The Real Connection Between Your Sense of Security and Your Success
Begin to Unlock Hidden or Undiscovered Keys From Your Childhood to Reframe and Reclaim Your True Potential
Your Root Mooladhara Chakra begins to develop in the formative years of life. Empirically, it has been known to develop during the ages of zero to seven. This is the stage when the most primal states of your brain are active. You do not have a sense of what you want to do, what your existential crises are, who you like and dislike, or what interpersonal power plays are. This phase in your life is characterized by the development of self. The early years in a child’s life are primarily about being taken care of, being fed, and being loved. These are the same requirements which are placed at the bottom of the pyramid in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
At this stage, you begin to develop an understanding of security. You know for sure that ‘I am secure. I will be looked after.’ It is only by residing in a sense of security does a child begin to explore the world around her. She dares to touch a thorn because she knows she has people looking out for her. And mostly, in this stage of life, any events that risk a child’s sense of security or make her believe she is at risk, act as destabilizing forces to the Root Chakra. This feeling that one is not secure triggers a survival instinct which manifests in everything that a child does as she grows up. Hoarders are the simplest example of a benign manifestation of a blocked Root Chakra. A hoarder’s survival instinct is in overdrive. Hoarders accumulate things because they fear they are going to be put in a situation where their survival will be at risk, meaning those possessions will be required then. Some of the more severe types of hoarders believe in an apocalypse, creating storage and arrangements for unlikely events. Losing a primary caretaker, having unloving parents, and experiencing abuse are some of the factors which contribute to a distorted sense of security, which unbalances this chakra.
Once the primal need of security is met, a child looks forward to forming attachment. This is her primary understanding of love. It is the reason a touch, a soothing, and a smile of a mother feels like a ray of sunshine on a dark, cloudy day—there is a primal bond of affection established. As a child offers this affection, she looks forward to a reciprocation of the same. And if this affection is not reciprocated unconditionally and encouragingly, a child develops a trauma. Based on the way a child’s attachment was reciprocated, a child develops one of the three attachment styles—secure, anxious, or insecure. The answers to “Why am I so bad at relationships?” or “Why do I always attract the wrong guy?” are all rooted in the attachment style. You might think that you were adequately loved and attended to, but surprisingly, it is in this phase of life where the most significant wounds are inflicted upon a child.
As the ongoing attachment of a child progresses, another thing a child begins to get a grip of is availability of resources. A child instinctively knows to ask for something when she needs it. She is yet not aware that she can be denied. And though it is okay to deny a child something, unfortunately, most denial from caregivers comes with an attached justification, such as: “We don’t have enough of it” or “You can’t have it”. Though the caretakers in all likelihood say these statements with good intent, the statements can be traumatizing in their own ways. ‘We don’t have enough of it’ tells a child that there is scarcity. Quite often, there are times when scarcity is discussed in detail in the presence of a child. Parents discuss how high their mortgage is, how they are trying to put meals on the table, and how they don’t have money left at the end of the month. These negative statements along with the clear dismay in which they are expressed sink into a child’s nubile mind and establish the impoverishment paradigm. The simple response, ‘You can’t have it’ means the thing she is asking for is available, but she will not be given it. Parents may use this tactic to ‘discipline’ their child. In the formative years of a child’s psychology, this type of response establishes in the mind of the child she is not good enough. She did not get the thing because she is not good enough to deserve that thing. And before you know it, the child is living her life through the lens of ‘I’m not good enough.’
As the Muladhara is the resting place of Kundalini, when it is suppressed, a person witnesses a loss of joie de vivre. It is the spirit with which a person lives their life. And a blocked chakra can subdue the zest of life causing a lack of enthusiasm for life, and even depression. Whether the chakra is overactive or underactive, the zest for life becomes risky to life itself. People who suffer from depression are as much at risk for living a happy, balanced and safe life, as those with an overactive chakra. A person with an overactive chakra becomes a thrill seeker. They create subconscious states where their life is put at risk. They get into adrenaline-rush activities and risky jobs, they participate in unhealthy activities which are known to be risky to life, such as smoking and substance abuse. They do subtle things that put their life at risk such as leaving the doors of their house unlocked or driving without seatbelts.
The Root Chakra is a grounding force in the life of a person. This grounding refers to the level of stability a person feels and how they react to different circumstances. A grounded person is in control of their emotions. They are aware of the situations around them, and they regulate their emotions accordingly. A grounded person is more awake in the moment and isn’t living in ‘what ifs’ or in daydreams.
The Root Chakra is linked with such primal instincts and feelings that there is usually very little chance it does not suffer imbalances or blockages. A person may think they were raised by a good family, yet when they assess their emotional style, it becomes clear they are severely anxious. It is easy to note physical abuse as abuse, but psychological traumas mostly go unacknowledged, not only by outsiders, but also by the victims themselves. This causes not only a blockage, but a lack of awareness of these issues, ensuring that the person never explores their traumas, which perpetuates the blockages for a lifetime.
Understanding the Root Chakra is about discovering who you are, finding comfort in that discovery, establishing a clear view of yourself, and then operating from that base to handle the world. This is when the Root Chakra comes into play—when you set foot in the social world. Some of the deepest damage happens to the Root Chakra and, as we progress through this book, we will explore and overcome those challenges together.
To summarize, the Root Chakra looks after the under-noted aspects of your physical and psychological states:
Your ability to understand love and attachment. The way your attachment was reciprocated in your childhood determines the types of relationships you form in adulthood.
Your sense of security and your survival instinct. Survival instinct is a psychological state which manifests in self-sabotage and self-preservation mechanisms.
It looks after your support system. The Root Chakra is heavily influenced by your family, therefore, the support you received as a child determines the support you will need in the future and the support that you in turn will be able to offer to others.
The abundance or scarcity of resources in your life.
The Root Chakra is affected by the experiences you had in the very early years of your life. Most traumatic or severely impactful incidents happen at this stage but are forgotten or repressed by our minds. As a practitioner of Root Chakra unblocking, I will help you work toward recovering memories of events from this time in your life. I will teach you how to heal and recover from these events but, like a yogi, you must show determination to explore, express and recover from the experiences which hinder your growth in life.
Excerpted from Prisha's book– Harness Secrets of the First ‘Root’ Mooladhara Chakra and Its Crystal Healing Stones to Activate Financial Independence and Retirement