Easy to Understand Guide on The Sacral Chakra

Introduction to Svadhisthana

The second chakra, usually known as the sacral chakra, is named Svadhisthana in Sanskrit. “Swa” is the Sanskrit word for “self,” and “adhishthana” is the Sanskrit word for “settled.” It signifies “where your being is anchored,” This chakra is placed in the lower abdomen, at the level of the sacrum.

This chakra, situated at the base of the spine between the reproductive organs and the anus  is your Movement, fluidity, fun, freedom, creativity, flexibility, sex, pleasures, desires, and abundance are all related to this energy center. It is the seat of our emotions. And, as you may be aware, our emotions influence our beliefs, which in turn influence our reality. It all comes down to our right to feel.

Svadhishthana is also associated with our sexual energy. The original vital energy supporting the sexual drive, not the organs. It is linked to emotional intimacy and relationships.

 The relationship we have with ourselves and other people. Because the second chakra is about fluidity and movement, it produces the first major shift in consciousness, as consciousness is stimulated and expanded as a result of change.

What does this Chakra govern

This chakra begins to develop at the age of six months, and continues until the age of two. 

The first chakra is earthy, solid, and rigid, which is required for laying a solid foundation, but now we need movement to let that energy flow all the way up, forming the bridge between the earth and the sky, the yin and the yang, the masculine and the feminine, and this is the role of Svadhisthana.

As babies, when we are able to sit up right, a sense of curiosity is created. A desire to discover and explore this new world we are in, kicks in.

Without that desire we can’t put forth enough effort to achieve what is challenging, and as babies everything is challenging, everything is new. Desire is only dangerous when it is considered the end result.

When it is used to fill an internal void. We need to look at desire as the fuel for action, what ignites change.

To carry out our curiosity, our desire to explore, we must learn to let go to movement. It is what helps us carry out our actions. Through movement we start exploring the world around us, and through our senses we receive feedback.

 If we touch something that burns us, we learn that this object brings us pain. These sensory inputs are what tell us what is pleasurable and what is not. What suits us and what doesn’t. They are the link between the internal and exterior worlds, and help us expand our field of perception.

If the main goal of this chakra is to create movement, then pleasure is the most effective way to do it. Pleasures are frequently frowned upon in any religion or spiritual discipline.

If the main goal of this chakra is to create movement, then pleasure is the most effective way to do it. Pleasures are frequently frowned upon in any religion or spiritual discipline.

However they invite us to unwind and make us more open to new ideas. They invite us to integrate something and go deeper into it. 

Pleasure encourages us to expand, extend, and tune in to our senses and feelings, whereas pain causes us to constrict, withdraw, or shut down.

Between 6 months of age and 2 years old we begin to discover what offers us joy and what causes us pain. The concept of good and bad begins to take hold, and we become aware of existence’s dual nature.

The emotions and feelings that arise along our discovery journey serve as crucial guides. They provide us with insight from our surroundings on what works and what doesn’t. It’s how our soul communicates with us to let us know if we’re on the right track, if we’re being true to ourselves or if we’re betraying ourselves in exchange for something we believe will fill the hole inside.

Those emotions depend greatly on the environment we were brought up in. The experiences we live, and the support we receive living them will determine the health of our emotional state.

What Imbalances This Chakra

IWe live in a world that denies feelings, needs, desires, pleasures, and above all sexuality. We’re losing touch with ourselves, how we feel, and what works best for us.

Allow yourself to enter the mind of a newborn infant for a moment. You’ve just emerged from the To meet society’s image of success, we are told to grow up, sit quietly, work hard, reject our feelings, and do what is “good” and “should” be done.

It all comes down to the kind of education we received. Were we allowed to speak our minds, or were we told to be quiet? Were we allowed to go off on our own or were we restricted? Were we touched, or did our parents have more important things to do? What was our emotional environment like? Was sexuality a sin, a taboo? Were we sexually molested as children?

How Does all This Affect Us?

The child’s first language is emotions. We learn to communicate with our own and others’ emotions if we receive pleasant mirroring and responses. When we are told things like, boys don’t cry or stop crying, that’s not a big deal, you’re too sensitive, oh you mustn’t feel this way about your uncle, and other similar things, we learn to doubt our feelings, feel guilty for having them, and repress them to the point of forgetting them.

All we want is to be liked and accepted and we would get it at any cost, even if it makes us miserable. In order to achieve acceptance, love, and respect, we begin to suppress what feels good and right for us.

We stop trusting our own feelings, and start seeking approval from others. When we stop the flow of feelings, the body becomes rigid. We want to irrigate our roots, but we can’t nurture them if the water is solid, therefore we need to learn to melt down this rigidity as we melt established patterns.

Unpleasant painful environments

UWere our parents able to control their emotions, or was there a lot of wrath, fear, guilt, shame, and sadness in the house? Was the home a dangerous place to flee from, or was it a safe, caring environment? If you displayed anger, need, or fear, would you be punished? This is when we begin to form our emotional identity.

The emotions with which we are most accustomed become our safe haven. If melancholy, for example, is the dominant emotion in the home, we will learn to feel “ourselves” only when we are in these states, and thus we will begin to seek out or create situations that will make us feel this way.This is what is familiar to our nervous system. 

Unbalanced emotional environment

Was our family emotionally healthy? Did our parents express their needs, desires and emotions freely? Or was the family about appearances and how they present themselves to the world hiding an nonfunctional and unhappy family?  If the household was about appearances, we learn that lying and hiding are the way to go, we learn that our emotions are not welcome, and we start denying our own feelings.

We might easily be deceived and misled when we are out of touch with ourselves and do things that don’t feel good to us. We can witness this repressed energy translate into violence when we live in places where there are many taboos.

Tactile and sensate deprivation

In order to build the critical connections between mind and body, children require a certain quantity of sensory input. Sensate stimulation that is done correctly improves intelligence, coordination, and attention. Sensations are the foundation of our emotional intelligence, allowing us to communicate effectively with others.

Because the child’s natural instinct is to be held and soothed, when he or she is caressed, a sense of righteousness arises, calming the nervous system. According to Jean Liedlof, the gap between a child’s expectations and her actual reality is related to her happiness.

When our need for intimacy is ignored, we may begin to distance ourselves from others. It can lead to food issues and obsessive masturbating.

A sacral chakra that is out of balance can be underactive, hyperactive, or both.

An underactive root chakra might make us feel emotionally flat, as if we don’t know what we’re feeling or whether we’re feeling anything at all.

We may live a life that is dull and uninteresting, as if it has run out of steam. We lose touch with ourselves completely. We develop a fear of pleasure, a lack of creativity, a lack of desire, insecurity, detacdetachement, and poor sexual drive..

An excessive root chakra means too much water, too much emotions, too much feeling. We become overly emotional and indulgent, and extreme feelings are the only way we can feel alive. To fill this hungry hole inside, we may move from one lover to the next.

We may experience rigidity, emotions of control, jealousy, wrath, and an inability to receive love.  

We want to develop a healthy 2nd chakra, where we can regulate our emotions rather than reacting unreasonably to them. Where we believe we have the right to feel, and when we do so, we are no longer reliant on the approval of others to move on in life, but instead learn to trust our own feelings.

We cease adhering to society’s “shoulds” and start listening to our inner vice. When we allow ourselves to feel freely, we begin to allow others to do the same. We are able to feel empathy and sympathy for what others are going through since we no longer take things personally.

How to balance this chakra?

• Yoga with a special focus on the hips. Releasing the tension in the hips, to allow the energy coming from muladhara to go up. 
• Meditation on the second chakra. Repetition of a mantra like I have the right to feel. Check out our latest podcast at www.lamayulu.com 
• Dancing
• Harvesting the chakra:
  • Befriending the guilt. Feeling it in your body, understanding the underlying message. Asking ourselves the question “what do I really want?” What would truly make ME happy” 
  • Ask yourself which experiences in your life today bring you pleasure. Make a mental list of those activities or experiences, noting the ones you have engaged in within the last twelve months. Then, commit to bringing more of these

experiences into your life. If you are in a relationship, consider involving your

partner in this inventory. It can be very exciting to bring shared passions and

desires to life!

• Catching yourselves having those “negative” thoughts and consciously changing the thought. Time after time you start reducing its power.
• Research your birth and early childhood, put 2 and 2 together, see what comes up for you. Start writing down and externalising your discoveries.

Yoga poses for your sacral chakra

Supta Baddha Konasana: Butterfly Pose 

Ananda Balasana: Happy Baby Pose 

Sucirandhrasana: Eye of the Needle Pose 

Jathara Parivartanasana: Knee-Down Twist Open Leg Twists 

Baddha Konasana: Bound Angle or Cobbler Pose 

Upavistha Konasana: Open-Leg Forward Fold

Agnistambhasana: Fire Log Pose 

Uttanasana: Standing Forward Fold 

Adho Mukha Svanasana: Downward Facing Dog 

Anjaneyasana: Deep Lunge 

Uttana Pristhasana: Lizard Pose 

Eka Pada Kapotasana: Pigeon Pose 

Supta Baddha Konasana: Savasana with Open Legs

A small recap

Location: At the level of the sacrum, in the lower abdomen.

Colour: Orange

Element: Water

Bija Mantra: VAM

Affirmations: “I have the right to feel” , “i have the right to express myself” “i have the right to say how i feel”.

Glands: Adrenals 

Physical body parts: Womb, genitals, lower vertebrae, pelvis, appendix, bladder, hip area, kidneys

Life lesson: The right to feel, the use of emotions to connect with others without losing our identity, and to freely express creativity and healthy (emotional) sexuality.

Physical dysfunction: Chronic lower back pain, hip pain, gynaecological problems, pelvic pain, impotence, frigidity, uterine/bladder/kidney problems, stiffness.

Possible causes of energy blocks: Sexual abuse or trauma, rape, gender issues, family with unhealthy emotional habits.

Mental/emotional issues: Guilt and blame, money, sex, power and control, creativity, ethics, honor in relationships

Principles: Polarity

Purposes: Movement, flow, expansion, pleasure 

Properties: Flowing, feeling, changeable, yielding, pleasurable

Deficient: Rigid, stiff, dry, numb

Excessive: Poor containment, watery, sloppy, indulgent Balanced: Full yet contained, graceful movement

Let the self-discovery journey begin! The next blog will be about Manipura or The solar plexus chakra.

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