Did you know that there is a powerful energy hard at work maintaining the delicate balance of all things; including you. This life-giving force flows through core energy centres in your body, known as chakras, revitalising your well-being and restoring a sense of wholeness.
However, stress from work or an unhealthy lifestyle can block these getaways, causing an internal imbalance that negatively impacts your emotional stability and physical health. Yet, just like the moon controls the tides, we too have the power to guide and direct this energy. One way we can do this is through the practice of chakra yoga.
By practising yoga poses for chakras, we can harness this energy and bring healing and harmony within. Read on to discover what chakra yoga is, how it works, and how to practise classical Hatha Yoga poses for chakra balancing and holistic health.
Continue reading to learn about chakra yoga, its principles, and how to do traditional Hatha yoga postures for chakra balance and overall well-being.
What Is Chakra Yoga?
Chakra yoga involves doing traditional Hatha Yoga postures in a descending sequence to realign the body’s energy centres, also known as chakras.
Energy points called chakras are found along the spine, extending from the base to the top of the head. Starting from the top down, the seven main chakras are:
- Sahastrara Chakra – Crown Chakra
- Ajna Chakra – Third Eye Chakra
- Vishuddha Chakra – Throat Chakra
- Anahata Chakra – Heart Chakra
- Manipura Chakra – Solar Plexus Chakra
- Svadhishthana Chakra – Sacral Chakra
- Muladhara Chakra – Root Chakra
Let’s examine chakra yoga’s real mechanism of action in more detail.
How Do You Activate Your Chakras with Yoga?
Humans have three bodies, according to yogic philosophy: the physical body, the spiritual body, and the astral (energetic) body. These three bodies are connected by prana, also referred to as life-force energy, which powers essential processes like breathing, thinking, moving, and digesting.
Similar to how blood moves through the physical body, prana also travels through the energy body. However, it travels via a complex system of energy channels called nadis rather than veins and arteries.
By breathing, we allow prana to enter our bodies through various pathways. Enhancing and expanding the flow of prana through the chakras can be achieved by performing breathing exercises and yoga positions in a natural, downward-descending order. Additionally, this makes room for strong astral energies to ascend, like the Kundalini Shakti.
Chakra yoga positions such as Shoulderstand and Half Bridge Pose, for instance, can assist focus energy on the Throat Chakra, which is situated at the base of your throat at the middle of your larynx.
This energy area may be stimulated to influence the subtle and physical reactions that control your communication style. This can help your thyroid gland work better and perhaps give you more confidence.
What Is Chakra Yoga Good for?
Chakra-balancing yoga postures help to balance and control your body’s energy flow, which enhances your mental, spiritual, and physical health. These energy-channelling poses, when combined with affirmations and chakra meditation, can improve your life in the following ways:
Emotional Healing
Chakra yoga addresses not just the physical body but also the emotional and energy components of your being, using a holistic approach to emotional healing.
Every chakra is linked to particular feelings and experiences. For example, your creativity, sexual energy, and cravings are governed by the Sacral Chakra. Consequently, balancing various facets of your life may be achieved by activating prana here.
Improved Physical Health
Chakras are associated with particular bodily glands and organs in addition to emotions. This indicates that the physical body and the astral body’s energies interact and affect each other’s functions.
The internal glands and organs are immediately affected by yoga postures for chakras, which enhances and harmonises their activities. Consequently, yoga may be utilised to improve the body’s ability to self-regulate and self-heal and return to a more balanced state of homeostasis.
Personal & Spiritual Growth
Chakra yoga offers a potent route for spiritual development and investigation. A chakra balancing course teaches you how to extend your consciousness and go beyond the material world. This may pave the way for more profound levels of self-awareness.
It may also start you on a transformative path of self-discovery that empowers you to reach your full potential and live a more contented and meaningful life.
Which Style of Yoga Is Best for Balancing Chakras?
Traditional Hatha Yoga emphasises the use of asana and pranayama to cleanse the body and mind and set the stage for other spiritual practices. Because of this, we do traditional asanas in accordance with the fundamental tenets of Hatha Yoga, which include minimum activity and adherence to natural laws.
The most effortless and natural flow of prana through the body is produced by the greatest yoga poses for chakras. As per the principles of Hatha Yoga, a chakra yoga asana practice proceeds in the downward direction of Apana Prana. Apana prana controls the removal of toxins and bodily wastes from the body as well as the flow of prana forth from it.
Thus, the arrangement of yoga asanas should be such that the physical body’s organs and glands in accordance with each chakra should be stimulated in a top-to-bottom manner. By doing this, the body is activated holistically and wastes and poisons are properly eliminated.
There are different yoga styles for balancing yogas namely:
1.Classical Hatha Yoga Poses for Chakra Activation & Balance
2. Crown & Third-Eye Chakra: Headstand (Shirshasana)
3. Throat Chakra: Shoulderstand (Sarvangasana)
4. Heart Chakra: Fish Pose (Matsyasana)
5. Solar Plexus Chakra: Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)
6. Sacral Chakra: Easy Crow Pose (Sukha Kakasana)
7. Root Chakra: Tree Pose (Vrksasana)
Conclusion
Healing is approached holistically in chakra yoga. It views our emotions, energy, and bodily form as intertwined aspects of our identity. Thus, we must practise yoga positions in accordance with the principle of sthira sukham asanam (stable and pleasant asana state) in order to balance our physical and energetic bodies evenly.
By bringing our physical bodies into motion and compressing them, we revive our organs, bring our neurological systems back into balance, and bring our chakras back into harmony.
Through comprehending and using these fundamental tenets of yoga, we may advance our practice and achieve overall health and wellbeing.
