The Psychology of True Happiness Connecting Heaven and Earth: Chakras, wholeness, and happiness Anodea Judith Welcome, everyone. We are so glad that you are joining us today and I'm especially glad to be introducing today's guest, Dr. Anodea Judith. Anodea is a best-selling author and cutting-edge thought leader on chakras, healing and personal and planetary evolution. She teaches her workshops and trainings worldwide and in fact just got back yesterday from literally flying around the world to teach. We're so grateful that you're able to join us today. Welcome, Anodea. Thank you, Laurie. Delighted to be here. So Anodea, today we're talking about happiness, well-being, flourishing, something I think you know a lot about. I just want to say before we start, I was introduced to your book Eastern Body, Western Mind while I was in graduate school in 1997. And I really loved your mapping of energies in the body and how understanding the chakras could provide illumination and support in our own development and well-being. Maybe you could say a little bit about what chakras are for those who might not be familiar with them. Sure. These days it's almost a household word, though it wasn't when I started. But a chakra is an energy center in the body. In classic theory there are seven of them, although a lot of New Age people posit all kinds of numbers, but seven major chakras along the nerve ganglia and they correspond to different levels of consciousness. My working definition is that a chakra is a center of organization for the reception, the assimilation and the expression of life force energy. So in other words, each one of our chakras receives energy on its particular level, it assimilates it into the body-mind complex, and then it expresses that energy out in some way. Well, that's very comprehensive. Was that definition in your first book? I don't think it was in the first book, Wheels of Life. It may have been in Eastern Body, Western Mind. That one was 20 years ago, I can't quite remember when I really started, and actually lately I've even been adding one more word. So "reception, assimilation, storage, and expression" because I think also the chakras store energy, and we want them to store good energy and sometimes they store energy of trauma and wounding and things like that. Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 1
[0:05:16] Yes, yes, they definitely can, and how you've described this, I'm imagining these centers of organization of this energy can either be balanced or imbalanced. What happens when there is an imbalance? How do we experience that? Well, we want to be able to have a full flow of our life force energy through us and have it available to us when we need it for something and not have too much of it. So like when we want to go to sleep, we want to be able to calm down or we want to be able to be quiet for meditation. So the balancing is not too much energy, not too little energy in each chakra. I have a diagnostic system that I developed actually in the book Eastern Body, Western Mind where I call a chakra "excessive" or "deficient," meaning that it has too much energy or too little. An excessive chakra comes from a strategy of compensation, like you didn't get enough love growing up so you want to be the center of attention all the time so you can make up for that, or you felt powerless growing up so you want to be really powerful all the time and call the shots and control everything. Those would be excessive coping strategies. But the deficient is more an avoidant strategy. "Oh, I don't want to feel my feelings. There's funky feelings down there. I'm going to just shut that chakra off," or "I don't feel safe opening my heart," so we shut that down, or someone doesn't feel safe speaking up and they become very quiet. So those chakras become deficient. So any of the chakras can be excessive or deficient and then they get out of balance. So how you've described that just now, Anodea, almost like they're personality traits, and are you saying that within your system there's an actual energy that corresponds to each of these personality traits? Well, I think they become personality traits. They become behaviors, and behaviors can sometimes become personality traits, like somebody that's angry all the time or shy or playing the victim. These become personality traits but they're really behaviors. And they're behaviors that started out as defenses, and defenses that we erected back when we were children and didn't have very many choices available to us, and then they become unconscious defenses. We don't even know we have them until they come up and interfere with a healthy relationship or work situation or get in the way of something we want to do. Right, and so there's many layers, from the energetic to the personality to the behavior to the relational, so there's this impact in many ways. Yes. So how can you rebalance these maybe excessive or deficient energy stores? Well, I think the first step is just to understand who you are and to look at the map of the chakras, which is really a formula for wholeness. Like if you look at Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 2
each one of these seven levels and you can address yourself in a balanced way, it gives you a recipe, if you will. And so first is to familiarize yourself with that, and then say on each one of those levels, "Do I do too much of this? Do I do too little?" So the first part is just understanding. I have a lot of exercises that I work with in my workshops that are for charging or discharging the body or different parts of the body. Like there's a deep knee-bend exercise that charges up your legs, or people can kick their legs into the floor like a kid having a temper tantrum and that's discharging. When the pelvis moves backward, it's charging; when it moves forward, it's discharging. So I have exercises like that for each chakra, but mostly as people are learning this, I have them not worry too much about it and use yoga postures and some of these exercises just to open the gates. And when the gates open, like if it's hot on the inside and cold on the outside, if you open the window the temperature is going to regulate between in and out. If we just open those parts of the body, for instance through yoga practice, then it opens what I call the gates between the inner world and the outer. And the energy, the excessive energy starts to be released and energy comes in to the deficient. So they start to self-regulate. That's great. So the flow starts to happen. Exactly. And when we're speaking about flow within each of the chakras, is it just bound by the body or is there a flow that extends beyond the body that we want to be aware of as well? Well, I think it's the flow of energy. I call it "charge" because we know when we have a charge on something, we know when we're all charged up for something, and that charge wants to flow freely. I also describe "charge" as the glue of a complex, and a complex to me is a mixture of some memories, some beliefs, some behaviors, some emotions, some patterns in the body, in the nervous system and they're all fused together with this energy. So it's not just physical, it could be in our belief system, but then if we believe that we're not safe, then we shut down in a certain way and we hold a muscular contraction and then it goes into the body. And then it may go into certain behavior, we're afraid to go out or afraid to take a risk, and that can then reinforce certain emotions. So it can be on any level. So it's a real interweaving, like recognizing the complexity of ourselves as a full system. Exactly, and it just doesn't work to say it's all in the mind or all in the body or even just in the energy, because the energy is the interface between mind and body the way electricity is the interface between your hardware and your Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 3
software in your cell phone. If your battery goes dead, it doesn't matter how many pictures and music you've got on your phone. You can't access it. So we want to keep our energy up to feel alive, and I think that's what really is the edge these days even in psychology is looking at what is the energy body doing. [0:10:02] So is that energy body something that is personal to us or do we share an energy body with other people, other beings, the planet even? Well, I would say the form of it is personal and the energy itself is universal. It's like the electricity that goes through a lamp. When it shines out through that particular lamp, it looks a particular way. Whether you have a blue light bulb or a lampshade or something, it shines out in an individual way, but it's a pretty universal energy until it goes through our particular system. And so there is this connection through this energy field, and whether it's our experiences or beliefs or thoughts or own behaviors, it takes a shape through us, expresses itself through us as individuals. Yeah, and those different facets of our being gets fused together around certain issues, and that's what I call a "complex." It's a complex-fusing of different levels that's usually created by something in the past that never got worked through and then that becomes subconscious. Right, just shaped so much by conditioning and past experiences. What about thoughts or beliefs or hopes or aspirations about the future? How does that affect our current energy? Well, when you're talking about happiness, I think that one of the main things is when people look to the future with dread or with negativity and even with passivity. Like, "Oh, it's going to be awful and there's not going to be anything I can do about it." I think that when we feel empowered to take on whatever life deals us, say, "Well, there's no guarantee in relationship, whether it's going to last or not, but I'm going to roll up my sleeves and do everything I can to make this work." Then we have a more positive attitude toward the future, a more "can do" that it's not all pre-ordained, and I think we're happier about it. Right. So we have access to more resources in the present moment when we are able to look to the future with more optimism. In fact, Martin Seligman, who is the founder of "positive psychology." He has recently published an article talking about how depression is not based on the past but it's an anticipation of a negative future outcome, so very much in line with what you're saying here. Exactly. Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 4
[0:15:25] So how can we use these energy centers, the chakras, as resources? How can they support us in the present moment around wholeness and well-being? Well, the chakras function best when they're in alignment with each other, and it's a system that is mapped onto the body, going up the spine vertically, or really I see them just in front of the spine in the center of the body. So when we can be open and flowing in each chakra and they are stacked up on top of each other, we have the most direct connection between heaven and earth. In other words, we can open up to divine guidance, if you will, to a sense of a divine, a sense of magic about the world, a sense of benevolence. And we can connect that not just as some airy-fairy fantasy but bring that all the way down through the body to an experience of the here and now. So it connects us, and I think we are happier when we feel connected than when we feel isolated and separate. Absolutely. That's definitely been a consistent theme with all of our guests on this program so far is just that universal need for belonging and connection. And one of the things I'm hearing that you're saying, Anodea, is the chakra map really is an orientation about an embodied experiential way of being in life. Absolutely. Yeah, that alignment. And that alignment, it's just like we feel better when our vertebrae are in the right place, and we go to a chiropractor, something gets out of alignment because it doesn't feel right, and the energy flows better when the spine is upright and, like I say, things are in the right place. I call the chakra system the architecture of the soul, so the soul actually feels better when its insides are directly in connection with each other. So "architecture for the soul," how would you define the "soul?" Oh, that's a good question. Well, we can talk about "spirit" and "soul," and I see soul as the individual expression of spirit, and spirit is the universal expression of soul. So we all have spirit and then it comes into our own being with a particular form, with a particular flavor, a particular vibration, if you will, that is unique to you. And that's going to be with you your whole life, and the soul I think tracks everything that happens to us. I actually believe it lasts from lifetime to lifetime and the soul is constantly being educated and going through its trials and tribulations on its path to growth. So I think the soul is a way to talk about that entity that lives inside the body, the conscious being that is experiencing everything you're experiencing, what you see, hearing what you hear, feeling what you feel. To me, that's the soul. Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 5
Again, it's like the personalized expression of the universal, of spirit exactly. Yeah, and the energy of the soul is made up of spirit, but the soul itself, it's just like my body is made up cells and so is your body but my body is a little different than yours. Right. So it's fun to see the similarities in these patterns and the unique expression of these universal principles of spirit, of energy, and I'm curious, if we dial back here a little bit, what first got you interested in the chakras as a mapping for these universal principles? Well, I've always had a proclivity for seeing patterns, and I think even when I was working as a therapist, I was good at picking up the patterns of somebody's life and helping them become cognizant of that. So when I first discovered the chakras over 40 years ago, I immediately saw it as a profound pattern. And what I read back in those days, and there wasn't much writing on it at that time, was this bias to go to the upper chakras and that the lower chakras were bad. They were greed and anger and things like that and we should get rid of them and shut them down, and I immediately read that and thought, "No, that's not right. Why would we have seven chakras if we weren't supposed to use them all?" and the more I've come to work with it over the decades, the more I've seen that each and every chakra has an important role to play in our connection between heaven and earth, in our process of becoming whole. I'm so glad that you had that wisdom. I mean, I remember reading Ken Wilber years ago and he differentiated between the "Ascenders" and the "Descenders" in terms of spiritual paths, and one tends towards transcendence and one is more immanence. As a woman, of course, the kind of association between the Descenders is the feminine and earth and somehow it's less than. And I really appreciate your speaking to and bringing out just the importance of all of it. Well, I actually talk about a liberating current which is the rising current that goes from the first chakra at the base up to the crown. And the manifesting current which starts in the crown and comes down toward the earth, and that we need both of those to be an integrated, fully functional human being. Manifesting and liberating, that sounds pretty good for our personal growth, our personal wholeness, and I also know that you have a particular interest in how our personal evolution of liberating and manifesting these energies can also help planetary evolution. Oh, absolutely. Can you speak a little bit about that? Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 6
[0:19:56] Well, one of the beauties of the chakra system is that it's a map not only for our personal wholeness but if we apply what I call the sacred values of each chakra to the culture, then we have a good map for bringing the culture to wholeness as well. I also see them as an evolutionary map. And I wrote a whole book, The Global Heart Awakens, about how humanity is moving from what I call the love of power, which is being lodged largely in the third chakra. And we're organized by power over and we're moving to a new organizing principle that I call the "power of love," which is a more egalitarian peer-to-peer organizing principle. And it's a huge shift because we've been in the power, according to my reasoning of history, for the last 5,000 years. So this is why everything is so in such turmoil right now because this is a huge collapse of the old order and building of the new order. So when we look at the global crises that are happening and the tribalism happening in politics and in world events, you're seeing that as this kind of the last gasp, dying breath of this love-of-power paradigm. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, I see that we've outgrown its usefulness, and I actually liken that to a paradigm that was useful when humanity was young in the same way that when you have young children, as parents your children don't know much about the world so you have to protect them and call the shots and tell them when to go to bed and what to eat and how to behave. And so in our young stages of culture, when people couldn't read and write and we didn't have any of the technology that we have today, to keep life in order, it fell to certain people on top who would make commandments and send it down through their hierarchy to the people and that kept things in order because that was what we needed. Now that we can communicate and read and write and we have the Internet and phones and computers and everything that we have, we're actually more grown up. And I say that we're actually like teenagers facing into our cultural initiation to the next level and that the problems coming down on the planet right now, they are going to be our initiators. They're going to force cooperation because, for instance, climate change, the only way we can solve that is through global cooperation. And it's going to be a common enemy of the whole world rather than the world fighting against each other. So these things will forge a new order but it's a messy process. It's a very messy process, and it's heartening to hear you and other very brilliant thinkers on what's happening in the world today and climate change and just the political strife that this is an opportunity for this more collective organizing principle, the power of love, the thinking beyond our own self-interests to recognize that in order for us to be happy, we need to have a home, and that home is a planet that survives. Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 7
That's right. The power paradigm, when we're living in that, we're living from ego and we're looking at the world as, "What can I get and how can I get more?" and in the love paradigm it's actually, "How can I be of service? What can I offer?" And of course they need to be in balance. There are people who go so into service that they burn out because they don't keep anything for themselves, and then there are people who are so into the power paradigm, they're just taking as much as they can get and the hell with everybody else. We see a lot of that in politics right now, like the healthcare system they're trying to pass at the moment is not one that says, "How can we be of service to the most people?" Absolutely not. One of the things that I'm hearing consistently with many of our guests on this program is the power of love is actually scientifically proven right now, that when we actually give to others and we're generous and we come from a place of compassion that we are biologically and biochemically rewarded for that internally. We are rewarded through kindness. Yes, absolutely. And so it's wonderful just hearing all of these luminaries, whether it's through poetry or science, all come to the same realization that love is what we need to keep us happy and to keep our planet alive. Absolutely, and it's really quite simple when you get down to that. When I see people so often complain about not being happy, I mean, aside from people that are living in a survival level and don't know how to pay for their next meal. I think that's a different level of struggle, but people more in the First World and the privileged that are still not happy, they say, "I'm not giving my gifts." Right, it's about giving. Yes, yeah, and it's about feeling that we have something to contribute. Yeah, that feeling of purpose and belonging, and I'm thinking now, I see you have a workshop coming up, "Manifesting Your Dreams: Creating Your Life on Purpose." So tell us how the chakras can support us manifesting dreams and living life on purpose in this way of contribution. Well, this reflects the downward current that starts in the crown chakra and moves down toward earth step by step, and so in that workshop we take people to their highest connection with spirit, with guidance, with God/Goddess, whatever is true for them, and we open our consciousness to get a download of "What's my life purpose? What am I supposed to do here? How can I be of service? What's needed?" and from that we create a vision and that's the sixth chakra. "How do you see?" Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 8
[0:25:15] So a vision is a vehicle in which you can fulfill your purpose. So your purpose might be to make people laugh but the vision could be that you're a clown for children's parties or you're a stand-up comedian or you're a comedy writer. There's a lot of ways to fulfill that purpose. So then we visualize that and that comes from the vision center, and then once that's clear in our mind, we talk about it, and we talk about it to people, so as we're talking about it, we're refining, somebody says, "Well, what about this? And have you ever thought of that?" And then as we talk about it, they go, "Oh! Well, I know the perfect web designer for you, or the perfect real estate agent or coach or whatever you need." Because talking about it catalyzes, and that brings us into relationship and that everything that we're creating, we're actually creating in relationship. Even if somebody is an artist alone in their studio making a painting, they're creating it for people to see. There's a relationship. If I'm alone at my computer writing my books, I'm still in relationship with my reader, with the publisher, with the printer, with a whole lot of people. So everything is a co-creation, so we look at what relationships do we need to co-create. Then we make a plan and we prioritize that plan and take it step by step and break it into manageable chunks so that keeps the wheel on track, because most people, when they go to manifest, they go, "Oh, this is so big! I'm overwhelmed! I don't know where to start." But if I just say, "Well, figure out what you have to do tomorrow," and it's like a one-day-at-a-time kind of thing, if you just keep doing those things, eventually you move your dream forward, and as you move it forward little by little, it starts to pick up a momentum. That's the movement and flow of the second chakra, which is water, and that also brings passion. When it really gets going, we get passionate about what we're doing. "Oh, my god! It's working! I'm starting to see the sprouts come up out of the garden." And then if we keep going with that, it eventually goes down to earth and that is the concrete manifestation of a finished form. For me, it's like a published book. For someone else, it might be owning a house or having a full practice, or full classes of students, or customers buying their product, or walking down the aisle with their beloved. There's usually a fulfillment form. I don't call it "finished" because walking down the aisle with your beloved is actually the beginning of something. But it could be the fulfilled longing of, "Yes, I found my love and made the commitment and that's what I wanted." So we have them visualize that and then take it step by step into what you need to do to get that, and it really works. People have created so many things. Just when I was in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago, two people came and handed me a published book and they said, "This started in your Creating on Purpose workshop. I used those steps and now I have a book and I want to show you I published it." Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 9
[0:29:46] Amazing, amazing! It just speaks to the power that comes when we actually don't live our lives from an ego place or conditioned place and what I should be doing but really that deep listening into how life wants to manifest itself through us, and then that alignment, it sounds like you're channeling all the energies through. Your light bulb just got brighter. Yeah, exactly, and I call it "opening to grace." Beautiful! That it's grace that comes into us and informs us and grace wants to find the optimal relationships between things. It wants to find ease, actually. And express itself. Life wants to express itself, right? It does, and creatively. Yes. So in our last couple of minutes here, Anodea, is there anything that you'd like to share, any practices briefly that you want to leave with our listeners that would help them stay connected or aware of their chakras? Well, sure. There's a very, very simple practice that I do, that I suggest people, I do at the beginning of my workshops as a way that we start our meditation. You can do it when you meditate, when you sit down at the computer, when you sit down to a meal, and that is just to send your roots down to the earth while you send your crown up to the sky at the same time. You extend your spine in two opposite directions. And I think of the chakras as jewels strung together on the string of the soul and that when you pull the top up and the bottom down, that string straightens out and all the jewels come into alignment. And I'm feeling that in my body right now. Oh, good! So if we all just do that, press down, press sitting bones down into our chair, lift the crown up. And then I imagine breathing almost like you've got a little glowing ping-pong ball that you're breathing all the way up the spine in the inhale to the top of the head. And then as you exhale, you're sending that little ping-pong ball all the way down, and this is starting to establish the core and clear it out like a bottle brush, clear out the muck so that you have a central channel to work from, and in that central channel, that's also good for balancing excess and deficiency. We come back to our sacred center. Right, and create that channel for flow. Mm-hmm. Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 10
Anodea, thank you so much. I'm feeling aligned right now. A glowing ball is in different parts of my body. My chakras feel very present with me or I'm more aware of them, I'll say it that way. So thank you so much, I feel very inspired. And again thank you so much for joining us especially with your jetlag and coming back from your round-the-world trip. I want to thank our listeners as well for joining us today. Thank you, Laurie. You've been just great. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 2017 The Shift Network. All rights reserved. Anodea Judith August 8, 2017 p. 11