How the Chakra System Can Guide Your Decluttering Decisions with DeAnne Gauya | Heather Aardema

Deanne, you are an expert on optimal aging and so many other things. And what I really want to focus on today, I want to have a conversation on chakras. And the reason is because I think there's so much potential in this conversation for lighter living. And you came to my community and you did a class on chakras. And I want you to know that it was one of the most popular classes. And so I know this is a need. This information will help so many. And so with that, what are chakras and why should we care about them?

So, to put it kind of simply, chakras are an ancient ayurvedic energy system, a way of looking at the body energetically that was developed almost five years ago. And for me, I always share with people, if something endures for thousands of years, there has to be something to it, right? And so the chakra systems are really a way of looking at the body, starting at the base of the spine, which is where the first chakra is, and it's called the root chakra. And the first chakra is our connection with the earth, our connection with being grounded, with being safe, secure. All of our kind of basic human needs start with that first chakra. And then the second chakra is more about creativity and procreation. The third is more of our power center, our center of our personal power, volition in the world. The fourth is our heart chakra. The fifth is our throat. The sixth is the third eye or brow chakra. And then the seventh connects us with the divine or our highest potential. So this way of looking at the body really takes us through everything that it means to be human. We come into this world with a soul, and we're aspiring to reach our highest potential. So it has that spiritual component to it, and it also has a direct physical component, so it corresponds with organs in your body. It also corresponds psychologically with concepts like to know yourself. That starts at the base, to trust yourself, to honor yourself, to love yourself, to express yourself, to reach your highest potential. Again, so it's multidimensional, which I love, and you can use simple tools to tap into it anytime you want. And then lastly, it does correspond with the central nervous system. So for people who are more oriented to a Western medical way of looking at the body, it interestingly corresponds with, with the central nervous system, all the major ganglia that start at our brain and energize and affect every cell in our body. So the two different ways of looking at things don't have to be mutually exclusive at all in fact, I think they're, they've synergized with each other the way they work.

That's so fascinating that you talk about this synergy because some might think that chakras. Oh, that's just woo woo. And it's not, is it?

No, not at all.

Not at all. All right, so how does emotional or mental clutter impact our chakras? And when I say like emotional clutter, that could be overwhelm or overthinking or unresolved emotions, things like that. What kind of impact, what kind of impact do they have on, on our chakras?

So I'll, I'll start with kind of the simple, I think the first chakra, which again people can relate with clutter. So the first chakra is all about, as I said, safety, security, our home, right. Literally our home environment, our family, our home within ourselves. And many people, particularly in western societies, they tend to, when they feel empty, they fill their life up with more things. So they collect, you know, more things and feel like something is going to bring them happiness. You know, a new car or you know, the new china set or the high end high def TV to watch the super bowl, you know, whatever it might mean. But people tend to accumulate and accumulate and accumulate, particularly as they get older. And then all of a sudden they realize just how much stuff they have. And then the stuff that they have instead of bringing them joy and happiness, actually seems to bring them a lot of stuff, stress because they get overwhelmed with, you know, how do I go through this clutter, all this stuff I've accumulated. Maybe they come to a point where now they're looking to downsize or to retire and create a new life and now, but they're dealt with all this stuff they've accumulated over the years. So I think, you know, emotionally with, with the chakra system, when you have that at the base of your spine, right, your first chakra feeling like you have so much stuff there, then the energy can't flow through the rest of the chakra system when you're blocked like that. And you know again, on my, the session I did with your group, your community last year, I used a singing bowl, which I, which I love that. And so like the singing bowl can represent your body and the energy in any of the chakras. So starting. So again if you're holding and gripping really tightly, right? And we strike the bowl, there's no noise, right? And that's kind of, that's like a blocked chakra. And so but if we can hold Loosely, if we can create space, like decluttering, getting rid of things which no longer serve us, no longer bring us joy, then when we can create that space, then it allows the energy to flow. And so that flow starts from your base chakra, right? You have to be rooted and grounded into your truth, into this foundation of stability. And then. So when that energy starts to flow, then it can work its way up, all the way out through the chakra system, one, but also two, the energy from above you, the, you know, God, the divine, your highest potential source. It doesn't matter what term you use, it's not religious. But this idea of aspiration, then that energy can come through you and then down in to your first chakra, and then help to bring into your life all those things you want your foundation to be like. And so that's how I look at chakras and clutter. Like, you know, any type of clutter is blocking energy and everything is energy, right?

Yes, yes. It's hard to fathom that, you know, because we see the matter and so it's. It's. Sometimes there can be a disconnect, like, are we more energy than matter? Yes, we are. The singing bowl is so beautiful, not only to listen to, but I didn't realize that it could help move the energy through our body. That stuck energy. It's lovely. Are there other tools that we can use as well to help move our energy, the heaviness?

There are so many tools that you can use. I mean, that's another beauty, the beauty of the chakra system, really, depending on your personal kind of inclinations, there are very simple tools that you can gravitate or find the ones that you most resonate and gravitate toward, and then use them to open your chakras. So, for instance, if you're a very visual person, there are colors associated with each of the chakras. So you could start at the base, which is red, and you could visualize a pulsating red orb of light energy. And then the second is orange, and then the third is yellow. And the heart center is green, and the throat center is like a deep blue. And then we move up into indigo and then violet. So for people who are good at visualization and like colors, they could easily work with their chakra system using those images. For people who are more, maybe auditory, you know, respond more to auditory. Each of the chakras has a specific note that is. So you get a singing bowl that's tuned to that note, and the note will stimulate the vibrations within that Chakra. For people who are interested more in the Ayurvedic aspect of the chakras, which is where it came, there are actually bheej mantras, they call them. It's spelled B I J A, but it's bij mantras. And these are sacred Sanskrit sounds which correspond with each of the chakras. So, like in my course, I teach people the bij mantra. So it's something that you can do, do yourself to attune your chakras just using your own voice. So, I mean, I could do it quickly for you, just each one. You could repeat it seven times or you could just do one time each one. So it starts at the base of the spine. You would close your eyes. You would visualize yourself aligning your chakras again, very solidly rooted into the earth and then rising. And then the sound for the first chakra is lam. So you would say lum, lam, lam, Lam, Lam, lam. Second is vam. So you would inhale vam, vam, vam, va. Power center. The third chakra is ram. So you'd inhale ram. Ram. Heart is yam. Y a m, so you'd inhale yam. Yam. Throat is hum. So you'd inhale hum, Hum. Brow is sham. Inhaling sham, sham, sham, sham, sham, sham, sham. And then the crown chakra is om, so you'd inhale aum. And then you could move into just a little bit of meditation, which silence is then the sound of the 8th, 9th chakras that connect you really with the divine. And then interestingly, again, for people who maybe aren't so into Ayurveda or that way of looking at things, there have been Western, you know, research studies that show that humming simply just humming calms the whole central nervous system. It stimulates the part of the parasympathetic nervous system, the ventral vagal part of the nervous system that creates calm and peace and tells you everything is okay. So simply humming can be really valuable. So again, I like the Bish mantras and the sound. There are foods that correspond with the chakras. Literally, there are just so many avenues in. And so a person can be really creative and just explore the different ways of working with this energetic system and see what resonates with them. And then again, what I like related to clutter is that most of these techniques, the ones I teach particularly, don't require really anything, I guess, unless you're going to use singing bowls that correspond to sound. But other than that, a lot of them are just visualization. Using your mind to create these images, using your own voice to create these images, these sounds and resonate, and then moving into silence and mindfulness, which is a tool, which, again, is simple. And you can bring it with you everywhere you go. Right. And so it's useful and it's free.

I want you to know that I closed my eyes as you were going through the different chakras and the different sounds. And I feel more grounded and lighter than I did at the beginning of this conversation. And I don't know if it was just that, the permission to close my eyes and just kind of the noises you make. I kind of fell into those noises. They were so comforting and so soothing. Is that a common experience?

Yeah, it is. Especially with, you know, the ending. Like this universal seed sound is OM spelled A U M. But that's why they end with the each one, right? So we start lam vam ram sham. And it moves up. And so each one, you know, just very centering and grounding. And again, you can feel that vibration just like the singing bowl, Right. I mean, when you're open and you're soft and you're grounded, but connected and just receptive, you can just feel that in your body.

You know, though you use the word soft. And I definitely feel like I softened.

Wow.

Just listening. I mean, I wasn't. I was just listening and benefiting. And so imagine the benefit if you're actually doing it, making the noises, making that vibration. Wow, what a beautiful softening. You also mentioned, you know, you mentioned there are so many different ways to look at chakras. And you did mention food. And I don't want to just ignore that, because food, we can have so many thoughts around food. Right. It can create a lot of clutter in our mind. Some foods can be clutter in our body or maybe depending on the timing of food. And so can you talk just a little bit about food and chakras? That sounds fascinating to me.

Yeah. So, you know, there's so much individuality what works for one person, particularly with dietary concerns or dietary preferences. And so I don't want to suggest that, like, one size fits all by any means. I guess the simplest way to look at the chakra system and food choices would really be to listen inwardly for guidance. So when you are, you know, hungry, you notice that you're hungry, and you notice what food choices you kind of gravitate toward to just be super mindful, not only to what you're gravitating toward, but also how you feel after you eat or drink. Whatever you eat or drink. So just really becoming super aware of just like, you know, I drink a nice big glass of water. How do I feel after that I drink some nice herbal tea. How do I feel, you know, in my body after that I drink a cup of coffee. How you know, say it's caffeinated coffee. How do I feel? So again, just using your own body as your kind of personal petri disk to kind of explore and experiment with how do you feel? And being super cognizant of that and the choices that you make. And I would imagine, or at least for myself when I either don't eat mindfully at all, like I'm just very emotional and I feel like I just, I use food to self soothe my, myself. And I don't know, I'll say I like ice cream and so I can get a pint of ice cream and thinking okay, I'm just going to have a couple spoonfuls of that ice cream. But next thing I know I'm. Next thing the pint is gone, you know, and then, and maybe it was enjoyable the first couple of bites. But then after that I notice like how number one, how do I feel in my body and maybe you know, my, my stomach feels really full and too full where that doesn't feel good. And then I can become mindful of okay, what now do I go into in my emotional self and my mental self? Do I start going to a place of, of self criticism and shaming and blaming? Like why did you do that? Oh my gosh, I can't believe you know, all that thing. So again, I think just the personal experience with how do I feel after this? How do I feel after that can be really helpful in your own experimentation. You know, for me I don't feel good eating a lot of animal products. I don't feel good at all eating processed food in any way, shape or form. And I, so I just recognize that. So I personally don't choose to eat processed foods. I don't eat meat because it just doesn't make me feel good physically. It also feels very, just heavy and weighing down to me on a physical level. But then also for me on a emotional level, spiritual level. It goes against some of my values. So it's not nourishing for mind, body and spirit for me to eat foods like that. Because I think about all of the waste, I think of all the energy that goes into production of these things. I think of, you know, various things. So yeah, the last thing I'll say related to food and Chakras, which I do cover in my course a little bit. And I really like this for people. The simplest way, I believe in a plant based diet, unprocessed whole foods, organic if you can get it. But you know, and so each chakra you have the color of the chakra. Right. And so you can take foods, fruits and vegetables. That's what I focus on. And every week we add fruits and vegetables that match the color of the chakra. So when you're red, we get like red peppers and we get strawberries, you know, anyway, we get orange, like orange peppers and carrots and go to the third yellow. It could be lemons, a banana, the outside of a banana. Anyway, so you get the idea. So I encourage people to get again, creative to go to the grocery store and say, okay, I'm going to be looking for red foods, foods that are the color of the chakra and are healthy. And what's interesting is that foods that are overly processed or in packages and boxes and whatever, they aren't one color. Right. So then you don't choose any of those because. But again, it's very simple and easy, I think, easy to play around. And if you have children, if you're somebody who has children or grandchildren, it can be a fun kind of thing to have them included. A trip to the grocery store and saying we're going to find like how many fruits and vegetables can we find that are green? How many can we find that are blue? How many can we find that are red? You know?

Anyway, this is so fun. I often hear eat the rainbow.

Yeah.

But I've never heard it aligned with the chakra before. And that, that can just. Yeah, that just sounds so fun to me. You also mentioned, you know, tuning in. Where do you feel heavy after you've eaten? If you've eaten something that makes you feel heavy. And I've done that before, I've tuned in, but I've never really gotten curious where I felt heavy inside. And so I love having the chakras as a way to get more curious, as a way to, to get more information because maybe we don't feel heavy. I mean, maybe we feel heavy in one, one of our chakras but not another chakra. Right. When it's, when it comes to food.

Yeah. And, and also, you know, not that it's heavy, but grounded. Like foods that make you feel, you know, people maybe call them comfort foods. Right. They're comfort foods are very grounding. And that's a first chakra thing. And so in that case it's not so much heavy. It's more, you know, again, it makes you feel grounded and connected and good. And good. You know, because heavy. I feel like any kind of heaviness anywhere is a suggestion that it's not resonating in a way that. That's for your highest good. Exactly.

Yes. So the heavy stuff would be the clutter. I guess I was thinking about the junk food that I occasionally partake in.

Yeah, yeah.

And. And, yeah. Like, where do I feel heavy or. You're talking about the ice cream. For me, I don't eat ice cream today because it's clutter for my body. I don't feel well. But I've never gotten curious about where I haven't felt well in the body and map that to the chakras. But I will tell you, when you brought up the ice cream, it took me back to college, and my friends and I, we would walk to a place called udf, I think it was United Dairy Farmers, and we would buy pints of ice cream, and I could polish off a pint so quickly. And you're right. The first few bites, oh, delicious. And the rest of it, I don't even remember. And so I love. Yeah. Thank you so much for exploring food and chakras with us today as well.

I was just Made me think of something related to the chakras, too. As far as, you know, your power center is your third chakra, and that also is your gut. Right. And your gut is where you digest the food that you've eaten. Right. And so, again, you know, paying attention to how it makes your. Literally, your gut feel, like certain foods may give people discomfort of all different varieties. But to really notice that, and to notice when it gives you that kind of discomfort in your gut, it actually is disempowering you because this is your center of personal power and volition in the world. So. So if the food you're eating doesn't digest well for you, then you're not as powerful as you possibly could be. So thinking of it in terms of.

Literally the gut, we're giving our agency away to those foods when we consume them and feel so heavy. Deanne, I have another question for you. If we can bring it back to physical clutter for a moment, how can tuning into our chakras guide our decluttering decisions?

Okay, so let's see. I'm going to start at this angle of things. So if you can really, you know, you're in tune with your chakras, and you get in tune with your heart, Chakra, right? And the heart chakra is all about love and self. Love, self compassion, and then love for others, right? And so to me, one of the aspects of love, right, is joy. Like what brings you joy, right? What makes your heart sing, right? If you ask yourself that question, what brings me joy? What makes my heart sing? So if you look around your home environment, either item by item or however you choose to do it, and just simply ask yourself the question, does this bring me joy? And see what your heart says. Does it make you smile? Does it make your heart sing? And if it doesn't, then that can be a good idea or clue that that's something that maybe you could get rid of, right? Or declutter. So like, for instance, I think about, I recently moved and had to downsize from one apartment to a much smaller apartment. And so I really had to be very conscious of what I chose to rehome. I gave a lot to the Boys and Girls Club, locally, various charities, a little bit I put in storage. But really I went through and I recreated a new home environment. And I have to say that when I look around, I'm like, I love everything I have. It's extremely simple, but everything I have, I look at and it brings me joy. Or there's a memory attached with it of a trip that I took or my children, children's paintings or whatever. But I really consciously chose that and it just makes me super happy. So I, I think that's a very simple way for people to go in. And, you know, I know from talking more with clients than myself, but that cluttering, decluttering can cause a lot of anxiety and overwhelm. So sometimes what I've suggested to people is, you know, if they really have a lot of strong attachments and things to maybe just go through, kind of scan your environment and do this, check in with your heart. What brings me joy, what makes me smile, what makes my heart sing. And if something doesn't, maybe just get a big bin or box or whatever and take those things that don't bring you joy and put them in the box and put the box, I don't know, in the garage or the app someplace. So then you can kind of test out, like, how does my new environment feel to me when I don't have so much clutter? And now you haven't gotten rid of it yet, right? So those people who have the strong aversion to partying with things, you know, it's not. You can always bring it back, right? But you could just do the little experiment, put it all aside and then kind of see, like, how is it now and give it a couple days and see and maybe you'll come to a place where you're like, no, I like this a lot better. It feels like the energy flows. It makes me feel, feel calmer, like less clutter, at least for me. Less clutter brings calm to me and peace and organization and clarity and energy flow. So that's what I would suggest.

Beautiful.

Go to the heart.

Yeah, I follow the heart. I love how you map it to the heart chakra. I think that's just such a lovely, a lovely way to move forward, to let go, to just to honor yourself as well. That's beautiful. So dm, you talk about surfing and you've got these three powerful pillars that you share with your community. Talk to us about surfing and share those pillars with us, please.

Sure, sure. So surfing is an acronym for my surfers method, which each letter in the S U R F E R S stands for a three part process that you go through. And it's a process that is kind of circular or spiral. So anytime anyone feels like they get knocked over by a life wave. So if something unforeseen happens, I don't know, Heather, I know you somehow fell and broke your hip walking a dog or chasing something, you know, so that's a life wave, right? So what do you have to do? The first place is, the first S is surrender and survey. Like just take this. What, what just happened here and now how, how am I going to start to begin to navigate from a place of mindfulness to. And connection versus reactivity? So anyway, so each of the letters stands for a process. And the method really got its name from a quote that was shared initially with me by Jon Kabat Zinn. And he says, you can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. And so to me, that was a great metaphor for life, right? You don't know what life wave is going to come and hit you next. You know, maybe it's a life wave that totally knocks you over and maybe it's a life wave that you've anticipated and you're going to ride that wave like a pro surfer. You know, every, all systems go, you know, wherever it might be. But again, I just, I love that idea of you can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. And then from that I created this, this specific method. And the method is rooted in these three powerful pillars, which. The three powerful pillars are optimal aging. So everything that we can do to really age well, Mind, body, spirit, and to increase our health span and increase our ability to live lives full of possibility and potentiality into our 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. Even so, everything that has to do with mind, body, spirit practices to increase your health span. And then the second pillar is the rise of the divine feminine, which I'm very tapped into, you know, globally and for many communities I'm a part of have talked about the rise of the divine feminine. And this, it doesn't mean that you're feminist necessarily. So every person has both feminine and masculine energies within them. And for many of us, the masculine ways of doing things have kind of been out of balance. It's been too much over to that direction. And so they're saying now that we need to have the yin to the yang, right? So the feminine to the masculine to come to a place of better balance for everyone. So for every man, woman, child, our planet, animals on the planet, everything. So the rise of the divine feminine is just for me, helping people tap into that more feminine energy, that left side of the body, the intuitive, the moon, the water to counterbalance that other side. And then the last pillar is high flow lifestyle. So high flow lifestyle really starts with mindfulness, which my method is very tapped into both Western and eastern ways of dealing with the mind, body, spirit. But mindfulness and presence is like the first piece and then moving into creating experiences which bring you more joy and less stress. So it's like a simple thing. More joy, less stress, better health. And so the more you can begin to experiment with what they call now highly immersive experiences, which they recommend that you have at least five to six highly immersive experiences every day. And a highly immersive experience is the doorway to flow. And so what? A highly immersive experience is very simple. It's something that you enjoy doing or is part of your daily routine that you can really engage in as fully as possible, moment to moment. So it could be something simple like cooking eggs for breakfast, eggs with whatever. So you're not going to be multitasking. You're not, you don't have the TV on and instead you're just mindfully preparing the food you're seeing, smelling the smells you're looking at, maybe the beautiful colors. I'm thinking what I made this morning, I love making an omelette with all sorts of fresh vegetables in there and the greens and the yellows and the reds and all the rest anyway, so. But you're, you're whatever the experience is, you're Doing it mindfully. You could be walking on the beach. And again, you're walking on the beach, you're feeling the warm sand, you're feeling the maybe surface of what you're walking on, whether it's hard or soft, whether your feet sink in or whether, you know, whether the rocks, whatever it might be, you're feeling the air around you, you're smelling, you're feeling the sun rays. You get it. Basically, you're taking any experience, mundane experience, and just becoming as aware of as many sensual parts to the experience as you can. And that's what they call a highly immersive experience. And so when you tag, when you put moments of a highly immersive experience together and it's something you enjoy and you become proficient at, then you can enter the flow state. And the flow state is just where you're just completely into whatever you're doing. And to bring it to some people, ways to relate, you know, if you're, say, a musician, it could be you're playing your musical instrument and you just like get lost, right? You're just playing. You get lost. Or you're reading a really great book and. And next thing you know, like, you can't put it down and you're just reading. You're so caught up in the story, right? Or running. You can get into it through running or painting it really. There's so many ways. It's very individual, but it's this sweet place where just everything else dissolves except for you in the present moment. And it brings you a lot of joy. So that's. Those are the pillars, that's the method. And you put those three things together and they really dovetail really nicely, I feel, to help the mostly women who I work with who are over 60, really over 65 to 85, curate a life that is really rich, really intentional, full of possibility. And they're excited about. And again, bringing it back. I'm sure they're excited to the chakras. You know, again, each. Each of the stages to my method that suits corresponds with the chakra. So the surrender and survey is the first chakra. And then the unplug and understand is the second chakra. And then the redefine and release is the power center. So again, and that relates to clutter. So you start to redefine what you want your life to be, what you know, what's not working. And you let things go, you release, and then you move into your heart chakra. And that's the fill and the fun, the F and the Surfers method. So the, what brings you joy and the energize and exercise and you like really amp those things up and then. Anyway, so it's a method that you just constantly can go through. And anytime a wave knocks you down or whatever, you just start again. You just like, okay, this is the new scenario. What do I do? Very consciously surrender and survey. First of all, you know, get a lay of the land. Go to your first chalk.

I love it. I love it. I see why they're excited. Because the thoughtfulness that you have in this model, it's, it's, it's. Yes, yes. I mean when you're talking about some of the, some of the things I was remembering when I started off in corporate wearing suits with massive shoulder pads, right, to try and make us look more boxy and like men. And so I love that you bring in this, this femininity and then the, the flow state or just being hyper present that always, anytime I, I'm really present, I feel like I slow down time and time is that much richer. So I really like the thoughtfulness behind the work that you do. Deanne, I have one, one more question for you. Living lighter or the lighter path, it can mean anything to anyone. And I'm curious for you, what does the lighter path look like? Taking the lighter path, going lighter. What does that look like for you?

For me again, I go back to the chakra system. For me, it's living a life in complete alignment. So alignment with the chakras and so they associate. You know, the divine or highest potential is like a light. It's very. The energy just gets less and less dense as you move through the chakra system. And then, you know, so living in alignment for me is light because it just feels like everything is in sync with who I am. My values, my intentionality. And so also for me, my vision of the divine or God is light. So I picture literally like a channel of light coming down like right, right through me, right into my, through my chakra system and rooting me into the earth. And then my energy, my personal energy kind of coming up through my body and merging with that higher potential, that higher light state of being. So that's for me what it means. And just to mention the chakra system, they believe it's like literally this energetic straw or tube they call the Sushumna. And it literally is connecting you with the highest version of yourself and God. And that version of yourself is very light. It's just very, very light aligned and light and, and sweet.

So sweet. So sweet. Dan, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us, your perspective with us. What is the best way for us to find you so that we can learn more?

So I'm on all of the social media channels either Diane Gaia spelled G A U Y A or my business Gaia fit G A U Y A F I T. And then I have my website which is gaiafit.com I have other offerings that you can explore on my website. Again, gaiafit.com some little free things that you could explore and experiment with. And then you can always reach out to me directly via email. Dcgau y a mail. I'm happy to answer any questions or have a conversation.

Wonderful. Deanne. Thank you so much for being here today.

Oh, thank you Heather. It's a pleasure. Pleasure reconnecting with you and your community once again. Here's to lighter living.

Yes, here's to lighter living. I love it. Thank you Deanne. Thanks for watching. If this resonated with you, give us a like and share with friends who could use some lightness. Don't forget to follow our page for daily doses of living lighter. And remember, if it feels light, it's right.