Seven Chakra Meditation

In this extended meditation, you will be guided to connect with each of the seven traditional chakras: mūlādhāra, svādhishtāna, manipūra, anāhata, vishhuddha, ājnā and sahasrāra. These energy centers which are found along the vertical axis of our torso provide powerful focal points for deep meditative absorption. This practice can be done sitting or lying down.

Transcript

Welcome to meditation. Make your body very comfortable. When you're ready, Let your eyes close. Take some deep breaths in and out through your nose. And let your attention sink right down into your seat. This meditation is going to focus on the Muladhara Chakra, Which is at the base of your pelvis. So as you're breathing, And keep breathing a little deeply here in the beginning, You can move back and forth in your seat if you're sitting up, Or otherwise move your pelvis so that you can really bring your attention there. You can move on the outside, But you can also move on the inside. You can contract the muscles in your pelvic floor, Contracting and releasing those internal muscles or other internal muscles that you can access as a way to contact the physical. You're still breathing a little bit deeply, Relaxing your attention down. You don't push your attention, You just relax it down. Your attention can naturally settle all the way down into the base. The Mula is the root. The Muladhara is the door at the root. Let your attention move from the physical to the subtle, From the gross to the energetic. You can imagine drawing your energy up from the soles of your feet, Up your legs. You can imagine drawing your energy from the palms of your hands and your head and your face in, Up your arms, Down your neck, Down your torso. Relax your belly, Feel your whole back lend itself down. You can imagine the actual chakra, The energy center to be quite large. You can imagine it the size of a small melon and it's energetic. It's like an orb of energy. You imagine that orb of energy seated right down in the floor of your pelvis. Again, You can keep connecting to the physical if that helps. As we move into the subtle, Into the energetic now, You can let your breath just be normal and use it as necessary. If you need to take a stronger breath, If you need to make a deeper breath, If the energy awakens and just changes your breath, Go with it. But otherwise, Just let your breath be natural and bring your focus to that orb of energy and you can imagine it going right to the center of the orb, Which you could imagine around your perineum. It's in between the sex organs and the tailbone. If you find the opening of the anus just in front of that, You can imagine the center of the chakra right there, Right in that very vulnerable, Very basic part of the torso. It is the base. And just imagine your breath going right there. So every time you breathe out, You're breathing right into the center of that orb right there at the perineum. Feel the connection of your legs and your feet to the center. Feel the connection of your sex organs and your sexual energy to this muladhara chakra. Feel your tailbone. Imagine your ancestors that had tails. Feel the physical and energetic aspects of the anus, The energy of excretion, The energy of basic physical intelligence, Primal intelligence. This muladhara, This blossom here, Imagine it opening with your attention and your loving awareness. The breath that you're sending there is healing, Soothing, Forgiving. This center is the repository of a lot of shame, A lot of fear. You can encounter those energies in this meditation. It's a safe container. And you can just breathe them. You can just breathe them into a kind of a blossoming. You can breathe that whole center into an opening of freedom. If you're visual, You can imagine sending warm golden light. If you're more kinesthetic, You're more of a feeler, You can just imagine it melting, Softening, Like you're in a hot bath, Letting go. There's like a fist kind of contraction that we find there sometimes, Like a tight fist. We can breathe into that and just release it. Maybe it releases and maybe it doesn't today. That's okay. We give that breath. We give that love. We give that healing forgiveness energy too. You can every once in a while wiggle your toes or feel the soles of your feet or have a little movement in the legs. The center is connected to all of that. The muladhara is hungry for our attention, For our loving attention. Breath by breath, We're melting it, We're loving it, We're softening it. We can also be open to the sacred energy that awakens there. It awakens in this coziness. It awakens in safety. We breathe into that sacred energy and let it stir. That energy can radiate through, Can radiate into the physical, Can radiate into the sex organs, It can radiate into the anus, It can radiate into the legs. Or it can also be very, Very quiet, Very, Very still. However it is, We honor it, We breathe into it with love and forgiveness. Keep breathing into that muladhara. Let that doorway open, The dhara, It's a doorway, It's a threshold. We give it opening, We give it freedom. We give it that safety and love that allows it to release. Breath by breath, Breath by breath. Moment by moment, We release, Keeping your body really comfortable. We bring our attention to the svadhisthana chakra, The energy center that is seated just above the muladhara. You can bring your attention to the physical, To that place in your body internally above the perineum, Between you could say the sacrum and the front of your pelvis. You can physically move to help find it. You can rotate your hips or rock back and forth in your pelvis. You can activate the pleasure energy of the sex organs and the pleasure energy of the anus. They have their biological functions of birth and reproduction and excretion in the muladhara energy and then in the svadhisthana energy, Those same physical body portals become pleasure portals. Breathe deep, Breathe through your nose if you can and breathe right down into this svadhisthana. Here your legs are still very connected. The soles of the feet are deeply connected. The belly, Especially the low belly, The womb space, But also the hips, The flesh of the buttocks. Connect all of that on the physical level, Breathing deeply into all of it and then bring your attention from the physical to the subtle, From the gross to the energetic. You find that within all of these physical portals, There's an energy. There are energies, Not just one. Your breath can be normal or you can use your breath to help take you into this meditation or when the energy moves, Sometimes it wants to move your breath in some way, Allow yourself to go with that. But we breathe in, We breathe our loving attention into this center, Into this blossom. Svadhisthana can feel very sexual and that can be a pleasure energy and that can also be an energy of shame, Can be an energy of fear, An energy of pain, An energy of trauma, Can be an energy of playfulness, Freedom, Or it can be a deeply contracted energy of holding back and they can all be there at the same time. So the work in this meditation is to breathe loving energy, Forgiveness energy, Freedom energy into the center. If you're visual, You can imagine your breath just bringing light, Bringing warm golden light. Every time you breathe out, It's like you're breathing right into those portals, Right into that orb of energy. When you breathe in, It's like you're breathing through those, Almost like you're drawing your breath in through this chakra. Whatever's arising, Whether it's an activated energy or whether it's a contracted energy, We're giving it love, We're giving it forgiveness, We're giving it safety, And we're giving it an energy of pleasurable rest. Even if it wants to get activated, That's okay, But it's like we're making it surrounded by softness, Surrounded by a kind of a cozy, Snuggly energy with the breath. Giving it space, Giving it freedom. You can feel its energy wanting to express sometimes, Like the Svatishthana wants to express through a kind of sexual arousal energy or through a sort of a playful, Dancey, Movement energy, Watery, Moving up through the body. You can imagine the upper body just dancing from its energy or moving down through the legs, Down to the soles of the feet in a dancey energy. You can go with that. You can let those energies move through you in meditation and even allow yourself to move. You don't have to sit like a stone or lie there completely passively. And it's also completely perfect if the energies here want to be very quiet and very dormant. Whether it's dormant or whether it's active, Even if it's very sexual or very intensely any flavor, Know that this energy is sacred. It's holy energy. Just give it space to move. Give it permission to be holy. We carry a lot of shame in our sexuality, Related to our sexuality, Related to our desire and desirability. Let that be healed. Let that be softened. Let that be soothed. Let that receive your loving attention, This breath of safety and pleasurable rest. Let it flourish within that softness. Breath by breath, Moment by moment. Breath by breath, Moment by moment. Allow this center, This fatishtana, This chakra to soften and unfurl however it wants to. Keeping your body really comfortable, We bring our attention to the belly, Right around where your belly button, Your navel is. And we're going to meditate on the Manipura chakra. So we begin by just finding, Once again, The physical landmark. The navel is a pretty good starting point for this one. But we want to imagine the chakra to be big, Like the size of a small melon. It might be bigger than your body. The energy of the chakra might extend past the edges of your physical form, Or it might feel like it's really contained. But you can imagine the middle of this orb, The center of it, Kind of behind where your navel is. So it's not there on the surface, But it's deep inside. And you can move your belly, You can do some simple movements with your spine to help to locate that physical place. You can put your hands there, If that helps. And we're going to breathe deeply through the nose, If you can, Right into that physical place. So you're relaxing and breathing into your belly. And you actually engage belly muscles to breathe. So now it becomes physical and energetic. Breathing into the belly, Relaxing the belly, Also relaxing the lower back and the side body. You might want to move from side to side and find those side body muscles that can relax. If you're sitting, It might help to lift up to find this Manipura chakra. It might help to have that erect sort of open posture, But it might also help for you to relax your posture, It depends. Sometimes you have to really relax your belly to find this chakra. We're moving from the physical to the energetic now, From the gross to the subtle. And as you do that, You can let your breath be normal, But use your breath as you need to. If it helps you to take a deeper breath every now and then, If the energy starts to stir and move your breath, You just go with that. But otherwise, Just breathe naturally through your nose, But breathing into the center and exploring this chakra, This blossom, This energy center, Manipura. Keep the centers below nice and open, Nice and free. As we bring our attention, Our loving, Forgiving attention to the belly chakra, There's a sense here, There's an energetic sense of me. This is me. This is mine. I am good. I am not so good. But it's a different kind of quality than the energies in the lower chakras. They're more primal, They're more pre-verbal almost. Here at Manipura, There can be a very personal feeling. It's our personal feeling of worth. It's our rank among others. It's competition energy. It's not basic survival like the Muladhara chakra. That's animal survival energy. Here at Manipura, It's the very human survival energy. It's the hustle energy. It's the fear of failure energy. It's also where we feel the conditional feelings of encouragement and success and pride. This chakra is the container for so many of those human energies. So let's give it some loving attention. Let's breathe into it and give it love, Give it forgiveness. Most of all, Let's give it relief. As we breathe out, Especially, There might be some energies we want to let go of. The energies don't just come and go through this center for most of us. There's a stickiness, They stay. How can we breathe in and offer softness? If you're visual, You can imagine breathing in a sort of golden light. If you're more kinesthetic, You can just feel this tightness go into softness. There might be a sound that wants to come out. Don't force it, But there might be a sound that you might want to exhale. There might be some excavation work here. As you're breathing it out, It might help to be very still and it might also help to give yourself a little movement, Like a little shake, A little gyration, A little movement that allows the energy to move out more freely. You can do that. You don't have to sit completely still. Manipura, Belly chakra. You can feel its energy extend down, Down into the low belly and womb, Right down into the lower chakras, Right down to your tailbone. It's very connected to all of those energies. How are we going to get our security? How are we going to get our pleasure? How are we going to get chosen? Avoid rejection. Manipura just wants to be free, Just wants to be open, Wants to be bigger, Wants to unfurl its tightness. Just keep breathing, Forgiving, Softening, Allowing. Breath by breath, Breath by breath, Moment by moment. Keep softening, Keep opening, Manipura. Keeping your body very comfortable. Bring your attention to the center of your chest. This meditation is going to be focused on the Anahata chakra, Sometimes called the heart chakra. Even on the physical level, Just finding the center of your chest, You can put your hand or both hands there. You can move your body in a way where you feel an opening in the chest. And breathe deeply through the nose if you can, Right into your chest. So when you breathe in, The chest actually expands, The ribcage expands in the front and the back on the sides. Keep breathing a little bit deeply, Feel how your armpits and your arms are connected to the center, All the way out to the palms of your hands. You can imagine Anahata chakra here in your chest, Quite large, Like the size of a small melon. It might be larger than your physical frame, Like an energetic orb. Keep breathing a little bit deeply. Keep moving if that's helpful. Keep using your hands if that's helpful, But bring your attention very clearly into the center of your chest and the center of that orb. You can imagine it behind the sternum, Behind the bony plate in the middle of your chest. I find the center of my Anahata chakra behind the low part of my sternum. As you're zeroing in on the center, Move from the physical to the energetic, From the gross to the subtle, And let your breath become more subtle too. Let your breath just be natural, Coming in and out however it needs to. If it needs to change, If it helps to take a deeper breath, Then do that, But otherwise just let your breath come in and go out, But see if you can focus the energy of your breath on that center. The energy of Anahata is different than the energy of the three lower centers. There's a line between the lower half and the upper half of our bodies energetically, Just below the center, Between the center and the Manipura. From that line down, There's one kind of quality, And from this line up, There's another kind of quality. There's an upward quality. This energy center is connected to our emotions. The Manipura, The belly chakra, Is also associated with emotions, But in the Anahata, It's where the emotions are rooted. The emotions, But also the human qualities, The human virtues. You can feel how the energy of the arms and the hands, The energies of service and human love are connected to this center. We embrace with our arms and pull another's Anahata chakra to our Anahata chakra when we embrace. The energies of nurturing others come from the center. You can imagine breastfeeding a baby and the energy of the breast through the nipples connected to this center, Giving not just the milk, But giving the love and the safety, That loving attention flowing out. We say that the Anahata chakra is also the seed of the inner child. There's a sophisticated, Beautifully complex energy about Anahata. As we breathe into it, We breathe into it with reverence, With wonder. Wonder is one of the great energies, Chamatkar. Wonder, One of the great energies of this heart chakra, So we approach it with that. We breathe with wonder. We breathe with loving attention and forgiveness and allowance. It might feel full of wonder. It might feel full of virtue. It might feel full of service and nurturing energy and generosity. It might, And it might feel the opposite of all of those, The opposite energies of each of those also find their home here in Anahata. It might be generosity, But it might be the opposite. It might be wonder. It could be the opposite. Could be service. Could be nurturing. Could be devotion or enthusiasm, But it could be the opposite of all these two. We're breathing into it just as it is today, Just as it is in this meditation. We're giving it love. We're giving it attention. We're giving it safety to be a blossom, To be multifaceted. As we breathe into it, It may feel like it wants to activate through our limbs, Through our chest, Through our breath, And it might feel very quiet, Might feel very dormant. Either way, The energy is sacred. The energy is perfect. We breathe into it and give it love, Freedom. If you're visual, You may visualize breathing warm, Golden light into the Anahata chakra. If you're more kinesthetic, You can imagine it just softening and unfurling, Blossoming, Dawning. There's a dawning energy here, Like the sunrise in the morning, Rising with warmth. Whatever's there, Let it be holy, Let it be sacred. Just keep breathing into it. Letting this Anahata chakra be free and open, Joined with all of the other chakras, So everything below it receiving its radiance and warmth, And letting the radiance and the warmth of the Anahata chakra also receive all of the energies from the chakras below. Let them be in harmony, Breath by breath, Breath by breath, Moment by moment. Keep breathing and allowing, Giving energy of freedom, Loving attention to Anahata chakra. Keeping your body very comfortable, We're going to bring our attention to the throat, To the Vishuddha chakra. You can put your hand on your throat or swallow, Move your head and neck gently to find the physical landmark of the throat chakra. It's the most exposed, You could say. And we're going to breathe a little deeply through the nose if you can. Any way we breathe through our throats, The air passage moves through there, But we're bringing our attention to the energy of the breath. We're still breathing deeply, So we can really feel the breath moving through. If you know how to do Ujjayi breath, The vibration of the Ujjayi can stimulate that throat chakra in a physical way. Take a couple more deep breaths and we're going to start to shift from the physical to the energetic, From the gross to the subtle. And you can imagine this chakra quite large. You can imagine it the size of a small melon, Much larger than your actual throat and neck. It's an orb of energy. You can imagine the center of the orb, The center of the chakra, Right in there behind the hyoid bone, That bony part of your throat. Let your breath be natural, But keep breathing into the center of this chakra and imagining the blossom there. This is a very subtle center, The most subtle of the lower chakras. The transition between the big part of the body and the head, Vishuddha chakra needs our attention, Needs our loving breath, Needs our forgiveness, But it needs gentleness. We don't go with any force here. We're very gentle with this delicate chakra, Like the delicate bones in the throat, The vulnerable throat, The vulnerable neck. We honor that vulnerability with gentleness and meditation. Your neck might want to move or it might want to be still. Your breath might want to get really, Really subtle, Really, Really gentle, Or the breath might want to have some velocity. Relax your mouth, Relax your tongue. You can even let your mouth open. Keep breathing through your nose if you can, But let the portal of your mouth be open. The portal of the tongue or speech is connected to this chakra, As are our dreams. This is the seat, Energetically, Of the subtle body, The mind, The emotions. This is its seat on that energetic level. So we begin to honor its mystical powers. We honor its subtlety. This chakra is ethereal in a way that the others are not. We keep breathing and giving it freedom and giving it forgiveness. Our expressiveness may be the way that we want it to be in this lifetime, And it may not be. We have shame that we carry in this chakra. We have the trauma of being silenced. We have the trauma of misspeaking and causing harm. We have all kinds of energies in this chakra, So we just breathe into it. If you're visual, You can imagine breathing warm golden light into Vishuddha. If you're kinesthetic, You can imagine it all just getting a little bit more spacious. Like the same way your mouth and your jaw opens, You can imagine the petals of the Vishuddha blossom giving a little bit more space, The bones in the neck even getting a little spacious. Breath by breath, Breath by breath, Moment by moment, Vishuddha throat chakra opening, Brightening, Healing, Keeping your body very comfortable. Bring your attention to your third eye, To the space between your eyebrows. This meditation is going to focus on anya chakra, Anya chakra in the head, And begin by finding the physical landmarks, The apex of the nose, Right where the bridge of the nose connects with the forehead, That space between the eyebrows, Behind there. You can use your hand. You can press on that spot between your eyebrows. You can press hard. Imagine there, But internal. It's not there on the surface where you're touching, But inside the head. You can imagine the chakra actually being quite large, Like the size of a small melon, Bigger than your face, Bigger than your head, But the center of that center being there in the middle of your head, Behind that space between your eyebrows. And let your breath be a little bit deeper than normal. And just imagine breathing in and out of that physical focal point. It can help to soften your face. You can even scrunch up your face and release it. You can rub your face. You can rub your eyes. You can rub your forehead. But just keep breathing deeply. And at this point, We're really focusing on finding the physical placement. You can move your head from side to side. You can gently take your tongue and pull it back and press it up into your soft palate. And you can imagine if your tongue were longer, It could go up through your head and touch the center of anya chakra. That's where we're focusing. We're going to move from the physical to the energetic, From the gross to the subtle, And let our breath become normal again. And if you need to breathe differently or it helps to breathe more deeply or the energy moves and changes your breath, Just go with that. But otherwise, Just breathe naturally. Your breath may want to get very, Very gentle when you focus on this upper chakra. It's very important to keep your actual eyeballs soft. Don't strain your eyeballs. Don't strain your head or your brain. Let all of that be very soft. Let your face be totally, Totally soft as you move into the energetic dimension of this chakra. Sometimes it can help to use the syllable OM. You can just remember OM or silently encourage that vibration as a way of connecting to this chakra. And as you move your attention there, Don't disembody. Don't abandon all of the chakras below, All of the energetic landscape below. In fact, As you connect to Anya chakra, Also connect to all of the rest of your lower body. You can imagine breathing in such a way that energetically your breath begins at Muladhara chakra, Your perineum, And moves all the way up to this center. So as we go there, We don't leave the rest. We don't float away, But we breathe into the center with loving awareness and reverence. This is an energy center of great manifestation and creative energy. This center is a sort of a gateway between the material world and the divine realms. It's a hinge point between your own divinity, Your own divine identity, And your human manifestation, Your human incarnation. Keep your face soft, Keep your breath moving. And just allow this center also to be a blossom. See if there's a contractedness that wants to soften. See if there's a fist kind of an energy that wants to open. In life, Our mystical intelligence can be insulted by harsh reality. And this center closes down. It tightens down like a tight bolt. It can become so tight. Just breathe some fluidity. Give it the energy of relief. Give it the energy of acceptance, Accepting your divine nature, Accepting your mystical intelligence, Honoring you are a mystic. You have insight, Deep mystical insight. You have the ability to see God in everything and everything in God. Whatever that means for you, Just breathe into it and let yourself go into its energy. It has its own energy, Which is in and of itself a meditative field. But try to stay awake. Try to stay alert enough to enjoy its intoxicating energy. Anya chakra. Remain in harmony with all of the other centers, With all of the rest of your body, The earth beneath your body. But let the center be so free and so open. Let the gateway be open, Connected from the body below and the crown chakra, The heavenly realms above, The mystical realms, Breath by breath, Breath by breath, Moment by moment. Let this anya chakra keep opening more and more freely, More and more spaciously, Keeping your body really comfortable. Bring your attention to the crown of your head. This meditation will focus on sahasrara chakra now. Meditation with the physical, Really finding the skull, The top of your skull especially. You can use your hands, You can move your head, But really sahasrara is beyond the physical. You can imagine this center being like an orb of energy, The size of a room, Very large, Much larger than your body. There's really no limit to the size of this center, But for the sake of this meditation, Imagine it very large, Like the size of the room, But find the center of it above the top of your head, A little bit above the top of your head. Sometimes it can help to bring your tongue to the roof of your mouth and connect to the anya chakra behind your third eye, Behind that space between your eyebrows as a sort of a gateway, This sahasrara, This infinite petaled lotus chakra. It's beyond the physical, It's beyond your physical body, But you want to make sure that your physical body is in this meditation. Right down to the soles of your feet, Make sure that your breath is bringing life force throughout your whole physical system and all of the energy centers from muladhara all the way up through anya chakra are all in harmony. And so we're breathing right up into this thousand petaled lotus, This infinite petaled lotus. This chakra is impersonal. You could say that when our awareness moves into sahasrara, We are moving into a shared consciousness. It is the seat of the divine, But it's the divine for all, For everything. Its energy comes down through the anya chakra into the human experience. And up in the sahasrara, There's a oneness, There's a freedom. There is that infinite energy of the divine. Here you may hear the sound of Aum or feel the energy of Aum emanating from the center, From this chakra, But it's not like we use Aum to connect to it. Here our effort is kind of irrelevant. Any effort that we're using, Any mantra that we're using, Any technique that we're using helps the other chakras to release and harmonize and free our attention to rise into sahasrara. It rises. Our attention rises and expands. In order to go there, We have to let go so much. In order to touch that infinity, We have to imagine letting go in an infinite way. It's like we just dissolve, But see if you can do that and stay awake. See if you can dissolve and stay alert enough to experience the dissolution. There's a nectar that rains down from sahasrara chakra. If we find ourselves like not in the chakra, But coming down, We can receive that nectar from it. Just breathe and relax and feel how your body and all of your other centers, All of your other chakras relate to this infinite one, What they receive from this infinite dimension of your being. Sahasrara is an infinite dimension of your own being. Breath by breath. Breath by breath. Moment by moment. Moment by moment, Keep opening into this infinite dimension, Dissolving into this oceanic freedom. Sahasrara chakra. As a human, We are all of this. Let yourself be all of it, This sahasrara infinite dimension. Coming down through anya chakra, This mystical human gateway, Vishuddha, Anahata, This expressive dreaming, Thinking, Feeling, Creating. Feel the personal energy, Manipura, Embodied, So personal. Feel the svadhisthana, The pleasure, The creature comfort, The muladhara, Primal intelligence. Right down to the soles of your feet, Right down to the connection point with the earth right now. Experience this wild mystery of being human. We are God. We are animal. We are pure energy, Embodied in earth and water and fire, Air and space. Breath by breath, All of it. Breath by breath, Every bit of it. Moment by moment, Totally here, Totally free. Thank you for joining me in this meditation.