Know who’s pretty awesome? Seane Corn.
I got to take her Chakra workshop this past weekend at Moksha, and I gotta say: Good. Stuff.

First of all, chakras are hot right now. It seems like everyone and their kitten is giving workshops about them, or doing a guided meditation about them, or wondering how to balance them. In fact, this is the third chakra-related workshop I’ve taken this year.

So why is this ancient energetic map getting so much hype these days? I have a few theories. One, people like to compartmentalize. Same reason personality tests are so popular; they take something esoteric and abstract and make it easier to understand. The chakra system is a means for svadhyaya, self-study and inquiry. People are looking to their own bodies and energy fields to see what’s goin’ on, what’s feeling good and where they need healing. A wonderful sign that there is serious interest in reestablishing the mind-body connection! I’m so excited to see the shift into these subtler sciences and how people are beginning to work them into their lifestyles in a modern context.
Back to the workshop. So this is where I’m supposed to gush over what a great teacher Seane is. And dude, she totally IS. Each session began with a little lecture. The chakras came into play, obviously, but so did the spirituality and mysticism of the practice, psychology, how we deal with our own crap and the bullshit of others, and lots of good little sound bits.

To give light, you must endure burning.

The key to healing is awareness.

The revolution is from within.

Faith is still being in awe, even when we’re on our knees.

See what I’m saying? Homegirl knows her shit. And she does this without preaching, without that elevated air some teachers have. It comes across as so genuine. One of the things she emphasized was that the doesn’t call herself a teacher, she just facilitates our uncovering of the teacher within ourselves, the only true teacher.

Cute, right? I dig it.

So Seane went into the chakras from a very logical point of view: the body remembers everything. Every trauma you’ve had, every time you felt humiliated, every time you were so angry you could cry, everything you’ve forgotten and repressed and undermined, your body holds in its cellular tissues.

When our chakras are balanced, we are less reactive and more perceptive. If someone says they hate your pants, someone with unbalanced chakras may lash out and say “Your pants are stupid too and so are you!” Or, conversely think, I wasn’t sure about these pants and now I KNOW they’re dumb and God, I’m dumb too.

However, someone with balanced chakras might do something think something along the lines of: Aw, man–are my pants stupid? Nah, they’re pretty alright. I wonder what’s going on in that person’s life that would make them say something hurtful to me out of nowhere.

This is all a broad generalization, of course. But don’t we all just want to be confident in the pants we’re wearing?

The chakras also allow us to confront shadow, because we are the ones who manifest it! By the time a pure intention makes it “out,” it’s slightly warped and changed by our own fears and imbalances. So what started as a pure thought or intention, suddenly isn’t so pure when we send it out into the universe. “Our prayers are always answered,” Seane said. Including that warped, slightly imbalanced one. We magnetize our own fears to ourselves, so that we can confront these shadow aspects of ourselves. We can only know something by experiencing its opposite. All of those not-so-hot things that happen and keep happening are because we manifest them, and will keep manifesting them until we make peace and let go of the root of that trauma. Which calls for serious self-inquiry and a change in perspective.

Clearly, the weekend was way deep.

What I loved most about the whole thing is how she relates your personal practice to what’s going on in the world. If you heal yourself, you will heal others. You will change the system. You will be an impetus for change by living compassionately, because slowly–sometimes painfully so–you will effect those around you, who will effect those around them.

Seane’s incredible project, Off the Mat Into the World, had a Yoga Votes thing that went on recently to inspire the yoga community to vote already. Did you know only 20% of yogis vote? And there’s a frigging LOT of us! Let’s turn our community into a constituency and make our leaders listen to us like they listen to Pharma and Agro lobbyists!

(Man. One day I WILL take that leadership training!)

Anyway, I’m off to ruminate on some of the gems from Seane’s workshop. In store today: an autumn walk on the boulevard with my favorite loves, and fallsy beer to warm us up from the inside. Pictures? Of course.