In yoga and Buddhism you will hear people talking about the 7 chakras. Recently these have become more widely accepted in the western world and are a point of focus in meditation groups. They may seem like a funny idea at first, but the idea has lasted for thousands of years for a reason.

1) Chakras are seven swirling energy points, or wheels, that sit within your body at specific locations. There are usually 7 that you will hear teachers referring to. In some classification systems there are more.

2) The health of a chakra determines how easily the energy can flow in and out of it.

3) Each chakra is related to different aspects of our life. When the chakras are functioning properly we find that these areas of our life are also functioning properly.

4) In some meditations you can focus your attention at the level of a specific chakra. Sometimes you can chant, other times you can just visualize the color that particular chakra. The aim is to provide them with healing so you can restore them to full function.

5) The theory is that as you restore the chakra to full function you heal the part of your life that was related to its block.

Here is a short test that you can do so that you can determine which of your seven chakras requires a little bit of opening. You can also learn about the areas of life that are associated with each of the chakras. This takes an openness for those of us brought up with a mechanistic science viewpoint, but you open yourself up to a whole new world of possibilities!

Take a Chakra Test in 3 minutes and find out which of your chakras would benefit from a little attention.