Understanding the Root Chakra

Understanding the Root Chakra:

Where Is the Root Chakra?

The Root Chakra is the First Chakra as it is the chakra that represents your foundation. The energy of the Root Chakra is based on the element Earth. It is associated with feelings of safety, security, and grounding. Located at the base of all of the chakras, at the base of your spine, it lays the foundation for the rest of your body’s energy. The Root Chakra is depicted with the color red and it is associated with the pelvic region, feet, legs, and reproductive organs.

What Are Some Characteristics of the Root Chakra?

The First Chakra or Root Chakra is associate with all of the primitive emotions, behaviors, and energies that impact your life. From the First Chakra we associate the following behaviors and characteristics:

• Security and safety
• Basic needs – food, sleep, shelter, self-preservation, survival
• Physical needs, touch, identity, and aspects that pertain to the self
• Grounding, support, and foundation for living our life.You need a balanced Root Chakra in order to build the foundation that allows you to unblock and balance every aspect of your life. This is a theory that extends beyond energies and has been popularized in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In order to achieve self-actualization, you must first achieve the basic needs – safety, shelter, food, etc.

What Can Happen When the Root Chakra Is Imbalanced?

When the Root Chakra is imbalanced this means that either the chakra is either under-stimulated or overactive. What this means for the Root Chakra is that when your basic needs are underserved you cling to safety, security, and self-preservation so much that it causes you to feel paranoid, overprotective, and uncertain. On the other hand, when the Root Chakra is too active it can cause you to experience feelings and behaviors that are excessive, greedy, and gluttonous. Feelings and behaviors associated with imbalance Root Chakras are:

• Excess – positive and negative
• Cynicism, illusion, and disillusion
• Greed and avarice
• Excessive feeling of insecurity, living on survival mode constantly

How To Open the Root Chakra?

Balancing the Root Chakra will often require you to take part in more grounding activities that allow you to connect with nature and your more primitive behaviors. Gardening, hiking, meditating, Reiki, cooking healthy foods, and so on can help you feel more grounded. Additionally, if you are looking for the right gemstones for balancing your Root Chakra, stones like tourmaline, garnet, and onyx are great stones to use.