A Skeptic's Guide to Chakras (and a Sexy Way to Play With Them)

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Michelle Garfinkel, One of Thousands of Relationship Coaches on Noomii.

It’s so easy to think of chakras as complete New-Age crazy. I did for years!

Currently, I think of them as an incredibly useful psycho-spiritual system. They’re great at helping you tap deeper into the experience of your body and mind. Honestly, these swirling energy points have been absolute game-changers for me. I use the concept of chakras to help me with meditations, energy work, overall life guidance, as well as epic orgasms and sex magic. It was a journey of learning to get here though.

I used to completely dismiss chakras. I would hear about “unblocking the heart chakra” and roll my eyes, my internal bullshit detector screaming. I heard all the classic explanations. Some insisted they were simply the glands of the endocrine system. Others talked about how they aligned with various parts of the nervous system.

Though this may be convincing to some, to me these arguments didn’t stick. There are many maps of chakras, not just the 7-chakra system we’re used to. If there are many different systems with varying numbers of points located inconsistently, how can they possibly be aligned with nerve ganglia, glands, or anything else?

But then I started playing with holistic sexuality and Tantra and, for better or worse, these modalities have a lot of chakra-play in their practices. Though I didn’t necessarily believe in the chakras I wanted the promised results bad enough to temporarily suspend my disbelief and give it a go. It seemed silly at first, but I did my best. And then something crazy happened.

I started to feel them. Over time, I started to really feel these consistent little points of warm tingling in my body. As I connected to them in meditation again and again, the sense of their realness became larger. I could feel when they were blocked and when they were open. I could sense energy and move it through them. And I could feel indescribable bliss as I orgasmed from them.

But all of this jarred horribly in my brain. I was incredibly confused and skeptical of my own lived experience. In general, I consider myself a rational, educated, intelligent person and so the fact that I was spending exponentially more of my time talking about my most recent experience with my throat chakra was definitely a blow to my ego. But once I got a taste of that chakra goodness I just couldn’t dismiss it.

I struggled in this uncanny valley for years, oscillating from belief to dismissal and back to belief. It was exhausting and kept me from truly experiencing, truly understanding what was happening. And then I learned a powerful and rational explanation for chakras that transformed and softened my relationship to them.

Chakras aren’t like organs, nerves, or anything else physical in your body. You aren’t born with them. You don’t have chakras. Chakras are something your mind creates. You visualize and imagine them until they become real to your nervous systems. You install them.

You install chakras in your body over time. By meditating, visualizing, and focusing on different points in your body, and associating different qualities in them you build neuronal pathways. You rewire your brain to say, “This point in my body is significant,” and “This point is equated with ____ (power/love/peace/whatever you want) to me.”

That’s why there are lots of different maps and different associations with the chakras. Different gurus in different times and had varying ideas of what points are significant and what, if anything, they might specifically mean. Lower belly, heart, and mind are popular but the number of systems out there are staggering. In addition to different locations, some systems have chakras associated with different sounds/mantras, deities, and elements. No system is better than another it’s all just what you (or your teacher) choose to create.

The 7-chakra system that’s popular in the West comes from a single book written by Pūrṇānanda Yati in 1577 and translated into English by John Woodroffe in 1918. Basically, the psychologizing and colorizing of the chakras is something that modern westerners came up with. It’s the most common system I use simply because of its familiarity to my clients but it’s no better or worse than any other map.

I know some of you are thinking, “If chakras are just something you make-up, why bother with them?” Because they’re amazing for your sexuality and your life! You can use them for sex magic, a powerful way to manifest your dreams. You can deepen your consciousness by using them in Tantric meditations. You can move your sexual energy there and experience the chakra-gasms (and yes, each chakra has a different flavor of orgasm).

From more of a psychological/emotional perspective, you can use them to get more information about what’s really going on inside when you’re upset about something. If you feel tightness or tension in an area that you associate with a particular chakra, it can clue you into what’s really going on.

For example, tightness in the solar chakra can be associated with fears about being seen, about feeling unworthy, fears of being “too much” for people. Tightness in the throat chakra can be associated with not voicing your truth and fears around not being heard. A sense of heaviness in the womb or lower belly can be associated with a lack of creativity, boredom, and stagnation in life. If you struggle with vague “sourceless” anxiety, tightness in a chakra point can help point you in the direction of what’s really going on.

From a spiritual perspective, chakras are key to experiencing a Kundalini awakening, which is a complex topic that deserves its own article. To summarize, it’s an intense spiritual moment that happens after repeatedly opening chakras and moving energy through them. Inviting and preparing for this awakening is a huge part of Kundalini Yoga. A Kundalini awakening is an incredible, deeply transformative experience that softens and enlivens how you move in and relate to the world.

Chakra meditations, where you meditate on each point, are essential to installing them. There are many such meditations out there, but they tend to focus on using your mind to think about your chakras. Though beautiful, when used exclusively they can make chakras more of a mental exercise than a lived reality in your body.

I’m a big fan of using sexuality and pleasure to help drive concepts down deep into your bones, so here’s a chakra meditation that fuses your sexy turn-on with your chakras. Notice how the flavor of your pleasure changes as you imagine your turn-on moving through each point and its associated qualities.

Sexy Chakra Meditation

Take your time touching your body and turning yourself on. This can be any type of pleasure, be it a passionate, orgasmic turn-on, a cozy, snuggly type of pleasure, or anything in-between.

Once you feel a good amount of pleasure, around a 3 if your pleasure was on a scale from 1-10, imagine your pleasure as a ball of light. Continue to touch yourself as you move this ball of light around.

Feel the pleasure ball of light start to mingle with your root chakra (cervix or perineum). Let your pleasure take on an earthy and primal, raw and animalistic flavor. Enjoy for a few moments.

Move your pleasure to your sacral chakra (womb or tailbone). Let your pleasure take on a watery, mischievous, and creative flavor.

Move your pleasure to your solar chakra (solar plexus). Let your pleasure take on a fiery, powerful, and passionate flavor.

Move your pleasure to your heart chakra (center of chest). Let your pleasure take on an airy, loving, and peaceful flavor.

Move your pleasure to your throat chakra (pit of the throat). Let your pleasure take on a flavor of sparkly genius, spaciousness, and ether.

Move your pleasure to your third-eye chakra (center of forehead). Let your pleasure deepen into consciousness and wisdom.

Move your turn on to your crown chakra (top of the head). Let your pleasure take on the essence of spirit, divinity, and magic. If you’re really turned on by this point, it’s a good time to allow an orgasm.

Stop touching yourself and feel the energy you’ve built up drip down through each of the chakras, allowing all of their qualities to mix and blend and find their home back in the root chakra, the source of Kundalini.

As with most things worth your time, it can take a while to install chakras firmly in your consciousness and body. Some people feel them instantly, some take 6-8 weeks to feel them, some take even longer. Be patient with yourself if you’re not feeling much. Even if you don’t consciously feel them you’re still getting benefit.

As far as anatomy goes, follow your intuition and/or personal guidance from a teacher, especially if you have a not-male body. Pretty much all chakra systems were mapped to a male body, so you may need to adjust and tweak it to make it work for you. If you are listening to a chakra meditation that describes your sacral chakra as being near your clitoris, but you sense it closer to your navel, just ignore the meditation’s description and go with what feels right to you.

You really do make your own reality. There are so many ways to interpret the same world. You can see the world as full of tragedy and heartbreak, focusing on injustice and sorrow. You can see the world as an “objective” reality where the only things that are real are those that can be measured. You can see the world as full of ghosts, evil eyes, and bad luck. You can see the world as one full of magic and miracles. And you can see the world as one with chakras and energy.

It’s all how you want to see it. If the idea of chakras excites you, install them. If it still seems woo-woo, don’t. Your world is what you make of it, so do whatever you need to do (chakras or no) to find your deepest thriving. Choose your world and go live it.