Exercises to Strengthen the Root Chakra ~ Guest Post by Jill Magso

The root chakra is connected to grounding, wholeness and overall security. It relates to a person’s center which is where inner strength can be found. The root chakra is located at the very end of the spine between the anus and genitals. It can affect many physical and emotional issues such as health, survival and even wealth. There are several ways that the root chakra can be kept healthy and balanced.

(Public domain image)

Muscle Contraction

The root chakra can be stimulated by contracting muscles in the anus and genital region for a few minutes each day. While sitting or standing the muscle is contracted inward and then relaxed on exhaling. The muscles can also be contracted during normal walking. 

Connection Strengthening Exercise

One of the primary connections of the root chakra is the feeling of being grounded. An exercise that reinforces this connection and opens the chakra begins by standing up straight yet relaxed with feet shoulder width apart. Bending slightly at the knees, the pelvis is pushed a little forward. The body should be kept balanced so that weight is evenly distributed over the feet. Press downward so that the body weight sinks to the soles of the feet and hold for several minutes. Another variation of this exercise includes rocking the pelvis back and forth while pressing downward.

Centering Exercise

This exercise designed to find the center in order to ground the root chakra and is performed each day for five minutes. It starts the person seeing themselves as the center blossom of an open lotus. Flower petals are seen lying around and begin to rise around the person one by one until they are covered in the petals. The person is in the center of the blossom and light is streaming between the cracks of the petals. The person is absorbed and becomes the lotus bud. The resulting peace and quiet is considered the center. The person stays in their center for a few heartbeats and then lets the blossom slowly unfold, petal by petal.

(Peter Weltevrede, Creative Commons)

Root Chakra Massage

One person can perform a root chakra massage on another in order to release a blocked chakra. The recipient lies on the back with a pillow under the knees. The person who is giving the massage sits to the right. The pelvis is lifted and the giver slides the right hand under the buttocks and gently presses the root chakra point. The recipient breaths and imagines the root chakra color of bright red to release its energy.

Puppet Stance

This yoga position is said to provide balance and to open the root chakra. It begins with standing with the body and head straight as though hanging from the center of the head. The knees are slightly bent and the buttocks are tucked under. With the arms up and breathing in, a connection is made with the sky and starts. Upon breathing out the arms go down and connect the sky with the center of the earth.

Physical Activity

The root chakra can be exercised and balanced by stomping the feet on the ground or marching. Squats are good for balancing the chakra. Dancing is said to be very helpful to grounding and opening the root chakra. Even housework like cooking and cleaning help ground the root chakra because of its connection to physical activity. In the summertime, going barefoot, caring for plants and hugging trees are activities which stimulate the root chakra.

(Public domain image)

Meditations for the Root Chakra

Yoga meditation is believed to ground the mind and emotion of each chakra. One meditation used for the root chakra starts with sitting on the floor or in a chair with the legs crossed. The spine is held straight, the shoulders relaxed and the chest is open. The hands are rested on the knees with the palms up. Eyes are lightly closed and breathing is low and deep. Awareness is brought to the location of the root chakra as the muscles are contracted and relaxed repeatedly for 3 to 5 minutes. Another yoga technique used to connect to this chakra begins with touching the tip of the thumbs to the index fingers. Concentration is made on the location of the root chakra in the area between the anus and genitals. The sound LAM is chanted for several minutes.

Interested in chakra healing? Learn more Root Chakra healing techniques

Related posts:

Relaxing into Meditation with author Ngakma Nor'dzin

The Call of Sedona ~ Journey of the Heart

Tao Song & Tao Dance by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha

"Meditation: Poetry and Spirit" by Ruby Sara

Meditation Techniques ~ Guest Post by Jill Magso

The benefits of meditation are many, and we are learning new ones everyday. In general, meditation lowers stress levels, anxiety, and risk of depression. It improves our ability to concentrate and helps stabilize our moods. It even helps us sleep better. Meditation helps us have better lives and sharper minds.

The reason it is being studied as a miracle-worker is because those who meditate on a daily basis are showing some very surprising traits. They tend to visibly age slower, and they show improved memory, intuition and reaction time. Most notably, they are happier than other individuals, no matter what their particular life circumstances are.

Very few regular meditators have a hard time studying, learning or keeping a stable job. In fact, the opposite is true. Those with a regular practice are usually very well-adjusted, resilient and positive. Researchers think this has something to do with the way meditation exercises the mind and limits negative thoughts, fears or worries.

During any form of this practice, the participant is completely relaxed and at rest, yet awake and aware. The brain and body are able to regenerate, and many of the methods used in meditation are intended to turn the thoughts toward positive things, such as universal love, uplifting visualizations, and, finally, bliss. Bliss is a state reached by meditators when the mind slows and relaxes and thoughts disappear. It has actually been measured as an experience by neuroscientists.

The more time each individual spends in a relaxed state, letting go of stress, the healthier it is for him or her. Stress is very dangerous to humans, both psychologically and physically. Studies show that when human beings experience elevated anxiety levels, they stop digesting food, store more fat around their hearts and are prone to high blood pressure. Stress may indirectly kill more people each year than just about anything else, since it is a major cause of obesity and heart disease.

One of the best ways, aside from adequate exercise, to relieve ourselves of chronic stress, fear and anxiety is to cultivate thoughts and feelings of security and well-being. This is what meditation does. During any form of meditation, when the mind is at rest, the true state is one of utter peace. The more we experience it, the better its effect on us will be.

To get benefits from meditation, it is suggested we meditate for at least 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week. Many avid meditators say it is better to meditate every day, even if only for ten minutes. As it becomes easier and more of a habit, many find they begin to look forward to a meditative session as a way to shrug off the day and prepare for sleep or time with one's family or friends.

Meditation is difficult at first. Our minds are certainly used to running the show and being able to chase any thoughts they choose. This makes them resistant when we first sit on the mat and attempt to silence our thoughts and focus inward, but it becomes easier and easier, and it even turns into a welcome relief from the brain's endless chatter. This is how meditators are able to remain more peaceful and serene than other people; they know how to control their own thoughts and emotions so that those things don't get the better of them.

We can all achieve this. We merely have to take a step in the right direction by signing up for meditation classes, checking out CD's, books, or videos, and then choosing to try meditation for ourselves. Especially if we are currently overworked, don't feel we have time, or struggle with depression, beginning a practice is a must. The sooner we start, the sooner we will experience relief and become happier, healthier people.

Remember, with each session, we repair our minds and bodies, create feelings of peace, bliss and serenity, lower our blood pressure, open our hearts, and find release from the stresses of our daily lives. This means we age slower, live happier, feel better, and have more mental energy to participate in the world. Research shows, through one simple practice, we can become more satisfied, engaged and engaging people. What reason do we have for not listening? Why wouldn't we want to experience this for ourselves?

Interested to learn more about meditation? Download the free Silva Method guided meditation technique here

Related posts:

Relaxing into Meditation with author Ngakma Nor'dzin

The Call of Sedona ~ Journey of the Heart

Tao Song & Tao Dance by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha

"Meditation: Poetry & Spirit" by Ruby Sara

Image: Jpatokal in April 2004, Creative Commons license.

Giveaway and Review ~ The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart

Ilchi Lee is a Korean-American meditation retreat leader, teacher of the Dahn school of yoga and author. In The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart, Lee provides a guide to making the most of a trip to his adopted homeland in the Arizona hills on a true spiritual level. Many people enjoy the natural beauty and artistic inspiration of this place, but not everyone approaches the land with the mindfulness that give way to greater understanding of the self and of the world.

Sedona is world-renowned for its spiritual atmosphere. Many parts of the Arizona desert are sacred to the First Nations people (the Apache and the Yavapai are the original inhabitants of the land), including Sedona and some of its surrounding areas. Its energy is concentrated in what people generally refer to as vortexes, which Lee explains in these terms:

"Because the earth is also an organic life form, it has an energy system similar to that of the human body. Vortexes perform a similar role for the earth as chakras do in the human body. Power is concentrated in the vortexes, and the energy of the earth pours out in swirling spirals or the energy of heaven comes to them, forming a whirling spiral. Just as the energy of our bodies is not visible to the naked eye, vortex energy is also invisible. However, just as you can feel energy if you focus your mind, it's possible to experience vortex energy through our various senses."

By coincidence, the word "Sedona" sounds like the Korean words "se do na," which means "new enlightenment will emerge." ("Do" is often spelled as "Tao" in English.)

(Cathedral Rock - public domain image by Ken Thomas)

Even if you're not planning a trip to Sedona in the near future, you can use this book as a guide to meditation in communion with various aspects of nature. This is a beautiful book, lushly illustrated with photos of Sedona and the surrounding areas at different times of day and at different times of the year. Ilchi Lee is an engaging teacher whose storytelling style blends his personal experience (he's had quite a life!) with universal meaning and higher truth. This is a book that speaks straight to the heart.

Best Life Media, the publisher of The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart by Ilchi Lee, has generously offered to ship a free paperback copy of the book to one lucky winner. I'll choose the winner at random (using Random.org) from commenters who leave an e-mail address before midnight Eastern time on Sunday, March 25th.

If you have a Google account and I can find your e-mail address by clicking on your name, there's no need for you to leave your e-mail address in the comment. Otherwise, I suggest this format: name AT Internetcompany DOT com.

Disclosure: I received this book at no cost from the publisher's representative in exchange for this review, which represents my own honest opinion.

Excerpt from introduction - Tao Song & Tao Dance by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha

Leave a comment with an e-mail address for a chance to win Dr. Sha's book! Contest runs November 21-24, with the winner chosen by Random.org on the 25th.

What if you could relax, feel refreshed and rejuvenated by spending 15 minutes a day with a 3 word meditation-like mantra?

In modern society, we embrace various aspects of Chinese culture from understanding Yin Yang principles to designing homes using Feng Shui to referring to Karmic repercussions within our lifetime, to employing "mind over matter" to get us through the hardships. Now, Dr. Zhi Gang Sha takes us to the next level by teaching us a 3 word mantra that is designed to revitalize our mood -- and can be done while riding to work each morning, or a midday "power chant" (instead of power nap) by saying these words, "Peace, Love, Harmony" for 15 minutes a day.

In his new book, Tao Song & Tao Dance, Dr. Sha teaches how people can create positive energy through songs. He literally tells readers that you can sing and dance your way to enlightenment.

Reincarnation is a universal law. Human beings reincarnate.
Mother Earth reincarnates. Mother Earth’s
reincarnation goes through a cycle of phases or eras. Each one
lasts fifteen thousand years.

Mother Earth is in a transition period now. In the last few
years, we have seen more and more natural disasters, including
earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, floods,
droughts, tornadoes, and more. Financial challenges and many
other challenges are deeply affecting humanity and Mother
Earth. Millions of people are suffering from all kinds of sickness,
in the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical bodies. Wars,
power struggles, greed—all kinds of unpleasant things are taking
place all around us on Mother Earth now.

You may be wondering why humanity and Mother Earth are
suffering like this. What are the root causes of the suffering?
What can we do about the suffering?
More and more people are searching for spiritual secrets,
wisdom, knowledge, and practical techniques to transform the
suffering of humanity and Mother Earth, in order to enjoy good
health, relationships, and finances.

There could be thousands of explanations for the causes of
the suffering. I would like to summarize my
personal insights in a one-sentence secret:

Bad karma is the root cause of the suffering
of humanity and Mother Earth.

Mother Earth is going through a special time of transition and
humanity is enduring great suffering because of bad karma that has
been created over thousands of years. War, killing, greed, corruption,
stealing, cheating, taking advantage of others, power struggles,
damaging Mother Earth, including cutting of forests, wrenching
natural resources from the land and the water, testing nuclear weapons,
pollution, and much more have created huge bad karma.
Karma is easy to understand. Karma is cause and effect. Humanity
has harmed each other tremendously. Humanity has damaged
Mother Earth almost beyond repair.

According to the spiritual guidance that I have received from
Heaven, Mother Earth’s transition could last another ten years
and become much heavier. The best way
to help humanity and Mother Earth get through this difficult
time is to join the hearts and souls of humanity in unconditional
service, which is selfless service to others. This will empower humanity to self-clear its bad karma.

How can a person self-clear bad karma? One must offer love,
forgiveness, compassion, and light to others.

Love melts all blockages and transforms all life.

When you experienced true love from your loved ones, from
your spiritual fathers and mothers, and from the Divine and Tao,
your heart was deeply moved, touched, and opened. True love is a golden key
to unlock any door in your life, in the lives
of your loved ones, and for Mother Earth.

Forgiveness brings inner joy and inner peace.

Think about all of your relationships. Think about you and
your spouse or partner, your girlfriend or boyfriend, your children
and parents. Have you ever been upset in any of these relationships?
Have you been irritated, angry, jealous, or had vengeful
thoughts? Think about other relationships—between companies, organization,
religions, and nations.

If unconditional forgiveness could be applied in all of these
relationships, peace and harmony would occur.
There would be no conflict on Mother Earth.
Forgiveness is another golden key to transform all life by
bringing inner joy and inner peace.

Compassion boosts energy, stamina, vitality, and immunity.

Compassion touches one’s heart and soul deeply. Compassion can remove
all kinds of blockages. Compassion boosts energy, stamina, vitality,
and immunity. Compassion is the third golden key to transform all life.

Light heals, prevents sickness, rejuvenates, and transforms
every aspect of life, including relationships and finances.

Light is the fourth golden key to transform all life. A human
being needs physical food to sustain and nourish physical life. A
soul needs soul food to sustain and nourish soul life.
Light is soul food. Love, forgiveness, and compassion are also
soul food. Light can remove all kinds of blockages to transform
health, relationships, and finances.

Love, forgiveness, compassion, and light are the four golden
keys to unlock any door in your life. In Tao Song & Tao Dance,
I will lead you in many practices to apply love, forgiveness, compassion, and
light to self-clear bad karma and to transform every aspect of
your life.

There are ancient secrets for transforming karma and Master Sha introduces these secrets along with Soul Power:

• shen mi (pronounced shun mee) - “Shen mi” means body secret. Many spiritual practitioners use special hand positions called mudras when they meditate. These special hand (and body) positions promote energy flow within the body to remove blockages. Where you put your hands is where you receive healing, rejuvenation, and longevity.

• kou mi (pronounced koe mee) - “Kou mi” means mouth secret. This secret is to chant mantras. There are many ancient mantras that are extremely powerful for
healing, rejuvenation, purification, and cleansing karma. What you chant is what you become.

• yi mi (pronounced yee mee) - “Yi mi” means thinking secret. This secret is to purify the mind. To stop negativity and think positively, with love, forgiveness, compassion, and light, is vital for purification and clearing all types of mind blockages. Where you concentrate in your body is where you receive healing, rejuvenation, transformation, and enlightenment.

• soul power, which is a most important divine technique that the Divine guided me to teach humanity. Soul Power means to say hello through soul communication. Directly call the souls of buddhas, holy saints, healing angels, archangels, ascended masters, lamas, gurus, and all kinds of spiritual fathers and mothers to come to heal and bless you. Souls, including the Divine and Tao, are available if you call them.

Tao Song and Tao Dance: Sacred Sound, Movement, and Power from the Source for Healing, Rejuvenation, Longevity,and Transformation of All Life by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha. Dr. Sha is the New York Times Bestselling author of the Soul Power Series with Atria Books (Simon & Schuster). He was trained as a conventional medicine doctor and a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. Dr. Sha is the founder of the Institute of Soul Healing and Enlightenment and is a grandmaster of many ancient disciplines, including tai chi, qi gong, feng shui, and the I Ching. www.DrSha.com

Repurposing Content: A Strategy for Book Authors

A Guest Post by Tom Von Deck

Using a simple MP3 recorder, you can have yourself a book, an audiobook, an ebook or even an email correspondence course in as little as a few hours. Repurposing content means to use the same content for more than one media type. If you already have written a book, then repurposing your book means to offer it as a CD, a CD box set, a digital download or a multimedia course.

Print books are typically priced according to the number of pages and whether they're hardcover or paperback. Your book, if you've written one, probably costs less than $20.00 USD retail. Other media types are not necessarily priced this way. Some authors create multimedia courses and charge hundreds of US dollars for such a course. Audiobooks are often worth more than books. The perceived value is higher even though the content is the same. This is why a lot of marketing gurus don't even write books, but instead create "courses". The course may include a book, but you won't be able to get the book separately on Amazon in some of these cases.

I'm a book guy, so I didn't go this route. I wrote a meditation book called Oceanic Mind - The Deeper Meditation Training Course. This book began as both a print book and a PDF ebook. Since writing it in 2009, I have repurposed the content into several ebook formats and have partially repurposed it into a 400 minute long audio course.

The Deeper Meditation Audio Course is not an audiobook version of the book. It has a different target audience, and the content is more secular, straight laced and business friendly. However, most of the outline for the audio course came directly from the table of contents for the book.

I used a free sound editor and MP3 recorder with a cheap $20 microphone and produced 65 MP3 files. The hardest part of the repurposing process was that the microphone turned out to be way too sensitive. The MP3s were filled with salivary sounds and breathy sounds coming from my mouth. The sound editing process mainly involved chopping out these fraction-of-a-second sounds. This editing process eventually shrunk my audio course from roughly 8.5 hours to 6 hours and 40 minutes.

The next step was to create 48kbps versions of each of the files for smaller file sizes, and add the correct meta information properties to each of the 65 files, I recorded the course at 128 kilobits per second which is good for making CD's without music. The 48kbps version is for digital download. I wouldn't recommend lowering this bit rate any lower than 48 or else your voice may sound like an alien robot.

After this, I turned it into a ZIP file so that people could purchase and download the course online. I used JZip.com to create the zip file. Now, people can download the course for $39.95 USD and listen to it instantly. Repurposing my book's content allows me to charge more than double what the book costs. Customers usually get a free copy of the book with the audio course, which leaves me with $25-$32 when all is said and done. This is still a lot more than the total retail cost of the book.

There are many resources and shopping carts to sell your repurposed digital content through your own website. Popular ones include EJunkie and Payloadz. Both of these will run you at least $15 USD per month, but there are alternatives. I use ByteCommerce.com which only keeps the money from the 20th sale of an item. That's their 5% cut. The only downsides are that there is less flexibility with handing out massive amounts of coupon codes, and the customer database has less features. There are other options out there, too. Choosing a shopping cart system is a matter of prioritizing your desired features.

There are resources available on the internet to repurpose your content into a CD or a CD box set. CreateSpace and CD Baby both come to mind. CreateSpace is great for box sets, although your royalties are dismally low if you sell them on Amazon through CreateSpace. CD Baby is more set up for single CD's, and there's a slightly less than modest setup fee for each individual CD.

Ebooks are usually the biggest pain in the butt when it comes to repurposing content. There are many online retail outlets, other than your own website, to sell ebooks. Each one has different demands for formatting your book. If you typed your book with a word processing program like Microsoft Word, the formatting of your book will not be fit for some of these outlets. You'll have to use special software to reformat it in Epub, Mobi and other formats.

Luckily, you can refurbish your content into multiple ebook formats in one shot by publishing with Smashwords. Follow their style guide closely when you reformat your book. This will make your ebook worthy for distribution in iBooks, Amazon's Kindle Store, Barnes and Noble's NookBooks store, the Sony Store and others. Smashwords will only take a small cut of the royalties. They are very generous. The only downside is that you get paid quarterly.

Another method of repurposing nonfiction content is membership site coaching programs. Members may pay you a monthly subscription fee to gain access to a site which offers useful content such as video, audio, webpages, chat opportunities with the author and emails. Sometimes the content on such sites is time released so that the student gets a little bit at a time over a certain time interval.

This article can go on forever. hopefully a few lightbulbs went on above your head and you're ready to repurpose your content in creative ways. Enjoy the creativity phase because the repurposing process may become tedious at times. Try to make it a fun journey all the way through. The long term rewards that come from repurposing content will likely be worth the effort.

Tom Von Deck is a corporate meditation trainer, international speaker and author of Oceanic Mind - The Deeper Meditation Training Course. Tom specializes in making meditation a much easier and more customized process for busy people and everyone else from all religious backgrounds and lifestyles. Tom's main site is www.DeeperMeditation.net. His book and blog can be found through the links below.
Tom's meditation book
stress management blog