on November 18, 2016
How to Balance and Strengthen Your Root Chakra
By Linda Dieffenbach, BSW, RMT
The Root Chakra (First Chakra) is located at the perineum and is angled down from the body, opening toward the Earth. As the name implies, your Root Chakra is your foundation. Like the roots of a tree, it connects you to the Earth, drawing energies from the Earth to nourish and strengthen your body and energy field. A strong root is essential to stability in your life.
Properties of the Root Chakra:
Physical Influences
Physically, the Root Chakra influences the spine, the genital and rectal areas of the body, the male reproductive system, the bladder and the coccyx. This chakra also influences energy to the legs, knees and feet.
Consciousness Influences
Overall, the Root Chakra deals with issues of physical and egoic survival. This includes aspects of life that involve self-preservation, including work, home, family, money, food and other relationships that involve security. Your confidence in, or fear of your ability/inability to survive are governed by the health of the Root Chakra. Safety and survival instincts such as fight or flight responses and informing impulses, including your ability to sense danger, recognize of truth, and gut-level recognition stem from here. The Root Chakra also oversees sexuality as it relates to procreation and survival. In this, sexuality is used to establish security, power/dominance, and/or safety. It also relates to physical vitality through physical enjoyment, presence, strength, being grounded in the present, and the feeling of being in your body.
Is Your Root Chakra in Balance?
Your chakras are rich, deep, complex and many layered energy systems that hold the history of your life experience. They are constantly interacting with and impacted by the world around you. As you go through life, each experience affects your energy and health. A healthy chakra processes and digests these experiences, enabling healthy growth. Experiences, such as conflicts or traumatic events that are not processed and digested lead to imbalances (i.e. become over or under active), blockages, damage and dysfunction in the affected chakra(s).
Chronic stress, trauma, conflict and unaddressed issues create chakra imbalances that lead to significant physical, emotional and mental health problems. Self-care is therefore of the utmost importance.
Here are some things to look for to help determine if your Root Chakra is healthy and in balance:
Signs of a balanced Root Chakra include:
- Satisfied with life
- Overall sense of well-being
- Feel safe and secure in the world
- Easily acknowledge and accept basic needs will be met
- Prosperity
- Able to let go with ease
- Job/career satisfaction
- Good health
- Physically fit and strong
- Intestinal regularity
- Appropriate body weight
- Abundant energy
- Feeling grounded and centered
Signs of Imbalance:
- Unwarranted fear and anxiety
- Feeling ungrounded, unsettled
- Use of sexuality for power and/or security
- Disconnection from physical body
- Hypervigilance
- Eating disorders
- Obesity/over weight
- Aggression, rage and violence
- Reckless/careless behaviors and attitude; inability to recognize danger
- Greedy or materialistic
- Hoarding, unable to let go
- Resistant to change
- Unable to manifest material abundance/poverty
- Bone and skeletal disorders
- Autoimmune disorders, illness and poor health
- Low vitality/energy levels
- Spinal issues, lower back pain
- Leg, knee or feet issues
- Intestinal irregularity (colon disorders/constipation/diarrhea)
- Job/career related dissatisfaction and stress or lack of focus
Tips and tools to help balance your root:
Trauma, unresolved conflicts, karmic and past life circumstances, belief systems and/or chronic behavioral patterns cause imbalances, blockages, and/or damage in the chakras. When imbalances in the chakra system are unresolved, over time the blockage of energy flow manifests as illness, dis-ease or disorder. When the physical body is under continued stress, the chakras will not work properly. The key to healing is to address the root cause of the disorder, not just the symptoms. If you are struggling in some area, it is important to find a qualified healer to support you in your healing process. Various forms of energy healing such as Reiki, Acupressure and Chakra Clearing can help relax, rebalance and open the chakras during a session. In doing so, it creates the opportunity for the chakra to repair itself, stimulating the healing process.
Here are some self care tips and tools you can use to strengthen your Root Chakra.
Methods to help balance the Root Chakra
- Exercise, dance and movement
- Meditation (specifically those that connect you with your body and the Earth)
- Grounding practices
- Walk barefoot on the Earth
- Get out in nature
- Practice letting go. Get rid of old junk and things the are no longer useful.
- Have sex
- Practice gratitude
- Recognize abundance in your world
- Give and receive healthy touch such as massage
- Practice self-reliance
- Create safety in your environment
- Get a pedicure
- Use the color Red: Wear it, eat red foods such as cherries, beets and apples
- Toning: Using the sound LAM, or use Do from the “Do, Re, Mi” scale
The Root Chakra is the foundation of your energetic ‘house’. It draws energy from the Earth to nourish and energize your body. When the Root is compromised, the energy flow to the other chakras may be impacted as well. It is therefore essential to build a strong foundation to overall stability and health.
A general note about Chakra Health
You are constantly interacting with and responding to the world around you. So are your chakras. Practices that help clear and re-balance the chakras are never a “once and done” activity. Just as you would not expect your body to remain clean forever after one shower, your chakras are not going stay clear forever after one meditation or one Reiki session. On-going energetic self-care plays is essential for overall chakra health and well-being. In areas where there is imbalance or damage to one or more chakras, more intensive treatment may be warranted until healing is complete.
About Linda Dieffenbach:
Linda has over 15 years experience as an energy healer, coach and personal development expert. She specializes in empowering you to overcome the patterns and habits that are keeping you feeling stuck and overwhelmed with your life. Her areas of training and expertise include personal empowerment, self-care skills, stress management, healthy relationships, effective communication, suicide prevention, and trauma. To learn more about Linda, click here. Interested in working with Linda? Click here.
Hello Linda – I was surfing the net when I found your article!
It seems my Root Chakra is weak. Can I keep a red light in my room and if yes should it be in a specific direction? Thank you kindly. Bharat
Hi Bharat,
Light therapy is not an area of expertise for me, so I cannot offer a definitive answer about the best way to use it for healing. Have you tried any of the other techniques that I recommended for strengthening your root chakra?
Well detailed symptoms and remedies for healing our root chakra. I found that physical exercise can be of great help if I want more satisfied, secured and satisfied and for having a better overall mood. Not just normal exercise, but to actually force yourself to do a bit more than you think you can. 🙂
I have also tried with essential oils and I have seen improvements in my overall mental condition when I changed my diet to more raw based foods. For the root chakra it is best to consume root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, potatoes, yam, ginger, garlic, onions, celery, asparagus. But I heard you have got to be careful with onion and garlic because they are considered as negative pranic foods. They can be great healing foods but daily consumption may drastically decrease your energy levels.
I have also used patchouli and ginger essential oil for the root chakra. If the benefit was there it was too subtle or maybe it happened too slow to be observed.
As you said, practicing gratitude can be a great asset to increase your overall mood. I believe it can start so many good things in you r life if you just see the good side of things. There is always a good side it is just that we are trained to see the bad side by others around us and by the media.
Overall, thank you for the article. Maybe I wrote more than I had to so it means it is well-written. 🙂
Hi Linda, just discovered your site. Been through a lot of stress over the past few years. Had a stroke in 2017, October. Back to for a year now and walking better. Can you help me with my route chakra.
Hi Jeff,
I would suggest considering a private session to determine what your needs are and what would be support you. Thinking an Integrated Energy Healing session might be a good starting point. You are welcome to call or email if you have specific questions.
I feel very unsecured specially after moving to USA from India. I was working in India but here at the age of 56 I have to restart my life. Don’t know driving, don’t know the working atmosphere and presently totally dependent on my husband. Please guide me what to do. Don’t have any money of my own and a woman who was independent for 25 years suddenly without nothing is scary. Thanks
Mrs hufrish irani
Hello Hufrish,
I can understand that the move has been unsettling for you. This is not a simple situation/question that I can answer for you in this format. There are some practical steps that you can take to start developing more independence such as learning to drive or learning to navigate public transportation to start. Look for opportunities to connect with people in your community to help alleviate the sense of isolation may also help. I do not know your skills, but online and work from home opportunities are prevalent. Upwork is a great way to earn some extra cash.
Try taking some active steps to create independence and opportunities and see where that leads you. If you are still feeling stuck, you may want to consider scheduling a chakra clearing session with me (we can do it via Skype) and we can go deeper.
Many blessings,
Linda
Hello linda. I am 16 and i feel like life is against me. I have all the symptoms of an unbalanced chakra but i dont have the resources to help me. And i also dont know where to get chakra classes or where i can do them on my own. Its really stressing and plus im trying to open my 3rd eye. Its alot of stress. Please respond!!!!!!
Hi Isaac,
Navigating issues within the chakras can be a complex process and may be something that you will need to see a practitioner for depending on what is going on with you. Depending on where you live, if it is not local, I do offer Chakra Clearing sessions via video conference. As far as resources to learn about the chakras, I recommend the books Wheels of Life and/or Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith. Additionally, Where Body Meets Soul by Elizabeth Frediani is a great resource for energetic self-care practices. Please let me know if you have further questions.
You are welcome to reach out to me directly at Linda@wellnessinharmony.com, as well.
Many blessings,
Linda
Hi Linda,
Warm greetings from California. Your article is one of the best I’ve read wrt knowledge about Chakras speciaficallu the root chakra . I’m an empath from childhood it runs in the family and hence I’ve suffered a lot emotionally affecting my spirituality and overall health . I’m going through a spiritually awakening phase after practicing and studying spirituality . I am aware of the brain gut connection and how chakras play an important role and I am also aware that if we are trying to improve the energy flow I can’t jump straight to the penal glad (that’s the goal ) it has to start from root. When I focused on other chakras ignoring the root there was lot of confusion I had symptoms of penal gland working but then realized I have to fix my root first . Mine root is totally imbalanced. I wanted to know apart from the techniques mentioned used to stabilize the root are there any significant and solid changes one can make in their root chakra with your help .!! Appreciate your article and thank you much for sharing !!!
Hi Anhishek.
Thank you for your comments.
Consider the Root Chakra as the foundation of your home. The health and stability of the foundation is key to stability within the rest of the structure, so you are correct in that it is the place to start if there are imbalances there. Grounding your energy, connecting with the Earth, and creating/recognizing safety are all key elements to Root Chakra health. Those things mentioned in the blog are fairly universal tools, however we each have unique life experiences that impact the health of each chakra, so you may wish to do some deeper work to identify the underlying causes of the imbalances to determine what practices are best for your personal situation. Modalities such as Chakra Clearing with Applied integration are ideal for this. You may also consider working with an energy psychologist, who is trained in the psychological field but has the added skill of being able to read and understand the correlation with the chakra system and energy field.
Please feel free to work out if you have any additional questions.
Many blessings,
Linda
There are many ways by which we can stimulate chakras in our body some of them are:
Thoughts
Thoughts are a form of energy. It has been scientifically proven that a positive thought allows our energy to flow freely and unrestricted, whereas, negative thoughts decrease energy within our body. Every thought you have is connected to a chakra. For example, a passionate thought is a red energy stimulant, but an angry thought decreases your positive red energy flow.
The Sun
The sun is our most important energy source. All the seven colour energies flow from the sun’s rays to the earth. People, animals, plants, minerals, water and our chakras receive energy from the sun’s light. If you are not able to enjoy the sun for a few hours daily, trying adding a good quality full-spectrum light bulb to a light source in your work area or in a lamp at home.
Food
The sun’s rays give plants life/energy. Once the plant absorbs energy, the colour energy that remains is the energy of that fruit, vegetable or flower. Without this energy, our body could not assimilate the nutritional value of the food. Balance your chakras daily by eating foods that contain each of the seven colour energies.
Thank you for adding some additional tools!
Root chakra is indeed one of the important and foundational chakra , and the ways you have mentioned about it and to balance is great and very helpful i have started yoga for the same .