Also known as Chakras. Understand how energy flows through your body.
Chakras are the energy centers within the human body that help to regulate all its processes, and emotions. In Hinduism, this energy is called Prana, and in traditional Chinese culture, Qui. In totality, there are more than 100 chakras in our bodies. There are 7 main chakras positioned throughout our spinal cord, four in our upper body, which govern our mental properties, and three in the lower body, which govern our instinctual properties. They spin away from the base of our spine towards the crown of our head in a clockwise motion.
Balanced chakras can be a source of some of our most noble feelings and allow us to express our Higher Self. Imbalanced chakras can cause excess fear, anger, confusion, chronic pain, and even a loss of self. An imbalance can also often show up in the form of a physical health condition. To function at their best, our chakras need to stay open and balanced. When these chakras run smoothly, our energy and vitality can flow freely to where it is most needed. But when a chakra is blocked, the energy can get stuck and manifests as discomfort or disease.
The symbolic representation of a chakra is a lotus, with each chakra-lotus having its own number of petals. More number of petals represents higher frequency or vibration. As light/prana flows through the chakras, it activates them. You can imagine this as the wheels 'spinning' or the lotuses 'blossoming'.
As each energy center spins, it opens its petals and radiates its own unique color - one of the seven rainbow colors. The number of petals in each Chakra is believed to be determined by the number and positions of the Nadis around the Chakra. The Chakra gives the appearance of a lotus with the Nadis as its petals.
Nadis are the network of channels that facilitate the movement of Prana, the life force within it and, so in the different organs of the body. There are three principal nadis the Sushumna, Ida, and Pingala. The Sushumna Nadi is the body's major channel, running from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, passing through each of the seven chakras in its course. It is the channel through which Kundalini Shakti lying as the latent serpent power rises from its origin at the Muladhara (root) chakra to its true home at the Sahasrara (thousandfold) chakra at the crown of the head.
The Ida Nadi begins and ends on the left side of Sushumna. Ida is regarded as the lunar Nadi, cool and nurturing by nature, and is said to control all mental processes and the more feminine aspects of our personality. Pingala, regarded as the solar Nadi, begins and ends to the right of Sushumna. It is warm and stimulating by nature, controls all vital somatic (bodily) processes, and oversees the more masculine aspects of our personality. It is important to have a balance between our feminine and masculine energies (yin and yang) to lead a joy-filled life of wholeness.
If you visualize the Caduceus, the symbol of modern medicine, you'll get a rough idea of the relationships among the Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna nadis. Eventually, all three meet at the Ajna (3rd eye center) chakra, midway between the eyebrows.
As the Prana (life force) travels up the Sushumna Nadi, it energizes all of the chakras along the way and stimulates dormant segments of the mind that are responsible for higher thought and feeling. Sushumna is, therefore, known as the pathway to salvation or enlightenment.
The balance of the energy flow in nadis is through Pranayama (breathing exercise) and meditation. For example, Nadi Shodhana Pranayama, or Alternate Nostril Breathing, is believed to balance the Ida and Pingala nadis, thereby opening the energy paths of the Sushumna Nadi.
I will explain the role of each Chakra and associated symptoms of balanced or unbalanced chakras in my next blog.
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