Find a seat that is stable that you can hold for the next 15 or 20 minutes.
And as you settle into your asana,
Your pose,
Just feel how the mind drops into the body.
The mind drops into the breath.
And there enters this readiness and willingness to go into oneself.
And you will be moving along the chakra system of the body,
The subtle body more specifically.
The chakras allow us to enter into a deeper plane of awareness of both our psyche and physical body.
So as you are seated here,
Just drop down deep into the base of the body,
The pelvic floor.
And this base of the body includes the legs and the feet,
The limbs that connect you to the earth.
And the qualities of the muladhara chakra,
The first chakra,
Is the sense of groundedness and stability when it's in order.
And when it is in disorder,
It comes into more feelings of self-preservation and fear.
The basic essence of life and death.
So with your awareness at the pelvic floor,
The legs,
The feet,
The very root of the body,
Begin to notice whatever sensations crop up,
Whatever sensations are manifesting themselves in this area of the body.
Notice how the root of the spine is connected here as well.
This is the beginning place from which things move vertically up the body,
From which there is ascent upwards,
Which you can literally feel with the spine extending up to the sky.
And that vertical alignment of the spine is supported by the base of the body.
So dive into this area,
This space.
Every time you come here at the muladhara chakra,
Different thoughts,
Different emotions,
Different memories or aspirations will begin to bubble up from the deeper recesses of your subconscious.
So just be acutely aware of the quality of these thoughts and emotions.
Watching them arise and pass away.
Settling into your role as this inner observer,
Inner witness,
Witness to the body and to the mind.
And then gently bring your awareness up to the pelvic center,
Right below the navel.
Known as swadhisthana chakra,
Second of seven.
This chakra is dominated by the element of water and is the home for our sexual energy.
In yoga the sexual energy is very important.
It can either flow upwards,
Up the spine,
And lead to more present states of awareness,
Or it can flow downwards,
Which at times can be a dissipation of energy.
So much of our shame and guilt is rooted in the second chakra.
The intensity of our emotions,
The watery depths of our subconscious.
So as you move into this space,
Through the back of the body,
The front of the body,
And deep within the pelvic bowl,
Again,
Maintaining awareness of whatever arises.
Be they pictures,
Sensations,
Thoughts.
As you relax into this non-judgmental awareness of whatever is arising and passing in the second chakra,
The mind settles here and focuses its concentration,
Its energy here.
The breath flows in and out through your awareness,
Drawing the energy here.
Remembering that the breath is the vehicle for prana,
For energy.
Your awareness guides that vehicle.
So as we move up the chakras,
You're actually stimulating them,
Clarifying,
Tonifying these different areas of the body.
And then gently move upwards to the solar plexus,
Or the navel center,
Above the actual navel,
The belly button.
Characterized by the element of fire.
You can feel the breath flowing more easily here,
As the diaphragm is connected in through the belly and expanding and contracting.
Noticing if the quality or the pace of the breath changes as we focus in different areas of the body.
The sense of I is really born here,
Solidified by the things that you want,
The desires that you have,
And the means by which you accomplish and solidify your ego.
So the navel center is very much about this outward projection.
And at the same time,
Very much the creation of will,
A will that can be either dominating and aggressive,
Or assertive,
And quite powerful for spiritual practice.
It's the will that carries you to your meditation seat.
And it's the same will that creates desire for power in the world.
So this energy can be manipulated either way.
All the energies across all the chakras can be manipulated in whichever way.
And this is the choice that we have as human beings.
Feel deeper into the center of the navel,
Into the solar plexus.
Back and front,
Deep inside.
And then inhaling as you draw your awareness to the heart center,
Right,
From the navel center,
Which is Manipura chakra,
To the heart center,
Anahata chakra.
The element of air,
Not just the physicality of the air and the lungs that we breathe,
The spaciousness,
Movement,
The vibration of sound.
The heart center is the fourth chakra and really the transformation of man.
The bottom three chakras are more of our animalistic tendencies.
And as we move the energy upwards,
Transformation into compassion and selfless service occurs at the center of the heart.
The essence of giving without the I,
The doing without the my.
The essence of a shared humanity and all of the heartbreak of being human.
So feel deeply into the back of the shoulder blades,
The sensations between the shoulder blades and the spine,
Into the emotions that arise.
And then inhaling up to the center of the throat,
The Shuddhi chakra,
Home of ether,
The element that holds all,
The home of creativity and communication,
Communication with our intuition and the transmission of that intuition and creativity into the world.
The ability to transmit the truth of our heart to others.
Feel the subtle quality of the breath just flowing in the throat here.
The Shuddhi chakra is really the bridge,
The psychic bridge between the heart and the mind.
And then slowly making your way up to the center of the eyebrows,
Agnya chakra,
The space of the buddhi or the higher intuition that trickles down.
As we move up the chakras,
There's less and less to say about them as they become more and more about just the pure energetic awareness.
They become more and more about merging with something that's infinite and beyond words.
So feel deeply into the center of the skull,
The space of the skull behind the eyebrows.
And then up to the Sahasrara chakra,
The seventh chakra,
The crown of the head.
And feel the space not right at the crown of the head,
But right above the crown of the head,
Above the physical body.
And then just exhale and flow from the crown of the head all the way down into the base of the body,
Into the legs,
Into the feet flushing the whole body.
And as you inhale,
Make your awareness all the way up the spine.
Watch each and every chakra as you make your way up,
Back up to the crown,
The thousand petaled lotus,
The infinite nature of man.
Beyond time,
Beyond space,
Exhale all the way down.
Inhale all the way up.
And feel the whole body,
All the chakras all together,
Alive,
Vibrant,
Clear.
You can continue your practice if you'd like.
Otherwise,
Just slowly opening the eyes,
Still being aware of the spine and the different chakras along the spine.
