Vol. 9 No. 2 May 2023  

"We deem those happy who, from the experience of life, have learned to bear its ills without being overcome by them."
--Juvenal, Roman Satirist

The slowdowns of 2020 and 2021 allowed people to clarify their values. This newfound awareness has unleashed a torrent of change as we move more consciously toward our personal and global visions. If this time feels unhinged, know that deep and lasting changes begin with upheaval. Casting off the old makes way for the new, brighter future. Stay grounded and let your light shine! And, take extra special care of yourself during this transitional period!

 

Chakras are energy centers in the body that are often—and aptly—compared to spinning wheels. The inner layers of the chakra spin clockwise while the outer layers spin counter-clockwise, creating a balanced forcefield that enables us to process information, and to integrate experiences into our understanding. “I know it in my bones”: this expression characterizes how processed, integrated, and embodied information sits within us.

Overwhelm constitutes a swirl of information that we are having difficulty processing. Self-growth involves taking the time to process our lives, sensations, emotions, knowledge, age, context, desires, and views in order to make integrated decisions that authentically advance our wellbeing. Hence, people focused on raising their consciousnesses may journal, walk, meditate, stretch, breathe, paint, and participate in other activities that support slowing down enough to allow the swirling information to begin to seep into the chakras where it can begin to be processed, integrated, and embodied.

Instead of trying to escape fears, pains, insecurities, and uncertainties, those on a spiritual journey bravely facilitate the awareness of these facets of life. By facing fears in the quiet slowness that allows the fears to be known, spiritual seekers allow discomfort to move through their chakras, and inform their understandings. Letting the “negative” aspects of life to come to light—by processing them through the chakras—stops these fears from becoming so overwhelming that they block people’s ability to grow. Additionally, processing fear keeps fear from (often unconsciously) dictating choices.

What happens, though, when a life-changing event exerts a force so strong that the chakras cannot seem to keep pace with the processing that needs to occur? Generally, the chakras act as spinning wheels that help us to propel ourselves through our lives. However, the relevant features of the chakras are not limited to the speed, direction, and synchrony of their spin; the chakras’ orientation is at least as important, if not more so. With sufficient force against it, a chakra can be dislodged, so that it is lying flat or tilted instead of standing up. When a chakra is dislocated, it cannot effectively process the information that is swirling around it—and sometimes, if the spin slows or stops as a result of a chakra’s destabilization, the chakra cannot process at all.

Think of a chakra as being related to a gyroscope. The force of both the gyroscope and the chakra enables these “spinning wheels” to complete amazing feats. However, if the mechanism is knocked over and/or stops spinning, the forcefield that supports its functioning diminishes accordingly, and, consequently, it loses the ability to perform properly. In other words, sufficient shock and/or trauma can impede and incapacitate chakras.

While a gyroscope can be oriented in any number of ways depending on its use, each chakra has a specific orientation that is necessary to process information through the body. Imagine invisible axes that run from the front of the body to the back of the body at the areas suitable to the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, and third eye chakras. When functioning properly, each of these corresponding chakras will spin around its appropriate axis at an angle that is perpendicular to the axis. The locations of these chakras are relative to the body in which they function. If the chakra’s orientation is off, the chakra’s rotation—experienced as processing power and force—is difficult to maintain.

Our world can be harsh, and our chakras can get knocked off balance. When the chakras are not working well, one’s ability to integrate information is stalled. Hence, the overwhelm that likely dislocated the chakra can become nearly impossible to manage, and to move beyond. Think of these expressions: “I’m floored,” “I’m crushed,” “I’ve been leveled.” This happens; sometimes we are floored, crushed, and leveled. We know that this has occurred when we feel disoriented, out-of-sorts, and dizzy. If the swirl of information around us is being processed and integrated, we do not feel the swirling, and we do not become overwhelmed. If, though, the swirl cannot be processed, then we feel as though the world is spinning (instead of recognizing that a chakra has gone offline). When we feel unsteady standing still—and it seems that the spin of the world will knock us down— that is an indication that a chakra is misaligned. In this situation, the spin of the chakra that typically steadies us has been upended, and is no longer processing the swirl of information that it handles so adeptly when it is upright.

The good news is that, once we understand this situation, we can rebuild, reorient, and re-energize our chakras. This endeavor may take some time. However, it is a path forward that will result in recovery from the shock and overwhelm that has left us out-of-sorts. To the chakras: stand up and spin!