Since Thanksgiving, I’ve been doing a lot of meditation. It’s something I’ve done before, but dropped as my life got busier.

But that busy-ness was exactly why I needed to get back to it. I wanted to re-center myself. I wanted calm down some of the artificial stress I was placing on myself. And I figured I’d do it through Eastern spirituality.

This time around, I’ve been doing a lot of meditations based on the seven chakras. Instead of sitting in silence, which has admittedly worked for me in the past, I wanted to try guided meditations , balancing my body and mind, and doing it through both brain exercises and sound. (For those of you who are more scientifically inclined, you should know that string theory proposes that everything in the universe is made up of sound waves. It makes Tibetan bowls and the idea that sound can heal a little less crazy, no?)

Thinking about my chakras and applying all of the affirmations and exercises to everyday experiences has made me realize that along with providing peace and harmony within my own body, these concepts can also be applied to personal finance.

While you can work on one chakra in particular if a certain life circumstance or physical ailment is bothering  you, generally you work on your chakras from the bottom up. Allow me to be your personal finance yogi.

1. Root Chakra or Muladhara

The root chakra, located in your bottom three vertebrae, is all about security. Reminiscent of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the idea is that before you can do anything else, you have to feel secure in your world. In meditation, even if you can’t trust that you’ll get what you need from the physical world around you, you can place that trust in some higher power.

In personal finance, things are a little more concrete than on the spiritual plane. You have basic needs: food, shelter, clothing, and general personal safety. Knowing these things will be there for us day in and day out is what makes us feel secure.

If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, one catastrophe away from not making rent or missing your mortgage payment, there’s not a whole lot of security. If you have an income that forces you to chose between paying the electric bill and buying food, they actually label you as “food insecure.” And lack of adequate clothing can put you at physical risk, whether you’re living through a blizzard or in the middle of a desert.

To align your personal finance root chakra, you have to get those basic needs covered. Do what you need to get a better paying job. There’s free training and schooling out there, and plenty of programs to apply to so you can get to the next step. If income isn’t the issue, get serious about reining in your spending. Because if you don’t, you’ll have a hard time balancing the other chakras, and they’re a lot more fun.

2. Sexuality Chakra or Svadhisthana

The second chakra is your sexuality chakra, and is also tied to creativity. It makes sense if you think about it; what do your sex organs do if not create?

This isn’t all about scenes out of the kamasutra. It’s more about feeling so comfortable with yourself that you allow yourself to create, and see abundance and opportunity in the world around you. Creativity can be physical. You can draw or build or design. But it can also be mental. You can problem solve or imagine or theorize.

When it comes to your personal finances, there are a number of analogies that can be made. Let’s go with the blatant sexual ones first. Once you’ve got your basic needs covered, you can start to think about providing for or wooing a mate. Both of which are going to cost you more money. As will the subsequent babies.

But when we look at creativity, we see so many more ties. When you’re stuck in the poverty mindset  you aren’t likely to see opportunity in the world around you, either because it legitimately isn’t available, or because you have been held back so long that it’s hard to believe there are any opportunities out there, even when they are staring you in the face.

Once you have your basic needs met, you have more wiggle room to come up with creative solutions to financial problems that might arise. Let’s say your car needs repairs. You might have saved up money in an emergency fund in anticipation of unexpected expenses. You might charge it. You might hustle, because the money from all your hustling no longer has to be allocated to putting food on the table out of necessity. You have options, and the ability to choose the best one.

To align your personal finance sexuality chakra, get creative. Read and learn about different options that are available to you so that you’re able to draw on that knowledge when it’s time to problem solve. When opportunity is in front of you, make sure you do research, but don’t be dismissive off the bat. Instead, be open to abundance.

3. Solar Plexus Chakra or Manipura

Your solar plexus chakra is all about personal power. It gives you self-esteem, and the ability to transform your life into what you want it to be. It allows you to trust yourself, and gives you the wherewithal to keep fighting for the good things you want to do in this world.

After you’ve covered the essentials in  your life and granted yourself the permission to create, establishing this mindset of personal power can be dramatic when applied to your money. Instead of life happening to you, you happen to it.

You save for retirement. You allocate your money where you want to spend it. You save on the things you don’t value so you can afford the things that you do. All of those opportunities you see? You have the confidence to take advantage of them, and the ability to use your money to make your dreams happen.

To align your personal finance solar plexus chakra, dream. Then act. Set goals and stick to them. Believe that you can do it, and use your recently acquired creativity to smooth out any bumps in the road without giving in to the temptation to quit.

Next Week on Your Chakras and Your Money

These are the chakras that cover our general physical needs. In the next edition, we’ll explore how the more spirit-centric chakras can align to your money, as well.

In the Meantime…

Want to meditate with me? I swear I’m not thinking about money the whole time.

Here are two of my favorite guided meditations that go through the alignment of each of the seven chakras. The first, from Taos Winds, has no words. It’s only music, and can help you clear your thoughts with practice as you work on each, individual chakra.

The second is from Powerthoughts Meditation Club. I’ve been doing this with headphones, which I highly recommend, as parts are monaural. That kind of freaked me out the first time, but the affirmations are pretty awesome and spot on with each chakra. The way the tracks are laid, you don’t spend too much time focusing on one, which allows your brain to take the whole thing in as an experience. To get right to the chakras, start with the third video in: