Befriending My Least Favorite Chakra Through Yoga by Vicki Moll
What does the word grounded mean to you? If you are the parent of teenagers, it may mean the punishment you dealt out to a child who spent too much time socializing and too little time studying and consequently earned poor grades. If you are a frequent traveler, it may mean the frustrating news that you will be spending more time in the airport because of flight delays. But to the yogi, being grounded means feeling connected with the physical world. In her book Eastern Body, Western Mind, Anodea Judith describes the state of being grounded as being "rooted in sensation, feeling and action, and in the solidity of the physical world. Grounding provides a connection that makes us feel safe, alive, and centered in ourselves and rooted in our environment." According to Anodea, becoming grounded plays a vital role in developing a healthy first chakra because in order to achieve a healthy first chakra, we need to work on building "stability, grounding, physical health, prosperity, and trust."
Getting to the root of the problem the first chakra, sometimes known as the root chakra because it lives at the base of the spine, happens to be the most fundamental chakra or energy/spirit center of the body. Just as an ungrounded electronic circuit may function erratically and unsafely, a person whose first chakra is out of whack will be out of balance no matter how balanced the upper six chakras are. Picture an absent - minded professor who does zany things like putting scissors in the refrigerator or resting a pile of mail on a car before driving the car away. Such a person behaves this way because s/he is not grounded.
Unfortunately the word absent - minded also accurately describes my behavior. I grew up being called spacey and nerdy, and my sister even called me a Murkon (my maiden names is Murk) to let me know she thought I was from a different planet. My mom used to just give me any unclaimed money she found when she did laundry because she knew how forgetful I could be. Now as an adult, I continue to misplace my belongings: I leave my purse at the movie theater, my eyeglasses at the doctor's office, and my clothes at the dressing room in the yoga studio; often I get lost the first time I go someplace new; and sometimes I completely space out when too much information comes at me at once. I wish I could say I do all these funny things to entertain my spouse or to enliven our enduring marriage, but I would be fibbing if I did.
Luckily though, through practicing yoga and connecting with the yoga community, I am learning to work on my first - chakra issues. According to Lucy Lidell in her book, The Sensual Body, people can learn to inhabit their bodies more fully through developing body awareness. This helps explains why my asana practice, and exercise in general, helps me feel grounded. However, according to Anodea's list of first - chakra goals, to fully heal my first chakra, I also need to attend to some basics that encourage prosperity, such as balancing my checkbook, filling out and sending in insurance forms, and cleaning our house. I have to say that I don't enjoy doing these chores, but I'm trying to think of completing chores as practicing my yoga off the mat. As far as other goals for healing my first chakra, developing a meditation practice is helping me to feel safer and more stable, allowing me to trust more fully in the process of life. My physical health, on the other hand, has been a long-standing, although thankfully not life - threatening, issue for me. Although my husband thinks I'm a hypochondriac and my friends like to reassure me that I don't look sickly, I feel as though I've had a hard time getting a handle on my health until recently. My health problems have been difficult to diagnose much less cure through the traditional channels of western medicine. Therefore, I have worked with a shiatsu therapist for years and more recently have been working with an acupuncturist.
My biggest breakthrough last spring I had my first appointment with an Ayurvedic doctor. Ayurveda is a branch of holistic medicine that grew up in India over a similar time span that yoga did. Unfortunately a great deal of Ayurvedic knowledge was lost when the British shut down Ayurveda schools and universities under their colonial rule. Ayurvedic medicine helps people to heal themselves by recommending appropriate diet, lifestyle, and daily rituals according to a person's predominant dosha or constitution type. First the doctor needed to identify my unbalanced, predominating dosha. [Vata (air and ether), pitta (fire and water), and kapha (earth and water) are the three doshas.]
The doctor asked me a lot of questions about myself, many of which I had never thought about much and therefore had a hard time answering. Then he took my pulse and told me that I'm a vata person. In his charming Irish brogue, he enumerated the characteristics of "vata people:" "Vata people tend get cold easily, have a hard time getting grounded, and are dry," he explained. "They need to lubricate and warm up their systems by eating spicy, heavy foods cooked with ghee and by rubbing plenty of oil into their skin." He also recommended sipping on hot tea while eating my meals, especially during cooler weather and taking afternoon naps as my schedule permits. His explanation pleased me - vata characteristics seem to describe me well, and as an added benefit, my cure didn't sound too painful: I like spicy foods and hot tea and don't mind rubbing myself with oil, and I love taking naps. He concluded by giving me some herbs to take and a list of foods suited to each of the doshas. Can you believe my luck? Chocolate, wine, and sweets made with unrefined sugar are all beneficial for people with a dominant vata dosha. What will be happening next? I'm waiting to learn that frequent orgasms, spending sprees, and trips to the beach are good for vata people too.
While I don't stick to my diet as much as I should, I'm glad to be making friends with my first chakra and am grateful that my health seems to be gradually improving. Nowadays even though I still sometimes ignore my physical self, I feel more hopeful because I seem to know how to help myself better; and I'm starting to think of myself less as a sickly person and more as a happy yogini.
Vicki Moll's essay is one of the essays that won the Feathered Pipe Ranch contest. She is a teacher at Sun & Moon Yoga Studio but is currently taking some time off to rest and have a baby!