Have you ever wondered, why you feel so peaceful after listening to classical music?
You can use music to harmonize your chakra system consciously.
Music has an effect directly at your chakra system. The chakras are part of your Energy Body, one of the 5 sheaths described in the yoga scriptures covering your True Divine Self, the Atma. Human beings do not only consist of one body, but of 5 bodies, or sheaths. They are the physical, vital (energy/emotion), mental, wisdom and the bliss body.
The sheaths, or bodies, are all interconnected and perceived in different ways: For example, you experience your physical body consisting of your bones, muscles and skin through your senses. The vital sheath, or your Energy Body, consists of your nadis (channels which conduct your life force energy, the prana) and the chakras. You perceive it through your emotions.
An example for the interconnection: Existential fears, for instance, block your energetic pathways and your root chakra whereas a feeling of inner security enables your life force energy to flow. You can use a deep calming breath into your lower belly to calm down that emotion and ground yourself (now you work on your energy body or vital sheath), which will in turn calm down chaotic thought patterns (mental sheath) and relax your body (physical sheath).
You have 72’000 or some sources say even 350’000 nadis and three main channels along the spine. The nadis are the channels through which your life force energy flows.
The chakras receive, transform and distribute energy. Most books talk about 7 chakras but there are actually many more chakras. Other important chakras are chakras in the feet, hands, knees and in the spleen. Their position is close to the physical nerve plexus and they influence your endocrine system, so that there is a connection between the energetic and the physical body.
Each chakra can be functional or dysfunctional and has female and male qualities to it. It can be blocked by certain emotions or be conducting and functioning, which you can experience through peaceful states of being. If you are unaware of the emotion that is blocking you, you will likely do all kind of things, that are not healthy for you. If you are aware and shine a light on your blockage and remove it, your consciousness rises and your life force energy can flow again.
If the individual would solely live from a place of unconditional love, trust and non-attachment, these chakras and channels wouldn’t be blocked or congested. Bringing light into your issue and integrating it, brings you back to your natural state of a balanced and joyful being.
Illustration by Gil Dekel
Important for the topic of this article is, that each chakra is associated with a specific tone. The Root Chakra with the tone C and music written in C major, the Sacral Chakra with D and D major, the Solar Plexus Chakra with E and so forth until to the Crown Chakra with H. Music influences the chakras through these tones. (Emotions also have their specific frequencies and also influence the chakras, but we have a look at external music now.)
When you work on one chakra usually other chakras are influenced as well, so the work on one specific area will usually have good effects on other areas as well.
A very good book about the chakras and also with a whole chapter about how to balance the chakras with music, especially by using the knowledge about the keys (C, D, E, etc.) and the chakras is “The Chakra Handbook” by Shalila Sharamon and Bodo J. Baginski.
You can also use the Bija-Mantras to harmonize the Chakras, starting at the root chakra: LAM, VAM, RAM, YAM, HAM, KSHAM, OM. Different vowels also have an effect on your chakras.
Penny McLean gives in her book about the art of letting go to be your true Self (I only found the book in German, yet) “Lass los, was Dich festhält – Von der Kunst du selbst zu sein” specific instructions which music to listen to when in emotional distress.
Here is the list from her book:
- You are feeling nervous, confused and overwhelmed: Bach and Händel
- You are feeling sad, depressive and without drive: Viennes waltzes and marches
- You want to be ennobled: Beethoven and Schubert
- You want to receive spiritual impulses: Mozart.
What you can do:
- Listen to classical music and evaluate your state of emotional well-being before and after.
- Experiment with this knowledge, see how you feel after listening to specific music in different tones and musical scales just as Penny McLean suggests. Find your own music that you can apply in specific situations and that you enjoy.
- Go to a classical concert now that it is becoming autumn and darker outside and know you are doing yoga :)
Most important of all – have fun with it.
If you want to find out more about the Chakra System and experience to balance it, then come to my Yoga & Chakra Workshop on 08.12.2013 from 9-12am at YogaNation, Seefeldstrasse 7a, 8008 Zürich. Click here to find all information about the workshop.