Hey there, beautiful souls. Today, I want to share something deeply transformative — a powerful integration of chakra healing and chakra shadow work that’s helped me on my journey of sobriety, healing, and self-discovery. At nine years sober from heroin, I’ve learned that true healing isn’t just about surface changes; it’s about diving into the depths of our shadows and awakening the light within each chakra.

If you’re ready to go beyond the surface and unlock profound growth, buckle up. This is your guide to understanding the shadow selves of each chakra and how to work with them for radical self-awareness and transformation.

shadows often settle into the chakra system, quietly creating blocks in your main energy centers, from the base of the spine to the crown chakra.

That tight throat? That unstable lower back? That constant low self-worth? They’re not just physical or emotional—they’re energetic. And they point to a specific chakra that holds a piece of your shadow aspect.

Every chakra is a vibrant energy center that influences our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. But beneath their radiant surface lie hidden aspects — the shadow selves — rooted in fears, limiting beliefs, trauma, and suppressed emotions.
When we ignore these shadows, they can manifest as blocks, emotional upheavals, or even physical ailments. But when we acknowledge and integrate these shadow aspects, we unlock their wisdom and free ourselves for authentic healing.

Below, we’ll journey through the seven major chakras and the shadow aspects most often associated with each. We’ll also explore how to begin the shadow integration process and move toward greater self-awareness, emotional balance, and a true sense of wholeness.

• Location: Just below the belly button
• Color: Orange
• Element: Water
• Crystals: Carnelian, orange calcite, moonstone
• Themes: Sensuality, pleasure, emotions, relationships, creative expression
• Shadow Side: Guilt, repression, shame around desire, co-dependency
• Common Wounds: Repressed sexuality, body shame, emotional suppression

💬 Affirmation for Shadow Healing:

“My emotions, desires, and pleasure are sacred and worthy.”

🧠 Shadow Work Prompt:

“Where have I been told to hide my joy, pleasure, or needs?”

💃 Shadow Integration Exercise:

“Sacral Flow Liberation”
Move your hips in slow, circular motions to music. Let your body guide you. Allow any emotion to rise. Cry, dance, laugh—just don’t freeze.

• Creative Expression: Engage in dance, painting, or free writing to access suppressed emotions. Notice what comes up without judgment.
• Emotional Release: Sit in a quiet space, breathe deeply, and visualize releasing guilt or shame with each exhale. Affirm your right to joy and pleasure.

✅ Water holds memory. This chakra releases emotional baggage and restores your fluidity when given movement and permission to feel.

Reflective Practice: Use sacral chakra journal prompts to explore when you first felt guilt, shame, or codependant. Ask yourself: What would my younger self say I needed to feel real independence?

⚡ Try a “safe space visualization” to reset your nervous system and reclaim a solid foundation in your body.

• Location: Above the navel
• Color: Yellow
• Element: Fire
• Crystals: Citrine, tiger’s eye, pyrite
• Themes: Identity, boundaries, will, personal power
• Shadow Side: Low self-esteem, over-control, rage, victimhood
• Common Wounds: Criticism, authoritarian upbringing, emotional shaming

💬 Affirmation for Shadow Healing:

“I am powerful, worthy, and radiant from within.”

🧠 Shadow Work Prompt:

“Whose voice became my inner critic—and how do I reclaim my voice?”

🔥 Power Practice:

“Solar Breath of Fire”
Do short, fast inhales and exhales through the nose while placing hands on your solar plexus. After 1 minute, pause and declare: “I own my power.”

• Inner Child Dialogue: Connect with your younger self feeling powerless or angry. Write a letter offering reassurance and understanding.
• Power Affirmations: Use mantras like “I am worthy,” “I am powerful,” and “I trust myself.”

✅ A healthy solar plexus empowers core values, aligned action, and inner strength—not perfection.

• Location: Center of the chest
• Color: Green (or pink)
• Element: Air
• Crystals: Rose quartz, green aventurine, malachite
• Themes: Connection, empathy, forgiveness, emotional needs
• Shadow Side: Closed heart, bitterness, emotional numbness, self-abandonment
• Common Wounds: Betrayal, grief, rejection, lost love

💬 Affirmation for Shadow Healing:

“It is safe to give and receive love, starting with myself.”

🧠 Shadow Work Prompt:

“Who have I not forgiven—and how is that closing my heart?”

💓 Breath & Body Ritual:

“Heart Hand Hold”
Place your left hand on your chest and the right over it. With each breath, whisper: “I hear you. I see you. You are safe now.”

• Loving-Kindness Meditation: Send love and compassion to yourself and others, especially those you hold grudges against.
• Forgiveness Exercise: Write down hurts or resentments, then consciously release them through forgiveness statements.

✅ The shadow self in the heart is often linked to unmet inner child tenderness. Grief needs breath—not bypassing.

• Location: Throat
• Color: Blue
• Element: Ether (Space)
• Crystals: Blue lace agate, sodalite, aquamarine
• Themes: Communication, truth, boundaries, expression
• Shadow Side: Self-silencing, fear of judgment, over-explaining, emotional health suppression
• Common Wounds: Mockery, being punished for honesty, trauma around speaking up

💬 Affirmation for Shadow Healing:

“My truth is sacred, and I honor my voice with clarity and courage.”

🧠 Shadow Work Prompt:

“What truths have I buried to avoid rejection?”

🎤 Voice Reclamation Exercise:

“Unfiltered Voice Flow”
Speak into a recorder or journal without stopping for 5 minutes. Let it be messy. Let it be true. Then play it back and ask: “Where did I silence myself?”

• Voice Practice: Sing, chant, or speak affirmations aloud. Record yourself expressing your truth and listen with non-judgment.
• Truth Journaling: Write about what you’ve been afraid to say or express. What would happen if you spoke your truth fully?

✅ The best way to heal the throat chakra is to get messy with your truth and allow imperfection in expression.

• Location: Between the eyebrows
• Color: Indigo
• Element: Light
• Crystals: Amethyst, labradorite, lapis lazuli
• Themes: Intuition, insight, perception, imagination
• Shadow Side: Delusion, avoidance, overthinking, fear of truth, escapism
• Common Wounds: Gaslighting, betrayal, spiritual disillusionment

💬 Affirmation for Shadow Healing:

“I trust my inner wisdom and allow truth to rise from within.”

🧠 Shadow Work Prompt:

“What truth am I avoiding because it challenges the identity I’ve created?”

👁️ Truth-Reveal Practice:

“Candlelight Scrying”
Sit in the dark with a candle. Gaze softly into the flame for 10 minutes. Ask your intuition to reveal something hidden—and listen with an open mind.

• Visualization: Meditate on your third eye, asking what truths you avoid. Gently explore these insights.
• Dream Work: Keep a dream journal to uncover subconscious messages and hidden fears.

✅ A blocked third eye isn’t about lacking intuition—it’s about not trusting your own inner voice.

• Location: Top of the head
• Color: Violet or white
• Element: Spirit
• Crystals: Selenite, clear quartz, lepidolite
• Themes: Unity, purpose, spiritual awakening, soul connection
• Shadow Side: Spiritual bypassing, nihilism, grandiosity, dissociation
• Common Wounds: Religious trauma, escapism, avoiding pain through spiritual detachment

💬 Affirmation for Shadow Healing:

“I am connected to the divine within and around me through embodied presence.”

🧠 Shadow Work Prompt:

“How have I used spirituality to avoid emotional pain?”

☁️ Embodied Divinity Practice:

“Crown & Ground Meditation”
Sit tall, feet flat, spine aligned. Inhale light into your crown, exhale into your root. Repeat: “I am a channel of divine energy grounded in truth.”

• Silent Meditation: Sit in silence, observing your thoughts with curiosity. Acknowledge doubts or fears about your spiritual path.
• Gratitude Practice: Regularly reflect on the interconnectedness of all life, grounding your spiritual beliefs in humility and love.

✅ The crown chakra isn’t about escape—it’s about integration. The sense of wholeness you crave comes from presence, not transcendence.

When you embrace shadow integration, you stop putting spiritual glitter on your pain. You get real. You get free.

This is a lifelong journey, but every step forward restores your sense of wholeness.

The chakra system is not just about balance. It’s about embodiment.

When you do the inner work of meeting your shadow self with grace, you allow positive affirmations, manifestation tools, and spiritual practices to actually take root.

Here are some powerful practices to blend chakra healing and shadow work:

1. Chakra-focused Shadow Journaling

Choose a chakra that feels blocked or uncomfortable. Write a dialogue between your conscious self and the shadow aspect of that chakra. Ask questions like, “What are you afraid to reveal?” or “What do you need to feel safe?”

2. Energy Clearing Techniques

Use sound healing (tuning forks, singing bowls), visualization, or crystal work to clear energetic blocks. Pair these with shadow work prompts to deepen your understanding.

3. Color and Elemental Work

Incorporate the color and element of each chakra into your shadow work. For example, use red for grounding and stability when working with your root chakra shadows, or blue for truth and expression with your throat chakra.

4. Movement and Body Awareness

Dance or yoga can help access and release shadow energies stored in the body. Focus on movements that activate the chakra you’re working on, noticing where you feel tension or resistance.

Nine years sober, I can honestly say that shadow work and chakra healing transformed my life. Facing my fears, insecurities, and suppressed pain allowed me to rebuild a relationship with myself rooted in authenticity and love. That work didn’t just heal my addiction — it awakened my purpose and brought me into alignment with my highest self.

Coming next week, I’ll be posting a full, printable list of shadow work prompts for each chakra. Be sure to follow or subscribe for your daily dose of self-love, grounded wisdom, and unapologetic truth.

You’re not broken. You’re becoming. This is your safe space. Your sacred work. Your call back home.

If this post resonated with you or you would like to add or share something, please do so in the comments below. You know I love to hear from you.

You could also support my work by liking, sharing, commenting, subscribing, following, and registering to join our free-of-charge, supportive, all-inclusive, judgment-free, meet-you-where-your-at online community where teachers learn. Learners teach all while working together to #provethemallwrong and #showthemwhatwecando.

In our support forums, you can give or receive support all on the same day. This community is for all of us who are more progressors, less perfectors. Addiction is not a prerequisite. All are welcome. This is a new, growing community, so please be patient. If there are any issues, please contact me at support@samanthabushika.com.