The Ultimate Crown Chakra Guide – Everything You Need to Know about Your Seventh Chakra

The Sahasrara or crown chakra is the seat of the soul. It relates to the Thought element as the densest level of knowing, of consciousness. The crown chakra represents your conscious and unconscious thought structures and belief systems. As an energy center, it is associated entirely with the spiritual realm. The Sahasrara relates to your spiritual journey and opening this center leads to higher consciousness, full enlightenment, and the awareness that we are all one.

The main themes of the Sahasrara are thoughts, information, knowledge, understanding, and transcendence. Just like any other chakra, your crown chakra can become imbalanced or blocked. If you’re close-minded, distrustful, self-conscious, cynical, feel lonely and isolated, and are afraid of death, or you’re disconnected from the body, struggle with insomnia, and suffer from neurological disorders, chances are that your Sahasrara is imbalanced.

Continue reading to learn all about the crown chakra, how to determine whether it is imbalanced, and how to support yourself to bring the Sahasrara back into balance – and make sure it stays that way.

The crown chakra within the chakra system

The chakra system consists of seven chakras ascending along the spine from the coccyx area to the top of the head. There is also an eighth chakra better known as the aura that expands all around your body. A chakra is an energy center that directs life energy for the purpose of physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. The chakras influence the relationship between the conscious and the subconscious in all your behavior and tie together all aspects of being human – physical, mental, and spiritual. The seventh of these chakras is the crown chakra.

Crown chakra – The seat of soul and spirituality

The Sanskrit name of the seventh chakra, Sahasrara, combines the words sahasra (=thousand-fold; exceedingly numerous) and ara (=a spoke of the time-wheel; petal). Translating to “thousand-petaled,” this chakra is often depicted as a lotus flower with 1000 petals arranged in 20 layers. These petals represent the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet with their twenty permutations. The magnitude and openness of the lotus reference spiritual enlightenment and the vastness of pure consciousness available to you when the Sahasrara is balanced.

The seventh chakra is located at the top of the head, representing a space unto itself, the plane of truth and reality. In the Kundalini yoga tradition, we call this center “the tenth gate” through which higher spiritual knowledge and universal life force are received. Believed to be the terminal point for the Sushumna Nadi, the central energy channel of your system, the crown chakra is where Shiva and Shakti – the masculine and the feminine – join to create the transcendence of both.

It is said that the crown chakra is the seat of the soul and the point where immortality can be found. However, we are not talking about physical immortality here. Instead, the highest expression of the Sahasrara is the ascension beyond the constraints of the physical realm as well as the “wheel of life”, the cycle of karma and reincarnation. The individual personality dissolves into the essence of all and individual consciousness meets the divine. Illusions of one’s self as an individual dissolve and one experiences samadhi, or pure bliss.

The mantra designed for the crown chakra, your connection to the divine, is AH. Think about taking a deep breath, then letting it go – this is the sound AH. Chanting it represents a release. It represents letting go, transcending the physical, and expanding into the beyond, into the universal consciousness that is all around us.

How to recognize an imbalanced crown chakra

When the seventh chakra is balanced it enables spiritual growth and gives you the ability to experience a connection with universal consciousness. You can feel deep serenity and joy because you are able to trust in the Universe and live with gratitude and peace. Communication with your spiritual nature is seamless and you are able to take in and understand all information. You are devoted to continual transcendence and shedding of the old to assimilate the information you have into knowing.

However, the crown chakra can become imbalanced and disturb the delicate balance of the chakra system. When the seventh chakra is out of balance, you may become close-minded and rigid in your thinking. You may also experience depression, confusion, and anxiety. An imbalance of the crown chakra commonly manifests as feeling insignificant and disconnected from spirit (Universe/Source/God). You are excessively relying on the physical plane to find meaning and purpose which shows itself through having a strong attachment to possessions, relationships, and the material world.

Other characteristics of an imbalanced crown chakra may be:

apathy, alienation, close-mindedness, fear of death, self-consciousness, doubt, despair, fear, distrust, inability to let go and relax, separation from spirit, isolation, loneliness, cynicism, inability to connect with others, lack of direction, inability to set or maintain goals, weltschmerz, dullness, dissatisfaction, religious extremism, disconnection from the body, symptoms without physical cause, migraines, cancer, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, low immunity, neuropathy, paralysis, neurological disorders, nerve pain, Alzheimer’s, depression

Fortunately, an imbalance of the Sahasrara doesn’t need to be permanent. There are many ways in which you can support your chakra to come back into balance. However, for sustainable change to occur, you also have to look at and process the emotions at the root of your imbalance. By learning about the chakras and how to bring them back into alignment, you can heal physical ailments, dissolve negative emotions and live a more fulfilling life.

Bringing the crown chakra back into balance

There are many ways to balance your crown chakra. Cultivating a direct connection to the spiritual through meditation is one of the most effective activities to bring the seventh chakra into balance. Below you can find different approaches that can help restore balance in your seventh chakra. Incorporate as many of them as you like into your daily routines and see your life change.

Or you can join me for a beautiful all-levels-welcome crown chakra healing yoga class this Saturday, December 17th at 9:30 AM CET. This is part of my limited 8-week online series “A Journey through the Chakras with Kundalini Yoga“. So if you’re feeling called to bring more ease and balance into your life by aligning body, mind, and spirit through the chakras, sign up here for the individual classes or bundle up and save 💸💸💸.

See you on the inside!

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