We begin our Chakra Series with an exploration of the Root Chakra, the lowest of the 7 energy centers that map from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.
For those of you who are familiar with the Chakra system and who have done plenty of work them, perhaps it feels as if there’s not much left to learn. But approach the system with real Beginner’s Mind and you might find some interesting revelations.
I tend to think of rootedness (doh!) when I explore the Root Chakra. It is our center of safety and security. If we feel balanced in this chakra, we feel safe and secure. If this chakra is out of whack, we can experience deep insecurity, grasping, fear and more.
So, when I meditate on the Root and security, I tend to feel a sort of internal folding inward (kind of like a mental pill bug). But what if the turning towards the Root and working with it was entirely different? What if it was expansive and limitless? What would that mean in relation to our sense of okayness?
Recently, I began to explore Philip Shepherd’s work -- his Embodied Present Process is based on embodiment that emanates from the pelvic floor. Now, this may sound a little odd to us – it’s fair to say that the lower body and deep awareness of its energy centers is not part of the general conversation. But it ought to be!
If we don’t learn how to drop below our head and move away from the concept that it is our brain that is directing everything, we will never fully engage with the deepest faculties of our minds and bodies. We will try to think our way through, believing that our thoughts (ie, our perceptions) are the TRUTH. Come to think of it, this is the way many of us operate and it is safe to say that it has gotten us (all) into a bit of divisive trouble – no matter what our politics.
Shepherd has extensive instruction available on his site. But you can begin to work with the root chakra in this way by following these basic instructions.
First, get a sense of where in the body the root actually is. To do this, you can take a yoga blanket and fold it into a square or rectangle. Then take one corner of the blanket and rotate it so that the point is facing between your legs, right at the perineum. Sit on this corner. This gives you an immediate and active sense of the root. Practicing the pelvic floor breathing with the blanket positioned this way will help you experience the opening and contraction of the root.
Begin by breathing normally. In and out. Now, place your attention on your perineal area. Can you notice how, on the out-breath, the pelvic floor contracts just a little? Just breathe in and out for a few minutes and see if you can’t establish this awareness. Even if it is very subtle.
Now, as you draw your next in-breath, can you source it from this center? And as you do that, can you intentionally create a sense of opening in the root chakra? With this opening, invite the in-breath to move up through the rest of the body. Think of your torso as a pitcher and the breath filling the pitcher all the way from the base (root) upward. The breath should be quiet and soft. Do you feel how this opening and invitation from the root allows for a sense of spaciousness and peace? The spaciousness opens us up to the changeable nature of existence as opposed to shutting down, which is actually not going to help you feel safer and more secure in the end.
Here is the inimitable Alan Watts on the subject from his book: The Wisdom of Insecurity:
“There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity. But the contradiction lies a little deeper than the mere conflict between the desire for security and the fact of change. If I want to be secure, that is, protected from the flux of life, I am wanting to be separate from life. Yet it is this very sense of separateness which makes me feel insecure. To be secure means to isolate and fortify the “I”, but it is just the feeling of being an isolated “I” which makes me feel lonely and afraid. In other words, the more security I can get, the more I shall want.
To put it still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest In which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.”
Practice this pelvic floor breath at least once a day, perhaps before your daily meditation. See how the sense of space feels safe. We can open AND feel secure at the same time. For extra bonus points, give this breathing exercise a try when you engage with someone else. Note how it changes the energy of the encounter.