CHAKRA THREE, SOLAR PLEXUS/NAVEL

         CHAKRA THREE, SOLAR PLEXUS/NAVEL

This week brings us to Chakra three which is located between your sternum and navel. This is your solar plexus region, the seat of your will and this area deals with combustion and metabolism.

The elemental correspondence here is fire. The equation is matter (chakra 1) + movement (chakra2) + action, energy (chakra 3) = power (a new state.
The color that vibrates here is yellow and the Sanskrit word for this area means ‘lustrous gem’

Chakra three’s job is to develop your ability to stand by your own convictions and your ability to forge unique states of existence. When the qualities of chakra one combine with those of chakra two and are acted upon by the transforming qualities of chakra three your energies are raised into new dimensions which cause change within the thing (your body) itself. Very like wood (matter) is acted on by movement (heat) converts the matter to energy which creates the change into the new state of ash. In the chakra system the ‘ash’ is the raised energy that carries you to those new dimensions that I mentioned before.

Here is where your inner critic will sound off and will lower your self-confidence if you have any issues with your self-worth or self-reliance. This is the seat of your personal power and who or what is holding it; ideally, it should be you. This is also where your focus begins to change so that you are open to others’ points of view and opinions’. You develop a willingness to reexamine your concepts of power and begin to see the difference in ‘the power to’ and ‘the power over’.

When you are out of balance in this chakra you will be overly sensitive to the perceived reactions of others, you may appear indifferent or cold. You will find that you feel the need for the opinions of others to support your ideas and you will be over critical of yourself. You may feel inadequate and unworthy of love. You may even suffer from self-loathing.

Remember that your inner self is much like a child; it believes all things both negative and positive because it has no filters. With no filters your body will react instantaneously. (Much like when you are frightened by what you think is a bug or snake only to realize that it was only a fuzzy or the garden hose) therefore taking all criticism to heart is not a good idea.

When you are in balance in your third chakra you are able to accept the responsibilities (and only those) that are truly yours. You are confident in your own actions and abilities. You can choose and maintain your course of action without the approval of others. You have the courage and strength to be who you truly are and are able to act without overpowering others or allowing them to overpower you.

You will know for a fact that you are in balance when you can take responsibility for yourself without feeling the need to blame others or act and think like a victim.
The goals of the third chakra are to create new understanding of the viewpoints and opinions of others; your ability to collect new information that equals dawning enlightenment and shifting paradigms; to learn the importance of balance; becoming aware of larger, Universal patterns; your conscious combining of your mind and actions to drive your choices and create your will so that you recognize where you have undesired actions in your life and you can stop them and make better choices, ones more worthy of you and where you want your life to be.

RECAP OF CHAKRA THREE;
1) Between your sternum and navel
2) Is your solar power, your uniqueness, your “I AM”
3) Is the seat of your will
Physicality; Your digestive system, Middle spine, Muscles

Issues; Personal power; who is holding yours (should be you), Your sense of place in the world, Your self-confidence and self-esteem, Your ability to stand by your convictions

Blocked by; shame and disappointment in yourself

Unblocked by; accepting your shortcomings and forgiving yourself

Bright Blessings, Chessie

© Chessie Roberts 2010, all rights reserved

CHAKRA TWO

                               CHAKRA TWO

The second chakra area is called ‘The Belly’ or ‘The Spleen’ Chakra and is located between your navel and internal reproductive organs. It corresponds to your sacral vertebrae, and the nerve ganglion called the solar plexus. Your sciatic nerve is attached here at your body’s center of motion; it is also referred to as the ‘sea of life’.

The elemental correspondence for this area is water because all your body’s liquid functions are in its prevue; circulation, urinary elimination, sexuality and reproduction. It is also your seat of emotion. These emotions can create pleasure, movement and nurture. All of which are natural and desirable.

Dr. Masaru Emoto in this book “Hidden Messages in Water” tells us that an adult is 70% water and children are a bit higher %, which makes us tidal beings. Because of this, the second chakra area is related to the moon and is affected by it just like the tides are. This tidal cycle causes oceans of energy, both inside and out, and gives chakra two subtle qualities of its’ own. This is why a person with a true passion for a goal seems to reach it in, what looks to others, like an effortless manner.

The ebb and flow of desire creates a duality that is important in stirring movement and change. This is the reason you long to learn how to reach out to others to absorb and share knowledge.

This chakra is visualized in a vibrant orange. The Sanskrit name for this chakra comes from the root ‘to sweeten’ and refers to the pleasure derived from our sexuality. Here is where you learn to accept the fact that you are endowed with a sexual nature by the Creator and it is OK to like it.

The job of the second chakra is to move you from the survival mode of number one to the acknowledgment of a second caregiver; i.e. another person in your life, to help you become independent, to stand alone, to develop your personal strength and be self-sufficient. Your maturation gives you a need to unite with another person in order to create a whole. Here is where the understanding of ‘self’ includes awareness of others on a new level. It also includes a longing for unity to fill the void that is brought on by this new awareness. At the same time there is a need for the separateness you worked so hard to achieve in chakra one. You need to learn balance of your time/your needs with the time you share with another person. This will be so in all facets of your life.

You will want to encounter differences that will stimulate questions that challenge your essence. These challenges = growth. Growth=desire. Desire= action. Action=vitality. Vitality= movement. Movement = new levels of power and love.
If you find that desire has become need that is born of pain, tension and/or estrangement you can be sure that you are out of balance in your second chakra. All of this comes from parts of yourself that you that you have let go of when you should have held on or ones that you are trying to repress. You begin to look outside of yourself for substances to make you feel ether something or nothing. These attempts damage you, both physically and mentally causing you to push away those who can help you or pull yourself away so that a viscous cycle is started. Every failure creates an attachment to the method you have chosen (drinking, drugs, sex, excessive time online etc.) hopping that it will work next time to make your imbalance correct itself, but instead you get locked into the feeling that you have no escape.

The water based chakras’ flexibility and fluidity of desire is good. Know that the form of the desire is not as important as the force of the desire. The force is the root of passion that equals growth toward power and understanding. Desires act like waters movement, they ebb and flow and we handle them accordingly

Blockages create pressure. Rising pressure erodes the blockage. Just as water seeks the path of least resistance, not caring what it must flow around or what shape it must take to get where it is going, desire acts in the same way. If blocked, desire will manifest another way; if it is thwarted completely, you will experience illness, addiction or dangerous behavior.

Balance here = you know pleasure is Creator Given and an essential facet of life to ensure your body’s’ health and harmony and you enjoy it without shame or guilt. You can know you are in balance when “Every perfect action is accompanied by pleasure. By that you can tell you ought to do it.” (The French writer Andre Gide.)

Here a goal=movement toward pleasure which is the root of desire. Desire= the seed of movement; they build on each other to keep us whole and balanced. For balanced, whole people, pleasure attracts and pain repels. Pleasure is the rejuvenator of the spirit, the healer of personal and cultural relationships; it tells you that ‘all is well-situation resolved’ and it give the freedom to turn your attention to other things.

RECAP CHAKRA TWO
1) Location, womb/belly
2) Connection to lunar cycle, wisdom and creativity
3) Fertility

PHYSICALITY; lower vertebrae, pelvis, bladder, hips

ISSUES; change, emotions, ability to see beauty in others, delight in your own creations, satisfaction of your own desires

BLOCKED BY; guilt

UNBLOCKED BY; accepting the reality that things happen because of you or someone else and not allowing them to cloud your mind or poison your energy and forgive.

Bright Blessings, Chessie

© Chessie Roberts 2010 all rights reserved

YOUR ROOT CHAKRA

                                CHAKRA ONE

Chakra one is located at the base of your spine and corresponds to your coccyx bone and the lowest nerve bundle in your biology.

Each chakra has an elemental correspondence and the one for this area is Earth. Earth represents your form, stability, your most condensed state of matter. This makes it ideal for the lowest (not the least important) end of the chakra spectrum.
This chakra is visualized in a deep, vibrant red. This is the color of the beginnings and life. Red is also the longest wavelength and the slowest vibration in the human spectrum of sight. The Sanskrit name for this area means ‘root’ or ‘support’ which is just what it is.

Its’ job is to be the first line of support in your energy support system. Here is where your sciatic nerve is located. It is the largest and longest peripheral nerve in your body, and it is this that keeps your connection to the sustaining Earth.
This is where your survival impulses connect; where needs such as food, shelter, clothing and physical health arise. Your survival energies (just like everything else) must be balanced and directed in a healthy way so as not to dominate your every moment.

When this base is under stimulated, you can become consumed by fears of losing food, clothing and/or shelter. This fear will cause loss of health in your physical body. You can become stuck here, creating a self-defeating spiral that is detrimental to your growth in any direction and your health on all levels. This will create a loop of unresolved conflicts in your system leading to an ever downward spiral with the feeling that you have no control. You will develop what I call the ‘Eeyore Syndrome’ causing you to lose friends, lose your support. Then lose yourself to ‘victim think’.

When this base chakra is over stimulated you become attached to things in the physical world. This is where pack rat/hoarders, shop-a-holics and the need to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ comes from. If any of this sounds or feels familiar you may want to do a little work here.

You know you’re balanced when all your needs are comfortably met; if your physicality has no issues with survival and you have no nagging feeling that ‘something is wrong with you’. It is never too late to reassess and to create changes and grow toward betterment.

Your body is the home of your spirit so it must be balanced in all areas. You must be consciously aware of what is going on inside. Remember, the physical world is not your goal, it is just a tool to help you learn what lessons you have been put here to learn. Lessons that will lead to you raising your spirituality and rejoining you body mind and spirit to achieve the balance that you are striving for.

RECAP OF CHAKRA ONE
1) Root, base
2) Is your connection to spirit
3) Being at home on the Earth
4) Security
5) Survival

Physicality; controls your spine and base, feet immune system and skeleton
Issues; survival, instincts (i.e. Work family, health, trust, nourishment, fitness.)

Blocked by; fear

Unblocked by; surrendering all your fears to the flow of Universal energy.

Bright Blessings Chessie

©2010 Chessie Roberts, all rights reserved

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT BALANCE; WHATS’ THE TIE IN?

 MIND, BODY, SPIRIT BALANCE; INTRODUCTION

                         WHAT’S THE TIE IN?

So far in this blog series, I have talked about the body and a lot about the mind as well as a bit about spirit. I have even addressed balance, but what ties them together? What is the core that makes this a functioning, cyclical and renewing system? The answer is our energetic spine.

Just as the spine in our physical body carries the nerves and vessels that nourish and inform our physicality and mind so that we are functioning as well as possible, our energetic spine creates the conduit that connects spirit with biology so that we are linked in a balanced way. For this conversation we will refer to the energetic spine as our chakra (say chock- rah) system.

For the sake of keeping things in an understandable order, I will start at the bottom and work upward. I want to say before I get started that in working with the chakra system you will find that the learning and function will not be linear. While each chakra builds upon the ones under it, as well as depends on the ones above it, the “Ah-ha moments” that will occur during your studies will cause you to revisit chakras that you thought you were finished with. This re-visitation is a normal process and function of living, learning, gaining wisdom, and growing, so don’t let it throw you. As you progress through each level of your chakra system, you will have more and more of these insights that will lead to more growth, learning and sharing.

As I have told you before, Evolution of Self; Journey into Mind, Body, Spirit Balance is an experiential processes that uses many different philosophies and this is only one of them. I feel that you will benefit a great deal from a better understanding of how you work as a whole. Your body and mind need spiritual connection in order to create the balance that is required for a balanced, whole, happy life style. The following chakra blogs will just brush the surface of each level, the classes go deeper, but there is usable information that will benefit you.
Next week I will address chakra 1. Until then,

Bright Blessings, Chessie

©Chessie Roberts 2010 all rights reserved

YOU ARE DENIED NOTHING, EVER!

             YOU ARE DENIED NOTHING, EVER!

What makes you angry, sad, miserable, jealous, ashamed, guilty? How about indifferent, vengeful, disdainful, demanding, hopeless or apathetic? Know that all of these emotions come from the fear end of your emotional spectrum.

Each and every one of these emotions does several things to you,

1) they make you ill on some level of your being,

 2) they lower your spiritual vibrations so that you are farther and farther from your source which will make it harder for you to get back up there, and

3) they will bring down everyone around you until you are surrounded by those who like it down there or

4) you will have no support at all. And

5) YOU WILL GET MORE OF WHAT IS BOTHERING YOU.

The reason for this is that the Universe has no filters. It hears/feels your emotions and gives you more of whatever your emotions are putting out there. So, you ask, “How do I turn this around?”

You start by changing your emotional response to everything. Don’t panic, you can do this. Begin by looking for things, anything, that make your emotions respond from the love end of the spectrum. What makes you feel loving, merciful, at peace, satisfied, joyous, blissful, understanding or forgiving? How about illuminated, serene, or optimistic? All of these come from the love end of the spectrum and they raise your vibrations up to meet the Universe, and it responds to them too. The difference is in what you receive, MORE OF WHAT YOU DO WANT.

Which way do you want your life to go; up or down; into love or fear; into want and need or abundance and prosperity? The choice is yours to make. Remember, you are denied nothing, ever, all you need to do if ask/feel.
Bright Blessings, Chessie

© Chessie Roberts 2010 all rights reserved

WHERE IS YOUR FOCUS?

                WHERE IS YOUR FOCUS?

When you contemplate your life and where it is now and where it is going, where is your focus? Are you looking at what you have or what you don’t have? What are you miserable about or what are you grateful for? Where have you been or where are you going? What do you truly want or what you think you should want? Are you concerned about what others think you should be doing or are you focused on what you truly want to be doing?

In short are you living your life or one that others have told you that you should be living? If you are not happy in your life, what are you doing to change it? Do you know how to change?

Let’s talk about your mind-stream for a moment. Your mind-stream is what I call your regular or constant thought track. If you are in the habit of thinking about what you don’t want, like, feel etc. what you are actually doing is calling all of that into your life, especially if you feel any emotion about these thoughts. The Universe hears/feels your negative, hurtful and ugly vibrations of “don’t/can’t have” and answers, “OK, you’ve got it.”

Let’s turn that around to a better way. Decide what you truly want and get emotional about that. The Universe will hear/feel your raised, positive, loving vibrations and answers, “OK, you’ve got it.”

OK now ask yourself which of these is better for, and more worthy of you? Do you want to lower your life’s vibrations and wallow in victim think? Or would you rather raise your vibrations to meet those of the Universe and become the happy, successful “I CAN” that you were meant to be? As always, the choice is yours and up to you.

I wish you best, worthy, balanced choices and bright blessings Chessie

© Chessie Roberts 2010 all rights reserved

WHEN I AM THE ENEMY WHO MUST BE LOVED

WHEN I AM THE ENEMY WHO MUST BE LOVED

CG Jung said, “That I feed the hungry, forgive an insult and love my enemy- these are great virtues. But what if I discover that the poorest of beggars and the most impudent of offenders are all within me, and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness; that I myself am the enemy who must be loved- what then?”

As we grow and learn how to become the best person we can become, we often find ourselves in the position of being our own worst enemy; weak and “most impudent of offenders”. Not only that, but we realize that we are the ones who put ourselves in our current state of needing love, healing, understanding and forgiveness.

Self-love, kindness and forgiveness are things that we learn to suppress in our culture. They are seen as being selfish and self-serving when in actuality you must love and forgive yourself before being able to truly love another. Sort of like putting on your own oxygen mask before helping the person next to you on a plane. This wisdom is born of maturity, healing, growth and experience.

Maybe it is then, when you feed, heal, love and forgive yourself first that you are strong enough to give to others. If your well is dry, if your need is great then you don't have much to share; but still, if you attempt sharing while caring for yourself, you will receive what you need and grow.

Bright Blessings, Chessie
© Chessie Roberts 2010, all rights reserved