Hey,
This is Ish and today I wanted to talk to you about another way of understanding chakras by looking at Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
So Abraham Maslow was a psychologist that developed this theory in the 1940s and this is a theory that humans need to have certain needs met before they can realize self-actualizations and lead a fulfilled and happy life.
So he ordered these needs in a pyramid and starting from the bottom it's physiological,
So having enough food to eat and getting enough water,
Just very basic human needs.
And then the next step up would be safety,
So having a roof over your head and just being in a safe neighborhood.
And then after that would be love and belonging,
So friendships and relationships and different interactions with humans.
And then a healthy self-esteem and then also after that would be self-actualization.
So according to Maslow,
These lower needs need to be met first before you go up to the higher rung on the pyramid.
So for example,
In order to feel safe you first must achieve your physiological safety.
So you first need to have food and water before you can start worrying about,
Hey,
Am I living in a safe neighborhood and am I safe in this situation?
And this follows a bottom-up approach,
So you need to work on the one below before you go up.
It's actually very similar to chakras in a sense because you do want to first ground and establish the lower chakras before you start working on the higher chakras which are a bit more ephemeral.
So for example,
You can't really worry about self-actualization and higher concepts of the seventh chakra until you first managed the first chakra,
Basic needs.
And this is actually something the Buddha has realized back in his day because he had first gone from a life of opulence and then he decided to follow the aesthetic path.
And he started living on the streets and started torturing himself literally to see if he can find enlightenment.
And then he found that it actually didn't work,
So he needed to find the middle way.
So he made sure that he first had his needs met,
His basic needs met from the first chakra before he started working on the higher chakras.
And you can notice this in chakras when,
For example,
If you have an imbalance in the first chakra which is related to fear when imbalanced and you're attempting to work on the fifth chakra which is related to communication,
You'll find that you have certain ideas you want to say but you're unable to say it.
And this is not because of the fifth chakra deficiency but rather the first because you have some issues dealing with fear that need to be addressed first before you can start working on the fifth chakra.
And another example would be if you're strong in the fourth chakra of love and compassion but you don't have that groundingness of the lower chakras of the third chakra which is related to strength and the second chakra which is related to energy but when imbalanced it's related to neediness,
You'll find that although you have a lot of love,
It'll manifest as codependency and also neediness as well.
This is because they haven't built the boundaries and self-love first before working on the fourth chakra.
So just think of everything as although everything is integrated in the chakra system,
You do need to first establish a sense of grounding and working on the lower chakras before you start to go up,
Very similar to the Maslow hierarchy of needs.
So I hope this helps.
Thank you.
