In this article, we are going to look at how congestion in the chakra system can produce headaches, especially congestion in the first and second chakras.
Jyotish Patel’s excellent overview of the chakras informed us that ‘Every thought and experience you’ve ever had in your life gets filtered through the chakras. They are an energetic imprint of your personal story.’ Well, not surprisingly, our personal stories can often need a little help with processing.
Alberto Villoldo explains how neurologically, we experience feelings for 20 minutes. If someone annoys us or upsets us then we experience and feel that for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes we move into a new neurological cycle, and if we are still experiencing annoyance or upset then those feelings are actually solidifying in what Villoldo defines as ‘emotions’. In this understanding all emotions (rather than the 20 minutes of feelings) are toxic. He writes, ‘Only when we exchange our toxic emotions can we establish new neural networks which can change our perception'. Although the semantics of this division between ‘feeling’ and ‘emotions’ doesn’t quite work for me, I completely agree with the neurological and energetic understanding.
As humans, many of us have a tendency to hold onto our stories even after the storyline has been played. Think of those times when you have experienced a negative feeling… perhaps someone said something that irritated or upset you in some way. When you are in a resilient and grounded place in yourself, you experience the feeling of the irritation/upset and then you process it. You bring in the groundedness of your whole-body system to say, ‘Well, actually I did snap at him first’, or ‘Well, she’s struggling today, I’ll give her a bit more space.’ Or perhaps you assert your needs and feelings without judgement and as such resolution is quickly brought to the situation.
But on those days when you aren’t in that place of resiliency and groundedness, or when emotional triggers within you are being touched upon, then that ability to process your feelings is much more difficult. And often, you simply can’t. Judgements and attachment to your own story become much more important and that is when you hold onto your own storyline fiercely. This is when the feeling moves into the toxicity of emotions. Such emotions become triggers for us, and through our lives we can build trigger upon trigger until we are a complex bundle of trigger points waiting for some poor soul with their own bundle of trigger points to come and trigger us! Now, this is where we take a deep breath, and while either groaning or laughing at the truth of it, remind ourselves that we have the knowledge and the tools to help ourselves process and release each and every one of our emotional triggers.
Most of these emotional triggers are firmly locked into the chakra system. The first (root) and second (sacral) chakras are responsible for bringing energy from the earth deep into the energetic core, thus affecting the whole-body system. The flow of energy also works in reverse with the root and sacral chakras releasing emotional toxins from the whole-body system back into the Earth. When we understand that much of our emotional toxicity is held in these first two chakras we understand another factor in why being grounded is so important. Without that groundedness, the first two chakras get stuffed with emotional toxicity that can’t be easily processed.
An important piece in this understanding of your energy anatomy is that the first (root) chakra acts as the pilot light for stoking and firing up the energy through the whole of the chakra system. You can think of the root chakra as being the source of energy that flows up through each of the chakras before flowing out of the crown chakra, and when there isn’t enough movement in the root chakra to initiate such upward flow of energy the crown chakra can get sluggish and congested. At this point you are likely to experience headaches. I have often worked with clients whose splitting headache has been removed completely by working exclusively with the root chakra.
So, what can help your root chakra to ensure that you don’t experience congestion and emotional toxicity? I was recently at a children’s concert in a wonderful local theatre. My daughter was doing a Taiko drum performance and for two hours I sat and watched the music flowing through the entire theatre. Pulsing, rolling, coloured waves of music wrapping every one of us sitting there. Some of the waves were bouncing off the walls and coming back to encircle us again, some of them disappearing into the density of the red velvet curtains or the carpet. Each person’s aura expanded out to meet the rolling waves, and then carried that exquisite vibration deep into the physical. It was such a beautiful experience. And why I write about it now is that the music moved the chakras in such depth that every one of us in the audience got an amazing chakra balancing! So… if you have a fabulous child’s concert to go to, then go and help your chakras that way.
If not then below is a very simple exercise designed specifically to balance the first and second chakras. Do it regularly if you know you are working with first or second chakra issues or if you experience headaches.
Starting with your hands on the pubic bone draw a figure 8 around the first and second chakras several times - the first chakra sits around the pubic bone and the second is just below the navel area - you can see them on the image at the top of this article.
Take your hands from the front of your body round to the back to the sacrum and smooth your hands all the way down the back of your legs, squeezing the sides of your feet as you continue off the toes.
Rake your fingers up the inside of your foot/legs back to the pubic bone.
Repeat the figure 8 around the first two chakras several times.
Smooth your hands all the way down the front of your legs squeezing the sides of your feet as you continue off your toes.
Repeat step 3.
With love,
Prune
Heal Your Headaches
If you experience headaches, then whatever the underlying cause, I know that they get in the way of you living the life you are here to live, and I want to tell you that there is SO MUCH you can do to heal your headaches and step into your fullest, most vibrant life.
My Heal Your Headaches online class shares some simple yet powerful tools you can use every day to shift a headache that’s already started, AND prevent headaches from happening in the first place, so you can move closer and closer to being headache free.
In this class you will:
Discover key understandings about headaches and why they occur
Learn how to distinguish between five different types of headaches and which one/s you are dealing with
Find out about migraines and how they differ from other headaches
Feel empowered with key energy understandings, tools and techniques that help relieve headaches and prevent more from occurring
Embrace a powerful emotional release to reduce pressure build up in your system