Explained: What the fuck are chakras, and is this a real thing I can actually apply to my life? (Yes.)

Hello, ethereal beings on Earth!

I’m reporting to you from day 4 of “shelter in place” in the witch cave. My little slice of life has been full of magic and meditation, but I still can’t help but feel like I’m watching the world fall apart in slow motion around me. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, so today I felt like touching on a way we can keep ourselves together throughout these trying times.

I am a firm believer that our inner reality becomes our outer reality. When you feel strong and balanced as a whole, you are better equipped to manifest harmony and around you. One super effective way to take stock of what’s going on inside you is by using the chakra system. Although chakras have become a super popular subject, I have noticed in many of my conversations about them that a lot of people still find them a bit far-fetched and mysterious. So I figured now would be a perfect time to explain how this ancient system can have relevance to our lives, and how it just might be the key to keeping your shit together right now.

The concept of chakras stems from early Hinduism, and has since spilled out into mystical traditions worldwide. The origin of the word “chakra” is said to stem from either Sanskrit or Indo-European words meaning “wheel,” and therein lies the meaning of what a chakra is – a spinning wheel of energy centered at a point in the body. You can get all literal if you want to picture these as swirling vortexes throughout the body, but sometimes this can be hard for people to really imagine. So for all you science-driven folks seeking a more practical application here, think about it like this: energy moves through your body in a very real, measurable way. (Calories are consumed and used, digestive functions occur, etc.) There are different organs in your body performing certain functions at any given time, and quite literally, there is a flow of energy happening there. If there wasn’t energy flowing through all the different parts of your smokin’ hot bod, you wouldn’t be alive, now would you? But here you are, LIVING – and living well might I add, if you’re able to sit here reading this blog, so let’s take a moment to be thankful. By thinking about the different areas of our body as specific energy centers tied to different life-sustaining functions, we can then take a better look at what parts of ourselves are running well, and what could use a tune-up.

Although there are said to be thousands of chakras or specific energy centers in the body, all tied to various functions, we’ll be focusing on the most talked-about ones: the seven main chakras. There is a veritable shitload of information available on these seven chakras, so I by no means am claiming to offer an exhaustive all-inclusive guide here. Instead please consider this a mini introductory crash course to help you gain familiarity with the different main energy centers in the body. We’ll work from the bottom up.

1. Root / base chakra: Or as I like to call it, the butthole chakra. That’s right, your butthole is an active energy center in your body. (Not to brag or anything, but mine might be a little more active than yours thanks to my fiber intake.) Jokes aside, this is an area of the body that is absolutely vital to our survival. (Think you can survive without your butthole? Shit’s not easy.) This chakra also includes the sex organs, pelvic floor and perineum (the flesh between your bits and your b-hole). I don’t say all this to be vulgar, it’s really a thing. This energy center in the body is psychologically associated with survival, stability, safety, security, sexuality, and feeling “grounded.” So basically if your b-hole chakra is out of whack, you’ve (temporarily) lost your mojo.
2. Sacral chakra: Located ambiguously between your bits and your navel, this one deals with all the juicy behind-the-scenes action happening in your reproductive and adrenal systems. It represents your sensuality, sensitivity, creative force, and the emotional drives behind your relationships. Self-expression is the key to keeping your sacral chakra happy, as working through the cycles of your emotions prevents your creative energy from getting stopped up.
3. Solar plexus chakra: Stemming from (you guessed it) the solar plexus, this chakra represents your life force, your willpower, and your drive to DO. This is the center of the body, physically located at the center of your metabolic and digestive functioning, the area of your body that consumes and creates energy. A lack of drive tends to indicate a suffering solar plexus chakra, while alignment here demonstrates as an abundance of physical and emotional energy – your inner light.
4. Heart chakra: This one is easy peasy to understand. It’s associated with everything you might think it would be – passion, our capacity for love, tenderness, compassion, and emotional well-being. This chakra encompasses our circulatory, lymphatic, and immune systems as well. I’m just going to say it right now, get used to hearing about the heart center a lot because the way of life I’m encouraging here is LIVING FROM THE HEART. When the heart is open, life is joy. A closed-off heart is closed off to the love and joy that life can provide.
5. Throat chakra: When you speak, your throat vibrates with the energy of your words. Thus, the throat chakra is your center of communication. When you are able to express yourself and communicate effectively, this chakra is in harmony with your inner world and the world around you. If you’re feeling choked up, you have some work to do here.
6. Third eye chakra: Between your two regular ole eyes is your third eye! You’ve probably heard references to this before, but what does it really mean? The third eye is often used in reference to the pituitary gland, your body’s “master gland” that controls the activity of most of the other hormone-secreting glands, influencing your endocrine and nervous systems. Spiritually, it is considered the point in the body that merges all aspects of the self, and is the seat of our inner wisdom. When your third eye chakra is “open,” you feel “in tune” with your inner and outer existence, possessing a sense of clarity and fully perceiving the beauty of existence; when it is blocked, you feel lost, lacking in context for life.
7. Crown chakra: Associated with your pineal gland – the gland believed to produce dreams and DMT – the crown chakra is considered responsible for the more, ahem, psychedelic parts of the human mind and its connection with the rest of the universe. This is the part of you connected to our collective consciousness, the greater context of life beyond the self. Being open to the opening-up of this chakra allows the flow of intuition, wisdom, and a greater understanding of what it is to be alive.

Woo, I know that was a lot of words! There are so many more ways we can delve into this subject, and we will, but I wanted to start us out with a firm foundation on how to understand each chakra as it applies to our lives. For now, practice bringing attention to these different energy centers and taking a moment to feel whatever comes up. Sometimes thinking about the physical and emotional mind in sections can help us make a deeper assessment of ourselves so that we can take a closer look at what in our lives is working, and what needs work. Since we’re all stuck with ourselves anyway, you might as well take this time to get right with you. So take this opportunity to spend some quality time with your chakras, and we’ll meet again to harness their magic soon!