Chakra bracelets are accessories designed to balance the seven chakras, which are said to be energy centers used for centuries by Indian and Eastern cultures. These bracelets usually consist of seven stones or charms in different colors or designs, each component representing one of the chakras — crown, brow, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral and base.
While some claim that the benefits of wearing chakra bracelets comes directly from the energy of the stones used, others say the bracelets merely promote awareness and allow for increased focus on keeping these seven energies in balance. In either case, the bracelets are used in alternative medicine to promote healing and vitality. A chakra bracelet may also be worn solely for aesthetic purposes.
Each bead type has a different use. For example, the large beads used in a chakra bracelet can be used as worry beads, or serve as reminders to focus on healing. This sense of focus and distraction from distress is said to be useful to recovering alcoholics and smokers, as well as to people enduring pain from childbirth or chronic disease. Given the mental aspect of this application, this can be considered part of the meditative function of chakra bracelets.
Another use of chakra bracelets relies on the power of the gemstones or crystals. These bracelets use stones with particular energy properties to subtly change the wearer's life and health. In theory, the negative energy leaves the wearer and becomes trapped in the bracelet. Positive energy then emanates from each of the stones and rebalances the chakras. There are many interpretations of the powers of different crystals, and the creator of the bracelet typically provides a justification for the particular stones chosen.
The beads in a chakra bracelet can be made of many materials, but the colors are very important. Each of the chakras is represented by a color — violet/white, indigo, light blue, green/pink, yellow, orange, and red. Violet and green are more common than white and pink, but these secondary representations do occasionally appear. These seven colors are also the colors of the rainbow.
When a chakra bracelet is made of beads, any colored material can be used to make the beads. These materials range from precious stones to plastic beads. There are also silver chakra bracelets that bear drawn or impressed representative symbols of the chakras. The only essential feature of a chakra bracelet is that its wearer understands its significance. Not every rainbow colored bracelet is a chakra bracelet, but all bracelets colored this way can be worn as chakra bracelets and thereby achieve the intended balancing and healing effects.