Reach high, for stars lie hidden in you. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal. Rabindranath Tagore
Starting my own Chakradance business has highlighted some flaws – actually, let’s use the term ‘quirks’ – in my character.
It’s fair to say, I’ve never been a great planner, I tend to just turn up in my life and go with it. And I’ve always been employed by someone who has given me a basic structure within which to work.
Until a few days ago, I had begrudgingly written business plans and a marketing plan, just because people, who knew better than me, said I should.
And I thought having a plan was a sensible, well, plan. It was all about timelines and ticking items off the to-do list. Or so I thought.
Now, I’m having the aha moment. Planning is about maintaining a vision from thought into action.
This planning stuff is about vision, and creating intentions. Where do I want to go with my business? And how do I convey that message to the people I want to attract?
This week my apparent lack of marketing savvy did set in motion a mild panic attack, followed by a self-beration session along the lines of, “why can’t you do what you should do, like planning and stuff, and not just fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and trust in the right outcome all the time?”
After I gave myself a bit of a rubbishing, I remembered that most of my great life choices had been part accident, part planning, part going with the flow. (Truth be told, mostly ‘accidents’…)
What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Jane Goodall
I do believe in serendipity, in fact, I rely on it. If I thought my decision-making skills were the be-all and end-all of my life plan, well I’d be worried.
And I find I make my best decisions intuitively, the initial hunch, like the first outfit I try on before the other ten, is usually the right one.
And I always try to make decisions based on love, as my dear friend says, ‘what would love do right now?’ In some ways, that’s my plan, align my values to love and service, and then take thoughtful and inspired actions.
In my last post I experimented with using the chakras as a framework for my business vision. I feel inspired to follow that through a little.
With a synchronicity I am becoming accustomed to, I also found myself reading about the correlation between the chakras and the endocrine system, which governs the production and distribution of hormones in the body.
So I have somehow made a hotch-potch of all of these ideas, as I am want to do, trusting that its significance will be revealed in time.
I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking. Albert Einstein
As I am starting at the top, and as the crown chakra is the centre of inspiration, I’ll just trust in that process, for now. Knowing at some point even the greatest of inspiration needs to be wrangled into reality and form.
The human body is abundantly filled with magnificent systems that maintain life and health. And while it’s true that these systems work very well without any conscious effort on our part, and even function when we behave in ways that run contrary to them. What potential could we unleash by actually living in harmony with our body, and its systems?
Like the chakras, all the glands in the endocrine system work together, and rely on each other to stay in balance. The endocrine system works with the nervous system, together forming an important part of the immune system.
An endocrine gland is a group of cells that secretes into the bloodstream tiny amounts of the hormone it produces. In this way, hormones adjust the body’s growth, mood, sleep, cell repair, sexual reproduction, digestion, and homeostasis (constant internal balance).
While the seven chakras do not correspond exactly with the location of the endocrine glands, there’s enough correlation to make a connection helpful, to make sense of the interplay between the endocrine system, the chakras, and our emotional and physical health.
Each chakra corresponds to a level of consciousness, a musical tone, a colour, and like hormones, an emotional state. Amanda McQuade Crawford
Our emotions demonstrably affect our physical state, from metabolic rate to nervous system. And this effect is the interplay between the nervous system and the endocrine system in action. Hormones are both triggered by our emotions and trigger emotions, for example, adrenaline and fear, oxytocin and love.
Here’s a rough breakdown of the correlation between the chakras and the endocrine system, courtesy of The Healthy Chakra Guide:
Root chakra — Reproductive glands (testes in men; ovaries in women); controls sexual development and secretes sex hormones.
Sacral chakra — Pancreas; regulates metabolism.
Solar Plexus chakra — Adrenal glands; regulates the immune system and metabolism.
Heart chakra — Thymus gland; regulates the immune system.
Throat chakra — Thyroid gland; regulates body temperature and metabolism.
Third Eye chakra — Pituitary gland; produces hormones and governs the function of the previous five glands.
Crown chakra — Pineal gland; regulates biological cycles, including sleep.
There are two executive endocrine glands that regulate overall glandular and biological function: the pituitary gland and the pineal gland. The pituitary regulates body chemistry, emotion, and intellect, and works in partnership with the pineal gland to achieve overall homeostasis of the body. The pineal gland governs the pituitary gland – inhibiting it if required for the balance of hormones in the body.
The crown chakra, where I’ll begin, corresponds to the pineal gland, which senses changes in light according to season and night and day. It governs our body cycles and particularly our rest and recuperation. This has an effect on our immunity – which is why getting a healthy amount of natural light and rest is so good for us. The pineal gland also produces melatonin which is a natural anti-depressant.
The pineal gland regulates the endocrine functions, and converts the signals of the nervous system to endocrine signals. Enabling the body’s main systems to work in harmony with each other.
Shaped like a pinecone – hence the name pineal – and the size of a tear-drop, the pineal gland sits deep under the brain, between the two eyes. Which is why it is sometimes correlated with the third eye chakra. In fact Rene Descartes called this area ‘the seat of the soul.’
My view is that this gland [pineal gland] is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed. Rene Descartes
It has been speculated that the Pineal gland is involved in the production of the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the human brain, and that a release of DMT occurs during REM dream sleep and prior to death, possibly contributing to Near Death Experiences.
In this way the Pineal gland is intricately linked to the third eye and crown chakras, in the creation of dreams and visions, and as the gateway to realm of the spirit or soul. It is activated by light, in the same way the crown chakra is said to receive the divine light through the top of the head – received by us, as pure awareness and thought.
Anodea Judith says that the themes of the crown chakra are:
- Opening to the power of emptiness
- Receiving guidance and grace
- Clarifying ideas into intention
- Clearing limiting beliefs
Just as the pineal responds to light, so the crown chakra is the first transducer of energetic light through the chakras, transforming divine consciousness into personal consciousness – thoughts, awareness, intelligence, ideas, beliefs, interpretations, information, understanding, intention, and attention.
The seventh chakra is the gateway to universal or divine consciousness. In this sense, we begin by “downloading the Divine.” Anodea Judith
This divine spark cannot enter a full mind, so the state that precedes this is emptiness. Like Kevin Costner’s character in Tin Cup, who commands before each pitch of the baseball “clear the mechanism,” it is only when we can let go of our thoughts of what is that we can see what could be.
The seven chakras are embedded into our nervous system. When aligned, they form a vertical channel along our core. Within this channel, two major currents of energy move upward and downward: the currents of liberation and manifestation. Anodea Judith
The crown chakra represents the spark of creativity that is transformed into my personal consciousness. It governs the process by which I receive inspiration, and then ask myself how it relates to my life purpose.
As I wrote in my last post, the inspiration for teaching Chakradance comes from my broader sense of the meaning of life. To know ourselves, to know our gifts, and share gifts and ourselves for benefit of humanity – whether that is family friends, community, or the broader world. Chakradance has allowed me to explore this inner journey and I want to teach others this technique of journeying within.
Inspiration has multiple meanings: a divine influence, a moment of creative intelligence, or the drawing in of breath.
This word derives from the old French word meaning to breathe. Hence the idea of inspiration is intricately linked to life itself. The creative spark is literally the breath of life, of our life purpose. Like the breath, we take it into ourselves, transform it, and then release it out into the world. And it happens in spite of us, it is the flow of life.
Each in breath a new beginning, each out breath a complete letting go. Jon Kabat-Zinn
But the breath isn’t the end of the story, we breathe so we can live, we are inspired so we can create. This is only the beginning, what happens next decides whether the inspiration stays as an idea or whether it manifests as a reality.
It is a constant process of bringing in the inspiration and then using our executive command facilities to bring it down into the world.
The breath also has a profound effect on the endocrine system. Mindful breathing lowers our metabolic rate and calms our sympathetic nervous system, reducing the trigger for the stress hormone adrenaline.
In this blog I have tended to align the crown chakra with my seventh intention, love. There is something miraculous that happens when I set my intention on love. My heart opens, my mind fills with light-filled thoughts and I smile. Try it. Try thinking about love, someone you love, it could be your devoted pet. It’s an instant energy shift.
I love Chakradance, and I love sharing it with others. This is the core of my business vision.
This is the wisdom of the crown chakra – focusing within, focusing on my breath, focusing on my creative vision, and setting intentions for each day to bring that vision from thought into being. There is a time for action, but first, it is a time for allowing the inspiration to come and trusting it when it does.
Affirmations for inspiration by Che Garman:
Every day I read something insightful and inspiring.
Every flash of inspiration reminds me that my inner resources are all-knowing and all-powerful.
I accept my inner voice with reverence and respect.
I am ready to act on all inspiration that comes to me.
I ask that the work I do provide me with its own inspiration and energy.
I combine inspired thought with intelligent action.
I dare to follow my inner voice.
My inspirational signals are clear and strong.
Bless!
Title image:
Crown chakra images:
Sources:
Hormones Demystified, by Amanda McQuade Crawford, Yoga Journal May-Jun 1997
Seven intentions 