Wellbeing

The Sacral Chakra

In the second of our chakra series, we look at the one which represents the deep centre of ourself

The sacral chakra governs our emotions, feelings and sexual energy. It represents change, fluctuations and movement. It is located in the area that spans from the pubic bone to the sacrum, its associated colour is orange, and its element is water. “The sacral chakra is the second chakra of seven,” says Andrea Everingham, a regular master yoga teacher at Azulfit yoga and Pilates retreats (azulfit.com), and the founder of OneYoga Studio in Manchester. “Understanding the second chakra and its qualities will help guide you into a more balanced state of being, both within yourself, people close to you, and the world around you. It will help you bring confidence from a place within, rather than looking outside for happiness and acceptance by others, cultivating your sense of being enough and having enough in a world that appears to demand everything from you.”

“The Sanskrit term for the sacral chakra is Swadistana, meaning ‘one’s own dwelling’ – a place within each one of us that we can consider our energetic home, our centre of feeling and being,” says Andrea. “It radiates energy from the front to the back of our pelvis, holding a life-spring of wellbeing and abundant vitality. It could be considered our deep centre of our self, where emotions are felt and sexuality and ego emerges. When we think of ego we may think negatively, yet in a balanced sacral chakra, ego can give us the confidence and courage to express our emotions and feelings positively. This is at the very core of the second chakra. The qualities here are emotions, feelings, expression of sexuality and sensual pleasure. All our relationships blossom or fall from this place within us.

“The first chakra focuses entirely on ‘me’, the second chakra is about ‘you and me’. This is our centre of pleasure and desire – we want to direct that energy towards healthy and loving relationships and cultivate emotional intelligence with our feelings, noticing any positive or negative thoughts we have about ourselves as physical, sexual beings. For example, are you searching for love and thereby giving your sensual sexual energy to the wrong situation or person, or do you fear intimacy at the level of your core being? Our sexuality is our own treasure from the source – it is ours! When we give it away out of fear of rejection or loneliness, it leaves us feeling empty with low self esteem. Nourishing and balancing this chakra’s energy starts with you, which then radiates out towards all the relations you form.

Signs of imbalance

“Someone whose sacral chakra is inbalanced might experience energy blockages, rigidity, moodiness, poor boundaries in relationships, imbalanced sexuality, emotional repression or excessive expression, backache, menstruation problems, cramps, tight hips, male and female reproductive issues, bladder and kidney trouble, or relationship and intimacy issues,” says Andrea.

On the other hand, if our chakra is balanced, we experience free-flowing expression of feeling and emotion, the ability to activate our higher consciousness to mediate our emotions, ability to experience pleasure and pain as a natural thing in life, plus the ability to appreciate and enjoy life and flow with the changes gracefully.

How to bring balance

“Maintaining balance and knowing what fulfils you in a positive way, through exercise, meditation, mantra and self-love, will vitalise you and bring positive power, creative expression, warmth and pleasure. Try to do dance, yoga, painting, poetry, massage, essential oils and good company.

“Balance in this chakra will link us to our inner creativity, healthy sex and pleasure of music, art or dance. Tantra is a very sensual activity that can cultivate stability within the second chakra.

“Of course, water does not always flow freely or calmly. When personal situations or experiences have happened or changed – relationships break up or you lose your job, for example – these changes will disturb our emotions. This stirs up the water within, which becomes overwhelming and ultimately floods our being. We then lose our sense of self, like being in a sea of self doubt about who we are. Change is inevitable – our vital energy follows our attitudes and thoughts, so negative self-talk or not being able to express your feelings is not healthy for this free-flowing chakra. It could be external influences from partners, parents or children that block the flow of life force within this chakra. Relationship roles dominate the sacral chakra – initially with our parents and later with intimate relationships and children. Family ties and sexuality are two of the greatest gateways to unity consciousness. They can also be destructive forces and creators of separation – all our blocks to feeling good about ourselves are reflected in this chakra. Self-love and knowing you are ‘enough’ are healthy practices.

“There are yoga postures that will free the hips and move the vital energy around the pelvis, such as cobra, sphinx and boat pose, locust, bow, butterfly and child pose with knees wide, triangle pose, warrior two, hip circles on all fours, pelvic tilts and lifts, spinal twists and forward bends,” says Andrea. “Practise deep breathing with sound, such as ujjayi, connect to your breath daily, and go to a dance class (five rhythms or any kind of dancing). Try an art class or write in a journal every day about your feelings and emotions.

“The mantra of ‘vam’ is the seed sound of frequency for the sacral chakra. Visualise the colour orange around your pelvis and use the mantra vam as a meditation. Live in tune with your feelings and use the following affirmation – “I flow with the rhythms of life and the rhythms and cycles of my own being.”