Extracts: Herbs are pressed mechanically and then soaked in water or alcohol. The liquid they were soaked in is then allowed to evaporate. Extracts can also be made by applying heat to the plant matter.
Powders: An herb is ground into a powder, and then the powder is delivered in a capsule or tablet.
Tinctures: An herb is preserved in liquid. The liquid is usually alcohol, but may also be a nonalcohol form, like glycerin.
CHAPTER 2
WHAT ARE CHAKRAS?
A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
When it comes to the human body, there is much more than meets the eye. Ancient traditions embraced the concept of the person being an interwoven matrix of body, emotions, thoughts, and spirit. We can visualize ourselves as having layers like an onion, one layer tightly nestled on top of the next. The physical layer is what you see when you first meet someone. You see the color of their eyes, their skin, the texture of their hair, the size of their body, and their clothing. When they speak, you may start to formulate some idea about their emotional and mental state. You may start thinking to yourself, “How smart they are! And they seem so happy.”
Aside from what we see and assess about people or situations using our five senses, there are more subtle parts of us that add to our analysis. On a less obvious level, each person encompasses the accumulation of all of his likes, dislikes, fears, family issues, phobias, hang-ups about money and relationships, and the culmination of his upbringing, as well as his ability to create and show emotion, be powerful and loving, to communicate effectively, to listen to his intuition, and to connect with Divine guidance. Those multilayered parts of us are wrapped into the fabric of our being and, in a consolidated form, they become a focal point for how we live. We may not be showing them outright, but they collectively make up what we can refer to as our energy field, or the nonphysical, bubble-like structure around us that carries the essence of who we are. Some people have expansive energy fields. They walk into a room, and you feel them perhaps before you see them. With others, you may not know they are there until you bump into them. And then there may be circumstances when you are around someone and you start feeling drained, like their energy field has blanketed you.
If we zoom into the anatomy of a person's energy field, we see it is the culmination of many energy threads, and we can dissect the spectrum of different vibrations—these are called chakras or wheels in Sanskrit, also referred to as “energy centers” throughout this text, all of which correlate to important life issues. “Chakra” is not a new word. Its roots run deep into ancient East Indian texts that are thousands of years old. One way to envision chakras is like invisible doorways for energy to enter and exit our subtle body. Like a revolving door, each chakra lets in energy from the outside and removes it from the inside. There may be times the door opens wide one way but not the other, creating an imbalanced flow of energy, such as when we find ourselves taking care of others more than ensuring that our own basic needs are met. Other times, that door may be whipping open and closed so quickly that the energy in your body may feel overwhelming—this sensation may appear in the body as any number of physical manifestations, such as feeling butterflies in the stomach, the head spinning, the heart racing, and even the classic fight or flight response when we are afraid.
Chakras are positioned in the subtle body and correlate to physical organs. Another way to think about the chakras is like pearls on a necklace, hanging down your spine at the levels of specific endocrine glands. Symbolically, chakras represent a variety of aspects of our being—how we survive, feel, energize, love, speak, intuit, and connect. As we dive within the subtle body landscape, let's approach it from a symbolic perspective. Imagine that the human being has several layers, and in the chakra system, there are seven main ones.
Figure 1. The body with chakras
The first one is the obvious physical body—flesh and bones. Our physical body connects us symbolically to the issue of survival in the physical world: it allows us to eat, sleep, breathe, and drink. Think of the needs of infants—they need to feel safe, that they can trust, and that they are connected to a family that will provide shelter and food for them. If they didn't have these things, they could not survive. This aspect of our survival stays locked within the vibration of who we are throughout our lives.
You can imagine that if we don't trust or feel safe, we may have some issues with survival, and the opposite is also true. I have seen this with people's eating behaviors, especially in individuals who grew up in poverty. When people do not trust that there will be “enough” for them to survive, they tend to overeat. Conversely, when people do not feel that they have a right to exist, perhaps due to low self-esteem or feeling suicidal, they may tend to forget about eating. They may lose weight and even develop eating disorders.
A person who has an imbalance in her “survival center” doesn't have this energy vibration to a significant degree and may seem like she is “not in her body” by appearing absent-minded, fatigued, or excessively fearful. Sometimes this is referred to as “being ungrounded.” The absent-minded professor is a classic example of someone who is so fixated on intellectual concerns that he neglects the needs of the body, like eating or getting enough sleep. A woman who is fearful and worried about survival, whether she is unable to make enough money to support her basic needs or feels her ability to make money is threatened through a potential layoff, may have issues with support not only in the physical world but also in her body. I have seen people in distress like this develop low back pain, knee pain, and sciatica, as their bodies are literally translating the message of not being supported, and so they manifest symptoms of lack of support, particularly in the lower half of the body.
The survival vibrations are instinctual. In ancient traditions, the central point, or hub, of the part of us that resonates with the purely physical aspects of our being and yokes us to the earthly venture of surviving on this planet is called the root chakra, or muladhara (Sanskrit for “root”). The designated body location of the root chakra begins the point just under the pubic bone in the front of the body, and penetrates through the body to the level of the tailbone, or coccyx, at the base of the spine. Even though its central point is at the level of the tailbone, its energetic influence is directed downwards toward the lower half of the body, into the legs and feet.
Once we are comfortable with feeling grounded in our physical body and the elements that comprise much of our basic survival needs as they relate to the physical world, we are then able to direct our energy up the body to the next energy center, which is the font of raw emotions and creativity. Think of the infant becoming a toddler: screaming, crying, demanding, giggling—the “terrible twos” as they are called. We are now moving past our basic survival needs and into the realm of feeling. As a young child, we find our own inner voice, we begin playing with others, and amplifying our every need. If we take this into the adult life, this part of us translates into our ability to be freely creative, have fun, express how we feel, and develop relationships. To some extent, this is the part of us that psychologists refer to as the “inner child.”
There are various ways this aspect manifests when it is out of balance: a workaholic who makes no time for play, a woman who isn't comfortable showing her emotions and so she stuffs them in by eating, the tortured artist type who feels that his feelings and creative expression are misunderstood, a person who has difficulty committing to a relationship or maintaining friendships.
The energetic part of us associated with our ability to be creative, wildly emotional, and full of pleasure is kept in the area between our lower belly (just below the navel) and the sacrum. It is referred to as the sacral chakra, or svadhisthana