Want a natural high? This Balinese chakra alignment could have you soaring
I might have been sceptical before going in, but now feel like I am soaring, or maybe astral planing, through the warm air.
At first the notification on my daily itinerary goes unnoticed. Skimming my eyes over the day’s list of activities it looks as if there is pretty much zero on it; nothing between breakfast and hours of reading by the pool. But it seems this is a trick of the mind, for when I return to the agenda mid-morning, there it is. 12pm: chakra alignment.
This puzzles me. What is chakra alignment and why have I signed up for it? Do I need this? What will happen?
Some things when travelling are quite mysterious. I often find myself in fancy hotels unexpectedly plunging into ice baths or having high-octane rejuvenating facial therapies that do not seem totally necessary but are nevertheless quite agreeable. But chakra alignment? This is a new one.
When 11.45am rolls around I tear myself out of my villa at Bali’s Jimbaran Puri, an exclusive beachside enclave about 20 minutes from Denpasar airport, and make my way to the beachside spa and wellness bungalows clustered beside Jimbaran beach with its scenic views over Jimbaran Bay. “Are you ready for your chakra alignment?” asks Ari, the beautiful Balinese therapist who greets me with a concoction of mango nectar and lime juice. “Yes? Wonderful, wonderful!”
“What’s it meant to do?” I ask her as she directs me into one of the huts and instructs the removal of all clothing.
“It smooths things out,” she says. “Smooths life out. Just … smooths.”
OK, I think, I’m into that, and anyway it is edging 35C outside and at least a billion percent humidity, so stepping into the hut with its aircon and incense sticks seems a sensible idea at this point.
So now here I am standing nude but for a bathrobe in front of a basket of flowers, praying to a Hindu goddess for pleasant weather and the safe alignment of my chakras, and as I lie down on a massage bed, Ari hits the Spotify for some Om chants. I’m told to lie on my belly and she starts laying seven golden bowls of various sizes across my prone and frankly quite confused frame.
There are, it seems, bowls for my legs, back, lower back and neck, and now Ari really starts letting loose on the alignment, digging into her bag of alignment tricks to find a selection of drumstick-like implements that she begins beating against these precariously located bowls, the noise rolling around the rims of the implements, causing the room to fill not only with the mesmeric sound of the om chant but also the chiming of the gold bowls as my chakras are awakened.
And as this begins, the oms and the brassy banging beating in my ears and the incense filling my senses, an almighty storm breaks over the hut and a deluge descends. Wind whips around us and the windows rattle as though the spirits are plunging from the Balinese hilltops, possibly singularly for the purposes of aligning my chakras.
Suddenly, no matter how hard I try, I cannot keep my eyes or my consciousness open and blackness descends upon my soul. And stays there. And 90 minutes later, after oming and banging and flipping me over from back to front, Ari shakes my shoulders and says, “And now, madam, your chakras are aligned.”
“Oh,” I say, returning from the heavens to reawaken in the corporeal world. “What just happened? Did I go to sleep?”
“Oh no,” she replies, smiling that serene Balinese smile, her hands pressed together as though in prayer. “You were in a trance.”
Oh, obviously. Yes, of course.
“Really?”
“Yes, you were quivering and shaking the whole time.”
Well, that seems normal. I get up and slip back into the bathrobe and once again pray to the Hindu goddess for the gift of my chakras and sip some more nectar and peek outside the hut, where it is now a sparkling day, the sun shining, the humidity clearing.
“That was a huge storm, wasn’t it?” I comment to Ari. “The whole time I was there it stormed.”
“Oh no,” she informs me. “The storm lasted only two minutes.”
Like many spiritual places, Bali is an island where peculiar things happen. Populated by superstitious people who spend much time in devotion to their benevolent gods and goddesses, it has a particular aura, a healing quality absent from modern-world places where the supernatural and the sublime have long since vanished. After this experience I spend some time wandering the Jimbaran Puri property, passing several temples on the site devoted to the various deities of climate whose moods rule the lives of people here. I give each one a little nod. I might have been sceptical about the chakra alignment before going in, but now feel like I am soaring, or maybe astral planing, through the warm air.
Research reveals the process of chakra alignment is about bringing the various energy wheels inside the body – centres that dictate the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual components of the being – into a free-flowing channel of energy. The purpose is to make you feel liberated, and I do.
Or perhaps that’s all part of being away from it all, staying in a place that is so lush and easy. The hotel has 38 cottage suites, four pool villas and 22 deluxe pool villas, the last of which are the pick of the accommodation. My room is like something from a film set, a private villa with its own full-sized swimming pool, separate living and sleeping quarters and a super-sized four-poster king bed draped with mosquito netting. Elsewhere on the property there’s a resort pool, a huge oasis that faces the beach, itself a haven over which the sun sets in golden threads.
The culture of Bali is strong throughout the resort, with enriching activities recommended for guests to get into the spirit of the island and its people, who are rightly proud of their heritage and beliefs. One morning I rise before dawn to participate in a first-light ritual, which involves donning a sarong and making canang sari, small woven baskets filled with flowers, food and incense sticks, which are then carried to the temples and offered to the gods. The ceremony is accompanied by civet coffee, made with the world’s most expensive beans, which have passed through the digestive system of a cat-like animal called the palm civet. (Thankfully, it’s much better than it sounds – the coffee is delicious.)
As I am wandering around Jimbaran Puri, my chakras still flying high, I run into my friend who is staying at the resort. “Did you hear that storm?” I ask. “Did it really only last two minutes?”
“Yes, it was a flash storm and then it was gone.”
Like the Earth cleansed by those thrashing rains, so is my soul. I offer my thanks to the rain gods.
Checklist
Stay: Jimbaran Puri, A Belmond Hotel, Bali is part of the worldwide luxurious Belmond hotel collection. A garden-view pool villa is 120sq m with fresh fruit, sweets and bottled water delivered daily. Rates from $US380 ($A610) for a garden view cottage suite, and $US700 for a one-bedroom deluxe pool villa; belmond.com/hotels/asia/bali/belmond-jimbaran-puri
Getting there: Jimbaran Puri is a 20-minute drive from Denpasar airport. The hotel offers transfers.
Eat: The hotel has a very good buffet breakfast featuring western foods like cereal and pastries and fried eggs as well as a great selection of Balinese dishes such as nasi goreng, nasi bubuh and mie goreng, plus plenty of tropical fruit. Lunch and dinner are served in Nelayan restaurant, which does western food but a satisfying selection of Balinese and Indonesian dishes. The food is fresh and generous with dishes like chicken satay, jukut gedang be pasih (Balinese papaya and seafood soup), and ginger and lemongrass smoked tuna.
Do: You can explore Bali from here or simply enjoy the resort. For the health conscious there are private beachside yoga classes (for $US20) or group yoga classes (complimentary) on Saturday mornings. Chakra alignment is $US76.
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