When you are rooted within yourself, flowing on your own path, diving into the depths of your power, letting your heart guide the way, and hearing your own truth, you open the pathway to seeing with divine clarity.
Sixth Chakra Basics
The sixth chakra, otherwise known as the third eye, or Ajna, translates as perception and command. When we see the big picture clearly from all sides, then and only then can we command with insight for the highest good of all concerned. The third eye’s purpose is pattern recognition. When we can see the patterns of our lives, especially those that are subconsciously driven, we can embark on our healing path, because the map becomes clear. When we live a life of illusion or try to show the world what we think they want to see, we live in imbalance.
Some of us have struggled to see the patterns of our life. (Ahem, not seeing for over a decade that my back went out every single Memorial Day weekend on May 27th, landing me in the emergency room full of morphine.) This doesn’t mean that we can’t learn to see the patterns that others see so easily. We can learn to clean the lens of the third eye, and when we become intentional, we start to see how certain experiences run on repeat. Rumi said: “The wound is the place where the light enters”. I used this quote for the fourth chakra too because compassion and forgiveness help heal those wounds, but it’s hard to do that if we don’t see the wound in the first place.
Light is the element of the third eye. It helps us see clearly, but if we don’t shine that light on the wound, if we don’t illuminate our vision through hearts; watching, observing, meditating, with love and without judgment, we don’t reach en”light”enment. Ever. The understanding we gain at the seventh chakra never comes if we don’t shine light on our wounds; our pain, sorrow, and self-sabotaging actions, our blocks, walls, and imbalances. Nowhere does yoga philosophy teach judgment of our wounds, self-inflicted or not. What it does teach is observation connected to breath. The internal life force that keeps each of us human.
Do you easily see things symbolically? Do you see the patterns in your own life and the patterns of history? Do you see what you can do in your life and the lives of your loved ones to create the healing that you all need during any situation? Do you see the healing that is possible through struggle, challenge, chaos, pain, or grief? The foundations we are able to strengthen? The creativity that is able to flourish? The love that is able to increase so that we feel its protective power shielding our immune systems? These are all gifts of a balanced third eye. We don’t all have the same intuitive spiritual gifts. We need the diversity of our spiritual gifts to create the big picture together.
Perception is everything. It creates how you see your life. You can choose to see the gift in everything, or you can choose to stay stuck where you are. That power resides within you. Do you have a hard time seeing the gift or lesson in any challenge? Do you struggle to see the good coming from any struggle and only see the nightmare? Perception is crucial to our wellbeing. And the cool thing about perception? We can change it. We can choose to look with awareness and love. We can choose to look at the bigger picture. To see from other perspectives, and to see ourselves and others without judgment.
6th chakra healing practices
Visualization, meditation, dream work, both journaling and analyzing (as in your dreams for the future, and your dreams when you sleep), artwork (both creating as well as spending time appreciating and understanding symbolism in art), working with symbolism in literature, working with creative ways of seeing things differently, to name a few.
Routine is important, but is your routine more of a samskara? A samskara is a deeply engrained pattern. Some are beneficial, some are detrimental to our health and well-being. The gift of living consciously, of choosing to see how we can act, live, create, think, feel, or respond in every moment is a gift. The gifts of insight, clairvoyance, clarity, intuition, and inspiration can come through the third eye. Each individual has access to all of these. Be mindful of not giving your power away by always going to others for your answers, and work on trusting your own intuition through awareness and intentional practice. Meditation is one of the keys to accessing your inner vision. Allow yourself to see your life as you desire it, and then move that energy down the energetic pathway into manifestation. If you are experiencing something in your current reality that you desire to change, start asking what it’s teaching you, and then be open to seeing the answers as they come to you. Once you learn the lesson, you don’t have to keep repeating it.
Affirmations for the 6th chakra
~ I see clearly.
~ I am willing to see new ways of doing things.
~ I trust my creative vision.
~ I receive new insight about how to approach the challenges of my life.
~ I am able to visualize the future I desire for myself.
~ I look with my heart.
~ I trust my dreams to teach me because I am willing to learn.
~I easily interpret my dreams, they show me myself at a deeper level.
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