Years ago when my boys were little and I was in regular battles over parenting issues with at least one of the three Dad’s (I know, I made my life very complicated!) I had an experience that helped me to understand the Chakra system… how it works, how life events, trauma, illness or emotional baggage can throw one or more of them out of balance.

But before I tell you my story, what are the Chakras, then?

The Chakra System as we refer to it in yoga, consists of 7 wheels of energy. As a analogy, imagine an electrical junction box in your house, wires are coming in, bringing in electricity from outside, and wires are going out, sending that electricity to where it is needed, eg the shower, kettle, lighting. This is like the life-force energy coming in and being distributed around the body by the CHAKRAS.

Now imagine if there is a power surge and it blows a fuse, or you have no power at all, then there is an imbalance in how that energy is received and processed in a real electrical junction box, or a more subtle, energetic one.

Visualise at the base of your spine there is a red junction box. It receives energy from the earth and transforms it around the base of the body, helping you to feel grounded and safe. This is the job of the ROOT CHAKRA.

And so it goes up the seven Chakras from Root to Crown with all aspects of our lives covered - it's so clever!!

From feeling grounded and safe at the Root, to being in relationship with ourselves and others at the orange Sacral Chakra, feeling a sense of purpose and confidence at the yellow Solar Plexus, love and gratitude at the green Heart Chakra and being able to express ourselves at the blue Throat Chakra. At the indigo Brow Chakra, we tap into out intelligence, wisdom and intuition and at the white Crown Chakra we connect to nature, the wider world and our place in it.

Everything in life is constantly either helping or hindering the 7 chakras to stay working properly. If all is well, then they are receiving and transmitting energy around the body and all physical, mental, emotional parts of us are in harmony.

So, here’s a personal story to demonstrate a Chakra imbalance.

Many moons ago, I was in a small courtroom with a judge, an ex partner and two solicitors.

We were there to decide on where my son was to live. We had shared residency at the time and my ex wanted him to live with him full-time.

In his statement to the court he painted me as the terrible mother... 'the mother uses non-prescription drugs, drinks to excess, is in counselling for psychological problems, there is no furniture in her house' etc etc…

These things, of course were not at all true and I opened my mouth to protest and was immediately silenced by my solicitor. I was not allowed to speak unless the judge invited me to do so; not allowed to defend these lies and attack on my character and so much was at stake.

The judge hardly looked at me, let alone allowed me to defend myself. The judge had probably heard all this before, and there was plenty of other evidence in my favour and we were instructed to carry on with 50/50 contact time. With my heart pounding I left the court room.

The following week I was in my yoga class with my first yoga teacher, Barbara Occleshaw, and she led us through a meditation. She asked us to breathe in and on the out-breath, say our name - out loud. I opened my mouth and nothing came out. As I tried to say my name, my throat tightened and I felt the shame, the injustice, the trauma of being in that room and not being allowed to speak my truth and defend myself. The tears that I hadn’t dared to cry at the time, flowed and I allowed myself to feel all of the hurt and frustration of that day.

Not giving someone the permission to defend, express, argue, console, give an opinion or speak their truth is an injury to the THROAT CHAKRA - and I really felt it! Luckily I was able to cry, talk about it and release the trauma, but often, we don't do this, we swallow our disappointments and hurts and shame and then - where does the energy of these emotions have to go? Energy is always in motion, it wants to go somewhere - it gets all snagged up in the Chakra system and can them manifest as emotional turbulence or physical symptoms like fatigue, anxiety.

The good news is we can learn about all of the traits that demonstrate a Chakra imbalance and through using Energy Healing techniques, we can start to take control and pull the energy back to centre, harmony and balance.

If you would like to know more about YOUR Chakras, please consider having a reading and analysis with me. Read about my One2Ones on the link below.