Our root chakra is the foundation of our energy body. A healthy root chakra grounds you. It helps you feel safe and supported in your endeavors throughout life. This important chakra however can become distressed by well intended ideas in life. Read on to learn about how to open and strengthen your root chakra.

Signs of Root Chakra Imbalances

Without the grounding effect of the root chakra, we can become energetically top heavy. This can result in you feeling anxious or emotional, depending on whether the overactive part is in the thought centers or the emotional centers. Physically, you may experience discomfort or alterations in the function of your bladder, colon, as well as your in your legs.

Sources of Root Chakra Imbalance

People say that not feeling secure in your basic needs leads to root chakra issues. While this is true, many people are doing okay in regards to shelter, food, and physical safety. In this post I want to focus on people who are okay in these regards, but continues to experience issues with their root chakra.

Not Accepting Our Self

One of the most insidious ways that we block our root chakra is by not accepting our self. This can be made more challenging by growing up in an environment where you did not feel accepted by your family. We cannot change that past but we can give our self the grace of accepting our self.

Where people go off course is that they think they can become accepted by becoming a certain way. If they were successful enough, if they were pretty enough, if they were nice enough, then surely they will be accepted. But this is seeking acceptance from outside to fill a hole inside. That hole can really be filled by your own unconditional self acceptance.

We know how to give unconditional acceptance. We accept our pets, dogs, cats, birds. They are surely not perfect. They vomit on inconvenient places, they bark and wake you up, they damage your furniture. But you accept that about them. And because you accept them, your love is pure. Are we ourselves less worthy of acceptance than our dogs and cats and birds? (Some of us do think that but really, you deserve it too ha ha)

Not Accepting Our Past

Another insidious way that we block our root chakra is by not accepting our past or past self. Let’s make an innocent example. You may have started a new year’s regiment to exercise and eat healthy. You wish you didn’t eat those extra pie slices over Christmas holiday though.

But the wish you didn’t eat those pies is a wish that you were different in the past. That is a form of not accepting the past or not accepting your past self. This sends some of your energy backwards in time, or really, into an imagined memory of the past. This prevents you from opening your root chakra fully in the present moment. If you accept the reality, that on Christmas eve, you were not someone with the willpower to not eat the pie, then you will have embraced the reality of who you were. You don’t have to spend your energy running or hiding from the truth. You can put all of your energy into the present moment to create your ideal future.

Shame and Guilt

Often times these form the biggest blocks to accepting our self. There is some notion that you believe in, some standard of virtue. Often they are societal, moral, or rational in origin. You should be this nice. You should help more people in the world. You should wake up earlier. Should is a dangerous word. It implies how things ought to be (and often times how you are not that way). It’s easy to say you were not good enough in these ways. It sounds totally logical to say that. But that belief becomes the hindrance to your growth. These moral, societal, and rational goals are aspirations that we can aim for. But accept yourself and move towards your aspirations without shame or guilt. Another powerful tool for transforming guilt & shame is through the practice of gratitude.

As you free yourself of your shame and guilt, as you realize it’s okay that you were not and that you are still not perfect, then we have removed some of the most difficult blockages to our root chakra. Let’s talk next on how to energize your root chakra.

Energizing Your root Chakra

I think unblocking ourselves is often times the hardest part. We are bound to our past, to people, to seemingly-good-ideas. These bounds of karma restricts our ability to become our full self. But once free of them, we naturally grow towards integration, towards becoming our authentic selves, just as cubs naturally become bears and kittens naturally become cats. There are simple exercises though to facilitate this process:

Mantra for Energizing Root Chakra

1. Sit crossed legged in Muktasana
2. Place your left heel against your perineum.
3. Place your right foot in front of your left foot, right heel approximately before your left ankle.
4. If your knees are not comfortably rested against the floor you can place pillows underneath them. If you cannot get comfortable, sitting in a chair is okay.
5. Place your hands over your knees in the gyan mudra, the wisdom seal, palms up.
6. Close your eyes.
7. Chant the “Ah” mantra, like you are at a dentist office. Hold the sound for as long as you comfortably can.
8. Feel the mantra sound vibrate your lower abdomen and pelvis. You may play around with the pitch of your “ahhhhhh” to calibrate this.
9. Repeat the Ah mantra 7x, 21x, 49x or 108x. (Depending on how much time you have and how much you want to work on it at the moment)
10. Take a moment to express your gratitude for your practice environment that allowed you to practice safely and peacefully.

Building Moral Courage

Building moral courage improves your ability to live and act authentically, in the face of differing expectations that come from the outside world. The key to building moral courage is through cultivating your courage to speak honestly. Speaking honestly teaches you to live with integrity. By living with integrity, I mean that you live in a way that is consistent with your personal truths. This integrity manifests as the strength of your root chakra, and your root chakra in turn protects you from everything that challenges your integrity.

Start by speaking the small truths, and in private, but gradually work towards speaking the hard truths to others. Speaking honestly draws out the voice of your deepest and most genuine self. As your inner self is drawn out, it becomes accepted, fortified, and an integrated part of your whole self. The practice of honesty is one of the 3 guiding principles of the One Sun Way. You can find instructions and more details through the link.

In Summary

Accept your past and past self for its imperfections. Build your moral courage to be your authentic self. Apply your energy to improving your present and creating your ideal future. Practice the simple “ahhhhh” sounding mantra to energize your root chakra.

Do this and you will feel a deep sense of security that prepares you for your journey forward! In reading this, did you think of any well meaning ideas that has held you back from accepting yourself? If you don’t mind, please share it in the comments!