The Chakra System for Pregnancy
What are the Chakras?
The Chakra system is an ancient system of understanding our energy. Chakra is Sanskrit for “wheel.” These “wheels” inside our body are energy centers where energy flows. Each energy center pertains and correlates to different parts of our being – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. The energy of our chakras is said to flow through our body in channels called nadis. There are varying numbers, but it is said there are over 72,000 nadis in the body, and over 114 chakras. There are 7 main chakras that run up the spine – these are the ones we will be focusing on.
Chakra Definitions
Root Chakra
The Root Chakra, or Muladhara in Sanskrit, is located at the base of our spine, around the space between the anus and the sex organs. The Root Chakra is physically concerned with our sense of safety in our body, our groundedness and connection to the earth, and our actual physical roots – our feet, legs, buttocks, and hips. Our emotions, mental, and spiritual bodies are concerned at our root with our safety, physically security, financial security, connection, and embodiment. This would include, for example, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.
In pregnancy, birth, and motherhood, the root chakra is widely applicable. Our need to feel safe and secure in our body and home is paramount to having a relaxed, nourishing pregnancy. We need nutritious food, a stable environment, and security in finances. You also want to feel as good in your body as possible during pregnancy! When working with the chakras, it is beneficial to begin at the ground level and work your way up the spine. Feel safe and secure in your body, and then continue on with your spiritual work through the other chakras.
Sacral Chakra
The Sacral Chakra, Svadhisthana, is very important during pregnancy for it houses our sex and reproductive organs. This chakra lies right in the center of our womb space (the same space for men). This is our feeling center, our creative space. The Sacral Chakra is about joy, pleasure, playfulness, happiness, sex, creation. The physical parts of the body we focus on when working with the Sacral Chakra are the hips, the pelvic floor, the womb space, sex organs, and lower abdomen. The emotional and mental ideals here are working with your feelings and allowing yourself to feel, rather than suppress emotions. Spiritually, this is our true soul portal center. The Sacral Chakra is where babies are made, where they grow, and then how they exist in one realm and come into this one.
In pregnancy, we often work with the emotions as they come about from hormone imbalances. It can be very easy to judge yourself when your hormones are fluctuating and you have crying fits, or bouts of anger and irritability. Working on feeling through and accepting these emotions is Sacral Chakra balancing work. This is also the chakra center to focus on connection with your creation, with your baby in your womb. You are creating life and an experience for the two of you to share together.
Solar Plexus Chakra
The Solar Plexus Cara, or Manipura, is our power center, located in the center of our stomach, just above the navel. Physically, we are working with the core, all abdominal muscles, our spine, and our ribs. The core holds us up, and even though soft during pregnancy, it is still powerful to hold and then assist through labor as baby is pushed down and out. This is the chakra where we focus on action. Sloth and procrastination are conquered at this chakra station!
During pregnancy, it can be hard to get things done. You are constantly battling exhaustion, nausea, heartburn, emotions, pain – there is so much going on in your body it can be hard to do much else. Balancing what needs to be done and what is “nice” to get done, and working through the discomfort to begin an action, can be solved with a balanced Solar Plexus Chakra.
Heart Chakra
Our Heart Chakra is located where our physical heart is, and is the center chakra, in the middle of our body. This is where everything comes together and balances between our three lower, earthly chakras, and our three upper, ethereal chakras. The element here is air, so we focus on the breath. Breath brings life to us as well as our baby by pushing oxygen to our heart and then pumping throughout the body.
Each chakra has opposites to its traits – so since the heart is focused on love, the opposite would be grief or sadness. Pregnancy can bring about so many feelings from past traumas, issues with your own parents, childhood experiences, and so on. This is a time to sit with and heal all of these feelings and breathe life into your new beginning with your baby.
Throat Chakra
The Throat Chakra is located right at our throat but also includes the ears, neck, mouth, and shoulders. With our throats, we make sound. This is where we speak our thoughts into the world and into existence. The Throat Chakra is where we concern ourselves with living in our truth. We must know what our truth is, then we can live and speak it into existence. In order for there to be sound, one must be on the receiving end, and so with the Throat Chakra we listen as well.
If you have an overactive Throat Chakra, speaking too much, complaining, talking over others – it might serve you to pause and listen more. If all you do is listen, consume information, and never speak up or say anything – it’s time to come alive and speak your truth! This chakra balanced well can look like being able to hold space for your partner or other mothers, as well as speaking up and asking for help when need be or speaking and holding to your boundaries.
Third Eye Chakra
Our Third Eye Chakra is the seat of our intuition. It sits where our pituitary gland is, right in the middle of our brains, at about eye level. The physical focus when taught in yoga classes is usually the space between the eyebrows. The energetic focus is honing in on our intuition, learning to listen to, trust, and act upon our deep inner knowledge.
During pregnancy, our intuition shifts and expands. Studies are beginning to be done that show neurological changes in women during pregnancy and into the first two years of a child’s life. Mothers and babies create new neural pathways between the two of them, making for a deep bonding experience. This chakra is, therefore, very important to tap into and balance during pregnancy! If you are not tapped into your intuition, you may find yourself falling into people pleasing, questioning yourself, doubt and fear. Knowing your inner truth and being able to listen to what you know, can ease your pregnancy and motherhood journey.
Crown Chakra
The Crown Chakra lies just above the top of the crown of our heads, actually just outside the body. This is where we connect and commune with the Divine within ourselves, and the Divine external, whether that be God, nature, or some other higher power for you. This chakra is usually shown being tapped into while in lotus position, during meditation.
This is our true soul connection to the universe. This energy center is where nirvana takes place, where we experience bliss, where we meet with heaven on earth. As we are bringing a new life and a new soul onto the earth plane through pregnancy and birth, the moment of birth is hugely expansive for our Crown Chakra. Our babies pass through the soul portal and become a part of the collective consciousness. To have a tuned in Crown Chakra is to have a connection with the Divine, and the highest self within.
