Exploring Your Energy Centers: Svadhisthana - Sacral Chakra
Svadhisthana - the Sacral Chakra
You know those days when the creative fire is insatiable, the days when your body can’t keep up with your mind and your waterfall of artistic ideas?
There are times when we feel productive and inspired, yet grounded in the work we are doing. This sweet spot for creative experience is related to the second chakra, known in Sanskrit asSvadhisthana meaning “dwelling place of the self".
The second chakra, or sacral chakra, is located in the lower abdomen, about the width of two fingers beneath the navel. This energetic hub is responsible for our personal creativity, both in an artistic as well as humanistic sense. It is responsible for what we offer to the world in terms of our work as well as the procreation. It is here that we also connect to our truth or “pure knowledge".
Balancing the Chakra: The chakras work like that once loved game of Jenga. If the foundation is wobbling, it becomes harder to balance the higher up you go. Taking time to balance both the root and the second chakra allows you to tap into your innate artistic ability while maintaining a feeling of support and stability. The second chakra is all about fluidity, of being able to connect with the stability of the root chakra but also allow for flexibility and the water-like ability to adapt to circumstances. You find the balance between water and earth and it is in that sweet spot that you reside, you create, you grow.
The second chakra also helps us with our perception of reality. Often the mood we are in and the way we see the world can shift dramatically if we make the conscious choice to think, move, speak, and act from a place of care and concern for ourselves and others. When the sacral chakra is balanced, we are more readily able to love ourselves and others fully thereby saturating our daily experience. When you find yourself in that low place, where everything seems to be going wrong, consider pausing for meditation such as the one described below. You have the power to dramatically shift the frame you see through.
If you are trying to have children, meditating on the second chakra, thereby sending willpower, mental energy, and deep breathing down to the belly, supports your efforts and prepares body, mind, and energy (some might say spirit or soul) to bring another life into the world.
Significance: It is interesting to note that our sexual energy and our creative energy are deeply connected and governed by this second chakra. When our primal, corporeal desires are ignited, we fuel the artist inside. We stimulate the mind and through the brain’s pleasure responses, and we make space for the creativity to flow unrestricted.
When Imbalance Occurs: If you have writer’s block or are feeling frustrated by your latest design project, try stimulating yourself sexually or connect with a trusted partner to refresh your mind and restore your creative energy.
Color + Energy: The color of this chakra is bright orange, which means that calling orange colors to mind during your meditation helps breathe life into this chakra.
Emotionally, this chakra is a wellspring for your passion. Whether that be toward your work, relationships, or self, an unblocked second chakra ignites your [synonym for passion] libido corresponds with Svadhisthana as well.
Meditation for Opening the Sacral Chakra
Read through this meditation one time and then close your computer and put it to the side to begin your meditation.
Find a quiet place where you can be alone. This is important because you want to direct your energy inside. This is a time to be selfish and close the door.
Set a timer for five minutes. Bring yourself into a squat with your elbows inside of your knees. This position invites a physical opening of the lower chakras. You will be here for the entirety of the meditation so make sure there pillows and blankets or a yoga block to support you if your legs and hips become tired.
Close your eyes and take 10 deep breaths. As you inhale, imagine the breath coming in through the belly button. As it enters into the body, it turns an exquisite orange color, and it travels up the front of the body, filling every part of it with this orange light. You can imagine the orange light is cooling and healing.
As you exhale, the orange breath returns to the small glowing sphere just below the navel. It becomes brighter and larger as you exhale completely.
[Note: what this orange ball of light looks like is up to you. It can be an amorphous cloud or a solid sphere, whatever comes naturally for you to see with your eyes closed. As long as it can grow brighter in color and take up more space with every exhale, it does not matter what it looks like. ]
After your ten breaths, start to repeat out loud the mantra: Lam Vam.
This mantra uses sound vibrations to open and clear the root and the second chakra. Continue to repeat this mantra, exaggerating the “L”, “V” and “M” sounds until the timer goes off.
Be gentle with the body. Place the hands on the floor and gently lift your hips towards the ceiling to come into a forward fold with bent knees. Grab opposite elbows, sway side to side.
Gently roll the body up to stand. Bring the hands to the heart and feel yourself fully grounded in your feet, bones stacked, uplifted and supported by your lower body. Take a deep breath in, let it out, open your eyes, smile.
Continue your day knowing you are strong, stable, and lit on fire with an inimitable lust for life.
by
k.jagadeesh
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