Pronounced “sha-kra” or “cha-kra,” this Sanskrit term for wheel refers to the seven energy centers found in the body, starting with the Root or base chakra at your tailbone and stretching all the way up to the Crown chakra at the top of your head.
Chances are, you’ve turned to astrology, Tarot, dream interpretation, meditation, crystals, runes, and Reiki for answers, healing, or out of sheer curiosity. Think of chakras as another tool in your enlightenment and abundance toolkit.
Many of these tools can also work together for maximum impact!
There are many ways to balance your chakras, and doing so can lead to a clearer mental state, healthier relationships, and even increased abundance and wealth.
What do they do though? How do you know if they’re working properly? How can you “fix” them?
Let’s take a look at the basics of the fascinating world of chakras and help you get back to spiritual health!
What Are Chakras?
Chakras can be a complex concept because we don’t see them with the naked eye, but we know they exist.
Often described as energy centers in your body, chakras run up your spine from your tailbone to the top of your head. These invisible spinning wheels of energy within your body are important for spiritual development and growth—and keeping them healthy helps you avoid other issues.
Like zodiac signs, each chakra is associated with a specific set of body parts it influences, its own color, and its own characteristics. Folks who are knowledgeable in this art can point to which chakra is blocked based on the physical and mental ailments we suffer from.
Chakras connect your physical and emotional self. When all energy flows properly throughout the whole chain of seven, you feel empowered, relaxed and in control of your life and decisions. In this way, any recurring problems we are suffering from may well be linked to a blocked chakra.
If you’ve been feeling off – and nothing else seems to work – maybe it’s time you took a closer look at your chakra alignment!
Root Chakra – Power – Red
Issues with personal power? Money troubles? Located at the base of your spine on your tailbone, the Root chakra rules basic survival needs and personal power. When you feel you’ve no power to influence your life or are perpetually broke and tired; your power karma is out of whack.
Crystals
- Garnet – improves self-esteem
- Black Tourmaline – helps us feel grounded and protected
- Red Goldstone – uplifting, can be used to find your drive
Linked to: Legs, feet, ankles, knees, tailbone, bladder and large intestine
If you’re suffering from any physical ailments associated with these areas, you might want to look to ways to unblock this chakra.
Sacral Chakra – Sex – Orange
Your Sacral chakra is orange and located in your pelvis or in your fertility organs. This is your sexual chakra, so sex karma is a big deal here. If you’re not living an honest and responsible sexual lifestyle, you’re going to have problems here.
Crystals
- Citrine – brings abundance – increases courage and ability to be honest
- Carnelian – reduces anger and rage, very grounding
- Amber – releases negative energy, balances emotions
Linked to: reproductive organs, spleen, gallbladder, and kidneys
Solar Plexus Chakra – Confidence – Yellow
Your confidence karma is found in your Solar Plexus chakra, which is yellow and located in your chest. If you ever feel really proud of yourself, that’s your Solar Plexus chakra singing in joy. If you haven’t felt confident or proud of something you’ve done in a while you may need some healing here.
Crystals
- Golden Tigers Eye – Used for protection and helps negate self-criticism
- Abalone Shell – improves communication, brings a sense of balance
- Amber – used to balance and cleanse, promotes confidence
Linked to: digestive system, your small intestine, and your pancreas
Heart Chakra – Love – Green
The Heart chakra is responsible for love karma, and located in your chest near your heart. If you’re feeling heartbroken, this chakra is blocked or in need of healing. Heartbreak is the literal definition of a blocked Heart chakra and must be fixed!
Crystals
- Rhodonite – brings emotional balance, harmony and forgiveness
- Serpentine – Used for abundance and eases irritability
- Rose Quartz – brings positive energy, acceptance and encourages self-care
Linked to: lungs, thymus gland, bronchial tract, heart, shoulders, arms, and hands
Throat Chakra – Communication – Blue
Your Throat chakra is located around your vocal cords and rules communication. If you’re not feeling heard or people don’t understand you, you may need healing here. If you’re getting mixed messages from someone, you may also be sending mixed messages, and that’s not good for communication karma either.
Crystals
- Sodalite – Focuses energy, helps channel intuition
- Lapis Lazuli – eases anxiety and despair, brings hope and inner power
- Dumortierite – increases confidence and mental clarity
Linked to: tongue, mouth, gums, neck, vocal system, throat, glands, and perspiration
Read this next: 7 Facts About the Throat Chakra You Should Know
Third Eye Chakra – Vision – Indigo
Your Third Eye chakra is located on your forehead between your eyes. The color indigo, this chakra rules your foresight and ability to see or predict outcomes in your life. With healthy vision karma, you have good instincts for what will happen as a result of your actions, which makes for a high functioning Third Eye chakra.
Crystals
- Selenite – very high vibration, eases chaotic thoughts and feelings
- Turquoise – helps us find kindness and empathy
- Labradorite – transformative, encourages inner strength
Linked to: ears, nose, and throat as well as your brain
Crown Chakra – Divine – Purple
This chakra is located at the crown of your head and is your connection to the Divine. People who pray or meditate usually have very good divine karma because they’re always in communication with the Divine. Those activities are an excellent way to restore your karma in this area.
Crystals
- Blue Kyanite – powerful healing abilities, can activate psychic abilities
- Amethyst – reveals self-destructive patterns, helps with mental clarity
- Clear Quartz – can amplify any psychic abilities, encourages clarity
Linked to: nervous system and pituitary gland
How to Use Chakra Stones
OK, so we now know the gemstones and crystals associated with each chakra, but how do they work together?
Chakra stones can be used in many ways but the easiest and most common is to wear them close to your body as jewelry. A crystal pendant can subtly influence your energy throughout the day, as can putting a healing stone in your pocket.
Chakra stones are also useful during meditation and energy healing. Resting a healing stone just below your navel as you meditate can bring additional healing and focus to your practice. If you prefer a sitting meditation, holding a stone in each hand or cupped in your hands as they rest in your lap can have the same results.
Chakra pendulums are another divination tool used to help bring these energy centers into alignment. By paying attention to how the pendulum swings and in what direction, we can start to get an idea of which chakras are open or closed, balanced or unbalanced.
For example, if your dangling pendulum hovers over your Throat chakra and doesn’t move at all, you probably have a blockage, as it’s not picking up on any energy flow in that area. This is just one way to determine blockage. How else can you tell?
Are Your Chakras Blocked?
We go for physical checkups, and when treated, we feel better. Think of working on the alignment of your energy centers as a spiritual checkup. Just like with our physical bodies, when one of our chakras is out of joint, our spiritual health suffers.
Believe it or not, there are many ways to learn just by stopping and engaging in a few moments of self-awareness to see if one of your chakras needs a tune-up.
For example, are you often suffering from headaches? Frequent headaches are a sign of many things, but if you can’t pin it to one physical reason, there could be chakra issues. Band-around-your-forehead headaches could be a cue from your Third Eye chakra that something is up. Top of the headaches may point to your Crown chakra in the same way.
Lying down for a few moments with a warm or cool cloth on your head will do wonders. Empty your thoughts, allowing your body to relax, physically picturing your body moving away from the headache.
Wherever your headache emanates from, close your eyes and visualize the colors indigo, white, or violet. Focus on those colors, and you should feel the headache lifting.
Let’s look at some of the emotional and physical issues that may pop up if you need to align your chakras.
Common Chakra Blocks
There are some general triggers that can indicate a blocked chakra!
You use the word “stress” a lot.
We live fast-paced lives, and this can cause a lot of stress. Some show it more than others, but even if you rise above, it doesn’t mean you aren’t feeling a pinch. Do you find yourself using the word “stress” in daily conversation? If so, even if you aren’t feeling stressed out, just acknowledging that feeling is going to create more of it.
Frequent anxiety and stress dampens our chakras and our spiritual experience. Meditation is a great way to handle both of those matters. Not only does it calm you down and center you in a place devoid of stress, it also aligns your chakras. Sometimes just 30 seconds a day can be all you need to re-center.
How Do I Work With Chakras?
When our chakras are aligned (or clear), you automatically restore it to its natural karmic state. When that happens, you attract karmic rewards. You strengthen each chakra by committing karmic acts that pertain to them. We call this chakra healing.
Staying on top of your karmic balances is what will send that karmic boomerang right back in your direction. What goes around comes around, or what you put out into the universe will be given back to you. If you’re putting out negativity, you’ll get it back in spades. We don’t use scorecards for this, and you may not always know for sure why positive or negative things happen to you.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a cleaner way to figure out your own karma in own life equations? Believe it or not, you can begin to create more positive karmic reactions in your life by using the chakra system.
Think about a horse at the race track. When they are all racing, some are ahead, some are behind, and some are in the middle. You can’t physically see the energy levels that each individual horse is exerting, but you know the energy is there at different levels.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but you can change the flow of it in a way that also maintains your karma balance.
Can Chakras Bring Me Wealth?
Has money been tight? No matter how you try to get over the hump, you’re feeling blocked from every direction and every door slams in your face. If so, it’s possible you’re just approaching it the wrong way.
Sometimes abundance feels blocked—like there’s no way out. If that’s the case, try chakra work to engage the flow of abundance. If one of your money chakras is misaligned, there’s a good chance you won’t be bringing money in. To get the flow of money, work, and abundance flowing in your favor, unblock them and watch the doors open.
Two chakras specifically rule this area: the Root and Sacral chakras. When you understand how they work and engage in activities to align them, you’ll find the money and abundance flowing sooner than you thought possible. Are you ready?
Root Chakra
This chakra rules basic needs supplied by…money. It’s also related to confidence and your ability to achieve this in your life.
It’s also related to how secure you feel in this world – which can, of course, be related to financial security because that’s what supplies our basic needs.
Does your Root chakra need tweaking? Besides money problems, physical signs such as feeling perpetually tired or experiencing pain near your tail bone or lower back can be strong indicators. Those with Root chakra issues may report cold hands and feet as other signs.
How then to tweak this power chakra?
- Wear red clothes and crystals.
- Consume red food and drinks.
- Get your hands dirty in a practical exercise to get that blood flowing.
- Try Pottery, gardening, or any activity with your hands will help.
- Meditate with the color red.
With practice, you’ll soon see your basic survival and security needs met when your Root chakra is open and waiting to help you find abundance.
Sacral Chakra
If you need to get back in the black, Sacral chakra work is a great place to start. You can find it just below your belly button, and about two inches. This center is about your personal sense of abundance and rules your sexual organs and overall sexual health.
It makes sense that work on this chakra would open the flow of abundance in financial matters. When you’re confident, and your feelings are in a good place, you can go into the world and be productive – encouraging financial gain. When aligned, you’re able to be social, intimate, and have a keen instinct for what activities in life will produce financial gain.
This chakra is about connection with the world. If you can’t create that intimacy, you won’t be able to receive abundance from it. Indulge yourself in finding that loving feeling again.
Massage, hot baths, and water activities can help you find balance. Take advantage of the color orange, from crystals to food or drink, and you’ll find it gets you back in the financial black.
Go Forth With Balances Chakras!
Your chakras are just like horses at the races. Some run faster than others, some are burned out, and some are just fine. When each chakra is running and racing at the same rate, you’re on top of the world, running like a well-oiled machine! Just like those horses, our chakras need constant work, training and maintenance.
What do you think? Are you ready to try some chakra work? How do you know when it’s time for a tune-up? What did you find out there that will be most helpful to you on your quest for enlightenment?
Related article: Your Beginner’s Guide to Using Your Chakra Pendulum