Imagine yourself feeling grounded, secure, and belonging as these tumultuous shifts ebb and flow. What do you look like? Are you breathing slowly and deeply? Are you smiling? Is your body at ease? How good do you feel?
Do your sensations of stability feel elusive or fleeting lately?
These are anxious and fearful times for many of us. Collectively and individually. I started this article with "these can be anxious times." But I know for sure that many of us are feeling it. So, I changed it because recognizing it gives us permission to accept our fragility and explore healing feeling uncertain.
I am hearing it from so many people, from total strangers with whom I chat in passing, to friends and clients. If you are highly sensitive or empathic, the streams of collective tension can be palpable. Workplace, school and even worship environments can feel oppressive because we are not with our chosen family and tribe. I am certainly feeling the weight, as well, and I’m taking extra measures to stay connected to the medicine that grounds me.
It's intelligent to feel fear. It's appropriate to feel fear. It is part of our DNA and physiology as living beings to feel fear as a way to alert us. But where does the appropriate and intelligent fear collide with the fear that can be upending to one's well-being? It is possible and necessary to feel fear and engage in ways to cope with it. It must be recognized and accepted in order to cope. You must agree that it's there in order to attend to it.
Your fears and anxiety can manifest in ways that you don’t recognize them to even be anxiety and fear. You might be feeling unsettled and restless, overspending and mismanaging money, eating poorly, being disorganized and easily distracted. You can be short-fused, impatient, extra defensive, feel uncharacteristically unsafe and untrusting. Perhaps you easily feel wounded or victimized or spend a lot of time revisiting times you felt wounded or victimized.
It’s a root chakra thing. Your root chakra is a red energy wheel located at the base of your spine. It is the first of seven primary “chakras.”
Chakras are spinning energy centers throughout the body. “Chakra” is a Sanskrit word meaning “wheel.” These wheels of energy, a color for each one, occupy the spinal column from the base of the spine to the crown of your head. They exist within your body and just outside it in your aura, the energetic “blanket” that surrounds you. Chakras govern our organs and are simultaneously influenced by and influential in our emotions and spirit.
Your root chakra, the Muladhara, which means "root of existence," grounds your spirit in the material world. When you are ungrounded, and your root chakra is out of balance, chaotic behaviors or feelings dominate. You may be lethargic or feel depressed. You can jump from one thing to another until exhausted. You might even be feeling physical issues with your spine, feet or legs.
Feeling fear and anxiety and the imbalance of the root chakra can create a feedback loop. When you’re anxious or afraid, you’re not grounded, and when you’re ungrounded you remain anxious and afraid. When the root chakra is healthy and in harmony with the rest of you, you can “keep your feet firmly on the ground.”
There are two energy archetypes that rule your root chakra. One is the Victim, which is dis-eased. The other archetype is the Mother, as in Mother Earth. It is your healed root chakra, in balance and able to look after the life force energy within you. Ultimately, that's where you want to be.
So, how can you support a healthy root chakra in yourself? What can you do to bring your root chakra back into balance and assuage some of the tense feelings of late?
Get outside, even to just have a few minutes of fresh air.
Go for a walk.
Press your hands onto a tree trunk and lean into it.
Dance. Free-form!
Exercise. Move your body! Get physical even if you feel like a slug!
Try writing some affirmations that are grounding-related: "I am protected." "I feel good about myself." "I am in the present moment, and everything else is irrelevant." "I trust in good, and allow it in my life." "I am safe." "I belong." "I have all I need." Your brain doesn’t know truth from fiction. It only knows to act on the information that it receives. The more you affirm and intend what supports you, the more your brain and your nervous system will agree to act accordingly.
Clean, organize, or declutter some of your home spaces.
Prepare some nutritious food, and make eating it a ceremony.
Take a salt bath. If you don't have a bathtub, rub the salt onto your body.
Lie down on your back and put a heavy folded blanket on your pelvis. The sensation and extra weight can help "push you back down into the ground."
Immerse in true quiet time.
Stay away from fear-mongering and anxiety-producing television programs. Remember, it’s called “program” for a reason.
Ask for help from people who will actively listen with compassion.
Guided meditations can be so effective, and there are many great ones available.
Chant or tone in frequencies that resonate for the root chakra. Sound baths can help harmonize all the chakras as their tones match the energetic frequencies of the chakras.
If you enjoy crystals, bring on the red ones! Garnet, red jasper, carnelian, and bloodstone.
Essential oils like frankincense, lavender, sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli, and cedar soothe and anchor you fully into your body. Inhale them or use topically in a carrier oil.
Herbs are our ancient and potent healers! Ashwagandha is an adaptogen that can help ground and encourage feelings of stability. Warming and energizing ginger is a staple for overall chakra health. And red raspberry leaf is commonly included in root chakra teas.
Hang out with animals! They are naturally grounding and calming. The unconditional love and generosity of heart animals provide can immediately help us feel soothed, secure, safe, and fully loved.
Get some energy healing to balance and align your energy be it acupuncture, reiki, shamanic release work, chakra energy balancing, or doing some t’ai chi or qigong.
Rest!
It’s possible to acknowledge your emotions but not succumb to them. You can recognize your emotions, but not affirm that your emotions are who you are. In other words: “I feel anxious,” is a different mindset from “I am anxious,” where you are now affirming that you are your anxiety. It sounds like splitting hairs, but feeling it is different from being it. You can observe it, but not become it. Allow the emotions to be with you. Investigate them. Attend to them. And then nurture yourself through them.
It’s okay to not be okay! Especially right now when collectively, many of us are not feeling okay.
You do not need to be moving through tumultuous times to work on your root chakra. Maintaining the health of your energy system, and nourishing all your chakras as part of regular self-care helps you maintain your vital force so you are always vibrant and aligned.
I invite you remind yourself that you are still embodied Light, even when your Light feels a little dimmer, and you’re feeling especially vulnerable.
The energetic root Mother is deeply entrenched in earth energy, able to provide for your needs. Hopefully, some of these suggestions for balancing your root chakra can support softening any persistent feelings of tension, fear, and anxiety, help you feel more grounded and safe, and deservingly reconnect with your Sacred Mother within.
I visualize and intend that you may connect to your presence and open heart. You are not alone. We are a cohort of divine Light Beings having a human experience. We are more than the sum of what we see of ourselves and others. We are caring Beings who, when acting together, can embody peace and compassion for all.
From my heart to yours,
Aziza
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Aziza Doumani is a Reiki Master practitioner and teacher who includes other energy medicine modalities such as Shamanic energy healing, cord cutting and aura clearing, chakra balancing, and end-of-life energy support. She also offers wellbeing and self-care coaching, and compassionate guidance for seekers and those who desire a life of purpose and ease.
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