Quantum Supplements. Deanna M. Minich

Чтение книги онлайн.

      CHAPTER 2

      WHAT ARE CHAKRAS?

       A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.

      NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

      When it comes to the human body, there is much more than meets the eye. Ancient traditions embraced the concept of the person being an interwoven matrix of body, emotions, thoughts, and spirit. We can visualize ourselves as having layers like an onion, one layer tightly nestled on top of the next. The physical layer is what you see when you first meet someone. You see the color of their eyes, their skin, the texture of their hair, the size of their body, and their clothing. When they speak, you may start to formulate some idea about their emotional and mental state. You may start thinking to yourself, “How smart they are! And they seem so happy.”

      Aside from what we see and assess about people or situations using our five senses, there are more subtle parts of us that add to our analysis. On a less obvious level, each person encompasses the accumulation of all of his likes, dislikes, fears, family issues, phobias, hang-ups about money and relationships, and the culmination of his upbringing, as well as his ability to create and show emotion, be powerful and loving, to communicate effectively, to listen to his intuition, and to connect with Divine guidance. Those multilayered parts of us are wrapped into the fabric of our being and, in a consolidated form, they become a focal point for how we live. We may not be showing them outright, but they collectively make up what we can refer to as our energy field, or the nonphysical, bubble-like structure around us that carries the essence of who we are. Some people have expansive energy fields. They walk into a room, and you feel them perhaps before you see them. With others, you may not know they are there until you bump into them. And then there may be circumstances when you are around someone and you start feeling drained, like their energy field has blanketed you.

      If we zoom into the anatomy of a person's energy field, we see it is the culmination of many energy threads, and we can dissect the spectrum of different vibrations—these are called chakras or wheels in Sanskrit, also referred to as “energy centers” throughout this text, all of which correlate to important life issues. “Chakra” is not a new word. Its roots run deep into ancient East Indian texts that are thousands of years old. One way to envision chakras is like invisible doorways for energy to enter and exit our subtle body. Like a revolving door, each chakra lets in energy from the outside and removes it from the inside. There may be times the door opens wide one way but not the other, creating an imbalanced flow of energy, such as when we find ourselves taking care of others more than ensuring that our own basic needs are met. Other times, that door may be whipping open and closed so quickly that the energy in your body may feel overwhelming—this sensation may appear in the body as any number of physical manifestations, such as feeling butterflies in the stomach, the head spinning, the heart racing, and even the classic fight or flight response when we are afraid.

      Chakras are positioned in the subtle body and correlate to physical organs. Another way to think about the chakras is like pearls on a necklace, hanging down your spine at the levels of specific endocrine glands. Symbolically, chakras represent a variety of aspects of our being—how we survive, feel, energize, love, speak, intuit, and connect. As we dive within the subtle body landscape, let's approach it from a symbolic perspective. Imagine that the human being has several layers, and in the chakra system, there are seven main ones.