My favorite description of the charkas are “measuring and observing devices.” Chakra translated literally means spinning wheel of light. These inner vortexes awaken with the discipline of meditation and yoga allowing our bodies, mind, and emotions to give us constant feedback to how we are doing.

The charka energies, mysterious and etheric as opposed to scientific, are the constant north star that helps us shine light as author of our life scripts. What is denied often comes back at us through issues of health or anxiety. By being aware of the basic energy of the charkas, we become more able to transform worry and guilt into action and resolution.

Here are seven ways to heal with love and forgiveness in the life-long process of staying conscious to these subtle chakra energies: Recognize, accept, forgive yourself and watch your growth leap forward!

l. Be Free of Blame and Victim!
The Root Chakra is located at the base of spine. It revolves around the basic question of being. Do I have the right to be here? Am I safe? Do I have enough money, friends, health? A big whisper of being closed down or damaged is victim thinking and blaming. Yoga poses that help heal the root: child’s pose; downward facing dog, seated hero, and corpse pose.

2. Create More “Fun” & Pleasure
The 2nd Chakra is found at the point below the navel. It involves the core of the self: interpersonal emotions and relationships with family, community and self. A healthy second chakra emanates feelings of belonging, self-value, self-respect, happiness at living life and pleasure of all kinds…..food, touch, rest, entertainment, work. Health challenges may show as impotence, bladder infections, and stiff lower back. Yoga poses that move the energy of the second chakra are all forward bends both seated and standing.

3. Become a Responsible, Honest, and Conscious Author of your Life
The third chakra and largest center from the hip bones to the ribs swirls our gut responses to feelings, situations, thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. Taking ownership, defining, and choosing to change old beliefs and attitudes requires us to open to the sides of us we may wish to hide from ourselves and others. As the third chakra becomes healthy, we help heal the pain of feeling separate and alone. Yoga poses that give us the courage to be more authentic include all standing postures.

4. Love as if You’ve Never been Hurt
This demands huge amounts of forgiveness because many of us are not willing to admit how hurt we have been my others and circumstances. It takes a lot of courage to open up to this level of vulnerability. The fourth chakra is the fulcrum, the center of the seven and the most measurable. The yearning to love and be loved pulls like a great inner tide. We begin to accept that love connects us to all other human beings with compassion and respect. Yoga poses that open the heart chakra are all backbend postures explored with right contraindications.

5. Find Your True Voice
The fifth chakra is the throat. What is it you talk about with colleagues and friends? With my friends, we use the phrase “permission to whine” to vent our anxieties and frustrations consciously. True voice is self-loving, self-accepting, and self-forgiving. True voice chooses to release and heal the past to allow a more loving future. The fifth chakra is about voice and trust. It involves creative honoring of inner guidance to support our mission/vision. Often the process is purifying as it begins to cut out beliefs that may restrict Divine guidance. When open, trust strengthens while communication flows freely. Yoga Poses that help are bridge pose and shoulder balance.

6. Trust Your Intuition
Those who feel they have little intuition tend to value mind more than emotions or their body’s feedback. Intuition deepens with meditation and analyzing night dreams. When the third eye is open, wisdom becomes a natural point of command. They feel and believe in themselves from the inside thus outside validation eases its grip. The inner voice becomes a trusted friend and guide. It is theorized that all twisting yoga poses helps to clear blocks to this powerful current.

7. Become Friends with God/Goddess
In our deepest nature, there is no separation from the light of God/Goddess. Union becomes less of an ideal and more of a living contract with the unseen mystery we call Divine Love. More than once a day, but hour to hour the connection grows more awake and more real. We learn discernment and boundaries in talking about this wonderful knowing of living with the friend within, above, below, everywhere. Yoga poses that deepen the friend are seated poses for mediation, head balance, waterfall, and lotus.

It’s believed by many there are l2 active chakra systems including the 8th below the feet and 9 to l2 above the head involving complex energies of our souls and spirits and high selves. Daily, in meditation it’s powerful to connect the seven colors of the rainbows and visualize the colors in each chakra center or connect the light to your spirit guide or high self to fine-tune this inner radar even more.

Suzette Scholtes
Suzette Scholtes is founder and Director of Teacher’s Training of the Yoga Studio of Johnson County www.theyogastudio.com. She is author of many national columns and articles as well as published by New Leaf, Atlanta. She has earned over 8000 CEUs in her many studies worldwide. The school is a National Yoga Alliance Teacher’s Training School. The l2-member staff teach classic yoga and related therapeutics to help each person strengthen inner resources for ongoing health, happiness, and quality of life.