Tag Archives: Energy Anatomy

New Year, New Vibrations

In my work as a Healer and Holistic Therapist I meet many people who say they are “too open” and absorb too much from the people and environment around them. The problem of course is the negativity they are absorbing rather than the positive. The key here is to rise above and deflect the negative and be aware of and open to the positive.

Many healers, therapists and readers take on the lower energy vibration of their clients. Other people worry about the state of the world, their loved ones and their own problems, all of which lowers your vibration. The solution is to be at a high frequency but not so open that you lose energy to others. When you look at highly spiritual people like the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Amma, you can see it is possible to remain in a high vibration state.

The biggest issue we have to face during our time on earth is overcoming the dense vibration of fear. The aim is to live without fear, replacing it with love. This can only be achieved by working through our own individual fears. So our challenge is to reach a high vibration and stay there, not letting other people, situations, worries and fears drag us down. We can all call in white then violet light with the intention of psychically cleansing the energy body and use psychic protection techniques such as surrounding ourselves in a gold, blue or violet bubble of light. From an energy perspective, rising above negativity literally involves getting over ourselves (ego/Solar Plexus chakra) and up into the heart centre where we experience love for others. After all, how can you inspire others to rise up out of their own darkness if you are sharing the darkness with them?

There are several ways to achieve a higher energy vibration which are also highly beneficial for our wellbeing and relationships with others. Here are some suggestions:-

  1. Look for the beauty in everything. Nature is truly awesome if you stop and take the time to look.
  2. Practice gratitude. Write a list of all the things you are grateful for or happy about, whether it is supportive friends, a loving family or simply an act of kindness you witnessed that day which reminded you that there is kindness in the world. When you start looking for positives you become a more positive person. On occasions when you have a negative thought about someone or yourself, it is said that you have 17 seconds to turn that negative thought into a positive one before it turns into a negative energy pattern, ie. you experience the negative impact in your energy body.
  3. Look for something new every day which will increase your sensory awareness. It is amazing how much more you notice when you actually start looking, especially if you are someone who is usually rushing around living a very busy life.
  4. Practice meditation to restore the energy body to do guided visualisations to a place of peace and serenity which you are observing nature with your inner sight, hearing and feeling.
  5. Avoid speaking ill of others and stop yourself when you hear you are putting yourself down. When you see others as less than ideal, you are being judgmental and lowering your vibration because you are focussing on what is “wrong”. Accepting others as they are, and yourself as you are, is a form of unconditional love which keeps you in your heart centre. When you are coming from a place of love, your vibration is high.
  6. Work through and release your own issues and energy blocks. This will help you distance yourself from similar problems in others, preventing you feeling low afterwards. Empathy is one thing but wallowing in mutual misery is another! You can help people far more if you can let them know what has worked for you and how you came through your own challenges.

Despite many appearances to the contrary, we are not meant to live in fear or in a state of manic busyness where we are too exhausted to cope. The greatest gift you can give yourself this New Year is the awareness of how negativity affects you and making time for spiritual practices you can use to improve your wellbeing and personal growth.

Helen Shortland is a Spiritual Consultant, Reiki Master Teacher, Holistic Therapist and Angel Therapist based at 15 Wheeler Gate in Nottingham city centre. Helen has been on the spiritual path for 15 years and has extensive knowledge of healing and the healing journey. For further information about her Reiki courses and therapies please visit her website http://helenshortland.com or ‘like’ her Facebook page Helen Shortland Holistics.

The Fall: The Descent of Consciousness through the Chakras

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Recently I was reading an article which mentioned The Fall and the Garden of Eden. There are several theories about the concept of The Fall, such as Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden of Eden or fallen angels being cast out of Heaven, but it got me thinking…. what if The Fall is a metaphor for the descent of our consciousness through the chakras with each incarnation? It is generally accepted that the development of the physical body proceeds from root to crown but our spiritual self or Higher Self descends downwards from crown to root. At the beginning of each incarnation our spiritual self leaves the consciousness of the bliss of unity to descend down to the consciousness of the earth plane. Could it be that The Fall is actually this Fall of Consciousness?

The Garden of Eden is likened to the bliss of unity with spirit, which is a good description for the 7th chakra, the crown chakra.  Many who journey to the afterlife in meditation or near death experience describe being in a beautiful garden.  Many spirit communications have also reported existing in a beautiful garden.

As we descend from the unity of the 7th chakra, we enter the duality of the 6th chakra, or third eye chakra, which is represented by the dual forces of Chokmah and Binah on the Tree of Life.  At the third eye, our energy splits into conscious and unconscious.  I have always felt that the forces of light and dark play out very strongly in this chakra. This idea is depicted perfectly in the High Priestess tarot card with the two columns Boaz and Jachin, one black and one white, representing the subconscious and conscious minds.  Does the dark pillar contain all the issues/karmic patterns we come into this lifetime with, with the aim of bringing them into the light of consciousness for healing? Here lies the duality of good and bad – our potential for greatness and healing along with the destructive elements of the shadow self.  This chakra is where we have the opportunity to exercise our free will with our choice of action.  The question to ask when considering which action to take should always be ‘Is this action in line with my truth, with love and with my highest good?’  If yes, we stay on the right path. If not, we lose our way and suffer the consequences of not living as we should.

We are making choices throughout our whole lives. Even in childhood we are learning the consequences of the choices we make.  It can take years to undo the damage caused in terms of lack of self-worth and self-confidence and find our way back to Truth and Light.  When we understand that the dark Boaz column signifies negation and the light Jachin column signifies beginning, this makes perfect sense. This journey back to Truth and Love, otherwise known as the healing process, is the clearing out of the negative energy created when we chose the path of illusion over love.

At the 5th chakra, the throat chakra, we are learning to express ourselves and define who we are.  At the 6th chakra we had the choice to be true to ourselves or live in line with the demands or expectations of others. Here, the 5th chakra, is where we express the energy of that choice. If we have chosen the path of illusion and false beliefs, the shadow self is exerting its influence and we are afraid to be ourselves and we end up living according to other people’s paths, not our own.  If we are able to express our Higher Self using the energy of light from the 6th chakra we will make healthy life choices that support our growth and our truth.

As our energy moves down from the 5th chakra to the 4th, our heart centre expresses how we feel about the life choices we have made.  If we are living our truth, we will live in joy, contentment, inner peace, abundance and harmony.  If not, there will always be an underlying sense of dissatisfaction and frustration; happiness and inner peace remain elusive.

At the third chakra, the solar plexus, the energy of the 4th chakra descends and expresses itself as self-acceptance, self-worth and self-validation – or the opposite, self-doubt and low self-esteem.  If you are happy in yourself and with the choices you have made, you naturally value yourself much more highly that if you are anxious and depressed. The solar plexus chakra carries the energy of how we really feel about ourselves.  If you are living according to your highest potential and expression, your self-esteem and capacity for contentment and love will be high.  If you are struggling to find your path and struggling to separate truth from the illusions you have bought into over the years, it will always feel like you are struggling to find yourself.  How we think about ourselves affects how we relate to others.  Solar plexus energy stresses that our primary relationship is with ourselves.  If that relationship isn’t happy and healthy, other relationships we subsequently forge will reflect that lack of inner harmony.  That is why external relationships can never bring us the contentment we seek; that contentment has to come from within, at the solar plexus, first.

The focus of the 2nd chakra, or sacral chakra, is relationships with others and creativity.  Consider your relationships – are they healthy? What do the people in your life reflect about you? The people you meet and situations you encounter externally in life reflect how you feel about yourself and about what is happening within you.  When the sacral chakra is functioning well, your creative juices will flow. This creativity can take a variety of forms including creating plans and bringing new ideas to birth, creating art and craft work, singing, dancing and writing, as well as creativity in the form of fertility at the physical level.  When this chakra is blocked, the energy isn’t flowing down from the solar plexus at a high enough frequency. In other words, if our self-esteem and self-worth are low and we do not properly value ourselves, we are either not able to express ourselves creatively at all or it may be expressed in unhealthy ways such as violent or subversive tendencies.

Finally the energy reaches the base or root chakra, the 1st chakra, and fully merges with the dense energy of the earth plane. In most cases, the energy is now de-spiritualised, focusing solely on work, money and security. Life revolves around making ends meet, the hardships of life and the endless treadmill of working to survive.  However if the energy has remained high and healthy and is in line with the Higher Self, it can create a trust in the universe to provide for our needs, faith in a higher power and a career that is more of a vocation or labour of love.  You are now living your true purpose while here on earth.

To summarise this journey through the chakras then, I believe that The Fall is not a fall from grace at all (as was traditionally believed) but rather a fall of consciousness into the heavier density of the earth plane. We can make our journey a lot easier by aligning with our truth and living from our own higher spiritual ideals rather than buying into the illusions, prejudices and falsehoods of the society we live in. Wherever we are now, we can return to the energy of the 6th chakra and make a different choice and follow a different path.  Connecting to our own truth is essential for the great healing potential it holds.  When we make choices in line with our growth, we are choosing the path of love and light and making positive, life-affirming choices.  Our energy will start to flow more freely and naturally, attracting greater potential for happiness and wellbeing.

Helen Shortland is a Reiki Master Teacher, Spiritual Coach, Holistic Therapist and Meditation Teacher based at 15 Wheeler Gate in Nottingham city centre. Helen has been on the spiritual path since 2001 and, following a recent spiritual crisis, now finds she has a clearer, more intuitive communication with her spirit guides and angels who have encouraged her to share her extensive knowledge of healing on a broader scale than before. For further information about her Reiki courses and therapies please visit her website http://helenshortland.com or ‘like’ her Facebook page Helen Shortland Holistics.

The Chakras: Their Purpose and Vibration

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What are they?

‘Chakra’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘wheel’ which describes their spinning motion while absorbing, giving out and distributing life force energy (ki) throughout our subtle and physical bodies.  The chakras are the major energy centres of the body: when they are functioning correctly there is good free-flow of energy throughout the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies, resulting in balance and harmony.  Chakras should be open to let energy flow freely in and out and between the different auric levels.  The more energy that flows, the healthier we are.  Illness in the system is caused by an imbalance of energy or a block in the flow of energy: in other words, lack of flow in our energy system eventually leads to disharmony and dis-ease.

There are 7 major chakras – crown, 3rd eye or brow, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral and root/base.  Each is positioned along a central channel called the sushumna which runs from the base chakra to the crown chakra.  The base and crown chakras form our connection to earth and spirit.  The sushumna is encircled by two energy channels called Ida and Pingala which spiral upwards in opposite directions from the base chakra.  The points where they meet along the central channel are known as the chakras.  Chakras can be likened to multi-dimensional gateways that allow us to access different experiences and states of consciousness.

Each chakra relates to a different colour, note, element, endocrine gland and auric layer, which I will address is more detail in the next two blogs.

Purpose of the Chakras

The chakras have three main functions:-

1. To vitalise each auric body and therefore the physical body.

2. To promote the development of different aspects of consciousness.  Each chakra relates to a specific psychological function.

3. To transmit energy between the auric layers.

Why do they vibrate at different frequencies?

Everything in the universe consists of vibrations occurring at different frequencies.  The colours we see all around us are different frequencies of visible light as perceived by our physical senses and interpreted by the brain.  Beyond this range lies ultra-violet light, radio waves and other light waves.

In eastern esoteric literature, each chakra is seen as having a certain number of petals.  These appear to be small rotating vortices spinning at very high rates.  Each vortex metabolizes an energy vibration that resonates at its particular spin frequency.  For example the base chakra has 4 small vortices and metabolises 4 basic frequencies of energy, vibrating at the colour red.  Four vortices is a relatively small amount of energy being metabolized and so this chakra relates to the physical, material world and issues of survival and security.  The 3rd eye chakra has 96 vortices and corresponds to the colour indigo.  Now consider that the crown chakra has 972 vortices and vibrates at the colour violet-white.  This seventh chakra metabolizes the greatest amount of energy out of all the 7 major chakras and carries a very high spiritual vibration.

The chakras vibrate at different frequencies according to the spiritual qualities that govern each chakra:-

Root/base chakra – security and survival – colour red

Sacral chakra – relationships with others, power and control – colour orange

Solar plexus chakra – sense of self, self-esteem and self-worth – colour yellow

Heart chakra – compassion, tolerance, joy and love for others – colour green or pink

Throat chakra – self-expression and communication – colour blue

Brow/3rd eye chakra – vision, direction, understanding and mental processes – colour indigo or violet

Crown chakra – sense of connection, oneness and spiritual awareness – colour violet or white

Personal Variations

Each chakra deals with particular functions but the quality of the energy in the chakra can vary from person to person.  For example, a strong red root chakra indicates someone who is well grounded with strong physical energy and vitality.  If this chakra was dull in colour or weak, it would indicate an imbalance in the corresponding mental/emotional qualities such as lack of stability and financial security.

For most people the heart chakra vibrates at the colour green but in those who have developed greater compassion and universal love, it vibrates at the higher vibration colour pink.  Similarly the crown can be violet, lavender or white, according to the level of spiritual development of the individual.  If the higher crown chakra, the seat of the soul, is activated, the crown area is likely to be white, indicating a person living in line with their higher self, and living by higher truths with a strong sense of oneness and spiritual connection to others.

Suggested further reading:-

‘Hands of Light’ by Barbara Brennan

‘Anatomy of the Spirit’ by Caroline Myss

 

This is the first in a series of 3 blogs looking in detail at the human energy system.  Part 2, The Chakras: Qualities, Correspondences & Stages of Development, will be available at the beginning of June.

 

Helen Shortland is a Reiki Master Teacher, Meditation Teacher and Holistic Therapist based at Little London Herbal Stores on Kings Walk in Nottingham city centre. For further information about her courses, workshops and therapies, please visit her website at http://helenshortland.com.