Week Four - Sahasrara Chakra, Feeling Divine

Hello everyone,

I can't believe it, we are already at the end of another term! This Sunday will be our last Hatha and Soft Stretch classes revolving around the theme of chakras :) But we are dancing straight into a new four week Sunday term running March 8th - March 29th, before we take a little break for Easter. Our new philosophy theme in March will be the Antahkarana, the four faculties of the mind. You can expect to explore your physical alignment, set intentions for new beginnings, cultivate tools for managing stress, and discover techniques for mindfulness and meditation. I'm really excited! 

If you would like me to save your space for the new term of Hatha Flow at 5pm, or Soft Stretch Yoga at 6:30pm, just let me know :) It will be just €60 for all four weeks, starting March 8th. I also have drop-in spaces available for this Sunday March 1st, where we will close out our exploration of the chakras - if you'd like to book in for this weekend just give me a shout :)

Now, for our philosophy theme this Sunday at Thrive. A potent one. A powerful one. The big one - many consider this to be the major energetic goal of yoga; to open and align the Sahasrara Chakra, the seventh energy centre in your body. The crown of your head. Thought of as the connection point to universal source, the divine nature. Purusha.

Mystical, yes. Spiritual, certainly. However, these teachings of sahasrara chakra are surprisingly rooted in neuro-science, modern psychology, and what we now know about the importance of sleep, stress management, and social connection. Let's dive in.

Sahasrara chakra is located at the tip top of your head, and is sometimes depicted as rising a little bit above the body, almost like a halo. It is thought of in subtle body teachings as the bridge between the physical experience, the psyche, and the spiritual world. It is associated with the element of space, the colour violet or white, and is specifically related to faith and trust; the knowing and recognising of the universe as a force that is working for you - not against you.

Physically, this energy centre relates to the endocrine system, which is how our brain and body produces and releases hormones that regulate functions like mood, reproduction, healing, growth, and metabolism. The endocrine system works alongside the nervous system as a communications network, a feedback loop for what hormones to make and when to distribute them. For this reason, when crown chakra is blocked, it's possible to notice disruptions to your hormonal balance - things like mood swings, acne, irregular periods, anxiety, fatigue, depression, lack of creativity, negativity, insomnia, or even bad dreams. 

Sahasrara chakra is famously linked to the pineal gland, a tiny pine cone in the centre of the brain (the area of the epithalamus) that's in charge of circadian rhythms and your melatonin secretion, the hormone derived from serotonin that helps us sleep. It is also linked to the hypothalamus, a region of the brain that produces the hormone oxytocin, which is often called the 'love' drug, and is responsible for social bonding. 

To imagine an open and aligned sahasrara chakra, all you really have to do is picture a small baby. It's impossible not to look at her and smile. She has complete trust that she is safe, no doubt that she will be loved wherever she goes, and is present and curious about the world - for it is a positive and funny place to be. 

For an adult, I believe an open sahasrara chakra looks and feels the very same way. Except, instead of having a secure attachment to your parents, as you might have had when you were small, you now feel a secure attachment to something else, something benevolent and nameless in the universe, a flow of energy within and without - that you know is guiding and protecting you at all times. It could be God - why not? If faith is a positive and loving thing in your life. You could call it the Universe, or Source. You could simply have a faith in your own intuition; a commitment to follow your whispered path forward. If the crown chakra is open, you will know it because things come easily to you, you are full of love, and life feels inexplicably miraculous, serendipitous, and fun.

You can see why this is the big one! 

I remember one of the first times I ever heard about the subtle body was at a workshop in India. A healer and teacher named Yogshri used a traditional water pendulum to assess our energetic alignment one by one. I was nineteen, and very skeptical. When he got to me, he told me that all of my chakras were either blocked or misaligned (!), except for - oddly enough - my heart and my crown, which were wide open. He looked bemused, telling me that it was rare for the crown chakra to be open when so many others were not, and he asked me, curious like a doctor, if I had been experiencing any serendipitous moments of luck recently; having positive visions? Feeling inexplicably at ease in difficult situations - as if protected by some invisible forces?

My heart began to leap about my chest in recognition. I nodded my head. Life had been feeling...lucky. Bizarrely so. Countless things had been happening - some small, like consistently finding myself in the right place at the right time - but huge things as well. Mini miracles.

When I had been travelling to India a few weeks earlier - my first ever solo trip - I was woefully unprepared for the journey, and blissfully ignorant of that fact. I had booked three separate flights in one day, one to London, then to New Delhi, then to Rishikesh, with almost no layover time in-between and no idea that the terminals in Delhi are over thirty minutes drive away from each other, or that the ATMS are dodgy. I remember queuing for my second flight, feeling ever so slightly anxious about it all, but then seeing this Irish woman with pixie cut red hair in the queue a few people behind me. I immediately thought; all will be well. When I sat on the plane to Delhi, guess who was sitting next to me? Her name was Deb, she was a thirty-something year-old architect and meditation teacher from South Dublin, and this was her third time traveling to Rishikesh. She was booked on my exact same flight after this one, and she was staying in a school only a few minutes from my own. We said we might as well stick together in Delhi airport, and share the taxi to Rishikesh. Why wouldn't we? Every muscle in my body relaxed, like butter. It was new years eve, and I felt angels all around me.

Of course, I don't think my crown chakra stayed open for very long - I'd probably be a millionaire by now - but this is a short story of a true experience where life really did feel like it was just that little bit ahead of me, opening the door and taking my coat. I think that's what all this is about - yoga, meditation, wellness, philosophy, faith...it's about getting back to that sense of doors being open for you. Knowing that the energy is there for whatever you're asking for. That's your prana - life force - working for you.

"Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance" 

Ekhart Tolle

Le grá agus buíochas,

Macha