Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup Page A

and feelings. In other words, specific fears and emotions actually target specific areas of the body (see figure 2 , page 78). The location and naming of the chakras and their functioning varies somewhat in different texts and different traditions.
    The system I have used here is a compilation of my clinical observations combined with the work of Arthur Avalon, a Western authority on tantric and kundalini yoga; Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon; and medical intuitives Caroline Myss and Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D., Ph.D. 8 As you learn about the chakras, listen to your own body and trust your intuition about your current situation. Try to visualize each chakra’s energy field to see if it feels healthy and whole to you or seems to need your attention and care.
    Though all seven chakras are important and interlinked, I will concentrate on the ones that relate most directly to gynecological, ob stetrical, and breast health. Some spiritual traditions emphasize the upper chakras as “more important” or “holier” than the “lower” or “less-than” chakras, but I want to stress that this is a typical patriar chal misunderstanding. We cannot hope to improve our health or the circumstances of our lives if we think of our body’s lower centers—the centers involved with day-to-day living on the earth as humans—as less worthy or beneath our dignity. If humankind had collectively taken care of its lower-chakra needs and viewed them as vital parts of the whole, instead of subordinating them to “higher” spiri tual concerns, our planet and our individual lives would be flourishing today. Thinking that spiritual needs are more worthy than physical needs is doing a “spiritual bypass.” On the other hand, it is crucial to understand the connection between the soul, the mind, the emotions, and the physical body. As you work through the chakras, notice which ones you feel like avoiding and which ones feel most comfortable. Examine your feelings around each chakra’s emotions. You may want to review the issues associated with each until you become comfortable with them.
    In each chakra area there are two basic polarities, or extremes, that are associated with ill health. To stay healthy or to regain our health in a certain area, we must learn how to strike a healthy balance between the two extremes of thought patterns and emotional expression represented in each area. Our inner body wisdom, through each of these emotional centers, is always leading us toward health and balance by requiring that we develop a full repertory of skills encompassing the entire range of thought and emotional expression.
    One more thing: Though the energies associated with blame, guilt, rage, and loss have been associated only with certain areas of the body by other authors, a thorough search of the psychosomatic medical literature indicates that this view is incomplete. These energies affect each area of the body simultaneously, though they may be expressed as health problems in the area of your body that is most vulnerable. The same is true for the health-enhancing energies associated with love, appreciation, hope, and forgiveness.
    THE LOWER FEMALE CENTERS:
CHAKRAS ONE TO THREE
    The bottom three chakras are related to our physical life: the people, events, memories, experiences, and physical objects within our environment, past and present. All three of the lower female centers are inextricably linked and interacting. Therefore, although I address each one separately, understand that they all affect one an other. (Ultimately, all seven chakras affect one another and are interactive.)
    The first-chakra area is affected by our feeling of safety and security in the world as well as by our sense of belonging. First-chakra health is determined by how well we can balance trust versus mistrust, independence versus dependence, and standing alone versus belonging to groups. This area is also affected by the balance we strike be tween feeling