The qualities of a balanced Base Chakra

A balanced base chakra allows us to feel grounded, connected to our body and sense of safety. When stress arises, we’re able to remain and respond calmly and with ease. As the quality of the base chakra relates to our family, tribe, community, will feel connected to that community and are able to participate. We have a well-developed sense of identity, honouring our beliefs and able to respect others’ beliefs that may differ from our own. Trust, comfortable in body, vitality, prosperity and flexibility are qualities we embody with a balanced base chakra.

An unbalanced base chakra may manifest as:

• Fight/flight/freeze response to stressful situations

• Adrenal burn out

• Not feeling safe in your body

• Not feeling secure

• Disconnected from family, friends, tribe, community

• Feeling fearful

• Disconnection from your body, feelings, emotions

• Loss of identity

• Stubbornness and rigidity

• Inability to understand and receive others’ beliefs/opinions

• Difficulty in manifesting to create security and prosperity

• Sense of not belonging

• Inability to maintain personal boundaries

• Inability to self-nurture and nourish

 

Archetypes and the Base Chakra 

Archetypes are universal patterns we play out. Each archetype has both a light and shadow side. Awareness of the type of archetype/pattern we are stuck in helps us move from the disempowered shadow side to the more empowered quality. Patterns may show up as a reoccurring situation, unhealthy relationship, health issue etc. These life experiences and the patterns we play out are there to show us where we may be blocking our self-growth. Becoming aware of these patterns, gives us choice on whether we continue to play out these limiting patterns, or learn from their teachings. To learn more about the light and shadow aspects of each archetype, see Caroline Myss Archetypes Gallery.

The following exploration of the archetypes in relation to the Base Chakra is sourced from Chakras and Their Archetypes by Ambika Wauters. This may help you get further clarity on the current pattern you may be stuck in and the qualities of a more empowered functional archetype to develop. Ambika Wauters has identified certain archetypes relevant to the qualities of each main chakra, which provides further insight into understanding limiting patterns impacting your energy systems and how to change that.

Dysfunctional Archetype for the Base Chakra: Victim

There’s a sense of disempowerment when the pattern of the victim is playing out. We feel life has let us down and that we have no choice to change our circumstances. Our experiences have caused us to self-protect, shut down, disconnect from our bodies and we’re unable to feel comfortable or safe. We are dependent on our external environment for love, security or nourishment as we struggle to provide that to ourselves and others. When we are stuck in the victim archetype, we struggle to see and manifest more choice in life. We tend to stay in self-pity and dependency, as that has given us attention in the past.

Functional Archetype: Mother

We all have within us the ability to embody both the mother and father archetype, the feminine and masculine qualities. The Mother archetype is nourishing, calming, supportive and grounded. You feel comfortable and safe in your body and you’re able to provide that space for others. You provide unconditional love to yourself and others and embody love, patience and devotion. You understand the cycles of life and can go with the flow and adapt with flexibility.

How to support your Base Chakra

• Connect with your physical body – Exercise, meditate, sit quietly and tune into your body. When the base chakra is out of balance, there’s a tendency to feel disconnected from your body, not grounded to the Earth, very much in your head. Find ways to release built up energy from the body through exercise. Get present when you’re doing any exercises and feel into the body. Tune into it.  

• Grounding exercises – Anything to make you feel connected to the Earth. Take your shoes off and walk on the grass outside. Envision you’re a tree connected to the earth with strong roots. Go for a walk out in nature and get into the present moment, take in the energy of your surroundings.

• Reconnect with your feelings/emotions: Journal – Great to do if you feel overwhelmed mentally. Release the tension and built-up energy through writing it down and getting it out of your head. Another exercise to help release past emotional experiences is to write the person that hurt you a letter. Put all your emotion into that letter sharing how you felt and how that experience has impacted you. Once you’ve written the letter burn or destroy the letter. See the destruction of the letter a releasing out of that energy. I’ve experience profound shifts doing this exercise.

• Nourish yourself with healthy food and rest. Tune into your natural rhythms and what you need in each moment. Listen to your body.

• Wear more red or green – Red is colour of the Base Chakra, wearing red or including more in your life can add more vitality and help strengthen the Base Chakra. Alternatively, if you feel like you have too much built up energy with feelings of rage, irritability, tension, you may need more green to calm the energy flow and connect more with your heart. Trust your instincts. Ask your body what it needs. 

• Positive affirmations – help you re-wire your old beliefs with new ones. Repeat regularly, write them down, post them somewhere to view regularly. If specific affirmations showed during your session with me, repeat these daily. Below are some more general affirmations relevant to supporting the Base Chakra.

My body supports me. I am safe.

I forgive and release the past and live in the here and now.

I am open to receive from the universe.

I can cope in any situation.

I feel at home wherever I am.

I deserve the best life has to offer.

I love and honour who I am. I am thankful for my life.

I take responsibility for who I am and how my life is.

• Re-claiming your power – Time to invest in your needs. Who are you, what do you want in life, where have you given your power away in the past? How do you want to feel, be, live? To get clarity on these questions, we need to start honouring our own needs. If something or someone doesn’t make us feel safe, it’s important to listen and honour that instinct, while you spend time exploring what it is your body is trying to tell you. This feeling is an opportunity to bring to your awareness emotions, beliefs or experiences that are keeping you in fight/flight/freeze and need healing. Taking responsibility for your own life is a journey of self-exploration, healing and empowerment. It’s healing that part of us that may not have been taught how to listen to our intuition, create healthy boundaries, self-nurture and create a safe space for ourselves. Healing the base chakra is discovering our true nature, listening to your own needs and going at your own pace, understanding that life happens for you not too you, honouring our individuality while feeling connected with our tribe.

As fear is a dominant emotion related to the Base Chakra, below are a range of resources to help you understand, make peace with and overcome fear.

-       Listen to Pema Chodrun’s Fear & Fearlessness

-       Read Tony Robbins How to Stop Living in Fear

Additional info by Caroline Myss on the Victim Archetype

 

Resources:

Tobar, H, Mcfarlane, K 1998, Chakra Hologram 1 – The Major Chakras, NK Institute Pty Ltd, Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia.

Chakras and Their Archetypes by Ambika Wauters