The Root Chakra centered at the perineum and the base of the spine and also called the Muladhara Chakra. This energy vortex is involved in tending to our survival needs, establishing a healthy sense of being grounded, taking good basic care of the body, and purging the body of wastes. The associated body parts include the base of the spine, the legs, feet, and the large intestine.
My client Zoe recently called me to schedule a private coaching session. A few months ago, she’d moved to a different Area for her husband’s work, and she was having difficulty finding a new job. While she felt good about their relocation, her house was unfamiliar, she missed her relatives, she worried about finding work, and she was feeling tired and worried about coming down with a cold.
If Zoe had consulted a job counselor, a therapist, and a doctor, each of her problems might have been treated as separate—and certainly she could successfully tackle them in this way. But because for years I have looked at life using the lens of the chakra system, a way of understanding human life that is woven into the spiritual system I use. I was able to see the common ground in all of Zoe’s issues. Even more important, I was able to offer solutions.
Zoe’s symptoms sounded to me like a first chakra deficiency. That was hardly surprising, as the recent changes in her life presented her with classic first chakra challenges. Circumstances that pull up our roots and cause a first chakra deficiency include traveling, relocation, feeling fearful, and big changes in our body, family, finances, and business. Some people, often those with busy minds and active imaginations, don’t need special challenges to become deficient in this chakra; they feel ungrounded most of the time, living more in the head than in the body.
We experience deficiencies in this chakra as “survival crises.” However mild or severe—whether you’ve been evicted, gone bankrupt, or just have the flu-these crises usually demand a lot of immediate attention. On the other hand, signs of excessiveness in the first chakra include greed, hoarding of possessions or money, or attempting to ground yourself by gaining a lot of excess weight.
Exercise can correct first chakra imbalances, bringing us back to our body and the earth and helping us experience safety, security, and stillness. The Root Chakra is associated with the element earth, representing physical and emotional grounding, and with the color red, which has a slower vibration than the colors that symbolize the other chakras.
Your Root Chakra: Balanced Foundation
Located in the energy field at the base of your tailbone, it provides the firm foundation necessary to living, establishes personal access to
everything needed in order to survive and grow, and offers a basic sense of security and safety.
Your first chakra’s main role is to help you meet your basic needs for survival-smoothly, certainly, and with grace. It focuses attention on your daily needs and stimulates your ability to fulfill them. The result is confidence – in yourself and the Universe – and connection, a true sense of spiritual heritage and community kinship.
Root Chakra Facts:
· The first chakra governs eating, the need for shelter, warmth, and
comfort and the desire to feel protected.
· A well-balanced root chakra results in a feeling of calm and an aura of quiet strength and confidence.
· In your body, the first chakra governs the bones, blood, immune system, colon, rectum, legs, and feet.
· An apt image for the first chakra is a plant or tree rooted firmly in
Mother Earth.
· The root chakra vibrates with the color red.
· The root chakra’s mission statement is: I want, I need.
Maintaining a balanced foundation is an ongoing and sometimes challenging process. Life is ever changing, and you must be able to go with the flow, bending like the branches of a tree in an unpredictable wind. Because it is impossible to control your external environment, you must concentrate on creating an inner environment that is both solid and flexible.
