What is Chakra Healing?

Chakra healing is the concept and practice in alternative medicine that is used to indicate the corrective alignment of one or more of several spinning vortices of energy contained within the etheric, or subtle body, of a human. There is no one specific belief or modality regarding the chakras; instead, the chakras are used to describe the vortices that exist within many traditional eastern disciplines and holistic medicine. The word chakra literally translates as turning wheel in Sanskrit. Chakras are considered to be the center of prana, or life energy, of the human body.

When the chakras are not properly balanced or aligned, the term chakra healing is used to describe either the re-balancing or alignment of those blocked chakras. It is believed that when chakras become dormant, for whatever reason, then energy ceases to flow and creates an imbalance in the physical body. When enough energy becomes stagnate, disease occurs. Chakra healing is therefore used as a practice to remove the blockage, either through diet, visualization, meditation, or any combination of the three, allowing the energy to flow freely again. Predominantly, chakra healing is an Ayurvedic practice, and practitioners are not required to be either licensed or governed by any specific medical body.

The determination that someone's chakras are imbalanced or blocked and no longer spinning freely is generally an intuitive one depending on the methodology in question. Generally, the seven main chakras that are involved in chakra healing correlate to specific locations within the human body. They include: Muladhara, or root chakra; Swadhisthana, or sacral chakra; Manipura, or solar plexus chakra; Anahata,or heart chakra; Vishuddha, or throat chakra; Ajna, or brow chakra; and Sahasrara, or crown chakra.

According to some practices, the symptoms of unbalanced or blocked chakras can include lethargy, irritation, ill health, depression, and moodiness. A variety of disease, depending upon the extent of the blockage and the length of time that it has been blocked, also can be an indicator of a blocked chakra. The purpose of chakra healing is to return these chakras to a healthy, spinning state.

There are several ways to align or balance the chakras in chakra healing depending on the modality of the practitioner. Varied methods can include anything from radically changing the diet to entering a state of quiet reflection. This reflection can include visualizing each chakra as turning, intuitively sensing when the energy has become unblocked.