While chakra meditation is quite new to me, I am becoming familiar with it thanks to the wonderful people I’ve met at the Monroe Institute who do chakra work in meditation. The idea of chakra meditation goes back to ancient India, and the word “chakra” means disc or wheel in Sanskrit. The primary chakras are seven spinning energy centers said to distribute life force throughout the body, from the top of your head down to the base of the spine, covering your core. These chakras correspond to nerve bundles and internal organs that are considered to be of great relevance to mental and physical wellness.

In more modern times, people from all religions and backgrounds believe in chakra work, as it is regularly used in yoga and meditation. Part of the meditative process involves aligning each chakra with the next, providing optimal well-being when they harmoniously direct the energy flow throughout the body. Meditating to align your chakras involves using breathwork in a way that connects these seven centers so they vibrate in unison—encouraging energy flow throughout your core—while you meditate on clarity of mind and focus on what you need.

To start feeling and understanding chakras on a base level, I recently started to meditate on what chakra alignment means to me. As I began to meditate, I visualized these seven centers and was able to feel them pulsing a bit. I breathed in a great source of energy through the top of my head and felt it flow down throughout my core and then back up through my head and down again, in a circular movement. By getting familiar with the basics of breathwork and trying to pinpoint these centers to better understand them, I felt as though I was truly aligning my chakras, without even understanding them on any deep level. This encouraged me to know more.

Meditating to align your chakras involves using breathwork in a way that connects these seven centers so they vibrate in unison—encouraging energy flow throughout your core—while you meditate on clarity of mind and focus on what you need.

I began researching and visualizing the chakras in these meditation exercises, as each has a name and color associated with it. As I meditated on this, I saw the crown chakra at the top of my head in indigo, the third eye chakra in blue, my throat chakra in turquoise, my heart chakra in green, my solar plexus chakra in yellow, my sacral chakra at my belly button in orange, and my root chakra at the base of my spine in red. Just feeling where these energy centers are and how breathing through them can make you feel balanced and whole is a good start. It’s how I’ve been directing my chakra work currently, knowing that I’m just skimming the surface of something much greater.

If you’re looking to discover more about chakra meditation for yourself, there is a “Healing Chakras” meditation in the Expand app that may help you experience it firsthand. I wish you luck in this and all meditation, and I’m excited to share more on this as I experience it.