Sahasrara-Crown Chakra Exercises

Do not perform any exercise without first consulting a physician to ascertain your physical ability to do so safely. 

The exercises contain hyperlinks that I have inserted. These go to demonstrations of how the poses should be done to insure safety. They also contain precautions that need to be considered before performing the pose, and may contain alternative and aides for safe performance.

Beginning Yoga Poses

Sitting Mountain  This link also includes other seated poses that work well for beginners, and people who may need more support with poses.

Child’s Pose  This is a good beginner’s pose; however, if you have problems with your knees do not perform this pose.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Short Meditation

 This is the one I’m sure you have all been waiting for, NOT.  hehehe.  This meditation uses the mantra OM. 

In the Rg-veda  we find the following information;

om ity etad brahmano nedistam nama yasmad uccaryamana

eva samsara-bhayat tarayati tasmad-ucyate tara iti

om asya jananto nama cid-viviktan mahaste visno

sumatim bhajamahe om tat sat

tato 'bhut trird-omkaro yo 'vyakta prabhavah svarat

yat tal-lingam bhagavato brahmanah paramatmanah

The English translation is; "One who chants om,  which is the closest form of Brahman, approaches Brahman.  This liberates one from the fear of the material world, therefore it is known as tarak brahman.

"O Vishnu your self-manifest name, om, is the eternal form of cognizance. Even if my knowledge about the glories of reciting this name is incomplete, still, by the practice of reciting this name I will achieve that perfect knowledge.

"He who has unmanifest potencies and is fully independent, manifests the vibration om kara, which indicates Himself. Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan  are the three forms He manifests."

It is not necessary to have a belief in any religion to benefit from the chanting of OM as a mantra.

Short Meditation

First you need to ground and relax.  Use whichever methods you have found that suits you best.  (There are many examples in the previous chakra posts on this site). Shut your eyes and visualize the crown chakra connecting you to the universe.  See graphic at the beginning of this article to get a visual of the vortex that is at the crown of the head. Feel the spin of this chakra as it draws in the natural energy around it, and releases the universal energy that connects it to the universe.  Take a deep inhale and vibrate the verbalization of the mantra OM slowly and end it with the end of the exhalation.  This OM should vibrate your whole body.  It should vibrate similar to the chimes of an old floor clock.  Take another deep breath and repeat the Mantra OM.  This should be at evenly spaced intervals similar to the regular chiming of the clock.  Repeat this seven times.  Focus your attention on your crown chakra as you perform this Mantra.  Most times when I perform this mantra, I can see the violet of this crown chakra swirling in my mind.

Further study on the OM mantra

4. Sound Vibration of the Universe-follow this link to a good article on the chakra http://swamij.com/om-mantra.htm#sound

The article of this link deals mainly with the origins of the universe as defined by the Hindu religion, but as many of the origin stories go, it begins with the verbalization of sound by the source energy. That sound is OM. http://www.omsakthi.org/worship/mantra.html

Consider This, Do Something Different

• Do you follow the familiar thought and behavior patterns?   Try something different.  If you keep doing what you’re doing you will keep getting what you got.
• Does your personal identification begin and end with your job or economic status?  List words describing the essential you.  Add to the list daily.
• Can you find time to meditate daily?  This is key to enlightenment.
• Do you have a spiritual context to hold the painful experiences of life? It is not just a religious thing that needs to be considered. Many people do not claim any religious affiliation, but have a very close relationship with their source energy. Whichever path you have chosen should support you during times of spiritual need. If you don't presently have one it is time to consider examining the many paths that are available, and you will find one or a combination of many that will lead you to a closer relationship with that which is your source.
• Do you need anything to happen to make you feel blissful, or does the mere thought of your source produce a blissful state?  There are many ways to reach your bliss, I hope that we have discussed many of them during this process that have shown you were and how to find your bliss.

Sahasrara-Crown Chakra Correspondences

Correspondence 

• Colors —Violet, white
• Element —Thought, cosmic energy
• Functions —Understanding
• Power —Inner Divinity
• Basic Rights —To know and to learn
• Demon —Attachment
• Power —Inner Divinity
• Strengths —Faith in the Divine as well as in inner guidance, insight into healing, devotion
• Shadow —The need to know why things happen as they do, which causes you to live in the past
• Life lessons —Releasing attachments in order to transcend earthbound limits
• Main Issues — Spirituality, selflessness
• Area of body governed —Upper skull, cerebral cortex, skin
• Associated Spinal Area —Pineal gland and pituitary body.  This chakra is not specifically associated with a nerve plexus or spinal ganglia
• Life Issues —Selflessness, spirituality & unity with everything
• Gland —Pineal
• Physical Ailments —Sensitivity to pollution, chronic exhaustion, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s
• Crystals —Crystal quartz, amethyst, diamond, white jade, white tourmaline, snowy quartz, Herkimer diamonds
• Shape —Round skullcap
• Plant —Lotus flower
• Musical Note —B
• Ruling Planet —Uranus
• Incense/Aromatherapy —Lavender, frankincense, rosewood
• Tarot Card —The Fool, The Moon, High Priestess, World
• Tree of Life Sephiroth —Kether
• Hindu Deities —Shiva, AMa-kala (upward moving shakti), Varuna
• Other Pantheons —Zeus, Allah, Hut, Enki, Jehovah, Inanna, Odin, Mimir, Ennoia
• Astrological —Aquarius
• Angelic Presence —The Christ Light

Affirmations

• I am an incarnation of the divine
• I am a divine spiritual being having a physical experience
• I am one with the universe; all is there for me to know
• I am an extension of sources love
• I tune into the union with my source
• I cease to limit myself intellectually and in my creativity and connect my spirit to the Source of all knowledge
• I am freedom
• I am bliss and I am connected to it
• I am that I am and I glory in it

Things I Love to do to Connect With Source

• Use things around the house create an altar to help balance this chakra.  Remember the correspondences.  Use violet or white pieces, and crystals if you have them handy, otherwise just find things around the house like pieces of clothing, towels, scarves, pictures, candles all have a place on the altar.  Use whatever reminds you of your quest; those things that may aid the connection with your higher power and those things that hinder it.   This might not take the form of a typical ritual setup, and that is OK.  We are creating a meditation spot for the balancing of a chakra, so it will be slightly different.  You may want to use just a little TV tray, night stand or patio table for this.  This will allow you to stop on the way by for a quick visualization exercise. 

• Now that you have put together the altar, it is ready for a quick meditation to help balance the chakra.  This is one of my favorites, and I like to just keep the bliss going as long as possible.  Visualize the nice violet chakra vortex vibrating at such a rapid motion that is seems to be solid the motion may not even be visible to your eye.  Visualize pleasure and joy stemming from the area of this chakra.  Feel that violet, white energy and pleasure rise up from the crown. Feel the shiver of energy and bliss as it passes through the crown and flows upward to connect with your higher power.  Feel the energy then flow back to you, and coarse through your body setting it all to tingle.  Feel the source energy reinforce your aura with the violet light of the infinite, unconditional love, holding you in its loving protective arms.  This is the rapture.  I believe this is the vibration level that we reach, and permanently maintain when we choose to integrate with the source energy once again. 

• Two of my favorite teachers have both said that the need to know why things happen as they do causes us to live in the past.  We worry and wonder why we are the way we are.  Why we do the things we do?  What happened to us to make us the way we are?  If you had the kind of life I had you would be miserable too.  As you can see the focus is on the past, which does not allow us to look at what is really happening Right Now.  

• Dealing with now is what will destroy our erroneous beliefs about self, and replace it with the reality of our existence and quirks.  So today deal with now.  Look at things one moment at a time.  Is there anything that is immediately a danger, or harmful?  Are you without a roof over your head?  Do you have enough to eat?  If you answered all of these in the affirmative, then you have cause for joy and happiness.  You have the necessities of life.  We make our choices about how we will feel about our situation.  If you are focused on the material, fleshly world, you are doomed to compare and always feel shortchanged somehow.  If you focus on the spiritual things of life, you will know joy and bliss, regardless of your station in life.  See your walk with your deity.  Know your own divinity.  Let negativity pass through you, and see it for what it is, and just let it pass. You may want to name it for what it is. I call mine Shempa, the Buddhist word for the hook that reels you in to the negative thoughts and hold you there; You are hooked. When you recognize it as having no basis in reality, it passes without taking residence in your mind. Then move on with the reality that is right now. There are rarely problem in the now, but if there is, that is the time to deal with it. Look at it, and decide what you can do right now to fix it. Do that, and let it go.