If it becomes blocked, we can fall ill or feel imbalanced and insecure in our lives. Just like the foundation of a house, if it’s not strong, the rest of our body crumbles along with it. It is the foundation of everything we do. The Muladhara Chakra is the first chakra of matter. ‘Mula’ means ‘root’ and ‘adhara’ means ‘base’ or ‘foundation’ in Sanskrit. The Muladhara Chakra, known as the Root Chakra, is located at the pelvic floor and the base of the spine.

Of the seven chakras we’ll be focusing on right now, there are three chakras of matter, three chakras of spirit, and one bridge between the two. This is why it’s so important to keep our chakras aligned with one another. The chakras are also directly correlated with our mental and spiritual health. Our chakras correspond with nerve centers in our body, as well as with our major organs. On the same note, when our chakras are too open, then they too fall out of balance.Įach chakra is unique in its energy and how it attributes to spiritual, mental and even physical bodies. When our chakras become unaligned-one is closed while others are open-the energy in our subtle body becomes imbalanced and can lead to illness. The chakras affect all aspects of life: mental, spiritual, physical. These are the seven chakras we’ll be focusing on for your yoga practice. Then picture seven wheels of light in a line at the base of your spine through the crown of your head. To find where these chakras are in your body, imagine you’re in a seated position such as Sukhasana (Easy Pose). But there are seven chakras that dominate the subtle body energetically each of these is made up of prana that can be open or closed, flowing or blocked. Some of our chakras are very strong and affect us powerfully, while others are not as influential. And when three nadis meet in the body, they form a triangle and this triangle makes up a chakra. We have roughly 72,000 of these energy channels in our subtle body. In Sanskrit, nadi translates to ‘flow’ or ‘motion’ and are comprised of prana, meaning energy or life force. While in mainstream yoga we primarily hear about the seven chakras, there are actually 114 of these wheels of energy throughout the body.

They make up what is called our subtle body. The chakras are wheels of energy throughout our bodies. The word chakra comes from Sanskrit and directly translates to ‘wheel’ or ‘disk’. We tend to attribute our ‘high’ after a yoga class to the endorphins we all experience after a good workout, but this assumption, while reasonable, might be a little off base.Ĭould it be that what we’re really experiencing is rejuvenation and cleansing to our energetic bodies instead? We talk about them a lot in our yoga bubbles, but oftentimes, we’re simply repeating what we’ve heard from somebody else. The chakras remain a bit of mystery even to the most experienced of yogis.

Chakra yoga sequence