvis down - the movement of energy in this area - the movement of strength, flexibility, endurance, and ease of removal of toxins. Although these are all very physical traits to review, they also hold the energy of these traits. 

The material body is related to the earth element and this means the heavy bones of the body, the foundation of our skeletal system - 

This chakra is about understanding where we feel supported, safe and secure. If we are feeling insecure, if our life foundations have been rocked- aka the pandemic - in an energetic sense, this chakra loosens it strong hold, the earth loosens around its  roots...if you are not used to your foundations getting rocked around, then this feels like an unknown space, unanticipated, upsetting and bewildering place.

the chakras can lead us to experience the cosmic nature of all of life’s elements. Most of this is due to your own development practises that enhance awareness, leaning into interconnectedness as it slowly becomes an undefinable part of your daily life because it is no longer NOT a part of you

like The Dosha Life, the chakras effects are dependent on our own nature...and our own efforts at deepening the unity of the universe within yourself.

So let's look at a few main themes for the chakras that can help us identify and inquire into them...note the element, the sense organ and the action we can use…

Muladhara is the base of the chakra system, the root support - the launch pad of our pure potential. This chakra is where the Kundalini rises…the ultimate liberation for those seeking tantra - but for those like me in hatha Yoga, this chakra is our support, our first point of reference, our security and home.

Physically it is connected to the very base of the body - the perineum, the elimination system, kidneys, adrenal glands, large intestine, spine, bones of the body...especially legs and feet.

It's nerve plexus...so I consider the nervous system to be our life merger - it's the half subtle half physical part of us ...it works on a physical level but much of it works on our energetic body, or subtle body…which relates at a different frequency than our more gross physical body parts. 

The nerve plexus connected to muladhara, chakra one is the coccygeal - the most base point of our spine.. that's how low we can go hahaha

Okay - so there are lots more details we can do but i did want to give you some idea how to use the chakras as a wellness resource rather than anything else and saying that,just learning how a chakra shows up in balance or out of balance is really interesting

Basically any organs mentioned for each chakra such as for muladhara we have kidneys, adrenals, large intestine, spine and bones - all show you the areas that this chakra is connected with. If you break a bone, this chakra is going to feel the vibration for a long time, because it takes a long time to heal broken bones. You know what I am saying?

And why is this? Because this chakra is connected to the earth element any imbalance in our physical earth element sends ripples into our chakra governing the same element - and it can either shock it and reduce its balance vibration or cause it to become overactive - 

You will find when you become insecure or feeling threatened or traumatised the body show signs of stress expressed as  constipation/dryness or excess elimination/heat, sciatica/dryness, obesity/kapha related, joint or bone problems/vata related, haemorrhoids/vata related and kapha related problems with phlegm - to be honest a whole host of things can emerge as this chakra gets knocked sideways when strong emotive events occur. 

This chakra and the kapha dosha have similar lines of connection because they both are have the earth element within them, although kapha is the actual manifestation of earth and water itself 

Can you guess the first cause that easily can destabilise the first chakra? 

Stress. It is our own internal conversations and our perceptions and interactions that can create much stress. There is ofcourse the interaction that created the thought to create the emotion first, so that could also be a part of the problem of finding and sustaining balance in our body. For this chakra and the kapha dosha the first thing to create problems here is fear. 

Fear of the unknown. Fear of not enough. Fear of not knowing. Fear of losing more. Fear of being alone. 

The reality is many and most of us have suffered some form of loss that shocks the chakras….they could be recent or maybe old feelings like fear of abandonment or survival or always planning for the worst to happen,then creating contingency plans for “just incase” these create a constant pull on our Fight or Flight response - 

If we have a lot of fear it just bleeds into everything in our life. This is not a judgement, but I am speaking from my own past experiences of fear, anxiety, just in case it could happen - all caused by trauma and even having  and adding in plenty of drama and attachment present at certain stages of life….. It's incredible how one or all of these can invade every cell in our body, and override our own sense of self and security. It can debilitate our own light, and we retreat into survival mode. Our emotional intelligence retreats to try to find some way to see some way to recover balance. 

Survival mode isn't such a bad place to be in, but that is all it is...one foot in front of the other, step by step...and four steps back and letting our mind slip into memories and scenarios of difficult days that are now behind us creating that cycle of repeated emotional response, but it may not last as long, it's a little different every time we remember that we are still here, and we can begin again.... And step again into something new and different, our balance grows slowly and step and one day your smile is almost completely from the inside out...and then you know what….you don't think about the chakras healing then! You are thinking, my heart isn't racing! I feel happy. I feel like I am going to be okay.  And this first chakra helps us to rebuild new foundations. 

And when we do, we discover that the foundations we have built are based on our own strength, not on someone or something elses t and cs.. Our own Wiley wisdom and they lead into our own personal happiness...and this. This is a strong foundation for muladhara. Fight or Flight response is now learning to loosen its responsibility, and survival mode is no longer in operation! 

We often relate the foundations of security and happiness to house and home and job security and friends and family…

The foundations of our security that will never leave us are in our own connection to the essence of the earth in our body, and our body being of the earth. Connecting into the muladhara is understanding that the earth element is the cosmic creative reality...and all things to do with the earth have come from this initial subtle form. 

When we find that we are able to connect to the earth in all the ways we are blessed especially if you live in Ireland or the Uk with so much easily accessed nature around us...this shows you are hearing and listening to the call to reconnect as often as possible. We are one with the earth, but we must realise too that if we do not make an effort to befriend unconscious or seldom conscious thoughts of our fears and those things we feel threatened by...they will always hold some power over our state of security and happiness. 

When we connect to the unreality, and that I mean is what is not here right now but we know it is either a memory, imagination, or indirect reference, we bring it into the light of the reality right now…. this is what I have right now...so we can inquire now..what is causing that underlying well hidden anxiousness in the shoebox of your mind? Could you at the minimum give it a little more space where it is? Even offer it a little bit of dim lamp light..we do not need to force fears and threats to walk into the light...we only need to acknowledge them, that we know they are there, and some day, when the time is right, the light may increase for this too. 

Here in this inquiry ...ask no question...just be with the subtle energy of the earth's creative power.  Awareness of Oneness with the earth - as if you are laying down on some grass on a hot summer day, feeling lazy, comfortable, completely content and secure….this is the essence of earth's nature. When you feel that contentment, where is the fearful thought now? Or the anxiety? They relax too. A part of ayurveda and yoga is about not pushing anything away, but bringing to the fore those things that will enhance our life…so that eventually they may be the more dominant process for our daily choices and decisions.

The strongest growth spurt or developmental stage for chakra one occurs from 1 -7 years old...so as we get older we might have to trek back a few decades to see what was going on then...it may give us some insight into our own chakra balance. 

The relationship status is focused solely on the individual - and definately when survival and security are threatened, you find all other relationships become secondary- or basically you can do without cause you be like fairly busy trying to keep your own sanity, trying to find financial and creative balance, trying to create a safe home…all the adulting things our children face now, which I feel are more complicated than they ever were in the world before this ...There are some times that some may cling to others so to speak, to sink the whole ship rather than bail out to save their own life from whatever they are facing ...if you get me, and this itself also creates a karmic pattern, that perhaps may have to be revisited before we can recover and find our own health and content individuation first is the vital component to a balanced relationship.

And what Yoga practice provides for the chakra system is a whole lot of healing ..

When our first chakra is in a weakened state, we may basically kind of like we have exited the body status, so we do not feel supported by the earth and nor do we seek support from the earth - like we eject from all connection, we separate body from mind, as if to try to disappear - and that disconnect of course can create a lot of problems ..but Yoga itself can help prevent this, because it encourages movement of the body and connection to the earth...and with breathing and meditation...we are always connecting the physical body to the subtle body..vital vital work for health and wellness 

So there are many things we can do for this..but you already know two..

Connect with your body. Place your hands on your legs and feet and ankles and bring in loads of gratitude and maybe even kindness for how far they have brought you!

Connect to the earth. Hands on the earth, squatting low, sitting cross legged, laying down on the floor/earth/ground is like the most wonderful thing anyone surviving this pandemic can do…humming on the ground too ..humming in the car, vibrating the essence of  Creativity and Contentment… feel the  rounded ness, support, slowing down, rest, internal support ...all earth energys..find them all in your life and they will remind you, you are present you are here. You are supported.

Chakra one, rock on

So that's it for now….

If you have any views or ideas send an email to kelly@thedoshalife And I look forward to chatting to you in the next episode on the Chakra system Chakra two, Svadhisthana ! 

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