EXERCISE 16
Breathing to counter the effects of negative energies
WATCH OUT WHAT YOU ARE WATCHING ON TV OR SOCIAL MEDIA.
All news and information, true or false, fact or fiction, entertainment or serious, from all forms of media, have energy. So do the attitudes of others. Energy that is not conducive to our own well being may be termed 'negative' because of the effect on us. When confronted with what we sense as 'negative', a powerful counterstrategy is to find our place in the Heart Centre and use this point of reference to rebalance the system. This is often more empowering for us than denial or flight from confrontation. Empowering is always a facet of self-healing
During the EXERCISE 16, breathing takes yo to the Heart Centre as the key centre in the breathing process, the balancing point in the subtle energy system and the centre which is 'listened to' by all the other Centres.
• Sit comfortably in a chair with your feet flat on the ground. Rest your hands on your thighs, palms up (in receptive mode). Breathe normally. Relax your elbows, the back of your neck, and the tops of your shoulders. Do this by letting go of muscle tension with each out-breath. Close your eyes if this helps you concentrate.
• Breathe into your Heart Centre. As you do so, visualise a green light in your Heart Centre that gets brighter each time you inhale. Allow the green light to fill up your Heart Centre and to move out into the area around it.
• Let your focus move slowly and gently down to your Solar Plexus Centre. Visualise a golden yellow light as you inhale. Allow the light to fill up your Solar Plexus Centre and the area of the body around it.
• Now let your focus move slowly and gently down to your Sacral Centre. Visualise a bright orange light as you inhale. Let this orange light fill up your Sacral Centre and the area of the body around it.
• Let your focus move down to your Base/Root Centre. Visualise a bright red light as you inhale. Allow the light to fill up your Base/Root Centre and the body around it.
• Return your focus to your Heart Centre. See the green light awaiting you. Let your focus slowly and gently rise to your Throat Centre. Visualise a sky-blue light as you inhale. Allow this light to fill up your Throat Centre and the areas of your throat, nose and ears.
• Let your focus gently rise to your Brow Centre. Visualise a royal blue or indigo light as you inhale. Let this light fill up your Brow Centre and your head and eyes.
• Finally, let your focus slowly rise to your Crown Centre. Visualise a violet light as you inhale. Allow this light to fill up your Crown Centre, covering the top of your head.
• Return your focus to your Heart Centre. See the green light awaiting you again. Relax and breathe naturally.
Once you have mastered the EXERCISE 16, you might like to try it as another form of the Walking Breath to relieve stress. It may be practised as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, EXERCISE 14 : Rhythmic Breathing.
Where Most of Us Get Stuck: Understanding the Throat Chakra
I once heard someone quote Sri Dharma Mittra and said that ‘most of us are stuck in our throat chakra.’ I’ve always wondered what that meant. With a little bit of research here’s what I came up with:
The chakra system is a description of our subtle anatomy and a part of the map of our spirit.
The seven chakras form at the intersections of our Ida and Pingala Nadis. These two main Nadis also intersect seven times along the Shashumna Nadi, the central energy channel which runs down our spines. Nadis, subtle energy channels, carry concentrated prana, or vital energy through our systems.
The idea is that our Divine Cosmic Energy, also known as Kundalini energy, lays dormant at the base of our spine. This is why our awareness of divine self is also dormant. As we practice, we raise our Kundalini energy from the base of our spines and we experience physical, spiritual, and emotional evolutions. The final destination is for Kundalini to unlock our seventh crown chakra, allowing us to experience enlightenment.
Each chakra has physical and spiritual manifestations based on whether it is closed, or if it is open. As the Kundalini rises and your chakras open, you evolve into each of the seven stages. By the time you get to your fifth chakra, your throat chakra, you are fairly evolved.
For example, the root chakra at the bottom of our spines deals with our base desires: Our need for food, sleep, and shelter. A person who is stuck at this level of evolution might hurt themselves or others to advance materialistically. A person with an open root chakra does not worry about where the food and money will come from but simply devotes his life to service, knowing the universe will provide.
The throat chakra is located somewhere around the base of the throat. A physical manifestation of an open throat chakra is a beautiful, clear, and resonant voice. You might have a good sense of hearing. Your shoulder and neck muscles are relaxed if your throat chakra is open. Physical manifestations of a tight throat chakra would be chronic head colds, thyroid imbalances, a tense neck and shoulders.
The Sanskrit name of the throat chakra is Vishuddha, which means purification. Emotionally, the throat chakra governs expression, so an open and healthy throat chakra means that we are comfortable telling the truth. With an open throat chakra we make sure that our actions serve the greater good and we embody a pure way of living.
The good news is that the Life of a Yogi Teaching Training Manual says, “Once one’s consciousness arrives at the Fifth Chakra, it never descends again.” The amount of knowledge it takes to progress up to your fifth chakra prevents you from descending back into ignorance.
When your consciousness is in your fifth chakra, your personality is marked by an interest in spiritual seeking. You try to cultivate, “self-denial, self-control, austerity, steadfastness, uprightness, renunciation, dedication, truthfulness and tranquility.” The throat chakra is a good place to be: spiritually aware and seeking, telling the truth, living a pure life.
But there is more on the spiritual path beyond the fifth chakra. Once in the sixth chakra, located at the space between your eyebrows, you can glimpse the spirit world in this lifetime.
So how can we evolve our consciousness past the throat chakra? Sri Dharma says, “After long and painful spiritual practices such as self-purification, the mind, heart, and intellect are purified and the consciousness is expanded to the level of Divine Perception.”
You can start this process of self-purification by watching what you say, and watching what you eat. Sri Dharma often says “If you control what you put into and what comes out of your mouth, you have controlled much of your mind already.” With that in mind, try following a vegan diet for a while, and thinking about what you say before you say it, and perhaps not saying most of what you intend to say.
Anodea Judith recommends you take a Vow of Silence to help heal the throat chakra. In her book Wheels of Life, she writes, “By avoiding verbal communication, one can open up other avenues of communication. Namely, communication with higher consciousness.”
Mouna, or spiritual silence, is a great way to deepen your connection to the divine. Think of the second yoga sutra of Patanjali: “Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence.” So to be verbally quiet is a good start to being mentally quiet.
To be in the throat chakra evolution-wise is a good sign. And it would make sense that most of us are stuck in the throat chakra because we are sincerely practicing, but maybe not predicting the future quite yet.
Crown Chakra – Understanding and Treatment
Today, we are going to understand in detail about Crown Chakra (Sahasrara), the 7th Chakra. This will help you understand it in detail with it characteristic and different ways to work on balancing it.
Basic Characteristics of Crown Chakra
Crown Chakra is Violet / White in colour. It is situated at Top of the Head. The element of Crown Chakra is Thought.
Crown Chakra has the rights “to know”. The sense associated with this Chakra is Thinking. Its primary function is Enlightenment and Transcendence. It works on the principals of Divinity and Higher Values.
Understanding symptoms of Crown Chakra
Basic issues related to this chakra are Cognition, Self-knowledge. With the lack of energy or imbalance of Crown Chakra, symptoms noted are No joy of life. If the Sahasrara Chakra is over-active or excessively open, symptoms noted are Frustrated, maniac depressive, unrealized power. The colour of the chakra is used, in form of clothing and jewellery for the treatment, when the energy of chakra is low and its opposite colour is used when the chakra is excessively open. So, to balance the chakra energy when deficient, use Violet / White colour for treatment and Red colour is used to treat excessively opened chakra. The characteristics of balanced Sahasrara Chakra are Alchemist, no fear of death, miracle worker, open to the divine.
Crown Chakra Connection
Sahasrara is connected to Reproductive System, Sex: Testes, Vagina, Pelvis, Legs, Feet and Tail-bone and Adrenals gland. It is emotionally connected to Spiritual Love and Compassion: Peace, Harmony, Loving, Thoughtful, Focused; Consciousness, Cosmic Love.
Crown Chakra Treatments
Crown Chakra (Sahasrara) Location - AlternateHealing.netTo balance the Crown Chakra, using colour therapy, Decorate your home or workplace in shades of violet, wear violet clothing and jewellery.
You can use the chakra element to balance the chakra also. The element therapy to balance this Chakra – Connect with your wholeness and spirituality. Meditate, pray and chant.
The Crown Chakra can be balanced with good nutrition. Eat This chakra is nourished not with food but with spiritual practices. Its food is meditation, prayer and self-reflection.
By chanting Om while meditating can also help to balance Crown Chakra. Affirmation for balancing Crown Chakra is “I honour the divine within me all living things.”
Here, I am sharing a small meditation using Mudra for balancing Crown Chakra.
Put your hands before your stomach. Let the ring fingers point up, touching at their tops. Cross the rest of your fingers, with the left thumb underneath the right.
Concentrate on the Crown chakra at the top of your head.
Chant the sound NG.
Warning: don’t use this meditation for the Crown chakra while you don’t have a strong Root chakra (you need a strong foundation first).
Use any of the above methods consistently for 21 days to balance your Crown Chakra and experience the change in your life. For some people, it may take little longer too. Ensure you are doing it daily at a fix time and place, if you are meditating.
Breathing to counter the effects of negative energies
WATCH OUT WHAT YOU ARE WATCHING ON TV OR SOCIAL MEDIA.
All news and information, true or false, fact or fiction, entertainment or serious, from all forms of media, have energy. So do the attitudes of others. Energy that is not conducive to our own well being may be termed 'negative' because of the effect on us. When confronted with what we sense as 'negative', a powerful counterstrategy is to find our place in the Heart Centre and use this point of reference to rebalance the system. This is often more empowering for us than denial or flight from confrontation. Empowering is always a facet of self-healing
During the EXERCISE 16, breathing takes yo to the Heart Centre as the key centre in the breathing process, the balancing point in the subtle energy system and the centre which is 'listened to' by all the other Centres.
• Sit comfortably in a chair with your feet flat on the ground. Rest your hands on your thighs, palms up (in receptive mode). Breathe normally. Relax your elbows, the back of your neck, and the tops of your shoulders. Do this by letting go of muscle tension with each out-breath. Close your eyes if this helps you concentrate.
• Breathe into your Heart Centre. As you do so, visualise a green light in your Heart Centre that gets brighter each time you inhale. Allow the green light to fill up your Heart Centre and to move out into the area around it.
• Let your focus move slowly and gently down to your Solar Plexus Centre. Visualise a golden yellow light as you inhale. Allow the light to fill up your Solar Plexus Centre and the area of the body around it.
• Now let your focus move slowly and gently down to your Sacral Centre. Visualise a bright orange light as you inhale. Let this orange light fill up your Sacral Centre and the area of the body around it.
• Let your focus move down to your Base/Root Centre. Visualise a bright red light as you inhale. Allow the light to fill up your Base/Root Centre and the body around it.
• Return your focus to your Heart Centre. See the green light awaiting you. Let your focus slowly and gently rise to your Throat Centre. Visualise a sky-blue light as you inhale. Allow this light to fill up your Throat Centre and the areas of your throat, nose and ears.
• Let your focus gently rise to your Brow Centre. Visualise a royal blue or indigo light as you inhale. Let this light fill up your Brow Centre and your head and eyes.
• Finally, let your focus slowly rise to your Crown Centre. Visualise a violet light as you inhale. Allow this light to fill up your Crown Centre, covering the top of your head.
• Return your focus to your Heart Centre. See the green light awaiting you again. Relax and breathe naturally.
Once you have mastered the EXERCISE 16, you might like to try it as another form of the Walking Breath to relieve stress. It may be practised as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, EXERCISE 14 : Rhythmic Breathing.
Where Most of Us Get Stuck: Understanding the Throat Chakra
I once heard someone quote Sri Dharma Mittra and said that ‘most of us are stuck in our throat chakra.’ I’ve always wondered what that meant. With a little bit of research here’s what I came up with:
The chakra system is a description of our subtle anatomy and a part of the map of our spirit.
The seven chakras form at the intersections of our Ida and Pingala Nadis. These two main Nadis also intersect seven times along the Shashumna Nadi, the central energy channel which runs down our spines. Nadis, subtle energy channels, carry concentrated prana, or vital energy through our systems.
The idea is that our Divine Cosmic Energy, also known as Kundalini energy, lays dormant at the base of our spine. This is why our awareness of divine self is also dormant. As we practice, we raise our Kundalini energy from the base of our spines and we experience physical, spiritual, and emotional evolutions. The final destination is for Kundalini to unlock our seventh crown chakra, allowing us to experience enlightenment.
Each chakra has physical and spiritual manifestations based on whether it is closed, or if it is open. As the Kundalini rises and your chakras open, you evolve into each of the seven stages. By the time you get to your fifth chakra, your throat chakra, you are fairly evolved.
For example, the root chakra at the bottom of our spines deals with our base desires: Our need for food, sleep, and shelter. A person who is stuck at this level of evolution might hurt themselves or others to advance materialistically. A person with an open root chakra does not worry about where the food and money will come from but simply devotes his life to service, knowing the universe will provide.
The throat chakra is located somewhere around the base of the throat. A physical manifestation of an open throat chakra is a beautiful, clear, and resonant voice. You might have a good sense of hearing. Your shoulder and neck muscles are relaxed if your throat chakra is open. Physical manifestations of a tight throat chakra would be chronic head colds, thyroid imbalances, a tense neck and shoulders.
The Sanskrit name of the throat chakra is Vishuddha, which means purification. Emotionally, the throat chakra governs expression, so an open and healthy throat chakra means that we are comfortable telling the truth. With an open throat chakra we make sure that our actions serve the greater good and we embody a pure way of living.
The good news is that the Life of a Yogi Teaching Training Manual says, “Once one’s consciousness arrives at the Fifth Chakra, it never descends again.” The amount of knowledge it takes to progress up to your fifth chakra prevents you from descending back into ignorance.
When your consciousness is in your fifth chakra, your personality is marked by an interest in spiritual seeking. You try to cultivate, “self-denial, self-control, austerity, steadfastness, uprightness, renunciation, dedication, truthfulness and tranquility.” The throat chakra is a good place to be: spiritually aware and seeking, telling the truth, living a pure life.
But there is more on the spiritual path beyond the fifth chakra. Once in the sixth chakra, located at the space between your eyebrows, you can glimpse the spirit world in this lifetime.
So how can we evolve our consciousness past the throat chakra? Sri Dharma says, “After long and painful spiritual practices such as self-purification, the mind, heart, and intellect are purified and the consciousness is expanded to the level of Divine Perception.”
You can start this process of self-purification by watching what you say, and watching what you eat. Sri Dharma often says “If you control what you put into and what comes out of your mouth, you have controlled much of your mind already.” With that in mind, try following a vegan diet for a while, and thinking about what you say before you say it, and perhaps not saying most of what you intend to say.
Anodea Judith recommends you take a Vow of Silence to help heal the throat chakra. In her book Wheels of Life, she writes, “By avoiding verbal communication, one can open up other avenues of communication. Namely, communication with higher consciousness.”
Mouna, or spiritual silence, is a great way to deepen your connection to the divine. Think of the second yoga sutra of Patanjali: “Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence.” So to be verbally quiet is a good start to being mentally quiet.
To be in the throat chakra evolution-wise is a good sign. And it would make sense that most of us are stuck in the throat chakra because we are sincerely practicing, but maybe not predicting the future quite yet.
Crown Chakra – Understanding and Treatment
Today, we are going to understand in detail about Crown Chakra (Sahasrara), the 7th Chakra. This will help you understand it in detail with it characteristic and different ways to work on balancing it.
Basic Characteristics of Crown Chakra
Crown Chakra is Violet / White in colour. It is situated at Top of the Head. The element of Crown Chakra is Thought.
Crown Chakra has the rights “to know”. The sense associated with this Chakra is Thinking. Its primary function is Enlightenment and Transcendence. It works on the principals of Divinity and Higher Values.
Understanding symptoms of Crown Chakra
Basic issues related to this chakra are Cognition, Self-knowledge. With the lack of energy or imbalance of Crown Chakra, symptoms noted are No joy of life. If the Sahasrara Chakra is over-active or excessively open, symptoms noted are Frustrated, maniac depressive, unrealized power. The colour of the chakra is used, in form of clothing and jewellery for the treatment, when the energy of chakra is low and its opposite colour is used when the chakra is excessively open. So, to balance the chakra energy when deficient, use Violet / White colour for treatment and Red colour is used to treat excessively opened chakra. The characteristics of balanced Sahasrara Chakra are Alchemist, no fear of death, miracle worker, open to the divine.
Crown Chakra Connection
Sahasrara is connected to Reproductive System, Sex: Testes, Vagina, Pelvis, Legs, Feet and Tail-bone and Adrenals gland. It is emotionally connected to Spiritual Love and Compassion: Peace, Harmony, Loving, Thoughtful, Focused; Consciousness, Cosmic Love.
Crown Chakra Treatments
Crown Chakra (Sahasrara) Location - AlternateHealing.netTo balance the Crown Chakra, using colour therapy, Decorate your home or workplace in shades of violet, wear violet clothing and jewellery.
You can use the chakra element to balance the chakra also. The element therapy to balance this Chakra – Connect with your wholeness and spirituality. Meditate, pray and chant.
The Crown Chakra can be balanced with good nutrition. Eat This chakra is nourished not with food but with spiritual practices. Its food is meditation, prayer and self-reflection.
By chanting Om while meditating can also help to balance Crown Chakra. Affirmation for balancing Crown Chakra is “I honour the divine within me all living things.”
Here, I am sharing a small meditation using Mudra for balancing Crown Chakra.
Put your hands before your stomach. Let the ring fingers point up, touching at their tops. Cross the rest of your fingers, with the left thumb underneath the right.
Concentrate on the Crown chakra at the top of your head.
Chant the sound NG.
Warning: don’t use this meditation for the Crown chakra while you don’t have a strong Root chakra (you need a strong foundation first).
Use any of the above methods consistently for 21 days to balance your Crown Chakra and experience the change in your life. For some people, it may take little longer too. Ensure you are doing it daily at a fix time and place, if you are meditating.
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