Start your day by tuning into your whole being through the chakras. This practice is all about you, for you, and so that you can be fully yourself to better help others.
Each step builds on the prior step. Keep the same stance throughout as in the practice for the first chakra. Say the mantras once, or as many times as you like.
First Chakra
Practice: Spread your toes, press the four corners of the feet into the ground. Breathe down through the base of your spine into your legs, all the way down to your feet, down into the floor and to the earth below that. Imagine your trunk ends at the feet, which have invisible roots that reach solidly, strongly to the earth.
Mantra: I am strong. I have a right to be here. I am supported.
Second Chakra
Practice: Spread your feet hip-distance apart, with the knees soft. Feel the feet connected to the ground. Bend the knees gently. Place your hands two inches below your belly button. Send yourself love and healing through your own hands. Breathe into the belly and soften it. Create space there.
Mantra: I let myself feel what I feel. I honor my feelings. I am passionate.
Third Chakra
Practice: Place your hands two inches above your belly button. Send yourself love and healing through your own hands. Breathe into the ribs, side body, and back. Soften. Gently twist to the right for five breaths, breathing into the middle of your body. Switch sides and repeat on the left.
Mantra: I am perfect the way I am. I respect myself.
Fourth Chakra
Practice: Place your hands across the heart. Breathe into the heart. Send yourself love and healing through your own hands. Feel your heart’s power and rhythm for ten breaths. Then take the hands in reverse prayer position behind your back, at the shoulder blades or wherever you can, Breathe into the back of the heart, softening the wings.
Mantra: I forgive myself and others. I am grateful. I love myself.
Fifth Chakra
Practice: Place your hands softly across the throat. Breathe into the throat area. Feel your throat’s fragility and power. Send yourself love and healing through your own hands.
Mantra: My voice is valuable. I speak my truth with integrity. I listen to others’ voices. My voice is heard.
Sixth Chakra
Practice: Place your hands on your forehead. Send yourself love and healing through your own hands. Breathe into the forehead, softening it. Imagine a beautiful diamond of wisdom sparkling at the third eye area, between the eyebrows.
Mantra: I follow my intuition. I trust my inner teacher and follow her guidance.
Seventh Chakra
Practice: Place your hands on the crown of your head. Send yourself love and healing through your own hands. Breathe into the crown, softening it. Imagine a beam of light streaming from the crown of your head skyward, connecting you to universal light and love.
Mantra: I am part of the universal flow. I am light. I am love.
Eighth Chakra
Practice: Stand with your feet firmly into the ground, feeling the earth connection. Breathe into each chakra from the base up to the crown. Lift your arms out to the side and stand with an open heart.
Mantra: I am one with all that is, and all that will be. I trust and surrender.
Photo by Ali Kaukas
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Leza Lowitz’s memoir about her journey to motherhood across two oceans, two decades, and two thousand yoga poses, Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras, comes out soon. Learn more here. Her previous books Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By, Sacred Sanskrit Words (with Reema Datta), and Jet Black & The Ninja Wind (with Shogo Oketani) are Amazon best-sellers. She’s written for the New York Times, Yoga Journal, Shambhala Sun, Best Buddhist Writing, The Huffington Post, and The Japan Times. Her YA verse novel, Up from the Sea, is forthcoming from Crown/Penguin Random House in 2016.