boo forever self care to community care chakra healing

Introduction

The system of the chakras as we understand it from the kundalini tradition is one tool of many available to begin healing yourself from whatever traumas or experiences you need to process. It is one way to consider working on the self, and it shares many similarities to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which illustrates how to reach self actualization and individuation. In Sanskrit, the term for that individuation is instead samadhi, which means enlightenment or union with the divine. It recognizes that we are more than just our individual selves, seeing instead that we are a sum of all the parts that surround us.

When we work with the chakras, we start by addressing the root or base of our issues, with the muladhara chakra. Working on the higher chakras can still be done, but healing is more likely to happen when the chakras below it are addressed and are in balance. Once the root is balanced, we then go up to the sacral chakra, or svadhisthana, and figure out those issues. In this process we can still think about all the other energy issues that reside higher up in the body, but we only start to feel them balance after we have a strong base and lumbar support in the body. After the sacral and root are in balance, we work on the solar plexus, because our emotions are fluid enough now that we can start building our power and mastery. And so on, and so forth, up through the chakras and out through the crown of our head.

Many resources exist and there’s a wealth of information about the impact of balancing the chakras for internal healing work, but what impact does that internal work have externally? It is important to self-regulate, have solid coping skills, and integrate chakra healing and mindfulness into our lives, but there will come a time when you’ll be ready to work on more than just self care. When you are processing trauma or experiencing difficulty, it’s easy to feel like resources for healing are scarce, and it’s important to keep the focus on yourself throughout the process of inner nurturing. But the more inner work and trauma processing you commit yourself to, the more clarity you will experience, which will soon lead you to operating from a mindset of abundance. This shift from scarcity to abundance means that you’ll naturally want to share your healing resources and tools with your close friends and family, and it will eventually ripple into the broader community within which you live, interact, and build or transform relationships. By inviting your community into your healing work, the benefits of healing are not only limited to your individual self but are shared by all. Everybody wins when healing is the common goal.

I’d also encourage readers to stay grounded and tread carefully around engaging with mainstream messaging around self-care. The self-care narrative touches on a series of conversations that have been happening for years, and I invite you to engage with disability justice activists who have talked at length about how to integrate self care with community care. It’s not about one or the other, but how to balance both. As Yashna Maya Padamsee has put it, “Self-care, as it is framed now, leaves us in danger of being isolated in our struggle and our healing.” When we work on the self, are we ignoring the harm happening in the world? Are we spiritually bypassing in this work so that we don’t have to face the uncomfortable realities of racism and other forms of exploitation? These questions will be important to revisit again and again if you intend to metamorphosize. And simultaneously, when engaging with healing and care work, Yashna continues to say: “you shouldn’t have to do this alone.”

Then how do we get from Point A, where we are working on the self, to Point B, where we engage with the world at large? The work of the self should not be overshadowed, and it will never be finished: if you take healing work seriously, you know that you must be committed for the rest of your life. I like to think of self-care as a prerequisite before working on healing the community, because it’s easier for me to bring my whole self to the work and not let my personal issues become centered when I’m collaborating with others—but some people may benefit from working on both the self and the community at the same time. Trust your own intuition to guide you through this endeavor.

When you feel like you are self-balanced, you allow your changing emotions and circumstances to come and go, and you feel like your self-care work has been effective. At this point you may begin to feel called to other areas of work. By listening to the intuition you balanced with your third eye chakra practices, it will be clear when you are ready to be put to the service of your fellow community. By following your dharma, you will know how that will look. Work on finding your why and the universe will begin to guide you.

I wrote this guide as a prompt and starting point. I am not including specific organizations to turn to, partly because the readers of this guide may be operating from different parts of the world, but mostly because I want to encourage you to research and engage in your network with intention, which is something I will never be able to give to you. That intention and sincerity must come from deep within your spirit. If you’re feeling uncertain about where your work will have the greatest healing impact, what it might look like, and who it includes, this resource can help you navigate through those questions.

It is also important to keep in mind as you begin working with your community to hold an attitude of solidarity over charity. Act from a place that recognizes that your liberation is bound up with the liberation of the most vulnerable members of your community. Work from a stance of mutual aid, which rejects hierarchical forms of giving and working in favor of reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit.

Let’s start to break down each chakra energy center now and see how we can use those aspects to begin shifting our collective traumas into strengths. By looking at our collective wounds, we can begin to shine a light on healing. It is time we build holistic and sustainable communities so that we can all experience wholeness.

The Root Chakra

Brief Overview

The root chakra is located near the base of our spine. The sanskrit word, muladhara, means root, cause, support, or vital part. The main focus is on survival, grounding, the support and weight of gravity, solidity, health, and stability. Its element is Earth. A balanced root chakra is stable, confident, and grounded.

Traumas to heal*

*Many of these traumas are taken from Seane Corn’s book, “Revolution of the Soul”

Lack of accessible housing, food, or healthcare; incarceration; displacement and forced immigration; lack of proper nourishment; violence; racism, segregation, and colonization

Root chakra mantras for the community

We support each other
We meet each other’s basic needs
We are connected to our ancestors
We are connected to the Earth
We take care of each other and our bodies
We all have equal access to quality healthcare

Suggestions on how to work on the root chakra in your community

For my audience in the US, unless you are Indigenous, you live on stolen land. Recognize that all of your service will be done on stolen land. Honor the sovereignty of the tribes in your area, and connect with them to see how you can best support them. Consider paying reparations if your family’s ancestors specifically displaced them from their land.
Living into the slogan “Black Lives Matter” is also addressing our roots. Prison and police abolition is a root cause issue. Because we are not meeting people’s needs, we are policing people who don’t fit into the white-supremacist patriarchal mold and incarcerating at rates that take away people’s dignity and right to a healthy life.
Advocate for your unsheltered neighbors. A community that does not have a way to house everyone is an unhealthy community. We all need shelter in order to heal.
Share meals and extra food with your friends, neighbors, strangers. Donate food/money to a local mutual aid group that organizes meal-sharing events.
Create a “little free pantry” if you have a yard and the means.
Advocate for Medicare for All, or any kind of healthcare for all program. For such a rich country, we are really poor at keeping each other alive.
Give people money, especially when they ask for it (within your means, of course). Don’t ask questions or hold onto any judgement about what you think they might do with it.

The Sacral Chakra

Overview

The sacral chakra is located in our hips and sacrum. Its sanskrit word, svadhisthana, means one’s own abode. The main focus here is around sexuality, our emotional state, movement, and creativity. Its element is water, and a balanced sacral chakra is flexible, in touch with feelings and emotions (but not attached to them), nurturing, and passionate.

Traumas to heal

Sexual and emotional abuse, persecution, or exploitation; lack of access to clean water; ageism; abortion, lack of access to one, or miscarriage; eugenics; moral rigidity; substance use disorders; homophobia and transphobia

Sacral chakra mantras for the community

We have comprehensive sex education
We celebrate queerness and fluid sexuality
We ask for consent in our intimate relationships
We have equal access to family planning services
We provide emotional outlets to release intense feelings like fear and rage
We give space for everyone to open up to their full range of emotions, disregarding expectations around gender roles and masculinity
We follow our passions
We dance with each other
We have equal access to clean water

Suggestions on how to work on the sacral chakra in your community

Support family planning rights. Donate to orgs like Planned Parenthood, a local abortion fund, or a doula/midwife group.
Promote sex education, including education about queer sex, in public schools, with your children, or by giving resources to parents to share with their own children about how to develop healthy sexual relationships.
Have constant conversations with your intimate partners and friends about consent. Consent is not given only one time and will always evolve and change.
Since this chakra’s element is water, you can promote policies or donate to organizations that provide clean water for communities, such as to Flint or tribal reservations.
Encourage people to indulge creatively in their emotions and provide healthy outlets for releasing tension, rage, or sorrow in a way that does not threaten safety or contribute to stereotypes.
Create or promote accessible therapeutic programs that operate informally. Western models of therapy can be damaging to marginalized folks and are often used as a tool to mold someone into a “productive” member of the capitalist system. Promote healers that come from within the communities, instead of inserting some “outside expert” who does not live and understand the struggles many people face.
Support the decriminilization of sex work. Decriminalization is the only way to support workers, reduce stigma, and keep everyone safe.
Model harm reduction when approaching substance use with yourself and others. Work with, donate to, and advocate for your local harm reduction organizations.

Solar Plexus

Overview

The solar plexus chakra is located around the diaphragm, ribs, and digestive organs. Its sanskrit word, manipura, roughly translates to navel, or willpower. Its main focus is power, will, energy, and strength. A balanced solar plexus is mastered, skillful, radiant, and warm. Its element is fire.

Traumas to heal

Physical abuse, oppression, military abuse, gun violence. Lack of access to recreation or the outdoors; eating disorders; difficulty accessing transportation and mobility.

Solar plexus chakra mantras for the community

We strengthen each other
We have opportunities for exercise, skill building and education
We have access to and eat healthy foods
We manage our anger and have plenty of energy and space to give to each other
We make people feel confident and take pride in themselves
We accomplish the goals that we set together

Suggestions on how to work on the solar plexus chakra in your community

Promote park building and outdoor recreation in your neighborhoods, like adding or improving bike lanes and walkable sidewalks.
Volunteer at a community garden or local farm.
Advocate for public transit accessibility, including affordability, frequency, and increased routes into neighborhoods that are not affluent.
Promote free education, including higher education and apprenticeship programs, so that people can develop skills regardless of their household income.
Create and define achievable goals for the people who are close to you. Assign teamwork projects so that you can learn how to work better together as a group.
Address anger and violence in ways that do not prompt feelings of shame or encourage isolation. Anger is a valid response to social shortcomings, and when we peel back the layers we find it often originates from a feeling of grief.
Encourage activities that promote exercise such as community runs, free fitness classes, mindful movement practices, sports and games, etc.

Heart

Overview

The heart chakra is located in the center of our chest. The sanskrit word, anahata, roughly translates to unstruck, unbeaten, or unhurt. Its main focus is love, courage, forgiveness, and dissolving the ego. Its element is air. A balanced heart is generous, joyful, soft, and expansive.

The heart chakra is the bridge between the lower and upper chakras. Naturally, many of us are drawn to and need healing work done around our heart. This article about sacred activism talks about how to find your heartbreak and use it to work in the world and is very useful in determining where we will find our spark to begin community healing work.

Traumas to heal

Rejection, humiliation, abandonment; suppressed grief; loss of a loved one; heartache and betrayal; unprocessed fear.

Heart chakra mantras for the community

We love each other
We leave room for people to learn from mistakes
We practice accountability within ourselves and our relationships
We are connected to the plants, the living earth, and the animals around us
We enjoy the outdoors and are in nature often
We have clean air to breathe
We support each other through processing grief

Suggestions on how to work on the heart chakra in your community

Encourage intimacy sharing practices with your loved ones.
Connect with people outside of your immediate bubble and see their life experiences and emotions as being intertwined with your own.
Promote clean air policies and regulations in your city or town so that your breath (and overall health) is not affected negatively by pollution.
Promote education that orients you to your natural environment, including the learning and sharing of healing properties from herbal resources.
Encourage public events, spaces, or forums where you can learn about other people’s stories and experiences.
Promote transformative justice circles and other forms of accountability processes that don’t resort to punishment and isolation.

Throat

Overview

The throat chakra spans from the top of the diaphragm to the top of the roof of the mouth. The sanskrit word, vishuddha, roughly translates to purification. Its main focus is in communication, resonance, and vibration. Its element is sound. A balanced throat is focused on truth and coherence, it is thoughtful and attentive.

Throat chakra mantras for the community

We are good listeners
We allow others to express their true experiences
We practice nonviolent communication with each other
We speak to do good and uplift
We foster creativity and writing
We celebrate with music and singing

Traumas to heal

Verbal abuse, holding onto secrets, threats or fear for speaking up, censorship, conditions where silence is critical for survival.

Suggestions on how to work on the throat chakra in your community

Listen, share, promote, and celebrate voices and art from people who are marginalized.
Encourage your network to speak in a way that promotes peace and happiness. Ask yourself and others: is what you are about to say kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?
Support local libraries, which offer many free and accessible services to communities, including meeting spaces and educational tools.
Support local musicians and businesses promoting music in your community, as well as advocating for public funding for the arts.
Encourage your coworkers, family, friends and other acquaintances to engage in nonviolent communication practices and skill building.
Support local writers by reading and reviewing their books, and attend open mic nights.

Third Eye

Overview

The third eye chakra is located in the center of your forehead. Its sanskrit word, ajna, roughly translates to perceive or command. Its main focus is guidance, imagination, and illumination. A balanced third eye chakra is clear, wise, intuitive, and self-reflective. Its element is light.

Third eye chakra mantras for the community

We see the unseen
We let our dreams and intuition guide us
We create the conditions for everyone to be able to meditate
We foster the arts
We have vivid imaginations
We can manifest with clarity

Traumas we inherit

Repression of intuitive wisdom or psychic experiences; being in a war zone; superstitions; religious dogma or control; media manipulation and propaganda.

Suggestions on how to work on the third eye chakra in your community

Support independent artists, storytellers, and filmmakers in your community. Read creative stories (through a book club?) and watch creative films (have a film night at your local independent theater?) that prompt you to think about something differently.
Promote meditation in the workplace, school, and to your family and friends.
Share your dreams and wild imagination with others and encourage your circle to imagine new futures.
Embrace the unseen and spiritual aspects of existence.
Support local journalists and media outlets who are not bought by corporations.
Be an anti-war activist and engage with federal politicians to promote peace-building and reconciliation practices between nations.

Crown

Overview

The crown chakra is located at the soft spot at the top of our head. Its sanskrit word, sahasrara, translates to a thousand petalled lotus, or loosely translated as supreme consciousness. Its main focus is recognizing & seeking union with a divine source. Its element is consciousness. A balanced crown chakra is enlightened, and full of grace and bliss.

Crown chakra mantras for the community

We recognize the divinity of everyone and in everything
We celebrate spirituality in all of its forms
We experience the unity of our shared existence
We are open to new possibilities and willing to let go of systems that no longer work for us
We promote honesty and transparency in all aspects of our society
We prioritize studying and learning
We are connected to an inner and outer world

Traumas we inherit

Spiritual and occult abuse, extreme fundamentalism; being lied to or manipulated; colonization.

Suggestions on how to work on the crown chakra in your community

Work with groups focused on decolonization to build communities outside of the borders drawn by the violent history of conquering and stealing land.
Celebrate holidays from other cultures, religions and countries (without cultural appropriating), as well as interrogating US holidays like Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and others that glorify the violence we seek to eradicate.
Do some research before sharing information or news with others, and ensure you’re promoting news coming from a reliable source.
Fight religious bigotry in your community—especially when that’s expressed as Anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.
Make it more acceptable to let go of old beliefs and ways of doing things, and encourage others to do the same.
Consider the power your spiritual leaders have and ensure they are accountable to their values.

Conclusion

This idea of applying the chakra healing into community justice work is something I’ve thought about for a long time, but with the rising enthusiasm and direct action happening around the US, the timing feels ripe to guide us into how we can continuously cultivate community action. From the ground where I currently write, on occupied Ute, Goshute, and Shoshone land, now called Salt Lake City, we are mourning the loss of one of our own beloved community members. Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal was taken from us on May 23rd, only two days before George Floyd’s life was lost. Each human life is valued and no one deserves to go through that kind of loss the way so many have by unnecessary violence. We have so much healing work ahead of us in order to confront the traumas of our culture.

By using the framework of the chakras, we can begin to address many of our root-issues and work our way through them. We are seeing calls for change and transformation of our world. We are seeing people rise up in their power to assert that their lives are important, valuable, and worth fighting for. We are showing solidarity by giving our friends and loved ones messages of strength and support as they engage in dismantling racism and white supremacy. This movement is uplifting and uprooting systems of deep oppression. It’s a good time to start showing up and turning out in whatever ways we possibly can.

We all need to work simultaneously together and within our inner sphere, and this moment is crucial to not shy away from the realities that many of our marginalized community members face every day. When we work through our trauma, our own healing becomes a contribution to the community's health and wellness. We work clearly and with greater imaginations when we can extend our connections to each other and build deeper relationships.

It is my hope that with this guide, you’ll begin to apply your unique talents and skills to creating a better world. Remember that no action is too small, no voice is too quiet, and no person is too insignificant to make a change. You matter, your voice matters, your life is precious and you have so many gifts to offer. Thank you for tuning into this work and I look forward to hearing how these messages resonate.

♥ with love and solidarity ♥,

Brinley