Not a single day goes by without me asking myself “how do I maintain balance in order to live my best day ever?” I like you am easily thrown off balance. Balance itself is easy to find, but sustaining it well that’s the challenge mostly because it is up to us, no one else can do the work for us. Francis Braceland says, “We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.”

So where do we start? The Chakras offer us a benchmark where we can assess what our life balance is on any given day, week or moment. The chakras are the seven main energy centers in the body where we receive, absorb and distribute life energies. They are located along the spine, starting at the base and running upwards to the crown of the head. Each chakra radiates a specific color and energy. Each chakra relates to specific spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical issues. These can become blocked through and as a result a chakra can become either deficient or excessive and therefore imbalanced. Practicing yoga poses that correspond to each chakra can release these blocks and clear the path to more balanced living. Understanding your Chakras can help you balance out excessiveness or insufficiencies within them.

I started turning on to the chakras when I began to believe and appreciate the elements that exist in nature outside of us also exist within each of us. I knew this intuitively but it took me a while to intellectual accept it. In Spanish a little song I used to sing goes like this:

Tierra mi Cuerpo
Agua mi Sangre
Aire mi Viento
Y Fuego mi Espiritu.

This is translated as: Earth my Body, Water my Blood, Air my Breath, and Fire my Spirit. It was here in music and I went back and really opened up to these words to help me find balance.

The 5 Element Theory (earth, air, water, fire, sound) relates to the Chakras like this as well:
thumb = Fire Solar Plexus Chakra
first finger = Air Heart Chakra
middle finger = Ether Throat chakra
ring finger = Earth Root Chakra
pinky finger = Water Sacral Chakra

In English Om Namah Shivaya is my favorite chant, the Anusara Invocation embraces it. During and after singing this song I feel a quiet but energized sense of equilibrium. And I learned that the elements and chakras are the syllables of Na, Ma, Shi, Va, Ya. Om Namah Shivaya mantra uses the universal elements that govern each chakra: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. This song helps the chakras to better utilize the fundamental elements that predominate in the chakra. When we sing, hear or think this mantra we bring into balance all the chakras, all our energies. If you need a real time life balance exercise try saying or singing 108 rounds of this mantra, or even just a few.

This mantra also reminds us of our innate Perfection. That we are born perfect (siddha) and whole. And our only job in this lifetime is to remember how AMAZING WE ARE! The thing is, you have always been perfect and what you are experiencing through your journey is a return to balance where our energies are neither excessive or deficient but even.

So if you are a beach lover, sun worshiper, or soul rider interested in learning more about the chakras join me, lululemon ambassador, Dec 11-17, 2011 on the Big Island Hawaii at Kalani Resort. Early birds until Aug 30 get $150 OFF. Lodging at all price points. This is the Ultimate Blissful Yoga Retreat!!! Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia