What the chakras mean to me
& how they can support you
I was painting the lotus when the betrayal happened. That’s as much detail as my body will allow me to go into for now. It was a betrayal that ended a 7-year friendship and ultimately ended my marriage, as well. I was painting the lotus to hang in the hallway of my new office space. I had signed a lease on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton to open a shared practice with a friend from my counselling practicum. I had scoured online ads for furniture and we were making blueprints for the office. The landlords were constructing a sound-proof room to ensure confidentiality. I was officially opening private practice, not just seeing a handful of clients out of my home.
I was painting the lotus for the hallway of my new office, to invite clients to root into the depths of themselves to be able to flourish in their life. Just as a lotus roots in the mud and blooms in the sun - we require the Both-And. I was going to paint each petal of the lotus a different colour for the chakras in the order that I experienced them. I was going to create an invitation in the hallway so clients could feel welcomed in themselves. But then the betrayal happened and the purpose of the painting shifted.
I was painting the lotus as a container for my pain, each brushstroke said what I could not say with my lips or my tongue, I could on the canvas. The brush mediated my thoughts and my hands expressed the feeling. At one point, I smeared coffee grounds into the still-wet acrylic because I needed my bitterness to be truly felt. I was no longer filling in the petals with colour, but stamping my pain with frantic dots of fury. I needed the petals to stay empty.
Except I had already painted the solar plexus petal yellow. It stood as a reminder of my inner power. That through it all, my anger was important to be expressed and my power was not diminished, despite the pain. The yellow petal was a ray of hope in the despair of the rest of the painting.
I thought I was painting a lotus but I ended up painting my healing. I thought I was painting the chakras, but I was learning from them.
I didn’t end up opening the office but I did open to myself. Painting the lotus and connecting to the chakras gave me the confidence to leave my marriage and protect my space.
Painting the lotus was my way of learning more about the chakras. I was desperate for a lens to understand myself and my experiences with more clarity. I was tired of feeling “something” wasn’t right but could never put my finger on just what. I would have transcendental experiences and panic attacks in the same day.
Chakras became a lens for me to understand myself better and more accurately describe my inner experiences. In existentialism, we would say that the first pillar of existence requires space, support and protection, to sit with the question, “can I be?”. The root chakra, similarly, grounds into the support and protection of the earth. In psychology, we would say that the nervous system requires stabilization before embarking on healing or expansion, to develop self-trust and existential ground. These are all lenses in which to view the same concept, with a different frame offering a unique understanding.
In both my yoga training and later in my reiki master training, I was introduced to the chakra system. This traditional vedic teaching gives a unique perspective on spiritual anatomy. What I love about Vedic traditions is there’s no ONE teaching, pluralism is part of the practice. There are some chakra teachings that have 15 chakras, some have hundreds. The one I’m most familiar with has 7: root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown. Each chakra has a gift and a shadow. It reminded me of Erik Eriksen’s stages of development where each age has a task to accomplish in order to create a foundation for the next stage.
It made sense to me that my healing would be similar, to not put the horse before the cart but to start the story of my body, my healing, my integration, at the beginning. If I couldn’t feel safe in my body, what was the point of these transcendental experiences anyway? The chakras were a simplification of healing. Start at the beginning. And then. And then. And then. And then. One step after the other.
I want you to experience the same clarity that I had in working with the chakras. Journeying through the chakras was one of the most transformative lenses for my own healing - It was in my root chakra I expanded my peace (to actually feel it). It was in my sacral chakra I expanded my expression. It was in my solar plexus I expanded my confidence. It was in my heart chakra I expanded connection, to myself and others. It was in my throat chakra I expanded my intuition. It was in my this eye, I expanded my clarity. The chakras are an invitation to expand not outside of, but within your body. Your body is the container for the transformation.
But I am not an expert on chakras. I do have knowledge on them and my own experience with them but chakras aren’t my primary work. So I’ve partnered with Jaide, who lives and breathes the chakra system. We have created an 8-week integrative chakra journey, with as much practical education as experiential ritual. Through the 8-weeks, we’ll move through psychoeducation, live coaching calls with reiki-infused meditation, live Q&As, engaging breathwork and hypnotherapy practices and you’ll have lifetimes access to the whole thing. On top of it all, Jaide has recorded energy cleansing meditations for each chakra tuned to its corresponding Hz frequency.
If you’ve been feeling out of balance with yourself and just find a practice that makes sense and honours ALL aspects of yourself, it’s time to come out of hiding. If you’re ready to learn what the chakras have to teach you, learn more here.
