Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it. ~Vincent Van Gogh

How fitting that as we continue with our chakra series, the Sacral, (Svadhisthana) or second chakra is symbolized with a crescent moon, as it possesses the mysterious powers that are hiding within our own unconscious minds. As we’ve gained understanding that the root chakra is our main grounding base, the Sacral chakra will lean on this foundation to guide us in dealing with new experiences and the ability to develop and respond to our emotional reactions . The first chakra taught us how to have patience for ourselves and our core survival skills, but where do we get our next step of emotions from? Our Sacral chakra, located right below the navel center, relates to our creative and sexual energies in life. If you noticed, in our age span of 8-14, it’s when most of us begin the transition through adolescence to adulthood (or so I’ve heard….late blooming is a real thing), but as we begin to have emotions, developing real connected sensations driven by our relationships with other people as well as our social relationships of love, anger, and disappointment, we start to have many more questions and urges. It’s a fast paced, changing time, potentially viewed as an exciting roller coaster of new feelings and events. In hindsight, we can look back and understand we were maybe a tad over dramatic or the opposite, majorly secluded because we were “teenagers” but here we’re going to dive in deeper into what did we experience and how can now we utilize this as grown adults.

The second chakra can be known as the center of self expression and joy. As we enter this stage we become aware of our reactions and begin to expand not only within ourselves, but also by reaching out to others. Since this chakra rules our emotions, creativity, and sensuality; it makes sense that it also manages all our sexual organs. (Remember what being a teenager was like?) As we start bonding with ourselves and others, our emotions become extremely connected which can lead to healthy or unhealthy relationships. Striving towards optimism, we’ll start with a few descriptions of having a healthy or well balanced second chakra.

When our second chakra is balanced, as uncomplicated as it sounds, we are cheerful, we enjoy friendliness and we have the ability to feel satisfied. Have you ever met someone that was just…...happy? Most likely they have very strong and healthy second chakra energies. This chakra revolves around relationships and our ability to have them. The most important relationship you can ever build is the one with yourself. Bonding with your own feelings teaches us trust and helps us create, build, and keep healthy bonds with others. A balanced second chakra will be able to enjoy and appreciate creative aspects of the world such as art, dance, music, and poetry, finding them meaningful and attractive. Feeling comfortable in environments, having ample energy and motivation and well balanced emotions all show signs of a healthy second chakra.

There are unfortunately other sides of the second chakra that when disrupted can cause an array of emotional instability and destructive behaviors which leads to overactive and underactive energies. If during the key ages, or as an adult, you experience imbalanced family dynamics, emotional manipulation, passive aggressive behaviors (at work or in your personal life), these could lead to an obscured and out of balance chakra. These disruptions can bring a magnitude of emptiness, loss of energy and excitement, pessimism, addiction, sexual dependency, and even suicidal thoughts. Envy and jealousy can easily arise here from the unhealthy dependency this imbalance can cause. These painful emotions can haunt you through your adulthood. If you’ve found some of these traits relatable, looking back at the cause and healing from there can help fight the symptoms. An unhealthy second chakra can be very self limiting, but we all have the power to take back our own control and learn to trust ourselves and rebalance to a happier, more loving self.

So, an unhealthy second chakra can clearly cause a multitude of negative symptoms. The good news is there are many ways to work and heal this chakra through conscious positive efforts, healing foods, stones, essential oils, meditation, and the acceptance of our own emotional baggage and the want to be rid of it! While all of these efforts and many more are so positive to work with and connect, my favorite is still movement within poses. This helps me build strength mentally and physically, to experience the joy and magic that understanding these chakras bring to us. My next blog will feature some of the best poses we can work with to help align and balance this chakra are ones with movement within the hips and lower abdomen. These can help release emotional tension, leading us to express ourselves more freely and positively with more emotional security, positive self esteem and fulfillment. I’ve always felt the feeling is needed to complete the connection.