Chapter
13

Crown Chakra (Sahasrara): Thousand-Petaled Lotus

To be a whole person with complete body-mind-spirit integration, one must involve the seventh chakra—the part that reflects the human spirit. Spirit means a lot of different things to different people, and in the context of the Crown chakra, it also has a range of meanings.

This is the realm of higher brain function, so not only does the seventh chakra reflect our connection (in a traditional sense) with the Higher Power or energy of the Universe that some people call God, but it also reflects our “big picture” sensibility. The impulse to understand who we are and where we fit into the broad scheme of things comes out of the seventh chakra. This is the place where we question the meaning of life, as well as the place where we learn and where we integrate what we learn into who we are. This is also where we receive inspiration, sudden aha moments of understanding, and a deep sense of connectedness to all of life and the energy that connects all life. We might not feel it all the time, but when we get those flashes of unified feeling, they come from the Crown chakra.

Betsy rarely sees people with closed Crown chakras, and she believes this is because we are all deeply connected to each other and to universal energy, even if we don’t realize it consciously.

Crown Chakra 101

The seventh chakra, the Crown chakra, also is sometimes called the Spiritual chakra, or Thousand-Petaled Lotus chakra, and is called Sahasrara in the traditional Sanskrit. This Sanskrit word is usually translated as “thousand-petaled” or “thousand-spoked,” which refers to the thousand petals of the lotus flower that symbolically represents this chakra.

Traditionally, the Thousand-Petaled Lotus chakra is pictured as inverted on the crown of the head with the thousand petals extending downward (instead of being pictured as sitting upright atop the head). The lotus is an ancient symbol for spiritual flowering because it floats in ponds and its roots extend deep down into the mud at the bottom of the pond. In the same way the lotus is rooted in murky mud but produces a beautiful white flower above the surface of the water, so must we be rooted in the sometimes dark and murky physical world, but we have the potential to blossom spiritually.

However, the fact that the lotus flower is inverted on the body in its traditional representation also suggests that the Crown chakra is rooted in the Heavens and extends down to each of us, as if the Divine Presence, Spirit, or Goddess/God has reached down to touch you reassuringly on the crown of your head. This is your connection to something greater than yourself, and your sacred proof that you are an integral part of that greater something.

There is no traditional element associated with the seventh chakra, which extends beyond the physical notion of Earthly elements, although chakra expert Anodea Judith says the element of this chakra is Thought itself. Just as we touch Spirit here, we also expand the mind, which is the tool that enables us to understand and communicate with Goddess/God or the energy of the Universe.

The seventh chakra’s symbolic color is sometimes described as purple and sometimes described as pure white. As you work with your own seventh chakra, use whatever color makes sense to you. The traditional lotus symbol for the seventh chakra is typically depicted sitting inverted on the crown of the head. There is no element associated with the Crown chakra; there is also no literal sound. Instead, the seed sound of this chakra is the sound of Goddess/God or the Universe speaking AUM, rather than a human voice saying anything at all. Some people also interpret the seed sound of the Crown chakra to be the sound of breath. It is typical in chakra meditations not to speak when reaching this chakra. Instead, feel the Universe vibrate.

The Crown chakra is located slightly above the crown of the head. It encompasses the brain and especially the cerebral cortex, the external layer of gray matter that covers the cerebrum and cerebellum. The cerebral cortex is the most highly developed part of the brain and is responsible for the most advanced human brain functions, such as thinking, understanding, and integrating information.

Will the Real You Please Stand Up?

Who are you? This is probably a question you have thought about periodically throughout the course of reading this book, but the question is never more relevant than when you are working with your Crown chakra; this is where all the parts of you come together. In some systems of belief, spirituality is something separate from the physical, and physical reality is considered unreal or inferior or, even worse, something to deny. However, the concept of the chakras defies this ideology. From the first through the seventh, each chakra represents an integral part of who you are, and each part develops out of the one below it so that by the time Kundalini energy reaches the Crown chakra, you can experience complete integration of all your parts: your instincts, your physical urges, your feelings, your relationships, your compassion, your communication with others, your intuition, and your place in the Universe.

Within your seventh, or Crown chakra, you have the capacity to see all these parts together and integrate them into one exciting, fascinating, and endlessly revealing you. Even as you connect to something greater, that doesn’t obliterate who you are. Rather, it enhances and clarifies you.

The Spirit Link

The nature of Spirit is complex and takes our highest brain function to understand. Even then, we can probably only hope to scratch the surface of what it means. Different cultures define Spirit in different ways, too—as something within us, something outside of us, or both.

The Crown chakra encompasses our connection both to our own spirituality and to a universal spirit that exists within and beyond us. The seventh chakra is like a door that opens to welcome God or universal life force energy. Call it what you want to call it and envision it in whatever way works for you, but the sense is the same. We are a part of something bigger, and we join with this greater energy through our seventh chakras. We send who we are out this door, and the Universe sends what we are back in, so that we recognize we are part of something grand. We are never alone because of this sacred link.

For those who don’t spend much energy on spiritual pursuits or who were never raised in a religious tradition, this can be a difficult concept to swallow. Don’t worry about that. If the seventh chakra doesn’t speak to you—if you don’t feel like you need it right now—that’s fine. It is still open, giving, and receiving like a great cosmic modem, linking you to everything else that has ever lived, breathed, or existed. Trust in that if you want to. Or don’t worry about it until you need to. For some, understanding the Crown chakra may come through the lens of their religion, but the Crown chakra does not have to be related to religion. Whatever way you look at it, it is about connection.

Spirituality is easy for kids. Spiritual visions and perceptions seem unsurprising to them. However, a child’s spirituality is a delicate and sacred thing. Children who grow up in restrictive religious environments often have later difficulty with spirituality, especially if they reject their childhood religious experiences and retain negative memories from it. Conversely, children with absolutely no spiritual experiences might have a hard time opening up to spirituality later in life because it is foreign territory that never had a chance to develop. While every parent has different priorities, the most important way to help a child’s seventh, or Crown chakra develop in a healthy way is to never deny them the reality of their own spiritual perceptions.

The Religion Connection

Betsy has worked with many clients on issues relating to religion. She believes that religion can be an incredibly positive force, and although it isn’t for everyone, for some people, it is healing and supportive. Sometimes, however, people can develop anxiety and other issues connected with negative religious experiences. In these cases, the Crown chakra can provide a lifeline.

Betsy had a client named Sarah who was having panic attacks. Saddled with frequent anxiety, the college student came to see Betsy because her anxiety was interfering with her life. Through therapy, Betsy learned that Sarah was raised in an extremely religious household that emphasized sin and an angry, punishing God. Sarah always had huge fears of letting down God and being subject to Divine wrath. She had vivid memories as a child of being told that if her behavior didn’t change, she would go to Hell. She regularly experienced fear, guilt, and shame related to the way religion was practiced in her childhood home.

As she matured, Sarah began to feel so oppressed by the moral expectations placed upon her by her church and her parents that she began to separate from her childhood church and from her family. Eventually, Sarah abandoned anything to do with religion and spirituality and decided the only way she could progress was to become an atheist (someone who does not believe in God).

As Betsy began to help Sarah explore her belief systems, it became obvious that Sarah was in mourning. She was grieving the loss of the idea that there was some Higher Power in the Universe and that she was connected to this powerful force. Sarah was missing the positive aspects of religion because she had rejected the entire concept, rather than just those parts that had hurt her in the past. Instead of fearing sin, Sarah’s anxiety stemmed from her fear of isolation from God.

Sarah had decided that the God of her childhood no longer fit into her worldview, so she thought that meant there could be no God. However, Betsy discovered that from the very first session, Sarah’s seventh chakra was open and strong. Sarah found this difficult to believe. How could her Spiritual chakra be open when she was an atheist who had purposefully cut herself off from anything spiritual?

As they worked, Sarah began to reevaluate the meaning of her open and balanced seventh chakra. Week after week, as her chakra remained open, Betsy began to feel a sense of relief that maybe Sarah was still connected to a Higher Power after all.

During therapy, Betsy helped Sarah to clarify what she was really feeling and to discover that it was not necessary for her to carry the same strict religious beliefs her parents held to have a spiritual life. As an adult, she could figure out what spirituality and God meant to her.

Sarah began to practice meditation to connect with a larger life force. With regular meditation practice, Sarah rediscovered her spiritual self and was able to free it from the chains of negativity based in her past. Sarah’s anxiety eased and she felt calmer, balanced, and integrated.

Higher Education

The seventh chakra also governs your ability to learn. All knowledge you take into yourself comes in through the Crown chakra, which also reflects the state of the cerebral cortex. You know what they say: never stop learning. To energize the seventh chakra, keep learning. When learning stops, the seventh chakra falters. Fortunately, for most people who are living an active and interactive life, learning never stops because knowledge isn’t just about taking a workshop to build a webpage, learning to play the ukulele, or going back to finish your degree. Knowledge is about engaging with the greater world—stepping out of your comfort zone to discover what that means for who you are and what you are becoming at any given moment.

The Big Picture

When you are conscious, your seventh chakra is at work. In this way, the seventh chakra encompasses a wide range of thinking, from philosophical musing to simply being awake. When you are unconscious, such as while you are sleeping, if you faint, or if you are in a coma, your seventh chakra closes. But you don’t necessarily have to be asleep to be walking through this world in an unconscious state. If you wake up to your life and live with intention and engagement, your seventh chakra will open again.

Seat of the Soul

Not everyone buys into the idea that each of us has a soul, something apart from our physical bodies that survives after our bodies die. However, for those with open seventh, or Crown chakras, the presence of the soul is self-evident. You can just feel it. For those who have been around someone who has died, you might even have seen or sensed the soul leaving the body as that person took the last breath. (This isn’t always at the exact moment of physical death; sometimes, it happens just before or just after death.)

While nobody has ever proven the existence of the soul, many people believe that the soul is the part of you that lives within your body but is not part of your body. You can’t see it on an X-ray or even measure it with a pendulum. It is the presence of life force energy within you that is imprinted with your individual signature and with the signature of the Universe, like a jointly signed contract.

In other words, the seventh chakra reflects both the body’s consciousness and the Spirit’s consciousness. The Crown chakra is the soul’s home. The state of the soul and what it says about spiritual health is reflected in the energy of the Crown chakra. This doesn’t mean whether the soul is “saved” or “damned.” These concepts are foreign to yogic philosophy.

Crown Chakra Correspondences

Your spiritual life is reflected all over your physical life, and the Crown chakra has many correspondences that can help you tap into its power. These correspondences are summarized in the following chart.

Seventh Chakra	Correspondence
Sanskrit name	Sahasrara (Thousand-Petaled Lotus)
Element	No element; or, Thought
Color	Purple or white
Seed sound	The Divine speaks the sound; or, the sound of breath
Location	At the crown of the head
Associated cultural phrases	“That’s the spirit!” “Believe in me.” “You’ve got to have faith.” “God willing.” “Look at the big picture.” “I think, therefore I am.”
Associated anatomy	Skull, brain, and cerebral cortex
Associated psychological and life issues	The true self, unity in all things, knowledge and understanding; spirituality; connecting to a Higher Power or the Universe; seeing the big picture; or the soul
Physical issues related to seventh chakra blockage	Learning disabilities, nervous system failure, headaches (at the crown of the skull), autism, brain tumor, coma, amnesia, and senility/Alzheimer’s disease
Psychological issues related to seventh chakra blockage	Feelings of isolation, depression, lack of inspiration, and spiritual crisis/“dark night of the soul”
Physical issues related to seventh chakra overload	Headaches (at the crown of the skull), Savant Syndrome, brain seizures, and health problems related to poor hygiene or physical neglect
Psychological issues related to seventh chakra overload	Obsession with or addiction to spiritual or intellectual practices, religious or spiritual delusions/hallucinations, nervous breakdown, uncontrolled out-of-body experiences, dissociation with the body, over-intellectualizing, and feeling ungrounded
Seventh chakra therapy	For blocks: meditation, prayer, spiritual study, self-study, learning something new and challenging like a musical instrument or a language, therapy to deal with spiritual crisis For excess: grounding, balancing all seven chakras, physical exercise, therapy to reintegrate the mind with the body, therapy to put spiritual beliefs and practices into perspective

Awakening the Crown Chakra

When your Crown chakra awakens, you see beyond the limits of your own ego. The Universe gets bigger and begs the question: “why?” The lifelong quest to answer that “why” is the province of the seventh chakra; your Crown chakra is the tool for uncovering the answer. Learning, experiencing new things, seeing things in a new way, and generally expanding the mind more and more to encompass each new facet of life as it is encountered are all activities that awaken the Crown chakra. Ultimately, when the inner gaze turns even more fully outward and beyond human experience to seek meaning in a broader, universal perspective, the question becomes something like

• “Who is running this show?”
• “What drives it all?”
• “What is the nature of the fuel for this energy?”
• “What is Goddess/God?”

You nudge your Crown chakra open every time you gain new knowledge or experience. Whenever you reach out into the Universe with a question, your seventh chakra activates—it comes to life.

To get even more Crown chakra energy into your environment, highlight the colors purple or white. Wear these colors, use them in your home, and fill your home with the tools for gaining knowledge, such as books and digital media. Also, consider reserving a space in your home for meditation or prayer where you can be quiet and reflect on things. A meditation room is nice but not necessary. Any space that is clean, uncluttered, and quiet will work. Use it every day, and your Crown chakra will remain open and strong as a conduit for the prana life force energy of the Universe.

You can also try this exercise for awakening the Crown chakra:

1. Kneel on the floor and put your palms together in front of your chest in prayer position.
2. Bow your head in supplication to Spirit energy greater than yourself. Close your eyes. Take several long, slow, and deep breaths, and then draw your attention to the area at the crown of your head.
3. Raise your head up so your neck is aligned perfectly over your spine. Imagine your Crown chakra. Try to see what color it is, deep purple or bright white. Imagine it glowing brilliantly and spinning slowly. Try to feel it at the top of your head or just above it, as vibrating, swirling energy.
4. Breathe evenly and listen to the sound of your breath. Now, imagine Goddess/God or the vibration of the Universe uttering the sound: AUM. Don’t make any sound yourself other than breathing. Just listen and hear the sound coming from outside yourself and vibrating inside you.
5. Once again, bow to Divine energy, and then rest your hands on your knees, lift your head, and open your eyes. Breathe. Your Crown chakra is awakened.

Aligning the Crown Chakra

When your Crown chakra is properly aligned, you feel grounded, connected to others, and connected to the Universe. You perceive the unity in all things, and yet you appreciate your own individuality and ability to gain knowledge and interpret information as part of your personal growth. Aligning your Crown chakra is the final act of alignment; when all your chakras are straight, open, and permitting the free flow of prana life force energy, you will gain ultimate balance. You can live in the world while still knowing Goddess/God energy, the Source, and the All.

To get your Crown chakra properly aligned, try this exercise:

1. Stand in yoga’s Mountain pose (see Chapter 7) with your feet about hip-width apart and your arms at your sides. Feel your feet firmly planted on the floor. Connect with the energy of the Earth and imagine your body-mind-spirit becoming grounded.
2. Imagine your seventh chakra at the crown of your head. Visualize a deep purple or pure white light shining out of the top of your head and extending in a brilliant beam up toward the sky. Imagine energy flowing up and out of your seventh chakra, and then imagine a matching beam of light coming down from the Heavens and from far beyond the place where you could see its Source, and imagine that light beaming directly into the crown of your head so that Divine energy flows up and down.
3. Now, visualize this beam of light shooting straight from the Source down from the Heavens to your Crown chakra, and then down through your Third Eye chakra, your Throat chakra, your Heart chakra, your Solar Plexus chakra, your Sacral chakra, your Root chakra, and out from the base of your spine straight down into the Earth, reaching all the way to the Earth’s core. Imagine the entire ray of light filling your body-mind-spirit with glittering, radiating energy.
4. Lift your arms straight up overhead and imagine the light flowing up and down, into the Heavens and down from the Heavens, into the core of the Earth, and back up again to Earth’s surface. Your Crown chakra—all seven of your chakras—should now be aligned. You are both in and of the world. Invite Kundalini serpent energy to activate and rise within you, urging you to engage in the Divine life of the world.

Blocks in the Crown Chakra

When your seventh chakra, or Crown chakra is blocked, you feel cut off. It’s as if someone cut the power to your house and your source of energy and heat is gone. With a blocked Crown chakra, you can still function in the world. You can (and will) talk to other people—even love them. You can feel, do, and speak. However, you cannot spark a connection to the Goddess/God, you cannot feel engaged with energy of the prana life force, and you will have trouble seeing the big picture. You’ll struggle to learn, and you won’t have any context for your knowledge. Spirit is stifled and you feel lost, even when you know exactly where you are in space and time.

Fortunately, Crown chakra blocks aren’t common. The Universe has a way of whispering to us even if we aren’t listening. Even if we give up on the Goddess/God or a Divine life force, the Universe does not give up on us. It takes powerful negative experiences to close down a Crown chakra, but when it does close, you might experience a spiritual crisis. The question, “What does it all mean?” suddenly seems like it has no answer, and the consequences of that non-answer might suddenly seem more dire to you than you ever imagined possible.

People with blocked Crown chakras also tend to have problems learning. They have trouble grasping new concepts and settle into such a comfortable sameness that the idea of experiencing anything new becomes terrifying. Healing a blocked Crown chakra is incredibly important so you can live fully and be spiritually whole. Your whole brain functions properly with an open Crown chakra. Don’t despair! Growing through a spiritual crisis, a “dark night of the soul,” can strengthen your sense of purpose and give you a renewed understanding of life. What was clouded can shine anew with Divine light.

Blocked Crown Chakra Health Issues

Seventh chakra, or Crown chakra, health issues, like sixth chakra, or Third Eye chakra, health issues, settle in the head, but seventh chakra issues have more to do with the top of the head and higher brain function. A blocked Crown chakra can result in headaches, especially those on the top of the head. The sudden onset of learning disabilities, memory loss (like amnesia), or other brain dysfunction is common with seventh chakra blocks. Temporary loss of consciousness, including coma, also are common with seventh chakra blocks.

Blocked Crown Chakra Psychological Issues

When the Crown chakra is blocked, the psychological implications relate to both learning and spiritual matters. Blocked seventh chakra people have trouble comprehending new information and sometimes isolate themselves to avoid dealing with the repercussions of a learning disability or cognitive malfunction. They might refuse to see beyond a narrow set of beliefs or to experience anything new. Even some religious people have closed seventh chakras because they actually worship their own narrow idea of the Goddess/God rather than being open to the experience of actual divinity. This can happen out of fear, force of habit, or simply a lack of courage and curiosity. The result is often narrow-mindedness, prejudice, hate, depression, and a life that grows smaller and smaller.

Blocked seventh chakras are also related to spiritual crises, which are common when someone rejects a spiritual tradition and has nothing to take its place or becomes filled with doubt in which all previous faith is called into question. When someone gives up on learning, rejects new knowledge, or turns away from Spirit, the Crown chakra can shut down.

Mother Teresa’s much-publicized spiritual crisis is a perfect example. Her words to the Reverend Michael Van Der Peet in September 1979 express this block: “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.” Even though she was famous all over the world for her selfless work and spiritual devotion, she had doubts, fear, and a feeling of isolation from the Divine.

You don’t have to be religious to have an open seventh chakra. You don’t even have to believe in a particular Goddess/God or even the concept of a Higher Power. Many people are spiritually connected to life force energy despite their rejection of organized religion or what they think of as spiritual pursuits. Some are so devoted to not believing in Goddess/God, logic, science, or secular humanism, that this devotion becomes, in itself, a sort of religion of the mind and generates its own brand of spirituality. Being passionate about living, learning, and being is a reflection of an open Crown chakra. In other words, the seventh chakra does not demand any particular adherence other than the one devoted to the quest for knowledge of the meaning of life. When the quest for knowledge is active, so is the seventh chakra.

Healing a Blocked Crown Chakra

To heal and strengthen a blocked Crown chakra, work your mind by gaining knowledge. Purposefully have new experiences, even if you don’t necessarily find doing so comfortable. Think, consider, philosophize, theorize, and never stop learning. Let your quest for knowledge encompass both the physical world and the world beyond. Question what you learn and don’t just believe everything you hear. Be open to not only facts but also those realities that might not be provable. Have both doubt and faith and have a willingness to see beyond the obvious. If it’s good for your brain, it’s good for your seventh chakra.

You can also try some of these activities to open a blocked Crown chakra:

• Meditate, especially on the nature of the Universe, the Goddess/God, or any other spiritual matters you find interesting. Try listening for the answers to your deepest questions.
• Pray or reach out to a Higher Power in whatever manner fits in with your belief system. Ask for what you need and want. The Universe will hear you.
• Learn something new. Studies show that choral singing or learning a language or a new musical instrument are some of the best ways to maintain cognitive brain function.
• Eat purple or (naturally) white foods like purple grapes, plums, purple or white eggplant, white radishes, potatoes, or onions.
• Catch snowflakes or raindrops on your tongue, or take off your hat and feel them landing on your head.
• Do word or number puzzles.
• Have someone give you a head rub.
• Recite these mantras:

• I can learn anything.
• I honor my body, my mind, and my spirit equally.
• I am filled with life force energy.
• Goddess/God lives within me.
• I am a Divine being.
• I never stop learning.

Overload in the Crown Chakra

When the Crown chakra is too open and overloaded with energy, spiritual matters not only prevail, they push other matters off the radar. These are the people who get addicted to religious practices or are so overzealous in their spiritual pursuits that they forget to live in the world. This is fine for monks and nuns in monasteries and hermits in caves who have devoted their lives to the singular pursuit of spirituality, but for the rest of us who have to live in the world, a sense of balance with the more mundane aspects of life is essential. (For that matter, even monks and nuns need to make the food, do the dishes, and weed the garden.) An overloaded seventh chakra tips the scale away from the real world, the body, and even other people in favor of a vision that always and only looks upward.

But an overloaded Crown chakra can also be about an obsessive devotion to learning and gaining knowledge at the expense of actual practical application of knowledge. People with unusual intellectual abilities sometimes have overloaded seventh chakras when these abilities control their lives. Maybe you are so devoted to spiritual pursuits that you don’t remember to eat, sleep, or brush your teeth. Or maybe you are a scholar, an intellectual, or so fascinated with learning that you spend your days in endless reading, become overly interested in political policy debates, or plumb the depths of digitized sacred texts online to find answers to your most philosophical questions, but you ignore the people around you. Whatever the case, an overloaded seventh chakra can result in being completely out of touch with the real world, your actual body, your job, your daily duties, and your relationships.

Overloaded Crown Chakra Health Issues

People with overloaded seventh chakras tend to have headaches at the crown of the heads, rather than in other areas like the forehead or sinuses. An overloaded seventh chakra sometimes can be reflected in a brain abnormality, especially one that grows quickly. Savant Syndrome, a condition characterized by having unusual skill at something such as art, music, math, or remembering dates, can be a sign of an overloaded seventh chakra if that person is (as is often the case) impaired in other ways. Howard Hughes, billionaire businessman of the Great War generation, comes to mind. Hughes was a brilliant thinker, doer, and genius, but he was saddled with obsessive-compulsive disorder and other problems that made it extremely difficult for him to live a normal life.

People with overloaded seventh chakras can also have overactive nervous systems and can suffer from seizures or nervous breakdowns. Because they often lose touch with their bodies, people with overloaded seventh chakras might also have poor hygiene or health problems related to physical neglect.

Overloaded Crown Chakra Psychological Issues

When you have too much energy in your seventh chakra, you tend to be so focused on your mind that you lose touch with your body, which can cause not just health problems but problems with relationships and daily functioning. If you forget to shower or change your clothes, you are probably going to start having problems out there in the world.

Overloaded seventh chakra people also tend to be addicted to spiritual or intellectual practices like prayer, meditation, or constant study. They might suffer from religious or spiritual delusions or hallucinations, and might even have out-of-body experiences because they are so much in their heads and so little in their bodies. Also, they might feel separate from their bodies, as if their bodies don’t belong to them. Overintellectualizing is a common problem for overloaded seventh chakras, as is a feeling of not being grounded.

If you have an overloaded seventh chakra, or Crown chakra, chances are you have a closed first chakra, or Root chakra, because these two chakras often reflect each other’s imbalances. Likewise, an overloaded first chakra sometimes coincides with a blocked seventh chakra. To balance your Crown chakra, look back at the exercises for energizing and opening your Root chakra.

Although we are all spiritual beings who are having human experiences here on Earth, it is important to remember that we are also living on the physical plane within Earthly bodies, and we need to pay attention to the body and the world around us, rather than constantly focusing exclusively on the spiritual world beyond.

Healing an Overloaded Crown Chakra

First chakra grounding can be very helpful for overloaded sixth and seventh chakras. Get into your body more and you’ll have an easier time balancing your tendency to live inside your head or in front of a screen. Move your body, feel your feet on the ground, jump up and down, dance, and exercise. Pay attention to the world. List physical details you see in front of you. Touch things. Smell, taste, and feel. Remember, you are here in your body right now for a reason. You aren’t up in Heaven yet or even in an ivory tower. Live while you are alive. It isn’t all about thinking or the unending intellectual search.

Following are some other good strategies for healing an overloaded Crown chakra:

• Practice balancing all seven chakras each day to remind you that you are more than just your brain.
• Tune in to your five senses. Sit quietly and focus on everything you can see in the room around you. Then notice everything you can hear, from the sound of traffic or birds outside to the creaking floors and ticking ceiling fan. Next, tune in to everything you can feel: the air on your face, your clothing, and your jewelry. Can you smell anything? Breathe in deeply and find out. What taste do you have in your mouth right now?
• Eat something. Eating is very grounding. Foods that come from the earth, especially those that grow deep in the soil like potatoes, onions, and carrots, are especially grounding. Eat slowly and notice the taste and texture of the food.
• Exercise outside. Get your heart rate up and your muscles moving.
• Spend less time in front of a screen. Focus on the time you spend engaging with digital media. How much of your life has moved online? Try to manage the amount of time you spend online, as well as how and where you use it. Balance time online with time doing real-world activities.
• Therapy can help you reintegrate your mind and body, or it can help you put your spiritual or intellectual practices into perspective so you can also function in the real world.
• Practice noticing what physically exists around you. Remind yourself periodically throughout the day to “be here now.” Take a “vision break” every two hours, and spend just two minutes observing actual objects in your immediate environment.
• Leave the house, the library, or the office. Do errands. Take a walk. Visit a parent or friend. Force yourself to engage with the world outside your enclave of work and/or study.

Yoga Poses to Balance the Crown Chakra

Two good yoga poses for balancing the Crown chakra are Corpse pose (Savasana), which you first learned in Chapter 7, and Headstand pose, also called Sirsasana.

When doing Corpse pose to balance the Crown chakra, focus on the feel and weight of your body sinking into the ground, but also envision your crown opening and energy flowing through all your chakras.

Headstand is an advanced yoga pose, and we don’t encourage you to try it for the first time on your own. Go to a yoga class where an experienced teacher can lead you safely into this pose. However, go ahead and try our easier variation, explained in the following section.

Modified Headstand (Sirsasana)

A Headstand against a wall is a great place for people to start who are ready for this pose. If you’ve been practicing yoga for a while and a skilled teacher can demonstrate for you in person how to do headstand, then go for it. Eventually, you might even be able to do a Headstand in the middle of the room. This is an excellent pose for both opening a blocked Crown chakra and for calming an overloaded Crown chakra because it puts your portal to the mind directly in contact with the Earth.

However, not everybody can do Headstand pose or can do it yet. Why not get all the benefits without all the pressure? Try this modified version:

1. Kneel on all fours in front of a folded blanket. Place your hands on the blanket, and come down onto your forearms. Clasp your hands together making a space about the size of your head with your hands. Keep your elbows wide apart, and make sure your wrists remain pushing down into the blanket.
2. Raise your hips and come onto your feet so that your hips are in the air, your feet are on the ground, and your upper body is supported by your forearms and hands.
3. Put your head down into the space between your forearms so your crown rests on the blanket and your clasped hands cup your head. Walk your feet in a little closer. If this is too difficult, come out of the pose and move to a wall so your back can lean against the wall as you walk your feet in closer to your arms. Or don’t come up onto your feet. Stay on your knees as you rest your head on the floor.
4. Take a few deep breaths, and feel the crown of your head against the blanket. Stay in this position as long as you like.
5. To come out of the pose, come back down onto your knees with your forehead resting on the floor. Stay here for at least 30 seconds. Sit up slowly.

Astrology for the Awakened Crown Chakra

For each of the chakras, we have charted the rise of Kundalini energy up from the activated first chakra, or Root chakra, through the energies of the astrological planets and signs corresponding to each. An understanding of astrological influences has shown how one chakra blossoms into another—aligning and giving full expression to the life force energy within us. When these energies reach a fully activated and waiting Crown chakra, the understanding of enlightenment awakens within you. Because the realm of Spirit, the nirvana of enlightenment, exists beyond the physical Universe in all its expansiveness, the Crown chakra itself spins beyond expression through astrology’s planets and signs. This kind of knowing transcends articulation.

To awaken the Crown chakra, the life force energy must first move through astrology’s planets and signs, healing each chakra we have charted, with the help of the Heavens. Let’s review the astrological chakra correspondences as they unfold in the body.

ASTROLOGICAL CHAKRA CORRESPONDENCES FOR EACH OF THE CHAKRAS WE HAVE CHARTED

Chakra	Planetary Ruler	Sign(s) Ruled
Seventh, or Crown	Union with the Divine
Sixth, or Third Eye	Sun 3 Moon 4	Leo U Cancer Y
Fifth, or Throat	Mercury 5	Gemini T, Virgo I
Fourth, or Heart	Venus 6	Taurus R, Libra O
Third, or Solar Plexus	Mars 7 Pluto ;	Aries E Scorpio P
Second, or Sacral	Jupiter 8 Neptune =	Sagittarius { Pisces W
First, or Root	Saturn 0 Uranus -	Capricorn } Aquarius Q

Kundalini rises. How wonderful it will be to reach the fullness of this awakened healing! Upon arrival, the seventh chakra opens its Thousand-Petaled Lotus as a union with the Divine unfolds a crown above our heads. Here on Earth, you embody our Divine humanity.