Movement & Connection- Studying your Sacral Chakra

Svadhisthana- Sacral Chakra

"where your being is established." "Swa" means self and "adhishthana" means established

Your sacral charka, also known as svadhisthana in Hinduism, is located at the lower abdomen- about two finger widths above the root chakra. This chakra, as you may have guessed, is where your being- or self- is established. This chakra is associated with pleasure, sense of oneself, relationships and sensuality- many things that we have been taught our whole life to ignore or suppress.

Element: Water

Movement & Connection

Location: Solar Plexus

Self-gratification

Color- Red

Developmental Stages- 6 months to 2 years

Balanced

A person with a balanced sacral chakra might be graceful in their movement and passionate with life. They are emotionally intelligent and therefore are able to communicate their feelings freely. These people probably have healthy boundaries, an ability to adapt to change, and the ability to experience pleasure (especially without guilt).

Excess

If your sacral chakra isn't balanced you either have an excess or a deficiency. The chakras that have excess are overcompensating for the chakras that don't have enough, and therefore will naturally even out when you begin to work on other deficient chakras. If you have an excess in your sacral chakra, you are probably prone to sexually acting out or pleasure addiction in general. They express excessively strong emotions and are often ruled by them, causing ups in downs in relationships with anyone they are close to. A combination of a lack of boundaries themselves and oversensitivity can often cause them to cross other people's boundaries as well. This may lead to an emotionally dependent person with an obsessive attachment, exhibiting helplessness in many senses of their lives.

Deficiency

A deficiency looks quite the opposite with a rigidity in movement & attitudes. There might be a fear of intimacy or sex or a denial of pleasure for oneself- feeling guilty for any form of pleasure. Excessive boundaries in these people will cause emotional walls that keep everyone else out, often stemming from a childhood that was enmeshed. Their fear of pleasure for themselves often leads to a lack of desire, passion and excitement.

While I'd like to keep this chakra healing light and happy, the reality is that the road to happiness isn't always light and happy. So, if some of this seems too heavy for you, that may be a sign that you have some deeper things going on that probably happened in your childhood. These things will eventually need to be addressed if you want to align this chakra.

Healing Practices

Here are a list of healing practices to help you align your chakra. Remember that even though these practices will help you on your journey, the most healing practice you can do is to look inside yourself and the emotions or feelings you have been taught to repress. Let go of the guilt you have for feeling them. That is easier said than done, but can be done.

-Movement therapy- also known as dance therapy, this consists of movement to enhance one's cognitive, physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. While I would love to recommend a video here, I personally haven't tried it yet- an easy goal I could set myself to do once this week!

-Boundary work-

This one is a bit harder, but also necessary. Set boundaries- boundaries stop people from "walking all over you" or stops you from suppressing/invalidating your own personal limits. Read up on boundaries, but if you don't feel like researching, here is a good article summarizing boundaries. 

-Develop healthy pleasures-

Healthy pleasures include yoga, a creative outlet such as singing, instruments, crafting or even jogging, exercising or meditation... but this is a very vague list. Healthy pleasures, in my opinion, can even be moderated consumption of *most* things- so long as you don't begin to rely on it for your daily happiness (which can even include food!) here is a list of some healthy pleasures. If none of these are enticing enough for you, create your own list!

-Color-

Another great way to help incorporate the chakras into your life is consuming foods or herbs that are related to the chakras, usually foods that are the same color. Crystals are another great way to bring that color into your everyday life. Even an act as simple as wearing a red shirt to remind you to return to your roots. At tessessentials.bigcartel.com, I sell my own special herbal tea blend filled with multiple different roots and aimed to help realign your root chakra; or you can opt to make a tea yourself by researching herbs associated with the root chakra!