Yoga is an intentional practice, one with an inherent focus on the seven chakras. Here’s why moving with an even deeper energetic awareness on the mat can invite more intuition, healing, calm, and clarity into your daily life — plus seven chakra yoga poses you can do anywhere, anytime.
If you’ve taken a yoga class, be it a sweaty vinyasa or a slower, more restorative variety, there’s a good chance your teacher cued you to “open your heart” or “ground through your root” — which are references to the chakra system.
Yoga’s emphasis on the seven chakras, which are core energy centers that begin at the base of the spine and travel to the crown of the head, makes sense, according to Diane Malaspina, PhD, an applied psychologist and yoga teacher. “In Eastern philosophical traditions like yoga, human ‘anatomy’ goes beyond the physical structures of the ‘gross’ body. Practitioners spend a lot of time cultivating health in a more subtle layer, called the ‘energy’ body.” The chakras are part of this energy body, the expert tells DailyOM. “In yoga, energy, or life force, is referred to as prana, and it travels through thousands of [energetic] channels called nadis that regulate our overall health and vitality. Chakras are points where nadis converge, creating concentrated energy hubs.”
The Benefits of Chakra-Focused Yoga
Deliberately focusing on one or more chakras during yoga helps us come into alignment on an energetic level. That helps us feel more deeply connected to our bodies, yet also makes us aware that we’re not just a body.
For many practitioners, yoga is a gateway into the nuances of the chakra system. “When I started practicing yoga, I would hear teachers talk about chakras,” recalls Amanda Huggins, an anxiety and mindfulness coach and yoga teacher. “Yoga became this great entry point because it got me into my physical body and out of my overthinking brain. That’s really how you tune into the energy centers.”
Huggins, who’s the host of the podcast “Anxiety Talks With Amanda,” explains to DailyOM, “The more you practice on the mat, the more it transfers off the mat. It allows us to take intuitive action.”
Interested in learning more? Check out 5-Week Kundalini Yoga for Chakras
What Type of Yoga Is Best for Chakra Work?
While you’ll likely spot “chakra yoga” clips and classes on social media, chakra yoga isn’t actually a specific form or category of yoga.
That said, “chakra work is implicit in all yoga, whether a teacher speaks to it or not,” Huggins points out. “You can opt for different types of classes that might be more supportive for you. If you’re in a period where you need to release — maybe there’s some heart chakra or sacral issues — a yin class would be a nice space. Or maybe you want to bring more energy and light up your whole system, then something like power or vinyasa would work well. My suggestion would be to ask, What am I working on? What part of my body or what emotion do I feel called to play with?”
7 Best “Chakra Yoga” Poses
Learning about the chakra system through yoga helps to deepen our own inner compass, Huggins says, and tune into our intuition with more clarity and confidence.
With that in mind, our experts share their favorite postures for each chakra. You don’t have to do every single pose. Feel free to cherry-pick according to whatever chakra you’d like to work. (Note that some of the postures work more than one chakra.) If you’re short on time, no worries! Even five minutes of movement would be beneficial, according to Malaspina, who also recommends doing chakra-focused yoga four days a week for optimal results.
1. Yoga Posture to Open the Root Chakra: Forward Bend
Instructions: Try a Standing Forward Bend to align your root chakra, which is located at the base of the spine. Start by standing with your feet hip-width apart, toes pointing forward and your hands down by your side. Rather than rounding your back, hinge at your hips. Softening your knees as needed, fold your torso over your legs and place your hands on your mat, or on yoga blocks if that feels better for your body. Stay in this pose for a few deep breaths before carefully rising up to return to your standing pose.
Why It’s Helpful: Huggins says, “There is so much space to tune into [with a Standing Forward Bend].” When you start, you feel the sensation of your feet being firmly planted on the ground. Then, as you fold, the feeling of groundedness changes into a more expanded form.
2. Yoga Posture to Open the Sacral Chakra: Warrior
Instructions: To work your sacral chakra, which is located in your abdomen, try Warrior I. Lunge your right foot forward, with your knee bent at a 90-degree angle, keeping your left leg straight behind you. Inhale as you lift your arms over your head, keeping your hips facing forward. Exhale, feeling your sacral area opening. Lower your arms and return to a standing position to come out of the pose. Repeat on your other side.
Why It’s Helpful: Postures with the hips, such as Warrior I, Warrior II or Peaceful Warrior, open the sacral chakra, Malaspina says.
Huggins (who also suggests trying Goddess Pose, another hip opener, for sacral chakra work) says, “When you drop through the legs, you have to engage the low belly and bring energy and awareness into that place where we store emotions.”
3. Yoga Postures to Open the Solar Plexus Chakra: Twists
Instructions: The solar plexus chakra is above the navel, but below the ribs. Target this chakra with a Supine Spinal Twist. Lie on your back with your knees bent toward your chest. Bring your knees to your right, twisting from your waist; extend your arms out to a T, or place one hand on your knee and the other out to your side, looking toward your opposite shoulder. Hold for a few breaths. Return to your starting position. Repeat on your other side.
Why It’s Helpful: “The Solar Plexus is the first seat of intuition,” Huggins says. “As an anxiety coach, I see a lot of people with an inability to twist or feel confident.” Which is why twisting — where you’re wringing out the internal organs and releasing pent-up energy — can be so beneficial.
Other helpful poses to align your solar plexus chakra include Sun Salutation, arm balances and core work.
4. Yoga Postures to Open the Heart Chakra: Backbends, Twists and Dolphin
Instructions: Get your heart chakra into alignment with the Bridge pose, a classic heart opener. To execute this backbend, lie on your back with your knees bent, hip-width apart, feet on the floor, with your heels as close to your rear as feels right for you, and palms down by your sides. Inhale as you lift your hips up; clasp your hands together underneath your lifted body, slowly and gently bringing your shoulders underneath you. Focus on opening through your heart center by reaching your chest upward. Exhale as you gently lower your hips back to the floor.
Why It’s Helpful: Poses such as backbends, twists and Dolphin invite more space in the heart chakra. Although any backbend is effective, Huggins feels that more subtle backbends, like the Bridge pose, may allow us to work more intentionally.
5. Yoga Posture to Open the Throat Chakra: Fish
Instructions: Get into Fish by lying on your back with your legs long and together, arms underneath your rear, palms facing down. Inhale, pressing your forearms into the mat, and lift your torso and head, creating a supported curve in your upper back. Rest the top of your head on the mat. Focus on opening through your neck, which is where the throat chakra resides. Exhale to carefully lower to your starting position.
Why It’s Helpful: These movements release and lengthen the neck. A shoulder stand, Camel or Bridge pose can also be used to access and align your throat chakra.
6. Yoga Posture to Open the Third Eye Chakra: Legs Up the Wall
Instructions: Your third eye chakra is located in your brain, eyes, ears and nose, plus the pineal and pituitary glands, and Legs Up the Wall is a perfect way to balance this chakra. Lie on one side in a fetal position, placing your hips flush to a wall. Transition to lying on your back, extending your legs up the wall with your arms by your sides. Breathe deeply, relaxing into the wall and bringing awareness to the space in your brow.
Why It’s Helpful: With this yoga posture, you have the opportunity to really let go and bring your awareness within. Supported Forward Folds (with head on a block) and Savasana are also helpful for aligning your third eye chakra.
7. Yoga Posture to Open the Crown Chakra: Easy Pose
Instructions: Your crown chakra is located in your muscular and skeletal systems as well as the skin. An Easy Pose, or Sukhasana, is one way to pay attention to your crown chakra. To begin, sit in a wide cross-legged position, with your feet away from your pelvis and hands on your knees (either palms up or down). Focus on lengthening your spine from your root all the way to your crown.
Why It’s Helpful: This offers you the opportunity to focus on reaching your energy upward and activating through your crown chakra. You may also want to try headstands and Savasana to work this chakra.
The Bottom Line
The rewards of a more intentional, chakra-centered yoga practice, in whatever way works best for your body and your needs, are abundant: “When we align our bodies through the physical practice of yoga, we create balance, stability and a solid base,” Malaspina says. “It is an opportunity to connect with our natural rhythms and really tap into how to care for ourselves — and when to pause and take time to heal. We become more intentional when we live from our inner energy; it helps us to be more responsive versus reactive.”
