Chakra Balancing

What is Chakra Balancing?

Chakra Balancing means to restore a healthy, relaxed and natural flow of energy in a Chakra. Often during daily life, Chakras become “unbalanced” in the sense that agitated thoughts, emotions, and feelings cause the Chakra to contract and overload, by which the life-force and inner flow of a Chakra are hindered.

Such Imbalances can easily happen if we hold emotions and thoughts that express an unresolved relationship with the Chakra’s themes and challenges: When we judge, resist or close down to the experience, instead of fully allowing and consciously witnessing it. Pretty much like any physical tightness contracting the Chakras can become habitual and automatic.

Balancing Chakras means to release the tension in the Chakra and allow the energy to freely flow through it again.

Chakra Balancing can either have a momentarily or permanent effect. Momentarily, many types of meditation – and even simple acts of relaxation, including music – can bring Chakras to balance, meaning, a state of peace, silence and an uninterrupted flow of life-force.

However, to permanently balance your Chakras, you will probably need to go through some degree of healing.  We will talk about Chakra Healing in more detail elsewhere, this article is aimed at giving you some simple but powerful techniques for Chakra Balancing that you can use on a regular basis: You will first learn how to feel your Chakras, then how to discover the themes and thoughts that keep shutting them down and lastly how to balance  your Chakras by relaxing and expanding them consciously.

How to Balance Chakras? Connecting to the feeling.

Before we start to balance Chakras, we first need to really feel them. The easiest way to connect to chakras is simply through physical sensations. For example, think of one event in your life, past, present, or future, which triggers certain emotions, and gradually reach a point in which you’re experiencing a sufficient degree of this emotion.

Then ask yourself: “Where exactly am I feeling this in the body?” You will quickly notice that you can trace back this emotion to one of these seven centers (usually, one of the first six).

Now take it to another level of consciousness. For a moment, and without focusing on anything in particular, sit with closed eyes and ask yourself: “Right now, where is the area in the body that is active the most?” Even this simple investigation can show you that very often you have some kind of tension or contraction in one of your seven chakras; your energy flow is hindered because of a certain belief, thought, emotion, or feeling. This causes one or more of your chakras to be relatively “closed.” Even one tiny thought which you are completely unconscious of can influence and shape your whole experience of reality and right now.

Balancing your Chakras with six easy questions

As you’re contacting this hindrance, ask yourself the six following questions. These six questions correspond with the order of the chakras and are a great aid in your investigation.   If you have directly and clearly landed in one chakra, ask only the question that is related to it. I have formulated the questions in a way that will already start triggering you to feel certain things. Even if this becomes pretty intense, always remember that when this intense state is lingering unconsciously within your body, it begins to take root and eventually becomes dangerously crystallized, so better now than never!

1. What am I afraid of? This is the question of the root chakra, which is all about existential worry and anxiety. Ask this if you feel the tension in your legs, perineum, lowest point of the back, or a general muscle and structural tension.
2. What is it that I don’t allow myself to feel? This is the question of the sacral chakra, which is all about suppression and the fear of being our natural self. Ask this if you feel a contraction in the pelvis, genitals, lower abdomen and lower back.
3. What is the pressure I can’t contain? This is the question of the solar plexus chakra, which is all about the inability to cope with pressures and demands, also self-induced ones like “I must be,” “I should be,” “I should have become,” and “I need to push myself more.” Ask this if you feel the pressure in your upper abdomen, digestive system, or middle back.
4. What expectation do I hold onto? This is the heart chakra question, which is all about our emotional dependency on others’ recognition and love and the expectations that follow. Ask this if you feel the tightness in the area of the chest, shoulders, upper back, or hands.
5. What don’t I express? This is the question of your throat chakra, which is all about everything we feel we should give voice to and yet do not release from within ourselves, sometimes because we don’t allow ourselves to admit it even to ourselves. In the fifth chakra’s case, even acknowledging what we hide away can be a sort of a release. Ask this if you feel the stuckness in the throat, neck, mouth, or jaws.
6. What do I refuse to see? This is the question of the third eye chakra, which is all about overlooking when we don’t want to see reality as it is and to face and accept it. Ask this question if you feel the tension in your forehead, eyes, head, or ears.

How to balance your chakras

Now that we have a clear feeling and maybe a rough theme, how can we work with what we find in the chakras in order to balance the Chakra? As someone who has been teaching this subtle system for many years, I had constantly looked for the best way to balance chakras, until I came to realize that the most accurate way of Chakra Balancing needs to go along with the way chakras are structured.

Chakras are funnel-like. They have two funnel-like openings both from the back and from the front (except for the first and seventh, which only have one). Though the back opening has a great significance of its own, it is less relevant for physical health.

The five frontal openings, however, are what we should consider when it comes to Chakra Balancing. In general, whenever you are going to work on chakras, what you really focus on is their frontal part. If this part is properly activated, your chakras are balanced. The reason is that the frontal part of each chakra is the way you relate to the world, including to way you react to any external stimuli, sensory perception, and experience. All of these are received by the frontal part of your chakras, and that is why a great deal depends on their capacity to respond to stimuli.

Of course, the frontal part is also where things get complicated and damaged. Chakras become easily unbalanced with every contractive reaction to external triggers. Your expectations and fears, resistances and avoidances, tensions and intense emotions, all close down the chakras.

What it means to balance Chakras

When you agree, on the other hand, to make this frontal funnel open up and broaden in instead of contracting it, you immediately balance the chakra. Understand that chakras never really “close”; they only become contracted and narrowed. As soon as a chakra shrinks, all of its energy withdraws inside. But when you determine to open your chakra up, it blooms like a flower and the radiation it emits grows. Though its structure itself doesn’t essentially change, it is capable of expanding. Thus, an open chakra is very different from the basic narrow funnel that only takes in a tiny bit of life-force and somehow manages to sufficiently respond to events and situations.

Chakras are healthy when we choose to broaden them in an outward direction. For this, even the simple trick of visualizing a flower opening completely to receive could help. This is because a broadened and outward-facing chakra is an energetic expression of your willingness to come out to the world and to fully respond to circumstances. Instead of contracting and retreating, you agree to function fully and optimally in the world. Chakra Balancing helps to relax and open the Chakras so we are open to the experience and flow of life again.

Balancing Chakras: The Expansion Method

A fast and effective way for Chakra Balancing is the “Expansion Method,” which I developed in 2012. Expansion works exactly with the right movement of the chakras: opening and broadening up, in an outward direction.

As soon as you grasp the simple principle of expansion, you can repeat it by yourself without the need for external guidance.

1. First Step: Connect to the feeling

First, you think of an event or a situation that triggers a certain emotion in you. Try as much as possible to evoke the emotions and feelings that are related to it. Expansion can also take place without an event if you’re already aware of a certain emotional process in you right now. Then close your eyes and look for the area in the body which reacts the most; the physical part that is triggered the most by this emotion or feeling.

Then locate the chakra which is connected to this area of the body (legs – first chakra;  hands – heart chakra, and so on). Shifting from the organ or body part to the chakra is important since the latter is the source and center of the emotion.

2. Second Step: Breathe into the Chakra

At this stage, breathe into the physical location of the chakra. Don’t worry about exact locations – remember, chakras are spread all over their physical area. While breathing into the physical location of the chakra, get in touch with it just as it is right now. This means, not as you would like it to be, but the way it actually feels. Is it tense or relaxed? Tight or soft? Dense or light? Try to speak it out: what does it feel like?

3. Third Step: Perceive the form

Now look for a shape, an image, or a general sensation. Also look for a color and even for a fragrance that is associated with it. Finally, give it a general name – anything that comes up. All these are just ways to make you really feel and explore the sensation, and you don’t have to use them all, so don’t be troubled if, for example, you can’t spot an exact color. The aim is to deeply feel into the Chakra and obtain some visual and sensual experience of the way the chakra is right now.

For this, we use not our imagination, but our inner senses and vision, which are also activated in dreams, in which our mind can actually project a whole experience that contains fragrances, colors, images, and emotions, all appearing to be completely real. Some of us tend more to seeing strong images; some are more energetically oriented, feeling vibrations and frequencies; others respond with feelings and sensations, or are more verbal and less capable of getting ahold of elusive images. Whatever way your brain works is good for expansion. All you really need to have is a firm grasp of a chakra-related area in the body and the perception of some image, shape, or general sensation.

4. Fourth Step: Expand the sensation

With this, you are ready to move on to the most important part. Since your wish is to open up and widen the chakra, the first thing you can do for this to happen is to breathe into the area and the feeling in it as much as possible. When we contract, we stop breathing; when we want to expand, we agree to breathe fully. In general, the health of the chakras depends on prana and therefore on breathing. Breathing widens the chakra’s outlines so that it has enough space to let in more and more life-force. Thus, breathe into the physical location of the chakra, and then start to feel it from within; let it spread more and more and permeate your entire body and being.

Continue to breathe into the shape, image, or general sensation, and let this image expand more and more. Breathe and expand until it reaches its outermost limit until it cannot expand any more. Ask your chakra: “Show yourself completely to me!” This instruction activates the natural and spontaneous expansion impulse of the chakra.

You can think of the expansion as if you were inflating a balloon: you breathe into it and it grows and grows until it reaches its outermost limits and, obviously, explodes. Another way to think of it is as the expanding universe which results in an ever-increasing space and distance between objects. You can even imagine the chakra funnel as it opens up and widens as a result of the expansion.

As long as our chakras are clogged, we feel stuck, but when there is enough space and breathing is allowed, we feel a tremendous relief, since the flow of life-force begins to take place.

Simply watch the image that you have captured as it grows more and more. It can grow beyond the measures of the body or the room you’re sitting in; it can even reach the edge of the universe. No matter how far it grows, eventually it will not be able to expand any more since everything has an edge. But when you have reached its edges, you will discover that it is so spacious that by now it has actually become a new state.

In the expanded state there is probably more breathing and flow. Obviously, this one expansion might not be the end of your chakra balancing. You may need to repeat this over and over and over again until you experience that your chakra has reached a higher level of activity and that, as a consequence, you’re feeling much better.

How to do this process of Chakra Balancing?

When you do this process of Chakra Balancing by yourself, the best way is to speak out loud. This prevents you from mental distractions and keeps you alert. Though I am presenting here a written template, this is so easy-to-get that in no time you will be able to memorize the process and quickly guide yourself. You start with the first four stages and then move on to expand, and as soon as you feel that you have reached a new expanded state, breathe once again into the physical location of the chakra, get in touch with it just as it is right now, and repeat the process of expansion.

Don’t worry if the chakra is a bit stubborn at first. Be patient and repeat the process as much as needed. If you keep practising Chakra Balancing, the chakras will become anyway far less resistant and so, the expansion will become quicker and more enjoyable.

When the chakra is balanced, ask yourself: how do I perceive now the emotion that triggered the chakra? Can I let go of it? If you’re unwilling to let it go, it will obviously return to irritate the chakra. That is why it is important to look into your learning as well as your new approach or action. It is essential to promise your chakra that you are now conscious enough and don‘t need again and again to create the same contraction. Thus, promise your body that you will take care of the emotion before it takes physical roots.

This is a basic template for Chakra Balancing. I recommend to practice it daily or at least in times of crisis and intense pressure.

Recap: Chakra Balancing with the Expansion Method

1. Think of an event or a situation that triggers a certain emotion in you. Try as much as possible to evoke the emotions and feelings that are related to it.
2. Notice which area in the body is triggered the most by this emotion.
3. Locate the chakra that is connected to this area in the body.
4. Breathe into the physical location of the chakra. Get in touch with it just as it right now. Is it tense or relaxed? Tight or soft? Dense or light?… Try to speak it out – what does it feel like?… Look for a shape or image… Look for a general sensation… Look for a color… Look for a fragrance… Give it a general name…
5. Now breathe into the physical location of the chakra. Feel it from within. Let it spread more and more and fill your entire body and being. Breathe into the shape, image or general sensation, and let it expand more and more. Breathe and expand – until it reaches its outermost limit until it cannot expand anymore. Ask: “Chakra, show yourself completely to me!”…
6. Once again, breathe into the physical location of the chakra. Get in touch with it just as it right now. Is it tense or relaxed? Tight or soft? Dense or light?… Try to speak it out – what does it feel like?…
7. You may repeat the process of sections 4-5 again and again (locating shape or image, general sensation, color, fragrance, general name – and expanding), until you feel you have achieved balance in the chakra.
8. When the chakra is balanced, ask yourself: How do I perceive now the emotion that triggered the chakra?… Can I let go of it?… What should be my learning here?… What should be my new approach or action?…
9. Promise your body that you will take care of the emotion before it takes root in the body.

Answers to common questions about Chakra Balancing

What should I do if I feel the emotion in more than one physical location or chakra?

This is a part of what makes us truly excited internal detectives: our emotional issues and complications originate not from one chakra but from a certain chakra interaction and combination. Emotional issues are intricate complications of different chakras combined. For instance, when your heart gets broken after a thrilling period of infatuation, both your second and fourth chakras are affected. This might lead to the combined conclusion that you should never fall in love again.

To unravel this mental and emotional knots, you will start by asking the two relevant questions: What is it that I don’t allow myself to feel? and What expectation do I hold onto? Still, start with the one area that is felt the most. You can even grade the different areas from 0 to 10; the one that gets the highest score should be your chosen chakra. An interesting thing will probably happen then: you might expand the chakra, but then after this one has been resolved, you will feel another one “screaming” for your attention. You can then follow it patiently and resolve it by another set of expansions.

What should I do if I feel physical pain throughout the process?

The chances are high that you will experience physical pain to some degree during Chakra Balancing. Chakras are, after all, an interface between body, energy, emotions, thoughts, and spirit. For this reason, there is nothing “refined” about chakras: you don’t think you feel something; you feel it strongly, and it is this “energetic” pain that eventually turns into physical pain. Simply continue to faithfully expand the chakra. As soon as the chakra begins to operate optimally, the pain will disappear.

Why do we expand negative feelings? Shouldn’t we reduce them instead?

Your brain tells you that when there are pressure, hostility or scary situations, the best way to respond is by contraction and withdrawal. This is the strategy of self-protection offered by the logical brain. Accordingly, the chakras contract and withdraw. Yet, the secret that the chakras reveal to us is that the more that they are open, the less they are vulnerable. This is a simple energetic reality that you can test for yourself: when the chakras are wide open, they are actually really strong. Rather than being easily triggered and penetrated, whatever comes their way is simply “sent back.”

Can I balance all my seven chakras?

Yes! Indeed, it is a good idea to regularly practise Chakra Balancing to balance all seven chakras. Start from the perineum, and go on like in a building with an elevator: first floor, second floor, third floor, and so on, until you reach the seventh. This can create wonders inside you since the ultimate health for chakras is achieved when they align each other and form a complete flow. In this state, no illness can enter, because it implies an uninterrupted flow of life-force. Even if you expand only once each chakra, and even if one expansion doesn’t make it fully balanced, the others that follow will correct it. Already after expanding the three lower chakras, your system will be quite balanced, because they are like the infrastructure of your inner building: when balanced, they hold the entire building and strongly support it. Seven expansions along the line also make for a great meditation.

Are there other ways of Chakra Balancing?

Of course, chakras can be balanced not only through expansion. The expansion is a conscious and direct way to do it, yet there are others forms of chakra support. Any meditation, and in general whatever makes you deeply relaxed, balances your chakras. As soon as you loosen your tensions, your chakras begin to operate better. Chiropractic, breathing practices, and therapeutic work, including trauma therapy, all balance chakras. Other good ways of Chakra Balancing are receiving healing, listening to beautiful music, contact with nature and with beauty, a healthy nutrition, and lifestyle, and a safe, loving and reassuring environment.

Can I use Chakra Balancing when I experience physical symptoms and pains?

Yes, but this needs to be wisely done. If you have an existing sickness, it’s better not to battle directly with the sickness. Don’t try to expand your thyroid disorder or your explosive migraine! Instead, test the following options. The first is to expand a lot the first, second, and third chakras. When expanded, the three first chakras are the best immune system in the world: they become a great source of resilience, endowing the body with the capacity to resist and overcome the illness naturally.

A second way is by patiently expanding all chakras, and from this process, starting to detect where there are blockages that might be the deeper cause of your illness or symptom. This is a good way to listen to the body directly and to reveal without analyzing, since in difficult illnesses we might not always be sure which chakras are connected to them. Of course, if the illness is clearly located in one organ which is related to one chakra, you may go ahead and expand it directly.

Another way is to breathe into the chakra that you have located and to ask yourself: What emotion does this sensation resemble? You cannot expand an irritable bowel syndrome, but when you ask this question, you may find an emotion that resembles the sensation in the bowels. Our system works in parallel languages: sensations, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and energies. When you define the emotion or feeling, you can easily expand it. It is much easier to work with emotions than with sensations.