Root Chakra | muladhara

Your root chakra is responsible for your sense of security and stability. Located at the base of the spine, balancing your root chakra will create solid foundations for opening the rest of your chakra system. The word Muladhara breaks down into two Sanskrit words - mula meaning “root” and adhara meaning “support”, “foundation“ or “base”. It is the foundation of your emotional and mental health, your connection to traditional familial beliefs, and supports the formation of your identity and sense of belonging to a group. It is what connects us to the earth and grounds us down into our place on this planet and in this life.

When in balance, we can feel energized, stable, secure and grounded. We would be centered, grounded, healthy, full of life and have lots of physical energy. When in balance we will be adept at manifesting abundance, and a master of oneself. When off balance, we’ll feel alienated from ourselves and others and very low energetically. The person will feel a lack of confidence, have no grounding in physical reality, may be weak, can’t achieve goals, is self-destructive, and may have feelings of being unloved or abandoned.

When the root chakra has excessive energy the person be egotistical, domineering, greedy, addicted to wealth, indiscriminate in their use of sexual energy, or have nervous sexual energy.

The main words associated with this chakra are I am and We Are All One. We are all connected to each other, but we are also ourselves, and knowing both of these things simultaneously will allow us to feel grounded and at peace on this planet and in this life.

When working with your root chakra, ask yourself what grounds you and stabilizes you.

• Security, safety, survival

• Basic needs (food, sleep, shelter, self-preservation, etc.)

• Physicality, physical identity and aspects of self

• Grounding

• Support and foundation for living our lives

The symbol of the root chakra is composed of a four-petaled lotus flower, often stylized as a circle with four petals with a downward-pointing triangle. The downward-pointing triangle is a symbol of spirit connecting with matter, grounding on the earth and our earthly existence, in our bodies. It’s seen as the center of our vital life force and is the seat where kundalini stays coiled, dormant, until is wakes up to distribute its energy through all the other chakras.

The sciatic nerve, traveling from the sacral chakra all the way own through our legs, is the largest peripheral nerve in our bodies - about as thick as your thumb. This nerve functions as the “root” of our nervous system.

THE Nervous System

The Nervous System is essential and human function and one that often gets overlooked. Every time we breathe or blink, that’s our nervous system at work. When we feel fear, cry or get anxious, that’s also our nervous system at work. The nervous system gathers information from your surroundings and inside the body and processes the information it gathers and interprets the data. After it integrates all the information it formulates a physical or emotional response.

We have two organizations within the nervous system: Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). The CNS is comprised of the brain, spinal cord and neurons, while the PNS consists of every single nerve outside of the brain and spinal cord. Neurons are the building blocks of the central nervous system. Billions of these nerve cells can be found throughout the body and communicate with one another to produces physical responses and actions.

Neurons are the body's information superhighway (an estimated 86 billion neurons can be found in the brain alone).

Since the CNS is so important, it is protected by a number of structures. First, the entire CNS is enclosed in bone. The brain is protected by the skull, while the spinal cord is protected by the vertebra of the spinal column. The brain and spinal cord are both covered with a protective tissue known as meninges.

The entire CNS is also immersed in a substance known as cerebrospinal fluid, which forms a chemical environment to allow nerve fibers to transmit information effectively as well as offering yet another layer of protection from potential damage.

*go here for an interactive model of the Nervous System

Herbal Actions

Understanding how herbs work means understanding the wide range of actions they can have in the body. It’s important to keep in mind that a single herb can have numerous actions, and they should never be pigeon-holed into only doing one thing. Often their actions are synchronized and work together in a way that will benefit the body as a whole system and on multiple levels.

To understand plants, you must understand two important ways in which herbs work in the body. These are herbal actions which are the uses, properties and clinical applications of plants such as bitters, carminatives, nervines etc.  Herbal actions are critical in helping to shift the physiology of the body (the effects of herbs on the function of the body). However, it is also super critical to consider the energetics of herbs. 

Herbal energetics also shift the physiology but what determines the physiology is the ecology, meaning it is how a plant interacts with the body's constitution and tissue state and this is what herbal energetics do. Herbal energetics are based off the four primary Elements (Earth, Wind, Air and Fire), and the knowledge of the energetic properties of herbs has been a part of healing practices worldwide for centuries.

Below I have listed a very simple breakdown of the energetic qualities to give you an idea of the role each one plays in the body. 

Temperature (metabolism)

• hot/warming = irritation

• cold/cooling = depression

Moisture (fluids in tissues - water and fats)

• damp =  stagnation

• dry  = atrophy (weakening)

Tone/Tonic (state of the tension the tissues are in)

• tense = constriction

• relaxed = relaxation

For instance, Cayenne is warming and stimulating, increasing the circulation of the blood. Lavender is cooling and stops a headache by cooling the hot blood to the head. Nettle is cooling, drying and tonic indicated for tissues that are hot and inflamed and swollen with fluids. Often times a herb can have more than one energetic profile.

It is important to note that there are various degrees of hot/cold, moist/dry or tense/relaxed.  For example, cayenne and ginger are both warming but not to the same degree.  These degrees do not refer to the degrees of temperature as on a thermometer however they represent categories of action, increasing in intensity from mild to strong. It's all about matching the right herb to the right person as each and every person will respond to a plants energetics in a slightly different way.

Making Herbal Teas

• Identify the primary focus of the formula and desired outcome

• Identify the constitution / temperament of your client

• Select a leading herb or pair based on actions and energetics

• Select a third and/or fourth herb to balance the energetics of the pair

• Consider using herbs to ‘lead’ the formula to the tissue of concern

• Think about what else may be needed to support or balance constitution

• Identify systems needing secondary support

• Eliminate redundancies, see if a polycrest herb might take the place of multiple others

• Analyze the formula for flavor, practicality, and compliance issues. No harm in adding something tasty, if that makes the difference between compliance and non-compliance.