The seven Chakras provide us with a wonderful road map for how to age gracefully.

Our second chakra is Svadhisthana. The color is orange, the element is water, the energy is connection. While the Root chakra is satisfied with survival, the Sacral chakra seeks pleasure, enjoyment, and connection to others through the flow and movement represented by water.

Our Sacral chakra is the center of our passion, sensation, feelings, emotions, pleasure, intimacy, connections, movement, and change. The water element is the flow of our creativity, our sweat, and our tears. It’s the fluid movement of our water that defines the Sacral chakra.

Emotions define our core reaction to an event. Our feelings are the thoughts, beliefs, and stories the emotion arouses.

The Sacral chakra is our touch. Without touch, we become ‘out of touch’. The Root is our grounding, the Sacral is our movement, our flow. We move from earth to water, from solid to liquid; fluid flow.

Location of Your Sacral Chakra

The Sacral chakra is located between the pubic bone and navel in the front of the body and at the sacrum in the lower back. The organs affected by the second chakra are the ovaries, lower digestive tract, lower back, and the hips.

The movement of physical fluids in our bodies is governed by the Sacral chakra. It is also the area of our feelings and wisdom. We literally feel some things ‘in our gut’.

Aging and the Sacral Chakra

Each of our chakras gives us messages as we go through life. An unbalanced Sacral chakra can feel like a low back ache or an issue in the lower digestive tract. When there is pain or emptiness in our senses, our Sacral chakra shuts down.

As we age, we can become less fluid as our emotions ebb and flow. As Pema Chodron says, “no feeling is permanent.” Even our connection to others changes.

We experience the deaths of our loved ones. Our relationships change as our spouses and partners age, our friends might move or become less able to enjoy what we enjoy, our children don’t really need our care and are busy with their own lives.

Our own sexuality changes. We may not have an intimate partner, or we feel less sexual desires. Our bodies are changing – a few droops, a bit of a wrinkle, a sag here and there. We may regret not pursuing passions of our youth.

When this chakra is out of balance, negative emotions fester within us, sitting in our gut, decomposing slowly. We all know people who are unable to let go of anger and carry resentment for months and even years. These negative emotions settle in the second chakra, turning it toxic.

The more we entertain negative thoughts, the more diminished the zest of our Sacral chakra. We must be aware and bring the passion, the movement, the flow in our lives, especially as we age.

Color of Your Sacral Chakra

The color orange is the color of joy, enthusiasm, and creativity and promotes a general sense of wellness. Orange is composed of red and yellow in equal parts, and it is a color of vitality and strength.

Orange is the color of success and relates to self-respect and having the ability to give ourselves the freedom to be ourselves as we expand our interests and activities. Orange is an emotional stimulant. It connects us to our senses, helps to remove inhibitions, and makes us independent and social.

Shadow Side

While the energy of flow and movement is our Sacral chakra, its shadow side is guilt. Guilt curtails the free flow of movement by removing the pleasure. We experience the guilt of not being enough in our connection to others.

We need to accept the reality that certain things happened in the past, and we need to forgive ourselves for the actions that hurt us or somebody else.

The lesson the Sacral chakra teaches is that every relationship we create, from the casual to the most intimate, has a purpose, no matter how painful, to help us become more aware.

Balancing the Sacral Chakra as We Age

Moving our Sacral chakra keeps it in balance. When we are constricted, our flow is limited. When we let go, we carry the excitement through our whole body. Once we are secure in who we are from our Root, we can move, connect, and explore the inner flow of our passions and the outer flow of our movement.

It’s interesting to note how many women over 60 love Zumba, line dancing, tap or any kind of movement. We have a desire for the movement, the zing, and the joy of connecting with that part of ourselves, our natural flow!

Eat orange food, wear orange clothing, celebrate the connections you have!

Overabundant Sacral Chakra

An excessive Sacral chakra makes us overly self-centered, manipulative, and self-serving, disregarding the needs of others. Pride, arrogance, and becoming needy of others’ attention.

Lacking Sacral Chakra

A deficient Sacral chakra is cold, distrustful, timid or shy, and overly sensitive. If you become introverted, are unable to show emotions, worry about others’ opinion, fear pleasure, and deny yourself things that make you feel good, you are suffering from low Sacral chakra.

It’s All About Balance

A balanced Sacral chakra creates graceful movements, emotional intelligence, ability to experience pleasure and change, and maintain healthy boundaries.

Balancing Exercises

Here are some gentle yoga movements to replenish and awaken an unbalanced Sacral chakra:

• Barrel circles
• Hip circles
• Moving sacrum and pelvis forward and back
• Simple loose movements
• Kidney slap
• Head to knee
• Windshield wiper legs
• Moving bridge

As we become aware of our Sacral chakra, let’s repeat the affirmation:

Life is pleasurable, and I deserve it.

What is the default state of your Sacral chakra? Do you need to balance it? What exercises do you do to balance your Sacral chakra? What effects have you noticed on your feelings, connections and self-esteem? Please share in the comments!