Chakra: Svadisthana
Element: Water
Location: Lower abdomen
Color: Orange
About: Emotions, creativity, sexuality
Goals: Expansion, flow, pleasure, openness
Demon: Guilt
Practices: Opening and widening the hips, tuning in to sensing and feeling
Mantra: Vam
What is the Svadisthana chakra?
The Svadisthana, or Sacral Chakra, is located at the lower abdomen between the belly button and the pubic bone. It is symbolised by a lotus with six petals. Svadisthana is the second layer of our identity and it relates to our emotional identity, creativity, pleasure and pain.
It is here that we become aware of our right to feel – pleasure particularly. It connect us to our spiritual, physical and sexual identities – enabling us to be joyful, playful and intimate with others on all levels.
A positive balance in the Svadisthana Chakra would be represented by stability in one’s sexuality, sensuality and emotions. It is related to the reproductive system.
I am inspired, I am creative, I am joyful, I am unique.
How does Svadisthana chakra affect a person?
Svadisthana chakra enables our right to feel. Disrupt this capability and we are left numb, disconnected, anaesthetised to feeling. Without it, all desire disappears, which makes it difficult even to know what we want. This chakra forms between the ages of six months and two years, growing with our ability to separate from our parents, which in turn relies on us feeling safe and secure. A child who is starved of physical contact or who is physically abused in unable to establish a healthy emotional identity.
Healthy Svadisthana enables us to trust our own feelings, but if the second chakra is damaged, this trust is diminished. Guilt fills the void. And a person consumed by guilt is incapable of finding pleasure in the world around them, in the people and experiences that pass them by as result. Bury all pleasure and the joy gets squeezed out, leaving parts of our identity unfulfilled.
A person with excessive Svadisthana is intensely emotional. Driven to socialise, they may be unable to distinguish between emotional and physical boundaries, emphatic in the extreme and over-reliant on other people.
A person with a stunned emotional identity will resist all kinds of pleasures, including social interaction, making them introverted as a result. It may be clearly visible to other people because an individual who repress their feelings typically holds their body stiffly and lacks ease.
Both our spirit and body are nourished by experiences of joy and intimacy of all kinds with other people.
How to strengthen the Svadisthana chakra?
To harmonise your Svadisthana, take time to observe the sensations you feel, then respond with care to meet your basic needs of food and water, shelter and rest.
One’s culture tends to de-emphasize the importance of feelings and sexuality, creating taboos and rules that set limits on how, when, what and with whom we can feel. Looking behind these social norms – and finding the reasonable, innate system within – can lead to a much happier life and better interpersonal connection with other people.
In yoga, as the Svadisthana chakra is located in the low belly and hips – think the origins of life—hip and groin openers in yoga class will help alleviate blocked second chakras. Pigeon pose, and bound-angle pose are just a few examples. But essentially, whatever movements make you happy will ignite the chakra of sweetness in you.
Which Chakra is for you?
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