I believe that each of us has the capacity to create health and happiness when we align our bodies, minds, and spirits.
Your body is intrinsically gifted at working toward the most whole, beautiful version of you, and your yoga practice works deeply with your body to align to your highest purpose. When the body is fully aligned, we say that the chakras are in balance.
The chakras are the energy centers of the body which generally lay along the spinal column or in the head and relate to functions of the limbic system and major organs. In yoga, they are depicted as wheels (chakra translates to wheel), or energy centers of glowing light, or even as lotus blossoms of various colors.
While a quick Pinterest or Google search will tell you all you want to know about the chakras, doing yoga will help you experience the chakras on a physical level.
My top three full body chakra balancing poses are: urdva dhanurasana/chakrasana (of course—the wheel position!), tadasana (mountain pose), and uttanasana (forward fold). For tips on improving your chakrasana, see my infographic on backbend tips.
My strong belief in each person’s autonomous capacity to align has led me to plan a springtime chakra focus in my yoga classes, with the aim to empower the yogis who attend to balance their chakras through asana, visualization, and a healthy dose of humor.
For the first several weeks, each class will focus on one of the chakras. After we’ve worked through each, we’ll focus on a combination flow.
If you're able to attend the classes--great!--but if you’re unable or nonlocal, I’m planning to do a post on each chakra right here on my blog as we move through from muladhara (root chakra) to sahasrara (crown chakra). For those of you who are interested in astrology/tarot, I also plan to do a post on how the chakras align with these more esoteric disciplines.