Chakra flows

Photo by Ginny Rose Stewart on Unsplash

Using chakras in vinyasa flows

I've already given ready good advice about how to use chakra awareness in both Hatha, and vinyasa, classes, in my previous post. 

I was reading an online query about doing chakra vinyasa flows. eg for the base chakra, or sacral, or... any of the others. This isn't really possible. You can do a flow which affects one or more chakras more than the others, so I suppose you could call it a flow for the predominant chakra stimulation/awareness.

Lets look at a common vinyasa flow which uses both warrior 1 and warrior 2:

• stand, hands in namaste. heart chakra/anahata
• arms up and back. throat/vishuddhi
• forwards and down. sacral/swadhisthana
• table. for chakra purposes I would say look up between the eyebrows. Eyebrow centre/ajna
• plank. navel/manipura
• to floor, chaturanga/etc. navel/manipura
• updog, cobra. sacral/swadhisthana. For updog you can use heart/anahata. For either you can do nose tip gazing for base/mooladhara
• downdog. throat/vishuddhi
• step forwards into warrior 1. heart/anahata. eyebrow centre/ajna
• move into warrior 2. this is strong on the base chakra but I would say don't do this in a class, rather use navel/manipura or heart/anahata
• forwards to vinyasa and repeat on the other side
• vinyasa
• come forwards in the usual way. End with namaste as above.

Looking at this, it's easy to work out which sort of chakra vinyasa flow that you want to use:

• anahata/heart flow. for both warriors, hold and do in/out centre of chest. Do the same standing to start and finish.
• all over chakra flow, touch awareness to each point as you go through the flow. Use the front of the body.
• For a base/mooladhara flow, start and finish with in/out centre of chest, as this harmonizes the effects of the base chakra (talking about on the aura level, here). Even if you add reverse warrior and side angled warrior, it will still be strong on mooladhara, as that chakra runs from between our feet into our perenium. Omit chakra awareness for the asanas. Optional extra: hold cobra/updog the last time with nosetip gazing.
• For a throat/vishuddi flow: use warrior 1 in/out throat pit, same with the last updog (optional), and of course the final downdog. To be honest, I would usually only do a vishuddhi thing in a vinyasa flow with the final downdog. Because some chakras respond well to having their own flows, others not so much. It's an energy thing.

As a flow without being part of a vinyasa:

• warrior 2
• reverse warrior
• side angled warrior
• do each side
• finish with wide legged forward bend, nose tip awareness.

If you skip chakra awareness, this is still strong on mooladhara. Nose tip awareness/gazing stimulates the base chakra. 

To make it softer, do in/out centre of the chest in warrior 2. 

These are just simple examples. I would suggest that this would be something special for your class eg final class before holidays. And if you do this often in a class, again, make it special as an advanced class. Advanced does not always mean that people need to be doing extra hard, nor advanced, postures.

Feel free to make any enquiries.

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Links to similar blog posts:

here about chakras and misinformation

here about the deep spirituality of the chakras