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If you're looking for a way to tap into your creativity, sensuality, and sexuality, some people say to look no farther than your own torso — specifically, the sacral chakra.

The chakras are believed by some to be energy centers distributed throughout the body, with 7 of the principal chakras located along your spine.

These bicycle-similar energy points are associated with different concrete and emotional functions in the human trunk, affecting your overall well-being.

The 2nd of these primary chakras is the sacral chakra, also known by some as the "sex activity chakra." Some people believe it:

  • enhances creative expression
  • improves sexual intimacy
  • increases intuition

Though at that place'due south no scientific evidence to support the existence of the chakras, they're part of religious and spiritual conventionalities systems around the globe, including Buddhism and Hinduism.

The sacral chakra is believed to exist located below the navel, where the perineum is. Information technology'south said to be associated with the sex organs and the kidneys, though this isn't supported by scientific research.

It's also associated with the water element and portrayed as a vibrant orangish colour. It's often represented past a vi-petalled lotus flower.

Some believe this chakra is governed past Parvati, the Hindu goddess of fidelity, fertility, and ability.

"The Sanskrit name [for the sacral chakra] is Svadhisthana," says certified chakra and crystal healer Laura Konst. "The symbol of the sacral chakra is a moon crescent, which represents the human relationship between the tides of water and the phases of the moon."

In Sanskrit, Svadihsthana means "where your being is established."

According to some traditions, the sacral chakra is linked to pleasance, sexuality, and joy.

Near of these claims are based on anecdotal bear witness, religious texts, and ancient traditions, many of which are nonetheless practiced by millions of people today.

While there's no scientific evidence to support the metaphysical properties of chakras, many cultures and traditions believe that chakra work is beneficial.

Co-ordinate to Candice Covington, writer of "Essential Oils in Spiritual Do," the sacral chakra is associated with several characteristics.

These include:

  • sensuality, sexual intimacy, and giving and receiving pleasure
  • creativity and unstructured expression
  • birthing environments, things that wax and wane, and the principle of nonpermanence
  • healthy emotions and the inner child
  • the divine feminine
  • synchronicity

Shadow problems — or negative qualities — associated with the sacral chakra include:

  • wounded emotions
  • secrets
  • fearfulness of judgment, getting into trouble, or being "constitute out"
  • repression
  • disability to experience emotional or sexual intimacy
  • nightmares and not remembering or understanding dreams

"With [overactivity in] this chakra, in detail, you exhibit being consumed by and drowning in emotions, being emotionally tempestuous, and using escapism to avert life," says Covington says.

According to Covington, signs of an overactive sacral chakra can include:

  • feeling consumed past your emotions, equally if drowning in them
  • experiencing emotional ups and downs
  • using escapism to avoid life
  • showing obsessive affection that isn't returned
  • engaging in inappropriate expressions of sexuality

Konst says an overactive sacral chakra often results in emotional highs and lows.

"You may effort to retain a sense of control past lashing out and exhibiting decision-making and manipulating behaviors toward others," she says. "Imbalances can manifest in both spectrums and atomic number 82 to emotional outbursts or an apathetic and disconnected attitude."

According to Konst and Covington, one of the outset signs of a blocked sacral chakra is emotions that feel unbalanced or off-kilter.

These include:

  • disengagement
  • isolation
  • feet
  • loneliness
  • low libido
  • lack of creative inspiration

"A closed sacral chakra tin can make y'all feel detached from your ain emotions too every bit the emotions of the people around you," says Konst. "Yous may feel isolated and anxious to be alone and solitary. It'southward a fell bike that tin cause loneliness equally well as anxiety."

To tell if your sacral chakra is blocked, Covington advises closely observing the energies, actions, and traits that are active in your life.

"When a chakra is blocked, its energy becomes stagnant and your ability to access the gifts associated with the sacral center become hard," she says. "Its shadow aspects are also active and dominant in your life."

Many people believe chakras can become blocked and unbalanced. This is said to affect our physical and emotional functioning.

While there are no scientifically backed methods for healing the sacral chakra, one 2018 study in people with substance utilize disorders found that complementary and alternative medicine — including healing free energy techniques — may exist useful in treating stress and feet.

Though free energy and chakra healing shouldn't exist relied on lone, they can exist a supportive part of a well-rounded treatment plan.

If you desire to restore balance to your sacral chakra, Covington and Konst advise a few practices, including:

  • meditation and yoga
  • affirmations
  • essential oils
  • crystals and stones
  • reflection
  • supplementing your nutrition

Meditation and yoga

Covington says a meditation that invokes the h2o element of the sacral chakra tin can be incredibly powerful.

"This seemingly simple act will clear the shadow energies and bring the gift aspects of the sacral chakra into precipitous focus to exist utilized in your life," says Covington.

Konst recommends yoga too.

"Yoga is a nifty practice for chakra healing and many poses specifically connect with certain chakras," she explains. "It's all well-nigh being conscious of your torso, breath, and mind, and learning to manipulate the flows of energy through your chakras."

Popular yoga poses for the sacral chakra include:

  • Camel Pose
  • Spring Angle Pose
  • Garland Pose

Affirmations

Affirmations are brusque, positive statements that you regularly repeat to modify your outlook. Konst says they're a not bad tool for chakra healing.

She suggests the post-obit affirmations to balance the sacral chakra:

  • "I trust my feelings. I trust myself."
  • "I am safe to limited my sexuality."
  • "I permit my inventiveness to flow freely."

Essential oils

Some people believe that essential oils can help balance the chakras.

Dissimilar oils are said to represent to different free energy centers. They're oft applied to the skin or added to a bath after being diluted with a carrier oil.

Essential oils that may help balance the sacral chakra include:

  • galangal
  • sandalwood
  • massoia bark
  • pink pepper seed
  • jasmine
  • neroli

While inquiry suggests there are health benefits, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't monitor or regulate the purity or quality of essential oils. It's important to talk with your healthcare provider before you begin using essential oils.

Be sure to inquiry the quality of a brand'due south products. Always do a patch test earlier trying a new essential oil, and follow the correct dosage and dilution. Essential oils are not meant to be ingested and some are toxic.

Crystals and stones

Crystals and stones are oftentimes used in chakra healing work and are commonly placed over the chakra during meditation.

Covington recommends using moonstone.

"Moonstone has the rare souvenir of bringing what ane needs versus what 1 wants," she says. "It also helps us develop a profound emotional intelligence, a relationship with the deep unconscious, and a connectedness to the energy of the divine feminine."

Konst recommends working with the following:

  • Tiger's eye (specially golden-colored): for heightening the primal connectedness and leading with courage
  • Citrine: for manifesting joy and becoming reacquainted with life'south unproblematic pleasures
  • Autumn jasper: for compassion and protecting your positive space
  • Carnelian: for unleashing creativity and discovering hidden gifts
  • Mookalite (aka, Mookaite, especially cherry-colored): for embracing alter and resolving difficult situations

Reflection

Before healing your sacral chakra, Konst recommends balancing your root chakra. This chakra is located at the base of the spine and is known every bit Muladhara in Sanskrit.

"Once your root chakra is balanced, it's much easier to move on to your sacral chakra," says Konst. "I would offset with a reflection on your emotions, sexuality, and creativity."

She also points out that acknowledging your truthful feelings is a keen first step in any healing work.

Konst suggests picking one or two crystals that correspond with the sacral chakra, writing down a unmarried affirmation each day for 7 days, and starting a regular meditation do.

Supplement the sacral chakra

Covington says nutrition tin can also be beneficial when it comes to balancing the sacral chakra. While this isn't supported by scientific discipline or mainstream nutrition, foods with certain qualities are traditionally associated with detail chakras and elements.

Covington suggests eating foods that have qualities associated with the sacral chakra and the water chemical element.

In her book "Vibrational Nutrition: Agreement the Energetic Signature of Foods," Covington recommends the following foods for sacral chakra healing:

  • black cherry tomato
  • Padrón pepper
  • peach
  • gala apple tree
  • mandarin orange
  • mango
  • oyster
  • Venus clam

Other foods could include figs or pomegranates, which are often associated with fertility in religious lore. For more nutrient suggestions, see the FAQs section below.

Balancing your chakras is believed to sometimes result in a process known equally "awakening," though this is said to be rare.

"The term 'awakening' means that the connection with your sacral chakra is fully balanced, open, and very strong," says Konst. When this happens, "you've reached your own place, your sacred being."

She believes you may notice a shift in your relationships with:

  • people
  • animals
  • nutrient
  • spirituality
  • nature

You may also kickoff to develop:

  • stronger intuition
  • equilibrium in your emotions
  • an increase in your creativity
  • improved emotional health
  • greater sexual intimacy

More questions about the sacral chakra? We've got yous covered below.

What blocks the sacral chakra?

Sure attitudes or experiences are believed past some to play a role in blocking the sacral chakra.

For instance, if you have a persistent belief that y'all don't belong or that you aren't a creative person, your sacral chakra may become blocked.

Growing upwards in an surroundings that emphasizes sexual repression could also atomic number 82 to a blocked sacral chakra, as well as experiences of sexual trauma.

How do you unblock your sacral chakra?

Unblocking your sacral chakra involves getting the energies of the creative, sexual, and emotional self flowing again. Information technology also involves feeling at home in your torso.

Some practices for unblocking the sacral chakra include meditation and yoga, affirmation, and self-reflection. For more specific practices, see the "How to balance and heal the sacral chakra" above.

What are the symptoms of a blocked sacral chakra?

Symptoms of a blocked sacral chakra tin include:

  • detachment
  • isolation
  • feet
  • loneliness
  • low libido
  • lack of creative inspiration

What foods are good for the sacral chakra?

Although at that place's no scientific bear witness to dorsum it up, foods generally considered good for reproductive health are believed to help balance the sacral chakra, whether you have a vagina or a penis.

Foods that are symbolically associated with fertility, sexuality, and creativity may also help residue the sacral chakra, as well as foods related to the water element.

Foods with traditional associations to the sacral chakra, fertility, and creativity include:

  • seeds
  • eggs
  • many-seeded foods, like pomegranates, figs, or papaya
  • vulvic or phallic foods
  • sensual or luxurious foods
  • aphrodisiacs

Luxurious and sensual scents and essential oils may aid as well.

How do I know if my chakra is out of residuum?

Yous'll know your sacral chakra is out of residuum if your emotions feel unbalanced or off-kilter. You lot may feel discrete or numb to your feelings also as those of others. Other signs include:

  • feeling creatively or sexually impotent
  • feeling unsafe or uncomfortable in your body
  • inability to connect emotionally or sexually
  • feeling "secretive" or afraid of intimacy
  • having frequent nightmares or not remembering dreams

The sacral chakra is believed to be the second chakra in the human body. It'south thought to govern how yous feel sexuality, creative expression, emotions, and more than.

According to about traditions, information technology can become blocked and unbalanced, as can the other chakras in the torso.

There are many complementary therapies that aim to heal and balance the sacral chakra, including meditation, affirmations, and working with essential oils and crystals.

While none of these practices or the beingness of chakras themselves are supported by scientific discipline, they are generally considered safe as a supplement to a salubrious lifestyle and medical care.

Victoria Stokes is a author from the Uk. When she's not writing virtually her favorite topics, personal development, and well-being, she normally has her nose stuck in a adept book. Victoria lists coffee, cocktails, and the colour pink amongst some of her favorite things. Notice her on Instagram.