After Angie Viehman presented her wonderful Chakra workshop at my YMCA, this past September, I was excited to continue the Chakra craze by offering seven weeks of Chakra focused yoga classes. We started at the base, with the Root (Muladhara) Chakra.
The Muladhara energy center is located physically at the base of the tailbone. The element associated with this Chakra is earth, representing solidity, foundation, and grounded ness. Positive balance in the Muladhara Chakra is represented by feelings of physical and mental stability, security, comfort, and prosperity. Feeling and knowing stable and strong roots can lead to mindful change and growth. Through asana and pranayama, yoga can help us connect our physical self into our earth as we draw a deeper awareness to our emotional strength and well-being. Practicing yoga develops our sense of self and entitlement in our present.
Physically, the Muladhara Chakra governs the adrenal glands, kidneys, prostate, bladder, and legs. Poses that bring special attention to the 1st Chakra include downward dog (grounding through hands and feet while gently activating root lock.) Mountain pose (finding pada bandha) and chair pose (pressing down through the feet while lifting the pelvic floor.) Knees to chest and easy seated pose both physically attach the root area to the ground, bringing great attentiveness to the area. In addition, massaging the feet can nurture a release of any “rotting roots” allowing for stable roots to thrive.
Many consider the Chakras as physical energy centers, so each Chakra has associations of energetic matter that it responds to such as colors, scents, stones, and sounds. Some feel more comfortable viewing the Chakras and their associations as tools of awareness rather than tangible forces, which in its own right is very powerful, incorporating the power of the conscious mind. I think it’s both! Muladhara Chakra associations include the following:
- The element is earth.
- The color connected to the Muladhara Chakra is red.
- Scents include patchouli, lavender, clove, cedar.
- Stones that bring balance and awareness here are rubies, garnets, obsidian, and hematite.
- The sound syllable is LAM.
Simple reminders in class can help encourage the Root Chakra awareness. Pressing through the palms/heels and grounding the fingers/toes, lifting the pelvic floor, activating root lock , grounding the sit bones, finding neutral spine. The following are my class resources from our Muladhara Chakra vinyasa class.
- Power Vinyasa Yoga Flow ROOT CHAKRA
- Muladhara Chakra meditation/visualization
- Aromatherapy- I sprayed this Root Chakra Balancing mist by Aveda.
- Mantra- “I am safe. I trust more. I fear less.” (Banner above made by Nathan.)
- Earth elements- a thoughtful student brought a bough of bittersweet for our room, and I offered a hematite stone.
How do you get grounded?
I don’t really know how I feel about this chakra business. Sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes it just seems like a lot of silliness.
But I do think groundedness is important. I get grounded by spending daily time with God and walking/hiking. Sometimes hooping does it for me, too.
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I am pretty new to teaching and am loving adding themes to my classes, your outline/class structure link that you put in this article is SOOOOOOO HELPFUL in understanding proper sequencing and how to integrate a theme. THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for commenting Vanessa. It really means a lot that my articles and sequences are helping other teachers. I’ve learned SO MUCH from other teachers and yoga classes, I hope that what I share here is a way to give back…all the best to you!
I’ve been trying to do some theming centered around the 8 limbs of yoga, different ideas such as bramacharya, or dharana, etc. I’d be interested to see how you would sequence a class themed that way!
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