What Are the 7 Chakras and How Do They Affect You?
By Ken Breen — Intuitive Reiki Master, Infinite Energy Source, Footscray Melbourne
1 June 2026
The word "chakra" gets used a lot. In wellness spaces, on social media, in conversations about healing and energy work. And yet, for most people, it remains slightly mysterious — something they sense is real, but can't quite explain.Let me change that.Because your chakras are not abstract spiritual theory. They are the living architecture of your energy body — seven primary centres that govern everything from your physical vitality to your emotional patterns to your ability to love, speak your truth, and connect with something larger than yourself.When they flow freely, you thrive. When they are blocked, imbalanced, or depleted, the effects show up — in your body, your emotions, your relationships, and your sense of self.Here is what you actually need to know.
What Is a Chakra?
The word chakra comes from Sanskrit and means "wheel" or "disc" — a spinning vortex of energy located along the central channel of the body, from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.
These centres are not physical structures you can see in an anatomy textbook. They exist in what is sometimes called the subtle body — the energetic dimension of your being that interpenetrates and animates the physical. Ancient yogic and Vedic traditions mapped this system with extraordinary detail thousands of years ago. Modern energy medicine, Kirlian photography, and biofield science are increasingly providing frameworks for understanding what these traditions always knew.
Each chakra corresponds to specific organs, glands, and body systems. Each governs specific emotional and psychological themes. Each vibrates at a particular frequency, associated with a colour, element, and quality of consciousness.
When a chakra is open and flowing, you experience health, clarity, and aliveness in its domain. When it is blocked, overactive, or underactive, you experience disruption — physically, emotionally, or both.
The Seven Chakra Energy Centres
Centre 01 — Root Chakra (Muladhara)
Colour: Red | Location: Base of spine | Element: Earth
Your foundation. Your connection to safety, stability, belonging, and the physical world. When your root is strong, you feel grounded, secure, and at home in your body. When it is blocked, you may experience chronic fear, financial anxiety, digestive issues, lower back pain, or a persistent sense that the ground beneath you is uncertain.
Centre 02 — Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana)
Colour: Orange | Location: Lower abdomen | Element: Water
Your centre of creativity, pleasure, emotion, and sensuality. This is where your passion for life lives — your capacity for joy, play, and genuine connection. When it flows freely, you feel creative, emotionally fluid, and alive. When blocked, you may experience emotional numbness, creative blocks, intimacy difficulties, or hormonal imbalances.
Centre 03 — Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura)
Colour: Yellow | Location: Upper abdomen | Element: Fire
Your personal power centre. Self-worth, confidence, will, and identity. When Manipura is balanced, you act from inner authority — you know who you are and you move through the world accordingly. When disrupted, you may experience anxiety, people-pleasing, inability to set boundaries, or digestive and adrenal issues.
Centre 04 — Heart Chakra (Anahata)
Colour: Green and Pink | Location: Centre of chest | Element: Air
The bridge between the lower and upper chakras — and the seat of love, compassion, grief, and connection. A balanced heart chakra means you can give and receive love freely, forgive genuinely, and feel your inherent connection to all life. When blocked, you may experience loneliness, inability to trust, grief that won't move, or heart and lung issues.
Centre 05 — Throat Chakra (Vishuddha)
Colour: Blue | Location: Throat and neck | Element: Sound/Ether
Your centre of authentic expression and truth. When Vishuddha flows, your words carry power because they are honest. You communicate clearly, set boundaries with ease, and express yourself without apology. When blocked, you may swallow your words, over-explain, struggle to say no, or experience thyroid, neck, or jaw tension.
Centre 06 — Third Eye Chakra (Ajna)
Colour: Indigo | Location: Between the eyebrows | Element: Light
Your centre of intuition, perception, and inner knowing. When Ajna is open, you trust your gut, see through illusion, and navigate life with clarity. When blocked, you may feel mentally foggy, disconnected from your intuition, overly analytical, or prone to headaches and sleep disturbances.
Centre 07 — Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)
Colour: Violet and White | Location: Top of the head | Element: Thought/Consciousness
Your connection to the divine, to universal consciousness, to the understanding that you are part of something infinitely larger than your individual self. When Sahasrara flows, life carries meaning and even difficulty becomes navigable. When blocked, you may experience existential emptiness, spiritual disconnection, or a sense that life has lost its purpose.
How Chakra Imbalances Show Up in Real Life
Here's what I find in my work: people rarely come to me describing their chakras. They come describing their lives.
"I'm exhausted and I don't know why.""I can't seem to say what I really mean.""I feel completely disconnected from my body.""I keep attracting the same painful situations.""Something is wrong but I can't put my finger on it."
These descriptions — every single one of them — have energetic correlates. And when we address the chakra imbalances underlying them, the life begins to change.
This is the profound practical value of understanding your chakra system. It is not esoteric knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It is a precise map of the intersection between your inner world and your outer experience.
How Reiki Works With the Chakra System
In every Reiki Synergy Session, I work with your chakra system as part of a whole-body, whole-field approach to healing. I read the energy centres intuitively — sensing which are blocked, which are overactive, which are depleted — and work to restore their natural flow and balance.
Over a series of sessions, as the chakra system comes into greater coherence, clients notice significant shifts: in their health, their relationships, their work, their sense of self, and their capacity for joy.
Your chakra system is not separate from your life. It is the energetic foundation of it.
Want to Explore Deeper?
Visit the 7 Chakra Energy Centres page on this site for the complete guide to each centre, or explore the expanded
13 Chakra system to go further.
Ready to experience chakra balancing in a Reiki Synergy Session?
Book with Ken →