This book came to me for review just as I began a process of completely changing major portions of my life and so my attention towards it was initially scattereed and unfocused.
Opening with three chapters describing what chakras are and the concept of a seven day week. Tubali then turns his attention to his unique perspective that each chakra corresponds to a type of personality and each of us aligns primarily with that particular chakra and its energy. The third chapter aligns each chakra, personality and a seven day cycle.
Not surprisingly, the next seven chapters focus on each day of the week, starting with Monday and the root chakra, and a specific practice for each day. Tubali strongly emphasizes the need for a morning practice as it literally starts the day out with the best possible shape and energies already primed to succeed. Each morning's practice is an hour long and divided into three 20 minute parts:
- Activation, in which the corresponding chakra is activated
- Inspiration, an enriching period to awaken the energies of the day
- Vision, a journaling exercise to detail the chakra's ideal embodiment for you
You end the morning practice by choosing one (external) action and one (internal) practice as your minimum committment to the chakra day. Tubali recommends that the action or practice take place within the hour before bed, making what he calls, ". . . a perfect circle, holding the day from both ends and enabling you to separate from its energy with one last focus." (p.10.)
The seven days and chakras have correspondences with our human needs and personality types:
Monday - Root - Physical Stability - Builders
Tuesday - Sacral - Enjoyment - Artists
Wednesday - Solar Plexus - Power/ Confidence - Achievers
Thursday - Heart - Emotional Belonging - Caretakers
Friday - Throat - Authentic Self-Expression - Speakers
Saturday - Third Eye - Mental Clarity - Thinkers
Sunday - Crown - Spiritual Union - Yogis
There is a great deal of latitude in how the reader may accomplish each portion of the practice, allowing for personal preference and the day's needs. Activation may be as simple as focusing your attention on the chakra or more involved such as yoga, dance, or dynamic meditation. Inspiration may come from reading, watching videos, or listening to other's words. Vision is the most constrained, although how one journals is open to interpretation. I found a nice sense of logic in how the chakras aligned with personality types, and Tubali provides a questionnaire to help the reader discover which one they align with the most.
Overall, I found the practices for each day quite involved and I never accomplished everything every day. I would say that if you have any kind of randomness in your schedule -- say, young children, or a job that goes well beyond 9-5 -- it might well be impossible. This is a major issue, as it speaks to a practice that succeeds only with lifestyles that allow for total control, solitude, or wealth. When combined with Tubali's use of a lot of self-help jargon my review metrics are sharply reduced.
~review by Lisa Mc Sherry
Author: Shai Tubali
Llewellyn Publications, 2021
pp. 231, $16.99
