How To Cleanse Your Chakras

If you're a fan of yoga or meditation, then you likely know a thing or two about chakras and the aura. The hype around the chakra energy centers has gained some traction in recent years, even beyond the wellness community. But chakras are actually part of an ancient energy system. The word roughly translates into "wheel" in Sanskrit (via Healthline). These disc-like energy centers can tell us a lot about what is going on in our internal emotional landscape and also shine a light on what we need to let go of.

There are seven main chakras running from the base of the spine to the crown and these centers function best when they are open and cleansed. They include the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown chakras. Blockages in any of the seven chakras can be the cause of emotional distress, fatigue, low self-esteem, grief, and rage (via Chopra). "Personal habits such as poor physical alignment or posture, eating unhealthy food, or self-destructive behavior may cause a chakra to be imbalanced," certified yoga teacher and master reiki healer, Guadalupe Terrones told Healthline. On the other hand, when the chakras are aligned, we experience a great sense of wellness and clarity. And as we'd all rather be in the latter category, let's take a look at how to cleanse the chakras.

Cleansing the chakras is all about the body-mind connection. We need to dust the house, so to speak, and make sure stagnant energy is flowing out while renewed energy is flowing in. According to Chopra, the chakras can be cleansed through nutrition, the colors we wear, and connecting with one of the five elements: earth, fire, water, air, and ether or spirit. This may sound simple, but the impact is large. If you have a blocked root chakra, for example, wearing red clothes, jewelry, crystals, or gems is beneficial — as it's the color associated with the root chakra. The same goes for consuming red foods, like berries and beets. Adding these to your diet should aid in unblocking the first chakra. The root chakra is naturally connected to the earth, so doing some forest bathing should also do the trick.

A yoga practice, of course, can greatly align the chakras and remove blockages. Stretching, holding a pose, and practicing breathwork during your yoga flow are great check-ins for the chakras. To cleanse the root chakra, try tree pose or mountain pose, which will connect you with your foundation (via Healthline).

You may have heard some stirrings over the recent sound bath trend and there's a good reason. Sound healing is an ancient art and uses certain frequencies to resonate all throughout the body, healing and aligning the correlating chakras (via Yoga Signs). During a sound bath, you lay down on a mat and relax into the experience of deep rest, while being fully immersed in calming sounds. Crystal singing bowls, chimes, bells, and drums all might be used.

If you've heard of crystal singing bowls, then chances are high that you've also heard the term solfeggio frequencies. A sacred set of six tones, solfeggio frequencies are said to be deeply healing for the body, mind, and soul. Each chakra correlates with a specific tone and is thought to balance the chakra and restore us to our natural state of peace. The root chakra, again, for example, can be aligned by listening to the solfeggio frequency 396 Hz (via BetterSleep). You can easily find playlists on Spotify geared towards healing each chakra with certain solfeggio frequencies. Some users even play them softly on repeat while sleeping, to really absorb their healing powers.