Finding Balance: Session Seven - Our Crown of Connectedness

Finding Balance

A series of suggestions to help balance our energies

and our sense of self

There are seven main energy centres throughout our bodies, known in some philosophies as chakras. These energy centres align with the spine, from its base to the crown of the head. They have been described as swirling wheels of our vital life force, where matter and consciousness meet, and they correspond to significant nerve centres in the body. It's important for our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being that these energy centres stay open, unblocked, and balanced. Each of the seven sessions focuses on a different energy centre. They can be used by individuals or by groups. 

The workshops offered on this blog are the result of my thoughts, reflections, and experiences, woven together using my own words and sometimes adapting the words others have used: I am indebted to their wisdom. Please use these workshops freely, adapting them as suits your own context. I am always pleased to hear from people who have used them.

Session Seven : Our Crown of Connectedness

The seventh work-shop is to do with the energy centre of our Crown, located at

the top of our heads, and crucial to our integration. For this session you will need:

• a rug or mat and a clear stone for each participant
• incense – myrrh is good - (if no-one has any problems with the vapour) and matches

You may also wish to play music during the meditation, in which case choose

something quiet, calm, and unobtrusive.

Welcome, Introduction, and Feedback:

Welcome again to everyone, as we meet for our final session of exploring ways of finding greater balance between all the elements that combine to make up our selves, and particularly our energy centres.

At the end of our last session, I asked you to try three things: making a note or a drawing of the way you've been helped by your own inner wisdom; listing the non-logical stuff that comes to us – the hunches, feelings, urges and dreams - and whether they were proved true; and thirdly, using mandala patterns, colouring them in as an active meditation.

How did you get on with those, and with any of the other practices you've been using at home?...

About our 'Crown':

Ok, so, our seventh energy centre is the one at the top, literally - it's located at the top of our head, our crown - and it's understood to be our source of enlightenment and of our connection to all that is; it's described by some as the meeting point between the finite (our bodies and egos) and the infinite (the universe and soul); the place where time and timelessness intersect, and where death and eternal life meet.

One image for that interconnectiveness is that we're like the drops of water that together form a vast ocean; and an image for our Crown is that of the lotus, a flower which emerges from muddy waters, revealing beauty in unexpected places.

When we work on our essential connectedness, and begin to open our selves up, we go beyond the confines of our physical bodies, our egos, our minds, our intellects, our emotions; we move towards a sense of essential unity at a fundamental level, and experience profound empathy.

If we ignore our Crowns, we can experience confusion, a lack of connectedness to the manifest world, an obsession with 'spiritual' things, and an inability to function practically.To put it in a nutshell: too much navel-gazing, not enough laundry!

The challenge of this chakra is to liberate the spirit, to be open to the divine, and at the same time stay firmly rooted deep in the ground.

Beginning to balance:

Step one: Reflecting

The Crown is the centre of inspiration, of positivity, and of happiness. 

Let's take these in order: first of all, inspiration. 

I looked up the etymology of the word inspiration, and it means more than just to breathe physically – breathing in - it means to breathe life into...

Let's take a few moments to reflect on what breathes life into each of us, 

what inspires us?... 

It might be music, or nature, or poetry, or someone's example...

Perhaps we can share something that inspires us...

Great; so, we must be sure to include some inspiration in our daily lives 

to keep our crowns open and active - and to stay positive... 

Speaking of which, we can enhance our positivity in lots of ways, and not least, as we've learnt earlier in this course, by using affirmations, and, like when we meditate, visualisations.

Some people imagine their crown to be like a great golden orb of light filling the top of the head, growing and expanding, and connecting them to the whole of life. With that sort of connection, we need never feel alone, and it's no longer possible to experience ourselves as separate from any thing or any one;

the corollory of which is that we can never again be wholly selfish, because whatever we do has an effect on everything else. There's a big thought!

And, to come to the third of our trio, here's another big thought – 

well, more of a question really – what do we mean by happiness?

Think about the last time you felt really happy...

What caused your happiness?... 

And now, think about a time when you made someone else happy...

What had you done or said?... 

The phrase 'the pursuit of happiness' is probably the best known phrase of the American Declaration of Independence, one of the so-called unalienable rights of every person. It's a phrase that was originally coined by the English philosopher  John Locke, born in 1632, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. By it, Locke didn't mean simply pleasure, or the satisfaction of desire. He understood happiness as being the highest perfection of our nature, the essential foundation of liberty, and therefore the greatest good for all - for all, not just for some – interconnectedness again!

Step two: Breathing: Alternate nostril breathing

This technique restores balance and regulates the flow of air. It's good for settling the mind, body and emotions, especially if we feel stressed.

• Sit comfortably, with your left hand relaxed in your lap, and bringing your right hand in front of your face
• Bring your first and middle fingers to rest between your eyebrows as an anchor
• Close your eyes and take a deep breath in and out through your nose
• Using your right thumb, close your right nostril and inhale slowly and steadily through your left nostril
• Close your left nostril with your ring finger, so both nostrils are closed; hold your breath for a moment
• Open your right nostril and release your breath slowly through the right side, pausing briefly at the end of the exhalation
• Inhale slowly through the right side
• Hole both nostrils closed (with ring finger and thumb)
• Open your left nostril and release your breath slowly through the left side, pausing briefly again at the bottom.
• Repeat this cycle 5-10 times, trying to balance the length of your inhalations, pauses, and exhalations.

The Skull Shining Breath

This technique can help us release stress, toxins, negative emotions, shake off sluggishness, and energise us. It's the exhalation that's the forceful, powerful part of this breath; the inhalation is passive. It's a good breath to use first thing in the morning, or any time you're feeling cold or tired.

• Sit comfortably upright, both feet on the ground, and resting your hands on your lower belly
• Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth
• Inhale deeply through your nose, then use your diaphragm to forcefully expel all the air from your lungs while drawing your navel in towards your spine
• Allow your lungs to fill up naturally, with no effort as your belly expands
• Repeat ten times

Step three – Chanting

For our final chant, we use the word OM, and as we breathe in, we imagine we're breathing in violet light energy, which, as we breathe out again, takes away whatever we need to be rid of. The chime will give us the note for the chant...

Step four: Two simple yoga poses

The first pose is, appropriately, the half lotus:

Sit on the mat, placing one foot on the opposite thigh and the other foot on the floor beneath the opposite thing. Both knees need to be on the floor if possible, 

to keep our spines in balance. Those of us who're not comfortable in this position can either just sit with both feet on the floor, or with one leg straight out in front 

with the other foot resting on the outstretched thigh.

The second pose is the Corpse Pose

Lie on your back on the floor, with legs stretched and comfortably apart. Draw your shoulder blades underneath you, and tilt your chin slightly towards your chest to lengthen your neck. Your arms should be by your sides, palms up or down, whichever is most comfortable. Close our eyes, relax, and breathe deeply; be aware of the contact between your body and the ground; visualise a flow of energy from your Crown to your Root and back. If you're comfortable enough, stay in this position for our meditation, which is longer than previously.

Step five: Meditation

If you choose to sit, please gently clasp the clear stone in your hands; 

if you choose to lie down, please place the clear stone at the top of your head.

Suggested script for guided meditation:

Take a long and deep breath. As you exhale, move attention to the top of your head, and imagine big, white lotus there, with its petals closed...

Look at the lotus, at its shape, and color and texture...

As you watch, one by one the petals of the lotus start to open...

As the first layer flowers, you see uncountable rows of more petals still to open...

As the petals are opening the lotus starts spinning, washing violet and white light over you, through every pore and into every cell of your body...

Breathe deeply...

Feel the energy of the light connect you to the sky above and to the earth below, and to everything in between, so you become one with all existence...

Feel the support beneath you, connect with the ground below you, and let it take your weight...

Become aware of the sounds around you - let them be there....

Even though your eyes are closed, you may notice light and shade, and you feel the air touching the surface of your body...

Allow your mind to empty what it no longer needs to hold on to, let it go, flow out and away...

Allow your body to release what it no longer needs to hold on to, let it go, flow out and away...

Begin to sense the space around you...

Be aware of the rise and fall of your breath, its coming and going, the sensation, sound, temperature

Breathe down to where the weight of your body rests, below the base of your spine – to your root - your Chakra of Belonging...

Breathe into your Root...

Let it soften and gently expand on your breath, taking in nourishment and life force energy.

Allow your Root to connect down to ground below, deep into the earth... and now imagine your root bathed in the deep red colour of the earth, empowering, embodying, grounding you in the ‘here and now’...

Let your Root take what it needs...

And hear the affirmations: I am here...

The Earth supports me...

I am safe...

Now move your awareness up to your centre of creativity...

Imagine being bathed in the colour orange, nourishing and quickening you...

And now moving your awareness to your solar plexus, the centre of your personal power...

and the light becomes the yellow of sunshine, restoring, replenishing, valuing, and nurturing you...

And you are ready to bring your awareness to your heart, breathing and bathing in soft green light, renewing, loving, and healing you...

And the green light becomes bluer, as your attention moves to your throat,

and you breathe in the sky-blue, freeing your self-expression, softening your need for control, enabling you to speak your truth...

So your awareness moves to your Mind's Eye, centre of wisdom and intuition, bathed in the indigo of the night sky, soothing, balancing, bringing insight, clarity, and understanding...

Everything is unfolding as it should...

And now the light becomes clearer and brighter, as you see again the lotus blossom over your Crown, breathing in its purity, breathing out its harmony, knowing you are part of the universe, a drop in a great ocean of life, unique, precious, amazing, and becoming who you are, becoming healed and whole...

Now bring your attention back to your breathing, back to the ebb and flow of breath, back to your self...

Breathe in to your self...

Breathe out into life...

Rest in the safety, the energy, the light...

And gradually become aware of the air on the surface of your body, of the sounds around you, of the floor beneath you, of the companions around you...

Be aware of how you feel...

Hold your self with loving kindness...

We are part of each other, and we honour the life and the light within each of us...

We seek to understand and to learn from our experiences, to nourish our selves, to listen to wisdom, to trust our intuition, to let go of what we no longer need, to live in the here and now...

We are thankful for all the goodness in our lives...

We know that all will be well, and we are learning to love and accept our selves...

We are open to the grace that moves throughout the universe, visible and invisible...

We are at peace...

And now, when you are ready, open your eyes...

The Closing:

Over these seven sessions together, and in our home-work, I hope you've been enabled to begin to learn some steps that may help any and all of us to achieve greater balance within our selves.
As I said at the beginning, we are all made up of many elements – our physical bodies, our mysterious minds, our fluctuating emotions, our sense of the spiritual... and, like the universe itself, we are greater than the sum of our parts. And at the heart of everything is energy, the energy that enables us to achieve health and well-being, fulfill our huge potential, and be the unique and valuable person we were born to be. From now on, may we now and live our true nature.
May we understand that we are free. May we feel our inseparable connection to all that is, was, and will be. And may we be at peace.
Namaste.