The importance of the root chakra

When the Root Chakra is Balanced

When root chakra is working well, life feels good. You feel SAFE AND GROUNDED. Your feet are firmly planted on the earth, and nothing much can upset your equilibrium. You probably have good physical health and lots of vitality, with STRONG BONES, FEET AND LEGS.

You might enjoy being out in nature, walking or gardening, or working outdoors with your hands. Your appetite may be good, and you can digest almost anything. You may have a deep visceral trust that everything will be all right, that your needs will be met and the EARTH is abundant enough to support you.

And you are good at MANAGING THE BASICS OF LIFE, possessing practicality and common sense. It may not be fancy, but there will be food in the cupboard. Even if you don’t earn much, you can manage your money and pay your bills on time. You maintain your house, so that you don’t need to worry about whether the windows lock properly or the rain will get in. You don’t mind putting in the work to take care of unglamorous routine chores - you know that cleaning, cooking, weeding the garden and DIY need to be done regularly, and it feels right to do so.

You may have strong links with your parents, siblings and extended FAMILY. If you have children, you take your responsibilities seriously; it feels natural to work hard to look after them. Even if you aren’t close to your birth family, you find your tribe and can rely on your friends for mutual support and trust.

When the root chakra is spinning beautifully, it’s the perfect launch pad to do all sorts of other exciting things, because when the basics of life are under control, you have resources and physical energy to spare. Your higher chakras may yearn to create, pursue a dream career, fall in love, write a novel or follow a spiritual path, and your base chakra can act as the SOLID PLATFORM to manifest all these dreams and make these wonderful things happen in a healthy way. But when the base chakra is out of balance, it’s another story. This chakra can be underpowered, overpowered or even a mixture of both.

Recognizing when Root Chakra is week or Damaged

There are all sorts of reasons for a weak base chakra. Sometimes it’s a question of not paying enough attention to your physical body - perhaps because you THINK TOO MUCH, or because you yearn for a spiritual connection. We are spirits in a human body, and this incarnation on earth is a tremendous opportunity to learn by experience. But if you FIND LIFE OVERWHELMING, it might feel safer to spend most of your time up in your head, or in the higher realms of your upper chakras.

On the surface it seems peaceful up there, but if you don’t care for your physical body, you can get droopy, PHYSICALLY FRAGILE AND TIRED. If you don’t look after the practical side of life - those boring chores, such as emptying the bins or paying the bills - your days can become messy and overwhelming. You can also seem flaky: full of good intentions that never seem to come to anything.

Your head can get you tangled up in knots, as you try to think or meditate your way out of problems. But if you would only listen to your body, the answer is often simple; when you get enough regular exercise, food, fresh air and sleep, many problems seem manageable and can even melt away.

The base chakra can also be damaged by traumatic events, particularly in childhood, when we soak up family trauma like sponges. But even as adults, it can be badly affected by losing a family member, being fired from your job, financial trouble, coping with serious illness, political instability or war. Even smaller events, such as moving house or even a long journey, can upset the base chakra.

When it’s not spinning properly, you can feel UNGROUNDED. This is unsettling, like losing your grip, being unstable on your feet, chopped off at the knees, wrong-footed or feeling as if the rug has been pulled out from underneath you.
More than any others, this chakra can hold family energy. From your mother’s emotions absorbed in the womb to ancestral memories of poverty, starvation, oppression or exile, these traumas can rumble under the surface and make you feel INEXPLICABLY WEAK, ungrounded and fearful.


Root Chakra is Over-developed

When the root chakra is too large or spinning too fast, your system is like a tree with over-developed roots - there is no possibility of growth and change by transplanting yourself into soil that is more suitable.

With an over - developed root chakra, you can become almost too earthy, stuck in the mud and SET IN YOUR WAYS. Like a tree that can’t bend in the wind, you might be physically stiff and unyielding. You hate to move house, for you literally feel uprooted.

If you’ve always done something a certain way (or generations of your family have), then you won’t be open to any newfangled ideas, thank you very much. Your family and work colleagues might see you as a reliable, dependable rock, but secretly may find you a bit dull, with NO HIGHER SPARK to lighten your earthy common sense and practicality.

An INFLEXIBLE base chakra can also make you vulnerable. Because you are good at handling the physical world and are used to having life under control, you don’t need much emotional flexibility, but unexpected events - such as a death in the family - can hit you harder than others.

WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR ENERGY FLOW IF THE BASE CHAKRA ISN'T BALANCED

If this chakra is underpowered, it can be hard to make projects actually happen. Energy might flow downward through the chakras and then get stuck. All sorts of kind thoughts, wonderful ideas or brilliant money-making schemes might be discussed, but somehow you never get around to sending that Get well card, writing that book or taking your business idea beyond the planning stage.

If the chakra is overpowered, it can be difficult to change or to feel deep satisfaction. When the basic drive to survive is working well, you may appear a success to the outside world, but if the energy doesn’t flow upward, your success won’t have the warmth of the heart connection or the divine spark of spiritual growth.