Moving on from childhood trauma
As adoptees, the root chakra is one of the most blocked and constricted energy fields within our bodies.
What is the Root Chakra?
The root chakra, or Muladhara, is our body’s most primal and fundamental energy centre, is located at the base of our spine, or groin area. Being associated with the colour red, the root chakra regulates the energy associated with instinct, survival, and safety.
When the root chakra is imbalanced due to trauma, psychological issues such as chronic fear, and psychosomatic suppression and repression, we experience a disruption in the flow of life. Often our blocked energy centres lead to constant personal, existential and relationship issues.
This is the root layer 1st Chakra of our Unconscious Mind and it functions as a hard drive for the ego. In this hard drive is the cellular memory storage from all of one’s lifestreams. This means that cellular memories from past lives, present lives and future lives may all be stored in this memory hard drive. These memories are not given value when they are recorded, whether one may perceive them as good or bad, these many multiple memories are stored on the root hard drive of every human being. Whether one was a fetus, baby, in between lifetimes, or unconscious when the body suffered “abuse”; it was recorded in one’s memory storage whether one currently remembers that event consciously or not. Because the planet was invaded and our individual memory and identity erased from those tragic events, almost all human beings have four main areas of cellular memory record in their unconscious mind at varying degrees.
Those four main areas are: Abuse, Trauma, Shock and Devastation.
Some people will feel these painful memories but not know what caused them or where they came from. Others will suffer from shock and will have shut these memories down completely as a coping mechanism. Others are very successful in clearing these memories through emotional clearing practices such as with hypnosis and past life regression. Since this 1D unconscious mind controls our autonomic nervous system and autonomic bodily functions, unhealed memory trauma in these four main areas creates many kinds of physical symptoms and disease.
What is Root Chakra Healing?
Root Chakra healing is the practice of opening, clearing, cleansing, supporting and strengthening the root chakra within our bodies. Root Chakra healing involves using certain foods, sounds, smells, affirmations, yoga practices, crystals, and other holistic remedies to reestablish harmony within the body-mind organism.
Finding Base Security
To find balance for our root chakra, one must make a sincere effort to stop the delusion of basing one’s Self Esteem being made on the appearance or assumption of outer circumstances. For many of us, this is our immediate task at hand, to be mentally and emotionally free of being bullied, intimidated, and threatened against one’s sense of inner security, stability, foundation and wellbeing. That relationship is totally up to each of us. Only you can develop trust in that relationship with God or Spirit, no one can do that for you on the outside.
The Root Chakra is the base of the foundation of our Lightbody and is our form holding energetic blueprint which exists as the holographic Tree of Life. When we hold unresolved and unconscious pain in our base frequency, it weakens our entire foundation; it erodes the roots which hold the base of our personal Tree of Life. Without having grown the strong stable roots for building the strong, stable spiritual foundation of one’s personal Tree of Life, one may topple or be redirected in their path. This is why building a strong base, builds a balanced Root Chakra and this is essential in building one’s spiritual foundation. One is easily manipulated, controlled or potentially hijacked by the Controller forces when not spiritually strong in virtues and ethics. At this time one will be moved to the life path that is vibrationally matched and appropriate in order to accomplish the learning required through the highest consciousness pathway. To balance our base we must address negative archetypes and fear thought-forms and consciously participate in shifting them to a higher frequency of loving thoughts. The table below is helpful to pinpoint areas to heal in our root chakra.
15 Signs of an Unhealthy Root Chakra
The best way to tell whether you need to undergo root chakra healing is to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, actions and physical sensations within your body.
Here are some signs to look out for:
- You tend to obsess about money, e.g. you worry that you don’t have enough, you have catastrophic thoughts that surround going poor and becoming homeless, you over-work to soothe your anxiety surrounding finances, you become triggered whenever someone in your family spends too much, YOU must be in absolute control of the money in your family, etc.
- You have a general mistrust of others (trust issues)
- You believe that the only person you can rely on is yourself, and you avoid asking favours from others (even when you really need them)
- You’re a workaholic who tends to burn out easily
- You have a dysfunctional relationship with your family
- You feel like there’s “never enough” to go around and you need to fight for what you want
- You’re terrified of a loss of control
- You are hyper-vigilant to any perceived signs of threat from others or your surroundings
- You feel dizzy, anxious, spacey, and ungrounded for most of the day
- You find it difficult and scary to be your authentic self around others
- You feel disconnected from other people and nature
- You are a hoarder who likes to “collect” a lot of things making your living space constricted and cluttered
- You binge-eat or stop eating completely when you get depressed or anxious
- You have leg and feet problems, such as swelling, infection, cramps, poor circulation
- You tend to gain weight around the bottom half of your body (e.g. love handles, thick thighs)
How many of these signs can you identify with, in this list?
Do You Have a Deficient or Excessive Root Chakra?
When most people talk about unhealthy root chakras, they’re referring to “blocked” or deficient chakras that restrict energy flow.
But did you know that your chakras can also be excessive — or overactive?
So what is the difference between a deficient and excessive root chakra? Essentially, a deficient root chakra can be defined as passive, whereas an excessive root chakra can be defined as aggressive.
Here’s a breakdown:
Deficient = lifeless, sluggish, passive, blocked, inwards (not enough energy flows in)
Excessive = lively, agitated, reactive, aggressive, outwards (too much energy flows in)
Therefore, if you have a deficient root chakra, you will be more prone to issues such as anxiety, suspicion, and withdrawing. On the other hand, if you have an excessive root chakra you will be prone to hoarding, workaholism, greed, and anger.
Deficiency protects, whereas excessiveness overcompensates. So the question is, which do you have? It’s also possible to fall somewhere in the middle.
17 Root Chakra Healing Practices
So what does a healthy and balanced root chakra look and feel like?
When you have a clear, strong and harmonious root chakra, you will first feel grounded and calm. You will no longer have fears surrounded money or loss of control, but will come to trust the divine intelligence of life. Not only will you trust yourself more, but you will also feel connected to others and nature more deeply. When your root chakra is healthy, you will find it simple to be your authentic self finding the peace that is always here in the present moment easier to connect to. You will give up the need to fight, protect and defend, and will instead come into alignment with ebb and flow of life.
Here are some of the best root chakra healing practices out there that I have personally experimented with:
1. Listen to grounding tones
A Pure Tone is a tone with a sinusoidal waveform, e.g. a sine or cosine wave. This means that regardless of other characteristic properties such as amplitude or phase, the wave consists of a single frequency. Root Chakra Tuning — UT — 396 Hz — Liberating Guilt and Fear
2. Chant “LAM” to yourself.
This sound matches the vibration of the root chakra. You might also like to listen to binaural beats (a form of music healing therapy) which helps to activate and clear all the chakras through alternating sound waves.
3. Regularly go for a walk in nature.
Consciously note the connection of your feet to the earth.
4. Do targeted yoga
Stretch your body using the simple yoga poses of child pose, forward bend, mountain pose, squat and warrior.
5. Eat grounding foods
Think sweet potatoes, beets, radish and other root vegetables.
6. Practice 30-second mindfulness
Make a habit of stopping each day and observing your breath for three counts. This simple practice will help to ground you.
7. Carry and meditate with crystals
Use root chakra crystals such as jasper, hematite, smoky quartz, and carnelian. My favourite root chakra crystal is black tourmaline .
8. Cleanse the root chakra with aromatherapy scents
Use oils such as sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, cloves, black pepper, and ginger.
9. Practice “earthing”
Earthing is the practice of walking on the grass or earth for the purpose of recharging the human energy field.
10. Carry a totem or grounding piece of jewellery
Carry an object that is associated with revitalising the root chakra.
11. Quietly sit down and visualize
Visualize a red ball of light pulsating in your root chakra region (your groin area). Visualize all of the murky energy dissolving as it meets the ball of red light.
12. Make time to sit outside every day and connect with nature
Simply observe what is going on; the birds, the clouds, the wind, the light, and sense your interconnectedness with it.
13. Use affirmations or mantras
Use mantras or affirmations to reprogram your unconscious thinking patterns. Affirmation/mantra examples include, “I am grounded,” “I am centred and whole, “I trust in the wisdom of life,” “I have everything I need,” “I am safe and secure,” “I surrender,” “I am strong, stable, and at peace.”
14. Drink a herbal tea
Drink a grounding tea that contains root chakra cleansing herbs such as ashwagandha and cloves (I recommend this tea).
15. Take a soothing shower
Water is a powerful way to cleanse stagnant and blocked energy. Alternatively, have a purifying bath using mineral salts such as Himalayan pink rock salt.
16. Explore the cause of your fears
Fears stem from your inner beliefs, grudges, and unresolved pain. Take time to reflect on the root of your fears in a journal or with a trusted friend, partner or therapist.
17. Practice catharsis
Practice catharsis every day to actively dissolve blocked root chakra energy. You might like to explore dynamic meditation, or simply jump, kick, punch, shout or dance your tension away.
Final Advice
What to do now with all this information?
As someone who has struggled with a severely imbalanced root chakra before, I found that bringing more mindfulness into my days helped immediately and immensely.
Try slowing yourself down, taking more breaks, and connecting with your breath — these are simple and easy first steps you can take. Afterwards, you can implement the other healing practices described above.
Trauma sustained in childhood can remain lodged in us at a profound level. These stored memories may sit in our bodies, our cells, our very essence. The path to completion within then is about allowing this trauma a safe space to be heard and healed.
The energetic toll is huge for those with trauma in their bodies. It means the body never feels like a safe place to be, the earth never feels safe. It means we do not feel we can fall and be caught. It means surrender may elude us and the beauty of surrender is that the greatest gifts in life come when we do; love, childbirth, joy……
Trauma in the body also means we are always firing on all cylinders and it can start to lead to a depletion of resources and our energy levels. Affecting our well being on many levels.
A big chunk of a child’s life in those early years is spent working out the world they live in. In terms of chakra systems years 0–7 are the base chakra and 8–15 are the sacral chakra and so on with 7 years covering each chakra. So the primary chakras are governed by the experiences we had from the womb onwards. And the earlier those negative experiences started the deeper they will lie because everything else will have been built on that foundation. And if that foundation is on red alert then everything else is built upon that premise. This is why healing at the core can be so life-changing.
Over the years that I have spent to come to own my body and know myself I have also been lucky to experience many ways of self-knowing and healing. And this now informs the work I share.
My belief is that when we are unable to gain clarity on why something is the way it is, why we are blocked in some way, then we ask the body for the answers. And the body will tell us what is really happening.
Many people can be living lives where they might be in the 30’s or 40’s or older and living really successful lives and yet at some level that frightened child in them is still frightened. On some level there body is still carrying that trauma around and it will be having an impact however subtle or overt.
Trauma can become such an old friend in our bodies that sometimes we can seek out more traumatic events because the opposite feels wrong somehow. This is why many who come from abusive homes may end up in similar situations again. The trauma feels familiar. I will not say it feels good because often the body needs to be taught what good or healthy is. It just feels familiar and we are creatures of habit and familiar means safe. So the wire tripping continues.
My intention behind this post then is to throw some light on this and offer some reassurance. To say that there are ways to break the cycles in our bodies and bit by bit reclaim who we are.
Number one is to start to listen to your body.
Yes, when we are in fight or flight there is the danger that everything is perceived as a threat. The other way to look at this is you have most likely become extremely good at reading people and situations. You probably know when something does not feel right. You know that feeling and this shall be a very useful resource in life. When you were a child you could not honour your body and run away and get relief when you got that danger sign in your senses. Now you can. So honour your body.
Trauma in the body can lead to disassociation. In Shamanism we would say soul loss. So get close with your body. See yourself naked, self-massage, take warm baths, treat yourself to nice body oils and clothes that feel soothing on your skin. When you forget sometimes you have a body, when you get that spaced out funny feeling that means you are somewhere else and not in the now, do something physical to bring your awareness back to the body. Something simple even like tapping the back of your hand or your arm and saying “this is my arm” “this is my hand”. I recommend reading Peter Levine’s work on healing trauma in the body for more exercises like this.
Have healthy self speak. Watch how you talk to yourself. Sometimes that angry, hurtful voice that reprimands you may not be you, will not be you. It will be the voice of your primary caregiver or someone you spent a lot of time with who may have spoken with less than loving words. Make sure you congratulate yourself on the great things you do, the small victories and the big ones and be loving and compassionate in how you speak to yourself always. This is the basis of self-love. If you need to, surround yourself with positive phrases and images to remind you of your beauty. We are all beautiful. If those who hurt us had done more of that they may not have hurt us. We only hurt others when we are in pain and do not know what to do with this.
It is okay to be angry and to need to vent this. Find healthy ways to release this emotion which is just energy. Do something physical perhaps or something that will allow you to channel that energy in a constructive way. Martial arts, running, painting, horse riding……you choose. Just choose something healthy.
Acknowledge how far you have come and all you have achieved. Celebrate the successes in your life and this will tell your body that there is goodness around you. Happiness will also decrease the fight or flight response. Put up awards and certificates where you can see them.
Surround yourself with people and things that are soothing. Have soothing routines that bring calm into your life. Have people in your inner circle who uplift you and do not bring daily drama to your door.
Sisters, learn how to self massage the Yoni. The yoni holds trauma at deep levels and when you start to heal and honour this part of yourself your life shall evolve, much shall be released and you shall reclaim your power.
Get some space holding. See a professional whether they be a counsellor or a healer who can assist you in this process. And remember to walk away from anyone who may cross a boundary or make you feel unheard or disrespected. Having someone hold the space for you is a vital part of healing trauma so please seek out those who can assist you. Do not feel you are alone, seek help, there is lots of help out there.
Share your story. Support groups, talking therapy are about this. Having your story witnessed compassionately is one of the most healings things you can do. Find a safe, authentic space in which to do this. As you do this you start to release the trauma and the resulting emotions from your body.
Move your body and bring movement into your life. Allow your body to shed old skins of the past and release all that pent-up emotion. During trauma, we often freeze and so the emotions we are feeling are not expressed. These emotions then get lodged in us and these need clearing for us to feel the flow of life again. Join a class, seek out a body therapist, find ways to move daily.
Find safe healthy outlets for your voice. Many children of trauma locked down their feelings so allow yourself ways to express your feelings in safe, perhaps creative ways.
Forgive yourself. Accept you were a child and you were in need of protection. Nothing you could have done would have justified your boundaries being crossed and any emotional, physical or sexual abuse. If you can forgive yourself then you are much closer to releasing the past.
Above all else make a commitment to Love yourself. From this moment on. To totally and utterly Love yourself in every way. And see what that may bring into your life.
This is not an exhaustive list these are suggestions to consider. Mainly this is to inspire any who read this to take that first step. If you feel you may have trauma in your body seek out help and start the process to self-knowing and self-love.
We are all in this together. By healing the trauma in our bodies we heal future generations and we create the world we wish to live in.
