So much of my understanding of the chakras came from the work of Caroline Myss. I would highly recommend reading The Anatomy of the Spirit if you have an interest in this topic. To dive even further, I would also recommend her audiobook, Energy Anatomy. Both are excellent resources, and much of this information is sourced from those materials.

Working with the chakras can be a valuable tool for your personal evolution. Chakras are an integral part of our energy body anatomy. These vortexes of light support our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. They are also associated with psychosocial characteristics. Allowing us to explore the way we perceive the world. When we understand which chakras are out of alignment, we gain insight into the stories and relationships that keep us stuck.

What are Chakras?

Chakras are spinning wheels of light. They receive universal life force energy from our environment, move it along our Nadis and energize the endocrine organs, nervous system, and blood. These energy centers both generate and inform the overall energy matrix that makes up our energy body. We measure the health or state of the chakras by the size, shape, and direction of its spin and the openness of the center. The spin of the chakras working together creates an electromagnetic field that produces the aura around the body.

Chakras & Our Evolution

Chakras are like blueprints of consciousness that record and document all of our life events. The first three chakras represent our relationship with the outer world. The upper three chakras represent our relationship to our inner world.  The lower chakras match our developmental stages, but as we move into the upper chakras, they are more tied to our experiences.

By understanding which chakras are out of harmony and looking at the associated psychosocial characteristics, we gain insight into our challenges—learning about the patterns and constructs that do not serve our highest potential.

The Root Chakra – Tribal Power
Sacred Truth – All is One

The root chakra is all about our sense of belonging. It includes our sense of safety, security, and survival instincts. The root is also the foundation for our physical health and well-being. This chakra is associated with our early childhood. Much of our sense of identity, worldview, and values were formed from our familial relationships and early group identities.  It takes many years for a child to understand that they are separate from their families. That is why the sacred truth of this chakra is All is One.

This chakra corresponds with the etheric field. This field extends just slightly beyond the body and with a relaxed focus can sometimes be seen as gray or blue.

(Try Expansion – All is One Guided Meditation)

The Sacral Chakra – Power of Relationship
Sacred Truth – Honor One Another

The sacral chakra is all about our relationships with other people outside of our family. This area is our center of emotion, sex, pleasure, sensuality, and intimacy. Our relationship to money and creativity is also connected here. It is in this chakra that we start to introduce duality. We learn about ourselves through relationships. If we associate this with human growth and development, this would be when a child begins school and starts to understand themselves relative to someone else.

This chakra corresponds with the emotional field. It shows up as different colors depending on what a person is feeling.

The Solar Plexus Chakra – Personal Power
Sacred Truth – Honor One’s Self

This chakra is about our sense of self-worth and self-esteem. It is about getting to know who we are outside of group dynamics and relationships. Because of this, we deal with fear, anxiety, and our sense of self confidence. It is also associated with the further development of the self, ego, and identity. This time would be represented by puberty when adolescents try to find their way in the world and push back against constraints, norms and expectations.

This chakra corresponds with the mental field. It is also where our gut instinct originates. As we learn to value and trust who we are, this intuition source becomes very powerful.

The Heart Chakra – Emotional Power
Sacred Truth – Love is Divine Power

This chakra is the connector of the lower and upper chakras, the physical and spiritual realms. The bottom three chakras relate to our external world. What we see looking outward. As we shift into the heart and move into the upper three chakras, it is what we experience looking inwards – our inner sight. The heart is our seat of love, acceptance, compassion, and forgiveness. This chakra is about our internal feelings and our emotional response to our thoughts.

Also, the amount of attention we give to our emotional needs determines our emotional maturity. Many of the challenges that arrive in this center are a result of sacral chakra interactions. If we were not shown love as children or in our early relationships, our emotional development and maturity might be stunted as adults.

This chakra corresponds with the astral body. Usually rainbow-colored, this part of the field acts as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds.

The Throat Chakra – Power of Will
Sacred Truth – Surrender Personal Will to Divine Will

This chakra is the seat of self-expression, communication, and will. Because it is located between the heart and the mind, it connects our mental/emotional bodies around our power of choice. While often thought of as the seat of self-expression, it is about more than just being able to communicate. It is about the movement of personal will into divine will. So, not just speaking up on behalf of oneself, but speaking from a place that is informed by the heart and the mind. A place that is a blend of the Spirit and the self. It is also the movement from linear time into energetic time. As we begin to see the world through an energetic lens, aka multidimensionally, all things become possible.

This chakra corresponds with the etheric template. A bluish gridwork that supports the physical body. It is the divine blueprint of the physical body.

The Brow Chakra – Power of the Mind
Sacred Truth – Seek Only the Truth

This chakra is about the development of the mind, understanding truth from illusion. Our seat of inner guidance, wisdom, and imagination. It helps us to differentiate between thoughts motivated by fear and those that come from our inner knowing. We also learn to detach from outcomes and expectations i.e.developing our impersonal mind. Meditation and mindfulness practice can be beneficial for working with this chakra. It links our mental and emotional bodies because it contains our thoughts, memories, personal experiences, and our feelings about them.

This chakra corresponds with the celestial body. This can sometimes be seen as shards of rainbow light radiating from the center core of a person.

The Crown Chakra – Divine Power
Sacred Truth – Live in the Present Moment

This chakra is the center of bliss and transcendental consciousness. Here we move into higher consciousness through beingness. It is where inspired thought and mystical experiences originate. Our spiritual self seeks to integrate spirituality into all aspects of our lives. It is in this chakra that we develop and maintain our relationship with the Divine.

This chakra corresponds with the etheric body, a golden shell around the auric field’s outer edges. It is the boundary between the universal energy field and the individual field.

There are many models and frameworks to explore our lives. Many that help us to understand who we are and why we make the choices we make. Working with the chakras is one of the best ways to bring balance and harmony to our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects, but they also give us insight into the places we are stuck. By understanding the chakras and applying their unique qualities and lessons to our lives, we receive essential and actionable wisdom. They also ask us to see from a higher perspective, blending the Spirit and the self.

Which chakra has insight for you today? Take our Chakra quiz.

Want to know more? Consider working one on one with an Energy Practitioner.

Want to bring balance and harmony to your chakras? Try our Chakra Balancing Guided Meditation.