The Chakras and the Mind/Body Connection
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Trish O’Sullivan, author of the new Chakra Wisdom.
As the title indicates, my book, Chakra Wisdom: Healing the Mind of Negative Thoughts, Feelings and Beliefs with Yoga, Meditation and the Traya Process, focuses primarily on the impact the subtle body chakras have on our emotional well-being. The chakras also affect our physical health. Using the example of the common cold to which we can all relate (as virtually no one lives untouched by it), we can clearly see the mind/body connection.
If a map of the chakras in the subtle body were overlaid on the physical body it would match the “map” of the endocrine system. That is, each chakra is in the area of a major endocrine gland. If a line were drawn through the chest from the front to the back, the line would pass through the anahata (heart) chakra and also through the thymus gland. The thymus gland regulates the proper functioning of the immune system. When the immune system is fighting a cold it “pulls” subtle energy from the anahata chakra. When we wake up feeling sick with a cold or flu, we notice that our mood is down. Our language even reflects this reality. When we are becoming ill, we say that we are “coming down with something.”
Why is our mood also affected? This phenomenon is explained by the interaction of the mind/body energy at the anahata chakra, which also governs mood regulation. When the body is using some of anahata’s energy for fighting a cold, our mood goes down.
This sharing of energy between the mind and body may be more familiar and recognizable when we think of eating a big meal. The digestive system pulls energy from the manipura chakra, located at the diaphragm, to aid in digestion. Manipura also governs the thinking or rational mind and we know to avoid intellectual activity after a meal because our thinking mind is just not as sharp.
It is best to try and remember that when we get a cold and feel down it is due to a mind/body reaction and not to what is going on in our lives. Some, when feeling down, have a tendency to bring to mind everything that is going wrong in their lives and then feel even worse. If we understand what is happening, we have a better chance of keeping a positive outlook, and that in itself will help us get better by taking some of the stress off of anahata.
Our thanks to Trish for her guest post! For more from Trish O’Sullivan, read her article, “Relationship Energy.”
