From root to crown, the chakra system is an ancient and absolutely fascinating way to embrace the body’s innate energy centers. While there are many ways to become energetically aligned, yoga is a straight-forward modality that can be utilized anywhere. We asked yogi, Claire Grieve, whose A-list clients include her bestie Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, to share a few poses for the chakras. Keep this bookmarked all season to mitigate stress and feel fully in your power…
The seven chakras are the body’s main energy centers. They guide both your physical and emotional well-being. If one of your chakras is out of alignment, it can cause deviations in your mood, and potentially even injury and illness. There are many different ways to balance each of your chakras. Common techniques include energy healing, meditations, sound healing, crystal work, food therapy and, of course, yoga asana.
A Simple Yoga Flow For The Chakras
Below is a selection of my favorite yoga poses for each chakra. Perform these poses regularly to keep the energy flowing freely through each of your main energy centers.
Root Chakra (Muladhara) | The Root Chakra lies at the foot of your spine and pelvic floor. It guides your baser needs that provide security and survival, as well as colon health. A balanced Root Chakra sets the foundation for wellness in all other capacities.
How-to: Grounding poses like Tree Pose, Warrior One and Mountain Pose can help to balance this chakra.
Sacral Chakra (Swadhisthana) | The Sacral Chakra lies below your belly button and guides sexuality, emotional stability and creativity, as well as reproductive health.
How-to: Hip-opening poses like Goddess Squat or Butterfly Pose can help balance this chakra.
Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura) | The Solar Plexus Chakra lies near your navel and guides your personal purpose and power, as well as digestive health. Core strengthening exercises help balance this chakra.
How-to: Boat Pose is my favorite Solar Plexus Chakra balancing pose.
The Heart Chakra (Anahata) | The Heart Chakra—located near your heart—guides love, healing and compassion, as well as heart and lung health.
How-to: My favorite heart chakra-opening pose is Camel Pose.
Throat Chakra (Vishuddha) | The Throat Chakra is located near your throat and guides communication and self-expression, and throat and thyroid health.
How-to: Fish Pose is an excellent throat-opening pose that can help balance this chakra.
Third-Eye Chakra (Ajna) | The Third Eye Chakra is located on your forehead between your eyebrow ridges. The Third Eye Chakra guides your awareness, imagination and intuition, as well as sinus, head and brain health.
How-to: Seated meditation will help you access your third eye energy, as will placing the point on the ground in Child’s Pose.
Crown Chakra (Sahaswara) | This chakra rules our spirituality and enlightenment. Balancing this chakra will help you connect to your greater purpose and maintain mental wellness.
How-to: Headstand poses or deeply meditative poses will help align your Crown Chakra.
Discover more energetically-balancing yoga sequences form Claire here.