In Satoyama Yoga I honor the Spring Equinox with a theme of balance classes for the month. Many involve standing balances, we test our dynamic balance, and we also try energetic balance using the chakras as a framework.
I feel about chakras the same way I feel about horoscopes, psychic readings, auras, and fortune telling – they are useful to organise your attention. Whether they are “real” or not doesn’t matter. You don’t have to believe in them. Just let them help create an atmosphere or a place for your imagination to go.
This class was framed around balancing our energetic centers or maybe noticing where they were out of balance. A rainbow of colors up the spine from the tailbone to the top of the head. It’s pretty! And it’s good stretching, too.
Root Chakra: rooted energy with a sense of safety and security. Feel your body connected to the ground. In our asanas, we choose seated poses and solid standing poses.
Sacral Chakra: creative energy with a focus on ideas, emotions, and sexual desire. Feel new things bubbling up. Yoga poses include movement in the hips and lower core.
Solar Plexus Chakra: strength energy with a sense of self-esteem, motivation and will power. This is your personal power. For yoga asanas, we choose twists and poses that engage our ribs and upper core.
Heart Chakra: balanced energy assisting with decisions, detachment, and choices. Nothing to do with love, as it turns out. Yoga poses for heart chakra include chest-opening poses like Camel and Sphinx.
Throat Chakra: communication energy including all sorts of self-expression, talking, and speaking truth. We use poses that lift or lower the chin to open and close the neck.
Third Eye Chakra: intuitive energy that gives insight and inspiration. We often close our eye to engage this chakra – so that we can see from within. Poses include many where there is no view, like child’s pose.
Crown Chakra: a portal connecting inner and outer energy. We access this chakra with yoga poses that touch the top of the head to the floor and in meditation.
If you’d like to try the sequence, here are the key points to keep in mind:
- Breathe slowly and deeply. Try not to rush through these poses. After you settle into the pose, hold it for 3-5 long breaths.
- In each pose, between sections, and in savasana, be aware of physical sensations (itching, tingling, movement), emotions, or strong thoughts. These can point to places where you need to focus or change your energy to find balance.
- Physically, it is good to reach your edge, but don’t press beyond that. If it hurts, stop or relax the pose.
- Mentally or energetically, if it feels weird, decide whether you want to sit with that strange feeling or back away from it. It is okay to choose not to engage with discomfort.
