The physical body is the medium through which our consciousness is expressed. It represents the lowest level of our energy vibration. In other words, our physical body is the most dense layer of the energy layers that comprise who we are. Our emotional, mental and spiritual elements, or energy layers, vibrate at higher frequencies than the physical body and so are mostly invisible to the naked eye. Many of us are unaware that we have these more subtle energy bodies.

Through our physical bodies, we experience kinetic movement, awareness of body parts and functions, touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing and interaction with nature, including earth and water elements. Through our emotions, we experience compassion, love, fear, doubt, the need for self-expression; opening ourselves up to joy and happiness.

On the mental level, we use our conscious minds to think, plan, evaluate, analyse, to express ideas, and to articulate desires such as the desire for inner peace.  The spiritual element focuses on the evolution of the soul.

Energy centers called chakras (which means ‘wheel’ in Sanskrit), are located in the body. The chakras link these four different levels together. For example, the chakras link an organ, a group of organs or a physical part of the body, to our higher levels of being. The flow of energy is adapted from pure spirit to physical manifestation. When the chakras become unbalanced or blocked, various conditions can result ranging from phobias, fears and mental ailments right through to physical pain, disease and suffering.

There are numerous chakras located throughout the body, and some of them correspond to pressure points and meridian points. We will concentrate on the major seven chakras — root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown, we can imagine them as points located along the spine; from the root chakra at the base of the spine to the crown chakra at the top of the head. 

The chakras can be described as spirals of light, radiating from the universe with the point of the spiral located at the chakra position on the body. In a healthy, balanced system, these points of energy or spiral light are said to ‘spin’, thus channeling universal energy throughout our bodies, harmoniously linking our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual selves.

The chakras spin in different directions for males and females. For females the directions are as follows: 

• Crown – counter-clockwise
• Third Eye – clockwise
• Throat – counter-clockwise
• Heart – clockwise
• Solar Plexus – counter-clockwise
• Sacral – clockwise
• Root – counter-clockwise
• For males, the directions are the opposite