Hard to believe that in over six years of practicing yoga regularly that this weekend was my first seminar. The theory goes that when your chakras are balanced, they rotate (metaphysically) in a clockwise direction at the same speed. When they are off, they can rotate backwards and cause various physical or emotional problems.There is a woman at the YMCA (where I currently take all of my classes) who teaches a chakra class every Friday - each class she focuses on one chakra and does poses to stimulate energy flow through that area. Both times I've gone, coincidence or not, she focused on the throat chakra (5th above) which has to do with speaking the truth, not speaking unproductively (gossip) and being open to hearing the truth from others. This is definitely something that I am trying to be more conscious about.
The workshop was very neat. At the beginning of class she said that it is scientifically proven that there is an energy field around us, and talked about how energy flows in and out of our chakras. We held our hands about 4-6 inches apart and I was actually able to feel the energy. What a neat experience!
We started with the first chakra and worked our way up. Even though the seminar was two hours long, it had a good pace so I was never super tired. We did do some strenuous poses, there were quite a few balance poses, and a lot of twists. One thing she said that really stuck with me was when she mentioned the heart and throat chakras being closely related. When both are balanced correctly, she said, your throat chakra allows you to speak and act from your heart. I like that.
