Wellness

In thinking about getting myself back on track, my mind has been focused on one thing -- wellness.

I'm a big fan of wellness; it implies not only physical health, but mental, emotional, and spiritual balance as well. Our bodies can be toned and trim, but without good mental health (for lack of better term), we are missing out on a big piece of what it means to be truly well.

To that end, I am going to begin using this journal not only to track my weight and experiences with celiac disease, but also to explore various methods of attaining inner balance and peace. As I have mentioned before, I want to look and feel better. This is a whole new step in the journey!

I've decided to start by exploring the chakras (pronounced "CHAK-ruhs"). As a teenager, I was in therapy on-and-off for around five years, and my groovy counselor Janet J. was very into studying the chakras. It's been fun brushing up on this!

Chakras Diagram courtesy of Tree of Life.

Chakras are centers of energy. Located along the mid-line of our bodies, they govern our psychological properties and well-being. There are seven chakras:

1. Root ( ) The Root chakra represents feeling physically present and at home in any situation. If it is:

• Open, you feel stable, secure, and grounded.
• Under-Active, you feel nervous, anxious, and unwelcome.
• Over-Active, you may be greedy and/or materialistic.

2. Sacral ( ) The Sacral chakra represents emotions and sexuality. If it is:

• Open, you are able to express your feelings without becoming over-emotional, and you are comfortable with your sexual self.
• Under-Active, you close yourself off from others and are unemotional.
• Over-Active, you tend to be very emotional all the time, and you may be over sexual. 

3. Navel ( ) The Navel chakra indicates how you handle yourself in groups and social situations.  If it is:

• Open, you have good self-esteem and feel in control.
• Under-Active, you are generally passive and indecisive.
• Over-Active, you tend to be very aggressive in groups.

4. Heart ( ) The Heart chakra represents your love and kindness.  If it is:

• Open, you are friendly, compassionate, and have harmonious relationships with others.
• Under-Active, you tend to be cold and distance yourself from others.
• Over-Active, you may be suffocating others with your love.  Your affections may be for selfish reasons.

5. Throat ( ) The Throat chakra talks about self-representation.  If it is:

• Open, you are very good at expressing yourself.  You may be an artist.
• Under-Active, you tend to be introverted and overly shy.
• Over-Active, you tend to be a poor listener and often domineer conversations.

6. Third Eye ( ) The Third Eye chakra represents insight and visualization.  If it is:

• Open, you have great intuition.  You may tend to fantasize.
• Under-Active, you may be too rigid in your thinking.  You may rely on authority figures to make decisions for you.
• Over-Active, you may live in a fantasy world.  You may daydream too much, and hallucinations are even possible in extreme cases.

7. Crown ( ) The Crown chakra represents wisdom and oneness with the world.  If it is:

• Open, you are unprejudiced and possess great self-awareness.
• Under-Active, you tend to be a rigid thinker.  You are likely unaware of your own spirituality.
• Over-Active, you are probably intellectualizing too much.  You may become addicted to spirituality and may neglect your physical body's needs.

Eclectic Energies has an online quiz that you can take to see how open and/or closed your chakras are. Here are my results:



My Root chakra is under-active, while my Heart and Third Eye chakras are both over-active.  My Sacral, Navel, Throat, and Crown chakras are all open.  The results seem to fit my present status very well; I'm going to work on this, and come back in a few weeks to re-check my chakras.  It will be interesting to see how they change!



"Chakras Awakening & Balancing" courtesy of Mimosa.