A Complete Guide to Balance and Heal Your Third-Eye Chakra

For part six of this series, we continue our journey with the third eye chakra. The third eye chakra, known as Ajna in Sanskrit, is associated with intuition and imagination — its core issue centres around self-reflection and perception. The inability to broaden our perspective and the denial of the reality of ongoing situations are often at the root of third-eye chakra issues. This chakra has an association with the element of light. Problems with this chakra can manifest in several emotional and physical symptoms. Let’s look at some of the most obvious indications that your third eye chakra needs attention.

Emotional & Psychological States

Illusion: Illusion is the demon associated with the third eye chakra.
Delusion: Going off on tangents in your head that have no basis in reality. You may be aware that your communication creates confusion for others.
Paranoia: Often the result of a chronic lack of honest feedback and/or a refusal to accept evidence that contradicts your standpoint.
Lack of Inspiration: Third-eye blindness often means an inability to take inspiration from our immediate environment.
Poor Judgement: Everything is either black or white. Failing to see the bigger picture or acknowledge new information can leave us without nuance.
Despair: Loss of spiritual vision can lead to existential crisis.
Poor Integration and/or Understanding of Archetypal Energies: You struggle to know when to see the gods as an essence, a characteristic, an energy. Or, you fail to integrate and accept the essence as a buried part of yourself. Or maybe you’re at the other end of the scale and think you’re a walking representation of those you assume to serve.

Physical Manifestations

Nightmares: If you’re blocking your daytime visionary self, your subconscious mind will look for ways to correct the imbalance. Keeping a dream journal will be beneficial — pay attention to animals, objects, and the people you encounter during sleep.
Addictions: Weed, acid, mushrooms. Any other hallucinogenics.
Spaced out: Lack of focus, inability to stay mentally present — with or without drug use.
Impatience from Others: Being wrong or too far off the mark frustrates those you interact with. You may lack important details because you can’t be bothered to think, or maybe you think you know it all.
Over-reliance on Signs and Symbols: Acknowledging and understanding the signs and symbols around you is great, but it shouldn’t take up all your time. If you can’t act or think without seeing a sign, you have a problem.
Rationalising Everything: You may reject obvious signs and symbols because they contradict your standpoint. Do you rely too heavily on your lower mind?
The Body: Headaches. Avoidance of sleep: more common if you fear nightmares. Brain fog that isn’t linked to hormone changes.

Balancing the third-eye chakra can help increase your ability to see the bigger picture. It does not matter who or what caused the problem in the first place. It also doesn’t matter whether you think your chakra is blocked or too open — the following exercises focus on restoring balance.

A Simple Meditation

The only tools necessary here are a pen and a piece of paper. If you need help to set the mood you can light a dark blue, purple, white, or black candle, and burn some incense or oil. For suggestions, see further down this post, or use something you find enjoyable. You need to lie down on your back. If this is uncomfortable for you, grab some pillows and cushions, or lay on the sofa to prop yourself up. Take a few deep breaths until you feel relaxed and able to focus — breathe in for a count of 6, and exhale for a count of 8. The goal here is to become aware of your body through your breathing. Once you feel calm, visualise the third-eye chakra as an indigo-coloured lotus with two petals in the centre of your forehead between your eyebrows. Ask the chakra to show you why it’s unbalanced. You may see a symbol, a face, or an object. If you are sensitive you may see something more complicated. Don't analyse or judge what you see or feel; acknowledge the signs and refocus on your breathing. Once you feel centred, ask the chakra what you need to heal. Again, you may see a single object or something more complicated. And again, don’t analyse or judge what you see or feel. Stay in your body for another six breaths or longer if you are comfortable. When you feel ready, open your eyes and move slowly until you are upright. You can now write down any thoughts and feelings you experienced during meditation.

The next bit is crucial — you need to park that shit to one side until tomorrow or even the day after that. If you want further insight you can take the piece of paper to bed and put it under your pillow. Ask yourself to have a dream that tells you anything further you need to know — ‘give me a dream to help balance and heal my third-eye chakra’ is perfectly adequate. The point is to set the intention. You may or may not remember it after waking. Write down anything you can recover from memory, including how you felt when you woke up.

You can now analyse any signs and symbols you were given. Whatever you see will most likely make sense and should at least give you a place to start. Try not to hold on to your insights too tightly — the goal in the upcoming weeks is to gradually open up to new feelings so you can heal and move forward.

Because the third-eye chakra is where we encounter truth, some realisations could be uncomfortable. Try to stay with the feeling until it passes.

Your Third-Eye Chakra Medicine Bag

As with previous posts, I’m recommending specific crystals, incense, and oils, but if you don’t have these and can’t afford them you can still use the other methods found under the Time & Energy Investment heading.

Lighting the Way

Candles are great for creating a healing atmosphere. They’re also useful if you want a focal point to set intentions. Candles can be used as a visual representation of whatever you are trying to manifest or change in your life. For third-eye chakra healing, the colour used is indigo, but you could also use dark blue, ice blue, or purple.

Scent

If you don’t like the smoke and ash that incense produces — candles anointed with oil or an open-flame oil burner offer a cleaner way to enjoy the benefits of scent-based healing. The newer electric wax melt burners are available in different forms; lamps, plug-ins, and ceramic bowls The electric mist diffusers are another great way to disperse aromatherapy oils. You can use a few drops of oil on a tissue, or create a scent pouch with herbs or crushed-up incense. Blending a personalised combination of essential oils into a base oil such as avocado oil or jojoba oil would mean you can apply the scent directly to your body.

Each of the following essential oils is said to be beneficial for the issues associated with the third-eye chakra, and you can usually find them as incense sticks too:

Frankincense: Known as one of the most spiritual oils; it's used extensively to cleanse sacred space. It is said to help promote mental calm and aid spiritual awareness and growth. A good scent for use during meditation.
Juniper Berry: Another oil that can be helpful during meditation, but the smell isn’t as nice as frankincense. Juniper can be used to cleanse your space and will help with mental focus. It lifts energy, so it's suitable to use if you feel drained.
Lavender: The marmite of essential oils. Lavender can help to improve sleep quality thanks to its calming and relaxing properties. It is known to be anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and antioxidant.
Lemon: Lemon oil is good for boosting mental clarity, lifting your mood, and improving concentration. It smells refreshing and clean.
Rosemary: It is said to improve memory, focus, and concentration. Rosemary may be a good one to use if brain fog is an issue, or you struggle to stay present.
Clary Sage: A fantastic mood lifter, but also great for reducing anxiety. Clearing on the mind.
Myrrh: Along with frankincense, myrrh has a strong connection to religious and spiritual practices. Often used during meditation to strengthen focus and concentration while dispelling negativity.

Other oils and scents worth mentioning are sandalwood and citrus oils. You can also use ready-made blends, whether incense or essential oil, that are created to aid clarity, focus, concentration, or relaxation.

Labradorite palm stone, raw lepidolite, polished lepidolite tower, raw kunzite, charoite earrings, raw amethyst. Front row: Labradorite heart, more raw lepidolite, lepidolite tumblestone, two pieces of raw fluorite, sugilite, and apophyllite.

Crystals

For the crystals,

Amethyst: Soothing, and can help to reduce tension in the body. Enhances intuition and spiritual connection.
Kunzite: Lovely stone to use for emotional healing. Increases compassion and understanding.
Lepidolite: Increases peacefulness and emotional balance. Calming on the mind.
Fluorite: Good for mental clarity. Fluorite can act as a bridge between the heart chakra and the third-eye.
Clear Quartz: Use for clarity of mind, and clearing away mental cobwebs. Clear quartz is said to amplify the energy of other crystals placed nearby.
Apophyllite: A stone for spiritual awakening. Apophyllite can improve access to internal information.
Charoite: A stone for transformation, and spiritual strength. Helps when opening up to the flow.

Other stones worth mentioning are: lapis lazuli and sodalite: both of which were used as third eye stones back in the 90’s. Labradorite is a favourite for modern-day soul seekers and can help with third-eye opening. I also quite like blue calcite for clear vision.

Take Control of Your Diet

Food is naturally influential for healing of any kind. On the physical level, purple foods (natural ones) help fight infection, reduce the risk of heart disease, and reduce inflammation. For third-eye chakra healing and balance restoration, we look to purple foods and those that make us feel light and mentally clear. Include foods that make you feel good about yourself — but if they’re high in bad fats and sugar, use sparingly.

Here are some foods that can help balance your third-eye chakra:

Fruits: Grapes, blueberries, plums, goji berries, and prunes.
Vegetables: Purple cabbage, purple carrots, aubergine, red onion, purple kale, and purple sweet potato.
Other Random Foods: Try eating lighter meals, or smaller portions more often. Heavy carbs, or eating too much food will pull your energy and attention downward. Watch those processed sugars because they can mess with concentration levels: short-term gain soon turns into a crash.
Herbs & Spices: Rosemary, nutmeg, mugwort, passionflower, and cardamom.
Fruit Teas: Try herbal blends that promote clarity. Juniper berries, lemon, and lavender can all be used to make tea.

Eating mindfully and with intention can help support the healing and rebalancing of your third-eye chakra.

Time & Energy Investment

Yoga

Yoga for the third-eye chakra will mostly focus on calming the mind and opening the upper body. Some of the beneficial poses include:

Mountain Pose (Tadasana): An empowering pose that can help to open up and align all chakras. Focus on pulling the energy up from your feet then through the midline of your body and out of the top of your head.
Tree Pose (Vrksasana): A good pose to work on balance. Close your eyes to encourage trust in your body and its senses.
Child’s Pose (Balasana): If you struggle to get your forehead on the floor in this pose, use a block or two. Give your third-eye point some contact with a surface if you use this pose to help with your chakra.
Lotus Pose (Padmasana): If this pose is too difficult, or flat-out impossible for you, don’t worry too much about tying your legs in knots. You can sit with the soles of your feet together instead (Seated butterfly pose, or cobbler’s pose: Upavistha Titli Asana), and use blocks or cushions under your knees for support. It’s a lovely pose for meditation, mantras, and affirmations as it supports improved concentration.
Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana): Wonderful for relieving tension and stress. Gives increased blood flow to the head and neck.
Dolphin Pose (Catur Svanasana, or Half-feathered peacock pose: Ardha Pincha Mayurasana): Similar to downward dog, and while it takes the pressure off your wrists, I’m honestly not sure I can say it’s easier to perform. Great for making you more aware of your core and sending energy and blood flow to the head and neck.
Seated Forward Fold (Paschimottanasana): My absolute favourite. Use a block to rest your forehead. Bliss. Stretches out the back, and the neck. Helps to bring calm to the mind.
Fish Pose (Matsyasana): This pose can be difficult. I find it much easier when using a couple of blocks. Opens up the shoulders and the throat.

Holding each pose for several breaths (between three and five minutes for a yin-style approach) will encourage your inner body to slow and calm down. As with the other chakras — don’t worry too much about whether you’re getting everything right. And don’t think you have to do any of the poses exactly as shown if you can’t physically do so — all yoga needs practice, and plenty of it, to develop the flexibility and balance required for a pose.

Mantras, Affirmations, & Sound Baths

Mantras can be a single word or phrase and are believed to carry magical properties. The mantra ‘OM’ is a one-syllable Sanskrit word used as the sacred sound for the third-eye chakra. You can chant this however you like, but some say it needs to be done 108 times because that number is sacred in Hinduism. It represents the number of spiritual completion — or the distance between our body and the god within. I wouldn’t want to chant OM so many times, I’m too used to saying it once and drawing out the sound to find calm.

Affirmations can be used like mantras but differ in that what we are doing with an affirmation is vocalising what we need with the intention we can manifest what we are chanting. The more common ones associated with the third-eye chakra are:

I see truth with clarity and ease
Truth illuminates my path forward
My vision is an asset to my growth
I use my vision to inspire those around me
I am capable of changing my beliefs when they no longer serve me
I am in control of my thoughts
I trust my intuition and inner guidance
I have a clear vision of my goals and how to achieve them
My mind is peaceful and serene

Sound baths can be a great way to relax for an hour. If you are sensitive to sound, this method could work wonders for you. The best frequency for the third eye chakra is 426.7 Hz. The third eye chakra is associated with the A note. The first two videos are examples of contemporary sound produced for alternative healing. I have found using headphones helps enormously while listening to binaural beats and other sound therapies. This is a link to an 8-hour-long black screen version of the first video for use during sleep. A crystal singing bowl is used to create the sound. The second video is a single pure tone. You can use the sound bath videos when meditating because they are not jarring and will not interfere with your inner journey. The third video “Unlock Your Third Eye with 448Hz: Zero Stress, Anxiety, Worry - 3rd Eye Chakra Activation Sound Bath” is more like music, but with little variation in the sound. It’s very calming, and like the other two, it won’t be jarring on your psyche or disturb you during meditation. As it’s just over an hour long, it’ll get you to sleep, but use one of the other videos if you want something playing through the night.

Is It Healed Now?

As ever, it’s important to remember that healing is a process, not an event. Along with the exercises in this post, you may find it helpful to keep some written notes. Whether you write it online in a blog or on scraps of paper thrown into a spare drawer, having a record serves as evidence of progress. The third eye chakra can be difficult to work on if you’re rigidly holding on to beliefs and ideas that no longer serve your highest good. If you refuse to look at life through an honest lens because seeing the truth will mean hard changes — you may also need to work on your lower chakras.

Self-reflection is key when working on your third eye chakra — use dreams to access what you can’t face in waking life. Keeping a dream journal will be beneficial during this process. Don’t assume that all nightmares are a bad sign: they often appear during times of intense transition or when we are going through a process of empowerment. And lastly, pay attention to your daydreams — where are those flights of fancy taking you?