Chakra Foods for Optimum Health. Deanna M. Minich
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According to Richard Gerber, M.D., in Vibrational Medicine, these important chakra centers have been discarded by Western scientists as “magical constructs of unsophisticated and primitive Eastern thinkers.” The existence of chakras, or at least of the subtle energy field, has not been validated directly by scientific methods or devices. There are various machines on the market to measure one's energy field by placing your hand on a panel, reading the electric charge, and correlating the charge with energy channels (referred to in traditional Chinese medicine as “meridians”) in the body. Although still slow in coming, the evidence for the existence of chakras has been initiated by various researchers such as Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama and Dr. Valerie Hunt, using technology designed to measure subtle energy. These are promising attempts that will propel us forward into doing more work in this area from a scientific perspective.
Quantum physics, seemingly more than any other scientific discipline, has provided us with support for the existence of the human energy field as a dynamic pattern of weblike interconnectedness. In the meantime, more practical means of accessing the chakras could come from indirect data, such as an individual's emotional and physical issues.
A majority of texts and philosophical systems agrees that there are seven major chakras and a multitude of minor chakras (some sources say up to 360). In this book, we work with the seven major chakras only. These chakras regulate key functions and issues and correspond to seven distinct anatomical areas (see Table 2.1). Since the chakras are central to the functioning of the body, symptoms or disease often begin in the chakras before moving into physical form. All thoughts, emotions, and actions are stored in our bodies. The chakras are a part of that process.
Table 2.1 Chakra Names, Locations, and Colors
When the chakras get overloaded with a negative message, the chakra may get blocked, and eventually the energy flow will be impeded in this area, causing symptoms or a disease in the organs that chakra is responsible for. You will learn more specifics as you read the chapters that correspond to the individual chakras. For example, if an individual has symptoms related to his or her stomach, then the solar plexus chakra should be addressed. A blockage in the heart chakra may suggest heart disease. Similarly, an individual who presents symptoms of adrenal stress would have issues to process in the root chakra.
COLOR AND VIBRATION
Have you ever thought to yourself that a certain person had a “bad vibe”? You were most likely tuning into their energy vibration. Every person carries an overall vibration reflecting the sum of the individual chakra vibrations. This vibration is the accumulation of the cell vibrations as the macrocosm (the individual) reflects the microcosm (the cells). The chakras are the “middle man” or collective center to which all the cells associated with that chakra report so that the chakra vibrates at that level. Each chakra will have a slightly different vibration, depending on its function and location.
Usually, a specific color is associated with the chakra, since color is, in fact, simply a physical manifestation of a vibration. The entire rainbow spectrum of colors is carried collectively within the seven chakras. Each chakra is associated with and responsible for a color resonating with its vibration; however, that does not mean that each chakra is limited to one color only. The color of a chakra will give information about the state of the chakra and its vibration. An easy way to remember the color associations is to think about the colors in a rainbow starting from the bottom upward (root chakra: red to crown chakra: lavender).
CHAKRAS AND THEIR ELEMENTS
The chakras are connected to color, archetypes, and also the elements of nature and the cosmos. Each chakra embodies some aspect of an element, with the lower body chakras taking on significantly “coarser” physical elements than the upper body chakras, which integrate elements that are not apparent to the naked eye. The root (first) chakra, with its association to being grounded and stable, appropriately carries the solid energy of the Earth and all her embodiments: soil, deep molten lava, rock. The sacral (second) chakra represents the water element, taking on its fluid, dynamic ability to create through life, being yielding and passive, yet strong and forceful at the same time. The solar plexus (third) chakra signifies the fire element, powerful and ready to ignite with confidence and the quality of “presence.” These three chakras carry within their energies the symbolism and characteristics of physical elements (Earth, water, and fire). As you will read further, this association parallels their connection with these same elements found in the major components (macronutrients) comprising foods: the root chakra and its anchor to earth through protein; the sacral chakra capturing the movement inherent within water through its resonance with fluids and fats; and the solar plexus chakra honoring the fire quality of carbohydrates, a fuel source that is preferentially burned for energy in its variety of forms (everything from quick simple sugars to sustained complex starches).
As we travel up the chakra circuit into the upper body chakras, the elements become less tangible and more ethereal. The heart (fourth) chakra draws us to the elemental essence of air, which allows us to be part of the human experience. We can do for weeks without food, days without water, but only minutes without air. Ancient traditions revere the breath, or oxygen, and equate it with being our life force (chi, prana). Think of the word in-spire, which in Latin means “to breathe.” We relate it to becoming exalted and infused with emotion and nourished. The throat (fifth) chakra's element is even finer than air—ether, the element of the heavens, or that space beyond the Earth. We communicate to the heavens and move beyond into space by air flowing through our throat chakra, creating sound, a vibration that travels through Earth gases, solids, and liquids into the substance that envelops the Earth. Up in the realm of the third eye (sixth) chakra resides the multidimensional element of light, or photonic, rainbowed particles and waves. This center provides our insight, or “lights the path” before us. Physiologically, it is very sensitive to the rhythms of light appearance and disappearance. It feeds off of the sunlight and the Divine light that shines from within everyone. Finally, the crown (seventh) links us to the element of oneness and wholeness of Divine energy and universal consciousness. It is the complete part of who we are and with this element in place, our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls are sustained.
CHAKRA HEALTH
A healthy chakra will be responsive to both internal cell messages and to external environment signals. It will open and close, like a flower responding to sunlight, bringing in and releasing energy, and creating an overall movement that translates into a vibration. Chakras take in energy or signals and direct them to the appropriate body systems. Health is determined by this flow of energy from the chakras through the energy circuits and into the metabolic network of the body. For example, if your boss tells you what a good job you are doing, your root chakra, responsible for survival and trust, may take in the message and create a supportive vibration. The root chakra is connected to the other chakras to give them this message, spreading the vibration throughout the body, allowing each chakra to filter what it needs to take in.
A chakra can also become blocked or obstructed, causing the internal or external messages to not get through or to become distorted. If we take the example of the boss's