CHAKRA SECRETS GIVEAWAY

“As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears.” ~ Rumi

So starts my new book, Chakra Secrets. I hope you’ll share in the secrets I learned along the way to love and happiness in Part I of the book, and a mind-body tool you can use anytime, anywhere, to balance your chakras, relieve pain and tension, increase your happiness in Part II.

NOW, FOR THE GIVEAWAY….

Win a signed, first-edition copy of Chakra Secrets or one of several other gifts…

On September 12, we’ll celebrate the launch of the book with ten lucky winners receiving: Signed, first-edition copies of Chakra Secrets plus Crystal Chakra jewelry and more surprises. To enter the Giveaway, simply go to TheChakras.org.

You can get your Kindle version of Chakra Secrets today! Download it on Amazon Kindle on sale for only $2.99 (50% off the regular price) until the print book is launched on September 12th at http://amzn.to/RgxgS3.

“I finished Chakra Secrets the morning after I got it. I couldn’t put it down! From the very beginning, this book reached deep inside my soul and didn’t let go. I was inspired by both this book and it’s predecessor, The Chakra Diaries. After reading them, I felt as though anything was possible and I am capable of accomplishing great things, whether they be large or small. Every one of my emotions was touched to its very core. This is one of those rare books that I would enjoy reading over and over again.” ~ Happy Bookworm

BALANCE YOUR CHAKRAS, BALANCE YOUR LIFE!

Namaste!

Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries and Chakra Secrets
www.TheChakras.org

SPIRITUAL ONENESS – OPEN YOUR CROWN CHAKRA

“Oh, lead me to the Beyond within.” ~ Macrina Wieherkehr

Spiritual oneness is the goal of opening the 7th chakra, the crown chakra, the point of knowing and enlightenment. It is our highest energy center, representing liberation, deep understanding, enlightenment and spiritual growth. It represents union with the higher self and the Divine.

Major issues of an unbalanced Crown Chakra are lack of meaning in your life, a feeling of aloneness, depression, and on the physical level, chronic exhaustion and addictions to psychotropic and mind-altering drugs.

A balanced Crown Chakra brings a profound awakening, a connection to our spiritual nature as well as to cosmic consciousness.

YOGA FOR THE CROWN CHAKRA
In addition to silent meditation, chanting and conscious breathing, a beneficial yoga pose to increase circulation to this chakra is the Downward Dog.

THE CROWN CHAKRA MEDITATION
As we move up to the spiritual chakra at the crown of the head, the color indigo of the Third Eye Chakra turns to violet. All we have learned and healed through the lower six chakras merges and travels up the spine, creating a purple color. Here we open ourselves to awareness of the divine and our highest consciousness. Focus on breathing in the violet light, relaxing, letting go. Keeping your focus on the crown of your head, allow the chakra to open, visualizing it as a crown of light above your head. Feel it expanding and opening to the wonder and radiance of spirit. Send love up and out the crown chakra and then welcome its return in a beam of light that pours down through your whole being. Let the energy flow through you and around you and embrace totality.  Breathe in the power and the healing.

Imagine a rainbow of light pouring down your body, from your crown chakra down to your root chakra, enveloping you in harmony with everything above and below and around you. Enjoy!

Namaste! Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries

Man in Tibet Melts Snow with his Body Heat!

A recent story chronicled an amazing feat by a Tibetan man. An observer noted that the man’s mental concentration was so acute that he could sit outdoors in deep snow, nude and melt the snow around his body.

At the Hindu monastery on Kauai, we were visited by a guru from India who could breathe through his eyes.

These extreme results of the practice of meditation can result in what may look like miracles. But we can all achieve miracles in our lives through meditation, more useful ones than melting snow or breathing through eyeballs. For example, meditation can reduce stress and anxiety, enhance motor reflexes, increase motor control, increase exercise tolerance, sharpen perceptions, increase awareness, improve concentration, maintain health, provide a general positive outlook on life, and foster the development of a sense of personal meaning in the world.

Scientific studies reveal that meditation produces a specific physiological response pattern that involves various biological systems: metabolic, autonomic, endocrine, neurological, and psychological. Studies on how these mechanisms are involved in producing the final pattern of responses continue. The answers are so complex, the physiological response to meditation probably occurs on a multidimensional, interactive basis.

But why wait? We know the benefits of meditation, if not all the hows and whys. You can experience the benefits through simple sitting meditation, clearing of the mind with a focus on your breath. Or quiet your busy “chattering mind” with a guided visualization. To try a guided visualization that you can listen to lying down, try this Chakra Meditation.

Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaires

http://www.thechakras.org

Hear me Roar – I am your healed Throat Chakra – Step #5

When I am balanced I sing out your love and praises for your partner, your world, your god(s) and goddess(es). If used unwisely to hurt, slander or hurl bitter words. I am no longer useful to send or receive fluent communication. Instead I create discomfort and dis-ease in the ears, nose, throat and lungs and promote sluggishness in thought, word and deed.

Know this; although your body may subsist about 12 days without water or 56 days without food, more than 3 minutes without air will probably snuff out all of life’s energy and I will go away permanently. Why heal me? You allow me to express your higher wisdom to others and to illuminate your past, present and future.
………….
Please stop by tomorrow and read my suggestions for healing an unbalanced Throat Chakra.
Namaste! Becca

Love is the Heart of the Matter – Step Four – Heart Chakra

In my chakra balancing workshop profiled in The Chakra Diaries, one student’s fourth chakra was profoundly closed. He was as suspicious of others as a stray cat, resentful at life for handing him not that bowl of cherries that he felt he so richly deserved, but a crate of sour grapes and buckets of ill will filled with woe-is-me. No wonder that despite his rugged good looks and stable income he was having such a “hard time” finding a lover and soul mate. His inner peace was pockmarked and fragmented, it resembled a battlefield of negative feelings littered with remnants of squandered life force. He was in every sense of the unspoken word, a mess.

I suggested that he passively meditate at every opportunity, allowing his memories of love and relationships to surface so that they could be examined and balanced. He taped ten affirmations of self acceptance on his bathroom mirror and car dashboard to guide him in becoming more grounded and open to love and compassion.

Over the course of the workshop, I saw this delightful, yet challenging man grow into a balance of his internal and external worlds. He became more open and accepting of life and less apt to sling blame, point fingers and retreat into a fortress of self-pity. He led the group in a practice of saturation blessings and appreciations of abundance, reminding the group that blessings flow where attention goes and that all power comes from within. In the final tally, he gave to the group far more than he took and I am forever thankful that he crossed my life.

Mr. Heart, I miss you and wonder what your world has become. Please take a minute away from what I imagine to be an overflowing and abundant life and write to me soon. Namaste.

Finding Love at the End of the Rainbow – Step Two – Sacral Chakra

“Sex is emotion in motion,” said Mae West and she was an expert on that subject. If stress causes blockages of energy in the body, your sex and your love life will be out of whack. Accumulated stress in the body, whether emotional or physical, erects barriers to the natural flow of our life energy. So, too much stress may equal no love or even any prospects for it. Love doctors have for centuries recognized that moving in spontaneous and free-form ways not only demands flexibility but also the ability to change focus and let go of memories, trauma and pain.

Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has been quoted as saying that “Love is the most powerful and still the most unknown energy in the world.” In opposition to the Base Chakra’s links to fortress-like solidity and stability, the Sacral Chakra focuses on flowing movement and filling your need to sip, bathe, luxuriate or douse in the vivacious, unpredictable and dynamic stream we call love. Practicing the hypnotic hip swivels of oriental (belly) dancing or performing wu chi exercises may help you begin to experience the world of love that seems just beyond your heart’s grasp.

An imbalance of your Sacral Chakra may also manifest as an inappropriate focus on something or somebody that is inappropriate or unrealistic. Perhaps that new guy in the office does have a killer smile, great hair and a body worth giving up chocolate for, but he comes forth anointed with a ring finger wrapped in gold. We might practice the cobbler’s pose to encourage our life energy to flow throughout our sacral chakra or unleash and focus our creative spirits through painting or making music. Our skill level at this art is not an important measure but the fact that we are “doing it” and by doing so are diverting our essence around any barriers nesting in our bodies. As an expression of our joy of living, whatever we create is beautiful, skillful, breathtaking and encouraging. In becoming more sensitive and responsive to what is going on in the world around us, we also further the grounding that we fostered in our root chakra, allowing us to go boldly after what we seek in life, even a relationship that we can grow old with.

In addition to harboring pleasurable sensations, the sacral chakra can vacuum in and hold fast to pain and its attendant stress, damming up the free flow of energy and physically manifesting as infection and illness. We may be “going through the motions” in life, seeing the dust on the table and not the wondrous roses in the crystal vase. Our reactions to the world may vacillate widely from rage and aggression to breaking into tears at the slightest problem.

To aid in stress relief, esteemed authors and teachers Sue and Simon Lilly suggest placing three clear quartz crystals, points facing outward, in a triangle just below your navel. Next, place three rose quartz stones in an arc above your pubic bone and relax for 4-5 minutes. Repeat as often as is needed for optimal energy flow.

Namaste and Keep Focused on Love!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries

Beginning the Journey to Find Deep Meaningful Love – Step One – Base Chakra

As the seat of passion, the base chakra builds a white-hot fire under our excitement, hones our instincts to a razor’s edge and dips our lover in irresistible aromas and hues that scratch our itch. Although fantasizing about our lover may fan the flames of wanton desire and fill our Blackberrys with salacious text messages, too much can create an inability to settle and a hyperactivity of the mind.

Enter the grounding of the base chakra, otherwise known as the point at which the ladder to heaven rests. That reminds me of a brief dalliance I had with an extraordinary house painter, but let me not digress.

Ironically if our base chakras are imbalanced, we may have a hard time accepting love or pleasure. There may actually be a large gap between what we could have, and what we allow ourselves to have.
As Saraha Doha has said, “…there are no other temples as blissful as our own bodies.”

We must make a pilgrimage to them, enter and come to know them. Our bodies await our acceptance, our validation, our love and deepest understanding.

Let us build our path to meaningful love brick by brick, forging ourselves into a lightning rod of spiritual growth and development by eating a diet replete with protein, avoiding heavily processed foods and those made with simple sugars. Let us stabilize and anchor by practicing the warrior pose, dance and drum to strengthen our bodies and spirits and nurture a regimen of daily meditation to release any excess activity from our ever-inquiring minds and wondrous bodies.

May we go boldly forward on our journey with resolute focus and unwavering faith. We will rid our minds of disbelief that love does not have our name on the list for as William Shakespeare has been quoted, “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win.”

How to Diet Through the Holidays and Stay Healthy Too

Dear Becca,
In addition to eating the right foods to balance an unbalanced chakra, can you offer any other advice on the right diet for optimum health, especially during the holidays when “poor” food choices and habits are the order of the day?

Dana in Denver

Dear Dana,
Using “food as medicine,” and diagnosis of the correct foods for each person’s constitution and body type is a major focus of Ayurveda and can help answer that question. Ayurveda, derived from the ancient Sanskrit roots, ayus (life) and ved(knowledge), is the traditional system of holistic healing from India. In Ayurveda, all aspects of an individual are considered and treatment is prescribed to bring balance to all levels of life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.
“One need not be sick to come for an Ayurveda consultation, as we suggest the proper diet to live 100 years without having diseases,” according to Dr. S. K. Kamlesh, a seventh-generation Ayurvedic doctor, and Founder and President of the International Society of Ayurveda. According to Dr. Kamlesh, the appropriate diet to balance the three physical doshas or energies of the body – Vata, Pitta and Kapha – can help to promote health and longevity.
Through the practices of Ayurveda, a person is requested to get involved more and take responsibility for their own healing. Seasonal cleansing and rejuvenation, as well as appropriate diet, are suggested to maintain health and to slow aging.
If you’d like to pursue that path, I’d recommend a personal health consultation with an Ayurvedic physician. After a diagnostic check to find any health problems in the body’s organs and determine an individual’s percentage of Vata, Pitta and Kapha energies in their body, you would be provided a personalized diet program, with suggestions of foods, herbs, spices, aromatherapy oils and supplements for healing.
Namaste!

How Can I Forgive When What I really Want is Revenge?

Dear Becca,

A friend of mine, or someone I used to consider to be a very close friend, was having sex in my bed with my boyfriend when I came home from work late, a few nights ago. Yes, I tossed them out on their ears (well, maybe not literally) but now I lonely, sad, frustrated and a few other things I won’t mention on here. I want to move on with my life and to put them both in my rear-view mirror, so please help me distance my heart from the hurt that is bruised and glowing there.
Signed,
Jilted Juliet

Dear Juliet,
Heart chakra balancing can help you release your anger to let love and compassion live there. First, you have to realize that forgiveness, even of something unspeakable, is necessary for you to live a healthy, loving life. You don’t have to forget or condone an action or behavior, you just have to let go of its importance in your life. As the Buddha said, “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.”

Most of the characters in The Chakra Diaries had to deal with forgiveness, of themselves and others, to release the tension in their bodies and allow the healing power of love to flow. Put your present happiness first, and forgive past transgressions – drop the hot coal.
Namaste!

Excerpts from Becca Chopra’s interview on YogalifeJourney.com

Leading Chakra Workshops came out of my work doing Yoga Health Retreats in Hawaii, starting 10 years ago. At the end of every yoga class, we would finish with a chakra meditation. Often, after class, my students would want to discuss specific problems in their lives that were clearly related to one chakra or another. So, in addition to using chakra meditations in my yoga classes, I decided to try 8-week chakra workshops for local students. Each week, we would focus on balancing one of the chakras, starting with the root chakra, using guided visualizations, yoga poses, toning, color therapy and crystal healing. The final week would be an integrative, sharing session.

During the last year I have concentrated not on teaching, but on my writing, both as a novelist with The Chakra Diaries and as a journalist on holistic health issues. The best part about my yoga practice is that it gives me a reservoir of calm and strength from which to face the tight deadlines and stresses of my day. I have been known to walk away from my computer to do yoga poses to stretch and relax, and usually my coworkers follow me to join in. Once, during a long plane ride, while waiting in a never-ending line for the rest room, I began doing a few standing poses. The two businessmen behind me asked what I was doing and if I could show them how to do the poses also. It turned into an informal yoga class in the aisle of United Airlines. In teaching, whether in a formal class or a funny moment like on the plane, I love sharing what I have learned. I believe we’re all wounded healers on this earth, here to help each other.
To read the entire interview click here.