The Third Eye Chakra is a powerful energy center in the human energetic body. It correlates with both the pituitary and the pineal glands in the physical body, located in the middle of the head. To make things easier, you can visualize the third eye as being located on the forehead, between and slightly above the eyebrow line.
Ideally all of our chakra centers are open and balanced, but more often than not, if we are not actively working to clear these centers we will find that they are operating at a lesser capacity than they could be. When the third eye chakra is pinched off, blocked or weakened, it can be especially difficult to tap into your psychic abilities.
In addition, it can contribute to many other maladies, such as: apathy, confusion, dizziness, scattered thoughts, paranoia, lack of faith, pessimism, depression, difficulty making decisions, sleep problems, and difficulty learning new things. Physical symptoms could include: headaches and migraines, eye discomfort, back and leg pain, sinus pain. If you are experiencing any of the abovementioned symptoms, it is time to clear your chakra.
When the Third Eye is open and balanced properly, you may experience the following:
Increased mental awareness
Increased wisdom and insight
Increased intuition
Increased psychic visions
Vivid dreams and/or lucid dreams
Balanced emotions and reasoning in decision making
Ability to see the bigger picture
A greater sense of purpose and meaning in your life
Ways to Open and Clear Your Third Eye Chakra
Daily Flame Exercise
This practice should be done daily for at least 3 minutes to flex your third eye muscles, if you will. Set an alarm for 3 minutes (or however long you wish to practice). Sit in a very dark room with one lit candle placed roughly 3 feet before you. Relax and get into a light meditative state. Gaze at the flame for a moment and then close your eyes. See the image of the flame still active in your physical eyes and turn them slightly upwards as you imagine opening your third eye to gaze at the flame, but this time the flame is only in your mind. Hold the image in your mind’s eye for as long as you can. Repeat until your allotted time is up. ADVANCED: When you can maintain the image for the allotted time, you can move on to manipulating the image. In your mind, make the flame bigger and brighter, then make it smaller and dimmer. Play with the size back and forth. Then imagine the flame moving, push it to the right, then push it to the left and back and forth. When you have practiced this for a while, advance to not using the physical candle flame at all and simply conjure up the image of the flame in your mind in any environment and do the exercises.
Chakra Cleansing Visualization
Center and ground yourself. Take several deep and relaxing breaths. Focus on your third eye center and imagine an indigo colored sphere located in the middle of your head. Picture the sphere growing larger as it expands inside your head. Now imagine it spinning in a clockwise direction, at any pace that feels comfortable to you. Imagine the sphere shaking off any debris or foreign energy from your third eye center as it spins. See the sphere growing brighter with each rotation. The dirty energy flows easily down your spine and out through your root chakra, down your grounding cord and down to the earth where she can recycle it. Now imagine it spinning in a counterclockwise direction, shaking off any remaining debris as you did before. When it feels or looks clean, imagine the indigo sphere growing smaller and back to normal size again. Ground yourself once more before going about your day.
Color Therapy
The 7 colors in the rainbow correspond to our chakra system and can be used as a guide in cleansing the chakras. The Third Eye chakra is associated with the color indigo (a dark bluish purple) so anything of that color will assist you in your pursuits. Indigo colored crystals or stones can be utilized to assist you in opening and clearing your chakra. Some examples are lapis lazuli, azurlite and amethyst. Although not indigo colored, another good crystal associated with the Third Eye chakra is the Herkimer Diamond. You can lie down and place the crystal directly on your forehead and meditate for 15 minutes. Or you can sit with or in front of an indigo crystal and meditate. Imagine breathing the color indigo into your third eye. Or you can wear the crystal as a piece of jewelry, ideally as earrings or as a circlet around the head so that it is physically closer to your pituitary and pineal glands. Or you can wear indigo colored clothing, decorate your sacred space with it or use an indigo colored light in your room. You can also consciously eat more natural foods that are purple/blue such as blueberries, blackberries, plums, grapes, eggplant, and purple cabbage.
Spirit Guides
You can call in your spirit guides, angels, faeries, ascended masters, elementals, benevolent extra dimensional beings or other forms of higher consciousness to assist you in clearing your chakras. Be sure to ground and protect yourself before calling in other entities and clarify your intent to only work with benevolent forces that support you and who follow the divine plan. Go into meditation and simply ask them to help you clear your chakras. Pay attention to how your body feels and notice if anything should pop up in your mind, this often leads to more insight.
The most common way for guides to reach us is through our intuition or through little impulses to take action on something. Pay attention to those and follow through, this is your spiritual guidance. Check in with them often for guidance, using a pendulum or pulling an oracle or tarot card daily can greatly enhance your communication.
Kundalini Yoga
The knowledge of the chakra system comes to us from the eastern traditions. Kundalini Yoga is a fantastic and deeply spiritual method for awakening the energy centers. It is a blending of breathing techniques, movement meditation and chanting. It increases physical vitality along with increasing consciousness and is good for the entire chakra system.
Be in Nature
Spending even just twenty minutes surrounded by nature every day can quickly help cleanse your chakras as well as recharge them. Don’t bring your cell phone or other electronics as those interfere with your connection to the earth’s electromagnetic field. Get an extra quick boost by standing/walking barefoot upon the earth.
Chakra Foods and Dietary Suggestions
Eating a healthy balanced diet heavy in natural, raw whole foods will greatly assist your endocrine system, which is tied into the healthy functioning of our chakra centers. As a general guideline, eat a rainbow of colors every day to cover all the chakras. This can be accomplished by eating fresh fruits and vegetables, try to eat some of each color of the rainbow daily.
In addition, there are certain foods that are known to greatly assist the third eye chakra in particular. These are:
Dark chocolate (corresponds to the pituitary gland)
Pineapple (corresponds to the pineal gland)
Any food naturally dark blue or purple (e.g. blueberries, blackberries, plums, grapes, eggplant, and purple cabbage)
Omega-3 (brazil nuts, walnuts, chia seeds and some fish oils)
Affirmations
A powerful positive statement when practiced with conviction can do wonders in programming the subconscious mind towards change. You can create affirmations specific to opening and balancing your chakras. For the Third Eye, the focus is on spirituality, faith, vision, intuition and the basic sense of purpose and meaning in your life. Develop one or two sentences to practice daily, either by saying them to yourself repeatedly throughout the day or by sitting down and writing them out. Just be sure to state them in a positive manner and in the present tense.
Here are some examples, adjust them to fit your needs:
I follow the wisdom of my inner guidance
I know how to make the right decisions for myself easily
I live in accordance to my life’s purpose
I trust in the guidance my intuition gives me
I have unlimited possibilities before me
I am an intuitive person and I know what is right for me
It is safe and good to follow my inner guidance
My third eye is open and ready to see my life’s purpose
I can see clearly now
I am on my true path
Additional Advice for Opening Your Third Eye
Avoid Fluoride. Most municipal water sources add fluoride to the water supply of a city or town, but fluoride has been shown to add to the calcification of the pineal gland which is equivalent to having plaque on our arteries when it comes to the functioning of our third eye. Consider adding water filters to your shower and sink faucets. You can also place a crystal called elite shungite in your drinking water, which acts as a natural filter. Also, many brand name toothpastes contain fluoride so be sure to switch to a fluoride free brand.
Essential Oils. Essential oils can act as stimulants to our glands. Some good ones known to help the third eye are: lavender, sandalwood, frankincense, parsley and pine. You can inhale the oils directly or add it to your body oil, burned in a diffuser or added to bathwater.
Alternative Healing Modalities. Theta Healing, Reiki, Pranic and psychic energy healings can all be tools used to assist in clearing your chakras.
Yoga. In particular the Five Tibetan yoga positions can assist you in clearing your chakras.
Physical Exercise. All chakras as well as your entire body benefit from this.
Possible Side Effects of Opening Your Third Eye
Generally speaking there isn’t anything really to concern yourself with in regards to opening your third eye, however for those who have not had that center open and functioning in a while, it will take some adjustment to work with the increased energy. Most people do not experience any uncomfortable symptoms, but some might or some may feel that the adjustment period takes longer than it should. The following are some possible side effects of opening your third eye, these symptoms should dissipate with practice. If they do not, stop the exercises and consult your physician.
Light sensitivity
Light episodes - Flashes or patterns of lights in the visual field
Changes in sleep patterns
Changes in personality (in the positive direction such as increased optimism)
Ringing in the ears
Headaches experienced as a band of pressure around the head
A sensation as if someone is pressing lightly on your forehead, on your third eye area
Increased clairvoyance both with the third eye and the physical eyes
Vivid and intense dreams, sometimes involuntary astral projection
Should you experience any uncomfortableness while you are practicing, stop the practice and go and ground yourself. Try again when you are in a more relaxed state. Keep in mind that some of the physical symptoms may resemble other ailments, so be sure to consult with your physician to rule out any possible physical issues.