Chakra Balancing Rituals

If the idea of “chakra balancing” is new to you, you’re not alone. Although not a new concept – the chakra system originated in India between 1500 and 500 BC in the oldest text called the Vedas – the practice of balancing chakras is new to many in the modern world. 

Chakras refer to various energy centers in your body that correspond to specific nerve bundles and internal organs. The seven major chakras run from the base of your spine to the top of your head. If these energy centers get blocked, you may experience physical or emotional symptoms related to a particular chakra. Alternatively, when your chakras are balanced, your flow of energy is aligned and negative emotions, feelings, thoughts, and physical ailments are less likely to manifest. 

If you are looking to restore balance, or maintain equilibrium across your chakras, you will need to employ specific chakra rituals. There are numerous tools you can leverage to facilitate balancing your chakras, including essential oils, visualization, meditation, sound and color therapy, and baths to name a few. Let’s explore a few of these strategies for balancing your chakras in greater detail. 

Visualization

If you feel generally out of balance, a great chakra ritual to start with is visualization. Start by visualizing a healing energy pouring through your body and traveling along your spine; picture the color of each chakra as the healing energy reaches it. You may feel certain areas of the body warming or tingling as you visualize the energy moving along your spine and that’s an indication that the energy is shifting and releasing. 

If you know you are stuck in a particular area of life, you can employ chakra specific visualization to help shift the energy. For example, if your sense of security feels threatened, you could bring your attention to your root chakra at the base of your pelvis. 

Try visualizing the trunk of a tree growing down from the base of your spine and rooting into the earth. As you inhale deeply, feel yourself supported, grounded, and held by the earth; as you exhale, release worry, anxiety, and anything no longer serving you. Continue this chakra ritual until you feel a shift in energy. You can create similar rituals for each chakra and practice visualization to rebalance them. 

Nature

Never underestimate the healing power of Mother Nature. When your chakras are out of balance, specifically your root chakra, you can feel anxious, insecure, or ungrounded.  By connecting directly with the earth’s energy through the practice of grounding, (spending time outdoors walking on the earth’s soil in bare feet), you can bring these issues back into balance. Gardening or a barefoot stroll on the beach are other great chakra balancing rituals you can incorporate to encourage healing and, ultimately, homeostasis. 

Meditation

Perhaps the most common chakra ritual is meditation. Although there are various kinds of meditation, color meditation is particularly beneficial for chakra balancing. To unlock or balance a blocked chakra, simply envision where the chakra is located in the physical body and imagine a color radiating from its center point. As you bring each chakra and its corresponding color to your mind, breathe deeply into each one, allowing the energies associated with each to expand with your breath. 

Baths

If you’re looking to add more balance and relaxation to your life (and who isn’t?), then you may want to consider a weekly bath. But not just any bath: a chakra ritual bath. Soaking in water that’s been infused with gemstones, essential oils, and herbs is a luxurious experience that can be customized to bring balance and harmony back to each chakra. With a little bit of research you can find the ideal crystals and oils to add to your bath water

A sound bath is another great way to show any of the seven main chakras a little extra love. The idea is to bathe yourself in waves of sound to balance and unblock your chakras. In a sound bath session, you are seated or in a restorative savasana pose and begin with a guided meditation to clear the mind. From this relaxed position, sounds from the instruments are played in various frequencies to awaken and align whichever chakra is out of balance.

Crystals

Crystals hold special energy and can help you connect to various parts of your consciousness, making them a great tool for balancing chakras. As you might expect, each chakra has different crystals associated with it and using the corresponding crystal(s) will provide you with the greatest chakra balancing benefits. You can hold gems in your hand during meditation, wear malas or jewelry with the gemstones that correlate to the chakra you are trying to balance, or place crystals in your home or office space to create balance. 

• Root chakra: hematite, garnet, obsidian
• Sacral chakra: carnelian, amber, topaz
• Solar plexus chakra: citrine, jasper, tiger’s eye
• Heart chakra: rose quartz, amazonite, malachite
• Throat chakra: turquoise, aquamarine
• Third eye chakra: amethyst, lapis lazuli
• Crown chakra: clear quartz, moonstone

These are just a few chakra rituals you can leverage to help balance and align your seven main chakras. Journaling is another fantastic tool and there are even journals with specific chakra prompts to help you create great self-awareness in areas of your life where you may feel stuck. You can also incorporate chakra balancing rituals into your diet by focusing on eating more whole, plant foods that are the color of the chakra you are trying to balance. Take your mom’s advice and “eat the rainbow” to help align and balance your chakras for more harmony in your life!

What do Balanced Chakras Look Like?

When your chakras are in alignment, your physical and spiritual self are fully receptive to the energies of the universe, leaving you feeling simultaneously peaceful and brimming with vitality. Here’s a look at each of the 7 chakras and what you may experience, depending on if they are in or out of balance. 

Root Chakra

• Balanced: Feeling rooted, grounded and secure.
• Imbalance: Problems with the legs, feet and immune system. Feelings of anxiety around basic survival needs such as food, home, and money.

Sacral Chakra

• Balanced: Creative, passionate, committed and expressive.
• Imbalanced: Lower back and hip pain, difficulty expressing feelings, anxiety about relationships and commitment.

Solar Plexus Chakra

• Balanced: High levels of self-respect and self-confidence, assertive and secure in yourself.
• Imbalanced: Low self-esteem, feeling like you lack personal power, fear of rejection and high blood pressure.

Heart Chakra

• Balanced: Feeling compassionate and loving, forgiving people easily and generally feeling joyful.
• Imbalanced: Upper back and shoulder problems, feelings of jealousy and a fear of loneliness.

Throat Chakra

• Balanced: Great communication skills, honest but firm about what you want and expressive.
• Imbalanced: Lack of willpower, feeling like you have no choice available, throat and facial issues.

Third Eye Chakra

• Balanced: Clear, focused mind. Confident in seeing the difference between what is true and what is not.
• Imbalanced: Headaches, vision problems, moodiness, an inability to learn from others and see your own fears objectively.

Crown Chakra

• Balanced: Living in the present moment, trusting completely in your own intuition.
• Imbalanced: Being judgemental, constant overthinking and over-analysis of day-to-day situations.

How to Balance Your Chakras

In addition to some of the techniques mentioned above, like meditation, grounding, visualization, baths, crystals, and journaling, yoga is a great tool for creating balance in the body. The physical nature of an asana practice will help alleviate stiffness and tension in your muscles, allowing energy to flow more freely, helping to naturally balance the chakras. As you move through your physical practice, visualize the colors that correspond to the chakras you are addressing and breathe deeply into these areas. 

Taking a class intentionally designed to balance your chakras is a great idea if you need a little extra support and guidance. Ohana Yoga + Barre has numerous chakra specific classes in their on-demand library that members can access on an as-needed basis. 

If you need some additional support around chakra balancing you might consider working with a trained therapist. Reiki and chakra specific massage, which uses a combination of specific essential oil blends and healing crystals, are both effective treatments that help unblock the chakras so energy can flow freely throughout the body. The experience during a chakra treatment will vary, but an emotional release during or after the treatment is common. Both are unique experiences that result in reduced anxiety and a heightened sense of peacefulness. 

The next time you feel stuck or out of balance, explore some of these chakra rituals, from crystals and essential oils to meditation and grounding, that can help encourage harmony and energetic alignment. You can focus on the area and color associated with a chakra you feel is blocked and send healing energy to that area. You can also try these chakra balancing exercises and therapies in tandem with massage, acupuncture, biofeedback, or any modality that promotes a sense of calmness and peacefulness, as they compliment each other nicely. 

Mostly, get curious. The next time you feel stuck or out of balance, explore some chakra rituals, from crystals and essential oils to meditation and grounding, that can help encourage harmony and energetic alignment.