Welcome,
I'm Joni.
Today I'm going to be leading you in a chakra balancing practice.
Sometimes when we're not feeling like ourselves or when we're chronically running into the same kinds of struggles again and again,
It's because our chakras are out of alignment or out of balance.
Sometimes people will suggest that we need to open all of the chakras.
I think that the answer lies more in the balance,
The fluidity of being able to open and close the chakras whenever necessary.
This is the essence of having boundaries.
This is the essence of balance.
We want to think of an opening and a closing like birdwings,
Skillfully present in each moment,
Knowing instinctively what to do.
So let's get started with this practice.
Feel free to lie down or to sit with a long spine.
To begin,
Let's take a deep breath in through the nose and a slow breath out either through the nose or through the mouth.
I invite you to become aware of your feet and your legs and become aware of them without moving them if possible.
Our feet and our legs are representative of our roots,
That which can allow us to be grounded,
Safe,
Stable.
Our roots offer us a sense of coming home.
And it's wonderful if we can all develop the ability to feel at home in our bodies.
See if you can invite in the experience of being at home in your body right here and right now.
Letting go of any thoughts of the past or concerns about the future.
With your awareness on your feet and your legs,
Our root chakra.
Envision the color red and even imagine the color red flooding your feet and your legs all the way up to the base of the spine.
Take a deep breath here,
Breathing in the qualities of stability.
Inhale and exhale.
Move your awareness up to the sacral chakra.
This is the area that is just below your belly button,
The low belly,
Low back area.
This sacral chakra area is our emotional center,
The center for our creativity and our sensuality and sexuality.
Inviting in a feeling of balance of this area so that it is not too open,
Nor completely closed.
We need to have fluid access to our emotions,
All of those big,
Overwhelming emotions,
All of the pleasant ones and the unpleasant ones.
Our emotions help us understand the world and we all are going to feel the whole gamut of emotions.
Give yourself permission to access these emotions when you're able to.
Give yourself permission to feel connected to your sexuality and to your ability to create,
Not only to create art or to create beauty,
But to create an environment that you can feel stable and safe in,
One in which you can create a sense of peace,
Where you can communicate,
Where you can feel.
The color for this chakra is a sunset orange,
So allow that red from the root chakra to blend into this beautiful sunset orange in the low belly,
Low back area.
Take a deep breath in and let it go.
Allow your awareness to rise up to the solar plexus,
The solar plexus,
The area just above the belly button,
Right below the apex of the ribcage.
This is the seat of our confidence,
Our will,
Our determination,
Or sometimes our lack thereof.
Imagine or remember the last time you felt really certain of something,
The last time you felt confident and you felt clear.
Invite in that feeling at the center of the body,
The upper abdomen.
Our solar plexus is so important.
While over activated or too open,
It might encourage our ego to take the center stage.
But when we have balance in the solar plexus,
We can feel confident,
We can be secure in our inner knowing without letting the ego overtake the stage.
The color here is the color of the sun.
So imagine you could harness that brightness of the sun,
Bringing it into this part of your body and letting it shine.
You know yourself.
You know your strengths.
Let them live here in your solar plexus chakra.
Deep breath in and let it go.
Allow your awareness to rise up to the center of the chest,
The heart center.
The heart chakra is not about romantic love,
But it's about love with a capital L.
It's about compassion,
Love for yourself,
Love for all beings.
It's about being able to embody a gentleness,
An understanding,
An openness to new experiences,
Compassion for when you fall short or when someone else falls short.
And we don't want the heart chakra to be too open.
When the heart chakra is too open,
And we give and give,
Sometimes we find ourselves depleted,
Exhausted and burned out.
So allow the heart chakra to have those giant wings that open and then close and open and close.
And when those heart chakra wings close,
When they fold in,
It's not that you're shutting down your compassion,
But you're directing it towards yourself.
So when those wings or those doors close,
Give yourself a chance to offer yourself the kindness and love that you offer others.
The color of the heart chakra is a spring green,
The color of the spring grass.
Take a deep breath and imagine you could breathe in that color of green at the center of your chest.
Breathe in compassion for yourself.
And exhale and let it go.
Draw your awareness and attention now to the center of your throat,
The throat chakra.
The throat chakra is about communication.
But more than that,
It is our ability to understand and to feel understood.
It is feeling like you can speak your truth,
You can communicate clearly with kindness.
But also you can open yourself to listen,
To really listen to another with an open heart.
That is all contained at the throat chakra.
So it is that two way communication,
Speaking our truth and being open to listen to others even when they disagree with us.
It is about finding clarity and ease within yourself and offering that to others.
The color of the throat chakra is sky blue,
The color of the sky on a clear day.
Draw that color of sky blue into your throat.
And remember that you can communicate clearly.
Deep breath in and let it go.
Bring your attention now to the space between the eyebrows,
The third eye center,
The third eye chakra.
This area is available to us so that we might see clearly ourselves and others in a deep way.
Third eye chakra is our intuition,
Our ability to have insight into ourselves,
Into our circumstances,
Into others,
Not with judgment,
But with clarity.
We've all had the experience of having a spark of knowing without having all of the facts.
We've all been able to access that spark of intuition,
Even if we doubt it.
We want to invite in our intuition,
To invite it in so that it can speak its wisdom to us and we can learn to see clearly.
Third eye chakra is a beautiful indigo.
So imagine that color at the third eye.
Take a deep breath in and let it go.
Allow your attention to rise up to the crown of the head.
The crown chakra is our connection to everything,
Our connection to others,
Our connection to nature,
Our connection to the divine,
To spirit,
However you think about that.
What are you connected to?
What is most important to you?
With your awareness at the crown of the head,
Remember that.
Remember that connection as you visualize the color purple.
Know that you are connected.
We all sometimes might feel disconnected.
And the antidote to that is often slowing down,
Removing yourself from the habitual pattern that you get stuck in,
And finding yourself in a place,
Perhaps of nature,
Of worship,
Wherever you have felt the most calm,
The most centered,
The most peaceful,
So that you might feel connected once again.
Breathe in this color purple and let it go.
Feeling the colors of the rainbow within you,
The root chakra red at the legs,
Rising into sunset orange at the low belly,
Rising into the solar plexus yellow,
The heart green,
The throat sky blue,
The third eye indigo,
And the crown of the head purple.
Imagine you might be surrounded in a white light.
And with every breath,
Your rainbow grows brighter.
With every breath,
There's a brightness of the white surrounding you.
But with every breath,
There's an expansion and a contraction.
Imagining those bird wings expanding you and then enveloping you.
Finding balance with each breath,
Finding balance within each chakra so that you might allow yourself to feel both grounded and connected.
Take one more deep breath here.
When you feel ready,
Start to invite in movement into your body again.
Blink your eyes open.
And when you feel ready,
You can go about your day.
Allowing yourself to revisit this practice anytime you're feeling a little off or out of balance.
Be well,
And I'll see you soon.
