Letting go of negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs can be life changing, and The Sedona Method® has been recognized worldwide as one of the simplest and fastest ways to do so. My good friend, Nicole Lawrence, recently introduced me to its methods of actually letting the feelings come up, and verbally agreeing to let them go, in the present moment, NOW. Instructing your body to release the stress and tension associated with a "feeling" works much more quickly than mentally trying to deal with your emotions - you'll just keep rationalizing your anger or fear.

To watch a great introduction to the method, go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpoTppJFULU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Link to see the movie online or purchase the DVD:http://www.lettinggo.tv/

I find this method works well with balancing the heart chakra, letting go of negative emotions and beliefs, and opening to love and compassion.
Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries
http://www.thechakras.org

The villains in my novel, The Chakra Diaries, are ones we all want to avoid: illness, lost love, false beliefs, but it is these very perilous obstacles that drive the stories and finally lift the characters and can do the same for you.

In fact, many holistic healers believe false beliefs to be the cause of all problems in our lives. Through no fault of your own, your family, your society, your environment instilled beliefs in you as a child that may no longer be serving you. In fact, they may be the underlying cause of all your pain and failures.

Beliefs control our lives; they create our reality. We only see and experience what we believe. But you can examine your beliefs - right now - and revamp those that aren't working for you.

Do you believe all rich people are evil, illness will get you attention or sympathy, there's no such thing as a good marriage? Ask yourself, "What are my beliefs about money, health, love, relationships?" or about any area of your life that isn't working out the way you'd like.

Pick an area and explore your beliefs about it. Write them down. What feelings do these beliefs bring up?

These beliefs have determined your experiences, have actually "controlled" this area of your life. Now, you can choose to propel yourself in the direction you choose by choosing positive beliefs, such as "There is abundance for everyone," "The more money I have, the more I can help others."

You may find the new beliefs you write down to be the exact opposite of the ones you had before. But they are what create success for others and can do that for you too.

Imagine your life if you were to live according to these new beliefs. Take on the new beliefs in small steps, according to your comfort level, and let me know if your life moves toward your new vision.
Namaste!
Becca@thechakras.org

We hear over and over again about sex addiction in celebrities and politicians. At the same time, a majority of married women were recently surveyed and reported a lack of sexual activity. While there are many causes for sexual dysfunction, if you're over- or under-sexed, you might want to consider balancing your chakras.

The first or Root Chakra is linked to safety and security, and sexual function in men - the penis is governed by the Root Chakra, which deals with basic instincts. This chakra is situated at the base of the spine, and its main function is to keep us grounded and alive and is associated with physical sensation.

In women, their reproductive organs are in the sacral area, and the second or Sacral Chakra governs their love, passion, sexuality and creativity. This chakra is found in the pelvic area below the navel. Its main function is related to procreation and the giving and receiving of sexual pleasure and emotion.

If your energy is stuck at the Sacral Chakra, your sex and your love life will be stuck as well. Accumulated stress in the body, whether emotional or physical, erects barriers to the natural flow of our life energy. So, too much stress may equal no love or even any prospects for it.

Using yoga to balance the Sacral Chakra, you can practice the cobbler's pose to encourage life energy to flow throughout the pelvic area. Swimming, dancing, meditation and anything that encourages pleasure will also stimulate the Sacral Chakra, which is associated with the element of water, and the ebbing and flowing of bodily fluids, like the tides.

If you fantasize about sex all the time or have sex outside of a relationship, your energy may be swirling out of control in the Root or Sacral Chakra, causing havoc in your life. A lack of balance in these two chakras can be caused by a need for attention and nurturing that is never enough. Sometimes, we learn to resort to unusual ways of getting what we need. The sex addict is seeking attention in an unhealthy, distorted and possibly destructive way.

We all need love, nurturing and support, but need to find it first within ourselves with a healthy, balanced Root Chakra. After we develop a sense of self, we can continue at the Sacral Chakra to find our place within a healthy relationship.

I've been asked what chakra balancing techniques can be done to increase one's love life. If your Sacral Chakra is balanced, you will have more energy, passion and creativity, and your life will flow naturally toward love.

If your energy is stuck at the Sacral Chakra, your sex and your love life will be stuck as well. Accumulated stress in the body, whether emotional or physical, erects barriers to the natural flow of our life energy. So, too much stress may equal no love or even any prospects for it.

While the first or Base Chakra is linked to fortress-like solidity and stability, the second or Sacral Chakra is focused on flowing movement and filling your need to sip, bathe, luxuriate or douse in the vivacious, unpredictable and dynamic stream we call love. Swimming in the ocean's waves, or practicing the hypnotic hip swivels of oriental (belly) dancing or performing wu chi exercises may help you begin to experience the world of love that seems just beyond your heart's grasp.

Using yoga to balance the Sacral Chakra, you can practice the cobbler's pose to encourage life energy to flow throughout the pelvic area, the seat of this chakra. Or unleash and focus your creative spirits through painting or making music. Your skill level is not as important as just "doing it" and breaking down any barriers nesting in your body.

As an expression of our joy of living, whatever we create is beautiful, skillful, breathtaking and encouraging. In becoming more sensitive and responsive to what is going on in the world around us, we also further the grounding of our Root Chakra, allowing us to go boldly after what we seek in life, even a relationship that we can grow old with.

In addition to harboring pleasurable sensations, the Sacral Chakra can vacuum in and hold fast to pain and its attendant stress, damming up the free flow of energy and physically manifesting as infection and illness. We may be "going through the motions" in life, seeing the dust on the table and not the wondrous roses in the crystal vase. Our reactions to the world may vacillate widely from rage and aggression to breaking into tears at the slightest problem.

To aid in stress relief and balancing of the Sacral Chakra, place three clear quartz crystals, points facing outward, in a triangle just below your navel. Next, place three rose quartz stones in an arc above your pubic bone and relax for 4-5 minutes. Repeat as often as is needed for optimal energy flow.
Love and Namaste!
Becca

Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse for indulging in scrumptious chocolate, and also the time to ponder if your heart chakra is open to love.

As you meditate on your heart chakra while slowly chewing high-quality, dark chocolate, the flavanols in the cocoa and chocolate will serve as antioxidants and have other positive effects, such as lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow to the brain and heart, making blood platelets less sticky and able to clot, and lowering cholesterol. Chocolate will also improve your mood.

Valentine's Day is also the perfect time to open your heart chakra to love...
Try this Heart Chakra Meditation and download my complete "Chakra Meditations from The Chakra Diaries" on the Meditations page of TheChakras.org.

Heart Chakra Meditation:
Breathe in and out a beautiful emerald green into the center of your chest, the home of the heart chakra, with love, joy and compassion for other people and yourself. Feel any tension blocking the flow here, shutting off or shutting out love. Any anger or fear is past, it can be healed. When you let it go, you’ll feel your true essence of love and joy. To send forgiveness, wrap those people who have caused you pain in the bright green light, cleansing and healing the situation. Release yourself and them from any negative connections, only keeping the good. Let go of anger to have space for love to grow. Now, with love and compassion, wrap yourself and your whole life experience in healing green light.

Here's to love!
Becca

Congratulations to Joy Isley, the winner of The Chakra Diaries' Valentine's Day Giveaway!  But all can be winners this month - to celebrate love and Valentine's Day, the Kindle version is on sale during the month of February for just $5.99. Plus, a Collector's Edition, autographed copy of The Chakra Diaries with FREE matching Gift Card is available for just $10.00 plus shipping - see our February Special page.
Here's to love!
Becca Chopra
www.TheChakras.org

For those looking for a gift idea for their loved ones or for themselves for Valentine’s Day, The Chakra Diaries provides the answer, inspiring the reader with the healing power of love.

The book begins with Rebecca explaining, "I never promised a road map to miracles. Yet, the men and women in my chakra workshop came seeking to find romance and riches, remove the hurt of past betrayals, fight depression and even beat death." As the facilitator, she witnesses miracles and magic, twists and turns she never expected in herself or the others. The book ends with her own quest for love with the one person who may damn her forever. Because of her humanity, she tends to love too much and overstep all the conventional boundaries, but she stirs her students at levels where they can discover themselves too and find truth, passion and everlasting love.

Reviewer Marya Mann, PhD, writes, “The Chakra Diaries is new age fiction you’ll cherish for its wisdom as much as for its drama and sensuality. It is such a fantastic read, full of passion, sensuality, humor and great teachings. The antagonist in The Chakra Diaries is an amalgam of lost love and false beliefs, and it is these perilous obstacles that drive the book and make the ending, the soul of the story – showing love never dies – all the more uplifting.”

People can enter to win a Valentine’s Day Giveaway which includes an autographed, first edition copy of The Chakra Diaries and Valentine’s Day gift card - just fill out the form on the Giveaways page of www.TheChakras.org.
Here's to love!
Becca

“The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.” ~ James Michener

Dreams bolster and enable our vision, imagination and insight, revealing that which has been hidden, out of focus or not understand. Just as Deborah, a wondrous character in The Chakra Diaries saw herself in a different light when an anonymous admirer wrote of her anointing his dreams and igniting his imagination, dreams can communicate to us from the inside out. Deborah was living almost entirely in the past, isolated from her spouse’s physical affections and questioning her self worth until her new friend’s verbiage and focus enabled her to reopen her heart to love and all of its many splendors.

Will Deborah end up in the arms of love? Will her husband realize his mistake at leaving her and beg for her in forgiveness? Will Deborah’s new friend enrich her life as she had hoped and dreamed?

Read the whole story in The Chakra Diaries to find out more about reigniting the sacral chakra, passion and love. Namaste.

In my chakra balancing workshop profiled in The Chakra Diaries, one student’s fourth chakra was profoundly closed. He was as suspicious of others as a stray cat, resentful at life for handing him not that bowl of cherries that he felt he so richly deserved, but a crate of sour grapes and buckets of ill will filled with woe-is-me. No wonder that despite his rugged good looks and stable income he was having such a “hard time” finding a lover and soul mate. His inner peace was pockmarked and fragmented, it resembled a battlefield of negative feelings littered with remnants of squandered life force. He was in every sense of the unspoken word, a mess.

I suggested that he passively meditate at every opportunity, allowing his memories of love and relationships to surface so that they could be examined and balanced. He taped ten affirmations of self acceptance on his bathroom mirror and car dashboard to guide him in becoming more grounded and open to love and compassion.

Over the course of the workshop, I saw this delightful, yet challenging man grow into a balance of his internal and external worlds. He became more open and accepting of life and less apt to sling blame, point fingers and retreat into a fortress of self-pity. He led the group in a practice of saturation blessings and appreciations of abundance, reminding the group that blessings flow where attention goes and that all power comes from within. In the final tally, he gave to the group far more than he took and I am forever thankful that he crossed my life. And I know he is sharing love wherever he goes now.
Namaste! Becca

If you are looking for love, a strong sense of self from a balanced solar plexus chakra will give you charisma and help you attract your soul mate.

I begin my days by stretching cat-like on my futon, toenails to fingernails, arching and undulating my spine, inviting my physical body to join my consciousness in greeting a new day ripe with opportunity. Once I arise from my rainbow-drenched mat, I ball my fears into a small soft, mentally biodegradable box and give it a hefty kick into the heavens. In the evenings, I repeat this fear-banishing exercise, using it as warm milk for my soul, its soporific effect smoothly easing me into a relaxed state so that I may begin my nightly visualizations.

At some point during the morning, usually after my first cup of green tea, I affirm to the Becca in the mirror that even though I take risks in both love and life, I give myself permission to fail (or perhaps to alter my thinking or attitude so that “failures” morph into positive learning experiences.) Just yesterday, one of my chakra workshop participants was wringing her hands and likening her lack of a physical love life to that of a nun. I chuckled at her purloined quote that “Men are like parking spaces, the good ones are either taken, or are too far away.”

One of the males in the group suggested that Ms. Frustrated first take a hard, honest look in her mirror and assess (even writing down what she is offering to the world), those qualities seen and unseen that might or might not be attracting potential mates into her life. He reminded her to be realistic, but not to sell herself short and remarked that, for instance, he was attracted to her intellect and humor but often put off by her critical comments lightly veiled as wit. I urged her to practice enhancing the attributes on her “alluring” list and to discard or re-purpose the unwanted, much as I figuratively boot mine away.

Another workshop attendee who lost her lover to the thrills and spills of life, creating her own “private hell on earth,” said that simple positive thinking had helped her endure. Instead of grinding her teeth and stomping her feet at the “overwhelming” frustrations and mental plaque built up from being a modern woman, Ms. Optimism had hung a carrot on a stick in her kitchen, reminding her to concentrate on the rewards at the end of her journey, and not the countless, arduous steps in between. She ended her tale and gave our hearts wings when she said to stay tuned – that she knew meaningful, lasting love was on the horizon even though she has not yet even seen the boat it is sailing on.

Good luck in love in the New Year. Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries