The power of the Sacral Chakra and how we utilize it in our everyday lives - with Leah Ward

How fitting that as we continue with our chakra series, the Sacral, (Svadhisthana) or second chakra is symbolized with a crescent moon, as it possesses the mysterious powers that are hiding within our own unconscious minds.  As we’ve gained understanding that the root chakra is our main grounding base, the Sacral chakra will lean on this foundation to guide us in dealing with new experiences and the ability to develop and respond to our emotional reactions . The first chakra taught us how to have patience for ourselves and our core survival skills, but where do we get our next step of emotions from?  Our Sacral chakra, located right below the navel center, relates to our creative and sexual energies in life.  If you noticed, in our age span of 8-14, it’s when most of us begin the transition through adolescence to adulthood (or so I’ve heard….late blooming is a real thing), but as we begin to have emotions, developing real connected sensations driven by our relationships with other people as well as our social relationships of love, anger, and disappointment, we start to have many more questions and urges.  It’s a fast paced, changing time, potentially viewed as an exciting roller coaster of new feelings and events. In hindsight, we can look back and understand we were maybe a tad over dramatic or the opposite, majorly secluded because we were “teenagers” but here we’re going to dive in deeper into what did we experience and  how can now we utilize this as grown adults. 

 

The second chakra can be known as the center of self expression and joy.  As we enter this stage we become aware of our reactions and begin to expand not only within ourselves, but also by reaching out to others.  Since this chakra rules our emotions, creativity, and sensuality; it makes sense that it also manages all our sexual organs.  (Remember what being a teenager was like?) As we start bonding with ourselves and others, our emotions become extremely connected which can lead to healthy or unhealthy relationships.  Striving towards optimism, we’ll start with a few descriptions of having a healthy or well balanced second chakra.

 

When our second chakra is balanced, as uncomplicated as it sounds, we are cheerful, we enjoy friendliness and we have the ability to feel satisfied.  Have you ever met someone that was just…...happy?  Most likely they have very strong and healthy second chakra energies.  This chakra revolves around relationships and our ability to have them.  The most important relationship you can ever build is the one with yourself.  Bonding with your own feelings teaches us trust and helps us create, build, and keep healthy bonds with others.  A balanced second chakra will be able to enjoy and appreciate creative aspects of the world such as art, dance, music, and poetry, finding them meaningful and attractive.  Feeling comfortable in environments, having ample energy and motivation and well balanced emotions all show signs of a healthy second chakra.

 

There are unfortunately other sides of the second chakra that when disrupted can cause an array of emotional instability and destructive behaviors which leads to overactive and underactive energies.  If during the key ages, or as an adult, you experience imbalanced family dynamics, emotional manipulation, passive aggressive behaviors (at work or in your personal life), these could lead to an obscured and out of balance chakra.  These disruptions can bring a magnitude of emptiness, loss of energy and excitement, pessimism, addiction, sexual dependency, and even suicidal thoughts.  Envy and jealousy can easily arise here from the unhealthy dependency this imbalance can cause.  These painful emotions can haunt you through your adulthood. If you’ve found some of these traits relatable, looking back at the cause and healing from there can help fight the symptoms.  An unhealthy second chakra can be very self limiting, but we all have the power to take back our own control and learn to trust ourselves and rebalance to a happier, more loving self.  

 

So, an unhealthy second chakra can clearly cause a multitude of negative symptoms.  The good news is there are many ways to work and heal this chakra through conscious positive efforts, healing foods, stones, essential oils,  meditation, and the acceptance of our own emotional baggage and the want to be rid of it!  While all of these efforts and many more are so positive to work with and connect, my favorite is still movement within poses.  This helps me build strength mentally and physically, to experience the joy and magic that understanding these chakras bring to us.  The best poses we can work with to help align and balance this chakra are ones with movement within the hips and lower abdomen.  These can help release emotional tension, leading us to express ourselves more freely and positively with more emotional security, positive self esteem and fulfillment.   I’ve always felt the feeling is needed to complete the connection.  Below, I’ll take you through a series of some of my favorite second chakra poses and helpful hints to work on as you build your strong empress (or emperor) chakra energy.  

 

1.Starting out with Child’s Pose (Balasana), being supported by the ground beneath you, set your intention, close your eyes, relax your forehead to the ground and let your hips sink into the earth, trying to still your mind for a a few minutes.  If possible, use the essential oils (Yang Ylang and Sandalwood are my go-tos) here to help relax.

2. Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana) to awaken Svadhisthana and to re-focus our energy

4. Twisted Triangle Pose (Parivrtta Trikonasana) to find balance and strength in the body and focus the energy on the Sacral chakra

 

5. Star Pose (Utthita Tadasana) helps you feel centered and focus on the present moment

 

6.Dancer Pose (Natarajasana) will help find balance in the realm of sensuality, love and compassion

8. Wide Legged Seated Forward Fold (Upavistha Konasana) to stimulate your emotions and thought processes

 

9. Boat Pose (Navasana) to strengthen the core to allow positive activation and energy flow

 

10. Corpse Pose (Savasana) brings this flow to an end by being fully supported by the earth, reminding yourself you are connected and in control of your own emotions responses!

 

Shedding light on our second chakra balances and imbalances can seem like a very foreign theory to grasp at first, but if you keep ideas and concepts simple, it’ll guide you work to the core of your questions and hopefully help you find answers you weren’t even looking for.  Understanding how our emotional reactions are linked to our emotional attachments gives us a different viewpoint of the power and stability we can have in our own lives. 

 

Working with our chakras and energies can be an extremely rewarding journey if you are ready to take the time to dive in.  For me personally, it changed my life by connecting dots I didn’t realize were even associated together.  By spending time healing the actual problem, it slowly started to ease the negative symptoms and leave room to heal, grow, and repair previous damage that was done.  There is no right or wrong way to look at our lives, but I view the chakras as a helpful manual to guide me to healthy ideas, relationships, and abundance I might not had known existed. 

Thank you for being a part of my journey from the humble yogi that couldn’t touch her toes.  - Leah M Ward