Chakras are focal points — doorways into meditation, awareness, healing and alignment. They are energy centers within the body that deal with energy flow.

They are areas or vortices of high, expansive energy.

The energy we store in our chakras is the source of our life force and vitality. Most of us have blocked or overactive chakras that cause dis-ease on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level.

For example, let’s say you have been trying to lose weight for the past few years but you have a blocked sacral chakra. This chakra is found below the navel (people with blocked sacral chakra usually have extra weight here) and has a massive impact on our ability to be fully expressed in our vitality on all levels especially physical.

No matter how much dieting you do, if you have not addressed all the needs of this chakra, such as self-expression, sexuality, creativity, etc., and it remains blocked, you will continue to experience symptoms of an imbalance, such as weight gain. We have to address the root of our blockages for sustainable change.

By reflecting on the physical, mental and spiritual elements of each chakra, we can regain our balance in these centers, and as a result, change our life drastically.

If you wish to have a year unlike any other, one that is full of abundance, health, wealth and vitality, start with unblocking your chakras.

1. Explore the chakras below and see what imbalances you experience.
2. Ask yourself what you wish to feel in 2018 and what is your heart’s greatest desire.
3. What chakra(s) need to be cleared or balanced to help you attain your goal?
4. Reflect on the To Balance sections below for each chakra, and write out how you will start to balance this center. Click on the attached meditation links to have an experience in balancing.
5. Lastly, envision how you will feel when you accomplish your goal. Let your body absorb the vision and vibration of the outcome.

To fulfill your deepest desires in 2018, we can unblock all seven chakras and tap back into our innate wholeness and perfection, to feel harmony that only comes when the mind, body and soul are aligned.

The Root Chakra:

Color: Red
Element: Earth
Importance:

• Our foundation, our connection to the earth
• Our physical needs
• Our ability to feel grounded
• Our personal worth
• Our ability to manifest security and stability for our basic survival needs.
• Our instincts

Located: Base of the spine
Qualities of an imbalanced Root Chakra:

• Pain in the lower extremities, back problems, leg problems, vaginal problems
• Fertility issues, libido issues
• Lethargy, Little or too much willpower, addiction, obsessiveness, workaholism
• Primal fear of death
• Insecurity
• Focused on lack or scarcity in life
• Feeling spacey, easily distracted
• Helplessness
• Unworthiness
• Lack of self-confidence
• Depression
• Feeling that I don’t belong, jealousy, codependency, anxiety, indecisiveness, phobias

To balance:

We must transcend our need to move beyond our survival instincts. We must face and address unresolved issues from our family, our early experiences, our health, security and matters of trust.

The Sacral Chakra:

Color: Orange
Element: Water
Importance:

• Fluidity
• Sexual, sensual, creative energy
• Self-expression
• Feminine vitality
• Relationships beyond the family
• Desire for love
• Emotional connections

Located: Below the navel (the yoni)
Qualities of an Imbalanced Sacral Chakra:

• Feeling like a faker
• Repressed creativity, repressed sexuality
• Rigid, uninspired
• Feeling not enough
• Dimming down
• Taking on other people’s problems, empathic
• Not aware of own emotions
• Letting in emotionally abusive people
• Jealousy, envy, resentment
• Selfishness, hedonism, aimlessness
• Shallow relationships
• Restlessness, immaturity
• Pessimism and anxiety
• Restlessness in relationships, attachment to illusions of love

To balance:

Moderation in appetite, have time for creative expression and endeavors, regular exercise, be honest in your relationship with self and others, tap into your femininity, your sensual, intuitive, sexual nature, for your self.

The Solar Plexus Chakra:

Color: Yellow
Element: Fire
Importance: Personal power

Located: Above the Navel
Qualities of an imbalanced Solar Plexus Chakra:

• Poor digestion, asthma and other respiratory problems, arthritis, organ problems, especially in the liver and kidneys, nerve pain, difficulty gaining or losing weight
• Misuse of power — abuse or giving away
• Low self-worth and inability to take full responsibility
• Hypersensitivity — overreacting to perceived criticism
• In need of validation
• Self-absorption — vanity/narcissism over concern with appearance
• Greed, rigid conformity
• Judgmental attitude, egotism, perfectionism
• Rights before responsibility
• Restlessness, dissatisfaction with life

To balance:

We must confront our personal strengths and weakness. We must learn to face our fears and celebrate our accomplishments. We must harness our inner fire and go after our deepest desires. We can then learn to share, serve and cooperate without needing external validation.

The Heart Chakra:

Color: Green
Element: Air
Importance:

• Love, devotion, equilibrium, compassion, transformation
• Ability to express love for self and others
• Bridge connecting the lower and higher energies of our being, and is the place where our Spirit and our true Self reside, free and independent
• Necessary to channel the energies from the lower three chakras and connect them with our higher spiritual intelligence

Located: Center of the spine, center of the chest
Qualities of an imbalanced Heart Chakra:

• Immune system or heart problems
• Walls around the heart, heartlessness
• Self-sabotaging, inner criticism
• Stuck in past mistakes
• Ruthlessness, disconnect from emotions
• Resentment — hatred towards past partners or relationships
• Unable to truly give or receive love
• Inappropriate emotional expression, poor emotional boundaries
• Intense fear of rejection, withdrawn, feeling that love will only be felt for a short time before its being taken away
• Possessiveness

To Balance:

We must be willing to open back up into love, to heal our past wounds, to observe the reactions that arise when old wounds are triggered, to see this as a time to heal. To accept our past and be brave and open as we go into the future. We can then learn to forgive ourselves and others. We can learn that our greatest power truly is love, and To thy own self be true is the path.

The Throat Chakra:

Color: Blue
Element:  — space or the void
Importance:

• Spiritual purification and awakening
• Speaking our truth
• When to speak and when to listen
• To use our powers of communication wisely
• Logic and reason

Located: Throat
Qualities of an imbalanced Throat Chakra:

• Fear of losing control
• No control over one’s own life
• Lack of control over one’s speech, speaking too much or inappropriately
• Not being able to listen to others
• Timid, unreliable, inconsistent
• Arrogant, dogmatic, self-righteous
• Excessive fear of speaking
• Small, imperceptible voice
• Not being able to keep secrets, to keep one’s word
• Telling lies
• Excessive secretiveness
• Lack of connection with a vocation or purpose in life

To Balance:

Move beyond fear, doubt and negativity. We must learn to surrender, and trust a higher power. Mantra and meditation are key practices to balancing the throat chakra.

The Third Eye Chakra:

Color: Indigo
Element: 
Importance:

• The place of self-realization
• Knowing that All is one
• The boundary between human and divine consciousness
• Associated with higher knowledge, the subtler aspects of sight, and intuition
• Seat of awareness and inner vision
• Visualization

Located: In between the brows
Qualities of an imbalanced Third Eye Chakra:

• Headaches, dizziness, blindness, nightmares
• Inability to focus, eye and sinus problems
• Confusion
• Disillusionment, disconnection from reality, not being sure what is real
• Feeling disconnected from a higher power
• Stuck in life patterns
• Inability to discern between ego and higher self
• Manipulative nature — hiding behinds knowledge

To Balance:

We must learn to act from our intuitive hits, to follow our inner direction, and stand firm in our resolve. To know that we know.

The Crown Chakra:

Color: Colorless or white
Importance:

• The realm of ultimate truth — self-actualization
• Realization of the oneness of our soul
• Place of spiritual mastery and enlightenment
• When open, awareness that we are Spirit on earth

Located: Crown of the head
Qualities of an imbalanced Crown Chakra:

• Alienation
• Apathy
• Spiritual denial
• Religious fanaticism
• Self-consciousness
• Frustration
• Abuse of power
• Indecision
• Obsessive attachment to spiritual matters
• Living in the head — disconnected from the body

To Balance:

We must meditate daily, believe in a higher power, see the world as a reflection. We must tap into the Source, the god-like essence within ourselves. We must pray or be in constant conversation with the Universe, god, spirit, nature, and realize that we are one with it all.

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Kathryn Lorraine is a Women’s Spiritual Empowerment Coach, Yoga and meditation teacher, retreat facilitator, and higher self expert. She has a gift for seeing the true essence and gifts within her clients. Her enthusiastic and welcoming demeanor encourages her clients to clearly hear their inner wisdom and unearth their dormant feminine powers. She guides them to surpass the fears and shame that keep them stuck and overwhelmed, and inspires them to trust in their higher self, take skillful action, and live a life uninhibited. Her style weaves together esoteric and modern teachings, intuition and somatic experiencing. She has trained with powerful teachers all over the world, studying in depth the various forms of meditation and Yoga, yogic/tantric philosophy, leadership development, psychology, and alternative healing therapies. Her purpose is to awaken and explore the power of the Divine Feminine. You could contact her via her website, Instagram or Facebook. To find out more about her retreat in Panama, check out Awaken The Divine Feminine.

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This content was originally published here.