The Muladhara – Root Chaka; 8 Practical Techniques to Bring It Back Into Balance
- Griff
Table of Contents
The Muladhara, or the root chakra, is the first of the 7 chakras located at your spinal cord’s root and is linked to a red aura. In ancient traditions, the chakra’s are symbolised by spinning wheels of energy that allows our prana (life force) to flow freely through our subtle body.
The root chakra corresponds to our sense of security and stability, so when our basic requirements for food, shelter and safety are under threat, our root chakra becomes blocked.
Where Is The Muladhara Chakra Located?
In Eastern traditions, the Muladhara Chakra energy centre is located at the bottom of the spinal column, around the pelvic floor area. Interestingly, each of the seven chakra positions correlates exactly to networks found in the central nervous system.
Throughout our physical body, our nervous system converges in bundles called the “plexuses”.
The inferior hypogastric plexus, which corresponds to the root chakra, sits in the lower pelvis regions—the uterus and cervix area in women and the prostate in men.
Imbalances in the Muladhara: Root Chakra
The root chakra is linked strongly to fear. When our personal needs and sense of security become threatened, we become scared for ourselves and display signs of stress.
This could reveal itself as a physical manifestation of pain in the lower back, hips, legs, knees and feet. On an emotional level, you may begin to feel anxious and aggressive.
In western thinking, we could link the root chakra to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which states that we feel like our basic requirements for survival aren’t met, like shelter, food, clothing, and sleep, then we no longer feel supported, leaving us feeling scared and depressed.
How to Balance Muladhara: Root Chakra
To bring our root chakra into balance, we need to overcome our fear of being alone, isolated from others and not having a sense of security.
Here are some practices I recommend to start this process:
Meditation
Aura cleansing meditation
Aura cleansing meditation is a form of visualisation meditation where you envision and focus on each of the major chakras and create a balanced energy flow through them.
This exercise is very simple, especially if you are new to meditation. You can do this at any time of the day or while you are resting in bed.
Grounding meditation
Grounding meditation is a way to bring yourself back to the here and now. It’s very similar to mindfulness meditation but with more emphasise on grounding yourself to the physical earth beneath you.
Mantra meditation
In mantra meditation, there are certain mantra’s that correspond to different chakra’s. The mantra that corresponds to the root chakra is ‘LAM. Listen to the example below.
Yoga Poses
Warrior Pose
This involves standing with both feet together and then taking a warrior stance.
This is the perfect chakra yoga pose to help you focus on your core, root chakra and strengthen those thighs and those legs that support yourself on the ground.
Sun Salutations
The sun salutations is a morning stretch routine that is great for the root chakra. It involves some lunges, which is very similar to what you would do in warrior. It targets all your major muscles groups and is suitable for any level.
Pranayama Breathing Exercises
Nadi Sodhana
The Pranayama breathing exercise ‘Nadi Sodhana’ is well recognised as being able to lower blood pressure and reduce anxiety. It’s also a straightforward breathing exercise that is perfect if you’ve never experimented with Pranayama. It involves breathing in and out alternatively through each nostril for 5 – 10 minutes. You can find a full guide here.
The 4-7-8 Breathing Technique
The 4-7-8 breathing exercise is an anxiety management tool developed by Dr Andrew Weil based on Pranayama breathing. It’s mostly used to help people fall asleep but is also effective at calming you down when you might be feeling scared or anxious.
Mudra
A mudra is a hand position that can be assumed during meditation that helps strengthen the mind and body connect and facilitate the flow of prana through the body.
Each chakra has its own mudra that can be used to help strengthen the flow of life-force energy to that specific chakra.
The Roots chakra’s mudra is the Gyan mudra, one of the most recognizable mudras, and is performed by placing the index finger to the thumb while resting the hand on the knee.
Chakra Stone
Smokey Quartz is a powerful stone that pulls out negative energy and strengthens the physical body.
According to crystal healers, smokey quartz can help to heal the root chakra while grounding and stabilizing its energy.
This supports feelings of safety and security and improves physical health.
Affirmations
Affirmations are a great way to boost your confidence or calm your mind before sleep.
Here are a few to strengthen your Muladhara;
I feel safe
I have the perfect home and feel at home wherever I may be
Life will provide me with everything I need.
The good news is that we can easily balance our Root chakra and enjoy a sense of security. The bad news is that this may require the courage to look deep within ourselves.
The root chakra corresponds to our personal needs and sense of security, so we need to find ways to feel supported and balanced before overcoming the fear of being alone and in need.
Griff Williams
MindEasy founder & meditation teacher
Griff Williams is an accredited meditation teacher and founder of MindEasy. He spent 12 years working as a London firefighter before changing paths to pursue building MindEasy. He received his diploma in meditation teaching from The British School of Meditation.
