Welcome. Okay, so last week we kicked off the introduction to the Chakra System and got to talk a bit about the Root chakra and how it has been showing up in my life. If you missed the intro, I suggest you visit Part 1 of this series. As promised. Today, we’ll be talking about the Sacral and Solar Plexus chakras. I forgot to mention that the chakras are associated with the elements. The higher the chakra, the more fluid it becomes. The root chakra element is the earth (ground), the sacral chakra is water, and the solar plexus is fire. And so on. Alright, let’s get right into it.
Sacral Chakra: As mentioned, it is the second of the seven chakras. It is located in the abdomen between the navel and hip crease, and includes the lower back, the pelvis and sexual organs. We associate this chakra with sensation, feeling, emotion, pleasure, flow, movement, sensuality, sexuality and enjoyment. We develop (or activate) this chakra in our early childhood from around 6 months to 2 years old. This is when we start to experience the world through sensations (i.e pleasure or pain). We are gaining emotional literacy and are learning to establish connections. Just like the root chakra, the sacral chakra also has its own energy scale. A balanced chakra is seen through experiencing balanced emotions. Having the capacity for pleasure and generally feeling good in the body. An extremely deficient sacral chakra is seen through someone who is unemotional, rigid and tends to deny themselves opportunities to experience pleasure. An excessive sacral chakra is seen through someone who is overly emotional, often has poor boundaries and is overly indulgent. The one thing that can really disturb the flow of energy through this chakra is guilt.
Between 6 months and 2 years of age, a child cannot communicate fully with words and often relies on expressing his/her emotions in order to get a message across. When the child is irritated or in pain, we expect them to cry. And when they are happy and are enjoying something, they let out a big laugh or the cutest giggle. It’s generally easy to see the state they are in because, at that age, they have not learned how to mask their emotions. It is only when we are not allowed to express our emotions fully that we start experiencing blockages in this chakra. Something strange happens as we grow older. Boys and girls get programmed differently. Boys are told to be strong and to never show weakness by expressing their emotions. Girls, on the other hand, are portrayed as weak and overly emotional. Coming to think of it, men and women tend to be on the extreme ends of the energy scale. Because I do not want to generalize too much, I will talk about my experiences with my boyfriend. I love him to bits but that man is rigid AF. He rarely shows emotion. Sometimes I cannot tell if something I have said or done has offended him. It only shows up later when I have done a great job at pissing him off, and that is when I will get a breakdown of all the terrible things I have done and have not apologized for. And it gets so confusing because, these emotions, where on earth were they this whole time? He also subscribes to the “it will end in tears” belief. He is a firm believer that if you enjoy something too much, that experience will end in pain. I won’t lie, at some point I found myself subscribing to that belief until I realized that it doesn’t serve me and I had to make a conscious decision to dump it.
Now let’s talk about my overly emotional and indulgent self. I don’t know if you could pick it up from my style of writing but I’m that type that cries about everything. I see a cute baby, I cry. You tell me I’m not good enough, I cry. I don’t hide my emotions at all. Crossing my path while I’m angry is an extreme sport. There are things I’ve done while I was angry which I’m ashamed of. The guilt that comes with this kind of behavior is crippling. It goes without saying that where there is guilt, pleasure cannot exist. Something that I’ve also struggled with for a long time is the inability to establish solid boundaries. Unfortunately, without solid boundaries, it is easy to get run over by anything and anyone that comes in your path. You sacrifice yourself a lot, barely leaving anything in your cup to sustain you. I had to say “No more!” and actually start doing the work to unblock this chakra. Although I’m still a bit emotional and allow myself the occasional shopping spree once in a blue moon when I am really down in the dumps, I am mostly aware of where I am on the energy scale and do what I need to do to reach that state of balance. I have learnt healthier ways of communicating my emotions and acknowledging when it is time to go back to my space and make my boundaries known.
Solar Plexus Chakra: This is the third chakra and is sometimes called the power chakra. It rules the metabolism and energy, personal power and will. We associate this chakra with autonomy, self-esteem, effectiveness, confidence and courage. We develop this chakra from around 18 months to 3 years old. This is the stage we sometimes call “the terrible twos”. This is also where we are currently with our daughter, and I must say, I’m learning how to exercise patience daily. It is at this stage where we first discover our will. What we often see is that if you were raised by parents who were too strict, that will would be crushed completely and you were left feeling powerless. You struggle to make decisions and you sort of just let life happen to you. And if the parents were too lenient, this resulted in a false sense of power, and that is how the “spoiled brat” is born.
My parents, both having been teachers, were naturally very strict. Because I relied heavily on their guidance, I struggled with independence when I left home for school. I relied heavily on others (especially romantic partners) to take decisions on my behalf. I was not assertive at all back then. And when things go wrong, I often convinced myself that it was always someone else’s fault. I let life happen to me instead of actively choosing what I allow into my life. Now with my daughter, it almost looks like her life is the exact opposite of mine when I was her age. I’m too lenient and often allow her to get away with a lot. I just discovered that me being lenient towards her is me trying to re-parent my inner child. This is good for me in the sense that I’m healing my past traumas in the process but it’s not necessarily a great thing for my daughter because she’s learning that she can get anything she wants by simply throwing a tantrum. This is why it becomes important to invest in learning how to effectively heal past trauma so you don’t accidentally project it onto your children.
On the energy scale, a balanced solar plexus chakra is seen through someone who is confident, energized and is empowered. An extremely deficient chakra can be seen on someone who is passive, has low self-esteem and is weak-willed or indecisive. An extremely excessive chakra is seen on someone who is dominating, constantly active and is overly ambitious. The gift of this chakra is empowerment and knowing how to harvest good energy and make use of it. The challenge is to overcome shame and doubt which is a process. Learning how to actively choose what happens to you and around you instead of doing things because you “have to” is the key. When you become aware of the power within you, you become the creator of your own reality and knowing this is so liberating. Nothing and no one can take your power and energy. It is yours to give. It is yours keep. But by all means necessary, take ownership of it and use it to do what makes you feel good (without harming others of course). Next week we will move further up the chakra system and talk about the heart and throat chakras.
