The relative openness of any chakra, that is the amount of energy we have in that area, and the level of consciousness we are capable of, shows up in our day to day life. Understanding about each chakra is simply a matter of self exploration and self awareness, of looking within ourselves and of examining the reflections of that as expressed in our daily lives. Once you appreciate a little bit about this system of energy and consciousness management, and learn the basic Integral Yoga methods, then you can get to work boosting your chakra deficiencies, and trimming their excesses, whilst integrating all of them to work better together. This is the best way to consciously streamline your worldly and spiritual development.
   Always remember, in this process of awaken-ing chakras and higher consciousness, it is not to be done by working on any of them one at a time then moving on to the next, or by picking and choosing bits and pieces which attract you the most. If, whilst reading the following sections on the specific chakras, you realise some of the excesses or deficiencies listed there apply to you, please don't just rush off and try to boost them up or down by meditating on a chakra or two, expecting to see instant personality adjustment. Balancing chakras is a lot more complex than it might at first sound. All chakras must all be developed simultaneously and in harmony with each other and one's life activities.
   Following below is a brief explanation of each of the major chakras. Throughout the coming chapters I will frequently be referring to the chakras and their attributes, indicating the ways in which they affect women's health, pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood issues. A complete summary of all the chakras' attributes is included in Table 4 on page 65.

	~The Ascent of Kundalini~

   In kundalini talk, yogis often use terms such as - raising the kundalini; the base chakra and the top chakra; lower and higher awareness; up and down the spinal column. All this alludes to the concept that the lower chakras are more animal, instinctive, primitive in nature and that the higher ones are more evolved, refined, divine. Yogis aspire to firstly awaken more quantity of kundalini energy, and secondly, to raise the quality of consciousness from its lower, animalistic states to more human and divine ones
   This process is known as the ascent of 
   

  
kundalini. It can happen.gradually and / or it can happen suddenly by both normal evolution as well as wilful means such as yoga. If it happens slowly, the changes are hardly noticed but when you look back, the gains can be clearly seen. If it happens suddenly, it can turn your whole life upside down.
   A baby is less developed, less conscious than a child, a teenager or an adult, so we can say that a baby's growth is just its evolution of kundalini unfolding spontaneously. A baby is not doing anything consciously about this, it is just nature happening as programmed into its genes. At some stage, humans can realise that they are able to wilfully speed up their evolutionary growth. Normal life does evolve us, but slowly. The lessons we learn from our successes and failures do teach us and gradually help us towards wisdom. Individually and as societies, we are all, gradually evolving.
   It has been stated by both the evolutionary scientists as well as the spiritual masters that physically, we are as evolved as we will ever be. Our particular species, Homo Sapiens Sapiens (wise wise man), is never going to grow another set of arms, another head or longer neck as survival mechanisms. All we can do now to affect our physical evolution is to develop our bodies to their best level of health and fitness, and yoga can certainly help with this. However, humans have other areas in which they are far from fully evolved. To further develop intellectually, one might decide to take up further academic studies. Another may decide to develop further artistically. Another may be drawn to spiritual or religious matters. You may have decided to become a mother. This is also a great leap in maturation and personal development. There is enormous potential within every person to grow, to learn, to develop into a higher class of a human being. All such worldly endeavours are ways of personal development and raising the level of consciousness.
   It is said that one day's yoga efforts are equal to 365 days of normal life-speed evolution human consciousness. And this is why yoga calls itself a spiritual science, because it uses well proven and systematic methods to accelerate the rate at which we can evolve. But it is not a matter of renouncing everyday life to concentrate solely on one's own kundalini development. It is the ideal of the Integral Yoga teachings, that yoga should be used in addition to and alongside the usual life events, to help balance and quicken this ongoing process of human growth.