Yoga For Your Health

Understanding Chakra

A chakra is an axis point in the human body that receives, connects to and conveys life force energy. Chakra is a Sanskrit word that means a continuously spinning wheel or sphere of mans aural energy. Although traditional Hindu writings assert that there are more than 88,000 chakra points in the entire human body, the most important of these chakras are the seven energy axis from the base of the spinal column to the top of the head.

Although there is no common denominator between the ancient Hindu and Chinese cultures, they are very similar in their interpretation and explanation about the role of these energy points in our health and lives in general. Both the Hindus and the Chinese look at the bodys major energy points as playing important roles in our conscious and subconscious experiences. And that these seven energy points are the keys to a healthy and successful life.

The seven major energy points of our body are the root, navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, and crown and they are located along the length of the spine. These energy points continuously receive and transmit life form energies resulting from their direct and indirect interaction with other elements and life forces of our environment and are believed to have a direct bearing on our physical, emotional and spiritual makeup.

The chakra unceasing interaction with our body and the environment even during our sleep gives them a direct influence over our physical structure and appearance including our bodily processes, health and our emotions. A glitch of any one of the major chakras is an indicator that something is wrong with our physical/emotional health which may directly or indirectly be noticeable.

Since each of the major chakras corresponds to a particular endocrine gland in our body, any variance in their normal function or behavior directly affects our health as well.

Taking Proper Care of our Chakras From the preceding point of view promoted by the ancient Hindus and Chinese traditional medicine practitioners alike, we can conclude that a good number of our illnesses are in one way or another related to a malfunctioning chakra. Although physical symptoms may be absent or minimal at the very least, they are signs that something is wrong with us physically, spiritually or emotionally.

Since not all of our illnesses may be physical, they can also be on the emotional level brought on by repressed incidents that brought us undue pain or disappointment during our lifetime to eating the wrong types of foods and being obese for example. Lack of self confidence and self esteem can also be considered an illness in the broadest term. Certainly, there is only one way to combat these illnesses and that is to remove their physical or emotional triggers from our system.

Benefits of Chakra Healing One important aspect to note is that we have the capability to manipulate our chakras and their functions. By doing so, we are also directly controlling their functions in order to achieve good life.

Some people prefer to attend yoga exercise classes as the breathing and physical exercises used in the practice of yoga are beneficial to maintain chakra balance in the body.

Other methodologies of chakra healing are meditation (keeping the mind focused on an object of thought or awareness for a certain period of time), guided visualization (done with the aid of audio tapes or CDs to promote natural healing and relaxation techniques to reduce stress, promote relaxation and harness the power of the mind).

Another important factor to consider is that although our chakras can not be seen nor touched, they work on their own to support our body. We have to keep them healthy too.

The human body has to be healthy and fed properly in order for us to have balanced chakras. There are foods that help maintain the balance of each of the seven primary chakras.

Our root chakra thrives on root-type vegetables and protein-rich foods. Sweet fruits, nuts directly affect our navel chakra while our solar plexus chakra is enhanced by a healthy diet of breads, dairy product and cereals.

The heart chakra thrives on our intake of green leafy vegetables and green tea. Our throat chakra needs lots of liquid like water and fruit juices and tangy fruits including apples and peaches.

By eating blueberries, grapes and drinking wine or grape juice, we help nourish our brow/third eye chakra which is responsible for making our third eye senses sharper and more attuned to our psychical abilities.

Our crown chakra, the center of our spiritual and emotional center needs detoxification through fasting and/or ritual inhalation of incense and herbs.

These everyday methods, which admittedly are vey simple since they are an extension of what we already perform daily are some of the basic ways we can heal our energy points so that we can reap the benefits of possessing a healthy functioning chakra for a more productive and healthier life.