A Message from  Wayne C. Allen A big welcome to those of you that  are new to  "Into the Centre"!

Another quiet week in Ontario. We're making progress on our renovations and looking forward to listing the house. We even ran around to a couple of Open Houses. Still haven't a clue where we'll end up. I love mysteries.

We've posted two new courses we're offering this August and again in September, both in Port Elgin, Ontario. To read the web version, click here.

Today's article begins a "Chakra Series." Hope you like it!

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Warmly,

Wayne

Chakra View - Root Chakra

As you know if you've perused the Bodywork section of our website,  we are quite interested in both the energy flow aspects of Bodywork and how this relates to both psychological and "growth" issues. A lot of this moved from the theoretical to the "real" as we studied Carolyn Myss' (pronounced MACE) Anatomy of the Spirit.) Myss' work has been to identify the psychological issues that correspond with each chakra.

There is also a loose parallel between "psychological chakras" and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Here's the chart:

One might say that 1 & 2, above, represent the "issues" contained in the root chakra. The location of the root chakra, at the tip of the tailbone, is connected with groundedness, security, holding and elimination and what we might call the sense of "the right to be." The colour connected to this chakra is red. As you can see in the top photograph, which provides a colour band overlay, the root chakra also includes the legs.

Now, apart from the Bodywork implications, why am I raising this? Well, the chakra hierarchy is inescapable. As is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In other words, as we progress along the pyramid, reaching each level in turn, we might be thought of as adding to our repertoire. Each level builds upon the level that precedes it.

Energetically, we can also understand that we proceed, as we grow, from basic human needs of food, shelter, oxygen, elimination, and safety (chakra 1) to relationship needs being met (i.e. the infant must "latch on" to the parent or parents in order to meet physiological and safety needs,) which is chakra 2. Chakra 3, self-esteem, while incipient in the lower 2, does not actually occur (i.e. the development of a "self") until several months to a year into the child's life (this is the first level of differentiation.)

When we come under stress, or better, when we choose to stress ourselves, we end up working down the same system. So, if a client has a setback, the first thing he'll likely do is to begin to doubt himself. (Chakra 3) Contained within this doubt is a fundamental loss of self-esteem. This, of course, assumes that he doesn't "hie himself off" to a therapist. He makes himself feel worthless (worth less - get it?) and questions his intelligence, persistence and abilities.

If he doesn't catch himself there, he'll then begin to question his relationships. (Chakra 2) He'll doubt his competence, his ability to communicate and will begin to imagine that others are rejecting him out of hand. From there, he'll begin to pull in and draw back from contact, and his choice to retreat will be taken as others rejecting him. Having lost himself, he then proceeds to lose his connection with others.

If he doesn't catch himself here, there is only one chakra left. This is the "basic right to live" chakra. People reaching this chakra on the way down are prone to hurting themselves, and to suicide.

As a therapist, then, one goal I might have is to work diligently to arrest a downward spiral. Rebuilding from the "I'm too stupid to live" place is difficult. As a Bodyworker, addressing the "root" issues at the 1^st chakra is a vital exercise. We consider this work to be of such an essential area that we're working on a booklet and video on this topic.

Here's another perspective, and indicates why so many people are "defended" in the lower chakra. When you think about it from the above perspective, the tightening is in a sense providing a muscular wall to protect the root chakra, as, remember, it's all about security and the right to live. We're programmed to protect this last vestige of our humanity in the only way we know how to - by erecting a wall and resisting that wall being breached.

Perhaps the way out of all of this, beyond Bodywork per se, is to discuss, with some fear and trembling, your fear of death and annihilation. Find another to share this with. We are all fearful, almost unto death, of death. (Paradox of paradoxes!) The practice of letting go of the clinging to fear is the psychological equivalent of letting go of muscular tightness. To put this another way - you either deeply know and believe that you have a right to exist, or you don't. Tightening up and screaming about it or avoiding the area altogether demonstrates a holding that is not voluntary and non-attached.

In the following weeks, we'll look at "chakra issues," one or two per issue. In the mean time, say "hi" to your lower chakra!

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