I FEEL

From the power, strength and stability of the first (root) chakra, we move up to the more fluid, flowing and soft second (sacral) chakra.  The root chakra allowed us to build a strong foundation.  We became grounded and solid in order to move forward, knowing that even if we falter we will have this strong support to hold us up.  Now that we have this base, we can move towards figuring out what we want from our lives.  The key to discovering what makes us shine and lights us up is through our emotions. 

The sacral chakra is all about our emotional bodies.  We need to feel and experience things in our lives in order to realize what we like, what we don’t like, what we want or what we don’t want.  A major challenge for us in our society is how we are taught to deal with these emotions and what experiences we are “encouraged” to have. 

Ideally whenever an emotion comes up (whether it is good or bad), we should allow ourselves to really feel it and experience it before we let it go.  The problem is that most of us are taught that the “good” emotions can be expressed, but the “bad” ones should be dealt with on our own (which usually means we repress them).   Not only are we “told” what emotions we can express, but we are also often guided to follow a certain path/pattern in life.  There are certain milestones that most of us are “encouraged” to achieve and aspire to.  It’s very easy for us to get caught up in the current of the mainstream instead of working to find our own individual flow.

It’s no wonder that the sacral chakra is one that is said to be one of the most closed off in our society.  So, the following are some ways we can feed this sacral chakra to help us get it flowing and find our own rhythm in life.

MIND

The phrase associated with the sacral chakra is I FEEL.  Fill in the blank to create your mantra for the week – I FEEL ________________.   How do you want to feel?  We often let our mind wander unconsciously, letting our thoughts control us instead of controlling our thoughts.  Being surrounded by a lot of negativity (watch or listen to the news to help fuel this fire!), our mind tends to unconsciously flow with this negative current.  Our work with mantras is to try to replace this habitual negative thought pattern in order to feel and create the experience that we want in our lives.  Start by recognizing negative thoughts when they appear, stop them and then replace them with your mantra.  It is not easy at first, and can feel like a constant battle with our mind (showing us how much control our mind really has over us), but ideally we want to be the master of our moods.  Who doesn’t want to be happy?  Let’s take control of our feelings instead of depending on our unconscious thought patterns, things, or other people to provide us with happiness or the feelings we want to have.

BODY

Foods that feed our sacral chakra include orange food (carrots, oranges, mangos, yams, etc.) food high in water content (plain water, smoothies, etc.), fish, and foods high in essential fatty acids (flax, hemp, walnuts, etc.)  The following TWO recipes come from the website 101 cookbooks.  This site is one of my go to for meals as I often find delicious, healthy, interesting recipes here.  The first recipe uses the color orange of squash and is a soup, so it incorporates the water element.  The second one is a cookie recipe.  The sacral chakra is about pleasure, and what brings more pleasure than dessert and cookies?  Enjoy and let me know how it goes.

Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup

Orange squash of your choice (pumpkin, acorn, etc.) cut in half

3 Tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 – 14oz can coconut milk

1 tsp red Thai curry paste (add more to taste)

water

salt (to taste)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Slather cut squash with butter and sprinkle with salt.  Place on a baking sheet skin side down and place in the oven.  Roast for 30min-1 hour until squash is tender throughout.

Let squash cool, then scoop into a large pot over medium high heat.  Add coconut milk and curry paste and bring to a simmer.  Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender or transfer to a regular blender.  Add water a cup at a time, until the soup is the consistency you prefer.  Bring to a simmer again and add salt and more curry paste if you want a spicier soup.

Carrot Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
       * the original recipe called for whole wheat   
          pastry flour, but I didn’t have any of that on 
          hand

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup rolled oats

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup shredded carrots

½ cup real maple syrup (room temperature)

       * you can also use agave.  I used a maple syrup, agave mix for my cookies

½ cup unrefined coconut oil (warmed until just melted)

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large bowl mix together flour, baking powder, salt and oats.  Add the nuts and carrots.  In a separate smaller bowl whisk together the maple syrup, coconut oil and ginger.  Add this to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. 

Drop one level tablespoonful at a time onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake in the top 1/3 of the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden on top & bottom.  Enjoy!

SPIRIT

The element for the sacral chakra is water, so let’s feed our spirit by surrounding ourselves with water.  Take a walk by the river, go to the beach (if you’re lucky enough to live by the ocean!), do some laps in the swimming pool, enjoy a hot tub, or just enjoy a long, luxurious soak in a nice hot bath.  Allow all those pleasurable feelings to come up, or . . . insert your mantra here : )

Feel free to share your mantra, let me know how the recipes went or your favorite way to enjoy the water element.  It's a long weekend this weekend (yeah!!), so next post will come later next week, giving us lots of time to really enjoy our time in the second chakra.  Find your flow, be creative and enjoy the experience.

See you on our mats,
Roxanne