PSA: Here's how to unblock your chakras

Anshuka Parwani gives you all the deets on how to re-activate your energy points and relax.

- Anshuka Parwani

Chakras are centres of energy within the human body. The term chakra' comes from Sanskrit, meaning 'wheel' or 'disk', representing their spinning, vortex-like nature. I like to picture these as seven wheels of life force and energy lining our spines, each pulsating with its unique attributes and hues.

When our chakras are balanced, we feel comfortable in our skin and with our relationships, actions, and thoughts. Everything in our life flows smoothly. However, when a particular chakra is overactive as compared to the others, it becomes misaligned.

When our chakras are unbalanced or misaligned, it feels like there's a roadblock in our life: tensions run high, negative thoughts build up, and missteps and miscommunications are more likely to happen.

Let me take you through the seven chakras in our body, the colours they radiate, the yoga poses to help balance them, and what may cause blockages.

Yoga and Chakras: Where Inner Balance Meets Physical Harmony 

Yoga and chakras are connected through philosophy and through practise. Our bodies are lined with energy channels or nadis (nerves), which intersect at certain points in our body, and these points, concentrated with energy, are known as chakras. Yoga helps activate and balance these chakras by drawing our focus to the affected areas. Each chakra has a corresponding asana that helps unblock it.

Chakras are subtle but highly effective in the way that they tell us about the different energy systems stored in our bodies. Each blockage represents a hardship that we cannot recover from. Introspection is crucial to understanding chakras. If my throat feels heavy, I focus on my throat chakra and the negative emotions synonymous with blocking that chakra, and try to work on that.