The root chakra is one of the most blocked and constricted energy fields within our bodies.
Everyone, at some point in their lives, has struggled with a root chakra deficiency. If you were raised in a dangerous neighborhood, experienced the divorce of your parents, had parents who struggled to pay the rent, lived in relative poverty, and/or were smacked or abused as a child, you likely have an impaired root chakra.
I’ll explore with you how to undergo root chakra healing in this article.
What is the Root Chakra?
The root chakra, or Muladhara, is our body’s most primal and fundamental energy center, being located at the base of our spine, or groin area. Being associated with the color red, the root chakra regulates the energy associated with instinct, survival, and safety.
When the root chakra is imbalanced due to trauma, psychological issues such as chronic fear, and psychosomatic suppression and repression, we experience a disruption in the flow of life. Often our blocked energy centers lead to constant personal, existential and relationship issues.
What is Root Chakra Healing?
Root Chakra healing is the practice of opening, clearing, cleansing, supporting and strengthening the root chakra within our bodies. Root Chakra healing involves using certain foods, sounds, smells, affirmations, yoga practices, healing crystals, and other holistic remedies to reestablish harmony within the body-mind organism.
15 Signs of an Unhealthy Root Chakra
The best way to tell whether you need to undergo root chakra healing is to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, actions and physical sensations within your body.
Here are some signs to look out for:
- You tend to obsess about money, e.g. you worry that you don’t have enough, you have catastrophic thoughts that surround going poor and becoming homeless, you over-work to soothe your anxiety surrounding finances, you become triggered whenever someone in your family spends too much, YOU must be in absolute control of the money in your family, etc.
- You have a general mistrust of others (trust issues)
- You believe that the only person you can rely on is yourself, and you avoid asking favors from others (even when you really need them)
- You’re a workaholic who tends to burn out easily
- You have a dysfunctional relationship with your family
- You feel like there’s “never enough” to go around and you need to fight for what you want
- You’re terrified of a loss of control
- You are hyper-vigilant to any perceived signs of threat from others or your surroundings
- You feel dizzy, anxious, spacey, and ungrounded for most of the day
- You find it difficult and scary to be your authentic self around others
- You feel disconnected from other people and nature
- You are a hoarder who likes to “collect” a lot of things making your living space constricted and cluttered
- You binge-eat or stop eating completely when you get depressed or anxious
- You have leg and feet problems, such as swelling, infection, cramps, poor circulation
- You tend to gain weight around the bottom half of your body (e.g. love handles, thick thighs)
How many of these signs can you identify with, in this list?
Do You Have a Deficient or Excessive Root Chakra?
When most people talk about unhealthy root chakras, they’re referring to “blocked” or deficient chakras that restrict energy flow.
But did you know that your chakras can also be excessive — or overactive?
So what is the difference between a deficient and excessive root chakra? Essentially, a deficient root chakra can be defined as passive, whereas an excessive root chakra can be defined as aggressive.
Here’s a breakdown:
Deficient = lifeless, sluggish, passive, blocked, inwards (not enough energy flows in)
Excessive = lively, agitated, reactive, aggressive, outwards (too much energy flows in)
Therefore, if you have a deficient root chakra, you will be more prone to issues such as anxiety, suspicion, and withdrawing. On the other hand, if you have an excessive root chakra you will be prone to hoarding, workaholism, greed, and anger.
Deficiency protects, whereas excessiveness overcompensates. So the question is, which do you have? It’s also possible to fall somewhere in the middle.
17 Root Chakra Healing Practices
So what does a healthy and balanced root chakra look and feel like?
When you have a clear, strong and harmonious root chakra, you will firstly feel grounded and calm. You will no longer have fears surrounded money or loss of control, but will come to trust the divine intelligence of life. Not only will you trust yourself more, but you will also feel connected to others and nature more deeply. When your root chakra is healthy, you will find it simple to be your authentic self finding the inner peace that is always here in the present moment easier to connect to. You will give up the need to fight, protect and defend, and will instead come into alignment with ebb and flow of life.
Here are some of the best root chakra healing practices out there that I have personally experimented with:
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1. Listen to grounding music
I recommend the sound of thunder, Mongolian throat singing or the didgeridoo (an indigenous Australian instrument).
2. Chant “LAM” to yourself.
This sound matches the vibration of the root chakra. Try drawing out the letters into sounds, such as “lllllllaaaaaaammmmm.” You might also like to listen to binaural beats (a form of music healing therapy) which helps to activate and clear all the chakras through alternating sound waves. Try these chakra healing songs.
3. Regularly go for a walk in nature.
Consciously note the connection of your feet to the earth.
4. Do targeted yoga
Stretch your body using the simple yoga poses of child pose, forward bend, mountain pose, squat and warrior.
5. Eat grounding foods
Think sweet potatoes, beets, radish and other root vegetables.
6. Practice 30-second mindfulness
Make a habit of stopping each day and observing your breath for three counts. This simple practice will help to ground you.
7. Carry and meditate with crystals
Use root chakra crystals such as jasper, hematite, smoky quartz, and carnelian. My favorite root chakra crystal is black tourmaline (buy it here).
8. Cleanse the root chakra with aromatherapy scents
Use oils such as sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, cloves, black pepper, and ginger.
9. Practice “earthing”
Earthing is the practice of walking on the grass or earth for the purpose of recharging the human energy field.
10. Carry a totem or grounding piece of jewelry
Carry an object that is associated with revitalising the root chakra (you can find good totem jewelry here).
11. Quietly sit down and visualize
Visualize a red ball of light pulsating in your root chakra region (your groin area). Visualize all of the murky energy dissolving as it meets the ball of red light.
12. Make time to sit outside every day and connect with nature
Simply observe what is going on; the birds, the clouds, the wind, the light, and sense your interconnectedness with it.
13. Use affirmations or mantras
Use mantras or affirmations to reprogram your unconscious thinking patterns. Affirmation/mantra examples include, “I am grounded,” “I am centered and whole, “I trust in the wisdom of life,” “I have everything I need,” “I am safe and secure,” “I surrender,” “I am strong, stable, and at peace.”
14. Drink an herbal tea
Drink a grounding tea that contains root chakra cleansing herbs such as ashwagandha and cloves.
15. Take a soothing shower
Water is a powerful way to cleanse stagnant and blocked energy. Alternatively, have a purifying bath using mineral salts such as Himalayan pink rock salt.
16. Explore the cause of your fears
Fears stem from your inner beliefs, grudges, and unresolved pain. Take time to reflect on the root of your fears in a journal or with a trusted friend, partner or therapist. Learn more about how to journal.
17. Practice catharsis
Practice catharsis every day to actively dissolve blocked root chakra energy. You might like to explore dynamic meditation, or simply jump, kick, punch, shout or dance your tension away.
Final Advice
What to do now with all this information?
As someone who has struggled with a severely imbalanced root chakra before, I found that bringing more mindfulness into my days helped immediately and immensely.
Try slowing yourself down, taking more breaks, and connecting with your breath — these are simple and easy first steps you can take. Afterward, you can implement the other healing practices described above.
Tell me, do you have any other root chakra healing tips? Let’s build a free knowledge base here!
To read more about chakra healing, check out my other articles and test in this series:
- Sacral Chakra Healing Guide
- Solar Plexus Chakra Healing Guide
- Heart Chakra Healing Guide
- Throat Chakra Healing Guide
- Third Eye Chakra Healing Guide
- Crown Chakra Healing Guide
- Free Chakra Test – How Balanced Are You?
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I was open. Then after sharing my feelings with dysfunctional family I closed off again. Now I am having trouble feeling again.
Thank you so much for this advice on grounding, which is a crucial area I’m exploring right now. I will try those tips, most of which are new, but some of which I work with already (breathing techniques, stillness & mindfulness…) I also discovered something nice while on holiday this year at the sea. Try going into the calm water up to hip level (gentle waves maximum) and feel as the general water motion sways you this way and that. Grip into the sand with your feet and try not to be imbalanced. If that’s ok, move a little deeper to where you at your limit (not in terms of depth – stay safe – but in terms of feeling stable and not being knocked off balance). I enjoyed having the water around chest height and stayed there for an hour or so. I felt great, and it increased my grounding and connection. Hope that helps !
Thank you, I have learned a lot about charkas but I do have a question. What is the purpose of crystals, in healing? I’ve always been a skeptic but if they can help I would be happy to try.
Thanks for the information it was very useful. I have a better understanding of blocked chakras. ❤️✌️
I’m interested and considering, how does having a balanced root chakra support our Soul path and Soul Purpose in this lifetime? I can imagine the feeling of knowing your place of belonging on the Earth would come in at the root. Thoughts?
I read a LOT. Apparently – and this comes from a healer who can actually see INTO the body, including seeing what our chakras actually look like (they don’t look like spinning wheels from the side, only the front or back) – he says that they are now spinning much faster in the vast majority of people and so no longer appear to have colours! Apparently they are now transparent – resembling something like the heat haze you would see coming off objects in bright sunlight. Thought that might be interesting or helpful to some, so thought I’d mention it. I’ve found that the diagram I have of what they actually look like helps me visualize them accurately in my meditations. Also great for those who can’t remember the colours! The root chakra appears as a downward cone (with the point attached at the coccyx), then chakras 2 to 6 have a cone coming out the front and back, each attached with the point of the cone on the relevant position on or in line with the spinal column. Then the crown chakra is also single and the cone points directly up with the point in the centre of the… Read more »
So helpful.
I really appreciate this.
I’ve experienced all of the issues of a deficient root chakra due to a very unstable childhood and had felt unexplainable fear most of my life. It’s gotten better now through practicing many examples listed in this article, as well as a few others that helped me including spending time with animals and actually deeply connecting to them. I started volunteering at a dog shelter a few years ago which helps me more than it helps them. I also had to learn to let go of the pain of my past traumas and forgive those who hurt me, I had to realize that parents are human too and make mistakes instead of holding on to this ideal family picture I had in my head. I hope that helps
If one is a mix, how does one ground over active parts and unblock the stuck parts?
Lonerwolf says: “When the root chakra is imbalanced due to trauma,
psychological issues such as chronic fear, and psychosomatic suppression
and repression, we experience a disruption in the flow of life. Often
our blocked energy centers lead to constant personal, existential and
relationship issues.” This is a true story. Add being raised in an alcoholic and otherwise dysfunctional family, then add going through a Catholic “education” through secondary school, and you have a recipe for root chakra destruction and all the social and personal misery that comes from that. So this information that Luna and Sol are presenting here should not be taken lightly.