soul stretch yoga blog

As the chatter in life becomes louder and demands more visual, aural and mental processing, our senses are starting to break down. Our energy stalls out, and our spiritual connections with others (and the universe) are drowned out by podcasts and politics and pain. We feel increasingly dispirited and uninterested.

The stress from all of the above, as well as the day-to-day stresses of kids and jobs and the gazillion things penciled on our calendars, is taking a mega toll on our mental, physical and spiritual health. In short, stress is clogging the shit out of our chakras!

Yoga and other ancient practices believe there are seven chakras along the spine, invisible wheels of the spinning, healing energy called prana. The chakras filter out the dust and dross of our daily stress and allow us to breathe in fresh inspiration, balance and enlightenment. In classes, I hear people talk about feeling down or struggling to regain the purpose and enthusiasm they felt before Covid. It’s not just from Covid, lovelies. Sluggish, down-in-the-dumps feelings have been building in many of us for years. Chakra healing is the mind/body practice of connecting with our prana to release our vital life energy, quieting the worldly chatter and letting our chakras spin freely.

This blast, and the two that follow, will look at our three major chakras: the Heart Chakra, the Throat Chakra and the Third Eye, also called the Brow Chakra. These seem to be the chakras most of us struggle with. They are the three chakras that, when unblocked, can bring us calm, a sense of purpose, intuition, clarity, truth, and spiritual depth. Unblocking a chakra is not easy. Be prepared to do some digging, some changing, and maybe even have some discomfort. But rest assured that it’s a task worth doing.

First up: The Third Eye, our guiding inner compass.

The Third Eye or the Inner Eye is right smack between your eyebrows. It is the chakra of intuition, of sixth sense, expressed as an extra eyeball on your forehead. It is the bridge to enlightenment, clairvoyance, and higher consciousness. Our physical eyes see the physical world; our Third Eyes “see” the universe, and our spiritual connections to it, as a unified whole.

You’ve all heard me expound on how yoga changed my life, on so many levels and in so many ways. First as a physical rejuvenation, and then as a spiritual journey of deeper perception and connection to God. For me, unblocking my Third Eye has been a gateway to my intuition, freeing me to be and do and create. I have clarity of purpose, and at least most of the time, I better understand myself.

Intuition is critical to healthy chakras, and if our Third Eyes are clogged, everything feels off-kilter and uncertain. We don’t have a clear channel to the sixth sense that so often guides us. A clogged Third Eye may make it hard to make decisions. Maybe you experience headaches or memory loss. Maybe you are having trouble seeing “the big picture” at your job. Maybe you can’t concentrate and have monkey mind.

Here’s a quick quiz:  Do you experience deja vu, often feeling an unexplainable sense of familiarity with a person or place? Do you have eerie feelings, perhaps a dark chill when walking your pups in the park, and hear on the news later that a pack of coyotes was sighted there? Have you ever seen a fiery crash at the end of your street and think, “that might have been me if I hadn’t gone back in the house to get my sunglasses?” Are you instantly drawn to some people, feeling they will be a friend for life? Do some people make you uneasy, give off toxic vibes? Do you make “gut” decisions rather than draw researched, well-informed conclusions?If you answered a resounding yes to the above, your Third Eye is likely pretty healthy. If you said no or sometimes or maybe, you need some chakra “drano” to get your energy flowing again.

Let’s start with light. The Third Eye thrives on light, specifically sunlight. Sip your morning coffee in a sunny nook or on your patio. Close your eyes, be mindful and quiet. Open the sunroof of your VW Beetle (I’m talking to you, Kathleen) and soak up some rays while you are driving to Heinen’s. Feel the warmth on your skin.Walk on the sunny side of the street. Be present with the light. Repeat a mantra such as “I am the light and the light is in me” or even the simple word namaste, which means the light in me honors the light in you.

‍Not only is light important to the energy flow of the Third Eye on a spiritual level, it also is critical to the function of the pineal gland on a scientific level. The pineal gland is a tiny pine cone-shaped endocrine organ located right behind the Third Eye in the central brain. It produces and releases melatonin, which oversees our circadian sleep/wake cycles, as well as mood and mental clarity. Not surprisingly, when the pineal gland isn’t functioning properly, headaches, sleep and memory issues are common. Sleep boosts our feel-good levels of serotonin, so when we don’t sleep well, our bodies and brains are sluggish. Yes, you can buy melatonin over-the-counter, but the additional benefits from light and stillness and breath can’t be bottled, lovelies.

Breath is the essence of yoga and meditation. Breath is also critical to unblocking chakras. Breath moves energy through the chakras and shifts our inner focus from worry and stress to grace and gratitude. It frees the Third Eye to deepen our intuition and sense of purpose. I talk a lot about taking the gratitude from yoga practice with us when we roll up our mats after class. We maintain that gratitude through prayer and meditation. Prayer is when we seek quiet moments to talk to God; meditation is when we sit in stillness so God can answer. For healthy chakras, we need to do both. Often.

Chakra have a color association, too. Want to guess what the Third Eye’s color is?

Purple.

Rich, royal indigo that is said to deepen insight and intuition. Wise violet that brings the mind, body, and soul to peaceful harmony. Soft lavender, the transformative color of inspiration and tranquility.If you suspect your Third Eye is blocked, weave purple into your day. Break out that purple tie-dyed t-shirt you’ve had stuffed in the back of your closet or wear a purple scrunchie. Drink your morning chai from a lavender mug.  Surely you have a pair of purple striped socks? Come on, ‘fess up.

For me, two additional practices help unclog my Chakras.

The food I eat and the crystals I keep close to me.

Food. My greatest love (after yoga and Doug, that is). While my Sicilian tastebuds gravitate to pasta tossed with garlic and lemon (both good for your Third Eye!), when I am struggling with decisions or feeling sluggish, it’s a time to eat purple.

Lucky for me I can grab a Bohemian bowl, chock full of blueberries and maqui berry, from Root to Rise and get an instant hit of purple.  At this time of year, it might even be topped with a few black raspberries, but maqui (pronounced mah-kee) is the superstar of the bowl. It’s a sweet purple berry from a tiny evergreen tree that grows wild in Patagonia along the Chilean coast, and it’s a powerhouse. Truth be told, your Third Eye doesn’t care if you are eating a Bohemian Bowl or a simple handful of grapes. It’s the purple that counts.

And then there are crystals. They are touchstones for us in our spiritual journeys, helping us to unblock chakras, to move past places where we are stuck, and to calm us or invigorate us. Crystals communicate with our bodies, specifically our chakras, through vibrations. All crystals have a vibration field, and the vibration level contributes to whatever outcome we hope to achieve. For a clogged Third Eye, the crystals with the most helpful vibrations are….purple. Amethyst. Fluorite. Tanzanite. I’m surprised the crystals in my house don’t vibrate us right into Lake Erie! I have a lot. On windowsills, on my desk, on my nightstand. And I wear crystals, too. Pendants, earrings, bracelets.

Lovelies, I know many of you are skeptical at the idea of eating beets and wearing purple socks to help balance the energy spinning from your Third Eye. But look at it this way: sipping a chai latte on a sunny porch while sending prayers of thanks to the Divine, eating seasonal and  healthy foods, and being still and mindful while you breathe…sure sounds like a good way to renew your spirit to me!

Namaste, Lovelies.