30 Mins Asanas Meditation to activate the 7 chakras

Namaste everyone! Welcome to Sadhvik Yoga. I'm Radhika. And my name is Akshay. And today we will be practicing yoga for the seven chakras. Chakras are basically different energy centers in your body that are responsible for different aspects of your life. So, if you're not doing well at work, how your relationships are and how you feel about yourself, all of this somewhere is influenced by how blocked or unblocked your chakras are. If your chakras are blocked, you may experience physical lethargy, emotional imbalances and mental fatigue. Think of it like this. If there is a water pipe but it has a lot of dirt inside, water cannot flow freely. The same way, because of our unhealthy lifestyles or a lot of stress in our lives, these chakras or energy centers get blocked and energy cannot flow freely throughout our body. So, when we practice asanas or meditation, we are allowing for this energy to flow freely within us. So, today first we will practice asanas for six chakras. And then for the seventh chakra, we will practice beej mantra chanting that will help you energize all the chakras. So, let's begin with the asanas first. I will see you after the asana class. Okay, so let's begin with the first chakra. I would request you to come into malasana. So, the feet are pointing sideways and we will hook the insides of the elbows on the knees. And our hands will come in prayer. Back will be elongated straight. If you find it difficult to sit like this, just use blocks or cushions under your hips. It will become very easy. Now, your mooladhara is responsible for your basic survival. And if we are stuck in this chakra, if it is blocked, then we are very preoccupied with food, sexuality, even laziness. And once this starts to open, you will feel more grounded within yourself. Your addictions will start to leave you. Now, bring your right hand towards the right and open up the left arm towards the sky. Inhale deeply. Three to four deep breaths here. We will take it to the other side. Take your left hand towards the left and open up the right arm towards the sky. Look up and breathe. Come back to center. Bring your hands in prayer once again. Elongate the spine. Now, we will take upavishta konasana. So, open the legs in a triangle. Bring your hands in front and just fold forward. Do as much as you comfortably can. Don't worry too much. Now, here you will feel a stretch in this part. Keep elongating the spine. Breathe. Keep a gentle smile on your face. See if you can touch your toes here. We are doing very simple asanas today. Now, join your hands and we will move from the right to the left and then come back to center. So, it's like you are grounding some flowers. Inhale. Exhale. Keep moving. Enjoy all of these movements. Reverse the circle. We will move from left to the right. Very nice. Release. Let's move on to the second chakra now. We will practice some asanas for swadhisthana. So, bring your feet together. Clasp your hands under your feet. Again, elongate the spine. You don't want to round your shoulders here. Elongate the spine and then we will flap the legs like the wings of a butterfly. So, once again, enjoy this movement as you feel your pelvic region opening. So, your swadhisthana is located at the base of the spine at your tailbone. And this decides how you feel about yourself. When this chakra is blocked, we can experience things like guilt, shame. And when this opens, you will feel a deeper acceptance of yourself. Very nice. Now, we will open the right leg towards the right. Left heel is very close to the body. Place your peace fingers. Grab your big toe. Now, the left arm will open over and above and take 3 deep breaths. Parivritta Janu Keep your awareness around your tailbone. Release. Take it to the other side. Left foot opens. Grab the big toe with your peace fingers. Right heel is very close to the pelvis. Right arm goes over and above. Bend towards the left. Keep opening your right chest. So, you don't want to do this. Keep opening. Breathe. Release. We will take one more asana for Swadhisthana. Come on to your hands and your knees. Hands are directly under the shoulders. Knees are directly under the hips. Now, once you are here, extend the right leg behind you and then step it between your hands. We will take Anjani Asana. So, here you are first opening up this region. Then, inhale your arms up and come into full Anjani. Now, if this is too challenging, you can keep your hands on your right knee and practice as well. Do what's comfortable. We will take 3 breaths. Very nice. Release. Bring your hands back to the mat. Step your right leg back. We will take the left leg behind. Extend. Take a deep inhale and with your exhale step your left foot between your hands opening up your pelvic region. Whenever you are ready, come up. If available, raise your arms up. Take 3 breaths. Very nice. Release. Step back. The next chakra is Manipura. So, it's located in the spine at the level of your navel. So, we will do some asanas that will engage our core. So, this may be slightly challenging. So, enjoy it. Alright. So, we will take modified boat. Here again, don't round your spine. Otherwise, you will get back pain. We don't want that. Elongate the spine. Engage your core. So, pull in the navel slightly. Keep your knees bent. Bring your hands onto the side. Just take a couple of breaths here. So, your ability to take action and your self-confidence, both are dependent upon your Manipura. So, if you feel that you procrastinate a lot, it's because this chakra is blocked. Release and take a rest. Take a couple of breaths. You know climbing stairs regularly will also activate this area. Once again, we will come into boat. Now, extend the right leg first. Keep the left knee bent. Come back. Then extend the left leg. Bring it back. Extend the right bring it back. Left. Bring it back. One more. You can do this. Extend the right leg and then left. And release. Well done. Take a rest. Once your Manipura starts to get unblocked, you will start to feel very powerful within yourself. You will feel very driven and very active. Especially in the outside world. Once more we will take boat pose and this time we will try to take full boat. Navasana. So, here we will try and extend the knees also. Straighten the knees. Please engage your core. If you have any back problems, please skip. Keep your face relaxed. No tension. And release. Well done. Take a couple of breaths. The next chakra is Anahata. Your heart center. So, this is located here where your rib cage meets. So, this is the Kshetram actually. It's located in the spine. But when we are practicing, we need to focus over here. It's easier. Anahata decides how freely you can love. What kind of connections are you able to build with others. So, we will first practice Sphinx pose. It's a very simple pose. So, come on to your belly. Elbows and hands are on the mat. And we are simply opening up the chest. Taking a slight back bend. And breathe. If you are not able to trust others or if there is over attachment in both cases, it's because of a disturbed Anahata. And when this begins to open, you will feel the thoughts of old grief. The old emotions are coming out. From mind and body. You will be able to forge deeper connections with others. Very nice. We will come up and we will take modified Ustrasana. Camel pose. So, there is slight distance between your knees. The backs of the feet are very firmly on the mat. Place your hands on your middle back. Your fingers are pointing downwards. And then, open your chest. Tilt the head backwards. And take a back bend. Open the chest and breathe. Those of you who feel confident in this, comfortable in this and if you have a supple flexible body, you can take full camel. So, the hands will come on the heels and the chest opens. Come out. Bring your right hand on your left shoulder and then come out of the pose. Take a couple of breaths. You can rest in Adho Mukha Virasana. So, open your knees, mat distance apart. Extend the hands in front. Bring your forehead to the mat. Take a few breaths. In this pose, you will notice again that your lungs are very open. So, you can take very deep breaths. So, please use this opportunity. Gently come up. The fifth chakra, my friends, is located in the spine at the level of the throat. So, this is where the pit of the throat. You need to focus here when we are practicing. For this, we will do bridge pose. If you have any cervical issues, then please skip this. So, for this, please come on your back. The knees are open, they are apart. Feet are directly in front of your hips. So, your heels are very close to the hips. Now, here, we will raise the torso and clasp the hands underneath. Now, your weight is on your biceps. And this part is engaged. So, your quads are engaged. Your hips are tight. There is no pressure on your neck. Take deep breaths here. Friends, your ability to speak up for yourself, to find the right words to express your feelings is dependent upon your throat chakra. Your Vishuddhi chakra. Now, if this is blocked, many people are unable to express themselves. They bottle up their feelings. Release. Bring in your knees. Take Pavan Muktasana. Breathe. Very nice. Extend the legs. Now, just see what I am doing. I will place my hands under the hips and I will try and come on the top of the head to take a modified Matsyasana. Again, your throat is opening here, if you see. There should be no pressure on your neck or your back. Use your hands for support. Gently come out. Roll over to your right side and with the support of your hands, come up gently. Let's move on to our sixth chakra, the Ajna chakra. For this, we will focus on our Bhrumadhya, between the eyebrows. This chakra decides how much clarity you have in life. Do you ever feel confused? Do you feel unable to take decisions in life? That's because of a blocked Ajna. We will do a couple of inversions for this. We will do these standing up. Please stand up. Alright. Come to the center of the mat. Now, open the feet roughly four feet apart. The toes are pointing towards the front. Place your hands on your waist and we will go down. Now here, don't round your spine. See, this is not what you want to do. This is not going to help. You want to elongate the spine, so send the hips back and you will feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Only if you feel a stretch here, you know you are doing this right. And then fold forward. See if you can bring your hands onto the mat. If you cannot, no problem. Just keep them on your waist and go down. See, all of our bodies are different. You do as much as your body can do right now. There is no comparison. There is no competition in yoga. Breathe. Focus between the eyebrows. Keep your attention there. Breathe. Very nice. Bring a slight bend in the knees and then we will slowly come up. Don't come up very fast or you will get a head rush. Come up slowly. Slowly. Alright. Close your feet. Come to the top of the mat. Fold forward. You can keep a bend in the knees. No problem. Bring your hands to the mat. And now we will step into downward facing dog. So you have to make an inverted v-shape with the body. See how my hips are going up. You are pushing back from your hands and just walk out the feet here. Once the Ajna starts to get unblocked, new fresh ideas start to flow. Creativity flows. Intellect is boosted. Another wonderful practice is Tratak. Tratak Dhyana. We have a video on this channel if you want to practice. Take three breaths in down dog. Gently bring your knees onto the mat. And just sit in Vajrasana. Take a couple of breaths. You can close your eyes. Just breathe. If you resonated with this asana sequence, you can come back to it. Maybe for the next 21 days and practice this flow. For the 7th chakra, Akshay will now take you into meditation. So now, we will practice Om chanting for the 7th chakra or as it is called Sahasrar. It's a very simple practice. You will chant A, O and Ma. When you are chanting A, you have to focus on your Muladhara chakra and you have to take it up as you are chanting A. When you move to O, you have to focus on your Anahata and as you move to Ma, you have to focus on the top of the head. I will show you an example of how you need to take your attention from your Muladhara to the top of the head. So just observe. A. So we will do this practice 21 times. Sahasrar if energized is said to make you experience the ultimate bliss. So we will start with the practice. Please keep your hands facing upwards on your knees. Your back should be straight. Your eyes will be closed throughout the practice. Take a deep breath in. Become aware of all the vibrations that have been created in your body. Take your attention to the top of your head and just stay aware of this area. Bring your hands together. Place them on your eyes and gently open your eyes. Thank you for your practice. If you would like to learn more about yoga philosophy, practice more asanas with us and delve deep into deep meditations and kriyas then we have an upcoming workshop. You can click here to learn more about it. Thank you.