I'll be honest, when I first heard people talk about chakras I pictured something complicated and a little intimidating. It's really not. A chakra is just an energy center in the body, and the classic system names seven of them, running from the base of your spine up to the top of your head. Each one is tied to a part of how we move through life, and each one has a color.
That color part is what hooked me, because color is already my whole language. Once I started painting the chakras, the system stopped being an abstract chart and started being something I could feel.
The seven, quickly
Root · red · feeling safe and grounded
Sacral · orange · creativity and play
Solar plexus · yellow · confidence and will
Heart · green · love and connection
Throat · blue · speaking your truth
Third eye · indigo · intuition and insight
Crown · violet · the bigger picture
"You don't have to believe in any of it for color to change how you feel. Try it and see."
Using color on purpose
Here's the simple practice I come back to. Notice which part of life feels stuck, find the chakra that matches, and bring a little more of that color into your day. Feeling unheard and swallowing your words? That's throat territory, so put your attention on this area of your body and send intention to it while drinking water, or even just with your mind.
Heart area clench up when you have to confront someone? Heart chakra.
Stomach flip with anxiety? Solar plexus,
Lower back ache can even be dumping of unprocessed emotions into the sacral - causing a block to your ability to feel safe enough to access creativity and play.
It sounds almost too easy, and that's kind of the point. You're not trying to fix yourself. You're just giving your attention a gentle nudge toward the spot that might contain a block. And asking the universe [insert your word of choice here...god, source, angels, spirit guides, team] to help clear the block in that chakra.
You can also find lots of guided mediation to support you with this on YouTube, and in Yoga practices too for a physical movement based unblocking.
"Chakra Guitar"
Why I visualize them
When I make a chakra piece, I'm not trying to teach a lesson. I'm trying to catch the feeling of that energy waking up. The throat one below poured out on a day I'd been holding too much in, and finishing it genuinely loosened something in my chest.
If you take one thing from this, let it be that. Color isn't decoration, it's information your body already knows how to read. Start noticing which ones you reach for, and you'll learn a lot about where you are.
