Have you ever felt that the energy in your body was stagnant or stuck? Have you ever felt down, stressed, or insecure, and you didn’t know why? You might have been sensing an imbalance in your chakras.
Chakras are points of energy within the body that run from the very base of the spine to the very crown of the head, and when the chakras are imbalanced or stuck, it can cause negative emotions or physical sensations within the body.
These energy points spin in a wheel – in fact, the word chakra is Sanskrit for “wheel.” These areas of the body are symbolized and depicted by spinning wheels of different colors, as each chakra represents a color of the rainbow. When your chakras are balanced, it’s as if you have a rainbow of healthy energy flowing within you.
Chakra healing has been growing in popularity recently, and there’s a good reason for the emerging trend of balancing and maintaining the chakras! When your chakras are harmonized, you feel more open, aligned, and confident – among other benefits.
When you balance your chakras, you’re giving yourself the courage, the strength, and the motivation to face any challenges head-on and without distraction. You’re allowing energy to move freely throughout the body, opening yourself up for new experiences. When they’re out of whack, however, your chakras can create tension or even chaos within the body.
So, if you’re ready to learn about the chakras and how to keep them healthy and functioning properly, keep reading to find out everything you need to know about your blocked chakras!
The Seven Major Chakras
To fully understand how the chakras work in the body, let’s take a look at each of the seven major chakras, the themes they represent in life, and their function.
The Root Chakra
The Root chakra is the first of the seven major chakras, located at the base of the spine, or the tailbone. This chakra is associated with shades of red, the color of blood – our life force.
What is the Function of My Root Chakra?
The Root chakra rules over our primal instincts, survival mechanisms, and our sense of security.
Think about your basic needs – food, shelter, water, sleep. This chakra is also linked to your deepest desires and your sense of financial security in life. This is the area of the body where ideas take form and begin to become a reality.
It is also said that past life energy is stored in the Root chakra and that this chakra acts as the home for sleeping energy.
When this chakra is healthy and balanced, you feel at home in the world, taken care of by the Universe. You feel as though you’re headed in the right direction and that your path in life is clear.
What Happens if My Root Chakra is Overactive?
You will likely feel it in the body if this chakra is overstimulated, as it causes tiredness, dissatisfaction, or insecurity in your life. You may experience anger or frustration, and an overactive Root chakra can cause an increased or overactive appetite when it comes to food, drink, or even sex.
What Happens if My Root Chakra is Underactive or Blocked?
A blocked or underactive chakra can upset the emotional and physical spaces of your spirit. Emotionally, an underactive Root chakra can cause lethargy – it’s as if you have to drag yourself out of bed. It can feel hard to accomplish anything, so limited is your energy and motivation.
It can also cause feelings of apathy like you simply don’t care as much about the things that used to trigger passion in you. You might feel small, insignificant, or unsure of yourself when the Root chakra needs attention.
Physically, an underactive Root chakra can cause anemia, issues with weight, fatigue, or hemorrhoids.
How Does My Root Chakra Relate to Energy?
Energetically, this chakra is said to connect to the etheric layer of the subtle body. Ether is the state of existence that exists between energy and matter. As the Root chakra is where the spark of life exists, where ideas take shape, it is fitting that this chakra would connect to this mystical form of energy.
Ways to Heal & Unblock the Root Chakra
There are certain exercises, essential oils, colors, and foods that relate to each chakra. To bring balance to the Root chakra, focus on warming red oils like sandalwood, cayenne, ginger, and clove is essential. You can mix any of these oils with a carrier oil like coconut or almond to dilute them and make them safe to apply on the skin.
Working with red crystals is another great way to balance the Root chakra. Red carnelian, red jasper, and red tiger’s eye are fantastic stones for balancing this chakra. Hematite, jet, and black obsidian are grounding stones that will also bring balance to the Root.
Finally, try eating red foods like strawberries, cherries, red apples, or tomatoes. Spending time near the color red will help send healing energy to this chakra; ingesting red foods has a powerful healing effect.
Take the chakra quiz: Which Chakra is the Key to Your Abundance?
The Sacral Chakra
The Sacral chakra is the second chakra of the body, located behind the pubic bone – right in between the Root and the Solar Plexus chakras. The Sacral chakra is connected to the color orange, and it rules over creativity and sexual drive.
What is the Function of My Sacral Chakra?
This chakra’s function is to regulate our moods, inspire creativity, and encourage a healthy sex life. After all, the biological function of sex is procreation, life’s most basic form of creativity.
This chakra can help you feel inspired and joyful about life. When it is functioning properly, you experience an increase in creativity, a healthy attitude towards sex, and an ability to respectfully and openly ask for help when you need it.
A well-maintained Sacral chakra leads to a feeling of happiness in your life, a feeling of being content with what you have. It also inspires you to be creative in both the way you approach life and how you manifest the things you want in life.
What Happens if My Sacral Chakra is Overactive?
When this chakra is overstimulated, your energy is intense, and you may come on too strongly to others. You can seem pushy or demanding, even with yourself. On the other hand, you may try too hard to please those around you, neglecting your own needs, and leading to emotional or physical burnout.
What Happens if My Sacral Chakra is Underactive or Blocked?
When the Sacral chakra is blocked or underactive, it can cause both emotional and physical ailments. Emotionally, you may experience an unhealthy sexual appetite – whether that takes place in the form of a lower libido or a desire to escape into sex.
You may feel less creative or confident when this chakra is blocked.
While we all go through times when our sexual lives are out of whack, if you feel overly concerned about your sex life, it may be that your Sacral chakra needs attention or healing. This chakra rules over fertility and sexuality, so when it’s healthy, these aspects of our lives sparkle with life.
Physically, a blocked Sacral chakra can lead to eating disorders, urinary tract infections, candida, depression, or substance abuse.
How Does My Sacral Chakra Relate to Energy?
It is believed that the emotional layer of the subtle body is connected to the Sacral chakra. This is the energetic location where healing from emotional imbalances takes place, which aligns with the emotional regulation of the Sacral chakra.
Clearing your Sacral chakra can help you let go of emotional baggage that may be holding you back or weighing you down.
Ways to Heal & Unblock My Sacral Chakra
Since this chakra is associated with the color orange, spending time near this color can send healing energy to this area of the body. If you’re not feeling confident, try throwing on an orange sweater. If you feel uninspired, try painting a picture using as many orange shades as you have at your disposal.
Essential oils like orange, neroli, and cardamom are excellent for healing the Sacral chakra. Try diluting them and rubbing them on your temple when you need to heal this chakra. Sunstone, carnelian, and amber are three crystals that resonate with the energy of the Sacral chakra; working with these crystals will encourage this chakra to blossom.
You can also eat foods like oranges, carrots, and pumpkin to heal this chakra. These foods not only boost your immune system and encourage health in the body, but they also engage the Sacral chakra and encourage it to function properly.
Learn more about how chakras connect to astrology: Chakras & the Zodiac
The Solar Plexus Chakra
The Solar Plexus chakra is the third chakra in the body, located behind the navel – between the Sacral and Heart chakras. This chakra is connected to the color yellow and is linked to confidence and self-assurance.
What is the Function of My Solar Plexus Chakra?
This chakra helps us find a balance between confidence and arrogance, self-acceptance, and ego. This is the center of our physical sense of intuition, that “gut” feeling you get in certain situations that tell you when something is wrong or right.
The Solar Plexus helps us work through complex emotions. When it’s balanced, you have an instinctual sense about the right path to take or the course of action that will bring you the best results. It tells you when it’s time to stand up and fight or when it’s better to walk away from conflict.
A healthy Solar Plexus chakra also encourages spiritual growth and transformation. If you’ve been getting things done on time, staying on top of your responsibilities, and making positive progress, you have your Solar Plexus chakra to thank.
Related Article: Astro Energy: Your Celestial Chakras
What Happens if My Solar Plexus Chakra is Overactive?
When the Solar Plexus chakra is doing too much, you might come across as arrogant to others. While you may feel self-confident, you may actually be experiencing an overactive or unchecked ego, and this ego can cause conflicts with those around you.
You may also experience a need to control everything around you, which can cause problems when you encounter a situation that is beyond your control.
What Happens if My Solar Plexus Chakra is Underactive or Blocked?
Emotionally, an underactive or blocked Solar Plexus chakra can lead to feelings of emotional insecurity, a lack of confidence, and low self-esteem. You may not feel like engaging in life like you typically do, preferring to sit around and zone out with TV or movies.
A blocked Solar Plexus can cause a fear of rejection, making you appear clingier or needier – your desire for reassurance and validation is overly amplified.
If you’ve been hard on yourself lately, it may be that your Solar Plexus needs some attention and healing. An underactive Solar Plexus makes it hard to feel good about yourself, which can bleed into other areas of your life.
On a physical level, an underactive or blocked Solar Plexus can cause an increase in food allergies and digestive issues. So, if your stomach has been bothering you lately, you may need to heal this chakra. An inability to focus is another sign of a blocked Solar Plexus.
How Does My Solar Plexus Chakra Relate to Energy?
The Solar Plexus chakra relates to the third layer of the subtle body – the mental layer. This is where our conscious mind meets our subconscious, where information is stored, and where learning takes place.
Because the Solar Plexus and the mental layer of the subtle bodies are connected, worry and stress can directly affect your stomach and this chakra.
Ways to Heal & Unblock the Solar Plexus Chakra
The Solar Plexus chakra is associated with the color yellow, and meditating with this color is an excellent way to encourage this chakra to open up and find balance. Try wearing your favorite yellow shirt or simply closing your eyes and imagining your body surrounded by a glowing, golden-yellow light.
Massaging the body with Solar Plexus essential oils is another great way to heal this chakra. Try diluting essential oils like rosewood, frankincense, or myrrh and applying it to your temples, wrists, or below the navel. Massaging these areas will help the oil seep into the pores and promote healing in the Solar Plexus.
Eating yellow foods is a fantastic way to keep both the physical body and the Sacral chakra healthy. Include bananas, lemons, corn, and yellow bell peppers into your diet. Each of these foods contains vitamins and minerals that the body needs, and their association with the Solar Plexus will send healing energy in this direction.
The Heart Chakra
The fourth chakra is the Heart chakra, located in the center of the chest. This chakra represents our emotional center, the way we love, and it is associated with the color green.
What is the Function of My Heart Chakra?
This chakra is the energy center associated with kindness, love, and compassion – both towards yourself and others. The Heart chakra is where we find forgiveness and understanding. It is associated not only with romantic love but also platonic and familial love. For the Heart chakra, love is the name of the game.
The Heart is where you feel things on an intuitive level, which is why you are often told to “follow your heart.” This is where the union of the mind, body, and spirit takes place – where you feel things with the entirety of your being.
When the Heart chakra is balanced and centered, we are open and giving with our love and emotions; we feel a deep connection with our loved ones, and we aren’t afraid to trust our intuition.
When your Heart chakra is healthy, you don’t feel uncertain in love or overbearing; you trust that you are loved, and you reciprocate that love.
What Happens if My Heart Chakra is Overactive?
When the Heart chakra is overactive, our emotions can take on a life of their own – especially those regarding the people we care for. You might hold onto grudges longer, finding it harder to forgive and forget. You might feel stressed out, disconnected, and intolerant of the ideas of others.
An overactive Heart chakra can also cause selfish actions or a lack of physical and emotional generosity.
What Happens if My Heart Chakra is Underactive or Blocked?
When this chakra is blocked or overactive, it can disrupt our body as well as our emotions. On an emotional level, a blocked chakra can cause a disconnection between yourself and your emotions, both good and bad. You feel disenchanted with life, as though you can no longer see the magic and the love surrounding you.
You may be too hard on yourself and others, feel disappointed with relationships and situations and feel unable to forgive people that have upset or offended you. This chakra, when underactive, can also cause trust issues.
Physically, a blocked Heart chakra can lead to high blood pressure, respiratory issues, and pain in the arms, shoulders, and chest.
It’s normal to feel stressed out every now and again, but if you’ve been feeling angry and stressed out nonstop, it’s time to pay attention to the Heart chakra. If you want more love in your life or you simply want to feel more connected to the love you already experience, you’ll want to start sending healing energy to your Heart chakra – your center of love.
How Does My Heart Chakra Relate to Energy?
The Heart chakra is connected to the fourth layer of the subtle body, which is the astral layer. This is the layer of energy that contains love in its purest form, the area of connection where the first and last three energy centers of the body meet.
Astral energy is about building bridges, finding connections, and forming a union.
Ways to Heal & Unblock the Heart Chakra
Fortunately, there are many ways to unblock the Heart chakra. It is linked to the color green, the color of nature that surrounds us. Doing something as simple as taking a walk through the park or through the woods can reconnect you to the color green and help Mother Nature infuse your Heart chakra with healing, loving energy.
Green stones, such as malachite, green aventurine, and jade, are also connected to this chakra. Holding these stones in your left hand or placing them in your left pocket can allow this chakra to absorb their powerful energy.
Rose quartz is another crystal that is deeply connected to the Heart. Due to its connection to love, rose essential oil is one of the most powerful oils to work with when healing this chakra. Jasmine, lavender, and hyssop are also oils that encourage openness and health in the Heart chakra.
Finally, eating green foods is good for both the Heart chakra and the heart itself. Incorporating foods like spinach, kale, green bell peppers, broccoli, and brussel sprouts will provide your body with minerals and antioxidants while surrounding the Heart chakra with green, healing light.
Engage your Heart chakra even more! Read: How to Open Your Heart Chakra Naturally
The Throat Chakra
The Throat chakra is the fifth of the seven major chakras, located in the center of the neck. The Throat is represented by the color blue, and it connects to self-expression and our ability to communicate.
What is the Function of My Throat Chakra?
This chakra, when healthy, helps you determine when it is better to speak or to simply listen. Because self-expression is connected to creativity, this chakra is also linked to our center of creativity and inspiration.
The Throat chakra helps you take existing emotions and synthesize them – either into written or spoken word or other forms of self-expression. It helps you feel confident and self-assured when sharing your ideas with those around you; it helps you feel comfortable enough to talk about your feelings with others.
When this chakra is functioning properly, you feel confident in your thoughts and ideas, confident in who you are as a person, and able to communicate these ideas with ease.
What Happens if My Throat Chakra is Overactive?
When this chakra is overstimulated, you may find it difficult to listen without the urge to speak or even interrupt the person or people with whom you’re communicating. It’s hard to determine when it’s more important to hear the other person’s thoughts and ideas, as an overactive Throat chakra turns your communication skills slightly aggressive.
You may seem pushy, aggressive, or inconsiderate when your Throat chakra is overstimulated.
What Happens if My Throat Chakra is Underactive or Blocked?
Quite the opposite is true, however, when this chakra is blocked. It can become more difficult than ever to speak up and talk about the things that are on your mind or in your heart. You might feel shier and more introverted, even if your personality is naturally bubbly and sociable.
Your creativity might feel stifled or suppressed when the Throat chakra is blocked. Not only is it harder to express your emotions through words, but it’s also harder for you to connect to the outlets that you typically utilize. If you’ve had a hard time opening your journal or sketchbook lately, there’s a good chance that your Throat chakra is blocked.
Physically, a blocked Throat chakra can cause toothaches, fever, TMJ, thyroid issues, speech impediments, mouth sores, a sore throat, or even make it easier for you to contract the flu.
If you usually have an easier time communicating or expressing yourself than you have been lately, you may need to pay some special attention to your Throat chakra.
How Does My Throat Chakra Relate to Energy?
As the Throat chakra is the fifth chakra in the body, it is believed to be connected to the etheric temple layer of the subtle body – that is, your aura. Your aura can become cloudy or murky when it is filled with words that are left unsaid, which is why it’s so important to keep the Throat chakra cleansed and balanced.
Ways to Heal & Unblock the Throat Chakra
When you want to cleanse and open this chakra, it’s time to think blue. Spending time near the color blue will send healing energy radiating around the Throat chakra, especially if you do visualization or meditative work to help direct this energy. Try wearing your favorite necklace with blue accents to keep this vibration near your Throat chakra all day long.
Working with blue crystals, like lapis lazuli, aquamarine, and sodalite will be incredibly beneficial for healing this chakra. These crystals not only connect to the Throat chakra, but they are also known to make it easier to communicate.
Rosemary and eucalyptus are two essential oils that connect to this chakra. Try diluting them and rubbing a small amount on your neck. Give your neck and throat a gentle massage to help the healing power sink in.
Blue foods are rare, but they will also heal this chakra. Try adding blueberries to your diet – or better yet, making yourself some blueberry tea. Hot tea with lemon and honey is powerfully soothing for the Throat chakra.
The Third Eye Chakra
The Third Eye chakra is the sixth chakra in the body, located on the brow bone, directly between the eyebrows. This chakra is connected to the color indigo – a mixture of blue and violet – and it regulates our intuition.
What is the Function of My Third Eye Chakra?
When this chakra is healthy and flowing smoothly, it helps you connect to your intuitive center, allowing you to trust your insight. Intuition and wisdom are the cornerstones of this chakra, and a healthy Third Eye chakra helps you trust your gut instincts.
You also process divine or spiritual experiences through the Third Eye, as this is an inherently spiritual chakra. This chakra rules your perception of the world around you, helping you see clearly and avoid letting negativity or emotions change how you view the world.
Psychic flashes, prophetic dreams, visions, and clairvoyance are all associated with this chakra. If you naturally possess psychic abilities that seem to have gotten weaker lately, you may need to spend some time balancing your Third Eye chakra.
The Third Eye, when healthy, allows you to engage with your imagination, allowing you to visualize and manifest the things you want in your life.
What Happens if My Third Eye Chakra is Overactive?
When the Third Eye chakra is working a bit too hard, it’s easy to let your imagination run wild and get the better of you. You might experience delusions or paranoid thinking when this chakra needs balance.
It’s easy to misinterpret the things happening around you as negative, even when it would otherwise feel like a positive experience. If you’ve felt like the world is against you or you feel disconnected from reality, it’s time to heal that Third Eye.
What Happens if My Third Eye Chakra is Underactive or Blocked?
You may feel uninspired if your Third Eye is blocked like life doesn’t have the same color and meaning as it once did. Your sense of direction can be off-center, and a lack of motivation may be holding you back from certain experiences.
When this chakra is underactive or blocked, you may feel more skeptical about life, finding it hard to maintain positivity and hope for the future.
And if your intuition has felt rusty or intangible, it is likely time to give the Third Eye chakra some love. When it’s blocked, it’s harder than ever for us to follow our instincts and trust the wisdom flowing from our intuitive center. It is also harder to remember your dreams when this chakra is misaligned.
Physically, a blocked Third Eye can lead to vision problems, migraines, insomnia, and anxiety, or worry.
If you want to feel more intuitive, more inspired, and more connected to your sixth sense, it’s time to balance this chakra.
How Does My Third Eye Chakra Relate to Energy?
As the sixth chakra of the body, the Third Eye is related to the celestial layer of the subtle body. This form of energy acts as the gateway to your higher self, your true spirit. It helps you feel comfortable with who you are and your role in the Universe, connecting you to your spiritual center.
Ways to Heal & Unblock the Third Eye Chakra
Visual meditation is one of the most effective methods for balancing the Third Eye because your imagination is connected to this chakra. And because this chakra is represented by the color indigo, it’s a good idea to incorporate this color into your meditation. Imagine the deep, rich energy of indigo washing over your body – a ray of indigo light beaming from the center of your brows.
Patchouli, clary sage and cypress are great essential oils to work with when you want to balance this chakra. Simply dilute them, place a drop on the very center of your brow bone, and breathe deeply, imagining healing energy surrounding and penetrating the Third Eye.
Labradorite is the best stone for healing this chakra, as it connects to the spiritual center of the body and is known as the stone of magic. Meditating with a piece of labradorite in your left hand will send inspirational, imaginative energy to this area of the body, clearing the Third Eye and infusing it with mystical energy.
Lavender is an herb that connects to this chakra, so break out the lavender tea when the Third Eye needs healing energy. Blue lotus flowers are also deeply connected to this chakra and make a delicious cup of restorative tea.
Learn more about the negative effects of blocked chakras: 7 Ways Blocked Chakras Are Messing Up Your Life
The Crown Chakra
The seventh and final chakra is the Crown chakra, located at the very top, or crown, of the head. This chakra is associated with the colors white and violet (or purple), and it rules over our connection to the divine.
What is the Function of the Crown Chakra?
This chakra rules over our relationship to the divine, to the energies of the Universe, the stars, the heavens. The Crown chakra is where your spirit and its guides unite to commune and share wisdom, where holy ecstasy is found, where the soul meets enlightenment.
When this chakra is balanced, you are connected to the powers of the Universe, open to the wisdom of the stars.
This chakra helps you understand your role in the Universe and helps you sense your part in the collective consciousness of life. You understand that we are all connected, all one when this chakra and its energies are healthy and flowing properly.
If you’ve been feeling disconnected from your spirituality or you’ve felt your faith waver recently, you probably just need to spend some time and attention on your Crown chakra.
This chakra puts us in touch with the spiritual guides that help us get where we want to go, where we were destined to go in life.
What Happens if My Crown Chakra is Overactive?
When the Crown chakra is overstimulated, we may become confused about our spiritual purpose or try to instill more importance in our position. You may think of yourself as a teacher, a wise sage, or a guru when this chakra is overactive – giving your friends and family unsolicited advice that can cause conflicts.
You may feel that your spirituality holds more significance than the spirituality of others – a feeling that can end up isolating yourself from friends and family as well as pulling you further away from spiritual enlightenment.
What Happens if My Crown Chakra is Underactive or Blocked?
A blocked Crown chakra separates you from your sense of spirituality, making you feel disconnected from your spirit guides, and disconnected from the divine guidance that leads you through life. You may even begin to feel angry at the powers that be, losing faith or trust in their divine wisdom.
If you’ve started to trust your senses – smell, sight, taste, touch, and sound – more than the magic of the Universe, there’s a good chance that your Crown chakra is blocked. It can make you overlook the mystical, mysterious aspects of life that must be felt by our sixth sense – our connection to the realms beyond.
When this chakra is underactive or blocked, you may also experience an inflated sense of ego. The disconnection from the spiritual realm causes you to put too much stock into your own abilities.
Physically, a blocked Crown chakra can cause issues with lymph nodes, skin, and veins. It can also cause mental disorders, like confusion or senility.
How Does My Crown Chakra Relate to Energy?
The Crown chakra corresponds to the seventh layer of the subtle body, the causal layer. This is the outermost layer of energy, and it is where the connection between the body and divinity can be found.
This is also where your own consciousness unites with the consciousness of the divine, creating the connection between yourself and the spiritual realm.
Ways to Heal & Unblock the Crown Chakra
This Crown is associated with both violet and white, so working with either of these colors will help it begin to flow properly. Try wearing a flowing white dress with a crown made of violets and taking a walk outdoors, under the stars. Or paint a picture of a sunset consisting of milky white clouds and lavender skies.
Helichrysum and lavender are two essential oils that connect to both the Crown chakra and the realm of the spirit. Dilute these oils, place a small amount on your fingertips, and give yourself a soothing head massage. Not only will this heal the Crown chakra, but it will also reduce tension headaches, stress and promote relaxation.
Eating purple foods can benefit this chakra; try including eggplant, blackberries, grapes, and purple carrots into your diet. Or work with crystals like amethyst, selenite, quartz, and purple fluorite.
Hold one of these crystals in your left hand and imagine a glowing, white light flowing from the Crown of your head and enveloping your body like a healing, illuminated egg.
In Conclusion…
As you can see, there are many reasons to keep your chakras balanced and healthy, including physical, spiritual, and emotional growth and wellness.
While a blocked chakra can stir up unwanted emotional or physical ailments, there are many ways to tend to and heal these chakras. Maintaining chakra health is an important activity for creating a loving, positive environment within the body and the mind.
Still not sure which one of your chakras needs some help? Take the quiz! Which One Of Your Chakras Needs a Tune-Up?