The Shadow Emotions Of The Seven Chakras – How To Balance & Unblock Your Chakras

In this Soul teaching on the shadow emotions of the seven chakras you will learn:

• What causes chakras to become imbalanced or blocked
• What the shadow emotions are of the seven chakras
• How to balance and unblock chakras
• How chakra healing relates to the awakening and rising of the Kundalini
• And more…

A different perspective on working with the chakras

Much has been written on the concept of chakras, but not so much has been written on the effects of trauma and stuck emotions on the chakras and these are actually the very things that block our chakras. Chakras don’t simply block haphazardly and they also don’t block or open at the drop of a dime which many people seem to think. This is because we aren’t born with fully opened perfectly functioning chakras, our chakras are already deficient, excessive, open, or blocked because of our Soul path history (previous lifetimes), aka our karmic and samskaric imprints that we carry on a Soul path level.

‘Karma means action. When you perform an action, it creates a memory, which in turn generates a desire, which leads you to perform another action

Karma creates memories and desires, which then determine how you live. Actions, memories, and desires are the Karmic software that run your life.

Chakras are your subtle energy centers through which consciousness transforms into matter. Karma distorts that flow of consciousness, causing you to experience an illusory world. Clearing Karma helps you to step out of the illusion.’ Source: Chopra.com

I don’t like many interpretations of Karma, but I liked this one because it better describes the essence of karma than merely the translation of the word. Because the translation ‘action’ can easily be misunderstood, not only can action create karma, but not taking action can create karma too, think of seeing someone get hurt and not helping them for example. Also, the actions of others toward you can create karma not in the sense that most people understand karma – we don’t take on the other person’s karma obviously. However, past life trauma and the stuck emotions around that trauma create memories (heartbreak, betrayal, persecution, injustice, etc.) and desires (say for revenge, punishment, being understood, etc.) which become part of our karmic load; our karma, and our samskaras. Read this Soul teaching on Karma to understand it from the Soul’s perspective.

It’s trauma and karma and the stuck emotions we carry around them that create imbalances and blockages in our chakras. And it’s not just the first and second chakra that is blocked by karma or trauma, it’s all of them. Both karma, as well as current life trauma, create imbalances and blocks in all seven main chakras or any of the other 114 chakras in our multidimensional bodies, including the higher chakras.

The problem with Western understanding of Eastern philosophies is that we take one piece we like and then separate it from the rest which distorts our understanding of the concept altogether. The seven main chakras are part of the vibrational body or energy body that contains 114 chakras, 7200 nadis (equivalent of Chinese meridians), and the auric field.

The chakras and nadis are connected to all our organs and functions in the body that they sustain with prana (chi) which is our lifeforce energy. Just like arteries can get clogged or sluggish, our nadis or meridians can get clogged or sluggish as well and this creates the same issues on an energetic level that we get when arteries get clogged or sluggish on a physical level – reduced or blocked flow.

When imbalances or blockages occur it not only impacts us on an energetic level, but also on a mental, emotional, and physical level. When one of the main seven chakras goes out of whack or blocks, the related organs for example get less lifeforce energy distributed to them which then has those organs function at a lower capacity as well.

We are born with certain karmic predisposed levels of imbalances and blockages in our chakras and our life experiences cause us to accumulate more imbalances and blockages in the already karmically predisposed chakras, because this karmic predisposition pulls in the people, situations, and experiences we need to heal these imbalances and blocks. But because we don’t recognize this as such and rather see them as brand new unrelated experiences, we create new trauma, stuck emotions, and in the end karma around them until we are able to release these stuck emotions, forgive those involved, and let go. For most human beings this is a vicious cycle that they have been stuck in for lifetime and lifetimes.

How shadow emotions block our chakras

Let’s break it down even further, trauma is not the event but our emotional reaction to it.

We know this because what is traumatic for one person, does not have to be equally traumatic for another person. What makes an experience traumatic, is the way it is processed and remembered (maintained) in the brain and body of the individual.

‘From a neurological standpoint, emotional events are easier to remember because they activate your amygdala and hippocampus at almost exactly the same time. The emotion-focused amygdala helps the hippocampus store memories more effectively, resulting in stronger memories.’ Source: Healthline.com

Memories linked with strong emotions often become seared in the brain.

MD/PhD students at Columbia placed mice into new, frightening environments and recorded the activity of hippocampal neurons that reach out to the brain’s fear center (the amygdala). The neurons’ activity was also recorded a day later when the mice tried to retrieve memories of the experience. Unsurprisingly, neurons that respond to the frightening environment send that information to the brain’s fear center. “It’s the synchrony (among neurons) that is critical to establish the fear memory, and the greater the synchrony, the stronger the memory.”

Trauma experiences create unresolved emotions, you could say that it’s the painful memories and the associated emotional pain that these memories are made of that is at the root of all trauma and karma. It’s also these emotional issues that lead to blockages and imbalances in our chakras. These imbalances and blockages disrupt the natural flow of energy, affecting our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

When we experience traumatic events and imprint emotional memories or carry such wounding from our ancestral lineage or previous lifetimes, these experiences create blockages and imbalances in our chakras. These emotional blockages may manifest as:

• Root Chakra Imbalance: Fear, insecurity, lack of grounding, and feeling disconnected from the physical world.
• Sacral Chakra Imbalance: Emotional instability, difficulty expressing emotions, creative blocks, or an unhealthy relationship with pleasure and sensuality.
• Solar Plexus Chakra Imbalance: Low self-esteem, lack of confidence, feeling powerless, or an inability to assert oneself.
• Heart Chakra Imbalance: Difficulty in giving and receiving love, emotional pain, unresolved grief, or struggles in forming healthy relationships.
• Throat Chakra Imbalance: Fear of speaking up, difficulty expressing oneself authentically, or challenges in effective communication.
• Third Eye Chakra Imbalance: Lack of intuition, feeling disconnected from inner wisdom, or difficulty in making decisions.
• Crown Chakra Imbalance: Lack of spiritual connection, closed-mindedness, feelings of isolation, or a disconnection from higher consciousness.

The shadow emotions that block our seven main chakras

In our free resource page with scientific research on trauma & emotions, we have a complete section on the effects of unresolved emotions on the body and the brain. In this section of this Soul teaching, we will explore the shadow emotions that block the seven main chakras.

We are born with a full set of chakras, but it’s only as we grow older that the chakras further develop in intervals of seven years. The chakra system begins to develop during the first two months in the womb. Initially, all Chakras are fused under one powerful energy source which gradually separates and develops along with the fetal development. The developing fetus at this stage is so attached to the life force energy that the chakras are united together under one energy field i.e. at unanimity with the universe. It’s then within the womb that the fetus creates singular chakras from the top to the bottom starting with the crown chakra and then moving its way down to the root chakra as the last chakra to be created before birth. The chakras as well as all other parts of the multidimensional bodies of the unborn child are created according to the karmic templates held within the causal body. Read this Soul teaching on Reincarnation for further explanation of the causal body, which is the only body that follows us from lifetime to lifetime.

The development of the chakras corresponds with the physical development of the embryo, as the embryo starts with the development of the nervous system it makes sense that the crown chakra is simultaneously developed as it is connected to the nervous system. But it also makes sense from a spiritual perspective as the crown chakra is the entry point for the life force energy, which pours endlessly into our energy system from the greater universe, nourishing our body, mind, and spirit. The fetus will need this entry point established as early as possible to enable the further creation of the physical body.

I am being shown the visual of the light being, being poured into physical form.

Once outside of the womb, the development of each chakra starts from the bottom to the top as described below. The age range mentioned after each chakra is the time period in our lives where we further develop this chakra post-partum.

The root chakra (Age 0-7)

The shadow emotion of the root chakra is fear, which causes repression. This is the oldest wound there is even on a Soul path level. It usually forms at a very young age as we repress parts of ourselves and emotions we believe to be unacceptable or unloveable and that we think will jeopardize the love and acceptance of our caregivers. We instinctively learn to repress the parts of ourselves that we believe are unlovable. Instead, we condition ourselves from a young age to express the characteristics and behaviors that our caregivers respond lovingly to.

Our first chakra is rooted around a sense of belonging, feeling supported and grounded, feeling safe, having our needs met, and being embodied. In the early years of life, being loved and accepted by our primary caregivers is critical to survival because we actually do need them to care for us to keep us alive. So when we feel as if that love is threatened, the primitive fight-or-flight response kicks in and we fear for our survival. It’s here that we develop our defense, protection, and survival mechanisms depending on the extent to which we feel we belong, are supported, safe, or grounded as well as have our needs met. The more these root chakra requirements are not met, the more we will use protection, defense, and survival mechanisms to compensate for their lack or absence. Although this wound (as well as the root chakra) forms in the first seven years of life, it plants the seed for a lifetime of inauthentic and incomplete expression of oneself.

It’s all these repressed parts of ourselves that impede the function of the root chakra and need to be revisited and reclaimed as an adult not only to be able to be authentic in one’s self-expression but to be whole again. What kept us safe as children, tends to keep us small and not living our full potential as adults which is why we have to break free from the defense, protection, and survival mechanisms we created as a child to become who we are meant to be on a Soul level.

The sacral chakra (Age 7-14)

The shadow emotion of the sacral chakra is guilt, which causes denial. Denial helps shield us from difficult emotions such as guilt and others. But, it’s a tricky wound to work with because when we are in denial we are unaware that we are refusing to acknowledge something we don’t want to look at. A person in denial is hiding the truth, even from themselves. It becomes a blind spot that hides the truth.

In psychology, denial refers to the avoidance of unacceptable or unpleasant thoughts or feelings. A person in denial is failing to recognize or accept apparent truths about a situation, or their feelings regarding a situation.

Driven by what Freud called the pleasure pain principle as humans we seek more of what makes us feel good and try to avoid that which makes us feel bad. We cannot see that our lives are a series of reactions driven by our feelings. The wound of denial is the seed of addiction, relationship conflicts, disappointed love, people-pleasing behavior, and a slew of other unhealthy habits.

‘The pleasure principle is the force powering the part of the personality known as the id. In Freud’s theory of personality, the id is the most basic and animalistic part of the personality. The id is one of the strongest motivating forces, but it is the part of the personality that is buried at the deepest, unconscious level. It consists of all of our most basic urges and desires, but we are not always consciously aware of these desires. In this way, the pleasure principle guides the id to fulfill these basic needs to help ensure survival.’ Source: verywellmind.com 

As we mature we become more consciously aware of how some of our urges and desires (thoughts and feelings) are viewed as unacceptable which causes the guilt and other painful emotions, as we are held more and more responsible for what we say and do. We no longer get the free pass we got as little kids. This is where denial kicks in to help avoid the incredible discomfort that we are emotionally still learning to deal with, setting us up for a lifetime of running from our pain and seeking to feel good instead. Healing this wound is about learning to sit with our discomfort. It’s about not letting the pain or sadness run our lives but letting the feelings move through us so that they can be released once and for all.

For many people, cultures, and sub-groups denial is a strategy they continue to employ far into adulthood which renders us emotionally crippled often looking for an emotional crutch to lean on so we don’t have to face the unresolved emotions we have been running from for so long. What blocks the second chakra are all the repressed and disowned emotions that need to be faced and released in order to balance and unblock this chakra.

The solar plexus chakra (Age 14-21)

The shadow emotion of the solar plexus chakra is shame, which causes disownment. Shame typically stems from our teenage years, when we build our identity. As we explore and express who we are, the world around us responds to us positively for the things we do well but at the same time subtly discourages us from pursuing our weaknesses when they are not praised or perhaps even criticized. Over time this builds a personality that exhibits all its strong points and hides all its vulnerabilities (flaws and imperfections). This causes fragmentation within the self as we disown the behaviors and parts of us that don’t make us popular or get us ahead, but our insecurities aren’t actually gone they have instead been pushed into our shadow where they become even more powerful to undermine us and keep us small. They become the very parts of us that we are ashamed of, but losing access to these parts of us no matter how flawed or imperfect they are renders us incomplete.

Pushing these parts of ourselves away allows us to feel confident in who we are in the short term while pursuing higher education and building a successful career, but it soon catches up with us when we realize that the life we have created for ourselves and that everybody told us we should want doesn’t actually make us happy. This is because we have sacrificed our wholeness to have it, which keeps us always in the shadow of the person we are truly meant to be. Instead, we are caught in patterns of perfectionism, self-judgment, and self-criticism. Every time we want to pursue something that makes us feel insecure, our critical mind raises its voice and keeps us small. Shame is designed to keep us small. It’s a protective mechanism, and it served us well earlier in life, but it comes with huge limitations and sacrifices. Shame is what drives the ‘good girl’ and ‘good boy’ syndrome that has us living our lives for (the approval of) others, instead of for ourselves.

To heal this wound it is necessary to welcome back all the parts of yourself in hiding so you can integrate them into your psyche. This is the only way to become whole. Without this sense of inner wholeness, we can’t ever really be happy because we are otherwise always sacrificing a part of ourselves in order to be, do, or have what others want for us rather than living our own dreams and greatness.

The heart chakra (Age 21-28)

The shadow emotion of the heart chakra is grief and its biggest fear is rejection. When we open our hearts and ourselves to another and this is not reciprocated or at least not in the way we had hoped for this can lead to a feeling of rejection. When there is no exchange of energy, we easily fall into patterns of overgiving in hopes that reciprocation will follow if we just give, give, give and then give a little bit more. If giving however doesn’t lead to receiving, we feel rejected and often heartbroken because the love we hoped to find wasn’t there. Heartbreak is such a painful sensation that to protect ourselves from future rejection and heartache we close down our hearts, pull up a wall, and build a mote around it.

The problem however with making an impenetrable fortress out of our hearts is that although this may protect us from rejection and the pain of a broken heart, the walls we build around the heart also prevent love from getting in. But that’s not all, a closed heart doesn’t only struggle to allow in love, it struggles to receive anything including money, success, compliments, help, and so on. A closed heart is unable to receive. In fact, those with this kind of wounding find it much easier to give than to receive because receiving forces them to become vulnerable and open up which subjects them to the risk of rejection and getting their heart stomped on again.

It’s the question of the chicken and the egg because to heal this wound we need to realize that we are the only ones that are preventing us from receiving the love and all the other good stuff we deserve, by keeping our hearts locked away. We, of course, locked our hearts away because of the great pain we endured but in many cases that pain is not even from this lifetime – it’s accumulated heartache that we have been carrying with us throughout lifetimes and the lifetimes. Yes, shutting our hearts down in the past made sense but at some point, we have to risk opening our hearts again because otherwise, we can never truly experience love. It’s either that or remain alone and isolated which further fuels the grief that shuts down the heart chakra. This is how for many people it becomes a never ending repeating pattern, because even when someone is there to give to them, a person with a closed heart is unable to receive.

The throat chakra (Age 28-35)

The shadow emotion of the throat chakra is unworthiness. The throat chakra allows us to speak our dream life into existence through the power of the spoken word, it’s our master tool for manifestation. What keeps us from claiming the life that is ours by Divine right and taking up the space that is ours to take are our feelings of unworthiness. Who am I to want or deserve….. (fill in the blank)? It often stems from the illusion of scarcity. If we believe that the world is not resourced enough for all of us to have it all, then we can’t create the lives of our dreams without imposing on someone else’s ability to create their dreams.

‘But here’s the thing that’s interesting about unworthiness: it’s really a belief. There is no emotion of unworthiness. Unworthiness is a belief: “I am worth nothing. I am worth less. I am worth less than nothing.” And that belief is a survival defense, part of the total submission response.’ Source: Nicabm.com

Janina Fisher, PhD explains that had we not bought into the belief that we were unworthy in for example an abusive situation in our childhood or past life (added by me) we would not have been able to survive that experience. Just imagine standing up to an abuser telling them they can’t treat you this way, that could go terribly wrong, especially with a live-in abuser such as a parent or a spouse who is physically much stronger than you. So instead we adapt by telling ourselves that we are unworthy because that allows us to behave in such a way (aka submit) that ensures our survival.

We heal this wound by finding the original wound both on a childhood as well as on a Soul path level that created the false belief of unworthiness which often goes all the way back to our split from Source wound and how we interpreted our separation from the Divine. This in turn allows us to see that we are worthy and deserve to take up space in the world. We are meant to have it all, as this is our Divine birthright as sons and daughters of the Divine.

The third eye chakra (Age 35-42)

The shadow emotion of the third eye chakra is separation. The ego’s perceived separation from the Soul is what creates the illusionary reality we live in. In Sanskrit, this is called māyā. Within Eastern philosophy, māyā means a “magic show, an illusion where things appear to be present but are not what they seem” the principle which shows “attributeless Absolute” as having “attributes”. Māyā also refers to that which “is constantly changing and thus is spiritually unreal” (in opposition to an unchanging Absolute, or Brahman), and therefore “conceals the true character of spiritual reality”.

In the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, māyā, “appearance”, is “the powerful force that creates the cosmic illusion that the phenomenal world is real”. In this nondualist school, māyā at the individual level appears as the lack of knowledge (avidyā) of the real Self, Atman-Brahman, mistakingly identifying with the body-mind complex and its entanglements. Source: Wikipedia

When we forget our oneness within ourselves (the ego believing it is separate from the Soul), our minds start to see the world from a place of duality. Our perception of things is shaped by the separation from their seemingly opposing but complementary halves. This gives rise to opposites, and it is easier for the thinking mind to recognize what something is when it is able to understand what it is not.

This wound is also the underlying reason for our need for control in order to feel safe because the ego is under the false assumption that it was left to fend for its own in the absence of the Divine. Fully convinced of this illusion the ego loses access to the unlimited creational power of the Soul as well as Divine protection. In reality, these Soul attributes were never lost or inaccessible they only seemed to be within the illusion of separation. To heal this wound we have to go back to the Incarnation wound on a Soul path level and sometimes also the split from Source wound as well to see through the illusion of separation that we have been stuck in for eons and eons.

Having your ego and Soul come back into union is the missing link to fully embodying your wholeness.

The crown chakra (Age 42-49)

The shadow emotion of the crown chakra is disconnection. Not only have we lived in the illusion of separation from our own Divinity for eons and eons, but we have also felt disconnected from Source, as Oneness with all there is – is the only true spiritual reality. As we fragmented further and further on our own Soul journey as a human race we have grown further and further away from our Star origins, nature, and our natural rhythms. Even as families, communities, and societies, we have grown further and further apart leaving many people feeling disconnected, isolated, and alone.

Interestingly enough the age range where this chakra develops is also where we start experiencing this disconnection the most. It’s the age range where people get divorced, we start losing loved ones more regularly to death, where finding relationships becomes harder, and where families often drift further apart because the people who kept them together (for example parents or grandparents) have passed away. To remedy this evergrowing sense of disconnection, we create deeper attachments to people and things which make it even more difficult when we are forced to let them go.

This stage in life can also pique people’s interest in spirituality and the interconnectedness of the world, and so many people develop a greater craving for knowledge and understanding of the universe, which is often reflected on the earth plane as a “mid-life crisis.” This would be an ideal time in our lives to connect deeper with the Divine, but what often prevents us from doing so is unresolved religious trauma from this and previous lifetimes. Lives where we felt punished by God, or let down, forsaken, and even abandoned by the Divine.

All these subconscious conflicts with God/Source/the Divine or whatever you refer to as the highest power, stand in the way of us connecting back with Source and with all that it is. To heal this wound we need to find these memories of religious trauma on a Soul path level, as well as heal our Split from Source wound and what we made this mean about ourselves and the Divine. You may need to revisit this wound more than once to see the truth about your connection to the Divine that was never lost, to begin with, and your own role in ending up here in the physical – playing what we call the incarnation game.

Opening the pathway for the Kundalini

All the above work leads to opening the pathway for the Kundalini energy to rise naturally. There are many methods out there that seek to accelerate this process of awakening the Kundalini on purpose to make it rise prematurely but the Kundalini energy has to rise through each chakra and this is only possible to the extent that this chakra has become open or unblocked.

If a chakra is open, then Kundalini Rising continues upwards to the next chakra. If they are all open, then it rises all the way to the Sahasrara (crown chakra). However, this is commonly thought of in the opposite way. If a chakra is closed, then the Kundalini stops its upward journey and one experiences that chakra more fully in an external way (what is typically called open). This can seem to be evidence of an open chakra, but the fact that the Kundalini does not keep going upward means that the chakra is actually closed. Source: swamij.com

There are also three locks or knots through which the Kundalini has to rise, each is symbolic of a higher level of consciousness and way of being in the world. This little excerpt is from one of my favorite books on the topic, explaining the second lock.

‘Betrayal concerns the lock between the third chakra and the fourth chakra, between the solar plexus and the heart. This lock is a complex knot right on the diaphragm. As we seek to raise the kundalini energy up into the heart chakra, it cannot pass easily through this knot because the core is very tightly veiled here. The energy dams up, circulating instead in the abdomen, unable to make it into the heart. As we use this key and do the processing work, we are able to loosen and eventually untie this knot. In the East, it is known as the knot of Vishnu. When it opened for me, my guides called it “Heaven’s Gate.” Forgiveness will open it. The vibration of forgiveness actually dissolves the hard knot and releases the contraction, so the energy can get through to your heart. It takes more than a one-time forgiveness and is more like learning to live in a continuous state of forgiveness.’  Source: Returning to Oneness by Leslie Temple Thurston

To truly work with one’s chakras or to have a Kundalini awakening means addressing these unresolved emotions and the trauma or wounds that created them that are blocking both the chakras as well as the Kundalini energy. On the one hand, it means that healing our unresolved pain can actually do more for us than weekly or even daily yoga sessions while on the other hand, it means that if we are already on the path of yoga we can accelerate our work by dealing with the shadow emotions that are at the root cause of our chakras being out of balance or blocked.

A very common objection from the world of yoga practitioners is that it is somehow dangerous to work with past lives, this is not true. Soul path healing is one of the safest and gentlest ways to work with unresolved emotions and trauma. Where hypnotherapy can aggravate both epilepsy as well as psychosis, Soul Embodiment Therapy is such a gentle method that there are no contraindications.

I pray that reading this Soul teaching on the shadow emotions of the chakras has helped you get a better understanding of how to really balance or open your chakras in a meaningful way. I know when I started out on my journey I was for example told to eat vegetables in the color of the concerned chakra and although perhaps there is some merit to such superficial solutions, I have found in my own healing work and my years of working with clients that there are more profound ways of working with the chakras such as I have shared with you today.

I also know that opening blocked or stagnant chakras takes time as we work through the childhood, past life, and ancestral wounds that got them that way. It takes time to get to the root causes of our issues, but that is the advantage of working with a method such as Soul Embodiment Therapy which allows us to address our issues at the root cause on a Soul path level, which is where all our wounds originated, to begin with. The Soul path level is of course a much deeper level than our childhood or ancestral wounding which are on a current incarnation level, these current incarnation wounds are in fact attempts to heal the Soul path wounds that we bring in from previous lifetimes.