Chakras are a buzzword these days. But what are they really? There is a simple way to find out.
In Sanskrit, chakra means “wheel”. According to Indian metaphysical teachings, we have dozens of these spinning centers of life energy within and around us, each with a specific function. The chakras even glow different colors, depending on how fast they spin. The fast-spinning chakras produce cool colors of blue, green, and violet. The slower spinners glow with warm colors of red, orange, and yellow.
There is an easy way to directly experience your chakras: the acupressure-like art of Jin Shin Jyutsu. One of his techniques, the Main Central Vertical Flow, works with nine pressure points, seven of which are chakras. This simple self-help routine is considered a general tune-up for the body. Harmonizes and nourishes the spine, key to keeping our vital flame of encouragement and enthusiasm alive.
Doing the Main Core Vertical Flow involves placing two or three fingers on each of the nine pressure points for two to three minutes each. This stimulates the flow of life force through each of the chakras. You may feel a light, pulsing sensation, like a heartbeat, as you move your fingers along the center line of the front of your body. This feeling is the energy, or “chi” moving more freely through your body. Sometimes you may feel pain around the pressure point, indicating a chi blockage. Stimulating the point releases the chi and the pain goes away. Other sensations you may feel as the chakras begin to open are a gurgling stomach and warmth or chills in different areas of your body.
As you follow the steps below, you don’t have to press very hard. The flow of energy is subtle, but powerful! For best results, practice the main core vertical flow every day. It may take ten to twenty minutes. A good time is right before you go to sleep or first thing in the morning.
Step 1A – With your right hand, place two or three fingers at the top center of your head and leave them there until Step 8. The Crown Chakra is the violet colored center at the top of your head. In the Sedona Power Spot, Vortex and Medicine Wheel Guide, Richard Dannelley describes it as “the crossover point between the physical and the soul.” Stimulating this chakra can help unite your daily awareness with the consciousness of the higher or universal self.
Step 1B – Place two or three fingers of your left hand between your eyebrows. This indigo-colored pressure point, according to Dannelley, is associated with the “pineal gland or ‘third eye’ deep in the brain.” also known as the Anja Chakra. According to traditional teachings, opening this chakra revitalizes latent energy within the body and can stimulate extrasensory perception.
Step 2– Next, place your left hand on the tip of your nose. There is no chakra related to this pressure point. But according to Jin Shin Jyutsu philosophy, holding the tip of the nose revitalizes reproductive functions.
Step 3– Now move your left hand to the “V” of your throat. The Blue Throat Chakra is a powerful energy center that, according to tradition, revitalizes the thyroid and parathyroid glands. “This is also the human voice chakra,” Dannelley notes, adding that “metaphysically” sound is one of the primary energies of the universe.”
Step 4 – Now place your left hand on your sternum (sternum), which is halfway between the top and bottom of your chest. This green Heart Chakra pressure point is the center of your energy system. When this chakra is open, the Thymus gland is helped and other immune systems are said to be revitalized.
step 5 – Next, move your left hand just below the bottom of the sternum. This area sits above a nerve center and a yellow-colored chakra called the solar plexus. “Mystics and yogis around the world consider it to be the vital center of the body and the seat of the will.” Danielle writes. It ‘works’ with the adrenal glands and third eye to draw a healing form of light into your system.
step 6 – Now place your left hand an inch above your navel. This pressure point is not associated with any chakra. But according to Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioners, it works closely with the solar plexus and can help bowel functions.
Step 7 – Now place your left hand on the top center of your pubic bone. Leave it there for the next step. This orange colored chakra is known as The Basic Life Force. “It revitalizes the lower body organs, such as the spleen and ovaries,” according to Dannelley.
step 8 -Finally, place your right hand at the base of your spine. This is the Root Chakra. Red in color and associated with the sex organs, “it’s your connection to Mother Earth and her primal life force energy,” or kundalini, Dannelly notes. Awakening this energy can improve circulation, especially in the legs and feet. Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioners claim that maintaining these pressure points daily can alleviate a variety of health problems, including digestive disorders, high or low blood pressure, breast tenderness, fatigue, spinal cord injuries, and sleep problems. disc, scoliosis and premenstrual syndrome. As a regular PMS sufferer for many years, I can vouch that “following the main central vertical flow” has eliminated 90% of my symptoms.
The main central vertical flow can be used to complement conventional medicine or simply to maintain a sense of harmony and well-being. Plato said that learning is simply remembering. As you work through each pressure point, remember to smile and breathe slowly and deeply so that you receive all the abundance you need.
The history of Jin Shin Jyutsu
An ancient Japanese oral tradition, Jin Shin Jyutsu had all but disappeared when it was rediscovered in the early 1900s by a Japanese philosopher named Jiro Murai.
Master Murai was born into a long line of medical professionals. As a young man he contracted a terminal illness. He asked his family to take him to the mountains and leave him alone for seven days. In a feverish state, Murai had a vision of meditating sages using sacred hand movements, or mudras, which he then applied to himself as he drifted in and out of consciousness. On the seventh day, he was completely cured.
Murai vowed to spend the rest of his life studying the connection between his amazing recovery and these mudras. The Main Central Vertical Flow was one of the first sets of mudras, or flows, that Murai established in redeveloping the Jin Shin Jyutsu system that practitioners use and study today.
