1-25-12 And Speaking of the Body...

           ...Feed it 
           Right!












First Chakra is a perfect time to go on a cleanse and I found a wonderful one at:  wholeliving.com/challenge-stretches.  There are some great recipes for cleansing juices like, carrot/orange/ginger, or, beet/apple/mint; soups; salads; and light, delicious dinners.

The meditation for the week is to think about your relationship with food.  Separating physical nourishment from emotional comfort helps you eat better.

For exercise focus on stimulating your elimination organs (first chakra) -- sets for the bowels, frog pose, spinal twist, and cobra.

Our foods are tied in with our comfort, feelings of safety, security, habits -  all first chakra issues.  Challenge yourself by looking at this area of your life.
Cleanse!

1-19-2012 More about the Body

In doing healing work in the First Chakra, it's important to have a relationship with your body -- what's your connection to your body, the ground beneath you, the environment around you?  The body makes a statement in how it walks, talks, moves, breathes, sits, and how it looks out from behind the eyes -- it speaks of underlying patterns.

Draw your body -- photograph your body -- have a body dialogue -- let various parts of your body speak.  The goal is to develop a relationship through communication and acknowledgement -- a relationship that can lead to action and change.

1-15-2012 The Blessed Body

I just finished a walk with my husband.  We hit it pretty solid for an hour -- heart rate up, body heated, breath pumping.  It felt so good.  So good to feel in touch with my body in that way, strong and vital, and just plain old capable.  I can ask my body for that type of walk and have it respond.

This is one delightful area of First Chakra -- the body.  Inhabiting it.  Being at one with it, in breath and spirt.  Feeling the feet strike the earth.  Every step is a grounding exercise.  The earth feels our footfalls.  I'm one with nature and the strong rhythm of my own body.

Take yourself for a walk.  Feel your muscles working -- feel the absolute pleasure in that.  Feel your gratefulness.

1-11-12 Get Thy Feet Into the Dirt

Doesn't that just look delightful?  Especially now, where in this part of the world, the ground is frozen and dotted with snow (and unfortunately mud!).

First Chakra.  Earth.  Ground.  Fertile. Fecund.  Home.
Promise yourself that in the spring you're going to get your feet into some dirt -- rich and loamy, wormy even.  Feel your feet, your skin, on the ground.  Appreciate the stability, the security, the groundedness it brings.
Remember your childhood, your family, your roots.  Write about them, write to them!

Do squats.  Balancing postures, like Tree.  Sit firm.  Stay.  Welcome each breath.

1-6-2012 Home Sweet Home

One aspect of the First Chakra is that of Home -- whatever that means to you.  We generally think about the idea of home as being a safe place -- where we're comfortable, secure, snug as a bug.  That's not always the case, of course, but it's the ideal -- the dream.

During these days while we're exploring First Chakra, it's a good time to explore your own feelings about what HOME means to you.  Write in your journal about homes you've lived in, or the one you still long for.

1-5-2012 Chakra 1 Here we go again...

There is only one journey.  Going inside yourself.
                            Rainer Maria Rilke

I hope that you are ready to embark on a deep journey.  The opportunity is here and now.  A cycle through the chakras, the wheels of life, are like going on a journey...perhaps even the journey of a lifetime.

How does it feel to hear that?
What does going on a journey mean to you?

The great Korean teacher, Ilchi Lee, says, What interest would any of us have if this were just some esoteric spiritual concept?
The chakra system is about happiness.  


Immerse yourself in this amazing system and you'll discover all sorts of things.  It might mean unearthing the dark places, the unknown,
but come,
dare,
enter,
offer yourself up to discovery
and commitment
and hard work
and great reward
and happiness.

In the days ahead I'll be writing about the First Chakra.  Muladhara.  The ground of us.  Our foundation and stability.  The building can't rise without the base.
But to begin with for today, for our beginning, commit to something -- something that's a little out of your comfort range.

Make an altar -- use a red cloth or a red flower, the color of the First Chakra.  Have pictures of your mother, your family, Ganesh, elephants.
Have you ever done a forty day meditation?  A thousand days?  Start with something.  A week!  If you know a meditation you'd like to try, do it.  Or just sit and follow the gift of the breath as  you inhale and exhale.
The one I'll be doing is to sit every day for at least eleven minutes and breathe and feel the ground under me and my absolute right to be here and to have -- the "rights" of the First Chakra.
Do spinal flex, squats, body drops.

Plant a seed, a bulb, an intention...