Q. What is the Sacral Chakra all about (in a nutshell)?

A. The Sacral Chakra is the second Chakra in the Chakra system. As we spoke about last time, the first Chakra is primarily about foundation and security. The Sacral Chakra is linked to a sense of self, in terms of self-acceptance and self-value. It also houses our sense of sensuality and sexuality, as well as our emotional body. Therefore, when the Sacral Chakra functions well, so do all of these interconnected aspects. That is the Sacral Chakra in a nutshell.

Q. When does the Sacral Chakra develop in our lives? How does it develop the way it does? 

A. The Sacral Chakra normally starts to develop and strengthen from the ages of 7 to 14.  In the first seven years of our life we are primarily concerned with our sense of security. This is when all the Root Chakra and the foundational aspects of our personality develop. In the next 7 years (give or take), our sense of self-value and sense of self-worth is developed. Therefore, if we already have a healthy foundation and feeling of security (in other words, a strong Root Chakra), our subsequent interactions with the world will come from a different space.

Q. What is the “emotional body” and how is it related to the Sacral Chakra?

A. Part of our personality is our emotions. All these emotions combined together are what make up our emotional body. It’s just the same as us having a physical body (which houses all our physical parts), or a mental body (which contains all our mental components). The body that houses our emotions is the emotional body. The Sacral Chakra is particularly connected to the emotional body. 

 Q. But I have heard that being too emotional (or being emotionless) can be harmful. What does it mean in the context of the emotional body?  

 A. When our emotions are in balance, they have a place and function. But when they are out of balance – for instance, because of a lack of emotion, or because of too much emotion – then that aspect of our personality is out of balance, and this imbalance is seen in our emotional body and the way we react to things.

When we are not being what a person may call ‘emotional’, and are just having a particular emotion, we are not being overemotional or over-sentimental. That is when the Sacral Chakra is balanced.  

Q. So what is considered a healthy relationship with our emotions? 

A. Having an emotion and feeling something is absolutely natural and healthy, and authentic. If we actually never feel anything – and believe everything is always perfect and everything is always fine – that is when the emotional body is not functioning well, because it is not authentic or real. 

We can all feel, however, when emotions do not rule us (or drown us in over-emotion). I would consider that a balanced emotional body: we feel  the emotion and and then we move on. There is no judgement of the self or another, just like a child.

Q. So how should we deal with our emotions when they come up? 

A. An emotion need not limit us or control us. We feel something, and it has its place. It’s just like when we stub our toe and say ‘ouch’ – we put a bandage on it, we do whatever we need to do with it, but then we get on. We don’t sit there and fuss with it, or worry it, or pick at it, or keep going around it repeatedly. We do what we need to do and get on with it. 

When we are unable to move forward from any particular emotion, we have an overactive emotional body, and an overactive Sacral Chakra. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If we are angry, we’re angry, and the emotion of anger comes up – but then it also subsides. There is no judgment or criticism or blame around it; in essence, none of the ‘by-products’ of our reaction is in it. We tend to get stuck in the by-products instead - whether it be in guilt, stress, regret, or doubt, etc - because the reaction isn’t allowing that emotion to be in its place. So this second set of seven years – right up to our early teenage and adolescent years – is when the Sacral Chakra-related aspects of our personality have the opportunity to develop. Whether that develops in a healthy or unhealthy fashion depends on a number of things: our sense of self, the environment, the people in our life – a whole set of circumstances. 

Q. Is that how and why the Sacral Chakra is linked to the stress and anxiety I feel? 

A. Stress is not strictly part of the equation here – it is a by-product of it. When a child gets hurt, he or she may get angry, throw a tantrum, see a toy, and forget all about the injury – and in a few minutes the child has moved on. But over time, if the child is told that throwing a tantrum or crying isn’t good – but isn’t given any concrete and healthy way to deal with his or her emotions instead – problems develop. Growing up, the child suppresses emotions they feel, or does other things to try and cope with them. 

A child feeling what it feels (and then moving on) is the natural energy of the Sacral Chakra at play. When judgments come in – right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable – the stress, anxiety, and pressure is created. Originally there is no stress or anxiety or pressure, and there is no judgment or thoughts about going through our emotions. The child doesn’t feel held back in any way. 

We are here to experience, and experience requires emotion. But once judgment comes in we feel stress, anxiety, manipulation. We ask: ‘how can I feel what I feel without being looked at like a negative person?’ Or we put it on other people. All of this pressure creates a lot of stress and anxiety. There is no understanding, allowing, or acceptance. And the Sacral Chakra is all about self-acceptance, which is the great equaliser.  

Q. So who needs Chakra by Piya jewellery for their imbalanced Sacral Chakra? What do they look like, sound like, or feel like?

A. When we think about the way people look at sexuality, sensuality, the emotions, and how they need to be expressed – all of these things are often things that need to be resolved for a lot of people. And although the Sacral Chakra is associated with our emotional body, all of the self-judgement isn’t limited to our emotional body alone. So if we hold any judgment or criticism we go in to a reactionary mode. And all the guilt, blame, shame, stress, anxiety, etc that come about? All of these things are the reactive aspects. 

You could say, therefore, that jewellery for the Sacral Chakra could be important for a lot of people!  

Q. Apart from Chakra by Piya jewellery, and Chakra meditations <insert link here>, what other things can people do to help their Sacral Chakra? 

A. Understanding and self-acceptance. Those are absolutely key. As we learn, we grow. We should use whatever we understand about ourselves to resolve things we find difficult to accept. The Sacral Chakra is all about self-acceptance. 

When we observe a baby, what do we observe? There is nothing there: a clean slate, and there is self-acceptance. There is also love and acceptance of everybody else, and it is generally not conditional. 

When we are in self-acceptance, it is very powerful, because within that we have accepted everyone and everything else.  We are in our own sense of ‘this is who I am’, we love ourselves, and we can therefore unconditionally love everything and everyone around us. And that makes us fearless as well, because we know we are supported no matter what.

Dhiraj Nainani is a writer currently pursuing his PhD. His present Chakra Focus is the Mantra Throat Chakra. For him, the journey has been all about letting go of fears and having lots of fun. In doing so, he is learning to speak his truth in all its authenticity.