7 Days 7 Mudras – Day 6 Kamala Mudra

One of the powerful technologies I’ve learned is mudras. And I want share them with you because they are super-easy, you can do them anywhere and they work instantly. 

Mudras are a tool to create certain energies within the body. My next chakra series gives you an introduction into working with mudras in your everyday life, to increase vitality, instantly create calm and work with the multitudes of health giving effects mudras bring to your body, mind and spirit. 

The use of mudras, in the practice of yoga are a powerful tool for self-care and empowerment. With yoga the intention is to draw oneself inward. Mudras allow us to go inward and recharge our energy levels. The term mudra applies to the use of hand (also eye and full body) gestures that carry specific goals of channeling your body’s energy flow.

I like to think of it as our Sacred circuitry. 

Join me for a 7 week immersion into your sacred circuitry.

Check out the upcoming Power Mudra + Chakra Yoga series here

KAMALA MUDRA

The Kamala (lotus) Mudra opens the heart chakra and is a symbol of purity. A lotus flower sits on the surface of the pond, opening to the sun as its roots remain deeply embedded into the muddy bottom, holding it firm and strong. It is the symbol of light and beauty emerging from the darkness.

The Goddess Kamala is located in the heart chakra, the place of devotional worship. She is the image of the heart’s delight and the heart’s wisdom for perfect beauty and happiness. Visualise this perfect fulfilment as the Divine grace that naturally comes for the heart of all beings.

The message of the lotus mudra is to stay connected to your roots, open yourself to the light and realize that the greatest sense of steadiness in life is an open heart.

HOW TO DO THE KAMALA MUDRA

Sit cross-legged (or any easy seated position), bring the base of the palms together at the heart centre, touching the thumbs and pinky fingers together. Spread the rest of the fingers out like the lotus flower opening toward the sunlight. Close your eyes and take several deep, long breaths.

It is highly recommended to practice this mudra in a quiet setting while meditating and focusing on the breath. If possible, this should be done for 30 to 45 minutes a day, this can be broken down into shorter sets.

MUDRA PRACTICE

Although mudras show immediate effects, most need time 30-45 minutes (this can be spread throughout the day) over an extended period of time.

I recommend using this mudra in a meditation practice, either 30 minutes, two lots of 20 minutes, three lots of 15 minutes or five rounds of 5 minutes across the day.

BENEFITS

This mudra opens and cultivates heart chakra.

It symbolises purity, light and beauty emerging from the darkness.

After practising this mudra you should feel grounded and strong like a lotus flower, while opening your heart to the joys of life.

The Kamala Mudra drains out misunderstanding, helps to release tension, and is also practiced to enhance the fire element in the body. It is a great reminder of the beauty and grace that is within you and those around you.

You can use it for cultivating love and affection, to ease loneliness, and can also be practiced when one feels drained, exploited or misunderstood.

Take some time to open your heart.

Practising this mudra opens you to the love that is always available, deepening your capacity for compassion and detachment, increasing acceptance, surrender and trust.

WHAT ARE MUDRAS AND WHY ARE THEY POWERFUL?

In Sanskrit, mudra means “seal”, “mark” or “gesture.” Mudras are gestures (often of the hands but in Sattva Yoga we also use mudras of the eyes and tongue, and other body techniques).

Mudras act as psychic energy seals that create energetic shifts in the mental, physical and energetic body through guiding the energetic flow and harnesssing the bodily reflex stimulus to the brain.

The tips of your fingers, crown of your head, and feet are where energy leaves your body. You can practice mudras to channel that energy back into your body.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE HAND

The hand has three gunas, or qualities, and every finger has its own energy and its own elements.

In yogic philosophy the three gunas, fundamental forces, are tamas, rajas, and sattva. They interact to create all of the known Universe (Prakriti), and can be increased or decreased by using mudras.

Sattva manifests as balance, inspiration, and knowledge of what is real. Tamas is a heavy, mindless energy that causes ignorance and inaction. Rajas is the energy of change, manifesting as passion, pain, desire, and effort, and it can lead you to sattva or tamas but is often characterized as attachment to outcomes and unsteadiness.

Your hand has each of these three guna characteristics, and each finger is associated with an element.

Thumb Divine activator, Agni (Fire), Manipura chakra

Index Finger Individual Soul (Jiva), Vaayu (Air), Anahata chakra

Middle Finger Sattva Guna (Purity/Light), Akasha (Ether/Space), Vissuddha chakra

Ring Finger Rajas Guna (Passion/Fire) Prithvi (Earth), Muladhara chakra

Little Finger Tamas Guna (Inertia/Darkness) Jal (Water), Swadisthana chakra

A MUDRA FOR EVERYTHING

You can use mudras to increase, decrease or stabilise the gunas and specific elements. Whatever you need in your life, there is a mudra for it!
Some mudras show immediate effects, yet most need time 30-45 minutes (can be spread throughout the day) over an extended period of time.
You may notice some of the names I use are different from what you may be used to. My teacher comes from the Himalayan yoga tradition and so I use the names as he teaches them. Teachers from other traditions may used varied terminology.

Mudras are a powerful component of Sattva Yoga as well as a technology you can use on their own.

Over the next 7 days I am going to share my favourite mudras with you. And talk about how mudras work and what they can do for you.

I recommend trying each mudra for a day and at the end of the 7 days, if you feel inspired, choosing a mudra to practice with daily for a 21 day meditation practice or sadhana.

Drop me a comment and let me know how you go. I love hearing stories of the effects of these subtle but powerful practices.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Christina at Raw Mojo

One of the powerful technologies I’ve learned is mudras. And I want share them with you because they are super-easy, you can do them anywhere and they work instantly. 

Mudras are a tool to create certain energies within the body. My next chakra series gives you an introduction into working with mudras in your everyday life, to increase vitality, instantly create calm and work with the multitudes of health giving effects mudras bring to your body, mind and spirit. 

The use of mudras, in the practice of yoga are a powerful tool for self-care and empowerment. With yoga the intention is to draw oneself inward. Mudras allow us to go inward and recharge our energy levels. The term mudra applies to the use of hand (also eye and full body) gestures that carry specific goals of channeling your body’s energy flow.

I like to think of it as our Sacred circuitry. 

Join me for a 7 week immersion into your sacred circuitry.

Check out the upcoming Power Mudra + Chakra Yoga series here

Check out upcoming Sattva Yoga and Chakradance classes here

Imagecredit: yogapedia.com

7 Days 7 Mudras – Day 4 Varun Mudra

One of the powerful technologies I’ve learned is mudras. And I want share them with you because they are super-easy, you can do them anywhere and they work instantly. 

Mudras are a tool to create certain energies within the body. My next chakra series gives you an introduction into working with mudras in your everyday life, to increase vitality, instantly create calm and work with the multitudes of health giving effects mudras bring to your body, mind and spirit. 

The use of mudras, in the practice of yoga are a powerful tool for self-care and empowerment. With yoga the intention is to draw oneself inward. Mudras allow us to go inward and recharge our energy levels. The term mudra applies to the use of hand (also eye and full body) gestures that carry specific goals of channeling your body’s energy flow.

I like to think of it as our Sacred circuitry. 

Join me for a 7 week immersion into your sacred circuitry.

Check out the upcoming Power Mudra + Chakra Yoga series here

VARUN MUDRA

The Varun Mudra helps you to clearly and intuitively communicate. It also helps to balance the water content in your body by activating fluid circulation through the body, keeping it moisturized. This leads to healing for many skin conditions, blood conditions, osteoarthritis, digestive issues and to a natural glow of the skin.

Varun mudra is associated with mental clarity. It is based on a simple principle that communication is vital. We need to communicate clearly and assertively in order to achieve a healthy and fruitful life.

Varun mudra is also known to balance the water element in the body, and is named for Varun the Hindu god of water.

HOW TO DO THE VARUN MUDRA

The little (pinky) finger and thumb tips are lightly touching, and the remaining three fingers are held out gently, but not rigid.

There is no time limit on this mudra, you can do it any time and anywhere, however, sitting cross-legged is recommended and I recommend you remain in the mudra for at least five minutes.

As with any hasta (hand) mudra, Varun mudra can be practiced while seated, prone, standing or even walking – as long as the body is relaxed and the posture is symmetrical. It is particularly beneficial when meditating.

Because therapeutic mudras are believed to balance the elements in the body within 45 minutes, it is recommended that Varun mudra be practiced three times daily for 15 minutes each time to obtain its health benefits.

WHAT THE FINGER PLACEMENTS REPRESENT

The Varun Mudra is known as the “seal of mental clarity”. When the two fingers are placed together it is meant to symbolize and encourage openness and fluid communication.

MUDRA PRACTICE

Although mudras show immediate effects, most need time 30-45 minutes (this can be spread throughout the day) over an extended period of time.

I recommend using this mudra in a meditation practice, either 30 minutes, two lots of 20 minutes, three lots of 15 minutes or five rounds of 5 minutes across the day. You can practise mudras sitting, standing, lying down, walking. Almost anywhere really.

This mudra is best practiced sitting. I suggest trying at least 5 minutes in meditation and then you can bring the mudra in to other parts of your day, sitting at your desk.

BENEFITS

Practising Varun mudra is thought to cure or provide relief from a range of diseases and ailments that result from a lack of water in the body, including:

• Digestive issues like indigestion and constipation

• Skin disorders such as eczema and psoriasis

• Osteoarthritis

• Anemia and other blood-related problems

• Disorders related to the bladder and kidneys

• Dehydration

Varun mudra is also beneficial for dry mouth, dry eyes, dry skin and dry hair, as well as a loss of taste and other tongue disorders.

Anyone who has a problem with water retention or who is suffering from a severe cold or cough should avoid this mudra.

WHAT ARE MUDRAS AND WHY ARE THEY POWERFUL?

In Sanskrit, mudra means “seal”, “mark” or “gesture.” Mudras are gestures (often of the hands but in Sattva Yoga we also use mudras of the eyes and tongue, and other body techniques).

Mudras act as psychic energy seals that create energetic shifts in the mental, physical and energetic body through guiding the energetic flow and harnesssing the bodily reflex stimulus to the brain.

The tips of your fingers, crown of your head, and feet are where energy leaves your body. You can practice mudras to channel that energy back into your body.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE HAND

The hand has three gunas, or qualities, and every finger has its own energy and its own elements.

In yogic philosophy the three gunas, fundamental forces, are tamas, rajas, and sattva. They interact to create all of the known Universe (Prakriti), and can be increased or decreased by using mudras.

Sattva manifests as balance, inspiration, and knowledge of what is real. Tamas is a heavy, mindless energy that causes ignorance and inaction. Rajas is the energy of change, manifesting as passion, pain, desire, and effort, and it can lead you to sattva or tamas but is often characterized as attachment to outcomes and unsteadiness.

Your hand has each of these three guna characteristics, and each finger is associated with an element.

Thumb Divine activator, Agni (Fire), Manipura chakra

Index Finger Individual Soul (Jiva), Vaayu (Air), Anahata chakra

Middle Finger Sattva Guna (Purity/Light), Akasha (Ether/Space), Vissuddha chakra

Ring Finger Rajas Guna (Passion/Fire) Prithvi (Earth), Muladhara chakra

Little Finger Tamas Guna (Inertia/Darkness) Jal (Water), Swadisthana chakra

A MUDRA FOR EVERYTHING

You can use mudras to increase, decrease or stabilise the gunas and specific elements. Whatever you need in your life, there is a mudra for it!
Some mudras show immediate effects, yet most need time 30-45 minutes (can be spread throughout the day) over an extended period of time.
You may notice some of the names I use are different from what you may be used to. My teacher comes from the Himalayan yoga tradition and so I use the names as he teaches them. Teachers from other traditions may used varied terminology.

Mudras are a powerful component of Sattva Yoga as well as a technology you can use on their own.

Over the next 7 days I am going to share my favourite mudras with you. And talk about how mudras work and what they can do for you.

I recommend trying each mudra for a day and at the end of the 7 days, if you feel inspired, choosing a mudra to practice with daily for a 21 day meditation practice or sadhana.

Drop me a comment and let me know how you go. I love hearing stories of the effects of these subtle but powerful practices.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Christina at Raw Mojo

One of the powerful technologies I’ve learned is mudras. And I want share them with you because they are super-easy, you can do them anywhere and they work instantly. 

Mudras are a tool to create certain energies within the body. My next chakra series gives you an introduction into working with mudras in your everyday life, to increase vitality, instantly create calm and work with the multitudes of health giving effects mudras bring to your body, mind and spirit. 

The use of mudras, in the practice of yoga are a powerful tool for self-care and empowerment. With yoga the intention is to draw oneself inward. Mudras allow us to go inward and recharge our energy levels. The term mudra applies to the use of hand (also eye and full body) gestures that carry specific goals of channeling your body’s energy flow.

I like to think of it as our Sacred circuitry. 

Join me for a 7 week immersion into your sacred circuitry.

Check out the upcoming Power Mudra + Chakra Yoga series here

Imagecredit: yogapedia.com

7 Days 7 Mudras Day 1 Gyana Mudra

7 daya7mudrasGyan-mudra-1024x683.jpg

One of the powerful technologies I’ve learned is mudras. And I want share them with you because they are super-easy, you can do them anywhere and they work instantly.

Mudras are a tool to create certain energies within the body. My next chakra series gives you an introduction into working with mudras in your everyday life, to increase vitality, instantly create calm and work with the multitudes of health giving effects mudras bring to your body, mind and spirit.

The use of mudras, in the practice of yoga are a powerful tool for self-care and empowerment. With yoga the intention is to draw oneself inward. Mudras allow us to go inward and recharge our energy levels. The term mudra applies to the use of hand (also eye and full body) gestures that carry specific goals of channeling your body’s energy flow.

I like to think of it as our Sacred circuitry.

GYANA MUDRA

Gyana Mudra is a classical meditation mudra.

It’s one of my very favourites as it is great for soothing the nervous system and bringing mental balance.

Gyana mudra is known as the “yogic tranquilliser” as it brings calm, alleviates insomnia, depression and tremors associated with neurological diseases like Parkinson’s.

WHAT THE FINGER PLACEMENTS REPRESENT

In this mudra you bring the tip of your index finger and the tip of the your thumb together to form a circle. Keep your remaining fingers straight.

Your index finger represents individual consciousness and your thumb symbolises universal consciousness. So this mudra represents the unity of these two powers.

Your extended fingers represent the three gunas (the fundamental forces, tamas, rajas, and sattva, that interact to create all of the known Universe, including you.) These are like stages of awareness that have to be transcended as you evolve through your practice from ignorance to enlightenment.

MUDRA PRACTICE

Although mudras show immediate effects, most need time 30-45 minutes (this can be spread throughout the day) over an extended period of time.

I recommend using this mudra in a meditation practice, either 30 minutes, two lots of 20 minutes or five rounds of 5 minutes across the day.

You can practise mudras sitting, standing, lying down, walking. Almost anywhere really. I suggest trying at least 5 minutes in meditation and then you can bring the mudra in to other parts of your day, sitting at your desk.

Gyana mudra is a wonderful way to calm your mind at the end of the day and relieves insomnia, so you could practice this one before sleep.

WHAT ARE MUDRAS AND WHY ARE THEY POWERFUL?

In Sanskrit, mudra means “seal”, “mark” or “gesture.” Mudras are gestures (often of the hands but in Sattva Yoga we also use mudras of the eyes and tongue, and other body techniques).
Mudras act as psychic energy seals that create energetic shifts in the mental, physical and energetic body through guiding the energetic flow and harnesssing the bodily reflex stimulus to the brain.
The tips of your fingers, crown of your head, and feet are where energy leaves your body. You can practice mudras to channel that energy back into your body.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE HAND

The hand has three gunas, or qualities, and every finger has its own energy and its own elements.
In yogic philosophy the three gunas, fundamental forces, are tamas, rajas, and sattva. They interact to create all of the known Universe (Prakriti), and can be increased or decreased by using mudras.
Sattva manifests as balance, inspiration, and knowledge of what is real. Tamas is a heavy, mindless energy that causes ignorance and inaction. Rajas is the energy of change, manifesting as passion, pain, desire, and effort, and it can lead you to sattva or tamas but is often characterized as attachment to outcomes and unsteadiness.
Your hand has each of these three guna characteristics, and each finger is associated with an element.

Thumb Divine activator, Agni (Fire)

Index Finger Individual Soul (Jiva), Vaayu (Air)

Middle Finger Sattva Guna (Purity/Light), Akasha (Ether/Space)

Ring Finger Rajas Guna (Passion/Fire) Prithvi (Earth)

Little Finger Tamas Guna (Inertia/Darkness) Jal (Water)

A MUDRA FOR EVERYTHING

You can use mudras to increase, decrease or stabilise the gunas and specific elements. Whatever you need in your life, there is a mudra for it!
Some mudras show immediate effects, yet most need time 30-45 minutes (can be spread throughout the day) over an extended period of time.
You may notice some of the names I use are different from what you may be used to. My teacher comes from the Himalayan yoga tradition and so I use the names as he teaches them. Teachers from other traditions may used varied terminology.

Mudras are a powerful component of Sattva Yoga as well as a technology you can use on their own.

Over the next 7 days I am going to share my favourite mudras with you. And talk about how mudras work and what they can do for you.

I recommend trying each mudra for a day and at the end of the 7 days, if you feel inspired, choosing a mudra to practice with daily for a 21 day meditation practice or sadhana.

Drop me a comment and let me know how you go. I love hearing stories of the effects of these subtle but powerful practices.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Christina at Raw Mojo

Check out the upcoming Power Mudra + Chakra Yoga series here

The wisdom of the body

image
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Mary Oliver

I love this quote. Reading Mary Oliver feels like lying down on lush, damp grass, taking a deep breath and sinking in. But how often do we take the time to sink in and really inhabit our body?

The modern lifestyle creates a disconnect with the body, we become like a head with hands, thinking, thinking, doing, doing. Unless we habitually stop and practice meditation, dance or yoga, or spend time in nature, we may never really arrive in our body all day.

The wisdom of the body – with its endless and varied cacophony of signals and mechanisms – is our projection of spirit. This is our vehicle for incarnation. And like any vehicle, our body provides a stream of signals to guide and inform us. It provides the physicality, the flesh, the medium though which we interact with our physical, emotional and spiritual world.

From the soft lub-dub of our heart beat, to our churning guts, our racing pulse, our cold feet, the body conveys a series of messages, if we would only listen. 

From the cold knife-to-the-heart sensation of heartbreak and shame, to the butterflies of excitement, the soft animal of our body knows what it loves. It feels our pleasure and our pain.

The body contains truths unique to our being. Just as one person may enjoy eating peanut butter by the spoonful, another may fall into analphylactic shock at the smallest trace of nuts. We are similar, but not the same and neither are our bodies. As you embrace this, you can settle into a beautiful relationship with the unique body, the exquisite system of flesh and senses, that is you.

The yogis have always known this, that the stresses of the body must be smoothed out and soothed with yoga poses before the mind can be still and spirit can be heard. The yoga tradition is all about purifying the vessel to achieve union of body and spirit.

The spirit likes to dress up like this: ten fingers, ten toes, shoulders and all the rest… It could float, of course, but would rather plumb through matter. Airy and shapeless thing, it needs the metaphor of the body… To be understood, to be more than pure light that burns where no one is. Mary Oliver

image

The first chakra, located at the base of our spine, is called Muladhara in Sanskrit, meaning root support. Like the root system of a tree, our root or base chakra energetically grounds us in the physical world.

Linking the chakras are a series of energy channels that, in their purest and unimpeded form, constantly flow and spiral up and down the spinal column, keeping our energetic system in connectivity to both the earth and ethereal energy above, with the chakras like little hubs in between.

Caroline Myss describes these channels and the chakras as our ‘energy anatomy’ and a ‘blueprint for managing spiritual power’ and that the purpose of most spiritual teachings – though often misunderstood – is to teach us how to manage this system of power.

Anodea Judith calls the chakras the ‘architecture of the soul.’ She says a chakra is a centre of organisation for the reception, the assimilation and the expression of life force energy. The chakras are the portals, the mediators, between the inner world and the outer world. 

Chakras can be described as processing centres of energy and information, as well as gateways for this energy and information to flow into, out of, and through. Note that when I refer to ‘energy’ I use the term to describe the concept used in many esoteric traditions of the vital life force energy, or spiritual energy, also known as prana or qi.

Many of us have sustained emotional and physical traumas in life which may have affected the formation and flow of our chakras. This biography of experience is energetically recorded in our chakra system (as well as the cells in our bodies.) This can cause our chakras to compensate by either restricting energy flow, becoming deficient or under active, or by becoming over active and excessive. Or even a combination of both. 

‘So what?’ You ask, ‘it’s only energy,’ read on, and I’ll tell you why this kind of imbalance can have deep and far reaching effects on your life.

Your biography becomes your biology. Caroline Myss

image

Linked to physical realities of life – security, shelter, sustenance, family, tribe – Deedre Diemer writes that the first chakra is associated with primordial trust. It is the chakra associated with our basic instincts for food, shelter, sex and survival.

Developmentally this chakra emerges between conception and eighteen months, and is informed by our environment during that time. If we felt safe and nurtured and our needs were taken care of, if we were held lovingly by our mothers, and picked up when we cried, chances are this chakra is embedded with a core sense of security.

However up to 50% of people report that they either suffered birth trauma or there were significant stressors in their family of origin or community – war or poverty, for example – to inhibit this secure bonding from occurring. Not mention subsequent life trauma that can affect our sense of security. As such, we may have an overreactive first chakra, that is out of balance and causes us to compensate in a variety of ways.

If we are imbalanced in this chakra it can manifest as a lack of physicality, being underweight, spacey and anxious. Or it may manifest as an excessive physicality in being overweight and overly attached to the physical by hoarding, over eating and indulgence in pleasure, or over-accumulation of stuff.

I often wondered how I could be both spaced out and have a tendency to over-indulge. Anodea Judith points out that as these extremes are both compensatory behaviours to address an issue in this chakra we may experience symptoms of both.

This very body that we have, that’s sitting here right now… With its aches and pleasures… is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive. Pema Chodron

image

If you imagine the root chakra like a plant in a pot, it needs a degree of support to keep the soil and moisture in, but too tight a restraint will not allow it to grow.

In the same way a deficient base chakra contracts too tightly into its core, not allowing enough room for energy to come in, to have, to hold, to manifest. In this scenario we are literally strangling our energy flow, the earth energy that needs to flow up and through our base chakra is restricted and bottlenecked, creating blockages that may literally prevent us from manifesting or maintaining physical things, including our own healthy robust body, as there is no room to receive. This kind of person can be literally disembodied, spacey, anxious, ungrounded.

The person who compensates for an unbalanced base chakra though physical over-indulgence, allows excessive earth energy into their system. They may feel heavy, lethargic, they may be overweight, overeat, hoard and covet possessions, money and power. It is as if they use physical things, including their own body weight to compensate for deficiencies in this chakra, perhaps to literally compensate for a lack of maternal holding in their formative years.

Again this results in a blockage. Too much energy, when it is held and hoarded in this way impedes the flow just as much as constricted energy. It’s akin to the Buddhist concept of attachment, it is the attachment to our desires that causes suffering. It causes us to get stuck in a unmanageable mess of our own making.

As Albert Einstein once said, the most fundamental decision we make in life, is whether to see this world as inherently good and beneficent or not. This worldview informs everything we think, feel, and do. How we perceive and thus operate in the world. The base chakra question, is this world safe for me to embody?

Erik Erickson wrote that this first stage of psychosocial development – from birth to eighteen months – is a time when either trust or mistrust of the world around us is established. This informs our behaviour at the most fundamental level. If I can trust the world, I can allow myself to have it. I’m not suspicious. I am accepting.

If something is not safe, we won’t allow ourselves to have it, you wouldn’t drink poison, in the same way if your inherent world view is of an unsafe place, you won’t fully allow yourself to engage in it. You may stay detached, non-committal, risk-avoidant, and fearful.

We either master the fundamentals of survival or we become one of life’s victims. Ambika Wauters

image

So much of our sense of our body and our self comes from the initial holding experience provided by our parents. Anodea Judith says that this initial holding wires up our brain body interface, it literally teaches us awareness that we have a body, we are in a body. This all comes through touch. Here we get imprinted with a cellular message of safety and security. Our instincts are quietened, not alarmed. This is a good grounding in the first chakra.

But what if you didn’t get this. What if you grew up in fear uncertainty, violence, instability? What did you have to do to yourself in order to survive this fundamental stage? If our needs are not met, our survival instincts start freaking out, our central nervous system is wired in a permanent state of anxiety, our body gets over-amped. We become over-vigilant, fearful, unable to settle, insecure. This kind of person doesn’t know how to calm down.

This may explain why so many people depend on alcohol, drugs, sex, food and shopping to self-soothe. They simply have no mechanism to return to a state of calm without external stimulus. Hence researchers into addiction like Gabor Mate suggest there are significant and demonstrable links between unresolved childhood trauma and addiction.

Nothing records the effect of a sad life as graphically as the human body. Naguib Mahvouz

The lesson of Muladhara chakra is grounding, a full inhabiting of our physical bodies as the embodiment of our connection to the element of earth. To cease existing primarily in our heads and inhabit our bodies. To cease grasping onto people, places and things as the source of our security.

Here we can experience pleasure and pain, connect with our feelings, and release these accumulated emotional energies through our connection with the physical.

Movement through our bodies allows energy to flow, it can trigger blockages to shift and cause accumulated energies to be released or redistributed and balanced.

Movement brings us into our physicality, brings our energy down from our heads into our roots, allowing a real connection with not only our physical selves, but the physicality of the world around us.

For those who, like myself, have a lifetime’s accumulated negative body issues, this takes patience and self-compassion. Making peace with the body I have despised, abandoned and abused for many years is a process that does not come overnight.

After several years of Chakradance practice, alongside many years of yoga and mindful meditation, I have found a degree of peace and comfort in my own skin that I have never before known. At times my body even brings me immeasurable joy. 

Here in this body are the sacred rivers, here are the sun and the moon, as well as all the pilgrimage places. I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body. Saraha Doha 

image

To encourage our vital energy to flow freely we must let go of our attachments and defences. The chakras can be blocked by our learned defences, either something we want to keep out or something we don’t want to let out. What kinds of things would cause these defences? Toxic energy, fear and violence are all things we may shut down to avoid. Similarly we may repress our own ‘negative’ emotions – anger, sorrow, exuberance – having learned it was unsafe to express these. 

Sometimes the residue from trauma gets stored in our body and our energy system. While traditional psychotherapy may assist at a mental and behavioural level, we also need to release these wounds energetically, in order to release the attachments and defences they cause us to act out – often unconsciously – in our lives.

As in all things balance is the key. An over-amped base chakra may cause us to be frozen in fear or rushing about in a heightened state of anxiety. What we ideally want is movement that is grounded and purposeful. We need to reconnect with the nurturing aspects of Mother Earth.

To ground we invite this energy back down through our body and reconnect ourselves energetically with the earth.

Traditionally humans spent most of their lives in direct contact with the earth, walking, living and sleeping on the ground. In the modern world we are so disconnected from the earth in layers of buildings, shoes, vehicles. 

I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. Mary Oliver

image

In Chakradance we reconnect our base chakra to the earth by dancing to earthy tribal beats, moving powerfully through our legs and feet. We may visualise ourself as a seed planted in the earth, provided with all the sustenance, support, and security it needs to grow. We see ourselves setting down strong roots as we grow into the world, like a giant majestic tree firmly rooted in the soil, so our branches can safely reach up and out into the sunshine.

Anodea Judith says that the best way to restore balance to the base chakra, is to open the leg channels. The legs connect us to the earth and the energy flows up through our feet and legs and into the base chakra. Our legs are like two prongs of an electric plug – we need to plug in to the earth energy to ground, receive and release.

Grounding exercise by Anodea Judith

This exercise will work whether your base chakra is deficient excessive or both, even if you feel your base chakra is balanced, grounding is always energising and restorative.

1. Stance

Stamp your feet a little to get the energy moving, then stand with your feet shoulder width or even a little further apart.

Make sure your feet are pointing straight or even slightly pigeon-toed, bend your knees slightly so your knee sits directly above your second toe.

Press down and out with your feet, as if you are trying to push apart two floorboards with your feet. So you want your feet firm and active.

2. Exercise

As you inhale gently bend your knees deeper, keeping your upper body upright, shoulders above hips.

As you exhale, slowly push down and out through your feet to straighten your knees, ensuring you do not lock your knees at the top. Do this very slowly.

Remember to keep the tension and engagement, the pushing sensation through your legs and feet.

3. Visualisation

As you exhale and push down, visualise energy from the base chakra in your pelvic floor pushing down through the core of your legs and feet and down into the earth.

(if your legs begin to tremble this is a good sign – you are shifting blockages and allowing energy to flow. If there’s any pain, stop)

If you feel you have deficient energy visualise drawing energy up through your legs and into your base chakra. 

If you feel you have excessive energy, visualise pushing that excess down into the earth.

If you’re not sure, just visualise both. Releasing in the exhale, receiving on the inhale.

4. Affirmation

As you exhale say ‘I am in here’ then ‘I am in here, and this is mine’ – really feeling yourself in your body.

You can do this up to 10 times. Trust your body, stop when you’ve had enough. You will build up your strength over time.

Practise this exercise daily and notice the difference after a week. Ideally this exercise will clear your channels, allow you to ground, release and receive energy through your base chakra.

I am one with the source, in so far as I act as a source, by making everything I have received flow again. Raimon Panikkar

I’m running a 10 day online Base Chakra retreat Reboot Your Base Chakra starting Friday 21 August. Bookings essential. Click here. Limited spaces.

I’d love to meet you there.

Namaste,

Christina

Christina is a Chakradance facilitator, Sattva yoga teacher, holder of sacred space, and wellbeing writer. She is passionate about wellbeing and brings her extensive knowledge though studies in the chakra system, yoga and shamanism to her practice.

My Journey (or how I got my Mojo back)

Hi I’m Christina. Allow me share a little of my journey to Ms Raw Mojo with you.

Seven years ago I turned 40. I was a single, working mum, and having navigated several difficult divorce years, I thought life was about to get good again.

Then I crashed, physically, emotionally, every which way. I was exhausted, depressed and physically suffering from all these mystery illnesses.

I was so tired I couldn’t wait for my son to go to bed so I could lie down and rest. I napped during my lunch hour at work. I even woke up tired.

One day I tried to get up and I couldn’t. I just collapsed by my bed and cried. I called a girlfriend who gently suggested maybe it was time I got some help.

Doctors (yes, I tried a few) couldn’t really see any one major issue. Just lots of “little,” apparently unrelated, ones. I was diagnosed with Anaemia. Low absorption of nutrients. Digestive issues. Adrenal fatigue. Menstrual issues. Depression and anxiety. Chronic Fatigue. Amongst other things. One doctor told me I was on a fast-track to autoimmune disease.

It was a very frightening time and all I wanted was to get my ‘mojo’ back. At the time I was writing about wellness, the irony, I know! And in my research I discovered Chakradance.

I have always loved dancing, but I was more of a dancing by myself around the lounge room kind of girl than dancing in public.

Chakradance was perfect because we danced in a gently lit room with our eyes closed.

For me, it was an hour just to myself. The music was beautiful, I closed my eyes, let the music flow through me, listening to the gentle guided meditation and just moving my body however I liked.

Afterwards I always felt fabulous. I had more energy and I often felt that in the deeply relaxed space of the dance, I gained insights into my life and found that the answers to things that were bothering me came quite intuitively.

It was interesting to me as I learned about my chakras, which are really a map of the energy body, to look at what was manifesting in my physical body, weak blood (life force), an inability to digest and absorb life, and an overactive glandular system trying to make up for a low energy environment.

It was interesting to me that many of my issues were of the lower three chakras. When I finally saw an Ayurvedic doctor in India, he explained how my base chakra was so faint it was almost as if I wasn’t really embodied IN the world at all.

I now look back on that time as a cry for help from within. It’s like I was dying from malnutrition, not so much of the physical kind, even though it manifested that way, but at a much deeper level.

As I have activated my chakras, and learned techniques to fully energise my whole energy environment, my health, vitality and lust for life not only improved but continues to be the best it’s ever been.

Chakradance was the practice that set me on this path of self discovery.

But what if I can’t dance…?

That’s okay.

Chakradance is a gentle yet fun practice that meets you where you are. It doesn’t matter if you think you can’t dance, if you feel self-conscious about your body or if you have mobility issues. Chakradance is just about letting the music move your body and energy in whatever way feels right for you.

Chakradance is unique in the way it allows you to have an experience of your chakras through chakra-resonant music, guided meditation and spontaneous free-flowing movement or dancing.

For me Chakradance restored my ‘mojo’ – that vitality and engagement in life. I feel so much more present in my life. It connects me to an experience of calm, clarity, healing, releasing, and balancing, that flows into all aspects of my life.

I discovered Chakradance on my healing journey and was so amazed by how powerful it was, as well as how much I loved doing it, and how good it made me feel, that I became a facilitator to share this goodness with others.

That’s why I called myself Ms Raw Mojo and my business Wild Grace. Because I am devoted to helping others find a way back to their vitality and connection to source energy, to their feeling of wildness, to bouncing out of bed in the morning, and being in lust with life. 

Chakradance is some time just for me – a time of free-flowing dancing in a safe and softly-lit space with other like-minded people.

Do you know someone who could use a little mojo in their lives? Why not grab a friend a give it a go?

Namaste,

Christina

Christina is a Chakradance facilitator, Sattva yoga teacher, holder of sacred space, and wellbeing writer. She is passionate about wellbeing and brings her extensive knowledge though studies in the chakra system, yoga, shamanism and reiki to her practice.

Check out my offerings at wildgraceyogahealing.com

And class listings at Wild Grace Eventbrite

The crown chakra – downloading the divine

The seventh chakra is the gateway to universal or divine consciousness. In this sense, we begin by “downloading the Divine.” Anodea Judith

This is the wisdom of the crown chakra – focusing within, focusing on our breath, focusing on our inspired creative vision, and setting intentions for each day to bring that vision from thought into being.

In this way we become a vessel, a unique expression of the divine source energy expressed through our individuality.

There is a time for action, but first, it is a time for allowing the inspiration to come and trusting it when it does.

This week, we explore the crown chakra, or Sahasrara, which means “thousandfold.” It implies the infinite nature of this chakra, which provides us with our most direct connection with the divine. It is from this connection that we can open to the divine spark of inspiration.

This chakra is always active, it’s just that our individual consciousness may not be refined enough to experience it.

Once the third eye master chakra is activated, and the lower chakras are balanced, and the upper chakras are flowing with life force and integrated, the crown energy becomes available to us and all of our chakras become lit up with this source energy.

The crown chakra is the highest of the seven chakras. Visualised at the crown of the head as a thousand-petalled lotus flower, which according to ancient Indian Hindu-tantric tradition, represents enlightenment, wholeness and infinity. The advait, the non-dual self. That singularity, that indivisible whole which is expressing itself as our individuality, totally merges here.

At conception, it is said the crown chakra creates the child’s consciousness, which then travels down to the root chakra, where it coils up as the Kundalini, our infinite potential. Through yogic practices we raise the Kundalini Shakti up through the chakras to the crown to once again experience this wholeness, of unity consciousness.

As we develop the crown chakra, we become increasingly aware of consciousness itself – the eternal part of us that is beyond ego, thought, feeling, and body.

All of our chakras are within the realms of our psyche. Sahasrara acts through nothing whilst acting through everything. It is the centre of supreme consciousness, where all polarities integrate, moving us beyond the fluctuations of the mind in a relative reality.

At this point all activities of the mind – thoughts, feelings, desires, emotions – are dissolved and the yogi attains a state of true bliss or Sat-Chit-Ananda (truth, consciousness and bliss.) Once this has been attained the yogi stays in this non-dual consciousness, both experiencing unity and the ability to function in the world. Every chakra – all aspects of our being – start to be imbued with the value of Sat-Chit-Ananda (truth, consciousness and bliss.)

Even to tap into this consciousness for a moment, is a moment of bliss. Join us this week as we explore this, quite literally, divine energy.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Christina at Raw Mojo

Sattva Yoga Crown Chakra Flow this Friday 23 August 10am here

Try Chakradance – Rhythm for your soul

.

* Raw Mojo * Chakradance * Yoga * Meditation*

Manifesting divine abundance through the crown chakra

This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. Alan Wilson Watts

Our Chakradance journey begins at the base chakra where we feel a strong connection to our bodies and relationship to Mother Earth, in the sacral chakra we explore our emotions and feelings, in the solar plexus chakra we encounter our personal power, in the heart chakra we unite our masculine and feminine energies in a sacred union, the throat chakra allows us to find our truthful expression and the third eye opens us up to higher powers of perception.

In traditional Tantric philosophy the crown chakra is simply depicted as the thousand-petaled lotus. It has no seed sound, no element or other associations. Awakening the crown chakra it is really a consummation of our experience of all the other chakras.

The beauty of moving up through all the chakras to our crown chakra, balancing and clearing our energy centres along the way, is that we create an open channel for this divine energy to pour in and to nourish us and our lives.

The seven chakras are embedded into our nervous system. When aligned, they form a vertical channel along our core. Within this channel, two major currents of energy move upward and downward: the currents of liberation and manifestation. Anodea Judith

While much chakra work focuses on the ascending energy flow, there is also a descending energy flow where we bring this divine cosmic energy of source down into our chakras and into our lives, this is the energetic flow of manifestation, as divine consciousness becomes denser and eventually manifests into physical form through the actions we create in our lives.

In the process of liberation, we work to clear and open each chakra by letting go of fixed patterns, blocks and imbalances. In the process of manifestation, we bring energy down from the crown, condensing and focusing it into a denser pattern. We do this by expressing ourselves through each chakra, and moving the energy downward step by step toward the earth.

As we do in Chakradance, the upward liberating current should be cleared first, as it opens the pathway that makes manifestation easier.

We are now at the gateway to the spirit whose entrance is at Sahasrara, the crown chakra. The divine spark of inspiration is awakened at the crown chakra. It aligns us to our soul purpose -what we are doing here – who we are meant to truly be. This chakra connects us to the source of all creation. Take a deep breath and surrender yourself to the oneness. Chakradance

This week, we explore the crown chakra, or Sahasrara, which means “thousandfold.” It implies the infinite nature of this chakra, which provides us with our most direct connection with the divine. It is from this connection that we can open to the divine spark of inspiration.

The dance of sahasrara is an invitation to the soul to enter the body through the crown chakra in the top of the head.

The crown chakra is the highest of the seven chakras. Visualised at the crown of the head as a thousand-petalled lotus flower, which according to ancient Indian Hindu-tantric tradition, represents enlightenment, wholeness and infinity.

The crown chakra opens upward, like a funnel. This chakra is our avenue to higher states of consciousness. As we develop it, we become increasingly aware of consciousness itself – the eternal part of us that is beyond ego, thought, feeling, and body.

From a psychological perspective, Carl Jung says that it is at the crown chakra that the ego and the self unite, the self being that inner spark of perennial wisdom whether that is God, Buddha or the white light. Awakening of this chakra is said to be the last step in the evolution of human consciousness.

Developing this chakra unifies us with the Divine Source, as well as everything else in the universe. This is unimaginably blissful.

As we are opening to higher levels of consciousness, we may start to receive spiritual insights or messages. Although these experiences may be subtle, they are deeply powerful.

In our modern culture many of us get caught up in our day-to-day living and often lose contact with the deeper significance of our lives. This can leave us feeling empty and our lives can begin to feel meaningless. This is why finding this spiritual connection is so important. The more connected we are to our spiritual source, the more harmonious our lives can be. Natalie Southgate

The more connected we are to our spiritual source, the more harmonious our life can be. Many chronic issues may just drop away; answers to deep questions and problems intuitively drop in. We come to know our spiritual purpose, our reason for being. We feel a sense unconditional love and oneness with all life. We feel truly liberated, seeing how we can live a life of great clarity, meaning, and value.

This divine spark cannot enter a full mind, so the state that precedes this is emptiness. Like Kevin Costner’s character in Tin Cup, who commands before each pitch of the baseball “clear the mechanism,” it is only when we can let go of our thoughts of what is that we can be filled with inspiration for what could be.

The crown chakra represents the spark of creativity that is transformed into personal consciousness. It governs the process by which we receive inspiration, and then ask ourselves how it relates to our life purpose.

Inspiration has multiple meanings: a divine influence, a moment of creative intelligence, or the drawing in of breath.

The seventh chakra is the gateway to universal or divine consciousness. In this sense, we begin by “downloading the Divine.” Anodea Judith

Anodea Judith describes the chakras as organizational centres for the reception, assimilation, and expression of life force energy. The crown chakra is the entry point of universal spirit into the individual body.

This chakra represents consciousness itself, in the form of thoughts, intelligence, understanding, ideas, beliefs, thinking, interpretations, and intentions.

Consciousness enters the crown chakra from the divine source, the conscious universe of matter, space, energy, time, and awareness.

We begin the manifestation process when we open to the divine, invoking through prayer, meditation, worship, and devotion. We align with spirit and with our life purpose, ask questions and set our intentions. You may feel the presence of grace, a whisper of guidance, a sudden insight or idea, or receiving information that sparks your intention to create something new. Anodea Judith

This is the wisdom of the crown chakra – focusing within, focusing on our breath, focusing on our creative vision, and setting intentions for each day to bring that vision from thought into being.

In this way we become a vessel, a unique expression of the divine source energy expressed through our being.

There is a time for action, but first, it is a time for allowing the inspiration to come and trusting it when it does.

Affirming actions to open your crown chakra

Every day I read something insightful and inspiring.
Every flash of inspiration reminds me that my inner resources are all-knowing and all-powerful.
I accept my inner voice with reverence and respect.
I am ready to act on all inspiration that comes to me.
I ask that the work I do provide me with its own inspiration and energy.
I combine inspired thought with intelligent action.
I dare to follow my inner voice.
My inspirational signals are clear and strong.

Chakradance is sound healing, movement and meditation all rolled into one relaxing and enjoyable practice. Why not try it for yourself?

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Christina at Raw Mojo

Join us for the Crown Chakradance Journey

“Weak gut, foggy mind.” How the Solar Plexus Chakra activates our gut intelligence.

The solar plexus chakra is known as Manipura in Sanskrit, which means lustrous gem. This truly is the shining jewel of your vital life force energy.

Manipura regulates our pranic – or life force – energy throughout our body, controlling our energy balance, vitality and strength. It governs our digestive fires and heat regulation in the body.

The solar plexus chakra is the seat of our personal power and will. Energetically, it is the fire that fuels our metabolism, and when activated it increases our energy, drive, and sense of purpose.

And really, who couldn’t use some of that?

The seed mantra for Solar Plexus Chakra is RAM. Its element is Fire. Manipura is considered the centre of dynamism, energy, willpower, and achievement (iccha shakti), which radiates prana throughout the entire body. It is also associated with the sense of sight and the action of movement. 

Through meditating on Manipura, we can turn on this inner power and release this optimal flow of prana.

Scientists have begun to call the solar plexus and gut area the ‘second brain’ of the body. Serotonin, the neurotransmitter that is linked to depression, is largely found in the intestinal tract.

As my teacher Anandji says “Weak gut, foggy mind.” Our metabolism, digestion, growth, and healing all take place in the network of nerve plexus below the waist.

This ‘second brain’ is the place change and transformation is created.

In the ancient yogic texts, it states that “all yoga starts in the Navel Point”. The navel is an important centre of energy transformation in the body.

A strong navel brings many blessings including better circulation throughout the body, an overall feeling of well-being, more courage, and a deeper ability to meditate and transform on energetic levels.

A weak navel reflects a fatigued body, anxious mind, and restless spirit.

In Sattva Yoga we awaken the intelligence of your navel point through various simple yet sophisticated yogic techniques.

Navel activating kriyas and breath work have traditionally been used as a way to stoke the digestive fire, clean unnecessary fat from the belly, improve organ functioning, and balance the solar plexus chakra, manipura.

Ultimately this practice can bring you lots of powerful energy which can be used for very real transformation.

Let’s begin with a breathing exercise or pranayama called the Breath of Fire. This exercise will really tune you into your inner power source and get your solar plexus chakra pumping.

Place your hands on your belly. As you breathe in through your nose, your lungs fill with air and your belly pushes out.

Feel your belly pushing into your hands. As you exhale through your nose, empty your lungs and flatten your belly. At the end of your exhalation, gently pull your navel towards your spine.

Then, breathe in gently through your nose, feeling your belly expand. Exhale through your nose as you press your navel towards your spine, gently using your abdominal muscles. 

Begin to do this quickly, almost like a dog panting, only through your nose. Feel your belly bounce. Do this rapid breath about 30 times, making sure that you breathe in and out of your nose each time. If you feel comfortable with this breathing, you can repeat the 30 breaths up to 4 times. 

Fire breathing is a powerful way of cleansing and energising your solar plexus and your whole energetic field. 

Now let’s centre ourselves for the mantra meditation. Play the video.

Begin by grounding yourself, either sitting on the floor or on a chair and feel your spine or your feet rooted to the earth.

Feel the crown of your head connected to the energy of the divine or the source.

Imagine the line of energy that extends from your crown to your root chakra, and then bring your awareness to a point on this line around your belly and diaphragm.

Now repeat the mantra RAM as you keep your attention on your solar plexus chakra. Manipura.

(Note: this video goes for about an hour so you may want to set a timer for a shorter period of time, say 5-10 minutes)

When you have finished. Again draw your awareness back to your root chakra and your connection to the earth.

Sit quietly for a moment before going about your day. Be aware of your energy, power and inner fire throughout the day.

Let your entire day become a chakra meditation.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Try Sattva Yoga – Solar Plexus Chakra Flow on Friday 22 March


Express Yourself!

1-kxbSQQqrvdhURn9Ge8g8Xw

Have you ever walked away from a conversation where you felt you just weren’t heard?

Whether you were silent or you tried to speak but your words just came our wrong, there is something so disempowering about not being heard. Often it brings back painful memories of childhood when we were told our voice was not welcome, too silly, too loud, too childish.

Many of us carry years of these kinds of interactions in our memory bank, in our body memory, and much of this is energetically stored at the Throat Chakra.

1

The Throat Chakra is the centre of communication. From a conversation at the grocery store to saying “I do” at the altar, every conversation you have adds or depletes energy at this point in your body.

But communication is a relationship. It involves listening as much as speaking. The Throat Chakra also rules the ears. When you hold back from saying what you mean or stop listening, your Throat Chakra cannot flow freely.

This may manifest in the form of a physical irritation, dry throat, blocked ears, aversion to wearing things around your neck, or it may come out in your dreams. It will definitely affect your ability to communicate.

Our words, and the intention behind them, hold vibrations and therefore impact our entire being. When we complain, gossip, lie, or talk negatively, it is as though we are putting toxins into our bodies and into our energy systems. The negative energy of our words also affects other people.

After I danced the Heart Chakradance this week a tightness had settled on my throat. I knew it was the energetic residue of this recent interaction that had left me so thwarted in my expression.

I put the Throat Chakradance Journeying music on and entered the mantradance – this is a practice of chanting a mantra whilst dancing, the movement and the sound creating a wonderfully hypnotic experience, where we can slide into a deep meditative state.

Sound and movement are natural partners. Unfortunately many of us feel inhibited to make sounds, let alone to move at the same time.

It was such sweet release. Just that pure self expression, that freedom to express sound without restraint.

Chakradance Journeying will take you deep into your Throat Chakra the seat of your creativity, to give you the opportunity to work with any ‘stuckness’ that you may feel in the throat area.

This stuckness can be about a life situation in the present or the past. It can relate to something ancestral or global.

Allowing your body to move the sounds through space as freely as you wish helps you get in touch with a time when your voice was strong and visible, and movement flowed freely. Let this dance become a vehicle for the creative expression of your true essence.

The dance will help you tune into the power of vibrations. When you become more aware of the world on a vibrational level, you open up to communication on a different level – you ‘tune into’ the vibes. You can feel when something, someone, or a place ‘resonates’ with you.

We begin the Throat Chakradance with gentle neck movements (moving neck slowly from side to side) and begin to sense how we feel in the Throat Chakra. The dance is based on a mantradance. Each chakra has a mantra which when chanted acts as a doorway into the chakra.

The mantra for the Throat Chakra is “ham” (pronounced hum). We will begin with a few minutes of purely focusing on sounding the mantra – inhale through your nose and exhale with the mantra sound of “ham”.

And then we will move into the mantradance, where we weave together sound (ham) and movement. This is a practice inspired by Tibetan culture, where monks carry out mystical rituals combining chanting with delicate movements of the body.

This dance will begin to activate inner experiences – it is almost like entering into a waking dream. You may see images in your mind’s eye while you are dancing, or recall memories or gain insights. You may experience feelings, emotions or physical sensations.

It’s an organic unfoldment of what’s inside this chakra. In Chakradance we ask you to be mindful of your experiences, to observe them, witness them, be present to your own experience. This is the way we shift our energy.

Vissudha, the throat chakra is the expression of your authentic self through speech and creativity.

The word Vissudha means purification. Here we begin to flow from the authentic sense of power that we have raised through the navel/solar plexus and heart. Here expression becomes the radiance of our dharma, our individualised cosmic intelligence and purpose. Here we find our true voice.

With our words we create our world. In this energy of Vissudha you are called to correct your intellect and move towards greater clarity and understanding, to know the power of your words as a generator of meaning, that your communication may become a transmitter of compassion and the radiance of love.

In the words of Hafiz, “the words you speak become the house you live in.”.

Join me for Throat Chakra yoga on Friday 15 February and Throat Chakradance on March 10 at Raw Mojo.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings!

Upcoming events at Raw Mojo Chakradance here

Get your communication humming with mantra practice

As you rise up into the energy of the throat chakra, you will begin to notice a shift in energy. Each of the four lower chakras corresponds energetically to a physical element. By the time you reach the throat, you are moving out of the physical plane and into the non-physical realm of ether.

Vissudha, the Sanskrit word for the throat chakra, literally means purification. In the throat Chakradance, we chant and sing to cleanse the throat chakra, and enhance our ability for self-expression. 

The non-physical element associated with Vissudha is ether, the field of subtle vibrations surrounding all things. The throat chakra, more than any other, governs our relationship with vibrations and resonance.

It is from the throat centre that you produce sound through vibration. As such it is incredibly susceptible to vibrational energy, and responsive to resonance of all kinds.

Chanting and humming, listening to vibrational sounds are among the best ways to clear and balance this chakra. 

Physiologically this chakra governs the health of the throat, nose, ears, mouth, neck and vocal cords, as well as the thyroid and parathyroid glands, which are responsible for our metabolism.

The throat chakra carries the energies of truth, integrity, honesty and communication. It also governs the ability to listen, both to the words of others and your own internal dialogue within your body. 

The throat chakra energy is resonant with authenticity and purification. Paramount to Vissudha, is the expression of self through speech and creativity. Finding your true voice.

With our words we create our world. In this energy of Vissudha you are called to correct your intellect and move towards greater clarity and understanding, to know the power of your words as a generator of meaning, that your communication may become a transmitter of compassion and the radiance of love.

In the words of Hafiz, “the words you speak become the house you live in.”

The Humming Breath is a wonderful pranayama or breath practice to stimulate the throat chakra.

Sit in a comfortable position with a straight spine.

Begin by exhaling as much air as possible from your lungs before taking in a deep, slow breath through your nose, refilling your lungs.

On your next exhalation, make a soft humming sound like a bee.

When you run out of breath, take another deep inhalation, continuing the humming sound as you exhale.

Begin with a few minutes practice, working up to 10-15 minutes at a time. 

Now play the video and chant the mantra “ham” pronounced “hum” as you exhale.

When you have finished your humming breath and mantra practice, lie down and relax for a few minutes.

Let your humming throat chakra energy fuel your self-expression in your day.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Sattva Yoga Flow + Chakradance classes

The beautiful art work used is Throat Chakra by Qahira Lynn