The 7 Chakras
The 7 Chakras Aren't What You Think — A Practitioner's Reframe
By Dalina In | Eternal Therapy
Every wellness blog on the internet has a chakra chart. You've probably seen it:
the rainbow-colored diagram with neat little labels: root is red, sacral is orange, solar plexus is yellow, and so on up the spine until you reach the crown in violet. It's clean, symmetrical, and easy to understand.
It's also a bit misleading.
After working with energy for over a decade, I've come to see the chakra system very differently than how it's typically presented online. The popular version treats chakras like a checklist, balance each one, and you're done. But in practice, that's not how the energy body works at all. Chakras aren't light switches you flip on and off. They're more like conversations your body is having with itself, and learning to listen to those conversations is where the real healing begins.
Here's what I wish someone had told me when I started.
Forget the rainbow for a moment
The seven main chakras
root (Muladhara), sacral (Svadhisthana), solar plexus (Manipura), heart (Anahata), throat (Vishuddha), third eye (Ajna), and crown (Sahasrara) -originate from ancient Indian spiritual texts dating back thousands of years. They were described as spinning wheels of energy running along the spine, each connected to specific aspects of physical, emotional, and spiritual life.
But here's what gets lost in the modern Instagram version: the original teachings weren't about "fixing" individual chakras in isolation. They were part of an integrated system, a map of human consciousness. The chakras were never meant to be treated like car parts you swap out when they break. They're interconnected. What happens in your root affects your throat. What's blocked in your heart shows up in your gut.
I remember when I took my first Reiki class, I felt as if we were flying through the course. With so much information, life, and experiences happening in each chakra, how would it be possible to “clear someone's chakras” in one hour? It led me down a rabbit hole that ended up where I am in my career today, focusing on the chakras that need priority. From there, it tells you your life story, leading you to lean in, listen, and feel the residue of each chakra. A self-healing process begins, and I realized our bodies are always trying to communicate. We are more intelligent than we give ourselves credit for. Not the type of intelligence that requires academic understanding, but something deeply empathetic and loving, always trying to offer us signals, even if it appeared as pain.
The root isn't just about survival; it's about trust
The root chakra, located at the base of the spine, is typically described as being about safety, security, and basic survival needs. And that's true as far as it goes. But in my work, I've found that root imbalance almost always traces back to something deeper: a fundamental break in trust.
Trust in the body. Trust in other people. Trust that the ground won't fall out from under you.
When someone comes to me with chronic anxiety, insomnia, or that constant feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop, we almost always end up working with the root, not because they're in physical danger, but because somewhere along the way, their system learned that it wasn't safe to relax. The root chakra holds that programming.
What root imbalance actually looks like in real life: constant hypervigilance or scanning for threats, difficulty staying present (always mentally in the past or future), chronic lower back pain, hip tension, or digestive issues, hoarding behaviors or intense anxiety around money, and feeling like you don't belong anywhere.
When I’m in a fear state, I notice that my hip begins to lock or that I need a lower back release. Knowing the signs has helped me be conscious of giving myself time and space to revisit the root, even when I thought things had been resolved. We underestimate heavy subconscious programming.
The sacral holds more than creativity
The sacral chakra, just below the navel, gets the "creativity and sexuality" label. While those are part of its territory, what I see most often in practice is that the sacral holds our relationship with pleasure and receiving.
Many people- especially those who've experienced trauma or grown up in environments where their needs were minimized- have a sacral chakra that's essentially shut down. They've learned to give endlessly but can't receive. They feel guilty about resting. They've disconnected from what their body actually wants, sometimes to please others or please the programming of “productivity”. Healing the sacral isn't about forcing creativity or sexuality. It's about rebuilding the capacity to feel fully, without apology.
I’ve seen how sexual energy can be misinterpreted as sexual addictions, transformed into inspired creativity. Shame tends to unconsciously sneak in and trick us into believing we are incapable of change or being understood.
Solar plexus is the one that gets loud when you ignore it
The solar plexus sits in the upper abdomen, and it governs personal power, confidence, and self-worth. This is the chakra that most people feel physically when it's out of balance, that knot in the stomach before a difficult conversation, the nausea before a big decision, the "gut feeling" that something is wrong.
What I've noticed in my practice is that solar plexus imbalance rarely exists alone. It usually shows up alongside throat chakra issues, because when we don't feel worthy (solar plexus), we stop speaking up (throat). The two feed each other in a cycle that can persist for years.
Signs of solar plexus imbalance: chronic people-pleasing, difficulty making decisions or constantly second-guessing yourself, stomach issues, digestive problems, or acid reflux, either controlling behavior or feeling completely powerless, and a persistent sense of not being "enough."
The heart, where most people's healing actually begins
The heart chakra sits in the center of the chest, and in my experience, it's the most important energy center in the entire system. Not because it's more significant than the others, but because it acts as a bridge between the lower chakras (which deal with our physical, earthly experience) and the upper chakras (which connect to expression, intuition, and spirit).
When the heart is open, energy flows between the upper and lower systems. When it's guarded or wounded, the whole system fragments. You might have a brilliant third eye and a strong root, but they can't communicate with each other. This is why some highly intuitive people still feel deeply unsafe, or why some very grounded people feel emotionally numb.
Grief, betrayal, and loss live in the heart chakra. So does the fear of being hurt again. Healing here isn't about forcing the heart open- it's about creating enough safety that it opens on its own.
Throat, the chakra that holds everything you never said
The throat chakra is about communication, but not just in the "speak your truth" bumper-sticker way. In energetic terms, the throat holds every word you swallowed, every feeling you suppressed, every time you said "I'm fine" when you weren't.
I've worked with clients who had chronic sore throats, thyroid issues, or jaw tension with no apparent physical cause. In many cases, when we began working with the throat energetically, what surfaced wasn't just unexpressed words; it was unexpressed identity. Who they actually were versus who they'd been performing as.
Throat chakra healing can be one of the most emotional and liberating experiences in energy work, because when you finally release what you've been holding back, the relief is physical. You can literally feel your throat and jaw unclench.
I am someone who has spent most of my life healing my throat chakra. I’ve experienced fears in speaking up that have turned into volcanic events of suppressed anger. Years of dental work rooted in shame and the dismissal of my own voice. Never underestimate how suppression can affect you.
Third eye- intuition isn't what movies taught you
The third eye, located between the eyebrows, is associated with intuition, inner knowing, and perception beyond the five senses. It's also the most romanticized chakra thanks to pop culture; people imagine opening it and suddenly seeing auras or predicting the future.
The reality is much quieter and more practical unless you are a deep practitioner of the occult arts. A balanced third eye looks like clarity in decision-making, the ability to see patterns in your life, trust in your own perception, and the capacity to distinguish between fear-based thinking and genuine intuition. It's not as dramatic as it appears in movies; it can be grounding and discerning.
What I see more often than a "closed" third eye is an overactive one in people who are highly intuitive but overwhelmed by it. They pick up on everyone else's emotions, they can't stop analyzing, and they overthink everything. The work here isn't to open the third eye wider. It's to ground it, to connect it back down to the root, so the intuition has a stable foundation.
The Crown is the one you can't force
The crown chakra sits at the top of the head and is described as our connection to the divine, to universal consciousness, to whatever you understand as something larger than yourself. Every tradition describes this differently, and that's fine. The crown chakra isn't about adopting a specific belief system. It's about being open to the mystery.
Here's what I've learned about the crown: you can't force it open through techniques alone. It opens as a natural consequence of doing the work on the other six and with clear, honest intentions. When the root feels safe, the heart is open, the throat is clear, and the third eye is grounded, the crown responds. It floods the chakras with a divine connection that I still have no words for. It's what happens when you've cultivated a dedication to yourself. People who try to skip straight to the crown, through intense meditation, plant medicine, or spiritual bypassing- often end up feeling more ungrounded and anxious, not less. Crown energy without root grounding is like a kite without a string.
How I actually work with chakras
In my practice at Eternal Therapy, I don't follow a script of working through the chakras in order. Every person's energy is different, and what needs attention first is rarely what they expect. Sometimes someone comes in wanting to open their third eye and we end up spending the entire session on their root. Sometimes the physical issue is in the throat but the energetic root is in the heart.
This is why I believe in the power of working with a practitioner rather than self-diagnosing chakra imbalances from a chart. The chart is a map, but the territory is always more complex and more beautiful than the map suggests.
If you're curious about where your energy is right now, I offer sessions that can help you understand what's happening in your system and what it needs. We work in person, by phone, and through distance Reiki, whatever format suits you.
And if you're drawn to learning this work for yourself, our Reiki certification courses go deep into the energetic body and how to read and work with it.
Dalina In is the founder and lead practitioner at Eternal Therapy. With over 10 years of experience in holistic wellness and certifications in Reiki Mastery, Hypnotherapy, and Myofascial Massage, she brings a practitioner's perspective to ancient wisdom. Learn more at eternal-therapy.com.
