In last weeks Introduction to the Chakras Muladhara Chakra was our focus. As we work our way up through the body, following the central energy line we come next to Svadhisthana chakra. Svadhisthana chakra is located around the sacrum and known as the sacral chakra. It is related to the development of personality and clarity as well as being known as the centre of joy and self-expression. Once this chakra is fully developed it fires our ability to love others and fuels our consciousness, alerting us to the goings on around us and enabling us to form close bonds with other people. The colour associated with this chakra is orange, the element water and endocrine gland the adrenals. The ages 8-14 and 57-63 are linked and you could say the ages of 8-14 in particular are key to our personality development and friendship making as well developing our personal creativity. We all become our own people in those early teenage years, transforming from a child to a young adult and all that that entails all while being governed by this chakra.
Last week I introduced the idea of symbols or yantras for each chakra and that they often depict key traits. This is also the same for Svadhisthana chakra and its yantra, a depiction of which can be seen above in the header of this post.
– Six orange petals – represent the negative energies to be over come
– Crescent moon – represents regeneration
– The Makara or the mythical fishtailed alligator – represents sexual power through its serpentine movement as it reflects the sensuality shown by someone with an dominance in their sacral chakra
As can be seen from the yantra’s symbols the main area governed by the sacral chakra is relationships but it can also represent violence and addictions if out of balance. It is one of the most creative chakras, taking the raw energy from our first chakra and as well as translating it into sexual energy transforming it into creativity and expression. A healthy alignment of this chakra can create energy for creativity, movement, procreation, desire and pleasure as well as relationships. Indian dance in particular is very connected to the Svadhisthana chakra as is painting, yoga and singing.
The other side of having all this creative energy though is it can lead to a selfish sense of ego and misalignments of the Svadhisthana chakra can manifest themselves in addictions, repressed emotions and a lack of creative energy. The unbalanced person can feel very out of control of themselves and their situation. Physically when this chakra is out of alignment lower back pain, ovarian cysts, impotence and urinary tract infections can be experienced. It is therefore very important to keep this chakra as active as possible, expressing ourselves wherever possible and loving unconditionally.
Of course we can also build balancing the sacral chakra into our own yoga practice. The twisting motion of revolved triangle helps to focus the energy in the region of the sacral chakra while still providing the grounding that a lower chakra requires making this an active asana clearing excess or negative energy. This can also be seen in Extended Side Angle pose where the stretch is through the hamstrings and spine, bringing focus to the centre of the body and again the sacral energy. Dancers pose on the other hand is a passive asana drawing the energy deep into the core where it is needed to stabilise and ground the posture. A lot of negative energy can be held in the hips and it is hip openers and forward folds which are also used to rebalance the energy in Svadhisthana chakra. By opening the hips the resistance to life is relaxed and we are opened up to experiencing our sexuality and sensuality. Therefore poses such as goddess pose, cow face pose, pigeon pose, baddha konasana, warrior II and low lunge are all good balancing postures.
All of these postures can be great in a sequence together but maybe also pop in some of the ones for the root chakra that were suggested last week, creating a lovely grounding but creatively enlightening yoga practice. Another way I like to bring the chakras into my practice is through some colour visualisation. Take the chakras colour, in this instance orange, and at a contemplative point of your practice begin to really focus on that. This can be at the beginning or the end of your practice or maybe during your dancers pose! Bring your awareness to your breath and as you breathe in imagine that bright brilliant orange colour flowing around your body and as you breathe out lessen the intensity of the orange. Its such a lovely way to bring a new focus to your breath work! Give it a go and maybe even use all the chakra colours in order as a new meditation breath focus (the full chakra illustration on the starting post will give you the colour clues!)
Let me know how you get on, Namaste