Right Energy Channel

Location:  Begins at the 2nd chakra (Swadisthan) and travels up the right side of the body, crossing the 6th (Agnya) chakra into the temple and terminating in the left side of the brain.

Essential Qualities:

• the channel of action/activity
• drives physical activity and dynamism
• drives mental activity (e.g., cognitive, intellectual, creative)
• represents futuristic/future-related activity (e.g., planning)

The right channel (pingala nadi), also called the Sun Channel, governs our physical and mental or cognitive activity. It is the channel of action. It provides the energy for creativity.

Nourishing and balancing the right channel improves these personality and character strengths…

• Creativity (idea generation, originality, imagination, inventiveness, innovation, adaptiveness, ingenuity, resourcefulness, vision)
• conscientiousness
• pure attention and focus
• Perseverance (persistence, tenacity, determination, endurance, purposefulness, steadfastness, industriousness, “stick-to-it-ive-ness”)

• aspects of perspective-taking (objective reasoning; analytical and logical reasoning; proportionate, accurate appraisals)
• judgment (critical thinking, powers of reasoning, assessment, judiciousness, prudence, discrimination and discernment)

The right energy channel looks after our right side sympathetic nervous system and influences mental (cognitive) and physical functioning. Not only does it fuel our physical energy and dynamism, it provides intellectual energy that fuels cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, focus, rational and analytical thinking. It is also the channel of creativity.

The right channel is the conduit for the energy of action, planning and futuristic thinking, which drives our mental and physical activities. But when the demand for energy on the right side is too great, the left side is weakened and the desire for joy evaporates. For example, when the right side dominates, one’s personality can become brittle and aggressive. Excess pressure shoots up into the left temple and into the ego, causing the ego to inflate into a balloon that blocks the central channel — the channel of equilibrium — and the entire energy system is thrown off-balance. Because we are often blinded by ego, our sensitivity to our own feelings — and the feelings of others — is diminished. When the ego dominates, we make decisions and take actions that dominate or disrupt the lives of others because we can convince ourselves that they are “necessary” and “logical.”

Extreme right-sided behavior can lead to health problems such as cardiovascular disease. In fact, unfortunately, today’s stressful high-tech, high-powered, fast-track society is generating predominantly right-sided individuals. It’s difficult to maintain equilibrium between emotion and action when our work, school and shopping environments are aggressive and stressful. It also becomes more difficult to maintain a peaceful, nurturing home where these imbalances and negativities could be corrected and purified. Instead, we return to our “activities,” such as work or school with the cumulative negative events, thoughts and feelings of the past clinging to us.

A strong right channel fuels hope and an optimistic outlook on life that allows us to view events as external, rather then internal and expect the best in the future. Acting in concert with a strong Heart (Anahat) chakra, we are able to work towards achieving our best future with confidence that actions rooted in good character will yield the best outcomes, even when it is not immediately apparent how.

Experiencing any of these symptoms may be a sign that your right channel needs balancing…

• fanaticism and obsessive thinking
• arrogance, pridefulness, egotistical and dominating behavior
• narcissism and grandiosity (e.g., believing one is “always right”)
• extreme rigidity
• anger or aggressive behavior
• over-planning, over-thinking
• greed and overindulgence of worldly desires
• intolerance