Muladhara translates as “root support.” It sits at the base of your spine and governs something we don’t talk about enough in yoga spaces – your sense of safety. Not the kind that comes from insurance policies or alarm systems, but the deep, bodily knowing that you’re held. That you belong here. That the ground will meet you.
For those of us over 45, this can feel complicated.
Our bodies have changed. Hormones shift. Energy comes and goes. Things that used to be reliable – sleep, strength, the way our hips felt in the morning – aren’t quite as predictable anymore. It’s easy to feel unmoored.
That’s what an unbalanced root chakra feels like. Unmoored.
When the Foundation Feels Shaky
An underactive root chakra often shows up as low-level anxiety that you can’t quite name. A sense of being “up in your head” all the time. Financial worry that feels bigger than the numbers warrant. Trouble saying no. That floaty feeling where you’re not quite inhabiting your body – you’re just sort of… managing it.
When it’s overactive, you might notice the opposite. Rigidity. A need to control everything. Difficulty adapting when plans change. Perhaps eating or sleeping becomes the way you try to feel grounded, because nothing else is working.
Neither of these is permanent. They’re just information.
Your energy system is telling you something about where you need support.
What Balance Actually Feels Like
When your root chakra is balanced, your legs feel like they belong to you again. Not perfectly, not like they did at 25, but yours – capable and present.
You wake up and your energy is steady. Not boundless, just reliable. You can meet the day without that underlying hum of worry about whether you’ll have enough in the tank.
There’s a quietness to it. A sense that your basic needs – shelter, safety, enough – are met. Even if your life isn’t perfect (and whose is?), there’s trust underneath it all. A feeling of being home in your own skin.
I’ve watched students find this over months of practice. It doesn’t announce itself loudly. But one day they mention sleeping through the night. Or their back feeling easier. Or realising they stopped checking their phone every five minutes because the background anxiety has lifted.
Small things. Real things.
Working With Root Energy in Practice
You don’t need complicated poses to work with Muladhara.
Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) – and just feel your feet on the floor. All four corners of each foot. The weight distributed evenly. The way the earth rises up to meet you.
That’s it. That’s the practice.
If you want to go further, try holding standing poses a little longer than feels comfortable. Warrior I, with your back heel pressing firmly down. Utkata Konasana (Goddess pose), with your feet wide and your weight settling into your hips. Stay there. Breathe. Notice the difference between gripping (which we all do) and rooting (which takes practice).
There’s something that happens in a longer hold that you miss in a quick flow. You stop performing the pose and start inhabiting it. You find the place where effort and ease meet. Where you’re stable without being rigid. Grounded without being stuck.
This is what we’re after with the root chakra. Not rigidity. Not fixing ourselves in place. Just a foundation solid enough to grow from.
Seated forward folds and hip openers help too. They work directly with the pelvis and lower body – the physical home of this energy centre. And they’re accessible. You don’t need to be bendy. You just need to show up and breathe.
Off the Mat
Walk barefoot when you can. Grass, if you have it. Sand. Even your kitchen floor first thing in the morning.
There’s something about direct contact with the ground – no socks, no shoes – that the nervous system recognises. It settles. Just slightly. But you’ll feel it.
Eat root vegetables. Carrots, potatoes, beets. It sounds almost too simple, but taking nourishment from what grows beneath the ground has a logic to it that your body understands.
Create small routines that you can rely on. Not rigid schedules – just anchor points in your day. Morning tea. An evening walk. Ten minutes of stretching before bed. Little rituals that tell your nervous system: this is safe, this is known, you can rest here.
If you’re drawn to crystals, Garnet is associated with the root chakra. Keep it in your pocket. It won’t fix everything, but sometimes a small physical reminder helps.
And pause during your day. Feel your feet on the floor. Take three slow breaths. Notice that right now, in this moment, you are here. You are held. The ground beneath you is solid.
What This Really Means
The root chakra isn’t asking you to transcend your body or rise above your physical needs. It’s asking the opposite.
It’s inviting you to come back. To land. To trust that your body – even if it’s different than it used to be, even if it’s unpredictable sometimes, even if it needs more rest or moves more slowly – is still your home.
For those of us who’ve spent years prioritising everyone else, who’ve pushed through exhaustion, who’ve treated our bodies like inconvenient vessels we had to drag through the day… this is radical work.
Coming home to yourself. Deciding you’re worth the care. Trusting that you can be both grounded and growing.
The beautiful thing about Muladhara is that it doesn’t require perfection. It doesn’t require your body to be a certain way. It just asks you to be here, now, feet on the earth, breathing.
If you’d like to work with the chakras more deeply, The Chakra System is a dedicated course exploring each energy centre in turn – a lovely way to bring this understanding into your own practice.
Next in this series: The Sacral Chakra ~ Svadhisthana