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Chakra Chart


Chakras: Subtle Energy Centers

→ Page Includes Complete Chakra Chart with helpful instructions


Each of us has has seven primary subtle energy centers called chakras. Chakras are considered as one of the most important indicators of a person’s health and well-being.

Traditionally, the seven primary chakras are described as spinning wheels of subtle energy that span from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.

Chakras guide the developmental stages of our body, mind, and emotions, and awaken our potential as spiritual beings. The chakras are referenced in the yogic wisdom books dating back five thousand years. Many medical, mental health, spiritual and mind-body professionals now seek to understand and apply the ancient knowledge of the chakras within their field of expertise.

Each of the seven chakras is associated with and has an influence on physical locations in the body as well as on adjacent muscles, organs, glands, and nerves. Yogis believe they house the guiding intelligence of prana, the universal energy of life.

Furthermore, each is related to stages of psychological growth and human development and has lessons to guide us through life that are integral to our soul’s journey.

Because they are energetic rather than physical structures, they are not considered to part of our physical anatomy.  They can be described as psycho-energetic or psycho-spiritual centers located in the subtle body. Like magnetism existing within an iron magnet, they exist within the body without having a physical presence.

Each chakra is associated with color, crystals, sounds, goddess archetypes, yoga postures, healing and balancing colors, an element, and sounds.

Establishing and maintaining balance throughout all the chakras is optimal since one chakra is not particularly better than the others. Chakra energy currents move both vertically and horizontally. When the chakras are unbalanced with either excessive or deficient energy, the result is physical, mental, emotional or spiritual difficulties. Fortunately, a wide range of techniques exists to open, align, and activate the chakras.

The chakra chart provides information to further your understanding and growth.  It was originally published in Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices in 2005 and  is continually updated to include more information.


Chakra Chart

This Chakra Chart (C) is for personal use only and not duplication.  It is reprinted with permission from Julie’s Yoga Meditation book.  Order your own beautiful 8.5 x 14″  full-color laminated chart below. Volume orders are welcome. Contact us. 


How to use the Chakra Chart for healing and balancing yourself

Begin by familiarizing yourself with the names, locations, and characteristics of each chakra. Here are some ideas for getting started.

  • Balanced Chakra Energy: Maintain balance with continued healthy attitudes, behaviors, emotions and appropriate yoga postures, breathing practices and activities.
  • Unbalanced Chakra Energy: Examine the chakras’ lessons, rights, responsibilities and challenges to determine what areas need improvement and make suitable changes. Practice the breathing practices, yoga postures and other healing activities and healthy behaviors. Set an intention and enhance it with the musical notes, instruments and crystals. Practice self-care and get competent help from others as needed.  In addition:
  • Excessive Chakra Energy: Use the chakras’ balancing color. Chant or sing the vowel sounds to send and release excess energy. “Too much of a good thing” is harmful so decrease behaviors that are excessive.
  • Deficient Chakra Energy: Use the chakras’ emanating color. Chant or sing the Bija mantra sounds to increase and attract energy.

Don’t be mistaken by seeing this information boxed into columns and rows. The lines are there to help clarify the information.  Think of it as an intermingling or as a gradual blending. It’s somewhat like how the colors in a rainbow gradually transform from one shade to another and at the same time a color can stand on its own.

Ultimately, there is no separation.  We are in a unified field of oneness that is as directionless and timeless as it is spacious.  http://JulieLusk.com

Yoga Meditations features the full chakra chart, guided meditations for each chakra, a full description and picture of a yoga posture for each chakra as well as all the other information described below.

Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices - Book & CD set
Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices - Book & CD set
Awaken joy, peace and inspiration with this yoga meditations book. Yoga Meditations contains a wide variety of mind-body practices, such as: * Guided relaxation exercises * Breathing practices * Yoga Nidra * Meditations and guided imagery * Affirmations * Yoga postures and meditations for each chakra * Yoga wisdom for contemplation Get a FREE Wholesome Energizers CD in every book! CLICK the blue title link above to find out more...
Quantity:  
Price: $29.95
Chakra Chart
Chakra Chart
Finally! A complete Chakra Chart with all the chakra names, locations, colors, sounds, yoga postures, breathing techniques, psychological & energetic influences and more. There's handy tips for using the chart on the reverse side. It's 8 1/2 by 14" and laminated. CLICK on the blue title link above to find out more...
Quantity:  
Price: $11.99Price: $13.99 

Chakra-Based Guided Meditations

Real Relaxation: Yoga Nidra CD

Real Relaxation Yoga Nidra takes you into a deeply relaxing and powerful restful state of being fully aware while being in the state of deep yogic sleep.  It helps with balancing chakra energy, and can improve immunity, heart health, relieve stress and give you inner peace and balance.

Get it from Amazon, iTunes, Spotify & other online

stores.

Handy Links

  • Learn about chakras and their influences | Get your Complete Chakra Chart
  • Chakra Balancing with Sound Healing. Use the Elemental Chakra Tone Chart to balance your chakra energy by either increasing or decreasing their energy with sound, color, and special mantras. The Vedic (Yoga) and Tibetan notes and tones are given. It’s fun.
  • How to balance chakra energy with toning and hand & finger movements called mudras.
  • Get info related to chakra elements, directions, sounds, senses, and other attributes 
  • Chakra Energy Flow Meditation
  • Understanding OM | AUM
  • Book a Musical Sound Bath session 



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Not Sleeping Soundly?  Here’s Help

July 14, 2016 by Julie Lusk

Have you ever felt like you were ‘half-awake or only half asleep’ all night?  Me too.  It’s so frustrating, especially knowing that you have a big day ahead and want to be feel sharp and well rested. Perhaps you don’t want to miss a moment of your vacation or there’s an important conference you’re excited about.

half asleepAs it turns out, half of your brain can sleep while the other half stays awake, according to sleep scientist Masako Tamaki and her colleagues at Brown University and reported in Current Biology*.  They found that this usually happens when sleeping the first night in a new place, like a hotel, friend’s house, or while camping.  The second night is much better.

It’s our brain’s attempt to protect us by going into survival mode.  What happens is that the right half your brain sleeps while the left half stays alert, standing guard.  How strange is that?

Scientists measured the slow-wave activity of the brain, something that occurs during deep sleep.  They measured brain activity during light sleep by first playing a tone and then a different tone was played.  Surprisingly, the brain reacted to the variation in sound only on the left side of the brain – the right side stayed asleep.

Next, they played a sound loud enough to awaken someone. They found that when it was transmitted into the right ear, the subjects in the experiment woke up faster than if it was sent to the left ear.  The right ear is associated with the left side of the brain.

It stands to reason that it would be the left side of the brain that stays on duty since it is known to be objective, analytical, and rational and would be more prone to be protective whereas the right side is best at intuition and abstract thinking.  Could this phenomenon be at play when sleeping in an unsafe neighborhood or household?  What about when having to keep an ear out for a child or sick person.  More studies are needed.

Sleeping ‘half-way’ is involuntary and the brain’s way to keep you alert enough to save yourself if something bad happened and most likely associated with the flight-fight-freeze response to stress.  Because of this, scientists think there’s not much you can do about it other than to accept it rather than letting it bother you.  Some suggest going two nights ahead of your big day since it’s so hard to sleep that first night.

Here are my suggestions:

  • Make the room feel familiar and safer to you, tricking the brain into sleeping better. Try using a familiar scent – lavender is calming and aids sleeping.  If you’re used to sleeping with a fan whirling away, bring one with you.  Using your own pillow makes sense too.
  • Try yoga nidra. It’s a comprehensive practice done lying down to go far beyond deep relaxation and mindfulness to a place of natural peace and quiet that is tremendously restful.  Along with being a special type of meditation to increase uplifting levels of awareness, it can also be practiced at bedtime as a sleep aid.  Layers of stress are cleared out so they don’t follow you to bed and disturb sleeping.  In fact, while not a substitute for actual sleep, one hour of yoga nidra practice is equivalent to 4 hours of sleep. This is due to the types of brain waves experienced along the way. Proven relaxation skills, specialized breathing techniques, guided imagery, and mindfulness are systematically used. Learn more about yoga nidra here
    Use a yoga nidra recording. See below for recommendations. Download it to your listening device, put it on airplane mode, and listen by putting the ear buds or the device itself under your pillow.  It will transmit right through your pillow and not disturb your sleep partner.
  • Use a mudra. They are yoga positions for the hands.  Curl your fingers into a fist.  On the same hand, touch the tips of the thumbs to the tips of the first finger to form a circle.  Rest your hands with your palms pointing down.  It helps bring on sleep and reduces stress by promoting a sense of safety and security.  Learn more about mudras here.
  • Breathe slowly and smoothly. To calm your nervous system, breathe in to the count of four or five and then breathe out for five to ten.  When you get distracted, gently go back to focusing on your breathing.
  • Use the Moon Breath to calm your bodymind and brain by combining a mudra with breathing. Bend your index and middle finger of your right hand to your palm, leaving your ring and little finger softly extended.  Softly press your right thumb to your right nostril and inhale through your left nostril. Next, release your right thumb and press your ring finger to your left nostril while exhaling.  In other words, in left / out right / in left / out right and so on.  Learn more about this and other practices in Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices for Awakening (WPA, 2005)
  • Follow the guidelines for good sleep hygiene.  Here’s the Mayo Clinic’s 7 tips for doing so.  Read How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep – The Ultimate Guide.  It’s excellent.

So even if you can’t sleep as soundly as you might like due to your brain’s insistence on staying half-awake, at least you now understand the reason why. The above suggestions may lull you to sleep, and if they don’t, you will at least make use of the time in a positive, productive way.

Sweet dreams!

Sleep Well | Yoga Nidra CD
Sleep Well | Yoga Nidra CD
Use deep relaxation, soothing flute music & ocean waves to go to sleep. "I slept like a log." Downloads available. By Julie Lusk, Yoga Nidra Meditations author.
Quantity:  
Price: $9.99Price: $16.99 

Reference:      Current Biology Volume 26, Issue 9, p1190–1194, 9 May 2016

Resources:     Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief by Julie Lusk (NHP 2015)

Yoga Nidra: Guided Meditations for Relaxation & Renewal (Health Journeys 2016)

 

Julie Lusk, MEd, E-RYT 500, has more than 35 years of expertise in stress relief, yoga, relaxation training, guided imagery, and meditation as an international author, recording artist, and Julie Luskworkshop leader. Julie is the author of Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief, Yoga Meditations, two volumes of 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery and Inner Healing, and Desktop Yoga®. Her CDs include Wholesome Relaxation, Power of Presence, Blue Moon Rising, and many others. Learn more at WholesomeResources.com

Filed Under: Mind-Body Mastery Tools and Techniques, Misc Musings, Relaxation Exercises

Yoga Basics Guidebook by Julie Lusk

Get your free Yoga Basics Guidebook, an eBook by Julie Lusk.  It has…

  • How to Practice Yoga:  Steadiness and Comfort vs. Struggle and Control
  • Guidelines for the Practice of Yoga.
  • General Benefits, Cautions and Contraindications of Yoga
  • Yoga Guidelines for Health Conditions
  • Yoga During Pregnancy:  General Guidelines and Cautions
  • Yoga Practice Sheet
  • Basic Alignment and Selected Warm Ups to Open Joints and Warm Muscles
  • Yoga Practice Sheet – Earth Series ©
  • Yoga Practice Sheet – Sky Series ©


 

As a bonus, you will get the Wholesome Resources News. It features:

  • Practical tips for improving your health through relaxation training, yoga,
    meditation, and other mind/body techniques. See previously published articles here.
  • Info on books, CDs and other services from Julie Lusk
  • Special offers, class and workshop schedules, valuable opportunities and more
  • Sandy Byrd says ” Here are real practices for real life!  The content is great…Practical ideas that can be implemented easily.  I always love the quotes.”
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    • You will not get a duplicate newsletter if you already subscribe.
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Yoga Nidra FAQ on Setting Intentions & Sankalpas

This article is a yoga nidra FAQ on setting intentions & sankalpas for making durable positive changes effectively.

Yoga nidra is rapidly gaining in popularity these days, mostly because it’s so blissfully exhilarating.  Yoga nidra (pronounced nih-drah) yoga nidra's benefitsmeans “yogic sleep” and is an ancient yoga practice with benefits supported by modern-day science.  It’s a powerful experience of progressively relaxing and restoring physically, energetically, mentally, and emotionally that naturally opens us to accessing our intuition, unconditional joy, and deep restorative peace.  It’s very refreshing too.  In fact, one hour of practice is equivalent to four hours of sleep.  See more documented benefits of yoga nidra here.

The yoga nidra process also makes it completely possible to clear out useless habits and bring about positive and durable changes to your lifestyle and positive personality changes by using a sankalpa at the start and the end of the practice.  A sankalpa is a special intention, a self-selected resolve that you choose yourself.  It’s a sacred vow and promise you make in support of your highest truth. Sample sankalpas are “I am courageous,” or “I have confidence,” or “My life is worthwhile.”   It’s a quality that helps you become or do something worthwhile with your life.  Likewise, it can be a reflection of your True Self such as “I am conduit of love,” or “My true nature is peace.”

How yoga nidra helps you make behavior changes and enables you to develop positive personal qualities.

“Our day-to-day frame of consciousness (beta brain waves) makes it extremely difficult to make and maintain our good intentions because they crash into our long term conditioning, habits, and social pressures,” as reported in Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief (New Harbinger Publications, 2015).  “Through no fault of your own, your mind is simply not very receptive to making these changes.  During yoga nidra, we knowingly, consciously, and consecutively experience different types of brainwave levels that are receptive to change that include alpha, theta and delta frequencies and are associated with levels of consciousness.  The level reached during yoga nidra depends on the depth of your experience.  When we implant a resolve in the subconscious mind, useless thoughts and behaviors can be weeded out and the conditions are created for significant and transformative change to take root and grow.”  Success is fortified by staying with the same sankalpa from practice to practice until it becomes a reality and takes root.  Consistency counts.

Setting Intentions & Sankalpas

Time is set aside at the beginning of yoga nidra for a sankalpa to reveal itself naturally instead of intellectually.  Making intellectual sankalpas rarely yield results.  In other words, one that you “should” make or one to please others.  Instead, have one that resonates and rings true with you.  Go for a balance between letting it come to you intuitively and thinking it through.  Furthermore, you could have one specific to help with weight loss, getting more exercise or stopping an unhealthy habit, but it’s advised that you pick a grander quality instead.  In doing so, the behavior change is likely to happen anyway and you will also reap many more benefits.  For example, if you choose kindness as your sankalpa, true self-kindness will lead to eating better and exercising more by being kinder to yourself in support of your health.  In addition, kindness will naturally bring on generosity, patience, and other positive qualities.

Word your sankalpa positively, in the present tense, clearly, and concisely.  Keep it consistent.  Back it up sincerely with gratitude and inner will.  If using “I am” seems too challenging or too mindboggling, try adding “more and more” to it.  For example, “I am content, more and more.”

Sample Sankalpas:

  • I am kind.
  • I am trusting.
  • I am accepting of my feelings. Or, I accept unhappiness as part of my human experience.
  • I have abundance.
  • I am grateful for a peaceful nature.
  • I embrace all of who I am.
  • I enjoy life fully.
  • I welcome health and wellness.
  • My true nature is joyful.

Using a Sankalpa during Yoga Nidra.

A sankalpa is first silently said at the beginning of your yoga nidra experience and with your whole heart.  It helps if you use your senses to imagine what it would be like if it were already true.  Once again, repeat your sankalpa several times near the end of yoga nidra.  Namely, when you are totally at ease and in the fertile delta brainwave state, and before coming back to full awareness.  This is when your brain is most receptive.

Outcomes

I had my doubts about the effectiveness of using a sankalpa, especially when writing Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief, so I put it to the test with a variety of students.  Much to our delight and satisfaction, results started rolling in.  Find out for yourself by reading their stories in the book.  Better yet, try it yourself.  Please let us know about your experience.

How to Experience Yoga Nidra:  

Like all worthwhile things, regular practice yields the best results.  It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

  1. Listen to Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation | Audible – iTunes – Amazon
  2. Read about it and get free audio downloads in Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief (New Harbinger, 2015).
  3. Experience yoga nidra on video/audio.
  4. Attend a virtual yoga nidra class held weekly on Zoom.
  5. Take a yoga nidra teacher training course and earn a certificate.
  6. Get yoga nidra downloads here.

Resources: Books, Recordings & More

Get yoga nidra downloads here.

NEW! Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation
NEW! Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation
Experience peace and deeply restorative rest that heals your body, mind & spirit. Features 24 Yoga Nidra scripts written by author Julie Lusk and 12 of the world's master teachers. Enjoy 6 levels of relaxation for a joyful meditative experience. Learn to use yogic sleep to revitalize your inner reservoir of intuitive understanding and unconditional joy. Audiobook available. CLICK the blue title link above to find out more...
Quantity:  
Price: $19.99

Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief - Print Book & Audio download
Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief - Print Book & Audio download
Yoga Nidra can stop tension in its tracks with a wonderfully, powerful & unique state of deep relaxation, mental clarity & insightful awareness. These practical, empowering relaxation exercises, meditations that soothe and visualizations that renew are based on classic yoga and backed by modern science. They’ll help you unwind, replenish, and feel refreshed with durable peace and unconditional joy. CLICK the blue title link above to find out more...
Quantity:  
Price: $17.95

Yoga Nidra Essentials CD
Yoga Nidra Essentials CD
Find your calm spot. Brighten your energy. Enjoy a more meaningful life. Experience 6 levels of relaxation. Reclaim optimal health for your body, mind & heart. Laura says "My focused mind easily. I was 100% worry-free. It's wonderful." By Julie Lusk, 6-time author. Digital downloads available.
Quantity:  
Price: $9.99Price: $16.99 

Author: Julie Lusk, M.Ed., E-RYT 500
Julie Lusk

 

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