Sacral chakra (Svadhishthana): feeling and creativity
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4 min read
In yoga tradition, the body has seven main energy centers, called chakras, that run from the base of the spine to the top of the head. The sacral chakra is the second, just below the navel and above the root chakra. Its Sanskrit name is Svadhishthana, usually translated as “one’s own seat.” Its color is orange.
What it’s about
Chakra teachers link the sacral chakra to emotional, sexual and creative expression, and to your sense of self. The tradition says it stays balanced when you let yourself express who you are freely. People describe a balanced sacral chakra as feeling energetic, inspired, expressive, joyful and compassionate, more intuitive, and more forgiving of others.
In everyday terms, this is your feeling life: whether you let yourself feel what you feel, want what you want, and enjoy what you enjoy. It’s where creativity and intimacy live. It’s also where codependency shows up, when your feelings start to rise and fall with someone else’s.
When it feels out of balance
Chakra teachers link an unbalanced sacral chakra with a lack of passion, getting frustrated easily, feeling emotionally unstable, low libido, creative blocks, a lack of inspiration, jealousy and codependency. The tradition says it happens when your emotional and sexual needs go unmet.
Those experiences are real and deserve to be acknowledged. Instead of treating them as a blockage to clear, ask what they’re telling you. What feeling have you been pushing down? What do you want that you haven’t let yourself admit? Where have you handed your emotional life over to someone else? Jealousy, for example, can point at a need you haven’t named yet.
If any of this is heavy or won’t lift, talk to a doctor or therapist. A chakra practice is a support, not a treatment.
Ways to work with it
Getting back in touch with this chakra usually means some inner work. Work on how you communicate. Write through old hurts in a journal, or talk them through with a therapist. Find healthy pleasures. And face your emotions when you feel them instead of saving them for later.
Yoga is easy to fit in because you can do it almost anywhere: by a lake, in a hotel room on vacation, even in bed. It’s a good way to get loose in the morning and to stretch out the day’s tension at night. Common sacral chakra poses are triangle pose, standing forward bend, bound angle pose and crescent lunge. You’ll find full sacral chakra routines on YouTube.
For a short practice, sit comfortably with your hands resting below your navel and breathe into your lower belly. Ask yourself what you’re feeling right now, and name it without judging it.
Some people build a morning routine around this chakra: a glass of orange juice, a healthy breakfast, some yoga, and a few minutes of journaling about how they feel.
Some people also use the tradition’s extras. Because the sacral chakra’s color is orange, they eat orange foods like oranges, peaches, mangos, pumpkin, carrots, sweet potatoes and orange bell peppers, along with healthy fats such as coconut, hemp seeds and poppy seeds, and omega-3 foods like salmon, walnuts and chia seeds. Some diffuse or wear bergamot, clary sage or orange essential oil, and some carry or meditate with amber, carnelian, mookaite, sunstone or tiger’s eye.
Affirmations are short statements you repeat to yourself in the present tense. A few for the sacral chakra:
- I am in love with life and who I am becoming.
- I release the past experiences that are holding me back, and I welcome what is to come.
- I am in touch with my feelings.
Finding what works may take some trial and error, and you can combine things: journaling after yoga, or a few affirmations while you meditate.
A question to sit with
- What am I feeling right now, under the busyness?
- When did I last make something just because I wanted to?
- What gives me healthy pleasure, and do I let myself have it?
So, ask yourself: what does balance mean for you?
The seven chakras