3 Chakra-Healing Practices That'll Help You Reimagine Your Future

In my holistic medical practice, I use the chakra system as a bridge between the physical and subtle parts of the self. Although the seven chakras are not anatomical structures in the physical body, the unconscious wounds associated with them can affect physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. And when we do the courageous work of healing our unconscious wounds, we have the opportunity to move from the shadow state of a particular chakra into its gift.

If you have already moved through the shadow of the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, and throat chakras, you are ready to move on to the sixth chakra: the third eye.

This wound occurs because the ego has forgotten that we are not separate from each other. Healing the wound of separation is a remembrance of the universal human journey. We all share the same story—the peaks and valleys of the human experience. We live our own individual dramas, but on the stage of life, the feelings and the themes are universal.

When we forget our oneness, our minds start to see the world from a place of duality. Our perception of things is shaped by the separation from their complementary halves. This gives rise to opposites, and it is easier for the thinking mind to recognize what something is when it is able to understand what it is not. For example, the concept of wellness cannot exist without the concept of illness. The thinking mind does not believe it is possible to be well and ill at the same time. This is duality. Duality says, "When you name me, you negate me." As soon as you define your personality, you give up everything that is not characteristic of that chosen personality. You can be this way or that way. You can be a Democrat or Republican. You can be a data-driven scientist or a creative. But it's duality that limits you from being all the things you actually want to be.

For most of my patients, this shows up as indecision that's related to life choices they feel defined by. They are losing sleep at night because they believe that whatever mask they choose to put on is the only mask they'll ever be able to wear for the rest of their lives. If you have only one chance to define yourself, the choice you make is paramount and potentially paralyzing. But this is all driven by the shadow of duality because we all have access to every possibility we can imagine.

When we start to imagine all the possibilities that exist for ourselves, we can see the world as the stage it is, and we are finally free to play any and every role in it. We have the freedom to live beyond the limitations of duality and be whoever we want to be at any given moment. When you let go of your attachment to the character you think you are and remember that we are all actors on the great stage of life, you move from the frequency of duality into a life of freedom.