When I am working as a Healer, I work with the chakra system. It is a system about which many books have been written, and which has far reaching significance for us as human beings. I believe we could spend our whole lives learning about the chakra system and still not know everything.

The associations for each chakra in the system are varied and complex. Nevertheless a basic understanding of them can make quite a difference to our lives.

For those of you who are aware of the chakra system, but would like to know more, and those of you who have never even heard of it the basics are outlined below.

The word 'chakra' comes from the Sanskrit, meaning wheel or disc, and our present day understanding of the chakras is rooted in the ancient Indian systems of healing which had a holistic approach to problems in the human bodily system.

The holistic approach takes into account all aspects of us, not just the physical but also the emotional mental and spiritual.   Chakras have been described as the connection between our physical aspect and our consciousness and spirituality, or as Carl Jung the noted Psychoanalyst said "the gateway to our consciousness". They are a system of subtle energy centres, that work like vortices (just watch a whirlpool or the water going out when you empty your bath), hence the name and its original meaning.

Chakras are metaphysical not physical, and cannot be detected in any of the usual scientific ways, or at least they could not in the past.   However, it appears new technology is enabling the world of science to obtain evidence of their existence.

They are situated throughout our human system and although there are many of them and new ones are still being discovered, when someone refers to 'the chakra system' they are more often than not referring to the seven major chakras situated vertically above one another up through the line of the spinal column. They start at the base of the spine and end just above the top of the head.

If you are familiar with the energy pathways known as meridians, worked with in disciplines such as acupuncture and reflexology, chakras are found where pathways cross.   You could perhaps see them as traffic controllers or junction boxes directing, distributing and balancing the energies needed to keep us functioning as a whole human being.

A description I read recently, was I thought, a wonderful way of describing how chakras work, that people in today's world could relate to.   This was to compare them to the floppy disks we use in computers.

So, think of yourself as a computer, and your chakras as floppy disks installed into your system. Then realise that those floppy disks contain the data which explains how to make various aspects of you work better, and it becomes easier to see that if you access the data on those floppy disks you will have a clearer understanding of how to help yourself function more efficiently.

They could even be described as our 'metaphysical plumbing' keeping our energies flowing healthily through our system.   If there is a blockage then problems will become apparent.   If there is an imbalance and an excessive flow occurs this is obviously just as great a problem.

In the ancient traditions they are depicted as lotus flowers each one with a different number of petals.   This is because each chakra governs a different aspect of us and vibrates at a different rate.   These vibration rates however are not detectable in the usual way by our eyes or other physical senses.

The seven major chakras are linked to the endocrine system, and to respective physical body parts in the area of our system where they are situated.   They are also linked to our mental emotional and spiritual aspects.

Each chakra has connections with many things, that are relative to how well or not so well our systems will function.   As well as being linked to physical organs they are also each related to  different colours, crystals, planets, elements, life issues, and many other things.   In short they are part of the connection between us as individual human beings, and the universe within and around us.

As a Healer I work to balance the chakras so that they work more evenly and healthily, by putting in the right level of energies to free any possible blockages or under activity, or alternatively to stabilise hyper-activity.

These problems can result from many different causes, conditions and circumstances, too complex to discuss here in this basic outline.   It is perhaps enough to say that the influence of chakras in our lives is deep, wide and probably infinite.

Although many of us are not even aware of their existence their healthy balance and function is central to our overall health as complete human beings. The more we know about them, the better equipped we are to become happier and healthier.