Alignment, Chakras, Yoga… Whether officially confused or an aligned chakra lover already, don’t worry! We have your -hopefully not sore- back!

Because what better way to end your weekend and celebrate Yoga Awareness Month?! Try these cool poses that will align your precious energy centers and help you jumpstart your week feeling fresh.

P.s: don’t forget the bubble bath afterwards!

Align Your Chakras with these 7 Yoga Poses

First things first: what is a chakra?

The word ‘chakra’ comes from Sanskrit and means ‘wheel’, because it literally spins around. But what is that which spins around? We can say that chakras are energy centers that move inside of us. 

You know it’s no secret that the Universe is made up of energy, with our bodies holding no exception. 

Each one of us has 7 main chakras spinning and rotating through our bodies. They are our life force, or ‘prana’*, and they start at the base of our spine, moving all the way up towards the top of our heads. 

They provide the necessary amount of energy we need in order to feel a balanced mind, body and spirit. If any of them are out of alignment, we can feel a little out of order in the area that chakra rules, whether physically, mentally or spiritually.

What to expect from a chakra alignment?

I remember going from completely oblivious in the chakra arena to becoming their official spokesperson. Yes, you’re looking at their forever running ad, no joke.

I’d heard about chakras before, without having a clue of what they actually were or how they functioned. But later on, I had the chance to learn a little bit more about their roles in our bodies, and even came to feel them for the first time. Let me tell you how AMAZING it was! I honestly felt the wheels spinning inside and a warm feeling where each chakra is located.

Life Altering

After my experience, I was converted. Laugh all you want, but I wanted to find out more! That’s how I came across a chakra workshop where they were teaching how to align them with yoga. 

At the moment, I was a newfound yoga lover in the making, and thought to myself: “this workshop is perfection.” You know that feeling when you find all the ingredients for your favorite recipe just sitting in your pantry? Yup, like that.

So there I was, with yoga poses on one hand and my chakras on the other, feeling bliss. The class taught us about each chakra and gave us a yoga sequence to help put our different energy centers back into harmony.

I cannot begin to tell you how this former skeptical person (hi!) felt after finishing with that yoga practice. My entire body felt as as a feather, and my mind was clearer and calmer than ever. I was happy and joyful. My spirits had been lifted and I couldn’t feel any more fulfilled, almost as if I could take on the world by myself.

After my life-altering experience, feeling the benefits of chakra alignment, I knew I had to share with the world. Here I’m delivering some easy yoga poses for you, with each one of them balancing one of our main seven energy centers.

Yoga away!

7 Yoga Poses for Chakra Balancing

The Mountain Pose for the Root Chakra

The Root Chakra, or Muladhara -by its name in Sanskrit-, is located at the base of our spine. This chakra channels grounding energy from Mother Earth to help us feel more connected to it, safe and provided for.

When our Root Chakra is out of alignment, we experience imbalance in our physical body, and our sense of security. Our emotions and our financial troubles heighten. We feel unstable. However, when balanced, we feel confident and have a better sense of belonging and accomplishment.

The Mountain Pose is a great posture for us to connect to Earth’s energy through all four corners of our feet, and to invite that energy upward to feel grounded and to nourish our entire body.

The Revolved Triangle Pose for the Sacral Chakra

Our Sacral Chakra, Svadhisthana, is located in the pelvic area and it is our playful, creative center. Home to our self-expression, emotions, pleasure and creative energy which helps us enjoy life on Earth.

If it is imbalanced, it can make us feel sexually frustrated, emotionally repressed and unable to find our passion in life. But when balanced out, the Sacral Chakra allows us to connect deeply, easily with others and find joy in everything.
 
The Revolved Triangle Pose stimulates the abdominal organs to get this play energy to circulate within our Sacral Chakra, allowing us to remain in the present moment.

The Boat Pose for the Solar Plexus Chakra

Our 3rd chakra is the Solar Plexus, Manipura, found in the center of our belly button, extending up to the breastbone (where our two ribs connect in the center of our chest). This chakra is where our self-confidence, identity, personal power and vital energy are born.

If our solar plexus is at odds, we can experience low self-esteem, stress, depression, general lack of motivation. When in harmony, we feel more confident and capable, our energy levels rise up.

Since this chakra is located near the navel, the Boat is a great yoga pose to help activate our core and our internal fire to align energy blocks or imbalances.

The Low Lunge Pose for the Heart Chakra

Our 4th chakra belongs to the Heart: Anahata, located right over our pulsing organ, down to our breastbone and up to our throat. This is where unconditional love, compassion and kindness are empowered. Including self-love and love for others. Reason why this chakra is also associated with health and healing.

Keeping the Heart Chakra nourished also allows us to remain capable of giving and receiving love, as well as developing our spirituality. In the case of an imbalance, we can lose our sense of connection with others and start lacking love for ourselves.

The Low Lunge pose invites our heart space to open, and is the focus of this pose, providing alignment for our Heart Chakra energy.

The Easy Pose for the Throat Chakra

Our Throat Chakra, Vishuddha, possesses the energy that helps us speak and communicate in an authentic way with ourselves and others. It impacts our originality, our ability to speak the truth and our confidence to speak publicly.

When it falls out of place, we can experience ear, nose and throat problems. It can prevent us from accessing our sense of communication with the world. Our words seem to have no real outlet. But when perfectly rotating, we can easily express our thoughts and opinions, speaking from a place of truth.

Using the Easy Pose along with mantra chanting is a beautiful practice to open the Throat Chakra and help keep its energy flowing.

The Dolphin Pose for the Third Eye Chakra

Now, onto our Third Eye Chakra: Ajna chakra. It is situated at the brow point, and it’s known as our “all seeing eye”, the spot of our intuition. We can access clear thoughts and self-reflection through our third eye, as well as inner guidance to help us on our life path.

When it’s running slower or faster than normal, we can experience confusion and even physical symptoms such as headaches, migraines and dizziness. In full alignment, we see things clearly and without them being fogged up by our opinions, ego or past.

The Dolphin Pose increases circulation to our face and brain, which in turn stimulates our Third Eye Chakra.

The Butterfly Pose for the Crown Chakra

Our 7th, and highest chakra, is the Crown Chakra: Sahaswara, spotted at the top of our heads, radiating down to the place between our eyes and extending infinitely upward and outward, putting us in contact with the energy of the rest of the cosmos.

This chakra is said to be pure consciousness energy, which is  in everything and everywhere. It connects us to our entire universe. So when our Crown Chakra is misaligned or overactive, we may feel spiritual distrust, a sense of negativity about life, and disconnectedness from our bodies and earthly matters. An aligned Crown Chakra brings peace, joy, serenity and positivity to our lives.

The Balanced Butterfly Pose invites us to enable our concentration and to find peace and balance, which is perfect to align Sahaswara.

The art of mind, body and soul

Knowing and understanding how to balance our main seven chakras with yoga allows us to practice these poses whenever and wherever we can to encourage a more aligned, connected and vibrant energy flow through our bodies. 

We love bringing you life hacks for a happier, healthier version of ourselves while helping empower and educate women through our activewear.

Celebrate life, celebrate connection, celebrate mind, body and spirit, and remember to do it consciously while wearing the world’s first social impact yoga pants. 

We believe together we can make a difference!

[Prana*: breath, considered as a life-giving force. Prana is seen as a universal energy which flows in currents in and around the body.]

For more lifestyle practices, sign up for our newsletter.