By Kyle Roderick, photography by Andrew Purcell
While there are dozens of ancient and contemporary yoga styles and hundreds of asanas or poses, one of today’s most energizing and popular practices focuses on the chakras, or energy centers. According to Michelle Kronenberg, a Malibu, California-based yoga teacher who has studied and taught for decades, “Chakra yoga involves focusing on the energetic centers in the body in an attempt to release blocked energies and experience what lies inside our hearts, muscles, cells, emotions, and spirits.”
The ancient Hindus, along with today’s yoga teachers, share the belief that myriad unexpressed emotions, experiences, and sometimes traumas store themselves in the body’s physical regions and memory centers. The lingering energies lodged in our bodies and minds are believed to “negatively affect the balance of an individual’s whole system, behavior, and life,” says Kronenberg.
Lisa Schremmp, who teaches at Yoga Flow in Tucson, Arizona, agrees, adding, “While all yoga is technically oriented toward activating the chakras, the theory behind chakra yoga is that performing a certain asana sequence will promote energy flow to specific parts of the body and strengthen life force throughout the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual being. It’s a very freeing form of yoga,” she continues, “because it’s about moving the individual to intimately experience the lines of energy inside themselves.”
Yoga texts and teachers generally recognize seven major chakras that are located along the midline of the body between the base of the torso and the crown of the head. The first, or root, chakra, is aptly named because of its location at the perineum (the space between the genitals and anus). The second chakra is located near the genitals and reproductive organs and governs intimate and creative pursuits. Just below the sternum and above the stomach at the solar plexus, you’ll find the third chakra, which is related to will power and self-esteem, and at the heart center lies the fourth chakra, which governs matters related to love and compassion. The fifth is located at the center of the throat and fittingly rules communication and speech. Just above and between the eyes – the third eye center – is the realm of the sixth chakra, which relates to perception, intuition, and understanding, and the seventh or crown chakra resides at the top of the head and rules spiritual and philosophical thought.
According to Kronenberg, “Ancient yogic teachings hold that when matters of the heart are dealt with, the energy in the heart chakra is affected, which means that the heart can be constricted or opened.” Some of the issues of the heart include: love, compassion, trust, forgiveness, humility, patience, and acceptance. “When we move from an open heart,” Kronenberg adds, “judgment seems to be further away and one’s energy seems to be flowing in a more gentle and accepting way. When the heart is closed, we tend to be filled with fear and resistance.” Because yogis believe that healing comes from maintaining an open heart, opening the chest and upper back region of the body where the heart chakra is located is a central concern in chakra yoga. In Kronenberg’s asana sequence that follows, you will begin to nourish and feel the opening of your heart and release of physical tensions and blocks. Also, try yoga teacher and model, Emma Rollin Moore’s Love & Trust Meditation to further open and soften your heart chakra.
1. CAT-COW SEQUENCE
Warm up your root chakra with cat and cow poses. Start by coming onto your hands and knees. Hands are shoulder-width apart, and your knees are hip distance apart. Slowly flex your spine, inhaling as you arch the back while lifting your heart and chin skyward, coming into cow pose. Exhale into cat pose while rounding the back. Repeat 10 to 20 times, inhaling as you arch; exhaling as you round.
2. DOWNWARD FACING DOG
Move into second chakra activation via Downward Facing Dog pose. From the cat/cow sequence above, press your hands into the floor, with your fingers spread. On your exhale, curl your toes under, lift your sit bones toward the ceiling, and straighten your legs, moving into Downward Facing Dog pose. Do not sag into your shoulders. Breathe, and hold this pose for five breaths. Release back onto your hands and knees.
3. HERO POSE
Transition into hero pose to activate your third and fourth chakras. From cat pose, come to a kneeling position. Separate your feet until they are slightly wider than your hips. Check that your feet are pointing directly backward, not turning in or out. Sit between your feet by first supporting yourself with your hands and then slowly lowering your hips to the floor. If you are unable to sit comfortably, or if you feel any pain in your knees, elevate your hips by placing a folded blanket or bolster beneath you. (With practice, you will eventually be able to sit between your feet comfortably with buttocks sitting squarely on the ground.) Sit up tall and enjoy your breath. You may do this with arms overhead and fingers interlocked. Then hold fingers and arms behind the back with fingers interlaced.
4. RECLINING HERO
To light up your fifth and sixth chakras, simply recline back from hero pose into supported hero pose with a bolster or blocks under your back and head. Position your bolster so that it is parallel to your spine. You can also elevate the bolster by placing a block underneath it to create more of a ramp for your spine. This has two arm variations: in the first, cross your elbows with arms overhead. In the second, hold your arms down by your sides. Close your eyes and stay here for up to five minutes. This pose is designed to open the heart.
5. RELAXATION POSE (SAVASANA)
Come back to kneeling from reclining hero pose. Move your props off to the side, and come onto your back for savasana, or corpse pose. Let your legs fall to the sides and your arms lie open and to your sides. Breathe into your heart. Lie here five minutes with your eyes closed, feeling your heart beat with life force, acceptance, and love.
Emma Rollin Moore is wearing the Chakra Top and the Bamboo Intention Pants by Be Present, www.bepresent.com; jewelry by Tarma Designs, www.tarmadesigns.com; yoga mat and props by Dali Mama, www.dalimamayoga.com.Love & Trust Meditation
Sitting in sukhasana (basic cross-legged sitting posture) or Ardha Padmasana (half lotus) place your right hand onto your heart space and your left hand onto your solar plexus (the area below the ribs). Your right hand connects to your fourth chakra of love, while your left hand connects to your third chakra of trust. Close your eyes. Begin to focus on your breath.
Find awareness through your chakras by breathing in love and trust.
As you breathe into your right palm, connecting to your fourth chakra of love, send yourself kindness and compassion for who you are and where you are today. Visualize loving yourself, and finding harmony in the moment. So often in our day-to-day routine we lose sight of who we are and forget to find gratitude in simply being and loving ourselves. This is in essence what our fourth chakra is all about: Being content with who you are in the moment that you create for yourself today.
Still keeping in touch with your generous quality that you have cultivated in your meditation, begin to breathe deeper into your left palm, connecting to your third chakra of trust. Finding confidence in your breath and alertness in your body, begin to notice what each cell feels like. What is it that you wish to receive right now?
Breathing into who you are and simply trusting what your body communicates to you today in the moment is what is all about.
Find pleasure in loving and trusting yourself. Enjoy your creation with each breath. As the breath deepens, notice a lightness that takes shape as your mind, body, and breath solidify the loving trust that you have cultivated today. Simply breathe, be, love, and trust in all that you are.
– Model Emma Rollin Moore is a professor of communication and yoga teacher in Santa Barbara, California.September/October 2007
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