During my teens I suffered from severe depression. With hindsight, I can see the roots of this reached back into a childhood with a fair share of traumas. My 20s and 30s became a time of grappling with forms of healing without actually recognising the experience of trauma. There was also plenty of mess and mayhem, it’s not been a pretty path! But my life’s work has revolved around three things, now well established as having potential to support those with traumatic stress. Namely gardening, community and yoga — things that help us find a sense of connection, of rootedness and a sense of self.

I remember during my depression, looking out into the square where I lived in London and noticing the signs of spring. Trees lighting up with colour and flowers breaking through the soil. I was able to feel how a life force is always there, animating everything. It felt so reassuring in this world with all its cruelty that this force of love persisted and made itself known with such incredible beauty. 

No wonder then that during my early 20s I became an organic gardener. I trained in a community in Ireland, where I lived and worked with folks with different needs, such as Down’s syndrome and autism. These people were the greatest teachers of love, sharing their lives so openly, honestly and generously with us all. 

Later in London I worked in a psychotherapeutic gardening project, with refugees who had been tortured. Sharing the healing role of nature, how life continues in even the harshest conditions. The same lessons that had helped me.

I left this work to travel to India and continue my yoga studies, where I was asked so many times if I was a yoga teacher that it seemed rude not to become one! So then I dived deep into the study and practice of yoga which I had tinkered with since university.  

From this yogic perspective I see that I created the conditions for self-healing and from a yogic perspective one that started with the root chakra. 

Root Chakra — Moolhadhara

The word chakra describing a wheel is first mentioned in the Upanishads, approximately 500BCE, to describe the animating force of the subtle body. The chakra system was developed later during the heyday of tantra around 600-1200 AD, before hatha yoga came to the fore. The tantras, a series of texts and teachings, describe how the prana or life force permeates our being through thousands of invisible channels or nadis, carrying prana in every direction to every cell. Any place that these nadis cross gives rise to a swirling vortice of energy — a chakra, so there may be 1000s of chakras. But within most chakra systems (there are several) the focus in on the 7-10 chakras which arise at the intersection the main nadis located along the spine. These are the ida & pingala nadis which are often shown to meander left to right and cross the central channel — sushumna nadi.

Later still, during the 19th and 20th centuries, psychologists such as Jung describe the role of the chakras within the psyche. This work which has continued to evolve and be absorbed into some parts of the yoga culture gives us a new way to work with and balance the chakras. While Tantriks seek to experience the full power of prana as kundalini, a means to awakening, the Westernized model of the chakras is more of a "personal growth system". Although it could be argued that through opening up to that which restrict our prana, we also clear the passages for the flow of kundalini. 

Muladhara (or moolhadhara) means earth support, and this chakra is where our individuality comes into being, as part of the interconnected whole. The “kshetrum” or location place for root chakra within the body, is often described as the tailbone. But more with the root chakra as the force through which we come into existence and by which we become a part of this earth, we can also experience this chakra as reaching below the body into the earth. 

The work of psychologist Anodea Judith develops the therapeutic application of chakra work further. She describes early life traumas or anything that causes the sense of dislocation from self as something we might work with through connection to our roots.

The life force at root chakra keeps us healthy and energised. It means we are able to find our place on this earth, to believe in our right be here, and to earn a living. The Indian concept of artha — wealth — is one of the four underlying principles for a virtuous life. Whereas within the ascetic practices we relinquish material possessions to focus on the infinite, as “householders”, i.e. those who live in society, we need enough to be well. 

If you are someone who finds it hard to find your way in this life, who believes they are not worthy, or who feels isolated or unsupported; then perhaps root chakra work will support you. 

For me this took the very literal form of gardening, reaching into the earth and feeling into her seasons to find a sense of the rhythm of life. To connect to the prana that flows through all things. But we can connect to our roots in many ways. 

In asana this might be through a connection to the feet and legs through standing poses. For meditations when possible, this might be imagining roots anchoring us into the earth. For breath practice we can breath through these roots. Our affirmations might focus on safety, or survival, or the ability to trust and feel into support of the earth. 

I do not mean to suggest that a bit of gardening or yoga practice is the way to heal trauma. But it can be a way to start to reconnect to a sense of self or to continue that work with the support of a therapist. As I look back now over my life, I can see that realising that had I been supported to recognise some of the early life experiences were traumatic would have been better.  Rather than these being ignored within the family. 

But that my reaching into the things that helped me feel more grounded. Working physically, the earth herself, living within a community, all made it possible for the healing work to start. It also gave me insight into the power of prana and of the chakras which I am so grateful I can share. 

Yoga of the Subtle Body

If you would like to explore an embodied approach to prana through asana, breathwork and meditation focused on the chakras and bandhas, please join me for my Subtle Body Intensive.