Podcast – Episode 0128 – Using The 7 Chakras For Personal Growth
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In this episode, Joel and Antonia talk about the 7 Chakras and how to use them as a toolset for personal growth.
In this podcast you’ll find:
Our hypothesis is that when you are in an achievement period of life cracks start to show, and we have to go back and deal with healing issues that are preventing us from moving forward.
Achievement is based on formulas for success. Concrete examples to follow.
When dealing with traumas from the past, it isn’t as formulaic as achievement. It can be messy.
We have branched out into areas that may seem a bit esoteric. Fantastic metaphors. Ways to put language around the things with which we struggle.
Chakras originally come from an eastern religious concept. Chakras are energy centers in the body. Chakra means wheel.
Balance is the goal. Too much or too little is considered a dysfunction.
There are 7 Chakras in the subtle energetic body.
Prana – Life energy. Each of these Chakra centers is a place where the Prana lands and has a different impact depending on where the Chakra center is located.
Western medicine has matched up these Chakra centers with the endocrine centers.
The Chakra system is a theme that shows up over and over again in various belief and healing structures.
Imagine your spine from bottom to top:
- Root Chakra is located at the Perineum, and it is a vivid red. It represents our connection to the physical earth. It is a grounding Chakra associated with survival, trust, security. Root Chakra looks like a spinning wheel pointing toward the earth. Can also interplay with how we are taking care of ourselves and others. (Chakra Exercises for Highly Sensitive People). Imagine the Root Chakra as having literal roots going into the ground and allowing the earth to use that root structure to pull the toxins from your body. Eliminate the waste. Can also help with the feeling of being ungrounded and flighty.
- Sacral Chakra is located below the navel; it is orange, and it is associated with sexual power and creativity. Relationship interplay. Emotions. This Chakra helps build intimacy. Lack of satisfaction can be a sign of dysfunction; also overvaluing the sexual component and undervaluing emotional component.
- Solar Chakra is at the solar plexus, near the diaphragm and it is yellow like the sun. It is associated with power and wisdom, Personal autonomy, Energy, Vitality, Personal authority, and Sovereignty. This power center is different from the Root Chakra. If you are feeling not grounded, it doesn’t mean you aren’t feeling sovereign and vice versa. You can still be powerful and feel ungrounded. Your sovereignty can show up imbalanced if it has a tendency to run over and exploit others. May show up as a lack of permission to have personal authority. Not trauma related. Not Root Chakra related. Sovereignty related. A self-contained unit of personal power. Imagine a beam of yellow light piercing your stomach, spinning, and opening.
- Heart Chakra is located at the center of the chest near the heart, and it is vivid green. Associated with love, healing, connection. It brings balance and connection into our lives. All types of love: romantic, familial, friendship. Compassion. Some schools of thought say the ego lives here, so our identity could be wrapped up with Heart Chakra. Positivity and good will toward others. Vulnerability. Work with this Chakra can expand emotional fortitude. Agape exercises – allow self to become filled with love for everything.
- Throat Chakra is at the throat, and it is sky blue. It is the Chakra of expression, communication, and giving voice to opinions/thoughts. Where we generate the things we want to express in the world. An inability to express oneself can indicate an imbalance here. Frog in the throat. Sore throats. Laryngitis. Keeping this clear allows you to articulate your purpose and express yourself fully. To say the thing you are meant to say. Tonality may be inhibited. Or may come up as somebody who can’t stop talking.
- Brow/Third Eye Chakra is located between the eyebrows and is Indigo; it is often associated with spiritual intuition. There are all sorts of styles of intuition. Awareness. Intuitive understanding available to all personality types, not just iNtuitive types as in MBTI. Gut sense. Sixth sense. You don’t have to be intuitive to have a robust and vibrant Brow Chakra. People who have a closed down Brow Chakra are closed off to everything that is not empirically true. They stay with draconian ideas because they can’t be open to anything new.
- Crown Chakra is located at the top of the head and is usually violet in color; it is associated with enlightenment. Spirituality. Cosmic understanding. Connection to a higher power/authority. Crown Chakra faces upward to heaven. Can be the center of creative inspiration. Our muse. It does not need any particular divinity: however you choose to interpret Source. Can show up as imbalanced if someone is too skeptical and never believes in anything that cannot be proven, or too reliant upon spirituality and can’t move without divine guidance.
Creativity can come with a sense of being open to new things.
The Chakra system gives you a language and framework to look at different aspects of your life.
Even the most ardent skeptic can benefit from visualizing these Chakra centers and focusing on the advantages they bring.
They are different components of life that relate to the things people do the most personal development around.
Kundalini is an energetic coil located at the base of all the Chakras – near the Root. Through energetic work, you can awaken this energy coil, and it will fire up through the rest of the Chakras like a striking snake. If a Chakra is blocked, it will keep the energy from flowing cleanly.
Chakra System and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
- Root Chakra – survival/safety/security
- Sacral and Heart Chakras – love and belongingness
- Throat/Solar Chakras – self-esteem
- Brow/Crown Chakras – self-actualization
Dysfunction in the lower levels/Chakras can trigger problems above.
Robert Anton Wilson once said that people who are really into conspiracy theories might be individuals who spent a lot of time opening up their Brow Chakra and never worked on opening their Heart Chakra.
Energetic wiring.
Is your way of looking at the world serving you well? Are you open to new ideas?
Question previous assumptions.
Referenced in this podcast:
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Hello to all!
This has been really informative. Since I am na ENTP woman, all the woo-woo things were scientifically interesting to me until I had an unexpected, kind of overwhelming, kudalini awakening. It became my everyday life. And forced me to believe in, for me, unbelievable.
To be honest, I do not define chakras in the way new-age terminology does, but it is a grate framework for understanding some basics and to get introduced to the way how to start working more on energy cleansing.
My rational mind still tries to deny everything (sceptic and natural scientist), but I find it challenging and useful enough to develop part of my personality which craves for external approval. Now I’m looking for the answers in my external intuition and am validating them through my experiences and internal truth.
I lost which podcast was about Antonia’s dark night of the soul, since I am listening to them “intuitively”, but…I hope and believe that I’m saying this in the name of the all rational beings, thanks for informing and providing us with tool/methods/methodologies for understanding many perspectives.
Best wishes from Serbia, 2021.
Great to hear your perspective. I have studied the chakras for over ten years and what hooked me was when I discovered how our current science is confirming the science of the chakras. Much of what we consider esoteric or spiritual, especially in the eastern philosophies was the science of their time. The original yogis would have been considered scientists as their primary interest was in discovering how the world worked. You noted in the podcast that each chakra aligns with an endocrine gland but as well they align with a major nerve ganglia as well. For anyone interested in exploring this work more I highly suggest the work of Anodea Judith. Specifically Eastern Body Western Mind and Wheels of Life. I am in the process of enrolling in your profiler training and one of my main interests is to see how the chakras map with the personality types. It is easy to see the direct correlation between say the Graves model and even Human Needs (which I would propose there are 7 of rather than 6) so I am interested to see the insights that come from exploring this relationship. I think all of our models have commonalities and by lining up the similarities or mapping point we can then fill in more of the terrain with the variances getting us closer to the whole picture. Again loved that you introduced the conversation would love to see it expanded on.
Wow. Your intro is the perfect e.g. of how to appropriate and devalue ancient wisdom at the same time.
A person could take it that way if they chose. They could also see it as a way to introduce a subject to an audience that would otherwise dismiss it but may now have the opportunity to benefit from the system.
Not everyone is at the same place in their development. If you assume they are you will be perpetually frustrated at anyone either at a higher or lower place than you.
-A-
On the woo side?? Seriously. What century do you think this is?
A century of stratification.
-A-
Thanks for another great podcast. I need to work on several of my chakras (but particularly my solar plexus I think). Can you recommend any guided meditations for all of the chakras? 🙂
Hi Alice! This is my current fave: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsuCfYXzi5DKGUUQgu7nHAPmSJLpM3RM0.
Thanks Charis! That looks great 🙂
Hey Antonia great podcast, I want to address something you said on the podcast starting @ 37:45.
“and that would include the sensing processes, the two sensing processes cognitive function when you walk in to a room if there is another person in that room you might not see them but might feel their presence like their energy?”
Yeah sensors can pick up other peoples presence or feelings but, I speak as an ISTP, I use the nerve endings in order to get a sense of what that person is feeling or who that person is but in order to do that the nerve endings must be at peak performance and that is done by eating the right food and exercising.
Here is my story:
It all started when I met this girl in college. She was a hot cheerleader, by the way she was dressed I could tell she had class and integrity, never once did she show cleavage. When she attended high school she was the captain of her cheerleading team so she had an athletic body type. I believe all girls are crazy, she was goofy, which was the good kind of crazy. We fell in love and during our power struggle stage she pissed me off, so I decided to ignore her that day. As I was walking towards the building where both of us attended the same class, focused on ignoring her, I looked up and saw her and that’s when it happened. When I saw her, her eyes looked like what you would see if you looked at two projectors turned on. Everybody that was in the building I was in disappeared, perception of time slowed down and from her I felt fear, love and sweetness. I knew specifically what I felt because the emotions turned into thoughts and the words flashed in my head. When this happened we where like 40 to 50 feet away from each other.
After that day I started picking up emotions from other people and in the process learned a lot.
When I read females it is not an emphatic process it is more of an intimate process, emotions they project are converted into thoughts.
When I read males it is an emphatic process, the emotion I read from males are converted into an impulsive action, so when a male near me wants to smile but suppresses that emotion I pick it up and impulsively smile.
When I smile I walk a mile in his shoe, and only the shoe of a man.
Between a female and I it is intimacy and only intimacy, and between a male and I it is empathy and only empathy.
Sometimes the emotions I pick up are not clear, for example I felt a “feeling associated with white noise” from a marketing teacher who I had feelings for. The “white noise” was a picture of an analog tv flashing in my head, so this time it wasn’t words but a picture when I read the teacher. I later discovered, “feeling associated with white noise” meant cognitive dysfunction. This meant she had low self esteem and serious issues which explained why she was such a raging bitch.
Now I have lost the ability to read people and I assume the reason may be due to my crappy diet and lack of money. Back then I was making a lot of money, eating a very healthy diet and blissfully happy.
In order to read people the sensor’s body must be at peak performance.
I appreciate some feedback.
Hi foday, I’m an INFJ, so you & I use the same functions but in roughly the opposite order. You’re naturally better at the things I’m worse at (logic & engaging with the physical world), and I’m better at the things you’re worse at (intuition & emotions). Since you’re talking about intuitions & emotions, I thought I’d offer some insight.
One of the most important interpersonal things I’ve learned is that, no matter how strong a vibe I’m picking up from somebody, I can never really KNOW that I’ve analyzed their situation/perspective correctly unless I talk to them about it, or at the very least get to know them better.
I think it’s important to remember that your intuitions happen inside of YOU, and are not necessarily in line with reality or the interior world of another person. They’re just hunches.
I hope that when you saw your girlfriend’s sad eyes it compelled you to try and work things out with her. Otherwise the flash of insight you had wasn’t doing either of you any good. (It wasn’t doing any bad either. It just… was.)
Also, I’m not sure why you’re categorizing your hunches about women as “intimacy.” From what you said, it sounds like you imagined, tried to understand, or felt what the women were feeling. That’s empathy. Intimacy happens between people. Your intuitions happen in your own head. It is 100% acceptable (beneficial even!) for you to empathize with women. I think it would serve you to drop the intimacy/empathy distinction here.
All the best.
What’s next? Tarot Cards? I Ching? Crystals?
Have you run out of content with even a hint of a scientific basis?
Do you have to go into the mystical?
Why not become familiar with the implications of “Embodied Cognition”?
Embodied Cognition is a major paradigm shift. Google it.
C’mon, John. We teach models that interest us from a wide range of sources. Just because something seems woo-woo to you doesn’t mean it has no value. And just like people archetypes come up over and over in stories from around the world and through history, idea archetypes come up over and over in models from around the world and through history.
Don’t be so curmudgeonly. 😛
-A-
Antonia,
Curmudgeon, is probably appropriate, because it means Crusty Old Man. SInce, I’m 71 I will accept that description with it’s intent to be insulting.
Please follow up on my suggestion that you investigate “Embodied Cognition”. It is rapidly being included in universities around the world. It has been likened to a “revolution” of sorts. The reason I bring that up is that it approaches our experience as “bodies” that program our brains due to our individual physical structure providing “affordances” that couple with our environment.
Shakras, Yoga etc. are ways of familiarizing ourselves with our bodies. Embodied Cognition is what the ancients would have occupied themselves if they had the scientific method.
My point is that we have modern tools to focus on rather than stuff that is rooted in superstition.
If you (Antonia) see yourself as interested in accuracy you might find “Embodied Cognition” as an area that you need to understand.
There are some Youtube lectures by Prof George Lakoff of UC Berkely that can get you started.
I’ll definitely look it up. Thanks for the suggestion.
-A-
I’m so glad you finally tapped into woo land. Great to see your perspective and all the healing podcasts came in such a great time!
I guess we are all related in our going through achievement-healing-transcendence cycles!
I’m a little bit into chakras, still trying to figure them out, and I think you did a pretty good job of explaining them. I liked the connection to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I think we are in a paradigm shift (as the human race in general.) What I mean is, we humans have been mostly looking at things scientifically over the past couple of centuries, and now we are finding out that the spiritual ideas have some merit, too. A balance. Like so many things need to be balanced. Right and left brain, perhaps.
Anyway, thanks for covering this topic! I really get a lot out of your podcasts. I even take notes sometimes. 😛
Ha! A note taker! 😉 I take notes too.
I totally agree with you. People are becoming more and more accepting of the esoteric things that may have been rejected in the past. I think our information age is forcing people to open their minds more.
Thanks for your comment, Barbara!
Thumbs up to this podcast. I need to work on my throat chakra. Its hard to express myself and I have a very quiet voice. It annoys people.
Thanks for the comment, Tanya! There are a lot of great tools for strengthening the Chakras. Try wearing blue clothes or buy blue sheets. I would say eat blue food, but I can’t think of any blue food. At least not anything you want to be blue. 😉
This is my current favorite for Chakra meditation. He uses sound, chanting, and visualization which is a great combo! If you find his voice irritating, just search Throat Chakra meditation and you will find tons of others. https://youtu.be/QwzSOF9GEHo?list=PLsuCfYXzi5DKGUUQgu7nHAPmSJLpM3RM0