Yoga Nidra to Express Joy

This week in classes we did some work with the sacral chakra, also known as Swadhistana in Sanskrit.  This energy centre is where we work on dealing with and feeling our emotions . . . . . ALL emotions . . . in order to help us let them go and get those energies moving.  Working with the emotional body and really feeling our postures physically, as well as emotionally, was the focus for the majority of my classes this week.  To learn more about Swadhistana, there are a number of past posts that introduce various aspects of this energy centre.  This week's yoga nidra practice focuses on bringing up, experiencing and feeling the emotion of joy.  Who doesn't want more joy in their lives?  

Feel Flows

This week we're moving away from the solidity of the earth element to the flowing, fluidity of the water element.  All of my classes this week will focus with the area of the body associated with the water element . . the hips and pelvis.  The energetic centre or chakra associated with this element and body part is Swadhisthana or the sacral chakra.  Swadhisthana loosely translates as "one's own abode."  It's where we feel most comfortable in our own skin.  It is often also referred to as the pleasure centre.  Are you not happiest when you can truly be who you are?  In order to get to this place, however, sometimes we have to work through those feelings and emotions that aren't so pleasant.  The hips and pelvis are commonly referred to as the junk drawer of the body where we store those emotions, experience or traumas that we can't deal with at the time, or we don't know what to do with.  This is were the water element comes in.  Using the breath and movement to help those things that are stuck to get moving or flowing until little by little we pick away at them, experience them and finally let them go.  Feeling the flow of all emotions, both those we label as pleasant as well as those that we associate with unpleasant, helps to create space and clear out that junk drawer.  Come see me sometime this week to get the body moving and flowing and/or use the techniques below to work on your own specifically with this energy centre.

Flowing to Lightness

The second/sacral chakra, or Swadhisthana in Sanskrit, is about movement and flow.  It’s easy to physically experience this flow within our yoga practice especially with vinyasa flow classes.  Part of the purpose of flowing through vinyasas at various points throughout the practice is to link movement to breath, but also as a way to release stuck or stagnant energy (physical, mental or emotional) that is making it’s way up to the surface as we move.  Getting things up and out, moving and flowing so it doesn’t become stuck or stagnant is the domain of this second chakra.

Riding the Waves

This week is second chakra week.  The second chakra is also known as the sacral chakra or Swadhistana (the dwelling place of the self).  The element associated with swadhistana is water.  Water is fluid, flowing, light, moldable, and is often associated with emotions.  While the root chakra was more concerned with the physical body, the sacral chakra is more focused on the emotional body.  We want our emotions - ALL of our emotions - to flow through us like water.   Unfortunately, many of us tend to repress or turn away from those emotions that we consider “bad” or uncomfortable.  When we don’t allow these things to flow, we’re creating blockages in our emotional bodies, which can eventually affect us on a physical level.  When our sacral chakra is out of balance, we may be fearful of change, either feel numb or feel overly emotional, be stiff or rigid physically or mentally, be unfocused and scattered, etc.  Things are not moving and flowing and we feel stuck.   

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. 

What Do You Feel

As we discussed in the first chakra, every chakra has a basic right – something that we are all entitled to as human beings.  The basic right for the second chakra is The Right to Feel.  “A corollary of this right is The Right to Want, since if we cannot feel, it is very difficult to know what we want”, Anodea Judith. 

During the past week in classes, I have been encouraging all of you to let your emotions come up, feel them and let them go.  

Feel Your Flow

Our second stop along our chakra journey finds us at the sacral chakra located in our lower belly just below our navel.  The Sanskrit name for this energy center is Swadhistana which means "one's own abode".  It’s our own personal home, the place where we feel comfortable and at ease.  It is also where our personal impressions and habits from past experiences are stored.  Swadhistana is often referred to as the pleasure centre as it is asking us to experience all of the joy and abundance in our lives.  Hopefully after our work with the root chakra last week we are starting to realize how much we have and how strong our foundation is that we’ve created around us.