Category: Chakra

Free Download of The Chakra Energy Diet

7/7/2014

Since publishing The Chakra Energy Diet in April, I've gotten great feedback on how it's helped people to conquer stress, weight and self-esteem issues. Most of all, it's helped them to pinpoint which of their chakras needed balancing - and how to go about it. I want you to experience that freedom as well, so as we come off Independence Day weekend, I'm offering the book FREE FOR DOWNLOAD, JULY 7 & 8 on Amazon Kindle (available to read on most any device).

SO, CAN YOU EAT YOUR WAY INTO BALANCE?

Being overweight, unhappy or physically in pain are CLUES about which of your CHAKRAS, the energy centers in your body, are out-of-balance. Once you know what’s sabotaging your health and weight loss efforts, you can balance your diet with chakra healing foods to look and feel your best.

Part I of the book explains how we're both psychologically and physically sabotaged by stress to overeat and crave sweets, and how GMOs, pesticides and refined sugar and other addictive ingredients in our “food” products further stress the body… in other words, it’s not your fault!

Part II offers clues and a quiz as to which of your chakras are most stressed, with suggestions on food choices and recipes, and balancing activities including yoga poses and other exercises for each chakra, so you can quickly move into balance.

Learn how to increase your energy, reach your optimal body weight, and be happier and healthier by using chakra healing foods, stress-busting techniques, yoga and exercise… start THE CHAKRA ENERGY DIET today.

HERE'S WHAT ONE READER HAD TO SAY...

A brilliant work for optimal physical, emotional and spiritual health
"The author did an excellent job in presenting a comprehensive set of information on balancing each chakra: first by examining the emotional components, then by providing the most desirable foods and meditation mantra pertinent to specific chakras, along with relevant yoga postures and exercises. Interesting recipes with pictures are added bonuses.

"Particularly interesting was the notion of letting go of self-criticism when it comes to the issue of weight. In essence, the author stresses the importance of re-establishing the relationship with ourselves by cultivating self-love, which is the basis of true healing." ~ Susanna Eun

Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Energy Diet

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The Chakra Energy Diet Reviewed by Marya Mann, Quantum Healer

5/12/2014

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THE CHAKRA ENERGY DIET: The Right Food, Relaxation, Yoga & Exercise to Look and Feel Your Best! is reviewed here by Marya Mann, PhD, an author, Quantum Creativity Therapist and co-founder of the Loom of Love, a Center for Conscious Arts located in West Hawaii, on the Big Island:

From first tasty bite to the last, Becca Chopra’s vibrant new book is a feast for the senses, a square meal for the cells and a juicy delight for the higher mind. Fun, nutritious and colorful! And for dessert? She serves healing visualizations that help us set the table for zesty living where food is medicine, meals are celebrations, and honoring food is a meditation on achieving your full potential.

In short, in Chopra’s book, the supreme yoga is a culinary art.

But the book is not just for yogis. Chopra says people who struggle with seesaw dieting, self-love, relationship, success and prosperity issues can find clues to chakra imbalances in these life problems. “You can thank your body,” she writes, “for giving you the clues you need to reach for your perfect self.”

Connecting the dots between the energy source of problems and the behaviors that either help or hinder their resolution, Chopra offers simple, fun lifestyle solutions to reverse the disease-ridden trends of modern dining. Color-coding foods to reflect desired energy states, yoga poses to stimulate vitality, and affirmations to affirm your True Self are easy to find and use in the well-organized book designed to help you “feed your chakras with high quality energy.”

Part I highlights the saboteurs of your health and weight that you need to avoid. Stress and pushing down uncomfortable emotions are two of the main menaces, but sugar, GMO foods, saturated fats and MSG all warrant abstinence. In Part II, you learn to identify if a chakra is out of balance and exactly what to do about it. “Eating a rainbow of colors is important to keep the chakras balanced,” explains Chopra.

Besides specific food combinations, exercises and yoga postures, undemanding suggestions like incorporating light exercise after a meal – “aiding your digestion as well as lightening your stress load” – are included.

I have long admired the natural spirit and articulate science in Becca Chopra’s work. Her previous books – The Chakra Diaries, Chakra Secrets, and Balance Your Chakras, Balance Your Life – show an uncommon nuance and perspective in her ability to communicate the power of subtle energies in concrete terms. Now, her passionate, clear aesthetic shows how one can make an art out of eating and make food for the soul out of art.

Together with brilliant color photos, Chopra’s text arouses the hunger for good food, not empty calories, making this one of my favorite kitchen books, almost good enough to eat!

HELP CHILDREN EAT HEALTHIER TOO!

All proceeds from sales of the book in the following week are going to “Feed the Children,” connecting children in need with healthy food from local organic farmers. Find It now! THE CHAKRA ENERGY DIET is available on Amazon Kindle at http://amzn.to/1geaE1y.

Reviewer Marya Mann is co-author of Healing Our Planet, Healing Our Selves. Dr. Marya has over 50 state-of-the-art tools that clear old “tapes,” dissolve pain and have you visioning your best future immediately. Also Advanced Micro-Nutrition, Energy Balancing and Life Coaching. She can be reached at www.maryamann.com for phone consultations.

Namaste!

Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Energy Diet, The Chakra Diaries, Chakra Secrets and Balance Your Chakras, Balance Your Life

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The Chakra Energy Diet

4/30/2014

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Many people are unhappy with their bodies. Some have tried every new diet that comes along, but in the end, NO amount of willpower can stop them from gaining the weight back.

Being overweight, unhappy or physically in pain are CLUES about which of your CHAKRAS, the energy centers in your body, are out-of-balance. Once you know what’s sabotaging your health and weight loss efforts, you can balance your diet with Chakra healing foods to look and feel your best.

Chakras, when out of balance, will tell you where you need to be fed with REAL food that’s satisfying and nutritious, not leaving you craving MORE.

Our bodies need adequate energy to be able to perform on a daily basis. Which means they need organic, unprocessed, whole foods that balance your hormones, your digestive track, your chakras, your life.

Learn how to EAT YOUR WAY INTO BALANCE, to increase your energy, to reach your optimal body weight, to be happier and healthier, using chakra healing foods, stress-busting techniques, yoga and exercise, and smart eating habits…

Take the quiz in THE CHAKRA ENERGY DIET to learn which of your chakras are out of balance. Then quickly move into balance with the suggestions for each chakra.

Namaste!
Becca Chopra

Please comment below if you have a personal challenge you would like assistance with.

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CONNECT TO YOUR SPIRITUAL STRENGTH - BALANCE YOUR CROWN CHAKRA

3/31/2014

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In my last six blogs, I've given a preview of information that will be included in the upcoming book, THE CHAKRA DIET. We've now reached the 7th major chakra, the Crown Chakra.

If you agree with more than 3 or 4 of the following statements, you may want to look at ways to heal your Crown Chakra, which will help you transform and connect with your higher self, the infinite spirit, God…

CROWN CHAKRA ISSUES

I have very strong religious or spiritual beliefs.
I tend to get in debates about my spiritual beliefs.
I lack faith in a higher power.
I have stayed with my childhood religion without introspection about my actual beliefs.
Religious fanatics drive me crazy.
I feel confused about God or religious practices.
I feel let down by God.
I feel all alone.
I’m spiritual to the extent that I often neglect my physical body.
I converse with god, spirits or angels more than with people.

Spiritual oneness is the goal of opening the 7th chakra, the Crown Chakra, the point of knowing and enlightenment. It is our highest energy center, located at the top of the head and extending above it about two inches. It represents liberation, humanitarianism, deep understanding, and spiritual growth, union with the higher self and the Divine.

After my best friend died, all my energy centers were affected but I recognized these emotional or mental issues commonly associated with the Crown Chakra – a feeling of aloneness, depression, and a loss of meaning. I prayed for Divine help and received a deep connection to universal love, to my friend, and knowing that her spirit lived on.

Opening or balancing your Crown Chakra can bring a profound awakening, a connection to our spiritual nature as well as to cosmic consciousness.

Crown Chakra Healing Foods

Since the crown chakra is more spiritual than physical, it is not nourished with physical foods in the same way that they feed other chakras. The correlation between the Crown Chakra and food is to make it a spiritual experience, whether by purifying the body through fasting for religious reasons during Ramadan or Yom Kippur, giving up a special food for Lent, or adding prayer or grace before meals.

We’ve all either said grace before eating as a child, or seen others do it, but have you continued this practice? It’s a valuable tool to bless your food with a healing intention and vibration. You can use a general blessing, or one adapted to a specific chakra that you want to strengthen. For the Crown Chakra: “May this food bless and nourish my body and help me support my spiritual purpose.”

Detoxification cleanses, such as juice fasting, can also benefit the Crown Chakra. I especially like juicing mangosteen, in season now in Hawaii, with its luscious purple color – associated with the Crown Chakra – for a detoxifying cleanse. Mangosteen contains powerful antioxidants and immune system boosters called Xanthones, natural chemical compounds which possess a variety of potent medicinal properties.

Foods that are pure and unadulterated also keep the Crown Chakra open and integrated with spirit. Pure foods include those organically grown without chemicals or genetic modification. For animal foods, choose those raised in a natural environment, free-range or fed organic feed, without being injected with excess hormones or antibiotics.

Crown Chakra Healing Activities and Yoga Poses

While the Third Eye Chakra is often connected to meditation, the Crown Chakra is more connected to prayer or devotion to a higher power. Prayer could mean anything from singing religious hymns or reciting formal prayers or psalms, to devotional chanting like kirtan. The Downward Dog yoga pose increases circulation to the head, increasing mental clarity and readying you for prayer. Being in nature, breathing in sunlight and fresh air, will also energize the Crown Chakra.

Crown Chakra Visualization

All we have learned and healed through the lower six chakras merges and travels up the spine, creating a purple color. Here we open ourselves to awareness of the divine and our highest consciousness. Focus on breathing in the violet light, relaxing, letting go. Keeping your focus on the crown of your head, allow the chakra to open, visualizing it as a crown of light above your head. Feel it expanding and opening to the wonder and radiance of spirit. Send love up and out the crown chakra and then welcome its return in a beam of light that pours down through your whole being. Let the energy flow through you and around you and embrace totality.

Breathe in the power and the healing. Imagine a rainbow of light pouring down your body, from your crown chakra down to your root chakra, enveloping you in harmony with everything above and below and around you.

March 31st is the last day to enter to win a free, personalized Chakra Diet Plan below, which will also guarantee you a FREE copy of my forthcoming book, The Chakra Diet.

Namaste!
Becca

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The Throat Chakra - Open to Your Inner Truth through Diet & Exercise

3/14/2014

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If you want to transform and change into your True Self, you'll want to use The Chakra Diet to help balance your Throat Chakra.

The Throat Chakra, the fifth chakra, is associated with communication, the ability to speak honestly, to receive and process information, to know and speak our inner truth.

Signs of an unbalanced Throat Chakra are an inability to express yourself, feeling stagnated, and holding on to unexpressed emotions (which can manifest as holding on to excess body weight too). This can lead to frustration, inability to find the right words or even excessive talking, shyness, sore throat, stiff neck, and addictions like smoking, alcohol and binge eating.

When the Throat Chakra is balanced, we feel creatively inspired and able to express ourselves well. We have confidence in our beliefs and the self-confidence to share them, and the capacity to listen to others and truly hear them as well.

The Throat Chakra’s balance is intimately tied into the health of the thyroid gland, located in the throat area. The thyroid secretes hormones that control your metabolism, so a sluggish thyroid (hypothyroidism) will make it hard for you to lose weight, maintain energy, warm your hands and feet, or even stay in a positive mood. A hyperactive thyroid also causes severe metabolic and immune system problems. So foods that nourish the thyroid will also nourish the Throat Chakra.

Foods, especially that share colors with the chakras, carry vibrations that can activate or balance your chakras. The Throat Chakra is associated with the color blue.

Throat Chakra Healing Foods: Fifth chakra foods are soothing to the throat and nourishing to the thyroid gland. Those that are blue or deep red in color include blueberries, blackberries, grapes and cherries. Soups, especially those containing vitamin-and mineral- and fiber-containing vegetables, will be especially soothing to the throat chakra. Seaweeds, like kelp or kombu, contain iodine to support thyroid function and have a demulcent action on the throat.

Dairy products and sugar can clog your throat and wreak havoc with your blood sugar as well, so are best avoided. Drink plenty of water, especially first thing in the morning to cleanse your system. Try the herbal sugar substitute Stevia and herbal teas instead of sodas.

Chewing your food consciously and thoroughly will also exercise the Throat Chakra and unleash the nutrients in the food for easier digestibility. Have you ever gulped down a large meal and still not felt satisfied or nourished, but even still hungry? I recommend chewing each bite 20 times, more if you have food allergies. It’s hard to chew and talk at the same time, so I choose to savor at least one meal per day chewing in silence and awareness.

Yoga Poses for the Throat Chakra: Add these poses to your yoga repertoire to open the throat chakra: the Half Shoulder Stand, Shoulder Shrugs and Circles, the Fish and the Lion pose.

Throat Chakra Healing Activities: Walking is a perfect exercise to support the Throat Chakra, as it evens out inconsistent energies in the body and relaxes the mind. Singing and dancing, drumming, and any exercise involving rhythm will help balance this chakra. I especially recommend Ecstatic Dancing and the Dances of Universal Peace where you dance while singing truth (loving words). Chanting is also a very powerful method of sound healing.

When we balance our chakras, we craft our lives the way we want them to be, rather than living in constant reaction to forces outside of us. These spirals of energy are wheels that heal, feeding the body good energy and profoundly affecting our metabolism, as well as emotions, sensations and behaviors.

My favorite recipes for the Throat Chakra are ones that provide the five tastes – spicy, sour, sweet, bitter and astringent foods all in one meal… e.g., miso soup with wakame seaweed, an entrée of stir-fried vegetables over Forbidden black rice with a spicy sauce, and a salad with a sweet-sour balsamic-blueberry dressing.

Sign up now to win a Free, personalized Chakra Diet Plan below.

Namaste,
Becca Chopra

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Balance the Heart Chakra with Diet and Exercise

2/25/2014

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DO YOU FEEL ENOUGH LOVE IN YOUR LIFE?
You feel love when you give love. And you need an open, balanced Heart Chakra to be the compassionate, loving person that is the real you. If you agree with more than 4 or 5 of the following statements, you may want to look at ways to heal your Heart Chakra…

Heart Chakra Questionnaire (Check those statement you agree with.)

I often put others ahead of myself.
I’m tired from being a caregiver.
I’m angry and resentful about the way I’ve been treated.
I find it hard to forgive or let go of hurt feelings.
I’m very empathic – feeling other’s feelings.
My heart has been broken.
I have heart problems (hypertension or high cholesterol).
I have lung problems (asthma, allergies or frequent coughs).
I have problems in my love life.
I feel numb and a loss of passion.
I release my stress by connecting with friends or family.
I don’t get enough hugs, kisses or massages.
I often get heartburn after eating.
I don’t really like vegetables.
Relationship problems cause me to overeat.

Located at the center of your chest, the fourth chakra, the Heart Chakra, is associated with the physical organs – the heart and lungs. If your Heart Chakra is blocked or imbalanced, you may experience physical issues with these organs, such as hypertension or respiratory ailments, or feel pain in the upper back and shoulders. You may feel emotional insensitivity, sorrow, depression, resentment, or dependency on nicotine or marijuana.

When the Heart Chakra is balanced, you are able to feel love, openly giving and receiving it. You are able to be compassionate without taking on other’s feelings. You can let go of sadness, release old resentments, forgive yourselves and others, and move forward with emotional empowerment.

The Heart Chakra is the bridge between the lower three chakras – the Root Chakra which relates to our safety and security; the Sacral Chakra, which relates to our creativity and sexuality; the Solar Plexus Chakra, which is the base of our personal power and identity; and the higher three chakras – the Throat Chakra, which is associated with speaking our truth; the Third Eye Chakra, which opens us to our higher knowing and intuition; and the Crown Chakra, our connection to spirit.

Heart Chakra Healing Foods: While the first three chakras are fed by protein, fats and carbohydrates, the Heart Chakra is balanced through phytochemicals or macronutrients, especially those in green vegetables. The rising energy imparted by leafy greens, for instance, feeds our expansion, growth and opening in all directions, like the feeling of love and a willingness to give of ourselves.

Foods, especially that share colors with the chakras, carry vibrations that can activate or balance your chakras. So, nourish your Heart Chakra with the many green vegetables – from kale, spinach, chard, collard, dandelion and mustard greens, to lettuce and sprouts of all kinds, and nourishing and health-protective cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, Brussel sprouts and cauliflower. There’s also bok choy, cabbage, arugula, green peas and peppers, leeks and green onions, watercress, zucchini, celery, and more. Take a stroll through your local Farmer’s Market and appreciate the abundance of green veggies and choose your favorites, then open up and try some new ones. Ask how to best prepare them and savor their delicious flavors.

Also, include green fruit in your diet, from green apples, pears, grapes and kiwi, to that best salad ingredient of all – avocados.

Heart Chakra Healing Activities: You can strengthen the healing effect of your food by adding in some green veggies at each meal, for instance, adding some leafy greens to your morning smoothie or green peppers in your omelet, having a large salad at lunch, and steaming broccoli or zucchini for your side dish at dinner. Make your meal with love and gratitude, for the people who grew your food, to the people you will share it with. Say grace before meals, such as this one suggested by Shakti Gawain: “May this food bless and nourish my body, and keep me at my ideal weight.”

We often overeat to fill a feeling of emptiness or lack of love. If sharing food is one of the major ways your mother has expressed her love to you, or you to your family, think of other ways to feed the longing of your own heart, rather than with food. Instead, pamper yourself with a massage or social activity, or reach out to others through volunteer work.

Exercising with others is recommended for the Heart Chakra. Join in a yoga class, a team sport, an aerobics or spin class at the gym, take a walk with a friend or partner, or play catch with your children.

Healing Visualization: One of my favorite visualizations if I’m feeling a relationship problem, is to imagine playing catch with the person I’m having difficulty with. In your mind’s eye, see a person you are having a problem with. See if they catch the ball and throw it back. If not, surround the game of catch or relationship with a green glow, send that person love and forgiveness, and through magical thinking, have them throw the ball back and forth with you. And then catch yourself smiling.

When we balance our chakras, we craft our lives the way we want them to be, rather than living in constant reaction to forces outside of us. These spirals of energy are wheels that heal, feeding the body good energy and profoundly affecting our metabolism, as well as emotions, sensations and behaviors.

Heart Chakra Recipes: One of my favorite, easy recipes for the Heart Chakra is sauteed kale. First, I slice and sautee an onion and some garlic, add chopped kale and cook until tender. Top with seasonings of your choice – my family loves it mixed with some vinagrette dressing. These days, you can pick up Kale Chips as a snack almost everywhere, a great replacement for less healthy potato chips. Or make your own…

Homemade Kale Chips:

Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Rinse and dry a bunch of kale (organic is best) and sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt. Massage the oil and salt into the kale leaves with your hands.
Fill 2 large rimmed baking sheets with a single layer of kale and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the leaves are crisp. Eat immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Please share your favorite recipe for Heart Chakra balancing – it may be included in my upcoming book, THE CHAKRA DIET! If you’d like to win a Personalized Chakra Diet Plan, enter to win at the bottom of the page.

Namaste,
Becca Chopra
www.thechakras.org

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End Cravings by Feeding the Solar Plexus Chakra

1/31/2014

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I'd like to shed some light on the Solar Plexus Chakra and the foods and activities that can warm and feed your energy and health in that area. Located right above the navel, the third chakra, the Solar Plexus Chakra, is the focal point of your identity and self-esteem, also known as your power center. It is associated with the digestive organs and metabolism, processing energy and giving you the zest you need to get through your busy day. It vibrates with the energy of the color yellow.

You may recognize some of these emotional or mental health issues commonly associated with the Solar Plexus Chakra – poor self-image, indecision, fear and anger, powerlessness, greed, stubbornness, apathy and compulsive behavior.

Physical health issues include digestive disorders, food allergies, diabetes, ulcers, liver problems like hepatitis or jaundice, gallstones, and adrenal fatigue.

What do you crave? Addictive behavior associated with the Solar Plexus include cravings for caffeine, sugar and carbohydrates.

When the Solar Plexus Chakra is balanced, you’ll feel energetic, cheerful, willing to persevere and finish your projects, confident in your instincts and abilities, purposeful and organized.

Foods, especially those that share colors with the chakras, carry vibrations that can activate or balance your chakras.

Solar Plexus Chakra Healing Foods:

If you want to balance your Sacral Chakra, and reduce cravings that lead to overeating, replace processed carbohydrates that tend to be addictive... most are loaded with just the right amount of sugar, oil and salt to make sure you can't eat just one, like potato chips or fries. Processed foods also contain GMOs which have been shown to cause inflammation of the stomach lining and poor digestion. Instead, focus on filling, nutritious, gluten-free whole grain dishes and snacks that will fuel your muscles and brain with energy. I like to start my winter day with a steaming bowl of oatmeal with a touch of local honey.

Replace your slice of bread with a half cup of brown rice, oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth, teff, polenta, or buckwheat - experiment with the flavors and textures of the various whole grains, and cooking them together.

As each chakra is associated with an endocrine gland, the Solar Plexus Chakra is associated with the pancreas, so eat to keep your blood sugar and insulin in the normal range and avoid the current epidemic of diabetes. The pancreas is connected to all your digestive organs, so don't overload them with toxins like alcohol, trans fats, artificial flavors and sweeteners, or pesticided foods. Include yellow foods that provide enzymes for good digestion, like papayas and pineapples, in addition to corn, squash, beans, peppers and poultry, and spices like ginger and tumeric.

Squash & Millet Satisfies your Sweet Tooth

The overconsumption of simple sugars as opposed to complex carbohydrates such as whole grains can cause chaotic blood sugar levels, leading to hypoglycemia and even Type 2 Diabetes. A perfect dish to replace white potatoes or white rice (which quickly turn to sugar in your blood stream) is millet. It has a cheerful yellow color and is the perfect complement to sweet winter squashes to satisfy your cravings for sweets without spiking your blood sugar.

Millet is so easy to make - like most grains, simply rinse, add 2 parts water to one part grain, add a pinch of sea salt, bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes. It's especially tasty and appetizing when served with baked Acorn squash.

Solar Plexus Chakra Healing Activities: Power Yoga is especially suited to the Solar Plexus Chakra. I also like to include the Spinal Twist, the Bow, the Boat and the Camel when I concentrate on balancing the Sacral Chakra.

While the Root Chakra is all about grounding to Mother Earth, and the Sacral Chakra is about reaching out to others in physical movement like dance and swimming, the Solar Plexus Chakra is all about personal strength. Other recommended exercise includes speed walking, hiking or jogging, aerobics or spin classes, and strength building routines like circuit training.

Namaste!
Becca

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Chakra Balancing Made Easy

10/28/2013

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Balance Your Chakras, Balance Your Life, an Amazon Kindle Book, offers an extraordinary healing technique I learned from Serge Kahili King, PhD, a Hawaiian shaman. He helped me apply his Dynamind technique to chakra healing – which leads to healing of both physical and emotional pain and the root cause for it. In this short book, I show you how you can balance your 7 chakras, starting with balancing the Root Chakra up to the Crown Chakra, to heal every aspect of your life, from your financial security, sex life and self-esteem, to your relationships, communication and intuition. If you want a quick and easy explanation of the chakra system and how it affects your mind, body and emotions, you’ll find that here.

Whether you experience pain, illness or stress, or just want to enhance your energy, Dynamind is an “instant” healing technique that can deliver relief in just a few minutes. Yesterday, I worked with a friend who had sciatic pain and after three rounds of Dynamind to ground his root chakra, releasing the fear and frustration that had been causing tension in his muscles, he was able to easily get up from his yoga mat and ride his bike home.

Reader reviews say:

“I read this book and another of Becca’s, checked out her website, and viewed her video that follows this book. For the first time in 2 years, I am pain free. I am more at peace. THANKS!”

“I am already familiar with EFT, so this new technique that Becca Chopra presents in this book really intrigued me. I am still in the process of reading the book and trying out the Dynamind technique, and am feeling the benefits already.”

Balance Your Chakras, Balance Your Life contains:
* Step-by-step instructions in using Dynamind for chakra cleansing and balancing, and eliminating physical or emotional pain. Dynamind has often been termed “Fast EFT,” because it is also a tapping technique but only has 4 tapping spots instead of 24 or more. It also includes statements, visualization and deep breathing…. which is why it’s so quick at releasing tension.
* Dynamind Toners for each of the 7 chakras that you can do in minutes per day to strengthen your energy and maintain chakra balance.
* Color photos of chakra crystals and chakra mantras, for use in chakra healing visualizations, chakra meditations and chakra sound healing.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE VIDEO
This Dynamind process is simple yet profound – try it today to balance your chakras and balance your life. This week, I am offering the companion DVD, Balance & Tone Your Chakras, for free on video streaming, so you can follow along with me as I use Dynamind to balance and tone my chakras. Just click here to download your free video.

Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries, Chakra Secrets, and Balance Your Chakras, Balance Your Life

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Using Chakra Stones to Identify Imbalance in your Energy Centers

9/29/2013

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You can use Chakra Stones to place on your body during meditation to strengthen the seven chakras. You can also keep them in the bag to ask the question, "Which chakra do I need to work on?" The stone you pick will give you the answer! Your energy body will always choose the right one.

Do this anytime you're feeling less than perfectly balanced, and want to choose a specific chakra to heal using meditation (download my free Chakra Meditation), Dynamind (see my book Balance Your Chakras, Balance Your Life or free video Balance & Tone Your Chakras), or through other means such as your diet (watch for my upcoming book, The Chakra Diet).

You can purchase an inexpensive bag of chakra stones by clicking on the link on my Chakra Crystals page.

The crystals are associated with each chakra as follows:

Crown Chakra: Amethyst - Enhances Psychic Gifts and Higher State of Consciousness.

Third Eye Chakra: Blue Aventurine - Opens the Third eye chakra and intuition. It is a powerful mental healer that increases vitality and a positive outlook.

Throat Chakra: Lapis - Represents tenderness, empathy and communication.

Heart Chakra: Green Aventurine - Benefits one in all areas of love, creativity, and imagination, as well as intellect and mental clarity.

Solar Plexus Chakra: Carnelian - Manifests Abundance; Energizes; Heightens Self Discipline.

Sacral Chakra: Orange Carnelian - Increases Concentration, Creativity, Sexuality and Courage.

Root Chakra: Red Jasper - Emotional Protection, Assists with Grounding and Helps to Maintain Boundaries.

Happy Healing!
Namaste,
Becca Chopra
www.thechakras.org

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Psoas Muscle is Connected to the Root and Sacral Chakras

8/27/2013

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The psoas muscle is connected energetically to the Sacral Chakra, which is associated with our sexuality and moving into relationship (dancing and swimming are two exercises in addition to yoga stretches that are recommended to strengthen this chakra). The psoas muscle also extends down to the Root Chakra which grounds us and makes us feel secure and safe in the world (squatting in the garden to pull weeds is one of my favorite stretches to both ground my Root Chakra and release my psoas muscle). In my morning yoga routine, I do reclined Cobbler’s Pose, gently pressing my thighs away from my hips as my spine extends and psoas tightness is released.

Here is a very detailed description of the psoas muscle which provides detailed information on how your yoga practice may be helping or actually hurting this “muscle of the soul” from BodyDivineYoga.wordpress.com:

The Psoas: Muscle of The Soul
by Danielle Prohom Olson
"I was delighted when I first came across Liz Koch’s amazing work because it confirmed much of what I’d been intuiting on my own. I had begun to open and close my yoga practise with hip opening poses with the specific intention of releasing tension in my psoas and hip flexors. I’d breathe and imagine tension flowing out of constricted muscles to be released as energy into the torso.

It worked, I’d feel my body soften yet somehow grow stronger.

Reading Liz Koch I instantly realized what I was doing – by learning to relax my psoas I was literally energizing my deepest core by reconnecting with the powerful energy of the earth. According to Koch, the psoas is far more than a core stabilizing muscle; it is an organ of perception composed of bio-intelligent tissue and “literally embodies our deepest urge for survival, and more profoundly, our elemental desire to flourish.”

Well, I just had to learn more. Here is just a sprinkling of the research that Liz Koch and others have uncovered regarding the importance of the psoas to our health, vitality and emotional well-being.

The Psoas muscle (pronounced so-as) is the deepest muscle of the human body affecting our structural balance, muscular integrity, flexibility, strength, range of motion, joint mobility, and organ functioning.

Growing out of both sides of the spine, the psoas spans laterally from the 12th thoracic vertebrae (T12) to each of the 5 lumbar vertebrae. From there it flows down through the abdominal core, the pelvis, to attach to the top of the femur (thigh) bone.

The Psoas is the only ‘muscle’ to connect the spine to the legs. It is responsible for holding us upright, and allows us to lift our legs in order to walk. A healthily functioning psoas stabilizes the spine and provides support through the trunk, forming a shelf for the vital organs of the abdominal core.

The psoas is connected to the diaphragm through connective tissue or fascia which affects both our breath and fear reflex. This is because the psoas is directly linked to the reptilian brain, the most ancient interior part of the brain stem and spinal cord. As Koch writes “Long before the spoken word or the organizing capacity of the cortex developed, the reptilian brain, known for its survival instincts, maintained our essential core functioning.”

Koch believes that our fast paced modern lifestyle (which runs on the adrenaline of our sympathetic nervous system) chronically triggers and tightens the psoas – making it literally ready to run or fight. The psoas helps you to spring into action – or curl you up into a protective ball.

If we constantly contract the psoas to due to stress or tension , the muscle eventually begins to shorten leading to a host of painful conditions including low back pain, sacroiliac pain, sciatica, disc problems, spondylolysis, scoliosis, hip degeneration, knee pain, menstruation pain, infertility, and digestive problems.

A tight psoas not only creates structural problems, it constricts the organs, puts pressure on nerves, interferes with the movement of fluids, and impairs diaphragmatic breathing.

In fact, “The psoas is so intimately involved in such basic physical and emotional reactions, that a chronically tightened psoas continually signals your body that you’re in danger, eventually exhausting the adrenal glands and depleting the immune system.”

And according to Koch, this situation is exacerbated by many things in our modern lifestyle, from car seats to constrictive clothing, from chairs to shoes that distort our posture, curtail our natural movements and further constrict our psoas.

Koch believes the first step in cultivating a healthy psoas is to release unnecessary tension. But “to work with the psoas is not to try to control the muscle, but to cultivate the awareness necessary for sensing its messages. This involves making a conscious choice to become somatically aware.”

A relaxed psoas is the mark of play and creative expression. Instead of the contracted psoas, ready to run or fight, the relaxed and released psoas is ready instead to lengthen and open, to dance. In many yoga poses (like tree) the thighs can’t fully rotate outward unless the psoas releases. A released psoas allows the front of the thighs to lengthen and the leg to move independently from the pelvis, enhancing and deepening the lift of the entire torso and heart.

Koch believes that by cultivating a healthy psoas, we can rekindle our body’s vital energies by learning to reconnect with the life force of the universe. Within the Taoist tradition the psoas is spoken of as the seat or muscle of the soul, and surrounds the lower “Dan tien” a major energy center of body. A flexible and strong psoas grounds us and allows subtle energies to flow through the bones, muscles and joints.

Koch writes “The psoas, by conducting energy, grounds us to the earth, just as a grounding wire prevents shocks and eliminates static on a radio. Freed and grounded, the spine can awaken”…“ As gravitational flows transfer weight through bones, tissue, and muscle, into the earth, the earth rebounds, flowing back up the legs and spine, energizing, coordinating and animating posture, movement and expression. It is an uninterrupted conversation between self, earth, and cosmos.”

So, it might be worth it, next time you practice, to tune in and pay attention to what your bio-intelligent psoas has to say."

Namaste!
Becca Chopra

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