"The Vortex of Life" By Melinda Johnston

Chakras are considered to be the most important energy spots in the body. It’s said that when the chakras are aligned, there is natural balance achieved that cannot be found any other way…and that this “alignment” leads to the highest forms of self-expression and inner contentment.

But what are the chakras? What is their purpose, and how can we tap into their power?

Chakras are centers of consciousness.

They are focal points of energy that have a direct, immediate, and profound effect on our daily lives. The particular chakra where the majority of your energy is primarily focused – or polarized – influences your basic behavior and attitudes.

This relationship between behavior and your dominant chakra is key because energy acts like a magnet. We constantly attract vibrations to ourselves that are on the same wavelength as the chakras from which we are operating.

Understanding the chakras, or vital energy centers, gives us self-knowledge at every level of our being.

The word chakra literally means a “spinning wheel”— or vortex of life force, and each chakra vibrates within as a potentiality of consciousness. Thus our, chakras govern our behavior, shape our emotional life, give expression to our deepest desires, and build the structure of our physical body and personality.

Overall, the chakra system describes the totality of a human being: physical, mental, and spiritual. Understanding the your chakras as consciousness will give you self-knowledge that will expand your awareness in every facet of your life.

Chakras as life force, or prana, circulates between two poles, one in the physical world of the body and the other in the realm of pure consciousness. We humans, strung out between them with all our longings, joys, doubts, and desires, embody both the gross physical reality and the infinite potential of consciousness.

In the yogic practices of prana and meditation, you come to realize your own innate wisdom as your consciousness expands in Awareness. In meditation practice, you discover the whirlpools in the mind that cause perception of limitation.

This gradual “awakening” purifies the mind to make it crystal clear, making it one-pointed, and turning it inward toward the center of consciousness.

However, this process of awakening will at first bring any practitioner in direct contact with the whirlpools of the mind. Most of us try very hard to avoid this encounter, because the deeply buried “habits of the mind” are generally entangled with an assortment of emotions. Therefore, we find contentment by engaging with a variety of distractions, which may feel like relief, but it is these distractions that actually create the obstacles you face in daily life: sickness, procrastination, sloth, lack of motivation, fear, and mental and physical instability.

To free yourself from the “habits of the mind” that prevent you from experiencing joy and unshakable peace, you must learn to still the mind, and turn inward in both mindfulness and meditation. By doing so, you gain access to a source of pure wisdom, which separates you from rational mind perceptions, and yet transforms the mind into a cultivated awareness of who you really are.

May you know this Peace.

About Melinda and Buddhi Institute:  The Buddhi Institute offers you a vast array of opportunities to deepen your wellbeing and/ or spiritual practice so you may learn how to cultivate your own inner guidance.  The offerings from the Buddhi Institute empower students and clients with mindfulness training, consciousness studies, spiritual development, wellness retreats, and mastering the mind through practices belonging to the Yoga Sciences.

Melinda"s website: https://www.buddhiinstitute.com