Healing The Sacral Plexus Chakra

The sacral plexus chakra is all about connecting with your emotions, creative expression, sexuality, and abundance in healthy ways. The following meditations, crystal techniques, essential oil applications, and yoga postures will help you connect with what you may be holding in this chakra, and most importantly, will initiate the connection with this energy vortex within you, so you may open into the wisdom it holds.

1. Meditations

Here’s an easy, tried-and-true meditation and visualization to connect with your sacral plexus chakra:

1. While sitting or lying comfortably, take three slow, deep breaths. Each time you inhale, imagine the breath energizing the area two inches below your navel. Each time you exhale, release anything you may be holding in that area (any fears, pain, or even expectations of how you’re supposed to feel while doing this meditation). Holding your hands over your heart as you meditate on each chakra may help you more quickly connect to the chakra you’re concentrating on. You may want to have one hand over the heart chakra, and the other hand over your sacral plexus chakra.
2. “Wake up” the connection with this chakra by gently tapping two inches below the navel, or by using your first two fingers to gently massage the area in a small, circular motion.
3. With each following breath, inhaling and exhaling through the nose, continue directing your breath to your sacral plexus chakra. Imagine an orange sphere of light in that area, pulsing and growing larger. Those who identify most with male energy should whirl the sphere counterclockwise, and those who identify most with female energy should whirl the sphere clockwise.
4. As you drop deeper and deeper into a calmer state, ask your sacral plexus chakra what it needs right now. Allow yourself a few more breaths to see if you receive any feedback. It might come in the form of a word, sound, song, image, color, feeling, or intuition. Then act on the feedback you get. If you don’t have any yet, not to worry! It will come as you continue practicing.
5. If you don’t receive any of the intuitive hints listed previously, but instead feel an awareness in that area, similar to a pulsing or a gentle opening and expansion, you are connecting with your sacral plexus chakra!
6. At the end of your meditation, take three slow, deep breaths, directing the energy of your inhale into the soles of your feet, to ground yourself. Gently open your eyes.
7. Caution when doing this meditation/visualization: Because this practice takes some time to cultivate, be patient with yourself. If you find that a bellyache is forming in your lower abdomen, you are pushing yourself too hard. It’s time to take a break and revisit when you’re more rejuvenated. Also, as you perform your meditation, understand that even seasoned meditation practitioners get what’s aptly termed monkey mind, where other thoughts begin to enter your mind and may momentarily distract you. Just take this as a chance to observe the thought without judgment, let it pass through, and gently bring yourself back to the center.

2. Crystals

To use crystals to connect with your sacral plexus chakra, make sure that they are first cleansed from the energies of others who may have handled them before you, and that your intention for how they will be used is set. You can clean your crystals by:

• Smudging with white sage. Simply light the tip of a white sage bundle until it begins to smoke, blow out the flame, and hold your crystal in the rising smoke for a few seconds, setting the intention that you’ll be using the crystal to help you connect with your sacral plexus chakra. This is my favorite method because after you cleanse your crystal, you can also cleanse your body by directing the smoke toward your chakras (and the rest of your body) with your free hand.
• Laying them out overnight under the moonlight to soak up the moonbeams.
• Running water over them or soaking them in saltwater. When cleaning with water, use caution. Any stones that rate low on the Mohs hardness scale (a scale that helps identify mineral specimens and compares the resistance to being scratched) may get damaged or dissolve as a result.

Now that you’ve cleansed and charged them, you can work with them in a few ways:

• Get into a comfortable seated or lying down position. Hold the crystal in your left hand—the receiving hand—so you can receive the healing energy from the crystal. Notice what you pick up from the crystal. Does it feel like a throbbing in your hand? Like static prickles? Or just a simple awareness of its energy? If you don’t feel any of these things, that’s okay. Sometimes it takes a while to create awareness with a stone’s energy. Ask the crystal to help you connect with the wisdom of your sacral plexus chakra. Allow your mind and heart to open to receive any feedback, in the way of images, colors, sounds, words, memories, emotions, or other impressions that may flow through. Keep in mind that working with crystals can take some getting used to. So, if your sacral plexus chakra doesn’t open into an epiphany right on the spot (which is unlikely on a first try, but anything is possible!), understand that you are still one step closer to being more connected with it. Be compassionate with yourself. Know that it is on its way.
• While lying down, place your selected sacral plexus chakra crystal two inches below your navel. Take three slow and deep breaths. Allow yourself to drink in the energy of the crystal. As with the preceding holding technique, you may feel the energy at this chakra pulse, like a gentle heartbeat. You may feel slight static energy. Or you may have an awareness that the crystal’s energy is interacting with your energy. If you don’t feel any of these things, that’s okay. You may want to say the affirmation in the last paragraph of the Essential Oils section (below) to more intentionally connect with your sacral plexus chakra.

3. Essential Oils

• Ylang ylang, lemon, patchouli, rosewood, and sandalwood are the essential oils that correspond with the sacral plexus chakra.
• To use a single oil (or a blend of oils) to help you connect with this chakra, add 5 or 6 drops maximum per oil to a dime-size portion of carrier oil (such as jojoba oil). Apply with a cotton ball to the sacral plexus chakra, located two inches below the navel, to anoint yourself.
• Or, you can put the mixture in your hands and rub your hands together. Through friction, you will release the scent and energy of the oils. Open your palms to release the fragrance. Deeply inhale the scent. You may also want to lay your hands over the chakra area.
• Whether you choose to anoint your sacral plexus chakra or activate the properties of the oils by rubbing them between your palms, take the time to intentionally create a connection with your sacral plexus chakra.
• While you anoint yourself or take in the scent of the activated oils in your palms, say something like, “I now intend to create a connection with my sacral plexus chakra. May I be in touch with my emotions in healthy ways, creatively express me to the world, and connect easily to my pleasure, as well as the emotional aspects of my sexuality, in ways that sustain me. I release all fear that keeps me from being in touch with my emotions, creativity, abundance, and sexuality. I ask to be supported in the harmony of my emotions and clairsentience, so that I may be at peace with how I feel. And so it is.”

4. Yoga

The sacral plexus chakra is about sweetness and creativity but is also the seat of our physical strength. Corresponding poses would be anything that fires up our core muscles, such as four-limbed staff posture and all the warrior poses. Creativity and the water element may be nurtured through flowing movement and breath, promoting flexibility in the lower spine—Child’s Pose, Happy Baby Pose, and Downward Facing Dog are excellent poses for this. Other poses can help open the hip and groin, such as Cow Face Pose, Bound Angle Pose, Open Angel Pose, and the forward bending of the legs in the first stage of Pigeon Pose.

5. Other Tips

• Dance—especially belly dancing, Latin dances such as salsa, and other dances that move the hip area.
• Practice hula-hooping.
• Learn tantra to get in touch with your sexuality on a more conscious level.
• Try journaling, writing, painting, or another form of creative expression to help channel your emotions.
• Learn how to express your emotions in healthy ways.
• Include playing in your daily life to cultivate flexibility in learning how to experience pleasure and joy.
• Chant the mantra sound corresponding to this chakra: “VAM.”