chakra

You are currently browsing articles tagged chakra.

Crown Chakra Food

June 29, 2010 in Reviews by bursty | No comments

dsc_1608

The crown chakra has waited a long time for its moment of glory here on AGAD (see last post in this series, from APRIL).  So, here it is.  The crown chakra is your spiritual communication center.  It’s a tough one as far as the foods go, because it’s a pretty ethereal chakra - not so much concerned with anything physical, but more with the spiritual aspect of life. 

The sanskrit name for the crown chakra is Sahasrara.  Sahasrara is a spiritual center, so filling your meals and other eating times with spirituality will nourish this chakra best.  This is the chakra that connects us to the divine.  It’s located just above the top of your head, and resonates at the highest frequency of the seven chakras.  It’s usually associated with the color white, or the combination of all colors.  I talked about nourishing community and conversation during meals with regard to the fifth and sixth chakras.  It’s a little more of a solitary deal with sahasrara - more internally focused.

One suggested meditation for meal time by the folks over at diva village (click the link for an article by Dr. Minich) is to imagine the journey that your food took to get to you.  Thinking of the seed that was planted, and the farmers that cultivated and cared for the seedling up until it was time to be picked, and then the process of getting the food to your plate - the travel, the many hands that cared for it, and then eventually the cooking process.  This line of thought in each item we consume makes eating locally all the more important and special - for example, when we eat veggies out of our garden i can remember planting the seeds in our basement while the snow was melting outside, and building our raised beds, filling them with nourishing rich soil, and then planting the seedlings in the soil outside when they were ready…

Detoxing is an excellent way to purify the crown chakra - you can do this through a fast, or through consuming detoxifying plants and fibers.  Also, say a prayer or short meditation prior to consuming your meal, to remind you and your family of the significance and miracle that is in each bite of food.  Meditation is the best yogic practice for nourshing sahasrara, and you can do this throughout your yoga practice while also nourishin your other chakras and your lymphatic system!

Next up - a salad to nourish ALL of your chakras!

Sixth Chakra Love

April 8, 2010 in spirituality by bursty | 2 comments

crocus

To our delight this spring, these little beauties started popping up all over our yard!  The previous owners were masters of creating a space and a yard where there is *always* something blooming, and it is so much fun to watch it come up — what a gift!  I chose these crocuses for this post, as they are purple, and the chakra of the week vibrates at the frequency of purple.  Ajna, in sanskrit, the sixth chakra, is also known as your third eye, seat of enlightenment and intuition.  It is located in the middle of your head, between your eyebrows.

Ajna is connected to all four focuses of the body:  spiritual, mental, emotional and physical.  It’s where insight and intuition rest, and a fully functioning ajna can open our awareness to other worlds, and help us to deeply understand ourselves and the world that we live in.  The third eye is physically associated with the brain, eyes, forehead, neurotransmitters, pineal gland, and regulation of hormone function.  Because ajna is so intricately connected to the pituitary gland and hormone regulation throughout the body, keeping it in balance particularly affects some major systems in the physical body including the reproductive system, metabolism, oxygen utilization at the cellular level, insulin regulation, etc.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clear your Throat [chakra]!

March 30, 2010 in spirituality by bursty | 1 comment

bluebird

Vishuddha, the fifth chakra, is located in your throat (or just above it, in the energy field).  This chakra vibrates with the frequency of sky blue, and it represents your voice center (pretty intuitive, right!?).  A person with a healthy, open and clear vishuddha speaks openly and truthfully to express herself to others.  This chakra is associated with the thyroid gland, which is very important to regulating our body’s homeostasis (especially metabolism).  The area of the throat chakra is also in control of talking, hearing, chewing, swallowing, and breathing (many of your senses!). 

Read the rest of this entry »

Feeding the Heart Chakra

March 24, 2010 in Vegetables, spirituality by bursty | 4 comments

green

Anahata, your fourth chakra, is located at your heart center.  If you bring your hands together at the middle of your body, straight in from your elbows, your hands are just over (or in) anahata.  Anahata is a beautiful chakra (they all are, but this one is particularly emotive).  It is your center of emotion, unconditional love, compassion, and also sadness, fear, and grief.  The task of this chakra is achieving and maintaining self-love so that you can give unconditional love and compassion out to others and the world.

It vibrates at the frequency of the color green, and it is the center chakra — the one around which all of our other chakras turn.  Therefore, affecting the energy of the heart chakra more than the others affects all of the others directly.  When the heart chakra is out of balance you may feel sorry for yourself, paranoid, indecisive, afraid of letting go, afraid of getting hurt, or unworthy of love.  Physical illnesses include heart attack, high blood pressure, insomnia, and difficulty breathing. When the heart chakra is balanced you may feel compassionate, friendly, empathetic, desire to nurture others, and see the good in everyone. Body parts for the fourth chakra include heart, lungs, circulatory system, shoulders, and upper back.  (see here)

Read the rest of this entry »

Nourishing the Solar Plexus

March 17, 2010 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 6 comments

yellow

The third chakra is known as the solar plexus.  In sanskrit it is manipura which means “lustrous gem”.  Your third chakra is located just below the bottom of your ribs — it is associated with self esteem, intellect, power, and vitality.  In Kundalini, it is known as the nabhi chakra, and the task in balancing nabhi is to achieve satisfaction with what is.  An imbalanced manipura manifests in worry and anxiety for things that are to come or for things that one wants (materialistic).  The third chakra also demands that we honor ourselves with self respect.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nourish Your Second Chakra!

March 9, 2010 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 1 comment

orange

Continuing with the theme of nourishing the chakras that I started last week, I thought we’d delve into the world of second chakra healing and opening.  Svadhisthana (sanskrit) means “dwelling place of the self”.  This chakra is located a couple of inches below the naval, and it is the center of creativity, procreation, emotion, and sensuality.  Svadhisthana vibrates at a slightly higher frequency than muladhara, similar to the color orange.  Where muladhara is focused on meeting one’s physical needs, svadhisthana begins the work of relating to others — specifically one other individual (first your mother, typically, during your first year of life).  

The tasks of balancing this chakra include allowing for emotional and sensual movement, opening up to pleasure, and learning to “go with the flow”.  So when your second chakra is unbalanced you might feel a tendancy to control, avoid, or ignore your feelings.  You might experience emotional rollercoasters and overly emotional reactions to things out of proportion to the stimulus.  This being a feminine chakra (where muladhara is a masculine one), it promotes wisdom and acceptance.  When it is balanced you feel even and open in relating to others, and you are able to express yourself freely and with passion — painting, dancing, writing, singing!

Read the rest of this entry »

Food to Nourish Your Root Chakra

March 4, 2010 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 2 comments

muladhara

In an attempt to incorporate some energy work into my writings on AGAD, I’m going to take some posts in the coming weeks to explore ways that you can [macrobiotically] nourish each of your seven major chakras.  As the last few posts demonstrate, I am a big believer in the energy side of macrobiotics — intuitively discovering the yin/yang energy of foods, as well as the various energies that surround me on a daily basis.  Although you can have energy work done to your body by a healer to balance out the chakras, you can do a lot to balance your chakras simply by being aware of them, and intentionally nourishing each one with meditation, movement, and food.

So let’s start off with the first chakra, the root chakra.  This chakra is located at the base of your spine, and its extensions are the legs and feet, which connect you to the earth.  Muladhara in sanskrit, this is your center of security and trust.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Energy Connection

July 1, 2009 in Personal Health, spirituality by bursty | 3 comments

birdhouse-apple-tree-may

“Our cells are constantly eavesdropping in on our thoughts and being changed by them… A remembered stress, which is only a wisp of thought, releases the same flood of destructive hormones as the stress itself.”

-Deepak Chopra, MD

My newest venture in energy work is reiki.  This past weekend, I became attuned to reiki level I.  I’m going to sprinkle some reiki theory and tidbits into my writing here on agad… because I think it is amazing, and also because I think that it fits in nicely with macrobiotics.  A big part of macrobiotics is respecting and recognizing the energy in our food, and how those respective energies affect our bodies when we put the food in them.  Reiki is about the energy of our bodies and our chakras, and healing.

Read the rest of this entry »