This book will provide you with a hands-on, easy-read, no-nonsense approach to working with your chakras through taking dietary supplements. Please note that this book gives some general guidance on supplements and their relationship to the chakras. With this in mind, I would strongly advise you to work with a healthcare professional to find a supplement regimen tailored to your physical and spiritual needs. Supplements are not magic bullets. They provide the space for you to make a shift into the direction of healing. If you start taking supplements, but don't change your life, you will not consistently see the results you are looking for long term. Therefore, dietary supplements are best used in conjunction with a fully fleshed out healing regimen consisting of a whole-foods way of eating, adequate physical movement, positive thinking and actions, sufficient sleep, and stress management techniques.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book is best employed while working with a qualified healthcare professional who is versed in knowledge of the human body and is also open to working with the more subtle layers (for example, emotions, thoughts, spiritual aspects) of the being. You can use the book as a guide, allowing your physical symptoms to usher you to the chapter that serves you at the particular time you need it. If you have a specific body issue that requires attention, check the tables (found in Chapter 2 and in Appendix B) displaying the physiological correlates of the chakras so you will know how to find your way to the chapter containing the information you need.
Let's say that you have been getting frequent colds and would like to know how to bolster your immune system. By checking the chart, you will see that the immune system relates to the root chakra. You would then turn to the chapter on the root chakra for examples of supplemental nutrients or botanicals that could assist you in supporting your immune system. There may be several options, together with recommended daily doses, side effects, and interactions with supplements and drugs. As part of the supplementation strategy, you may also see suggestions listed in that section as to the personal growth or spiritual issues connected to the immune system. For instance, perhaps you need to focus on strengthening your personal boundaries or your ability to say no in situations where it is warranted. This information is not to be ignored. What most people overlook is the deep unfolding process of healing that dietary supplementation can bring forth—instead, they just want the ‘quick fix’ approach. Rather, the key to optimal health is to embrace the shift that dietary supplements may reveal to you in the direction of healing, and to use this opportunity to fuel positive changes in your life so that you can heal from your symptoms or disease. Foods, eating, and dietary supplements lay the groundwork, but the transformative work still needs to be done by you on other levels (emotional, intellectual, spiritual, etc.).
This book may be employed as a reference manual, or it can be read straight through for a more comprehensive understanding of the finer vibrations of supplements and how they heal the chakras. You will find that several vitamins, minerals, and botanicals will influence more than one chakra. An explanation of a particular supplement is provided in the chapter of the chakra where it has the most effect and includes the following:
Description/Sources: A short detailed definition including what foods it is found in
Functions: How this supplement works in the body
Intake: Who should take this supplement
Deficiency: Symptoms that occur when levels in the body are too low
Overuse: Side effects of high levels in the body
Interactions: How this supplement can interfere with or stimulate the absorption or activity of other supplements and drugs, or how drugs and other supplements can interfere with the absorption or activity of the supplement
Relationship to Chakras: How the supplement affects the subtle energy
If more than one chakra is impacted, that supplement will also be mentioned in the chapter that corresponds to that chakra, with specific instruction as to how it resonates with that particular chakra. For example, vitamin B6 impacts several chakras, but the solar plexus is its primary target since it is required for carbohydrate metabolism. In the chapter on the solar plexus, you will find a detailed explanation of vitamin B6. However, vitamin B6 is also briefly listed under other chakras like the sacral chakra for its role in reducing PMS symptoms and the third eye chakra because it is needed to make neurotransmitters in the brain.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, 1948
Today, the average human body confronts an array of modern-day assaults: a nutrient-poor, calorie-rich diet; excessive alcohol consumption; little to no exercise; exposure to environmental toxins like cigarette smoke and pollution, and perhaps significant emotional turmoil, negative thinking, and stress. No wonder we often emerge from the daily battle feeling utterly fatigued, lifeless, and on the verge of breakdown. The body might respond to the injuries by putting on extra weight to protect itself. In the small sliver of time available before significant health issues and eventually a full-blown disease arise, rapid, quick-fix solutions are sought to try to “stop the bleeding.”
In the midst of the whirlwind of stress on the body, the spirit attempts to make several cries to the body—“Eat more vegetables,” “Get more exercise”—but is not heard. Instead, the body, like a horse with blinders on, fixates on survival in an attempt to get through another day. The spirit's continued urgent pleas to the body remain ignored. The cumulative result of these simultaneous events is a person without passion and purpose for living, who might appear to be moving very mechanically through life, without heart. For example, Jim was in this situation, with his day-to-day life saturated in one challenge after another, including struggling with his income, keeping a job in a tough economy, and tackling some persistent, deep-seated issues with his father. At times, he wanted to give up on everything. A blanket of depression covered him for several weeks. He admitted to himself that he intuitively felt that he needed to be working with plants, but he did not make the effort. When he finally gave in to volunteering at the local greenhouse, he began shifting his life gradually, yet very profoundly. He ended up coming to peace with his family issues and securing a steady position at the community college teaching botany. All of his stresses fell to the background, and he began losing weight and feeling energized.
Body and spirit desire to be unified. The ability to achieve body-spirit wellness rests in the presence of harmony in our lives—with ourselves, others, and the environment. Our highest choice is to be vibrant, healthy, inspired, and full of bountiful energy to give to the thoughts, actions, and emotions that feed our bodies and spirits in the best way. My experience and observations suggest that there are many paths to finding this freedom; one of them is through the vehicle of nourishment. It may not be everyone's path, but those of you who are drawn to using foods and dietary supplements may find it a particularly appealing approach.
As human beings, we need external substances such as food and water to keep us functioning optimally—the bare basics of calories for energy and water to keep hydrated are mere starting points. Under times of stress, when the body is running on overdrive and depleting all of its basic fuel, we may require specific nutrients over and above what we normally take in to give the cells the necessary raw materials they require to harness sufficient energy