The belly, or sacral, chakra is known in Sanskrit as Swadhisthana.This Chakra is concerned with sexual impulses, sensuality, sensory pleasure, survival of the species and our desire to merge with others.
Located in the lower abdomen and genitals, its element is water and its function is sexuality, procreation, change, movement and elimination. The body parts linked with this Chakra are the ovaries, kidneys, bladder, circulatory system and adrenal glands. The colour of this Chakra is orange and its sense is taste.
The key function of this Chakra is to transmute primal, creative, sexual energy through the nervous system into higher vibrations of spiritual energy. This sexual energy creates an elemental pressure providing the raw fuel for awakening our higher Chakras.
Emotionally, this Chakra refers to our pre-sexual and sexual desires for intimacy. The primal element is water and its no wonder that our emotions can sometimes feel as if they are ‘flowing’ out of us.
One method for dealing with the primal energy is to experience sex and sensuality in such a way that celebrates the joy and pleasure of the act. This can contribute to self-exploration and inner spiritual growth versus using sex as a currency or weapon to manipulate or control others or to gain status or power.
Another method is the practice of Kundalini, focusing our breath, asanas (postures) and meditation, concentrating on the upward channeling of this energy to our higher Chakras centers.
In Caroline Myss’ book ‘Anatomy of the Spirit’ she notes that the sacred truth of the Belly Chakra is honouring one another, symbolized by the bonds we form with other people. By learning to interact consciously with others and uniting with people that support our development and let go of relationships that no longer serve us or handicap our growth, we can balance and overcome the challenges inherent in this Chakra.
She further notes that when we enter the Belly Chakra we move beyond the tribal collective of doing what your told, into ‘choice’ made manifest in a world of opposites – positive and negative as well as fear versus faith supported by divine trust and inner knowing. It also gives us basic survival instincts, intuition and desire to create music, art, poetry, architecture and supports our natural curiosity.
When this Chakra is blocked it can lead to impotence, infertility, vaginal infection, endometriosis and depression. Things that can affect this and drain our power are negative thoughts and actions, gossip and manipulation that all originate in fear, which often causes us to abort new ideas and compromises our creative power.
When balanced and allowed to flow this creative energy will act to reshape our lives and help us cope with day to day events and provide creative solutions to physical, mental and spiritual issues. It is here in this second chakra that we learn that we cannot control the physical world, but we can master our inner responses to the external world through our thoughts and emotions.
It is said that past lives, previous experiences and the dimensions of the human personality can be symbolized by this Chakra, bubbling up from the depths of the unconscious. When this Chakra is awakened it can activate an unconscious uprising of emotions we do not fully understand. By tapping into our third eye witness consciousness in order to face what might be arising with detachment it allows us to move through these emotions to our higher chakras versus be trapped in a cycle of returning from the belly back to the Root Chakras and remaining stuck.
Poses:
Cat/Cow
Sphinx
Cobra
Pigeon
Twists