The importance of the Sacral chakra

When the Sacral Chakra is Balanced

When your sacral chakra is working well, life is full of joy. You feel ENERGETIC, and OPTIMISTIC about the next delight coming your way. You seek out pleasurable experiences and can even find the fun in routine chores. Like a healthy, happy child, you are comfortable in your body and can open yourself up to appreciate each moment.

Life seems to flow easily and well for you; you can manage the basic chores partly because you have enough stimulation and variety to keep you interested. You may ENJOY NEW CHALLENGES at work, new friends, new books or new projects. Somehow they don’t overwhelm you - they give you energy.

You are also INSTINCTIVELY CREATIVE. You can throw together a delicious meal without much effort, and it’s not a problem if extra guests turn up unexpectedly. You may dress creatively, intuitively choosing unusual combinations and colours that suit you. You have a knack for making rooms feel welcoming and beautiful, by adding colour or fresh flowers. You might enjoy making things with your hands, or painting. You also appreciate other people’s creative endeavours, and enjoy visiting galleries, museums or the theatre - anything that is more beautiful or intense than normal life.

You enjoy spending time with other people and have SATISFYING FRIENDSHIPS. You are happy having a cup of tea with a friend, but you also love a good party. Your love life is another source of pleasure, and you are COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR SEXUALITY.

Because you enjoy moving your body, you may be graceful and have LOTS OF PHYSICAL ENERGY. If your job doesn’t give you much scope to move, you might go for a walk at lunchtime, or swimming in the evening, for the sheer pleasure of stretching out. Because your body is fit and flexible, you can handle the extremes of strong emotion.

But when the sacral chakra is out of balance, life can seem either dry and dull (lacking juice) or intense and overwhelming. This chakra can be underpowered, overpowered or even a mixture of both.

Recognizing when the Sacral Chakra is Week or Damaged

When your sacral chakra isn’t spinning well, life isn’t much fun at all. You might feel flat, numb or even slightly depressed. There’s not much joy or colour - NOTHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO. You might work hard because you have to, but you’re just getting through the days. You don’t care what you eat. Seeing friends and family is a duty. Sex is simply another chore. You might seem EMOTIONALLY COLD AND DISTANT. You turn down invitations and make excuses not to see people.

The sacral chakra is strongly linked to movement. If you DON’T MOVE ENOUGH, it’s hard to process strong emotions and allow them to flow through the body. If these emotions build up, and feel overwhelming, this chakra can become gummed up and stagnant.

There are numerous reasons for a weak sacral chakra. Sometimes we are just busy and barely have energy for anything beyond the basics. This can happen if you have a lot of OUTSIDE PRESSURE: a heavy workload, a house move, a new baby or stressful family events. And all these things are worse if you aren’t feeling well or don’t sleep properly.

But sometimes the pressure comes from INSIDE. You might be replaying old scripts that make you avoid opportunities for joy and relaxation. These are often the words of authority figures - parents, teachers or bosses - who told you to STOP PLAYING, KEEP WORKING and squashed your natural capacity for joy. If you internalize them, their words can become your own.

Any kind of traumatic event in the family can affect a child’s sacral chakra. If my clients have divorced parents, they often hold a lot of stuck energy in this area. Some is their own unprocessed reaction to the situation; some is their parents’ rage and pain.
The most serious example of sacral-chakra invasion is any kind of sexual abuse, particularly in children. Abuse can affect all the chakras, but it’s particularly relevant for this one because it can SHUT DOWN your capacity to feel.

Sometimes people have a weak sacral chakra because they are ASHAMED OF THEIR PHYSICAL BODY and would rather not engage with it. They may feel they are too ugly, fat or thin - or just a strange shape. They may have been told that sex is dirty, or been shamed as a child for wetting themselves. If they were less sporty or more clumsy than other children, they may have been yelled at in a sports class for being slow or missing a ball.

Recognizing when the Sacral Chakra is Over-developed

You may feel things so intensely in your body that it’s like being in a little boat at sea: one minute up on a wave of joy, the next plunged into a trough of ANXIETY or DESPAIR. The sacral chakra is meant to bring us to the extremes of human experience.
If we don’t experience emotions and problems, then we can’t grow, but if this chakra is spinning too fast, the flow of energy feels OUT OF CONTROL.

Just as dangerous: you might be so ADDICTED TO PHYSICAL SENSATION that you find yourself eating or drinking too much, driving dangerously, maxing out on your credit cards or sleeping with people you don’t know or like. Or you might be ADDICTED TO CHANGE, feeling bored and unhappy unless you constantly switch jobs, find new partners or take yourself back onto the road.

If this chakra is really dominant, you can become incredibly SELFISH. Your own pleasure comes first, and you don't care how anyone else feels. In extreme cases this can even result in someone becoming a sexual predator (though this kind of behaviour can also be a solar plexus chakra issue about power).

What happens to overall flow if the Sacral Chakra isn't balanced?

If this chakra is underpowered, the other lower chakras - the base and solar plexus - are like a dry sandwich with no filling. Everything is all work and no play. If the chakra is overpowered, the higher chakras can’t do their job properly. If you get stuck in physical pleasure-seeking, it’s harder to experience the higher delights, such as the joy of falling in love or your connection to the divine.