Chakras are energy fields in and around your body.
It's another way of seeing your energy and how you are spending or wasting your life force: your energy.
The seven major chakras are stacked one on top of the other from bottom (base of the body) to the top, starting at the base of the torso and moving up the body through the gut, solar plexus, the heart, throat, third eye and crown.
One way of viewing the chakras is to think of them as your data banks of information, as described by Carolyn Myss.
Instead of seeing that you store your thoughts and feelings and memories somewhere in your brain (many places still unknown to science today) think of storing them in the various chakras according to the energy they emit.

• The Base Chakra, the first chakra, is your energy center around your groundedness, your connection to your family, your tribe, your community.
  
• The Sacral Chakra, the second chakra, is your energy center for creativity, your power struggles between you and others and your relationship to money.
  
• The Self-Esteem Chakra, the third chakra, located in your stomach and solar plexus area, is your center of self, your energy pertaining to you and your relationship to yourself.
  
• The Heart Chakra, the fourth chakra, is located as its name indicates, around your heart area.
  This is the chakra that manages your emotions, dealings of the heart, your ability to forgive or hold a grudge.
  
• The Voice Chakra, the fifth Chakra, is located in the throat area and its energy management deals with your willpower, your ability to speak your voice and how you communicate with the world.
  
• The Third Eye Chakra, the sixth chakra, is located between your eyes.
  Think of the Hindu tradition of placing a red dot between the eye brows, that is where this chakra's energy is focused.
  It manages your intuition, your ability to listen to that inner voice within.
  
• The Crown Chakra, the seventh chakra, is located at the top of your head and a little above it, just like its name indicates, on the crown of your head.
  It's function is to manage the energy of your connection to spirit, the Divine or your soul.
  

Understanding and learning about the seven major chakras can help you understand which parts of your self-esteem you need to reclaim, work on and ultimately improve.
They are also an excellent focal point for understanding physical conditions of the body and illness that you can't seem to "heal" with traditional medicine and often times, traditional medicine cannot explain.
Getting to know these chakras can help you live a fulfilling, happy and healthy lifestyle.