Chakra Healing for Vibrant Energy. Michelle S. Fondin
driven to discover ways to operate from different levels of consciousness. It’s human nature to want to explore and grow. However, not everyone operates from this level of thinking. Many people accept limitations as hard boundaries and don’t seek to move beyond them. If you’re ready to extend beyond the limitations of your chakras, it’s important to understand what living at the level of each chakra looks like.
People who live in first-chakra energy are in survival mode. Their basic emotion is fear. They are only concerned with security and how to obtain it. The parts of the brain responsible for survival are the brain stem, or medulla, and the limbic system, comprised of the amygdala and the hippocampus. Fight-or-flight is a primitive response hardwired in these parts of the brain, a reaction to fear and a need for survival. In animals, the onset of this primitive response helps them determine if they will fight predators or run away. Fight-or-flight is a chain reaction that begins in the amygdala. It includes a release of stress hormones, such as cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Your heart races, your blood pressure goes up, your blood platelets get sticky, your immune system becomes suppressed, your blood is shunted away from your digestive organs and moved toward the limbs; you sweat and feel compelled to either run or fight.
This primitive response to real and present danger is useful sometimes. Let’s suppose your small child runs into the street after a ball. You must have quick energy to run after him to save him from a moving car. Or if you’re driving and another vehicle suddenly pulls out in front of you, you need fight-or-flight to slam on the brakes. However, the fight-or-flight response isn’t so useful when your life isn’t in danger and you’re responding to fear rather than reality. People who live solely from the first chakra respond to fear most of the time. Their motives are fear of lack, fear of loss, fear of not enough, and the “what if . . .?” syndrome.
First chakra people would rather stay in a dissatisfying job than risk losing job security or a steady paycheck. They are not often leaders but followers with blind obedience. They fear standing out from the crowd and would rather blend in.
The need to fight for security can be seen in first chakra people’s job choices. They might choose to be soldiers or police officers to ensure security of their cities or countries. They constantly seek favor and acceptance from their superiors and work hard to serve them. First chakra people strive for rewards while greatly fearing punishment. While they obey and look up to authority, they are often harsh with people under them.
A person living from an instinctive and primal response is like a small child. Without proper instruction and limitations, a child can become greedy or hoard material goods. She can refrain from sharing. She can lash out physically at another child if she’s dissatisfied or hurt, or doesn’t get her way. She can ignore proper etiquette or societal norms. She can lose her temper and say mean things out of anger.
While all of us can and do revert back to this type of behavior some of the time, a first chakra person lives this way most of the time.
Trust is a big issue for first chakra people. We learn trust in the first two years of life through the care of our parents and caretakers. If the care is consistent, loving, and present, we develop trust in others and in our environment. Through trust we develop the value of hope. However, if we’re in a home where a parent is absent, or our needs are delayed or not taken care of properly, we learn to distrust that others or our environment will provide for us. Those stuck in the first chakra seem to be constantly working out trust issues, which is why they’re fearful.
Recognizing First Chakra Imbalances
The first way to move beyond a limitation is to recognize it. As I pointed out, each object and concept in life has its strengths and weaknesses. That is the nature of duality. The Muladhara chakra keeps us rooted to the earth. It allows us to fully enjoy our earthly existence and manifest our desires into material objects. Muladhara is solid, thick, dense, and real.
The flip side of Muladhara is excessive fear that leads to worry, anxiety, and lack of trust. You can feel the weight of the gravitational pull downward and feel burdened and heavy. In an effort to ground yourself, you can overeat, which leads to being overweight or obese and feeling disconnected from your body.
People with shaky foundations may feel that they never have enough or that what they do have will be taken away. They might hoard material goods and pile them up in their homes. They can be stingy or miserly with their money.
Think of the principle of survival of the fittest. When we are stuck in the first chakra, this becomes our guiding principle.
We live on this beautiful, bountiful planet called Earth. Our planet is filled with lavish abundance. Our ability to experience this planet through our senses is what can make us appreciate the objects that this life has to offer. First chakra gifts tell us we’re not in lack. All we have to do is look around and see the plentiful resources at our disposal. Nature brings us these gifts we don’t have to pay for. There is enough for everyone.
While gravity can seem weighty, it’s necessary for us to live out our purpose in life. We need to dig our hands into the dirt (so to speak) and live in the here and now.
I am secure and grounded. My basic needs are met. I am fearless.
Healing in the first chakra comes with accepting that you have a physical body and learning to appreciate and love it. Many people view their bodies as a hindrance to getting where they want to go. They say things like “Oh, eating is such an inconvenience” or “If I didn’t have to go to the bathroom or sleep so much, I could get more done.” Societal norms have us believe that the body is designed to break down, experience disease, and get worse with age. This is simply not true. Those are just beliefs.
Women often have body image issues. They feel shameful or hate their bodies. They want their breasts to be smaller or bigger. They feel their thighs are too fat or their bottom is too thin. Conversely, men can sometimes ignore the needs of their bodies by forgetting to get a checkup or not paying closer attention to the early physical signs of disease.
I recently had an Ayurvedic consultation with a client who has an inflammatory autoimmune disease. She was worried about taking prednisone daily and wanted to get off it, but every time she tried, she experienced the pain of her disease. In our consultation I discovered that her primary dosha was Vata and she was only eating once a day and was barely sleeping. I explained to her that if she wanted her body to heal, she had to get back into her body. She’s a highly creative individual and loves her creative work. She embraces her space and air qualities so much that she lives daily in the ether and reinforces that by not eating or sleeping. Getting back into her body means she needs to take care of it and do grounding practices. Then, and only then, will she be able to heal from her autoimmune disease.
Your beautiful body is comprised of the elements of the earth: space, air, fire, water, and earth. You’re a part of this amazing and miraculous existence. First, accepting your body as a vehicle through which you experience life is essential. Second, honoring your body by feeding it the proper foods, exercising it, and giving it adequate sleep shows that you respect it.
In Western society we don’t take time to appreciate the