Introduction

You know who you are. You’ve looked in the mirror thousands of times. You’ve got a name, physical qualities, things you do. People you know recognize you when they see you. But what’s going on inside? Is there more to you than you can see in that mirror, more than your friends and family know, more than everyone sees in your pictures and posts on social media, or more than even you have dreamed?

Your Life Force Energy

You are more than just a body. You are a confluence of energies, like a network of rivers and streams burgeoning with life. You are part of something bigger—the Universe—and yet, you are also ultimately a unique, individual Spirit. Don’t worry if you don’t see it all just yet. You’ve got a secret code, a key inside you that can guide you toward greater self-realization. You’ve got chakras.

In ancient Sanskrit, the word chakra means “wheel,” and these seven spinning energy vortexes inside your body, located along your spine from the bottom of your pelvis to the crown of your head, reveal more about you than any reflection or description ever could. Your chakras constantly open and close, widen and narrow, and turn and spin, taking in and releasing life force energy according to your life, your experiences, and who you are at any given moment. They are wheels of light, and they are all about you. Get to know them, and you get to know and heal yourself.

About the Authors

We’ve written this book to help you make the most of the chakras you hold inside you. We are Dr. Betsy Rippentrop and Eve Adamson. What do we know about chakras?

Betsy Rippentrop, Ph.D. is a certified yoga instructor, a licensed psychologist, hypnotherapist, and Reiki practitioner, as well as a trained Anusara yoga teacher. Betsy teaches yoga classes as well as specialized trainings on yoga and the mind. She has published academic papers on the relationship between spirituality and health, women’s health, and chronic pain management. Dr. Rippentrop describes the treatment she offers as yoga-based psychotherapy; she sees clients in her clinical practice based at Heartland Yoga in Iowa City. Visit her website at www.dryogamomma.com.

Betsy uses the chakras in her psychology practice to help her clients better understand themselves and heal. She measures clients’ chakras early in treatment to serve as a baseline, and routinely monitors clients’ chakras throughout treatment to help them understand their patterns and progress. In this book, she’ll show you how to measure your chakras, too. Betsy also utilizes her chakra knowledge to help her yoga students understand the subtle energies in their bodies and how yoga can help neutralize imbalances they may have.

Co-author Eve Adamson is a writer and devoted yoga practitioner who has written many popular books on health and wellness topics, including co-authoring the bestselling The Mediterranean Diet by Marissa Cloutier, MS, RD., and Eve Adamson (Harper, 2004). Eve lives and writes in Iowa City.

Eve checks in almost daily with her own chakras, to get a better sense of what she is feeling—for example, whether she’s imbalanced, assertive, moody, or particularly insightful on any particular day.

Together, Betsy and Eve guide you through your own chakras, introducing you to your chakras and helping you get to know and understand these vital energy centers as you heal. We’ll show you how to use your chakras, how to decode the messages they write in your physical body, and how to keep in touch with yourself through these spinning centers of your own life force. Hip pain? Neck pain? Fallen arches or sore throat? Sudden sadness or unexplained joy? The answers to healing lie within those spinning wheels.

Healing with Chakras

This is a journey of healing self-knowledge—one that can catapult you to the next level of your personal evolution.

Throughout this book, we also discuss how blocks and overloads in our chakras may lead to certain physical and/or mental health problems. We acknowledge that many factors come into play regarding a person’s likelihood of developing illness or disease (such as genetics, lifestyle, diet, and weight). Yet we believe that when chakras are out of balance for extended periods of time, this energy disparity increases the likelihood of developing disease. If you break apart the word disease, it actually becomes dis-ease, or a lack of ease, a lack of balance.

Nobody wants to become ill, but disease and illness are opportunities, even if they don’t feel that way. This is your body’s way of alerting you, of protecting you, of telling you that something is off-kilter and needs to be addressed. If you have a disease or health condition, there is no blame here. You have been doing the best you can in your life with the information you had. You are now receiving new information from your body in the form of symptoms. Use this new information to improve your life, to seek balance, to take better care of yourself, to acknowledge and understand your fears, and to release any anger or resentment you’ve been carrying. Our bodies are extremely wise and will give us the signs we need. A better life is waiting if we are willing and brave enough to explore the meaning behind the symptoms, and that exploration can begin with the chakras.

Are you ready to be self-realized, empowered, and more at home than ever before in your own body, mind, and spirit? Are you ready to integrate all the parts of yourself into one amazing whole? Then you are ready to start working with your chakras. So, grab the wheel, and get ready to start driving your own life. You’ve got an exciting journey ahead, and we’ll be right there with you.

About This Book

Chakra Healing is divided into five parts that cover everything you need to know to explore and balance your own chakras.

In Part 1, Awaken to Chakras’ Healing Power, we introduce you to the whole chakra concept, from a brief explanation of each chakra, where it is, and what it means, to a fun history lesson about chakras and an explanation about how they actually work in the body and in conjunction with the entire network of life force energy.

In Part 2, Dynamics of Chakra Energy, we explore all the many symbolic examples of chakras, from the tiniest atom to the largest galaxy. In this part, you’ll learn about the notorious Kundalini energy, so critical to understanding chakra awakening, and you’ll also learn how to work with your actual chakras, including how to measure them.

Part 3, Healing Chakras: Root to Crown, is the heart of the book. We spend a chapter on each of the seven chakras, telling you everything you need to know about what each one means, what happens when it gets blocked or overloaded with energy, and how to heal and balance it.

In Part 4, High Octane Healing Bliss … No Caffeine Necessary!, we get serious about actually integrating chakra work into real life, with chapters on using chakras to feel better every day, using your own voice to increase chakra vibration, how chakras can enhance your love life, and how to use meditation techniques for greater chakra awareness.

Part 5, Relax, Release, Restore, Renew, covers more advanced techniques for working with the chakras, from partner exercises for releasing chakra blocks to guided visualizations and an exploration of the astral and causal bodies.

Acknowledgments

Betsy: Thanks to Eve Adamson for being my experienced, wise, and grounded guide who journeyed with me on this amazing chakra trip! Thanks to Dr. Candida Maurer and Dr. Michael Santangelo, who first opened my eyes to the world of energy, chakras, Reiki, and healing—your wisdom and guidance have been priceless. Thanks to Marsha Nieland, my Anusara teacher and mentor, for changing my life by your strong practice, exceptional teaching, open heart, playfulness, generosity, and dedication to the kula. Thanks to all the exceptional teachers who work with me at Heartland Yoga—this studio would not be thriving without your talents and enthusiasm. Thanks to my boys: Pieter, for constant comic relief, grounding, and reminding me of what is truly important in life; and Jack, my steady, stable, and blissful baby boy who epitomizes open-heartedness. Finally, this book is dedicated to my dear husband, Jon, who always lends his support and believes in me, no matter what adventure I’m navigating.

Eve: Thank you to my fantastic, loving, open-hearted co-author, Dr. Betsy Rippentrop, whose beautiful spirit and trusty expertise trickle down through every page of this book. Thanks to my BFF and fellow yogi Rachel Klapper, who was a behind-the-scenes source of help, information, and moral support during the writing of this book. Thanks to Lee Ann Chearneyi at [email protected] for bringing me this wonderful project, which I enjoyed so much. Thanks to my youngest son, Emmett, who patiently let me measure his chakras and test visualizations and meditations on him. He’s a wise spirit filled with love and compassion. He has a magnificent Heart chakra. And as always, thanks to Ben, for listening, for keeping the kids out of the office when I was under deadline, for letting the dogs out so I wouldn’t have to break my train of thought, and for making sure there was food on the table (even if it was meat) when I was unable to do even one more thing. I couldn’t do it without you, babe!

About Amaranth

[email protected] enjoys more than 20 years as a leading producer of health, nutrition, women’s interest, and wellness/lifestyles books for publishers in print and digital media. Creative director Lee Ann Chearneyi uses her talent as a published author and her experience as a career editor and former trade publisher to inform and craft innovative creative content.

A special thanks from Amaranth to professional astrologer and Tarot reader, Arlene Tognetti of Mellinetti’s, who assisted with Michelle Obama’s birth chart chakra reading in Appendix A. Find Arlene on Facebook or email her at [email protected]. Arlene is the author of several books on the intuitive arts including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tarot, Second Edition.

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