Just being playful, really, I don’t really know if this band or the lyricist was thinking about chakras when they wrote this, but in listening to the lyrics I found it to be a fun association and a way of beginning a discussion about chakras.

The word ‘chakra’ is Sanskrit for ‘wheel’ or ‘spinning’.  There are varying levels of energy vortices within our bodies that supply us with vitality.  C.W. Leadbeater wrote about chakras in the early 1900’s, and he stated that the physical body needs 3 things to be alive:  1) food 2) air and 3 ) vitality – energy that comes from Universal Life Force, or prana. The chakras are energy centers that process this vitality that we both take in and give out.

Abraham Maslow wrote about ‘hierarchy of needs’ which describe a human beings’ motivation which influences action.  There are similarities between the chakras and the hierarchy of needs.  The need for safety and basic needs being met comes first; followed by need for friendship and intimacy and followed by more spiritual needs and need for self-actualization.

The hierarchy of needs theory postulates that the fulfilment of these needs goes in one direction:  Safety and basic needs first, then comes social and lastly, self-actualization and spiritual needs.  The assumption is that you are not going to pursue higher-level needs if your basic needs are not met. Often, in chakra work, the goal has been to ‘rise above’ the first 3 chakras connected to physical and social needs and develop the more esoteric ‘higher level’ chakras such as the intuitive ‘third eye’ and the spiritual ‘crown chakra’. All of the chakras however are important to acknowledge and work on. The chakra energetic system is a ‘two way street’,  there is both an energy flow up from root to crown, as well as an energy flow down the chakras, from crown to root.  Our sense of safety and financial stability definitely enables us to more easily develop a social and spiritual life.  On the other hand, our spiritual life, our value system, our sense of compassion and sense of purpose also greatly support and influence the choices that we make to increase our sense of safety and who we align ourselves with in relationships and friendships.

Our experiences throughout life are recorded energetically in our chakras. Our life events impact the openness and the energetic spin of our chakras:  We feel perpetually unsafe; our heart is closed to loving kindness; we don’t speak our true mind.

This brings me back to the song at the top of this page.  ‘talk about your troubles and you never learn’.  When the chakras’ energy is not aligned due to past events; talking about it does not change the energetic spin of the chakra.  Talking about it can even become a negative mantra: repeating over and over the negative events that you have found traumatizing without making any behavioral changes. Others repeatedly try to avoid talking about critical events, that despite the avoidance, keep ‘leaking’ out into their behavior or emotional state.

This is where alternative healing techniques  that work directly with the chakras energetically become helpful.

The work that I do individually with clients is to facilitate entering into an altered state of awareness. Initially, I use tuning forks in Reiki hand positions to help in relaxation as well as using the actual sound vibrations to as a way to remove blocks and work energetically on the chakras- a form of chakra massage. Energetic blocks are released. Insights or memories that were previously inaccesible become known. This is not the end, only the beginning. To be continued…