The Root Chakra

I think I figured out what I needed on the chakra thing, and it did not require doing yoga.

I can't rule out yoga happening in my future. Right now it does not do it for me, but there was a time when I couldn't stand doing aerobics tapes, and then later on that was something I liked a lot. Right now the exercise that feels best is walking outside, so I am focusing on that, but it can always change again.

I mention that because in the past I have felt this antipathy toward yoga. Given how many other people love it, and recognizing changes in my own patterns, I still have no interest in doing yoga, but I no longer have scorn for it.

The chakra thing was something else. It did go with the idea I had of a sequence where things properly lead to each other. Ultimately I kept feeling drawn to that one page: http://www.eclecticenergies.com

I would go through different sections, and feel a need to dig further. It was in the introduction that it finally clicked. The root of the problem was the Root Chakra.

The first time I landed on the page (searching for something else), it was on the exercises for opening the chakras. It said not to do the meditation for the Crown Chakra unless you have a strong Root Chakra, so there was always this idea of a necessary foundation. I have also been thinking about the spine more, which has its own principles of alignment and support.

I thought it would be about sex. The Root Chakra is located in the perineum, an area that seems like it would relate to that, and I have never denied that there are some frustrations to chastity when you remain continually unattached.

(Sexuality relates to the Sacral Chakra, which is located in the pelvis. That also makes sense.)

The Root Chakra is about being grounded, rooted, and physically there. It is about knowing you have a right to be here.

That has been a hard one for me. It is part of the overfunctioning - trying so hard to earn a place, so it is worthwhile for other people to have you around. "You don't unnecessarily distrust people." Not trusting is unnecessary?

What became clear was how hard it is for anything else to be okay if you can't even accept your basic right to be present. How do you let your feelings flow? How do you assert yourself? How can you be unguarded in your affection?

Working the way upward, the things that don't relate as much to the group and physical world - art and fantasy and intellectualizing things - are overactive, because they're safer and that's what you use to compensate.

I am better at asserting myself for other people. I have seen that and identified that years ago. I figured out years ago that those times when I didn't go after something I wanted and I got mad at myself for being scared or lazy, that I wasn't really scared or lazy as much as I didn't feel like I deserved what I wanted. All of that is such old news, and yet I still need it. I still need to remember that I have value and belong here.

So do I start doing affirmations now? I am not sure. There are some at http://www.chakra-anatomy.com/root-chakra.html.

Mainly I guess I just need to keep reminding myself, because I am prone to forget.