Root Chakra

So what is the Root chakra?

Well it is the first of the 7 main chakras. It is visualised as a red, four petaled lotus
flower and it is associated with the element of Earth. This is not surprising given
that at this foundation or base level it is so important to be grounded and feel
deeply connected to the earth and your tribe or community. The chakra itself is a
downward facing one and is located at the perineum, just underneath the tip of the
spine. Its proper name is „Muladhara‟ which literally means „root basis‟. Much
like the roots of a tree seeping down into the soil, this energy centre helps us create
a solid footing for our journey, a place for us in this life. It is here our personal
power and well-being comes into play.

Is considered the beginning of your emotional journey, the place where our earliest
paradigms and feelings of deep security and your place in the world come from.
Your will to live, vitality and essential physical function all depend upon this one
chakra, which is why the health of your this particular chakra is so deeply
connected to your spending habits, body weight, fears and drive to succeed. This
chakra is imperative to our existence; we could not exist or function without it. In
order to work on higher chakras and more developed areas of life, you need to first
take care of your foundation which is all about your basic needs. Things to ask
yourself are, have you got your life together in terms of money and a place to live,
food on the table, clothes on your back? Because if these basic needs are not met
then you cannot have a stable foundation from which to build upon, therefore
impacting all the other chakras. As a weak or imbalanced root chakra will only
serve to send negative, stagnant or stifled energy upwards into the rest of the
chakra system. And as we know from law of attraction, like attracts like, so this
negative energy could result in negative life affirming affirmations which in turn
manifest to give us what we want, or in this case don‟t want, it is like a self-
fulfilling prophecy with no regard as to whether that is positive or negative.

If you feel quite 'alien' like you do not belong here, or your body wasn't designed
for this world, or you are prone to be very airy fairy, and dizzy, it is advisable to
work on this chakra in detail. You need to get grounded and connected to Mother
Earth, so your roots, so as to bring energy downwards again and not live entirely in
your upper chakras. The Muladhara is a real powerhouse centre, and can help us
regain our basic self-confidence needed to undertake our journey of life. It directly
relates to our childhood and early development. Like we said it is where we first
become aware of our energy consciousness, and where our spirit enters our
physical body, channeling the necessary energetic foundation for us to start our
journey through our physical life. It is activated at birth when our umbilical cord
attaching us to the life force of our mother is cut. It is also where we store our
first beliefs that we created about the world whether they serve us or not. E.g.
when you were a child you were probably taught not to stick your hand in the fire
as you would get burnt, and this served us well. But when you were a child you
would also have picked up beliefs around money, around your place in the world,
around survival that perhaps no longer serve you and which you want to release.
E.g. perhaps you saw your parents or a lot of the people in your neighborhood
struggle for money, working long hours in a hard grafting job, and still never
seeing the rewards, only ever scraping by, this would have caused you to form the
belief that money was hard to get and that you have to work hard for money. So
no matter how much you said you want to be different, perhaps you went to
college, got a great job, you would still be experiencing the same pattern playing
out in your life, unless you choose to release it and form new beliefs. To do so
takes work on your root chakra at an energy level.

Physically the root chakra relates to our bones / joints, rectum, immune system and
reproductive organs and adrenal glands, our fight or flight response, as well as our
energy / vitality levels. Psychologically it is all about whether we feel safe,
protected and secure. Are we provided for? Or do you incessantly worry about
finances or lack of, do you feel debts are mounding up, like you are scraping by
pay cheque to pay cheque and are holding on by the tip of the iceberg? Do you
feel incapable of providing for yourself efficiently, and you are always waiting on
the worst to happen, to lose your job, get evicted? These are all signs of excessive
worry and anxiety which is a major clue that there is a root chakra imbalance. This
part of your life forms the root or basis for everything else, so if you don't take care
of it first, the rest won't come together. If your root chakra is shaky, everything
else - sex life, social life, relationships, communication, intuition and spiritually –
will all be shaky so to speak. It will all be thrown off because it's not resting on a
secure foundation. A healthy root chakra allows us to be comforted in the fact that
we know the Universe has our back and that all our basic needs will be met, we
will not only be able to survive but to thrive and this then helps boost our
manifesting abilities.

The root chakra is all about our personal right to have. And psychically as it is
connected to our sense of smell, it is very strong for those with the ability of
clairscent. Psychically it is also about bring forward information from another
dimension into this one. It corresponds with the astrological signs of Aries, Taurus,
Scorpio and Capricorn, and the planets Mars, Pluto and Saturn. And the mantra for
this chakra is 'LAM'.

Symptoms you may experience when you have a deficient first chakra:

Insecure / anxious / excessive worry over everything and nothing

Mild uneasiness to full-blown paranoia

Expect the next crisis

Have difficulty manifesting the essential requirements for safe living

Secretly believe you are not worthy or entitled to the things in life that bring
security

An over-stimulated first chakra

Sometimes, in an attempt to correct a deficient or weak first chakra, a person might

overcompensate, causing the first chakra to become overactive. If this is the case,
your focus on survival becomes exaggerated, leaving you feeling as though
everything potentially threatens your safety and security. You become aggressive,
and selfish rather than selfless, resulting in a "me first" approach to life, becoming
pushy, manipulative, self-centered and greedy or indifferent to others in order to
survive, taking what you can when you can, no matter what.

Symptoms of an over-stimulated first chakra are:

Nagging and persistent psychic insecurities

Anxieties, especially those centered your basic need for survival and security

Excessive worry about money even if you have adequate financial means

Trust issues

Being guarded, defensive, don‟t open up easily

Being unreasonably suspicious of others

Being very tight with money and overly frugal

Feeling that the world is not a safe place

Feeling abandoned

Constant worry
What causes deficiency?

Many things can cause your first chakra to become deficient; some are rooted in
the past and some are in the present.

However, the most influential factor in health or deficiency in the past for the first
chakra is the family environment you experienced at your birth and during your
early years. Things that happened at the time of your birth and throughout your
early years of development have a long lasting impact upon your Root chakra
because during your early childhood your senses were heightened and your
sensitivity increased, as well as your vulnerability. Some events or people you
experienced during such time can have a lasting impact on your sense of security
or lack of as may be the case. E.g. If you grew up in a secure environment, where
your parents or guardians were calm, grounded, loving, and nurturing, resulting in
you feeling secure, loved and safe, generally speaking this should cause your first
chakra to be solid. If, however, your world was unstable, maybe one parent was
absent, your parents struggled financially or there were a lot of disagreements in
your house, then you most likely internalised this energy, leaving you feeling
threatened and insecure, destabilising your natural psychic equilibrium at the core.

Things that may cause a first chakra deficiency:

Not having enough money, attention, space, affection, or comfort when growing up
– this instills beliefs in your poverty consciousness such as you will never have
enough money, you don‟t deserve a nice house, or attention, the world is unfair,
others can have more material things than they know what to do with but you will
always have to struggle, never having nice things.

Being raised in a threatening environment or by excessively strict parents /

guardians – when kids are unnecessarily punished as a child or suffer physical
abuse this again is stored in our root chakra memories and the trauma causes us to
feel weak and unable to defend ourselves as adults. We may then seek out partners
who reaffirm this to us and enter into domestic violence. Likewise we can go the
opposite and as they say „monkey see, monkey do‟, because we seen and
experienced this behaviour we feel it is okay for us to demonstrate the same
behaviours.

Being in the vibration of those who were, are chronically addictive, angry,
depressed or unreliable – again this causes us to feel unsafe, not protected, or
provided for, and if we witness enough of it when we are young we can begin to
believe that‟s just how things are, it‟s the norm and more likely than not we grow
up to demonstrate the same behaviour.

Unstable relationships – if you experienced a lack of connection with your family

or community this can have a disempowering effect on your root chakra and cause
blockages.

Very religious households / communities – being brought up by carers who had

very radical religious or political views for that matter, can have a damaging effect
on our root chakra. Religion ideally is meant to empower and provide us with a
sense of inner strength and faith. It can provide a sense of purpose, and security,
safety, but if you are raised by someone with extreme religious or political views
that condone violence, anger or condemnation then chances are you will feel
particularly high on survival instincts, you may lose your sense of security or self-
confidence, and believe that you need to perform the same behaviour in order to fit
in with your tribe for fear of rejection or disapproval from your community.

Traumatic birth – it has been scientifically proven in recent years that there is a
correlation between behaviours and emotions experienced later in life and a
traumatic birth. Eg. Someone delivered by forceps while store that memory and
later in life develop an obsessive desire to control. Or if your mother had to be
induced, you may go on to resent interruptions or anyone trying to control you in
any form. This is because a baby‟s earliest memories are stored in their root
chakra and if any of these were traumatic they can result in a long lasting energy
blockage.

Failure to bond with your mother – similarly a failure to bond with your mother at
the outset of your life for whatever reason, whether it be that your mother suffered
post natal depression or you were ill and so your mother was unable to nurse you
in the first part of your life, creates anxiety and nervousness about your personal
security and causes you to feel you have to fend for yourself. Hence why hospitals
so strongly try to promote skin on skin contact when a child is just born. This
could also be looked at through what you experienced whilst in your mothers
womb. If she was resentful of being pregnant, or something as simple as what
most people experience come near the end of a pregnancy and the mother wishes it
was just all over, getting really frustrated and wanting her body back to herself
without someone else constantly bouncing on her bladder, we are absorbing all that
negativity and again it is stored resulting in feeling unloved or unsafe.

Caesarian section especially if it is an emergency C section and the mother hasn‟t

had the required time to prepare herself emotionally and psychologically. This
trauma is the stored in the root chakra which is why mothers can report feeling the
effects of the c section long afterwards. We as women build up a great energy in
preparation for birth, which most presumptuously should be natural and when it
doesn‟t go to plan like this, then that pent up energy doesn‟t get to surge like it
should have and instead remains there lying dormant and stagnant, and quite often
leading to postpartum depression as they have not had the correct outlet to vent
their energy

Abdominal surgery eg operations on the kidneys / liver/ appendix because these

are all seen as critical surgeries more times than not saving a patient‟s life, and
therefore put a strain on the root chakra as they kick in the survival instinct.

Your root chakra can be affected by things in your present which bring about a
feeling of instability or unsurety such as lose of job, change of home, beginning or
end of a relationship etc.

Strengthening your root chakra is an ongoing process because it requires that you
constantly adapt to the ever-changing world around you. Your roots and beliefs
need to go deep so that they can bend with the ups and downs of life without
breaking. While it is desirable to have a healthy and solid foundation in life, this
stability must come from you, and your choices rather than depend on the
circumstances around you to remain balanced. This is profoundly difficult due to
the changing influences, e.g in todays‟ world many people are losing their homes,
whether it be via financial loss, war or natural disaster, job cuts never seem to end,
people are losing money in their investments and pensions, all of which destabilise
the first chakra immensely. So rather than trying to establish security and safety by
trying to control your external environment, which none of us can ever do fully, it
is by far more reasonable, and grounding to your first chakra to create an internal
environment that supports you, no matter what the external conditions in the world
around you are, which you can do.

Start by paying attention to what calms and soothes you, what helps you feel safe
and secure, and then to the best of your ability, regardless of the conditions around
you, preserve those conditions, no matter what.

Another important element to strengthening the first chakra is to maintain DAILY

routines that support you no matter where you are, such as going to bed on time,
eating healthy meals, and meditating and taking time for quiet relaxation. Basic
routine is highly important to the health of the first chakra as it will help you feel
more rooted, and a sense of comfort, remember back to when you were a child,
why routines were so highly recommended especially for bed time so as to help
you unwind and process the day. This will help strengthen you and provide
resilience for when live then decides to throw a spanner in the works in order to
take you off your steady track, you will have the strength and courage needed to
add quickly without going into meltdown.

Way is which you can help balance or create a healthy first chakra:

Grounding – you can do grounding and protecting exercises to ground you

physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. You can walk barefoot
preferably outside in nature eg on your grass or on the each, but when weather and
situations don‟t permit then you can walk around your home barefoot, this really
helps strengthen your bond with Mother Earth.

Nature - Enjoy some time in nature whether it be a stroll in the park, a walk along
the beach, meditating beside the water, doing tai chi.

Exercise – Most sports are excellent for the root chakra, if you are fit and able try
running, jogging, power walking, or cycling to reduce stress and increase your
physical vitality. Martial arts are great for the root chakra. Do some squats.
Dancing is a fab way to help balance the root chakra especially if it involves
shaking your hips, try belly dancing, zumba or flamenco. Yoga is great for all
chakras, poses particularly beneficial to the root chakra are: the bridge pose, seated
angle pose, standing mountain pose and standing forward bend pose. And ladies
let‟s not forget those kegel exercises.

Gardening – taking care of a plant or flowers will really help you connect with
Mother Earth.

Do some pottery or clay sculpting

Learn more about your community and culture

Have a pedicure or a foot massage, anything that takes care of your feet.

Donate money to charity

Be mindful of your thoughts, especially those such as „I don‟t have enough‟ or „I

can‟t afford it‟ or „I‟m not good enough‟ and try to replace these with positive
thoughts. Affirmations are particularly helpful:

“I am safe and secure. I have what I need.”

“I am grounded and protected.”

“I am comfortable with my body.”

“I take responsibility for my life.”

“I trust the natural flow of life. I trust that the Universe has my back. I trust that
my basic needs will be met.”
Prayers or angelic healing

Mudras

Crystal elixirs – this is simply soaking crystals in water and then drinking it.
Obviously you need to take responsibility that the water is clean and the crystals
can be put in water and are safe to absorb.

Keeping a clean and beautiful home is also important to the first chakra. This is
because having a beautiful and secure home will keep you safe and grounded and
keeps your root chakra strong. Your house is an extension of you. If you live in a
messy, ugly, unwelcoming space that is full of clutter will put strain on your root
chakra as you won‟t enjoy being in your home. This can also be seen as an
extension of you so you not feeling comfortable in your body. This applies to your
car too, as your car is an extension of you on the go.

Stable relationships – if you are in abusive relationships or in friendships with

someone who you have nothing in common and you feel disconnected from this
puts strain on your root chakra.

Become responsible for giving yourself whatever you need.

Create a nurturing bedroom to rest and relax in

Sleep more

Wear solid shoes (not unstable high heels)

Release old limiting beliefs

Colour - red (wear more red coloured clothing especially at the physical site of the
chakra, so in this case red underwear which helps promote feelings of confidence
and support, or red socks)

Food - All things natural that aid the digestive system such as figs, oats, fibre,
wheat and grains. As well as any red foods which is a given, such as apples, red
peppers, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon, plums, cherries, tomatoes, chilies,
red cabbage, pomegranates and blood oranges. Eat more earthy veg such as roots
and tubers like turnips, carrots, onions, potatoes, radishes, peanuts, beets and garlic.
Eat more protein rich foods like meat and tune, or for those who prefer not to eat
meat, eggs, tofu, peanut butter, beans, and other soy products. Drink guava,
cranberry juice or pink grapefruit. And add some spices into your diet such as
paprika, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, saffron, vanilla and sesame seeds. Sage
herbal tea.

Crystals - Here are some of the gemstones that boost the first chakra, as well as a
short description of the specific ways they affect it:

Garnet – great for boosting your business; it also increases vitality and stamina.

Ruby – known as the royal stone. It‟s rare and expensive, and it enhances
self-‐ appreciation and boosts circulation and overall health.

Pyrite – boosts prosperity and also energizes and increases oxygen in the blood.

Black Obsidian – forms out of lava and is good for alleviating depression and
boosting self-‐control.

Bloodstone – great for blood circulation and energy flow.

Smoky Quartz – transmutes negative energies and enhances organizational skills.

Black Onyx – good for grounding and releasing past attachments. It heals
bones, blood, and cell damage.

Dravite – good for grounding, stability, and persistence

Hematite – has magnetic qualities and is good for blood circulation and inner
peace.

Red Jasper – is great for strong protection

Black Tourmaline – grounds, purifies and protects. It also alleviates intestinal

problems
You can wear or carry these with you throughout the day with the intention that
they do their certain job.

Aromatherapy oil:

Eucalpytus helps you to release assumptions that create anger. Inhale eucalyptus
deeply to release feelings of agitation and frustration. Use it in an aromatic-
energetic mist to shift the energy of a room and cleanse it of intense emotions.
There are many benefits to eucalyptus on a physical level - analgesic, antibacterial,
antibiotic, antidiabetic, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antineuralgic,
antiparasitic,antirheumatic, antiseptic (strong), antispasmodic, antitussive,
antivenomous, antiviral (respiratory tract), astringent and so much more.

Cedarwood is helpful for meditation and prayer work. Cedarwood deepens your
spiritual practice and rituals. It is useful when you want to ground a visualization
practice or focused intent to draw upon the gifts of the law of attraction.

Patchouli, a known aphrodisiac, is also a good grounding aromatherapy ally as

well as a beneficial addition to the mix when you are working toward manifesting
money! Improve your sensuality with patchouli. Inhalation of the scent is the best
way to amplify your thoughts which is how you create reality.

Inhale cinnamon essential oil and affirm: "Abundance and prosperity are
constantly flowing in my life." Through inhalation of this essential oil, you have
the opportunity to restore hope and confidence to bring ideas to fruition. Use it to
help to get your creative juices flowing and increase enthusiasm.

The Main Lesson of the root chakra = take care of your basic livelihood; don‟t
use spirituality or personal development as a way of avoiding your responsibilities.