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The root chakra or the muladhara chakra is located at the bottom of the spine. This chakra is associated with the feeling of being grounded and safe.
A balanced root chakra makes a person feel content and happy, as if he's at inner peace.
What are Chakras?
Chakras are believed to be energy centers in the body and are often represented as wheels or disks of spinning energy.
In Sanskrit, chakra means wheel or disk. It's believed that the human body has seven main chakras or energy centers running along the spine, and these correspond to nerve bundles and major organs in the body.
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These seven main chakras are believed to lie along the spine, starting at its base and extending all the way up to the crown of the head. The chakras correspond to a particular part of the body and certain characteristics within you.
What does it Mean to Balance a Chakra?
You may think of the chakras as a spiritual nervous system. When all your chakras are balanced and spinning correctly, energy can freely flow through the body and each of the chakras.
If a chakra is disbalanced or blocked, energy may flow too fast, too slow or may stop flowing completely. When the chakras are out of alignment, it's usually a sign that life is tough. A blocked energy center can manifest in both physical and emotional symptoms.
Physical imbalances such as headaches, impaired vision, hormone function. and others can manifest. Emotional imbalances include moodiness, volatility, and self-reflection.
Significance of Root Chakra
The root chakra or Muladhara chakra is located at the base of the spine. The Muladhara chakra is the foundation that keeps you grounded and ready to face anything life throws at you. While all seven chakras are vital and interconnected, the root chakra lies at the bottom of the entire system and impacts the foundation to all of them.
Our survival instinct, yearning for protection and security, and fundamental needs, like food, water, and shelter are part of our root chakra. Our emotional requirements and functions, such as attachment to family, understanding and respect for loyalty, and ideas and values, are expressed in our Muladhara chakra.
When these needs are addressed, the root chakra is balanced, resulting in a more stable, grounded, and secure individual.
If your root chakra is out of balance, you may experience jitteriness, lose your line of thought, and pay less attention to your general self-care. Some people may feel lethargic, defeated, and unable to get things done correctly.
When your basic needs are not met, survival mode kicks in. That can cause a multitude of issues, like weight gain, constipation, exhaustion, and more.
How to Balance your Root Chakra
Yoga is one of the easiest ways to balance your root chakra, or any other chakra for that matter. Certain yoga poses especially target particular chakras and help open them up, remove blockages, and allow the proper flow of energy through them.
Yoga can help stimulate fresh energy or release pent-up negative energy. Balancing your root chakra can make you a happier, more content person. It can help you recognise within yourself feelings of security and groundedness.
Check out the following six yoga poses to help balance your root chakra:
1) Sukhasana
To do this pose, sit with your legs crossed on the ground or on a mat. Practice inhalation and exhalation.
As you inhale, cultivate a sense of feeling rooted, grounded, connected with the earth. As you exhale, let go of all the negative thoughts you hold within yourself. Give yourself a fresh start.
2) Padmasana
To do it, place your right foot on your left hip with your sole facing up, and sit in the center of a mat. Cross your left foot over your right, and bring it to your right hip.
If the position causes knee pain, you can always try the half-lotus position, or simply sit cross-legged. To optimize the benefits of this practice, combine this stance with a short meditation.
3) Balasana
This soothing position relaxes the spine, calms the nervous system, and stretches the back, hips, thighs, and ankles.
To do it, sit on your heels, and relax your buttocks over your heels. Place your brow on the ground. For added comfort, place blankets under your feet. Deeply inhale into your back.
Consider how it feels to be entirely supported by the earth underneath you, and let this balance of surrender and support to carry you through your practice.
4) Malasana
This pose connects you to the earth and helps quieten your mind and spirit while strengthening the lower back and ankles and opening the hips.
Our feet are our roots, and we sense the vitality of the earth through them. Tuck your toes under as you lie on your knees to stimulate the fascia of your soles (a block or bolster can be used to sit on, if needed). Before releasing, hold for one minute. Repeat three times.
5) Uttanasana
It's a wonderful position for relieving stress and finding the core. At the same time, it gradually extends the hamstrings and relieves back strain.
6) Bridge Pose
This position allows the feet to be securely planted on the ground. Simultaneously, the spine expels excess root chakra energy, activates the throat chakra, opens the heart and solar plexus chakras, and balances the sacral chakra.
Takeaway
Balancing your chakras is very important to have a healthy, productive and fulfilling life. Not only will your body thank you for it, your mind will open up to newer avenues, learn to dispel negativity, and work better in all situations.
If you're looking for more such yoga poses to help find mental peace, check out our articles on grounding yoga poses to calm anxiety, yoga poses to keep you energized in changing weather, yoga asanas to start your day on a positive note, and more.
