Earth, the Foundation 1-31-11

All foundations rest on the earth -- the universal ground for all we do.  What is your relationship to the earth?  What time do you spend in nature?  When did your feet last contact the earth?

Take a walk in these last few days of First Chakra.  Be in your body and take it for a walk, or skiing, or just sit on a rock -- know that without a strong, rooted foundation, little else can be accomplished.  Use the affirmation:  The earth supports me and meets my needs.







You are the ground upon which all things rest.                                                                                    
You are the Earth from which all things grow.
You are here; you are solid; you are alive.                                                                                
You are the point from which all things begin.

Final week of Chakra One 1-28-11

Next Thursday is the last class in Chakra 1.  Make this week a good one.  Use it!  Think about your roots, your foundation, have those medical tests done, have a massage, write about the early relationship to your Mother (that possibility makes most people quake!), be honest about your relationship to money, how’s your allignment with abundance?  

Read the following areas connected with first chakra and see what pops up for you. 

Roots 

Earth

The Body

Foundation

Solidity

Safety & Survival

Grounding

Mother

Nourishment

Trust

Health

Home

Family

Prosperity

Lay your floorboards well so we can move onto Chakra Two beginning February 4 with a solid base.

In the Belly 1-27-11

This is the beautiful belly of my young friend Rachael who has graced me with this image -- a perfect picture for our first chakra series.

Coming into the earth plane we begin in the body of the mother--in the uterus.  What was that experience like before we developed any individual consciousness?  Everything we felt came through the mother.  Was she relaxed and happy or tense and fearful?  Did she eat well or poorly.  Everything about her impacts the growing fetus. 

I experienced a birth trauma.  After being in labor for a while, the doctor decided my mother wouldn’t be able to deliver vaginally, so a C-section was done.  During the operation, the surgeon cut my foot.  How did that effect my safety and security?  And my mother was young, immature, inexperienced.  How did I feel in her arms?  What level of adrenaline did I acclimate to and come to take as normal?  For this is the atmosphere of the first chakra--and everything is built on this.  

How are the infant’s needs met?  Are their cries answered or ignored?  Is the world friendly or hostile?  The substance of survival all comes from outside.  Here in first chakra and at this time, the developmental task of trust vs mistrust is set in motion.

Countdown in Chakra 1

There are only twelve more days in Chakra 1, so now is the time to concentrate and do the work before we move into the second chakra.  Let's set our foundation solidly before moving ahead.  Everything else rests upon this chakra.
The elephant is a totem of first chakra.  Do you have an image of an elephant you can put on your altar along with a red cloth or red candle?  First Chakra is Muladhara -- Root support.  It is about the Earth, Grounding, Solidity, the first relationship with the Mother, Nourishment, Trust, the Body, Health, Home, Family, Commitment, Manifestation, Abundance, Prosperity.  Think about these areas in your life -- write about them -- delve deeply.  Reclaim your right to be here.  First chakra is about your Right to Have.  Love your body, trust its wisdom.  Have a massage.  Feel the abundance of the universe.  But also do the work.  Clean your closets, set your boundaries, check your finances, focus, be disciplined, feel solid in your life, have ground under your feet, grow roots.

The meditation we've been doing is the Meditation for Rejuvenation.  Sit comfortably on the floor or a chair, spine straight.  Close your eyes, focus them at the third eye point.  Interlace fingers, thumbs together, hands resting in lap.  Apply the root lock, contracting the rectum, sex organs, and navel point at the same time -- keeping this contraction, inhale and chant God and me, me and God are One.  Exhale, release the contraction.  And repeat for 3 to 11 minutes.

Do yoga postures that bring  you into first chakra:  Crow, Squats, Moving Crow, Body Drops, Locust or Half Locust, Head to Knee, Dynamic Head to Knee to Plow in rhythmic movement.  And deep relaxation, concentrating on the breath, deeply inhaling through the nose, then exhale every bit of breath.  Experience what it means to give everything away.
Trust at its most elemental level is an act of giving.  Be willing to give everything away in order to truly receive.
Build TRUST in the first chakra.  Fight the demon of FEAR.  Find ACCEPTANCE.

RED

RED is the color of the first chakra.  The blood red of life.  Let the color red remind you of the work of the first chakra.  Put a red cloth on your altar, a red flower, or light red candles.  I've tied a red string around my wrist so that when I see it throughout the day, it grounds me.  Just simple little reminders.
They help.

First Chakra Demon -- FEAR

FEAR is contrary to the healthy state of the first chakra, which is associated with safety, security, and solidity.  To work through fear is to learn to relax and feel the subtle energies of the body, to have pleasure and expand our attention to a wider vista.  To combat fear is to strengthen the first chakra.  To live with fear is to weaken it.

To fully ground into a solid foundation, we must overcome the demon of fear.  We need to understand where it came from and how it served us, but that's not enough -- the fear response is still lodged in the body.  The next step is to release and integrate the instinctual responses to the fear.

Fear can also be an ally, teaching about self-preservation -- that is a healthy fear -- and it can lead to psychological development.  But stuck in a fearful state because of old patterns is detrimental to the body and psyche.

Moving from fear (believing that something bad might happen) to faith (believing that something good will happen) is a good antidote.  And that shift also builds TRUST -- and quality of the first chakra.

Food 1-15-11

I'm still in the realm of food.  How it's part of our rituals -- the buying of it, the making of meals, the meeting others to eat, the community, the satisfying feeling of something delicious in the mouth and going down -- and it's grounding.  Food takes us into the body, it fires up our molecules, it can make us happy!  I happened to see an episode of Giada and was so envious of her relationship to the food -- her absolute enjoyment!  Pasta, cheese, tomatoes, olive oil -- the freshness of lemon zest, the nuttiness of parmigiano reggiano.  Food is life!  Food addictions are something else.  I guess this cleanse helps me to look at how I use food -- do I eat unconsciously, filling up my belly when it's really something else I'm hungry for?  Am I gluttenous, eating too much, have I a habit of stuffing, or a sweet tooth that can't be satisfied?  I know this cleanse is helping me to look at my habits--and hopefully when I'm through with it, I'll have a better idea what foods nourish my body and which inflame it.  I'll be a better eater in my own behalf.

Root Chakra 1-13-11

Success!  I've been trying to load a picture on my blog and finally I've done it!  It refers to the ROOT chakra.

All for now,
mf

First Chakra 1-13-11

So, first chakra.  Muladhara.  ROOT.  Red.  The right to have.  This is where we begin, our roots, our foundation, our bodies, and our survival.  This is the support for all subsequent work.


Here are some of the key concepts to think about:  Survival; Earth; Grounding; Matter; Body; Food; Physical plane; Home; Family; Roots; Discipline; Foundation; Abundance; Manifestation; Stillness.
Take time to think about these things.  Journal about them.  Begin to explore your own first chakra.


Lately I've been thinking about food.  A week and three days ago I began a cleanse.  On it, I'm having a protein shake in the morning and evening, and a meal in the afternoon -- a sensible meal of a lean protein, or not, it can be vegetarian -- some veggies or a salad.  The day can also include a snack of hummus or almond butter with an apple if needed.

This has been/is very challenging.  I want my food!  I deserve my food!  I want David’s delicious popcorn.  And pizza and yummy, mouth-watering meals.  I even miss cooking them.  This cleanse is really making me look at the comfort of my food and the little pleasures that are a part of my daily life.  But, I’ve taken this on.  In clearing my system of certain things -- like dairy, and gluten, sugar, caffeine, I’m honoring my body and trying to give it what it really needs to function in a better way.  And I am feeling better.  I’ve noticed that my joints aren’t as stiff--maybe by the time this is finished, my joints will be pain free?  Has it been the nightshade vegetables that have contributed to inflammation?  Is it gluten?  Not sure, but I am feeling better and I haven’t had ibuprophen in ten days!  I used to have it at least once a day, which in some ways doesn’t seem like much, but added up over time, it can’t be good for my liver.  The cleanse lasts three weeks and I’m one week and three days into it.  I will stay with it, even though some days I wonder how.  Then I think what a whuss I am--I mean, there are people in the world who are really hungry.  I’m not starving, just in a little experiment.  It’s sinking me into an area of first chakra--food--a place I’ve been reluctant to go.  But between my inflammed joints and the extra pounds I put on last year with all the stress in my life, this seemed like the perfect time to pay attention.  One great think is that I'm not doing it alone -- my friend, Dee, is doing it too, so that's some comfort.

An interesting thing about it is that it's challenging HABITS.  First chakra is the realm of habits, automatic behaviors, and deep instinctual patterns we learn for survival.  

So this is good.  Challenge your habits--especially the ones where it's easy to go unconscious.

All for now,

mf

Introduction 1-12-11

Fellow Travelers,

This is my first post -- first blog.  Seems momentous (to me) -- certainly marks a moment in my time zone.

I'm writing to share a process I've embarked on -- eight forty day meditations through the chakra system.
I  began this 320 day trek on December 26, but have only now, 18 days later,  stepped up to actually begin the blog.  Bit of hesitation here.

Chakras are the subtle energy centers of the body -- wheels of energy -- from the grossest (dense) level, chakra 1, to the subtler planes of the higher chakras.  There are seven chakras in some systems, eight, in the one I'm following, which includes the radiant body, or auric field.  I'm using several references for my course of study and will be quoting from these sources:  The Eight Human Talents by Gurmukh, and three books by Anodea Judith:  Wheels of Life, The Sevenfold Journey, and Eastern Body Western Mind.  As I glean from other sources I'll include them too.

I'm doing this to step up my own practice of Kundalini yoga -- and to keep track of the changes that occur in my body, emotions, and mental outlook, throughout the 320 days.  I'm a student and teacher of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.  He said the beginning of the Aquarian Age starts on 11-11-11.  My study is preparation for living in a more conscious world and it's timed to end the day before the New Age begins.  But really, there is no such definite day -- we live in a new world when we bring more consciousness to the time and circumstances in which we live.

All for now,
mf