Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana)

SACRAL Chakra (Svadhisthana)

The second chakra, Svadhisthana, is also known as the creativity and sexual chakra. It is located above the pubic bone and below the navel, and encompasses the genital region and the hypogastric plexus. The word svadhisthana can be translated as “the dwelling place of the self,” and the element of the second chakra is water, which equals cohesiveness. A balanced second chakra leads to feelings of wellness, abundance, pleasure, and joy. When this chakra is out of balance, a person may experience emotional instability, fear of change, sexual dysfunction, depression, or addictions.

You can open this chakra with creative expression and by honoring your body. The energy of this chakra is feminine, passive, and lunar.

Creativity: The Focus of The Second Chakra

As humans, it is part of our nature to create. This creativity can be expressed as procreation but the second chakra energy is certainly not limited to making babies. When we cook, bake, or garden, we are creating. We create when we find a new solution to an old problem. Any time we take raw materials, physical or mental, and transform them into something new, we are using our creative energy.

The problem with creativity is that we are often discouraged from creative efforts, starting with education. Once we pass through the phase where coloring, painting, or cutting paper is completely acceptable, it seems that we must mold into less creative beings. In order to conform, follow the rules and fit in, we sometimes lose our creative energy and thus, our unique ideas in the process. Adults become used to following what’s right, the latest trend, or what’s acceptable to others. Then, when asked to abstractly invent something new, we might have a difficult time doing it.

Play Like a Child to Awaken Your Creative Energy

We might feel open and creative in some aspects of life, while self-conscious in others. Ask me to write a book or essay and I can perform with ease. But if you ask me to draw a picture, paint, or even create a great meal without a recipe to follow, I feel much less than skilled. But, if you told me I had to paint a nice picture because my life depended on it, I would most likely rise to the occasion. Why? Because I would take the risk to get the job done.

The reason, that we stopped being creative or stopped taking risks creatively, is because along the way, someone told us that we weren’t good or that we couldn’t do it. In opening your second chakra energy, you must take risks and not be afraid of failure.

Play is a great way to begin this opening. Have you ever watched a child play? A child will spend several hours building a Lego tower, a sandcastle, or an exquisite dollhouse. Then, the same child will smash their masterpiece in an instant and start over from scratch as if it was no big deal.

Start to play like a child. If your gourmet meal doesn’t turn out, so what? If your potted plant dies in a week, plant another one. And yes, if your work project is a flop, it doesn’t mean your career is over. Like the child at play, start again. You have an infinite amount of creative energy within you, so use it.

How to Balance Svadhisthana

Besides being open to creativity in your daily life, you can balance the second chakra by maintaining a healthy sexual life and honoring and respecting your body. Get in touch with your emotions and see if there are any feelings you’re holding onto. Make a commitment to process those emotions in a healthy way.

Left nostril breathing called Ida Nadi breathing will help to open up the second chakra as it brings forth lunar energy. Simply close your right nostril with the first two fingers of your right hand and inhale and exhale through the left nostril, only for 8 to 10 breaths.

Meditation with focus on the second chakra brings about personal magnetism, refinement in behavior, freedom from diseases, and longevity.

Sacral Chakra Meditation

I have found in my experiences that a sacral chakra meditation is the best way of opening this chakra.  First, you should already know how to do a Beginner Meditation.  Once you get into that meditative state, focus on the energy being brought up through your feet and through your root chakra, then up into your navel.  Imagine a ball of orange energy forming below your belly button which grows larger and larger with each deep inhale.  The orange ball of energy will start to swirl in a clockwise position and you will feel a slight tingle in your lower abdomen and lower back where the chakra is located.  Continue working on this until you really feel the energy.  It feels like a tingling or maybe a buzzing of energy flowing through you.  You may or may not become sexually aroused, but either way is perfectly fine.  Once you feel this one is open, you may move on to the Solar Plexus Chakra.

Sacral Chakra corresponds with:

• Emotions
• Hormone balance
• Creativity
• Reproductive organs
• Moods

Signs of Sacral Chakra imbalance include:

• Feeling unworthy/worthless; not good enough/not enough
• Guilt
• Hormone imbalance, including estrogen dominance
• Mood swings
• Lack of joy
• Emotional; overly-sensitive; walking on eggshells
• Miscarriages/difficulty in conceiving a child
• Program of “I must be strong, I cannot be vulnerable.”
• Excessive people-pleasing
• Cold and distant behavior; extreme detachment from others
• Lack of focus on what one wants in life
• Lack of desire; apathy
• Promiscuity
• Obsession with sex or creativity
• Fetishes
• Frigidity or impotence
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Sexual repression
• Overly needy; clingy
• Unable to tend to one’s self; “wow she really let herself go…”
• Lack of confidence and self-esteem as a man or woman
• Creative blocks
• Excessive or missed menstrual cycles
• Sex addiction; seeing people as sex objects
• Weight gain related to hormones
• Need to be center of attention or extreme shyness
• Unwilling/unable to give without feeling drained and resentful of “needy” people
• Boundaries issues – no boundaries; overly protective/too much/too many/over-the-top boundaries

Signs that Sacral Chakra is in balance include:

• Balanced hormones
• Joyful
• Strong healthy desire for what one wants in life and ability to freely ask and receive
• Can be vulnerable and feel safe and secure
• Creativity; easy and healthy creative expression
• Healthy libido and pleasurable sex; no guilt or shame around sex; no feeling of “dirty”
• Ease of child conception; no miscarriage
• Can easily be center of attention without shyness or need to be
• Healthy weight/no weight gain associated with hormone imbalance
• Generous and giving while able to receive freely
• Tends to one’s own needs and desires, also able to assist others
• No need to bend over backwards to please other people; does not need other people’s approval
• Confident; healthy self-esteem as a man or woman
• Interacts warmly and joyfully with others
• Balanced moods and emotions
• Balanced boundaries