A Skeptic of Chakra Balancing

The experience helped me make peace with things that can't be explained.

- By Erin Skarda

I'M NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT CONSIDER WOO-WOO. As a longtime journalist and editor, I've spent my entire adult life grounded in facts and logic, trying to make sense of the events of this world so I can better explain them to others.

While I've been beholden to reality in my work, I know that some things can't be readily explained by logic. The metaphysical world-what is beyond what we know and remains a mystery-has always intrigued me. It's what attracted me to yoga almost 20 years ago and likely why I found myself lying on a table in a basement in Denver last summer preparing to have my chakras balanced.

WHY I TURNED TO CHAKRA BALANCING

A confession: Before joining the Yoga Journal staff in March 2021, my knowledge of the chakras was limited at best. In fact, I was skeptical that our body's so-called energy centers actually existed-let alone that they needed some sort of a tune-up every once in a while.

I know enough about physics to believe that energy is real. But the idea that our bodies consist of spinning wheels of energy that, when blocked, cause disruptions in our physical and mental wellness? Well, even typing that seems a little far-fetched for my journalistic brain.

As I learned more about the chakras, I started to recognize signs of blocked energy in my body fatigue, pelvic and low-back pain, anxiety, a heavy feeling in my heart. Like many people, I was working in a high-stress career with a toddler at home when the pandemic hit. As a bonus, I was eight months into a high-risk pregnancy with hyperemesis gravidarum-relentless nausea and vomiting that persisted until weeks before I gave birth.