Mantra Your Base Chakra 

As we begin a new 7 chakra cycle at Raw Mojo Chakradance, I thought I would repost this series of Chakra Mantra chants.
Mantras are specific sounds which have long been used to activate the chakras by chanting the sound that resonates to the particular chakra vibration.

Sound is probably THE most powerful way to activate and balance your chakra system.

When I was in India I visited an ayurvedic doctor who prescribed mantra meditation for me.

He noticed my base/root chakra Muladhara – which literally means root support – needed activating. An underactive root chakra had left me feeling dizzy, disconnected and unsupported in life.

So let’s start at the root and practise this daily for 7 days and each week I will guide you through the next chakra meditation using freely available videos on YouTube.

Here’s the video with the mantra sound you can chant along to.

To begin, sit comfortably with your butt or feet connected to the floor. Really feel that connection to the solid earth supporting you. As you breathe in draw energy through your crown chakra at the top of your head.

Draw this energy down to your base chakra, located at the base of your spine. You may like to visualise the colour red here. Tighten your pelvic floor muscles – or Mula bandha – as you exhale chant the mantra “Lam.”

Let the sound be your exhale. Feel the sound vibrating through your base chakra. Imagine the sound pushing down through your root chakra as you connect with the earth.

If it feels like too much to focus on the breathing and the bandha and the sound, just focus on the sound and put your attention onto the base of your spine. 

I find our energy body meets us where we are, responding to the intention and the sound vibration, so you don’t need to do it perfectly. You can always fine-tune the practice as you get used to it.

Having a balanced root chakra will help you feel secure, grounded and provide ease of physical movement.

It will also provide a good foundation for your whole chakra system.

Repeat this for a few minutes each day and notice how much more present and stable you feel.

Hari Om Tat Sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Grounding Chakradance  (Base chakra)

Try Chakradance – Rhythm for your soul

Art credit: the beautiful work of Sheranda Ann Kumara features in this week’s post

What is Chakradance? Base Chakra

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What is Chakradance?

Starting at the Base Chakra, we use sound and movement to connect in with our subtle energy or chakras, releasing stuck energy, activating and cleansing our vital life force energy for vitality and wellbeing.

At the base chakra we move our legs and feet to tribal beats, activating the foundation of our energy system, which provides stability, support and security to us energetically.

Here’s a little video I made to show you a taste of the base Chakradance. Why not try it for yourself… ❤

Reboot your base chakra + revitalise your life

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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?

Our modern lifestyle creates a disconnect with the body, we become like a head with hands, always thinking and doing, but rarely fully being in our body.

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 signals and systems – is our  vehicle for living.

And like any vehicle, our body provides a stream of signs 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.

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. 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.

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Your biography becomes your biology. Caroline Myss

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 vehicle to achieve union of body and spirit.

In the Vedanta – the ancient Indian wisdom writings – it says that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Our body is what allows us to have this experience.

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. This chakra balances our physicality, sense of security and stability in our body and in the 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.

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.

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The land is my backbone. Galarrwuy Yunipingu

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. such, we may have an overreactive first chakra, that is out of balance and causes us to compensate in a variety of ways.

Natalie Southgate writes that when your base chakra is balanced, you feel connectedness with the world and those around you, in a state of safety and stability. The balanced base chakra gives you a focused sense of your place in the world. As it is your root chakra, it is vital to allow your other chakras to be in balance.

Like the foundations of a house, or the roots of the tree, the base is essential to the stability of the whole structure.

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.

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To lose our connection with the body is to become spiritually homeless. Without an anchor we float aimlessly, battered by the winds and waves of life. Anodea Judith

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.

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.

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Looking back you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your life and that person was you. It is not too late to become that person again. Robert Brault

The base chakra is very much about grounding, stability, and security, and I have learned the only lasting stability and security available is that which I provide to myself, through being present in the body, in the now. My intention now is for balance and health. I no longer want to shield myself in weight, nor do I want to starve, or define myself by some ideal so manipulated that not even today’s models actually achieve it. My intention is to love myself, to protect myself without needing layers of flesh to do so. To be whatever size and shape my true being is, healthy, comfortable, happy. My intention is to rediscover joy in my body, my life.

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.

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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

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.

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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

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.

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.

Plenty of earthing, feet in the earth, sitting crouched on the earth, visualising mother earth’s energy cleansing, grounding, and balancing me. All very tribal, this earth-based, primal dance of the base chakra, and so liberating for a cerebral girl like me.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Upcoming events at Raw Mojo Chakradance

Grounding Chakradance (Base chakra)

Chakradance – Rhythm for your soul

 

Express yourself!

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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.

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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 want or stop listening, your Throat Chakra can become blocked.

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 heaviness had settled on my heart. 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.

Join me for Throat Chakra week at Raw Mojo Chakradance.

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings!

Upcoming events at Raw Mojo Chakradance here

What is Chakradance? Throat chakra

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In Chakradance we use sound and movement to connect in with our subtle energy or chakras, releasing stuck energy, activating and cleansing our vital life force energy for vitality and wellbeing.

Vissudhi, or the throat chakra, is located in the throat. It is the source of verbal expression and governs our ability to speak our highest truth. When balanced, our actions, thoughts, and speech are fully integrated.

Here’s a little video I made to show you a taste of the Throat Chakradance. Why not try it for yourself… ❤

Join me for Chakradance here

What is Chakradance? Sacral chakra

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What is Chakradance?

Starting at the Base Chakra, we use sound and movement to connect in with our subtle energy or chakras, releasing stuck energy, activating and cleansing our vital life force energy for vitality and wellbeing.

The sacral chakra is the centre of our emotions and sensuality. In it’s full expression it enables us to live creatively and full of joy in the sensual experience of being alive.

Here’s a little video I made to show you a taste of the sacral Chakradance. Why not try it for yourself… ❤

What is Chakradance? Base Chakra

Screenshot_20171222-065358

What is Chakradance?

Starting at the Base Chakra, we use sound and movement to connect in with our subtle energy or chakras, releasing stuck energy, activating and cleansing our vital life force energy for vitality and wellbeing.

At the base chakra we move our legs and feet to tribal beats, activating the foundation of our energy system, which provides stability, support and security to us energetically.

Here’s a little video I made to show you a taste of the base Chakradance. Why not try it for yourself… ❤

Detox your mind and body through the chakras

People often think the chakras are all mystical and esoteric, but the chakras have some really tangible effects in our lives.

When out of balance, they can stagnate with emotional energy from fear, shame and anxiety. What we want is to keep our energy moving and over the next few posts, I am going to talk about some ways to do that.

Do you know that your physical body stores your blocks and fragmentations? All that unresolved ‘stuff’ – held emotions, toxic beliefs about yourself, programs from childhood, they can all be stored as energy at a cellular level in your body.

Do you know that you have innate capabilities for changing your life through working with the energy portals in your body? Every aspect of your life, relationships, family, business, health, wealth.

All change that happens in your life goes through your physical structure, your body. ALL change in your life happens through your body. Unawareness of this process can cause fragmentation, dis-ease and stagnation in your life, because of the stuck energy trapped in your body.

In Chakradance, what we are doing is allowing you, gracefully and with ease, to transform these blocks so you have clear access to achieve your life goals. Whatever that may be for you, greater vitality and health, being more present and mindful in your life, success, joy. You may be unknowingly blocking yourself off from these wonderful things, because of these held energy patterns in your body.

In Chakradance we use movement and sound as a way to activate our energy centres, and move this stagnant energy, naturally shifting any stuckness or blocks as the key to freedom from what holds us back.

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

Movement brings you into your physicality, brings your energy down from your head into your body, allowing a real connection with not only your physical self, but the physicality of the world around us. When you become fully present in this way, great healing and transformation flows effortlessly through you.

You don’t have to know how electricity works to turn the light on, the good news is you don’t have to know how chakras work for them to work. (Like most things your body does, it’s all working away quietly in the background anyway.)

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.

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.

Note that when I refer to ‘energy’ I use the term to describe the concept used in many traditions of the vital life force energy, or also known as prana or qi. The same kind of energy used in techniques like Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture and yoga. There’s a reason why these energy techniques have been around for millennia, because they work!

Chakradance is an easy way for you to shift so much stuff, so quickly and easily. Chakradance is a joyful experience, so you can enjoy the process, without the treatment table, just dancing!

Raw Mojo Chakradance gives you a safe and intimate space where you are guided to allow yourself to flow while you explore your energy body with this simple method. The room is candle-lit, you move with your eyes closed, so there’s no need to feel self-conscious. This is an inner journey.

Chakradance is a simple, safe and effective self-healing modality. Once you are familiar with the practice, you can even do it at home.

Want to try it?

I am offering the Chakradance Summer Freedom Series. You can come to all seven chakras, one each week, or just the ones that appeal to you. The series will focus on specific areas of your life, each chakra will relate to aspects of your life.

On selected Tuesday nights over Summer, journeying into a different chakra each week.

For those who have done Chakradance before, you will find the Freedom Series a little different. For one, it’s a shorter and more concise session. Starting with a white light meditation to really get your vital life force energy flowing, and then in a guided moving meditation, you will meet a spirit guide to take you into the energy of the chakra.

Over the series, you will meet seven guides to take you on a deep, inner voyage into the seven inner worlds of your subtle energy body or chakras.

We start at the base chakra, where a tribal Elder will guide you in a sacred dance journey to awaken your base chakra, through your connection with Mother Earth.

Starts Dec 19. Come to one, some or all. Bookings essential as spaces are limited.

The most important practice is the one you do in your aloneness. As you go into your own meditation, the world starts to fade, and what starts to happen in you is the celestial glow of self starts to get established. And it is of paramount importance that we really cultivate this self-practice. Take the time out. Anand Mehrotra

Hari om tat sat. Namaste. Blessings.

Christina at Raw Mojo

Upcoming events at Raw Mojo Chakradance

Base Chakra Freedom Summer Series

Chakradance – Rhythm for your soul

The dance of the spiritual warrior


As the days become longer and the sun returns to our skies, what better time to ignite your inner sun.

This week we journey through the solar plexus chakra, our centre of 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 solar plexus chakra is where we experience our gut instinct, that inner knowing. Here we tap into the intelligence of the spirit.

From the energy of this chakra emerges the ego, our sense of self-identity. Concerned with assertiveness and personal power, it is easy to see where this chakra can be out of balance. Either in excess feeling a desire for material power and control over people, or deficient in allowing ourselves to be dominated by others.

When the solar plexus chakra is inactive we may feel lethargic, afraid, anxious, or withdrawn. There is a fear of taking risks, confronting people or issues, taking charge, and a lack of energy. An overactive solar plexus may cause us to be overly controlling, domineering, or even a bully.


To dance the solar plexus chakra is to call on the ancient dances of the warrior. In Chakradance, fast, dynamic and vigorous movements of the arms and legs, activate our core and ignite the fire in our belly, fuelling our dance with energy and strength.

Reining all this fiery energy in, movements then become strong, purposeful and clearly defined as our inner warrior emerges triumphant, brave and strong.

The solar plexus Chakradance is an inner journey with the Warrior archetype. What does being a ‘warrior’ mean in our world? Integrity? Standing up for ourselves?

The archetype of the warrior – standing strong in their power – is the vision of the healthy solar plexus chakra. It is not aggressive, but it will not diminish itself either. Pema Chodron talks of the tender-hearted bravery of the spiritual warrior. This warrior has the courage to face themselves in whatever they experience, no matter how afraid or uncomfortable they feel. 

Our fiery natures can get dampened by an excessive need for social conformity and a focus on relating to others. The epidemic of depression and anxiety in modern cultures could reflect a loss of connection to the vital core of spiritual power in the solar plexus chakra.


This chakra is known as Manipura in Sanskrit, which means lustrous gem. Many cultures associate this solar plexus energy with our life force.

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.

Krishnamacharya says that it is the prana that ‘connects everything in and of this universe.’ 

The ‘prana vayus’ are the ‘currents’ or ‘winds’ of the great prana (life force) within us. They are located in different regions of the body according to the direction of flow of that vayu. 

When prana enters the body it is the movement of the vayus that carry it to the different areas of the body so that the energy can be used to maintain the vitality and health of the body.

Prana vayu and apana vayu are like two opposite forces – the in and out breath, respiration and elimination – and it is said that these two forces alone rule the body. 

Samana vayu – is also known as the ‘middle’ breath and balances the energy of prana and apana. Samana governs digestion and the absorption of nutrients, bringing vitality to the pancreas, liver and digestive tract. Samana is the pause between the ‘in’ and ‘out’ breath and resides at the solar plexus.

Samana holds the flame that burns off the toxic residue of bodily functions. Samana has the ability to conjoin prana and apana and push the energy up through sushumna nadi (the central energy channel from which the chakras flow) which increases our pranic capacity and raises our consciousness.

Physically activating the solar plexus chakra promotes these vayus, allowing them to energise and revitalise our bodily systems.


The dance of Manipura begins with a flame, and as the music intensifies, and the fire increased, I found myself dancing like wildfire. I became one with the fire, I was fire, flickering and wild. It felt incredibly liberating and powerful. 

The fire burns away all that is no longer needed, and fuels us energetically to face life with purpose, passion and empowered will.

Dancing the solar plexus chakra was the catalyst for allowing myself to release all the ways I had been disempowered in life. And to step into my authentic power.

Without realising it, we may unconsciously give away our power all the time, in our choice of lifestyle, where we spend our money, the kinds of relationships we are in, what we choose to do with our time.

A balanced solar plexus chakra enables us to move through life with genuine confidence, inner strength and self-esteem.

Our inner warrior emerges when we create space for autonomy, instead of constantly worrying about others, we follow our own inner guidance. In this way, we are more likely to find our true purpose and direction in life and have the courage to pursue our goals.

If we don’t tend to our spirit, and to our life’s passion, if we don’t ignite and tend to our inner fire, part of our self is diminished, we have abandoned ourselves, and the lustrous gem we hold within. 

“Begin by visualising your solar plexus as a beautiful golden jewel, like a yellow diamond shining out.” Natalie Southgate

Join me for the Dance of the Spiritual Warrior – Solar Plexus Chakradance journey this Sunday at Raw Mojo.

Namaste,

Christina at Raw Mojo 


 

 

Balancing stress, sleep and hormones through your Third Eye Chakra 

It is easy to dismiss the third eye chakra as being a bit woo-woo. I mean it’s all about psychic abilities and visions isn’t it?

Well yes, and no.

The third eye chakra is certainly pertinent to our sixth sense or intuition. But that’s only half the story.

This chakra, known as Ajna in Indian Sanskrit, is believed to be the command centre of our energy body, where our main energy channels meet and intersect. But beyond this, the third eye chakra is also associated with the pineal gland which has several key functions which are absolutely vital to our health and wellbeing.

The pineal gland regulates melatonin. While many of us know this as the hormone that regulates sleep, it also regulates our absorption of light and keeps our circadian (biological) rhythm in balance. The circadian rhythm governs our sleep-wake cycle, which in turn triggers a whole host of biological functions that happen according to whether the body is asleep or awake.

There is evidence that this relationship between light and melatonin levels may have a balancing effect on female hormones and the menstrual cycle.

Melatonin has also been found to have a positive effect on cardiovascular health and blood pressure. It reduces hypertension, or high blood pressure.

The pineal gland is also linked to mood and mood disorders, with findings that a lower pineal gland volume may contribute to developing schizophrenia and other mood disorders.

In addition, studies are finding links between melatonin levels and some cancers, and a possible beneficial effect of increased melatonin levels in cancer recovery.

While there is much to learn and understand about the pineal gland, it is clear that it performs a balancing function in the human body, through the endocrine or hormonal system.

In the Hindu-tantric tradition, the third eye is the energy centre that unites the major energetic channels as well as balancing the intellect and intuition.

Here at ajna, the three major nadis merge, the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna, creating the Mukta (meaning freedom or liberation) Triveni. From an energetic perspective, the Hindu-tantric texts which describe the chakras and corresponding nadis, or energy channels, described ajna as the twofold “see” and “command” function of the chakra system. It is understood to be the monitoring centre of the entire energy system, including the mind, as it oversees both intuition and intellect.

So there you have it, aside from being the centre of the sixth sense, the third eye chakra is the command centre of balance in the physical (and energy) body as well. Not so woo-woo after all!

Would you love to awaken your inner vitality and wellbeing? To feel balanced, centred, joyful and free?

Sometimes all you need is a map or a practice to guide you back to your inner sense of authenticity, vibrancy and freedom.

Chakradance is designed to do just that.

Chakradance is a holistic (mind, body, spirit) wellbeing modality – a fusion of ancient wisdoms and modern music. Think of it as a kind of musical sister of yoga, but without the set asanas.

It uses very specific music, created to resonate with each in turn of the 7 major chakras, with free-form movement and mandala art-making at the end of each class, to help integrate whatever has come up for participants in the dance.

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

Try Chakradance – Rhythm for your soul