Come to Your Senses

The second chakra, which is located in the lower abdominal area and sacral area, deals with our needs, our emotions and our sexuality. Swadhisthana, which means sweetness in Sanskrit, is associated with the element of water and the color orange. The basic right of this chakra is to feel.

“With the second chakra, we enter the watery realm of emotions and sexuality,” writes Anodea Judith in her book Eastern Body, Western Mind. “When it’s balanced we exude fluidity, and demonstrate the ability to nurture ourselves. We are also able to establish healthy boundaries and bring about change.”

Holding one’s center is essential to finding this balance. And yet a vast number of things can affect the health of this energy wheel. Sexual and emotional abuse thwarts this chakra’s growth. You could also have been negatively impacted if you grew up in a home where pleasure was frowned upon as an indulgent waste of time and energy. As a result you may feel an overwhelming sense of guilt for feeling good. Guilt is the demon of the second chakra. Consider: How was pleasure regarded in your family? Were work and play, self-discipline and pleasure brought into balance?

An unbalanced sexual chakra can cause infertility, menstrual difficulties, sexual dysfunction, deadness of the senses and a loss of appetite for food, sex and life in general, adds Judith who is considered an expert when it comes to the combination of chakras and therapeutic issues. Her website www.sacredcenters.com is a one-stop for everything having to do with chakras.

Here is some information to figure out whether your second chakra is out of balance:

Deficiency
A lack of energy in this center usually makes it difficult for you to feel what you’re feeling. Maybe you plummet into depression but have no idea what is really bothering you. You may also feel a lack of passion. Perhaps you grew up without feelings of affection. In essence, you are emotionally numb to life. As a consequence you feel empty and unable to sense your own needs. Physically, you can be rigid and lack a sense of softness and fluidity, writes Judith. Sexually, you may be afraid to open up.

Excess
An excess energy in this chakra makes you highly emotional. In other words, you are the quintessential drama queen. Everything seems like a crisis that has to be dealt with immediately, says Judith. Sometimes your full of energy, an inspiration to be around. Other times you are gripped with fear, anger or sadness and you feel like a butterfly that is coming apart at the wings. There’s a chance that you are also Miss Fidgety, very giving and highly sexual. It is difficult for you to decipher between what you are feeling and the reality of a situation. You may also have problem with addiction and an inability to draw healthy boundaries.

How to restore balance…

No guilt
“Working through guilt begins with examining the forces that influences our actions at a given time,” writes Judith. So, for instance, if you felt guilty about feeling needy, it is important to determine whether your needs were ever met. Judith suggests taking these following steps: 1) Try to put the behavior in context. What were the forces acting on you at the time? 2) Examine the motives and needs underlying your behavior. What were you trying to accomplish? 3) Look for people in your life who may have modeled this behavior. i.e, your parents? 4) Determine how your underlying needs can be more directly filled and take inventory on whether you caused harm to anyone. Try to make amends and if you can’t contact that person, then give back to the universe somehow. 5) Finally make a plan for new behavior and don’t forget to forgive yourself before you move on.

Movement
Speaking of moving on, movement is an excellent way to get this chakra flowing since this wheel is all about letting go, feeling and going with the flow. Through movement we build muscle tissue, increase circulation and enhance our overall aliveness. Anything that gets the hips ad sacrum moving is beneficial for the second wheel. Try: hip openers in yoga, such as pigeon and triangle poses; hula-hooping at the beach; or a belly dancing class. As you move, observe the way you feel!

Stomach massage
It’s a pity that massage therapists rarely target the tummy since we hold so much there. If you have a caring lover, ask him to gently massage that area. Try to use ylang-ylang, jasmine, neroli, or sandlewood since these are the oils associated with improving the emotions and organs of the second chakra. Another technique is an Arvigo massage, which is centered around an ancient Mayan method that repositions the organs and gets the blood, lymph and chi moving.

“This Mayan abdominal massage is only practiced by a select handful of massage and medical practitioners but it can help with problems of infertility and it can heal old adhesions from invasive treatments to the pelvic and abdominal area, such as fibroid tumors, endometriosis, and cesarean delivery,” explains naturopathic doctor Linda Oksman, who is also the director of the Amethyst Spa & Boutique at the Radisson Fort McDowell Resort & Casino in Scottsdale, AZ.

Affirmations
An affirmation is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into their life. We are what we think. Our thoughts definitely influence our physical health. Remember the second chakra is the belly, the womb of life and also creation.. Be creative with your affirmations. Write them down on orange paper and consider making a collage with symbols associated with the second chakra. Stick it up somewhere where you can easily read it. Judith suggests these affirmations: I deserve pleasure in my life. I absorb information from my feelings. I move easily and effortlessly. As you meditate increase the do’s and decrease the don’ts.

Water
Since water is the element associated with the second, make sure you develop a relationship with water. Water can be your sweat and your tears. It’s about getting in touch with your feelings and moving through your emotions. Go to the beach and let the waves sooth you and if you can’t, go swimming at the YMCA or take long baths. Drink lots of water too.