You are so much more than a physical body in a physical world.
You also have an energy body, within you and all around you, that interacts with the energy of everything you encounter in life.
The energy body, also referred to as the emotional or astral body, is where we hold and process thoughts, emotions, beliefs, information, and all the unseen pieces of our human experience.
The energy body is made up of your seven main chakras and aura.
The chakras are the energy centers within your body that work with the aura, the energetic container around your body, to process, store, shift, and move emotional information.
It’s especially important as an empath to become aware of your energy body, how it impacts your life, and how to consciously work with it so you can develop an empowered relationship with your emotions.
So let’s take the chakras and aura out of woo-woo territory, and explore how they affect your everyday experience in life.
What is an aura and how does it affect my everyday life?
Your aura is the energetic field that surrounds your entire body, stretching above your head and beneath your feet, about an arms-length distance away from your physical body.
Also known as your biofield, the aura is a measurable electromagnetic field that emanates from your body and interacts with all the other electromagnetic fields in your environment.
When you walk into a room and sense anger, when you feel overwhelmed by too many emotions in a crowded place, when you walk by someone and can feel what they’re feeling- that’s your aura interacting with and reading the energy from the fields around you.
Your aura is scanning and sensing the energetic information around you, filtering some of it out and bringing some into your chakra system to be felt and processed. It will draw in the energetic frequencies that match where your current emotional state and attention are at.
So for instance, if you’re feeling worried, your aura will scan the environment for all the things out there you might need to feel worried about, and then feed those into your chakra system, lowering your energy levels, preparing you for fight or flight mode, increasing your sense of angst.
On the other hand, if you’re feeling grateful, your aura will scan the environment for all the things around you that could potentially inspire gratitude, feeding those into your chakra system, raising your energy levels, shifting your perspective, opening your heart, and making you feel good.
This is why it’s so important to make sure you’re actively participating in directing your energy and attention towards what you want to cultivate and grow in your life, rather than focusing on what’s dragging you down.
It also makes it imperative that you learn some conscious techniques to clear and protect your auric field, so you can become more intentional with the energy you pick up from the environment and not be so negatively affected by it. We’ll be sure to share some specific practices to help with this in future blog posts!
What are the chakras and how are they working in my daily life?
Your chakras are energy centers within your body that receive energetic information from your aura, process it, and release it back out into the world.
They are spinning vortexes of energy, like whirlpools of light, that feed every meridian running through your body, and every organ, bone, and cell.
Each chakra needs to be open, flowing, and balanced in order for the energy to move freely, to be expressed and released healthily, and to maintain a sense of equilibrium in life.
When even one chakra becomes stuck or stifled, it affects the flow of energy throughout your entire system. So, even though we think of them as seven separate chakras because we humans like to break things down like that, they truly are a holistic system that all work together to support your entire mind, body, spirit, and physical body.
The seven chakras of your energy body are:
- Root chakra
Located at the base of the tailbone in men and the cervical area in women, your root chakra is related to your safety, security, sense of belonging, and instinctual reactions.
Affiliated with your adrenal glands, skeleton, legs and feet, lower back, and lymph system, when the root chakra is out of balance, you may feel insecure, fearful, easily triggered, pessimistic, stuck, or overly focused on material issues. - Sacral chakra
Located in your lower abdomen, the sacral chakra is your figurative womb space where creation takes place, responsible for your sense of pleasure, desire, sensuality, and creativity.
Working with your reproductive organs, bladder, kidneys, hips, and lower abdominals, when the sacral chakra is out of balance, you may feel depleted, emotionally overwhelmed, or stuck in guilt or shame.
- Solar Plexus chakra
Located in your upper abdomen, the solar plexus chakra is related to your self-empowerment and confidence and is where you find courage, joy, motivation, and willpower to take action and move forward.
Affiliated with the stomach and digestive system, intestines, liver, muscular system, and spine, when the solar plexus is out of balance, you may lack self-esteem or motivation, feel depressed or doubtful, or be overly aggressive or frustrated in life. - Heart chakra
Located in the center of your chest, the heart chakra deals with relationships, love, compassion, and acceptance. It is the center point between the lower and upper chakras, the place of harmony and balance within your body.
Working with the physical heart and circulatory system, the lungs and respiratory system, and your immune system, when the heart chakra is out of balance, you may feel lonely, hopeless, overwhelmed with grief or sadness, unforgiving and defensive. - Throat chakra
Located in the crook of your collarbone, the throat chakra is responsible for your self-expression and sense of freedom, communication, and authenticity.
Related to the mouth and throat, voice, thyroid, arms, ears, and sinuses, when the throat chakra is out of balance you may feel stifled and shy, unheard, overly critical, or have problems expressing yourself. - Third Eye chakra
Located in the center of your forehead, the third eye chakra is associated with your belief system, perspective, imagination, and intuition.
Working with the head, pituitary and pineal glands, eyes and optical nerve, the sinuses, and your sixth senses, an imbalanced third eye chakra may leave you feeling distracted, stuck in your head, overly judgemental, or detached from your intuition. - Crown chakra
Located at the top of your head, the crown chakra is where you plug into the energy of the cosmos and connect with the realms of spirit and higher consciousness.
Related to the brain, skull, spinal cord and entire nervous system, an imbalanced crown chakra can make you feel hopeless, lost, lonely, depressed, and disconnected from your spirit.
We hope this helps you start to bring the concept of an energy body out of the clouds and into your real life. When you can start to bring conscious awareness to what’s happening in your aura and chakras, your entire life can benefit from it!
This is just an introduction to the power your energy body holds in your life. Search through our blog to find more posts sharing specific practices and helpful tools you can use to bring balance to all your different chakras.