The Rights of the Chakras

First Chakra

So as an activist, and somebody who spends a lot of time thinking about social justice in the environment and others, and seeing how, as a yogi, my practices of liberation are intertwined with the liberation of others. I spend a lot of time thinking, and even in teaching, how I can begin to translate using these rights as I fight for them for myself, and even educating others to see, like, how can we begin to use them to be able to fight for the rights of others, if I am connected to others? And it came away for me to say, I'm finding ways to find my right to be here, to own the material world in the way that I can through the first chakra, but then noticing that even people when I teach in a yoga class, I can't say that's true for everybody, so I can't make even this universal, like, we all feel like we have a right to be here, where there's people of color, and there's immigrants in my classroom that don't feel there, because society doesn't support them or protect them. It literally becomes a way for me to look at the rights of others, and again, finding ways in which I can fight for those rights. So the first chakra, the right to be here, again, has been time for myself.

It's one of the places that I'm most wounded and need the most work and help, and it really is the way that I find myself being most active in the world, to look at all the different groups and make sure that I'm adding in a way towards those rights.

Second Chakra

Third Chakra

So for me, owning this right, reclaiming this right had to do a lot with fighting my powerlessness over drug addiction and alcoholism. So as I began to own this and really work on re-owning my own power to create change, I did begin to see in the world around me the state of powerlessness that so many people were feeling and so whether it is around addiction, I've done a lot of work in jails where people's power is literally taken away from them, this mass incarceration that's an epidemic in our country, people just locked away, their power taken away from them. So the work that I'm really passionate about, of course, is bringing yoga into prisons and then also to just begin to fight the system that incarcerates people and being aware of it and then in so many other ways, of course, bringing the great powers of yoga and meditation to rehab centers and different organizations in San Francisco specifically that have to do with homelessness and people who feel powerless over their particular situations.

Fourth Chakra

And for me, it's been really the journey of my personal sadhana and practice that I try to commit. It's a lot more committed before my child, but to sit with myself every day as I am to develop this compassion and self-acceptance and the qualities of the heart that exists there of patience, of love, of kindness to heal some of the wounds that I had within my heart and relationships, a lot of grief because I've had so much loss in my life, death and loss of partners to where there was so much hurt there. And so to develop this unconditional relationship with myself was incredibly healing to honor my shadow side because I have this past that continues to live alongside all of these wonderful spiritual human qualities that I developed to be kind, to be loving, to be generous. The other side also exists for me to have anger and hatred. The whole shadow side that we try to move away from was to say the demons that dwell within us and to really awaken the superpower of the heart is to be able to sit with ourselves with both sides and this balance that comes from loving and accepting ourselves and then loving and accepting others, which includes their shortcomings.

So it's not one dimensional. It's not conditional. I will love you if you are only like this, if you only give me this, but that it's a state that we begin to feel that's enduring no matter what comes up, but that it doesn't fight, it doesn't kill, it doesn't condemn one side over the other and is fully accepting. So again, for our world, how this right begins to come into play is the right for all others to be loved. You know, we can feel in society very few minority groups feel loved and accepted.

So to be able to offer compassion to all different, to understand and to look at and to embrace as they're not feeling by our society, not everybody is treated the same only if you look a particular way. So this right to be loved, right? And the right to love and who you love. So this comes again with love is love and fighting for the rights of everyone to have these privileges. So the right for our fifth chakra having to do with our voice, of course, is the right

Fifth Chakra

The right to speak and the right to be heard. And our voice is so important and what we have to say, especially so, you know, on the mat too, I just like kind of translate it because this is where I work on these rights for myself is how am I really honoring my truth today? Because the demon, there's a shadow of lies and there's always kind of cloaked this truth or this right that we want to begin to fight for. So the more I begin to come into the truth of how I'm feeling today, what's going in my body and how I can begin to honor my truth and express my truth through my practice, the more I can begin to integrate it and bring it into my life and speak up where I need to and again to have healthy expression and to bring value to my words and communication, which is balance between truly hearing myself, taking time to listen and to be quiet so that I make sure that what I say and what I do and how I live is a real expression of what I'm feeling. But if I'm out of touch with how I'm feeling or my truth, I'm just going automatic and unconscious.

So by claiming that right of my right to speak and my right to feel and my right to express myself, I again begin to gain this, we're calling them superpowers to be able to express in the world and maybe be the voice of others who are less heard. So that translates right into fighting for the rights of others and exactly. Some voices are not as heard because of the color of their skin or being marginalized. So how I can use my voice, how I can use the privilege of my position even in society or if it is social media to begin to bring awareness towards different issues that need to be spoken about so that they're not so hidden and taken over. And then again, a lot of the time I try to have as many voices expressed.

So especially in the yoga world, sometimes we can only see it looking a particular way. So I do my best to be able to invite and bring in as many different voices from different aspects and qualities of life, whether it's older yogis or people of color. So it doesn't just look one way that there's so many different narratives and it doesn't only look one way. So the right for our sixth chakra, our Ajna chakra is the right to see and the right to

Sixth Chakra

So first it has to do just with our physical eyes that sometimes we're denied what we see and I think this especially happens in some dysfunctional households and then we can begin to keep it like this denial of, no, what you're seeing isn't really happening. And in society too, like, but it's going on. But this denial that continues to cover and we may continue to bring these, this programming into our life that how much are we willing to see what's actually happening instead of denying it or covering it up sometimes too in spiritual traditions. I grew up in one, there's a thing called spiritual bypassing of, let's just look at up here, you know, rather than also what's happening, but also what's happening. So it's not this denial of either side.

So the right to see and to be seen is to be seen as we are, again, not in a particular way, whether it's as women or as we begin to age, but to really be seen is through meditation, you know, but I give myself time to be seen. Nobody else is going to give me that time, right? This time with myself to truly be seen as I am, not how I want to be, but as I am. And then this dream is also to be able to envision right outside of a box, look at the world in a particular way or visualize my life outside of what I feel it should be. It's another way of seeing and of course to see what's happening in the world and fighting for that right for everyone to be seen, not just certain people.

So if it has to do with photos again, everyone to be seen and acknowledged and the differences in the colors of the rainbow and in all of our different diversity, we're talking about chakras and rainbows. That's our personal diversity. And then we do also want to celebrate the diversity in the world because sometimes it's this, especially in the tradition, in the spiritual traditions, it's oneness versus sameness. So yes, we're all one, but without denying that we don't all have the same experience. So keeping the balance between yes, there is something that connects us all, the divine, God, spirit world, without denying that yes, but, and, not but, and, there's so many differences and we're not all treated the same.

Seventh Chakra

And I think directly right into the rights, I have a five year old child and I'm very much integrated right now into the school systems, I've got to be in the PTA, I've got to make sure, but I never, I was not in touch with what happens in the schools and how children specifically need to be guided to have their own thinking that they can think for themselves and that they're not just told this is the way that it is and it's changing because schools are very progressive. I live in San Francisco, so I'm learning so much I just want to be in kindergarten because they're given this right continually and I'm like, what do you mean you're asking them what they think? They're five, aren't we supposed to be telling them what to think? But it's so wonderful to begin to give this right of like, well, what do you think and what has been taught to you and you have the right to be able to think differently. So I feel like as a yogi, my role in the world or even in my practice is to feel my unity with others and that again, if I am connected to others, if it is this philosophy of we

The Fight for Others

So I can't walk out in the street anymore when I feel empathy and connection. So there's so many homeless people in San Francisco, you know, literally tents everywhere. These are people, you know, with nothing. So whether they're drug addicted, who knows what the story is, but I can't walk down the street and ignore them because I feel unity with them. I also know that I was there once in some way.

I felt that powerless, you know. So let's just say my fight for homeless rights right now in San Francisco, it's an epidemic because people are getting evicted. So there's a big movement in San Francisco from artists and just activists for the homeless right now. So that's one way. And then in all the other ways too, it's not coming out of like F the system.

It's coming out of these people need our love and these people need our protection, but also coming from me working on it for myself. Yes, we can also nourish the chakras through the different foods that we eat.

Nourish the Chakras

So sometimes I like to look at it that way in the ways in which I nourish, so I'm just a garden of lotuses. So the foods that nourish the first chakra having to do with survival and strength are proteins. So when we're first born, that's it, you know, there's milk. You don't get very many choices, but that's what nourishes the first chakra for growth, for brain development, and as we continue to try to strengthen it, you know, whether you're a vegan or a vegetarian or an omnivore, just those protein foods. But sometimes vegetarians and vegans are like, how can I do it?

Well, of course, root vegetables, anything that's grounding and also has a lot of protein in them, beans and legumes and all those different plant-sourced proteins help to strengthen and stabilize the root chakra. And for our second chakra having to do with the water element, it's liquid so we can literally be dried up. So especially if it's just first chakra and we're just working to survive, it's just kind of barren, it can be after a certain time. And so this is where we begin to make life sweet and fertile. So any type of liquids, whether it's water or it's juices or even oils and fats that make life rich, because sometimes we think dry toast, especially all of those concerned and consumed with, you know, things should be dry and not fats, you know, but to make life really rich and fertile, we want to think about fluids and oils to enrich and to bring flexibility and fluidity into our lives.

So especially if we have even like dry skin, dry bones, we're really stiff, that means we need a little bit of excess juiciness in our lives and in our bodies. But the third chakra, the foods that nourish the third chakra having to do with energy and fuel is carbohydrates. Again, in other foods, sometimes everybody wants to get out of their lives, but it's so important to have complex carbohydrates in our lives that give us fuel and energy to do our work and act in the world and be active. So all those complex carbohydrates of grains and vegetables, all of them is condensed into energy or sugar within our system, so making sure we get lots of healthy, not like white breads and stuff, but those complex, really healthy carbohydrates. For the heart chakra resonating, of course, with the color green, we've talked about the forest is plants, so veggies, green veggies, when we live in the heart, this is generally when people begin to make their way towards vegetarianism.

So eating plenty of vegetables, greens, and moving towards a vegetarian diet becomes a way to nourish the fourth chakra and sing about the world around us and how we're loving and protecting. For the fifth chakra, with its awareness around purification, fruits are meant to nourish it. So we can think about color, all the different colored fruits as far as expression that begins to happen, and also fruits are very cleansing. So when we're working on our fifth chakra, we want to purify our bodies, so adding as much fruit into our diet begins to cleanse, but also to have all of those rich colors to be able to express ourselves. As the chakras get more subtle, so does what's going to nourish them.

So for the sixth and seventh chakra, it's meant to be even fasting. If you've ever fasted, you know you kind of start to get kind of trippy. So for me, the different functions of the mind begin to come in, and the different psychic abilities begin to happen when you get kind of over to the other side of the fast. Fasting is not the best thing for me because I get so hungry, but it's meant to be more of this fasting. So breathing, and then not eating to be able to connect to the divine, and the space beyond the physical world.