Muladhara chakra is the very first chakra in the energetic chakra system. Also known as the root chakra, this chakra is your foundation. It’s often viewed as the most important of all the chakras, because the foundation must be healthy and balanced if the rest of the chakras are to follow suit.
Realigning your root chakra is a necessary task if we want prana to flow fluidly and freely. In my own pranic journey, I often do yoga sequences geared toward muladhara health.
I’ll do them from time to time for overall energetic maintenance and the occasional check in. That said, let’s take a look at the most effective ways to balance muladhara.
Read: Quiz: Are Your Chakras Blocked?
Understanding Muladhara
According to the chakra system, muladhara chakra must be balanced if we’re going to experience general health, and a strong sense of stability and wholeness. Our root chakra is located at the perineum. It’s related to the element of earth, and represents our life’s roots.
Our primary caregivers (for most people, their parents) and family are the people who’ve most influenced the forming of our root chakra. The environment in which we grew up also plays a major role in root chakra development. As you can imagine, those who had less than draftl childhoods would be in need of root chakra attention if those issues haven’t been addressed.
Read: Understanding the 7 Chakras
Making Sure Your Base Needs are Being Met
Mula translates to “root” in Sanskrit, while adhara is roughly translated as “support.” A balanced root chakra will translate in the real world as seeing our basic needs being met.
Do you have enough food to eat and water to drink? Do you feel safe and secure? Do you have a roof over your head?
If your base needs are being met, that’s a good sign that your root chakra is in balance. (Barring natural disasters and pandemics, of course—which can greatly impact the most stable among us.)
Learn to Trust
Learning to trust is the work of muladhara chakra. If you had a stressful childhood, one in which your primary caregivers weren’t able to be present with you (for whatever reason) chances are, you didn’t get some very basic needs met, and you probably didn’t feel safe in the world.
Trust may then be an issue, and something we must work on. There are ways to nurture trust as an adult, and some are very simple. One way would simply be to sit in meditation, with your eyes closed while repeating a mantra like, “I trust life.”
The Best Pranayama for Balancing Muladhara:
Pranayama techniques are also great for the realignment of your root chakra. Here are a few of the best ones:
- Nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing)
- Sitali pranayama (cooling breath)
- Breath and visualization – simply sit and breathe deeply while imagining roots growing from your seat, and into the earth.
Read: Hidden Magic: The Power of Nadi Shodhana Pranayama
Yoga Postures That Help Balance Your Muladhara
Balancing your root chakra can be done by practicing specific yoga postures. All you need to do is know which ones to practice!
Why not create an entire home sequence of yoga postures geared specifically to realigning your root chakra? Here are some of the most effective yoga asana to get grounded and stable:
Read: Ground Into Tadasana to Connect With Your Root Chakra
Positive Affirmations to Help Balance Muladhara
Our mind is everything. What we think (if we think hard enough) becomes our reality. That’s why repeating positive affirmations over and over again is such a powerful practice.
These are some of the best affirmations to have in our mind’s eye if we want to bring our attention to the energetic health of our root chakra:
- I am safe
- I am secure
- I trust life
- I am grounded
- I am centered
- I take care of myself
- I self-nurture
- I am powerful
- I am strong
- I am rooted
- I am open to all the possibilities of the Universe
- I am confident in all I do
Ground Yourself on the Earth to Realign Muladhara
Getting energetically grounded to the earth is one of the most powerful ways to realign your root chakra. And it’s so easy to do! All you need to do is take your shoes off and get outside. Walk in the grass. Walk in the sand. Just touch the earth with your feet while sitting in a park.
This particular grounding practice is becoming more and more popular in health circles. And for good reason! It’s infinitely healthy to touch the earth. You might want to take a mindful barefoot walk while reciting whichever mantra above really resonates with you. This combination is deeply healing and powerful for your muladhara.
Read: Getting Grounded: What It Means and How to Get It
May we all heal our root chakra as we move through times of uncertainty. These practices will serve you well. Namaste.
During These Times of Stress and Uncertainty Your Doshas May Be Unbalanced.
To help you bring attention to your doshas and to identify what your predominant dosha is, we created the following quiz.
Try not to stress over every question, but simply answer based off your intuition. After all, you know yourself better than anyone else.