Miami – Happens For A Reason

Hi friends! Over the summer I began learning about the chakras, or the seven energy centers of the body. Having an interest in health, wellness, and spirituality, I knew studying the chakras was inevitable on my journey.

Having taken all of these photos in Miami with my new favorite red swimsuit, I thought a post on the “root” or “Muladhara” chakra would be appropriate, as the color of this chakra is red.

Although very skeptical at first, as soon as I began reading “Chakras For Beginners” by David Pond (given to me by a very good friend of mine), everything began to make sense. After about five pages in, the first thought I had to myself was, “Damn, all of my chakras are unbalanced.” I knew this book fell into my lap for a reason.

Chakras are energy centers, meaning energy flows through these points of the body. If these points are blocked, energy cannot flow through. Blocked chakras are said to lead to illness, both physical and psychological. Story has it that you must balance all of the chakras in order, starting with the root (followed by the sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown chakras). If there is anything I learned in life thus far, the root of the problem must be fixed in order to fix the rest. There aren’t any shortcuts here, and each may take some time to balance.

“The 7 Chakras for Beginners” by MindBodyGreen is a very helpful cheat sheet for beginners who are interested in learning about all the chakras. Click here to read this article.

The root chakra represents our foundation and feelings of stability and being grounded, and it t is located at the base of the spine/tailbone. If your root chakra is unbalanced, you may feel insecure, unstable, unsure of yourself, anxious, angry, controlling, afraid, and have a lack of self confidence. You most likely have problems with your basic survival needs: food, housing, work, and finances. If you are balanced, you will feel confident (not arrogant or fearful), grounded, centered, and stable. Balancing your root chakra creates stability and a foundation for yourself.

So how do you balance your root chakra? Through food: red beets and apples, red meat and eggs, vegetables from the ground such as carrots and potatoes, and red spices such as cayenne pepper and hot sauce. You can also do certain forms of yoga and yoga poses to open up your lower spine and help ground yourself. What worked for me was saying daily affirmations including “I am safe and secure,” “I am stable and grounded,” and “I am connected to the Universe and to the earth.” Visualization is also an extremely powerful tool, and while sitting in a chair, feet on the floor, you can close your eyes and visualize roots growing from your feet into the ground. Sounds crazy, but it works.

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Balancing my Root chakra took about six months, as I wasn’t happy with my work situation and didn’t know who I was as a person. Now that I’ve counted these months, it feels like it’s been a long time, but finding myself and securing my foundation was worth the wait, dedication, and hard work.

In 2016, I made a commitment to myself. Discovering and becoming the person I was meant to be were my top priorities. This is something that people spend a lifetime trying to figure out, and I didn’t want to be one of those people. Although I still have my moments, I used to live in a world solely based on fear and anxiety. I was very insecure and had low confidence. I was unsure of myself, and this uncertainty was reflected across all areas of my life.

Having succeeded in my 2016 intentions, I now feel grounded, and I am certain of who I am. I have a concrete foundation to grow as an individual and balance the rest of my chakras from here.

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Swimsuit: Asos

Hat: NineWest

Sunglasses: Missguided

For the past week or so, I have noticed myself being out of alignment with the Universe (hence my lack of blog posts). This happens to be occasionally, usually just for a day or so, however, this time was a bit longer. I feel as if I’m living in a fog and just going through the motions of life. Negative thoughts tend to cloud my mind, even if I’m just doing something monotonous. This out of tune feeling usually begins when I wake up and hit the ground running, filling my day with things to do and forgetting about or putting off my daily “practice” or meditation that centers and grounds me.

I typically shake this gloomy mindset by working out, meditating until I feel better, and getting an extra dose of caffeine (not particularly recommended, although it’s typically my first go-to method). This is my magic solution, although not necessarily in that order.

Other than feeling both mentally and emotionally dull, the Universe gives me other signs that I am out of alignment.

Enter the daily hassles of life: the petty, day-to-day, pain-in-my-ass irritations that drive us insane.

I was recently chatting with a friend who felt as if he was out of alignment because he was attracting these daily hassles. He made me quickly realize that my past week has been filled with these miniscule annoyances.

The biggest one for me is running late. I used to be notorious for running late, and once I moved to New York, I readjusted and adapted to NYC travel time. I was forced to quickly learn how to manage my time much better and prepare for delays, yet I have noticed that as my thought process has changed over the past year or so now, I have been much better with being on time.

It isn’t necessarily my time management that is off now. The obstacles that get in my way along my journey (i.e. the ACE train is running with delays, my Uber driver cancelled after I was waiting for 6 minutes, traffic on 9th for literally no reason) cause me to be delayed.

Yes, these are things that are out of my control, yet they are still things that I am attracting. I’m attracting them because I am out of alignment.

I have a couple of different tests that I use to see if I am out of alignment. One of them being catching the time 11:11 AM or PM on the reg. Repeated numbers or repetition in general are signs that your are in tune with the Universe. I typically catch 11:11 once a day, and have been doing so consistently for the past 10 months. This is actually something I have been doing my whole life, I just never knew what it referred to. When I don’t catch these numbers, I know I need to do some realigning.

Today for example: this morning I caught the time at 11:12AM. I use this to gauge how out of alignment I am. If I’m one minute off, I’m close, but not yet there. Something within me is still out of alignment. Although this morning I was very close, I’m not exactly on the right path in some way or another (probably because I haven’t had the chance to meditate and center myself yet). To my surprise, I did, however, catch 11:11PM last night for the first time in probably six days, so it’s safe to say that I’m doing much better than last week.

So what is off in my life? Well, probably something that I am refusing to admit to myself. Smaller scale, I know that when I forget or put off grounding myself (the one key necessity for me to be in tune with the Universe), I immediately get thrown off and become consumed with these daily hassles. I wake up, hit the ground running, and start rushing through my life without centering myself first. Even if it’s just closing my eyes and taking a long, deep breath before I begin my day–it helps me tremendously. If my mind is scattered from the start, I’ll attract things that will interrupt my life.

When your world gets a little rocky, you know it it’s time to regroup and take a look inward. When you’re in tune with yourself and the world around you, everything will flow naturally and you will be receiving the positivity and abundance you are supposed to be attracting in your life.

Xx Marisa

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Art by Peter Tunney

Photos taken at the Peter Tunney Experience in Miami, FL //Wynwood Art District