Depression

[SometimesThere]

Hello everyone.

For the last year or so I have really been struggling with depression. It's not a constant depression, but something that comes upon me now and then and weighs heavily on my mind. While reading the LOO material has helped, it has not erased the depression completely. I'm wondering if anyone could give me some help to get rid of this. I have seen a Psychiatrist and was prescribed medication, and though it has helped somewhat, I find I'm still suffering from depression.

Specifically, does Ra ever mention why someone in the 3rd dimension would get depressed? Is this just a normal 3rd dimension thing?

[oguz]

in my opinion main reason of depression is not being able to socialize sufficiently in youth. Not having enough and satisfying relations may trigger depression. Intimate relations are need for brain as much they are for soul.
While there isn't satisfying social relations at the young ages and as work place adds to this, a big depression risk is created.

[Patrick]

...We have been asked to speak this evening upon the subject of despair, its form, its function, and its use. We would divide our speaking into three categories—the despair of the mind, the despair of the body and the despair of the spirit.

The despair of the mind is an empty thing, full of no virtue except that of self-destruction. Within the mind there are limitations which have been given to the self by the self. Some of these limitations are those called limitations of intelligence. One of the burdens of increased intelligence is an increased capacity for despair.

And what, my friends, is that of which the mind despairs? The mind despairs of its very limitations. In truth there are no limitations—there are only challenges, lessons and glory. Yes, my friends, we say glory, for the stronger the despair, the more glorious the battle which may be waged to outlast the feelings of helplessness, doom and foreboding, uselessness, boredom and disinterest that altogether add up to the definition of despair. The despair of the mind is that which is not, standing in the face of that which is. Therefore the state of mental despair is folly and almost always unproductive. However, the dynamic of despair—that is, midnight as opposed to noon—is available to everyone, every spirit that lives in mind and body in your illusion at some time within the incarnation. Therefore, although it is useless, it is a common experience. In the grand scheme, the very uselessness of despair is that which limits man’s ability to feel it. It is, rather, a dynamic against which one plays out one’s incarnation, the other dynamic being pure joy. It is between those two poles that one may analyze one’s true position with regard to the learning of the one great original Thought of love.

Therefore, that which is useless is rather a constant, an undertone within the life experience, always available, in which the mind knows nothing. Mental joy is the opposing dynamic in which the mind knows all. These are the limits within your illusion of that which we call love.

The despair of the body is a reflection of the despair of the mind. When an entity is in possession of mental despair and has not moved from that dynamic into a productive mode of thinking, analyzing, feeling and acting, that despair becomes incorporated within the body complex. Thence comes disease and ultimately death. Therefore, the wages of continued despair are the death of the body and therefore the death of the intelligence which informs the body. There you have form and function, form, as always, following function.

Spiritual despair, on the other hand, is an absolute necessity. It is, rather than being a zero, a moving dynamic within that which informs the growth and evolution of spirit. It is only metaphysical despair, that is, the recognition that one knows nothing, that one has lost control of everything, and that one is faced with complete darkness of soul which forces that great sliver or portion of the one Creator which is your consciousness to turn, transform, and begin the new; not having left behind that which is old in the soul, but adding unto it, accreting more wisdom, more compassion, and more and more of a feeling of unity which one can receive only when one has become desperate enough to release oneself from the expectation of any knowledge whatsoever.

There is a way in which one may use mental despair and its reflection in the physical body complex to best effect. That is to transmute mental despair into what this instrument would call the dark night of the soul or spiritual despair. One cannot analyze despair and rise transformed. One cannot act out despair by illness and rise transformed. One can, however, seek the grace and comfort that is your birthright in transmuting that which is lower into that which is higher. For as you know, my friends, one portion of the creation is a holograph for all else in the creation, thus mental despair may, as alchemists [would] change lead to gold, be changed into the dark night of the soul, burnished and shining. This spiritual despair then may transform itself into great revolutions and positive and forward changes within the spirit.

The spirit is always the same. It is not a portion of your illusion. However, your perception of the spirit can only grow. All that you have learned before is still yours and all that is ahead of you shall be learned because of turning from despair. It is rare that one enters into or graduates from any initiation without the impetus, the pain, and the challenge of spiritual despair. Therefore, if your soul is in agony, rejoice, for it is from this point that all good comes. Despair is the great opportunity to endure, to show strength, to indicate faith, and to exercise the will, not just the will to think but the will to do...

"Specifically, does Ra ever mention why someone in the 3rd dimension would get depressed? Is this just a normal 3rd dimension thing?"

It's normal in the sense that we are not supposed to be always well and comfortable in this density. And this planet specifically is very dense with catalysts. Normally in 3d you live up to 900 years, but here it is so difficult for our mind to process all the catalysts coming in that our body receives a good load of it and so we live less than a 100 years or so.

Depression is part of the kind of catalysts that are cyclic in nature.

[oguz]

a good site about natural solutions

http://www.naturalhealthontheweb.com/ant...epressants

have a good day

[Brittany]

<personal opinion disclaimer> Antidepressants are poison. The ones I was on screwed me up good. They didn't make me feel good, they just made me feel numb, and I got nothing productive done while I was on them, eventually flunking out of college because I didn't want to do anything but sleep. I still struggle with suicidal depression on and off, but I'd rather feel naturally awful than be a lump on the couch.

As I've done deep spiritual work involving each of my chakras over a period of several years I've gradually felt better and better, my depressive episodes less and less crippling. However, if there is a complete and instantaneous fix for that particular set of emotions, I don't know what it is. Sometimes you just have to let yourself feel what you're going to feel and accept that this is the Creator, too, and that love can be found somewhere in the moment. We are, after all, called the Brothers and Sisters of Sorrow.

---

Also, knowing why you are depressed can be very helpful. It took me ages to figure it out, and involved factors stemming back into my early childhood. I do believe it is possible for the brain to malfunction in the production of dopamine and serotonin, resulting in a drop in mood with seemingly no stimulus, but I have long stopped believing that anyone is a victim to the "condition of depression", helpless to do anything but take the pills big pharma cranks out. Every physical condition has a root in the metaphysical, and I would find this true with depression especially. Coming to deeply know yourself on all levels is the solution to many 3D problems.

[BlatzAdict]

ra says it's my choice to feel wasted by my feeling of feeling wasted or to take it and make something of it.

turning my s*** into gold so to speak.

sure does take faith .. i tell you what,

i call my angels to me and my guides, to help me and anyone else who would need their services to feel that they are well with all that is. gotta make believe this part, and then usually i get signs later confirming it. it's definately not easy that's for sure.

but a general 180 in how most of us are brought up to think. to find solace in the good that will come from the immediate sadness

and then it comes back down to faith. dark night of the soul indeed

[oguz]

some good ways to alleviate
http://www.webmd.com/depression/ss/slide...s-exercise
take care

[βαθμιαίος]

Ra mentions that wanders may suffer from feelings of alienation and personality disorders. Not necessarily the same as depression, but possibly not unrelated.

12.30 ...Due to the extreme variance between the vibratory distortions of third density and those of the more dense densities, if you will, Wanderers have as a general rule some form of handicap, difficulty, or feeling of alienation which is severe. The most common of these difficulties are alienation, the reaction against the planetary vibration by personality disorders, as you would call them, and body complex ailments indicating difficulty in adjustment to the planetary vibrations such as allergies, as you would call them.

[zenmaster]

There are many potential contributing factors to depression though. Mood may be both supported and inhibited by both mind and body. The really basic and preliminary things to address would be what constitutes your diet, how you exercise, sleep duration and quality, water and air quality, and daily stressors.

[SometimesThere]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I really do appreciate it, and all your posts have given me something to think about. For now, I think I'll try to discover what exactly brings on my depression. After that, I'll focus on improving my diet and sleeping patterns to see if I can achieve some sort of improvement.

I'm still unsure whether I should give up the tablets. They have given me some help, but I don't want to continue taking them if they are effecting me badly.

[Meerie]

I think it is also the heaviness of this density that exerces pressure over us, and makes us depressed... brings us down, like Patrick already illustrated.
good luck and know that you are not alone in feeling this way, my friend

[Guardian]

Many depressions are simply a symptom of some other pathology. There are many hormone and vitamin deficiencies that can mimic the symptoms of depression. There are also many forms of meditation that will alleviate depression.

I would recommend getting a full blood screen for hormones, vitamins, and minerals. Cutting out gluten, sugar, and dairy from your diet. And if that doesn't work doing a 10 day vipassana meditation.

[BlatzAdict]

i recommend going to a very busy place to meet people with the intention of not focusing on yourself but on others.

taking yourself out of the situation can be a relief at times for a break.

other times i feel i need to be in it to process it and eventually move past it.

i think i'm going through something similar now to you sometimesthere.
embracing it? eh yea i think it makes things more managable.

resisting or dwelling on it, definately is like sticking salt in my own wound at this point.

[AnthroHeart]

Depression hasn't been something I've struggled with in the past. More like something along the lines of bipolar mixed with schizophrenia. It's actually kind of neat when I actually hallucinate things. Though the hallucinations I feel are my 3rd eye opening wide up and being a form of clairvoyance. The bipolar though makes me more sensitive to where I can feel like I'm in heaven, or being dragged to hell. That's difficult to deal with because when I'm in heaven I want to just go naked, but you can't do that in public. I keep thinking that anthros don't wear clothes, and in that state I can think I'm an anthro (my dream).

The world again is feeling more magical to me. It goes in cycles from ordinary to extraordinary.

[reeay]

I agree what a lot of you said on this issue.

From a clinical standpoint, you have to look deeper than the symptoms that you are experiencing. The "cause" if you will may be biological (e.g., hormonal) or personal/social (e.g., isolation), or both, if this depression has been a long-standing issue etc. If you have endocrinological issues such as diabetes or thyroid issues such as hypothyroidism, depression symptoms may be common. Check with the resources available in our community to understand what is going on.

When we start labeling ourself as depressed, I tell you my friends, we will become that. You are not "depression." When we start saying things like, "I'm depressed" or "yeah I'm an antisocial" (no!!) or "yeah I'm so ADHD"... that is what you will manifest. It becomes your false identity or "mask" that you use to be an Oscar winning caliber actor in this stage called 3D life. The mental health industry along with pharma industry need this pathology oriented labels for their own purpose (i.e., it's man-made in certain aspects). So don't let this distortion become your distortion!

So first, check in with your body (or have others help you - like medical doctors or psychiatrists or psychologists or naturalpaths or healers) and make sure that these symptoms are not a part of other physical issues.

You are beautiful person who has so lovingly and courageously come into this world to be yourself. When you know who you truly are and you engage in a journey of growing/developing/remembering, you will see yourself and your world differently. You can't change what happens (or happened) to you in your 3D life, but you are able to change it's meaning into something positive and constructive. Are you living in full honesty of who you are and what you are? Are you living someone else's dream and not your's? Have you processed your trauma (if you have experienced trauma)? etc. etc. Every person's reason for feeling sad, angry, pained, lethargic, unmotivated, etc. is different. Clear those distortions or luggage that is not working for you.

The "how" is really an open terrain. I recommend one cool method you could try at home called Emotional Freedom Technique. If you google it, you'll find lots of good resources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r7OZwhcqxY.

Edit: I was just reading this thread on the forum - thought it made sense http://www.bring4th.org/forums/showthread.php?tid=5235

Good luck on your journeys

[turtledude23]

I have depression, what helped me was psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, antidepressants, and rTMS. I suggest you seek medical attention immediately because there's a long wait for psychotherapists and psychiatrists, and antidepressants take 2 weeks to kick in. One of the main factors in causing depression is genetic. Depressed people have different brains from non-depressed people.

[AnthroHeart]

I was told that Omega 3 is good for depression.

[caycegal]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I really do appreciate it, and all your posts have given me something to think about. For now, I think I'll try to discover what exactly brings on my depression. After that, I'll focus on improving my diet and sleeping patterns to see if I can achieve some sort of improvement.

I'm still unsure whether I should give up the tablets. They have given me some help, but I don't want to continue taking them if they are effecting me badly.

Sorry, I didn't see the part about which tablets you are taking. Good luck and keep reading and thinking about where you want to go and how best to get there! It's your journey, no one else's, and no one else can know what you should do.

[charlie2012]

i might be repeating what all others have said, but i'd like to make a contribution to your depression. i have gone through millions of different moods/vibrations (euphoric, happy, content, sad, suicidal) and tried all kind of solutions to these problems but there is but one that has truly worked for me.

begin with being clear and true to yourself and what you wish to accomplish. do you want to get rid of this "depression"? if the answer is yes, then you are on the path to clear this distortion (which keeps you from being yourself/lets you experience other things than being yourself). now let go of trying to fix it. experience it. let yourself go deeper, don't try to stop it. you'll know when you've hit rock bottom, because this is where you probably want to end this experience/life, where you can't go on. now ask yourself what you really want to do. do you want to be yourself? what did you experience to make you feel like this? why would you feel like this? what would you like to feel like? what is keeping you from feeling that? pursue your greatest fears to meet them and change them into what you want them to be. they have made your life possible. without them your experiences would not have been what they have been. they've taught you all that you've learnt. the one truth is that we learn. we experience. we love. we are. all else are distortions of the truth. but only in order to experience.

be honest with yourself. be true to yourself. don't beat yourself up over what you've done. even if you do, that's okay. as long as you are inside this experience, you are learning. what's wrong with that? and if you feel something is wrong, pursue it. go on till you can't. then take a brake and feel good about yourself. and then get back in the game. go. love. cry. shout. in order to become ourselves we need to clear these problems/distortions from our minds. and the only way to do that is to face our problems/distortions.

no disrespect to anyone in this thread, and if you feel some you need to change your mind about it, but keeping things simple is the key. listen to yourself. look around you. when you see others that you have a problem with, fix it. because the problem/distortion is not in them, but in you.

baaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuoooooooooooooooom and im back to being my distorted self (mind complex, sector 26 (jk)). thank you for your time! that helped me a lot to! back to learning!

LOVE!

[jacrob]

My bouts of severe depression have decreased from 7 days per week to now 1 day per week over the last 4 years. Prior to that I wasn't really depressed. I would reccommend lots of sunlight, meditation, comedies, lots of laughter increases feel-good hormones in the body. Tons of water also, 3+ litres. There are other measures you can take such as crystal healing, guided meditations to assist you in release etc.

My understanding is that depression results from years of repressed anger and frustration. Stemming back even from times in your toddler years. You wanted to jump around and play and were told to sit still and be quiet. Your heart stored that frustration. Now imagine years of having your natural inclinations stiffled. Your personality is of the type that did not easily release emotions, and repressed it instead.

So the result is all the compounded emotions give you that heavy depressed feeling. Like you can't even get out of bed. You need to start releasing that. There are many ways you can do that depending on your bent.

I can let you know all the measures I took to getting over my dark night of the soul if you're interested. I firmly believe all the depression people are suffering is your Higher Self's way of helping you release and become the best you can be, and after each bout of sadness you bounce back a little higher, and higher until you are golden. Unfortunately it takes time to get to your highest and best self.

[xise]

I can say that for me, the key things that lessened my down cycles were a) having faith b) meditation c) balancing my chakras, especially lower ones (they often say depression is most likely an issue with the red, orange, yellow ray center).

[MissMiko]

Hello everyone.

For the last year or so I have really been struggling with depression. It's not a constant depression, but something that comes upon me now and then and weighs heavily on my mind. While reading the LOO material has helped, it has not erased the depression completely. I'm wondering if anyone could give me some help to get rid of this. I have seen a Psychiatrist and was prescribed medication, and though it has helped somewhat, I find I'm still suffering from depression.

Specifically, does Ra ever mention why someone in the 3rd dimension would get depressed? Is this just a normal 3rd dimension thing?

Hey,
I really appreciate your post here.
There is something quite admirable about
those that seek answers about our internal struggles.

Remember that depression is only a state of mind.
And it is in our thoughts that we are responding to emotionally.
In our natural state as "light beings" we are pure positive
energy.

Coming into these earth bodies we experience a pull
that you can identify with as a negative frequency.

Hence we experience that yin/yang effect....

But you really want to tap deeper into your
subconscious, communicate with your Higher Self
and identify with what you truly believe about your
experience here.

Emotions are your feelings communicated from our "inner
being"....you know that other dimension of yourself?

Its letting you know that you are seeing something in your
thoughts that isn't resonating with the truth of your
experience.

The whole point of this 3rd dimensional experience
is to integrate all the dimensions of yourself, knowing
that you are multidimensional.

[spero]

figured id go hunting for some old transcripts on depression. heres really the only one that heavily focused on it and unfortunately it ends prematurely...soz. maybe there are other sessions out there.

Ive been on antidepressants on-off for the past two years. nothing to be ashamed of and to be fair they help with depression if not productivity lol. i tend to go on them for 6 months...feel loads better than wheen off them...6 months later everyone around me notices im depressed again and so i go back on them lol. time is usually a great perspective changer and things that made me depressed a couple years ago dont phase me as much anymore. if its a situation thats making you depressed do you best little-by-little or alternatively in large dramatic leaps to make a difference. hope this helps

http://www.llresearch.org/transcripts/is..._0726.aspx

July 26, 1987

Group question: What is depression and how do you deal with it?

(Carla channeling)

I am Q’uo. I greet you in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. I come to you from farther away than usual this evening, for we are engaged in some light work of a planet in the star system—we have difficulty transmitting the name to this instrument—Regulus. Yet, still we maintain connection with this instrument as it is our privilege indeed to have any opportunity to address this light group.

Your question about depression and what to do about it is a difficult one for us to answer, in that what we would do about depression would be very different from what the people of your planets consider the practical and efficacious approach. However, we will share our views with you and thank you for the privilege of doing so.

It has been written in your holy work known as the Bible that the master known as Jesus is a vine and his students branches thereof. If you consider yourself as a cosmic citizen, you and all other consciousness in the universe are rooted in one vine, that is, the life-giving vine of love. We use that word, although it is inadequate to express the mystery of the Creator, because as ill-used as that word is among your peoples, it nevertheless evokes knowledge of the most extreme of human emotions. Pure living love, stemming directly from the Uncreated in perfect order, in perfect love, is a force of unimaginable magnitude, a force which has propelled into being all consciousness, and a force which wishes to assist each portion of consciousness in its full circle through experience and back to the Source of love, that which is uncreated, that which is always the same, the one great original Thought.

Depression is one of many human experiences, as you would call them, in which a branch of the vine is damaged by the cutting off of the supply of food from the root. The invisible strangling of love can come about because of many circumstances. In its worst cases, one may observe in its results those personalities which do not have an emotional bias against murder, theft and so forth. When one looks for the invisible garrote that has so strangled love within such an entity, one cannot see it, although earnest scholars equate the loss of life-giving emotion with lack of love or even lack of a home in the murderer’s early years.

With the emotional experience of depression, we may see a person which is experiencing a strangulation, to a certain extent a loss of love from the root, and when the person looks to see what the source of this strangulation of love might be, again it is invisible, for it has taken place within the mind itself.

If this material concerning what depression is is not satisfactory, we gladly invite your queries after we have concluded the opening discussion.

Now, it is not merely an illusion to say that you are experiencing depression. Indeed, we feel that over-emphasis on all being an illusion is perhaps detrimental to the balanced progress of a seeker.

It is well to attempt to gaze at and consider the self and all of its vagaries. The one who attempts to change depression by denying negative feelings is perhaps on the right track, however, that person has little chance of creating an easement of the strangulation of love simply by speaking it so, for in depression, that which ties the cord too tightly around the vine, that which holds back the supply of love, is a desire to hold in the mind circumstances which seem unacceptable. This desire, whether quite conscious or relatively unconscious in nature, has a very adverse affect upon the supply of the life-giving energy of love which is falling constantly into each of the portions of the Creator’s consciousness.

Thus, large portions of the subconscious mind begin to be distracted from processing the catalyst of the present in terms of the present, and begin to process catalyst in terms of an unacceptable portion in the memory of the one who is depressed. It is as if there were a drag upon an engine, so that the engine had to work harder and harder to produce the same amount of work. Or perhaps even better as an analogy, it is as if in a depressed person the unacceptable thing creates a blockage in the fuel line so that the engine of the mind is ultimately unable to function.

Since the entity who is depressed can blame only itself, a disassociation almost inevitably begins within the mind of the depressed person, which then adds to the inertia that is dragging down or to the block in the fuel line that is keeping fuel from the engine of consciousness. It is as if there were two consciousnesses, one healthy and free and thriving, which exists in our dreams and at the core of all illusion, and that consciousness which has come to a standstill, getting, instead of love, a fueling supply of fear and anxiety.

Because the rupture lies within the self, it is most efficacious for the depressed entity to call upon two general archetypes. First, it is well to call upon the archetype which you have in essence conjured up in the process of self-strangulation, that is, your consciousness has made the self its own scapegoat. Some there are in your illusion which go through a lifetime of incarnation never blaming themselves for anything. These entities move in a sleepy existence and do not trouble their hearts or their digestions with a conscience. We speak to those who are sensitive and creative enough to pay attention to their consciousnesses to ask themselves questions and to seek in whatever way they can.

After gazing at the scapegoat and considering how little you truly wish to make yourself such an archetype, it may then be efficacious for the one who is depressed to consider the archetype of the unfed consciousness. We have spoken a great many words about consciousness in the opportunities we have had to communicate with this group. You know that to us it is a synonym for your words “spirit” or “soul.” You know that consciousness is almost never seen without some distortion. Depression is merely a very disturbing distortion.

We say to you that depression is impossible in a consciousness that is new. If an entity gazes about itself at any point in the lifetime experience, it will see some things which are pleasing and some things which are not. The consciousness which has been your source of life sees the creation with eyes of love, for it is love, and in this love all things are as they should be.

Contradistinctive to undistorted love is the operation of free will which moves within each particle of consciousness in such a way as to make choices possible. Thus, the new consciousness, by the operation of free will, would turn each moment, like a stone, to see each facet of beauty, unity and love, or perhaps to marvel at those balances which are particularly unusual in those about it. This new consciousness is that which the depressed entity may acquire not only through meditation, but also through remembering at each moment when it is first noticed that the experience of depression is becoming active.

There is another portion as well to new consciousness, and that is its insatiable curiosity. Let the curiosity of the unfed consciousness sink into every thought process that has been stultified by the distortion of depression. Curiosity is that which can unblock …

(Tape ends.)

[caycegal]

I can say that for me, the key things that lessened my down cycles were a) having faith b) meditation c) balancing my chakras, especially lower ones (they often say depression is most likely an issue with the red, orange, yellow ray center).

Would like to hear what techniques you are using for balancing the chakras, and whether they differ for each chakra.

Thanks in advance.

[xise]

I can say that for me, the key things that lessened my down cycles were a) having faith b) meditation c) balancing my chakras, especially lower ones (they often say depression is most likely an issue with the red, orange, yellow ray center).

Would like to hear what techniques you are using for balancing the chakras, and whether they differ for each chakra.

Thanks in advance.

1. Research/Study of the Chakra 2. Attempting to open the chakra using all available means in a sustained yet gentle way, without expectation. I focused on a chakra I wanted to open first by reading all available material on that chakra - what traits shined through it, what activities enhanced it, what aromas were best for it, what issues typically accumulate it in, what physical symptoms a blocked one would express, and what crystals helped open it.

a. I then would spend time during the day to exemplify or roleplay the traits that balanced chakra would use (even if it felt artificial at first)
b. I would think thoughts and affirmations that reinforced I already had those traits within me but I had to let them shine through - this one is hard because my stupid mind still thinks negative thoughts!! But I've learned that "I" am only maybe like 20% of my thoughts...the 80% of my thoughts is just a scared child known as my ego
c. I would focus my awareness in meditations on that particular chakra and focus my breath on the area visualizing energy of the color of that center
d. I would use incense known to open that chakra during the meditations
e. I would also do yoga that is targeted for opening that chakra
f. I would also do activities known to open that chakra
g. I would wear crystals that open the chakra as close as possible to the area I wanted to open at all times (I got a 40" necklace and would put stones in front pocket).
h. Most importantly, once I felt energy movement in that chakra enough that I could tell what it felt like to have that chakra moving, I would visualize that memory of that energetic chakra while doing the above, and it really seemed to help speed up the process.

I wouldn't do all of this all of the time, but as much as I could would becoming obsessive or losing sight of a expectation-less gentle patient approach to the opening effort, kind of like letting a flower bloom. A real block on my harder chakras was being patient and not getting frustrated. Even after feeling energy starting to move, I had to have it happen a few more times to make sure I wasn't imagining it. It took me maybe 1 month of the above steps to actually feel energy in my sacral chakra. For me, my chakra feelings are such (I think they are probably pretty different for everyone):

-All chakras: Sometimes, before I feel the energy move, I feel the heartbeat in that area of the chakra. Sometimes this was the only feeling I'd get before I actually felt energy move in the chakra for weeks on end.
-Root: Slow moving static electricity in the general vicinity of the chakra
-Sacral: Almost feels like a medicine dropper squirting energy from the sides into the center area of my chakra.
-Solar: Bolts of fast moving electricity and also moments of building electrical potential
-Heart: A physical sensation in the area, maybe a bit like heartache, but also a warm encompassing feeling in the heart area
-Throat: The classic "lump in your throat" feeling, but also slowly moving static electricity over the chin, and the upper neck and rear neck (which I am told in some systems are separate chakras)
-Third Eye: Sparks, sometimes a throbbing pulsating feeling
-Crown: A pulsating spiraling feeling, sometimes very warm, feels like what I would imagine having a data cable plugged into your head would feel like.

I've used google along with the following books to learn about the above information:

Chakra Therapy by Keith Sherwood (Meditation, Yoga)
Crystal Chakra Healing by Philip Permutt
A Wanderer's Handbook by Carla Rueckert (Great for traits)

Best of luck! Have faith and patience (I asked for a better understanding of the concepts involved in faith in one of my meditations and got the answer: patience ) For me I knew I was making substantial progress when in real life a situation would arise that would primarily call upon on the of divine traits of a chakra and I would naturally feel my energy build there. It's a wonderful and beautiful thing

much love,
xise

[reeay]

Great information, xise!

How do you go about checking-in on your chakra so you know which chakra you need to focus on? Do you go with what you're experience (like correlating symptoms to chakra function) or felt-sense of which chakra seems blocked, etc. etc.?

[xise]

Great information, xise!

How do you go about checking-in on your chakra so you know which chakra you need to focus on? Do you go with what you're experience (like correlating symptoms to chakra function) or felt-sense of which chakra seems blocked, etc. etc.?

For me:
(1) a combination of looking at the associated balanced traits versus my personality traits,
(2) the typical issues that blocks that area versus my issues,
(3) the energy flow I would spontaneously feel over a given week (nowadays, I usually feel my heart and crown almost daily in day to day activities, then every other day my root and sacral and throat these days, and it feels right now I rarely feel third eye or solar plexus, so I think I probably need to work on those a bit more), and
(4) the energy flow I was able to feel when I focused on that area during meditation.

Although the third and fourth are less reliable since for me my energy seems to ebb and flow on a weekly basis (solar flare times are fun though!). But over a few weeks, I usually can get a pretty good indication in comparing how often I felt sensations in my more open energy centers versus my possibly closed/blocked ones.

[reeay]

Thank you! It's really awesome that you are in touch with your body system!

[Patrick]

I use catalysts from everyday life to balance my chakras. I believe working directly on your chakras can only result in temporary changes.

[xise]

I use catalysts from everyday life to balance my chakras. I believe working directly on your chakras can only result in temporary changes.

Agreed. If you don't address the day to day reactions to catalyst that led your energy center to become blocked in the first place, the blockage will reoccur.