The root chakra is the base of your entire chakra system. If you have an imbalanced root chakra, it can throw off the balance of all your other chakras as well. So when it comes to energy healing, I always start at the 1st chakra, because a balanced root chakra lays the foundation for balance to be created throughout your entire body.
There is a central column of energy running through the center of your physical body, and it begins at this base chakra, in your pelvic floor. This central column extends up from your 1st chakra, goes through every energy center, and then comes out through the crown chakra at the top of the head.
So if you have a blocked root chakra, this entire central column of energy is not being fed. This can leave you feeling exhausted, stressed, and depressed. Whenever you feel like you’re in survival mode or struggling for basic needs, or your adrenal glands are in flight, fight or freeze mode for far too long, it’s related to an imbalanced root chakra.
So here are some root chakra healing ideas for you to use in your own life to help you bring in more grounding, stability, security, and relief whenever you need it.
Root chakra grounding
To strengthen your root chakra, you first need to make sure it’s open and grounded into the eternal life energy and support of the Earth. To do this, you can simply connect to your root chakra energy in your pelvic floor—see if you can imagine a ball of energy there or feel into it.
Ask your root chakra (out loud, or in your mind—it’s all done with intention) to open and connect your grounding cord down into the heart of the Earth. .
Other ways to ground your root chakra energy are to get outside, get your bare feet on the Earth, or go hug a tree and plug into the rhythm of nature’s nurturing energy.
One quick practice for a root chakra imbalance is to put your right hand on a tree, your left hand on your pelvis or lower abdomen, and just breathe and be there for 30 seconds or so. Doing this plugs you into the tree’s grounded frequency of energy, and helps yours come into alignment with it. See if you can imagine your feet connecting into and being supported by the thick, strong roots of the tree itself.
You can also imagine roots growing down from your feet as you sit at your desk, while you take a shower, or are standing in line at the grocery store. You can ground yourself anywhere! You can also imagine roots growing down from your whole back body as you lay down in bed.
Plug your root chakra into the Earth, again and again, whenever you feel disconnected, unsupported, or unsure. Grounding yourself is the first step for all chakra healing and energetic shifts to happen.
Root chakra stones
Crystal healing is an excellent tool to work with for a root chakra imbalance, and you can use root chakra stones in many different ways. You can wear them, carry them, meditate with them, have them near you throughout the day, sleep with them under your pillow or by your bedside, or make crystal elixirs with them! Certain chakra stones can really support you in coming back to your body and aligning you with the frequency of mother earth energy.
For a root chakra imbalance, look for dark stones in tones of black, brown, grey, and red.
Black stones, like obsidian, black tourmaline, or shungite, will be the most absorbent of negative energy and are useful for clearing a blocked root chakra.
Brown stones like smoky quartz and many jaspers are very grounding and nurturing, to help calm an overactive root chakra and bring it into a state of balance.
Grey stones like some agates, moonstone, and many feldspar varieties are great to help you find clarity and patience when you’re feeling cloudy, confused, or disconnected.
And red stones, like garnet, ruby, or red jasper are great activators for an underactive root chakra, to enhance your life energy and empower your sense of strength, stability, and fortitude. This article will help you choose the best root chakra crystal for you if you want to dig deeper!
Root chakra clearing
You can use a root chakra crystal with a grounding technique to help you clear your root chakra energy of excess emotions, stagnancy, and blocks.
Our root chakra holds so much energy that we experience in early life, from 0-5 years old, much of which we don’t consciously remember. Thus our root chakra is often responding to subconscious prompts and motivations that come from our childhood, rather than responding to what’s right here, right now, in this moment.
In other words, a blocked root chakra can keep us feeling fearful, stuck, tethered to past mistakes and traumas, ancestral wounds, inherited beliefs, and subconscious programming. That’s why it’s vitally essential to practice grounding and clearing your root chakra in order to access healing for your entire chakra system and life going forward.
It starts at the beginning, in the foundations of who we are. When you can clear through some of the emotional blockages you hold there, you make way for healing to happen, where you can begin to create the life you truly envision for yourself.
Here’s a simple root chakra clearing practice you can do:
- First ground yourself by asking your root chakra to open and connect your grounding cord to the heart of the earth.
- Breathe and see if you can imagine this or feel into the energy of it.
- Then ask for all energy that does not belong to you to release down through that grounding cord, back into the earth.
- Ask for any stagnant, stuck, negative, or unwanted energies to release down and out, and back into the earth.
- Ask for your ancestral lines and DNA to be cleared and released.
- Ask for any subconscious beliefs that are not in alignment with where you want to go in life to release.
- Anything you can think of, anything you want to let go of- ask for it to be released, down through that grounding cord
- Focus on exhaling slowly, and envisioning or feeling the energy releasing from your 1st chakra.
Do this practice as often as you need it!
Root chakra affirmations
Your energy body, made up of your aura and chakras, responds to intention, frequency, and your subconscious and unconscious motivations.
This is why affirmations can be such a powerful way to work with your chakra system, as they work through intention, sound frequency, and our subconscious mind.
The thing is, you can’t pile positive affirmations onto a big pile of subconscious poop and expect any changes to happen.
Affirmations work in conjunction with frequent clearing and releasing, with shadow work and letting go, with digging into the deep of your consciousness and seeing what’s ready to be released.
Release the ick first, then fill back up with self-affirming words of love.
Here are some root chakra affirmations you can say throughout the day, after a grounding and release practice, or anytime you need them, to help you feel grounded and strong:
- I am grounded and connected to the earth
- I belong here
- I am supported always, in all ways
- I am safe and secure in my body
- I am strong, capable, and resilient
- Right here, right now, all is well
- I have everything I need, to create anything I want
Root chakra healing foods
There are many foods that can help you create a balanced root chakra as well!
Think roots to support your root, so root vegetables like beets, carrots, garlic, onions, potatoes, turnips, etc are great support for finding more rooted energy within yourself.
Also, mushrooms thrive in the deep, dark and supply an extensive and amazingly nurturing root structure for the entire forest, which can help activate your own supportive energetic root structure when you eat them. Other black and brown foods, like beans and whole grains, are also supportive for the root chakra.
Red foods are associated with the red of the 1st chakra, like strawberries, tomatoes, radishes, and red meat. In general, most dense, animal-based foods, including dairy and eggs, will help you feel more grounded, more human, more earthy if you’re flying away into la-la land.
But too much of these dense foods can create the opposite effect of getting stuck in denser, material energies that are not able to rise into the higher consciousness of your upper chakras.
So finding your own personal balance between animal and plant-based foods is an important part of creating a balanced root chakra as well.
Try some of these healing tools out and see which ones work for you in helping to heal an imbalanced root chakra!
You’ll know your root chakra is open, flowing, and fully functional when you can say all those above affirmations and they ring as true to you. When you feel present, connected to your body, this earth, and this moment. When your needs feel fulfilled, like you’re lacking nothing, content with what is, and ready and able to create whatever you want to experience next.
A happy root chakra feels like you’re at home in your body and have an appreciation for being human, no matter what this crazy earth life has to offer us.
Wishing us all much more grounded, stable root chakras to support the new world we’re ready to bring to life!
External Resources
Root Chakra
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Your Root Chakra: 5 Quick + Easy Tips to Heal the Foundation of Your Energy System