The Art of Healing

What If Grounding Your Energy Could Balance Your Hormones

• Charlyce Davis MD Reiki Practitioner

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Ever feel wired and tired at the same time? We dig into the surprising connection between the root chakra—your energetic anchor for safety and stability—and the adrenal glands, the tiny powerhouses that orchestrate adrenaline, cortisol, aldosterone, and DHEA. By pairing ancient Ayurvedic insights with clear, compassionate physiology, we show how the body’s stress chemistry can either protect you or drain you, and what to do when it slides out of balance.

We break down what most “hormone checks” actually miss and explain why adrenal health shapes everything from mood and sleep to blood pressure, blood sugar, and midlife transitions. You’ll learn how adrenaline fuels instant action, how cortisol manages long‑term pressure, why aldosterone quietly drives electrolytes and hypertension risk, and how DHEA sets the stage for estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Then we map these signals to the root chakra’s themes of grounding, safety, and belonging, highlighting the feedback loop between perceived threat and biochemical stress.

No airy theory—just practical tools you can use today. We share simple grounding practices, such as barefoot time, mountain pose, and breathwork, along with earthy essential oils and small daily habits that stabilize energy without forcing change. If you’ve struggled with burnout, brain fog, hot flashes, restless sleep, or persistent high blood pressure, this conversation offers a path to resilience that balances both data and intuition.

 Grab the Chakra And Hormones Link guide in the show notes, get on the list for our late‑January live program, and start building a steadier baseline. 

Download your free copy of the Chakra and Hormone resource here:

Chakras and Hormones


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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to the Art of Healing Podcast. I'm Dr. Charlise, and if this is our first time to meet, nice to meet you. If we have met before, it is excellent to see you again. So for the next few weeks, we're going to be seeing each other a little more often for two reasons. For one, I have an incredible resource that I want to make sure you're aware of. And to me, it seems like the best way to make sure you know about it and can get your copy is that we'll actually go through it. We'll actually explore it. And this resource is the chakra and hormone link. And in my show notes, you'll see how you can get your copy. The second reason is although it's late October, early November, 2026 will be coming pretty soon. And there are so many ways to approach the new year, but we all see the new year as a way to enhance our health, make improvements, take a deep dive. And it's something we know we need to. So I want to make sure you're the first to know about an upcoming program that'll be starting late January, a live program. And I'm pretty excited. So in your show notes, you'll see a link where you can get signed up, be the first to be notified about this program when it's ready. So, like I said, next few weeks, we'll be seeing each other a little more often, maybe a couple times a week, so that I can make sure you're aware of this resource and then how to get your copy. But for now, you can listen along, and I hope this is helpful on your health journey as we discuss the hidden link between the root chakra and the adrenal glands. So, in this resource and in many of our interactions on the live podcast and on the blog, we explore our endocrine system. This is how we produce hormones, and we explore how those relate to our emotional body, which is not something you see a lot of people talk about because it's a difficult topic to wrap your mind around. But today I want to discuss how ancient wisdom can help us to understand one of the most important glands in the endocrine system. When people tell me they, when I patients tell me they want had to have their hormones checked, they're often referring to a very narrow spectrum. And typically it's women thinking they're referring only to their ovaries, or men thinking they're referring over to their only to their testes. But in fact, I would counter that they may actually be asking about their adrenal gland health. And the adrenal gland is strongly tied to the root chakra. So let's get into it. So the chakra system is one of many ancient healing systems that we can use when we are discovering what's keeping us healthy, what gives us our drive, what's gives us our vivaciousness, or what's keeping us away from that. There's other healing systems, and I do hope we'll explore those together at some point, but we are focusing mostly on the chakra system from Ayurveda. And there are seven major chakras, many more minor chakras, and potentially thousands more. But for our discussion, we'll be sticking to the seven major and muladhara, or the root chakra, is tied, is is the Sanskrit, it's Sanskrit word for the root chakra. And it is an energetic network, network of energy that in medical science, we don't really have an application or term for this. But in our Western understanding, we come to understand this energy system network being located in the pelvis, deep within the body, somewhere around where the spine starts, and somewhere deep within, so behind the pelvic bone, but in front of the spine. So probably the location being somewhere around uh where the rectum is. And the root chakra is thought of in in the ancient study of Ayurveda, is our our source of survival, feeling grounded, our physical strength. It's also thought to be the energetic source of how our blood is produced. And it is symbolized, there's ancient symbols that go with the root chakra. For our discussion, we won't get into that, uh, particularly those of us from Western cultures may not apply too much to us, but we know that the root chakra is associated with the color of red and is associated with life force, life flow, and the ego. The endocrine system is what we call our system of hormone production. Hormones can actually be produced from a number of organs, but when you're thinking of your hormones, and when patients are saying, I want to get my hormones checked, typically they're referring to a certain set of glands that are the major drivers of this system of communication. Hormones themselves are chemicals that communicate a chemical message from one system or one part of the body to another with the purpose of influencing that organ, changing how it works. So the endocrine system consists of the pituitary gland in the brain, the pineal gland in the brain, the thyroid gland in the neck, the adrenal glands, which we'll be talking about during this podcast, the ovaries and the testes, and then there's other organs that produce hormones, including the pancreas, which has an endocrine and an exocrine function. We won't get too deep into that, but the pancreas makes endocrine hormones, including insulin, and even the kidneys themselves produce hormones in the form of vitamin D. Today we'll focus on the agenol glands. So when many of my patients first come to me and they say, I want my hormones checked, I'm sure they're imbalanced, and they think that they're only going to be referring to their thyroid, or for women their ovaries, or for men wanting their testosterone checked, and those are important. But what they don't realize is that a big bulk of these that they're wanting to have checked are coming from the adrenal glands. So if you the adrenal glands are, we have two of them. They each sit atop of the kidneys. They are shaped like tiny little pyramids, and to be as small as they are, their influence is quite powerful. Really second only to the master gland, which we'll get into in the next few weeks. The map the pituitary gland is really my favorite. Uh, but we'll we'll get into that. Let me not get myself too wound up in that. But so the adrenal glands are the powerhouse. So these really small endocrine organs, they are responding to multiple signals both from the body and from the master gland, the pituitary gland. But their job is multi-layered. So the adrenal glands respond to stress, both immediate stress and long-term stress. The adrenal glands govern how much water is in your body. So they can actually drive thirst, make you feel thirsty, or make you even avoid water through a certain uh production of a certain hormone. Then the adrenal glands are where the building blocks of the sex hormones will start. So really powerful small little organs. And many times when people are asking about their hormone balance, this is actually what they're probably asking for. It's just such a complex interplay that it's easier to think of just those sex hormones. The adrenal glands themselves actually consist of three layers that are doing this. But for the purposes of our discussion, we'll focus on some of the major hormones that come from the adrenal glands. So, one of the biggest hormones that we feel that we'll feel the effect of the most rapidly and the most dramatically is epinephrine or adrenaline. So the adrenal glands keep a certain amount of adrenaline always stored and ready. The adrenaline is produced from converting other chemicals into this active compound, but the adrenal glands, through a connection to your nervous system, stay in this ready mode so that if something shocks you or happens, or you've heard of the fight or flight, that they can react instantly by releasing this chemical chemical messenger that causes rapid changes in the body. And sometimes these changes are fun and we like it. Like if we're exercising or doing other things, we like the fact that our heart rate goes up rapidly, our pupils dilate, so our vision actually improves, organs are not getting as much blood flow because blood flow is going to the arms and the legs, extremities, and our sweat glands are opening up. All of these changes in preparation for a rapid physical response or rapid action, basically preparing us either to fight or to run. And in extreme cases, maybe even to not do any of those, maybe during the possum reaction where we sit still. And unfortunately, for some people that may even be fainting. But one of those hormones, adrenaline. Cortisol is our stress hormone that's responding to low-lying, slow-moving stressors that are occurring day to day, not necessarily a threat. Um, having a stressful meeting coming up at work that's coming up at the end of the month, but you're preparing for it now. Or having an ongoing dispute with your spouse that's not getting resolved and it's kind of coming up every day. Those kinds of things where it's not necessarily life-threatening, but it's just enough that your system just doesn't sit well, something's not sitting well with you, or big stress, uh, being a caretaker for a loved one who's an ICU. Not a threat to your life necessarily, but you feel the threat. All of those things in which cortisol is responding because it's getting a chemical signal and an energetic signal from your body that your survival is threatened and it needs to make shifts in terms of maintaining your blood sugar, but sometimes in a detrimental way, so that it's keeping your blood sugars too high. It's draining certain compounds from your bones and from your tissues because the genital glands don't really understand the signal they're getting. So they get the overall signal that they need to be ready for something, but they're not sure what. We do need cortisol at times because it helps to dampen our immune system. It helps to modulate it, but too much too often, that's what the effects that we really don't like. Aldosterone is a hormone that just does not get discussed enough. It just does not get discussed nearly enough. It's a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, and its role is in the maintenance of your electrolytes, like your sodium, your water, and it's a controller of your blood pressure. Aldosterone levels can be severely elevated, especially in African Americans that are found to have uncontrolled high blood pressure. This is really important. And in the medical community, it's been something that's really we're trying to emphasize is being aware that some patients with difficult to control high blood pressure have a condition called hyperaldosteronism. But aldosterone is one of those hormones that comes for the adrenal glands and it actually is easily checked. But if it's imbalanced, it will show up in probably one of the more dangerous ways in severe high blood pressure that threatens your brain health and your heart health. And then finally, the hormone DHEA. DHEA is the building block for estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone. And DHEA needs to come from cholesterol. It's kind of an interesting link, but your body needs the molecules of cholesterol to be able to produce DHEA, which is then navigated and changed in a number of ways to produce those other sex hormones. Bridging the connection between the ancient Ayurvedic knowledge of the chakra system, a root chakra, and then the scientific knowledge of the adrenal gland, let's start to make that connection. So many ancient texts associate the root chakra with primal survival and instinct and the things that keep you here in this realm. And as it turns out, scientific discoveries have confirmed, just like we just finished discussing, that these hormones, when activated, some of them within milliseconds, like adrenaline, are there for our survival, are literally there to keep us alive. So this link takes us to how the energy in our root chakra, how is it flowing? How is it connecting to the rest of our body? And if that flow isn't at the best or is disrupted, how is that affecting us all over? And so could having disruption in our root chakra in the form of being stressed, feeling threatened, having a history of adverse childhood experiences, childhood trauma that we have not had the luxury to accept and heal and work with our inner child, does that affect the way that our body can produce estrogen? Can that lead us to make the wrong types of hormone, especially if you're trying to start a family and not ovulating on a regular basis? Can this connection cause disruption so that if you're a woman who is transitioning into menopause, you start making megatons of adrenaline when you don't need it, which leads to a hod flash? Absolutely. So what are the signs of an imbalance in your root chakra? Things that we may all experience at times, but sometimes we experience these too much, persistently, disruptive, being anxious, persistent worry, deep-seated fears and insecurities, feeling ungrounded and disconnected, having digestive issues, so not being able to eliminate waste, constipation, eliminating it too much, or not digesting our food, diarrhea, having pain in the lower back, reoccurring pain, sciatica, and being concerned over our financial health, our vocation, our abilities to survive. And what do adrenal imbalances or disrupted adrenal function, what does it look like and what does it feel like? So that might look like burnout, feeling chronically stressed, getting being really tired despite getting plenty of rest, waking up just feeling blah, or waking up uh and even being able to go back to sleep once you wake up. Having a weakened immune system, getting sick all the time, having hormonal disruptions, mood swings, disrupted sleep, waking up too early, not going to sleep, and then having brain fog, difficulty concentrating, difficulty getting your thoughts out, your words out, keeping organized. Both these systems influence each other and it creates a feedback loop. Of course, it's hard to discuss because it's hard to give you exact numbers. There's no x-ray to necessarily, well, not true, x-ray can show problems with the lower back. But as you can tell, we're in a really murky gray area as we discuss this. We can feel it in our body, and as I describe it, I know you probably can sense this, but it's it's a little bit hard to wrap our minds on because we don't have a hard set number or a diagnosis for this. So, what are things that you can do right away to feel balanced and to work with your root chakra? Because even though I want you to download our um resource and learn more about the upcoming program, I don't want you to suffer all that time because we're still some time away. So things that you can do right now to feel more grounded, and you can do these every day. It doesn't need to take hours and hours. You don't have to go away to an expensive retreat. Anything that grounds your energy, grounding exercises, walking barefoot on the grass, soil, or sand, having your skin contact those surfaces is really grounding for your energy for a number of reasons. I recently had an individual remind me on TikTok, it's a great response that there's an exchange of anions when our bare feet touch the earth. That is really cool. And even when I'm doing my own grounding exercises, I can often feel the ground beneath me heat up and then cool off. I love that feeling. It always heats up when I first put my feet on the ground and cools off. Yoga, which is an essential part of the Ayurvedic tradition in the standing poses, such as mountain pose or tree pose. Mountain pose is one of my favorite that you can practice during your day, which is simply standing up, putting the focus on the bottoms of your feet. And the way that I imagine it is bringing the energy up from the earth into my legs, sensing that my legs feel stable but not locked, and then checking the posture of my pelvis and making sure it feels stable but not too far tilted forward or backwards. I tend to tilt forward, and then using my core so that with each exhalation, feeling the pelvic floor drop, feeling the solar, the um your core expand and your chest expand. And then with this within each inhalation, and then as you exhale, gently tugging you upwards so that your spine's nice and aligned but not forced. Meditations and mantras. So the seed mantra is lam. So practicing humming that to yourself. And then if you have them handy, essential oils are some that are very good for grounding your energy, cedar wood, patchouli, vetiver, those are excellent, smell very good, but you can even, you know, explore applying a little to post points or even a little bit to your lower black fact. And then if you work with crystals, the any crystals that are red are dark in color, so hematite, black tourmaline, or red jasper. For your overall health, and especially for many of us for healthy aging, we want to be able to handle stress because we're not going to ever get away from stress. There's always going to be stress. And sometimes it's good stress, it's not all bad. But no matter how it shakes out, we want to be resilient. We want to be able to take the challenges of life and be able to respond. My personal favorites emotional stability, being able to be there for others, but knowing that in my core, I can be strong and care for myself. And then for all of us, being physically healthy, not just for ourselves, but for those we love, those we work with. So acknowledging this connection is extremely important, but especially if you're at a place where you want to get a little bit past a pill for an ill. You want to embrace something greater. And you know that you need a holistic, integrative approach. This approach right here is exactly what you're after. It's acknowledging the mind-body connection. It takes time, you can't do it quickly, but once you do it, it pays off. So many of my clients have explored this, and it's just a lovely part of working with my Reiki clients and my functional medicine clients when we are able to dig into these connections and figure out what is going on, how their past, present, and future is affecting their overall health in the next steps. So, in your show notes, the chakra and hormones link, that ebook, nice little download, you can go there, and then it's gonna navigate you to a page where I'm sharing with you some of the upcoming program. So it's just a little bit, and mostly I just want you to be able to work with this and explore this. Over the next coming weeks, we're gonna just we're gonna go through each one of these major energy centers. This is just the start of it. But if you want to have something to visually look at, check your show notes and you'll see a link to download. And I also have a few other resources that you can download, especially one on grounding your energy. So, as always, thank you so much for joining me for this bonus episode. And we'll have a few more bonus episodes coming up in your show notes. If you aren't on my email list, I highly recommend it because once these episodes go live, I send you a message. In the message, it'll be an easy link to download the next episode as well as other bonuses and benefits. Okay, thanks so much. I will see you actually probably in a few days.

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Dr. Charlyce

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