How to open or balance swadhistan chakra.

In this post, I will write about different ways to activate or balance swadhistan chakra.

By meditation

-          Sit cross-legged on floor or on chair with spine erect and breathing normally.
-          Take your awareness at the place of swadhistan chakra in the body.
-           Imagine solid ball of energy in bright orange colour and in clear state rotating clockwise.
-          Chant mentally sound ‘vam’ as if you are knocking for it to open.
-          Continue for few minutes.

By Yogic exercises.

Ashvinimudra (contraction of anus)

Sit crossed legged on floor with spine erect or straight.

• Squeeze and contract anus. Hold for a few seconds and relax.
  
• Repeat for a few times while breathing normally

By refining exercise

In the set of refining exercises, exercise no. 3 also helps to open swadhistan chakra together with muladhar chakra when done regularly. When energy of rootedness gets refined and rises up, it gets transformed to energy of creativity. When it reaches swadhistan chakra, it opens up swadhistan chakra.

By yogic asanas.

A good yoga posture that helps to open swadhistan chakra is bhujangasana (the cobra pose)

Lie down on your abdomen; stretch your legs out with toes pointed. Bring your hands near your shoulders and palms faced down and elbows on your sides. Place your forehead on the floor.

Lift your head as if you are watching a wall in front of you. Then allow your upper body to lift up gently without putting pressure on your hands. Now lift up your chest and upper body by pressing the palms down. Lift up more without causing any pain on the back. Your navel may be off the floor, but pelvis remaining on the floor. Expand your chest and take a few breathes.

 Hold it for few seconds. When you feel complete release pressure off your palms and allow yourself to come down on the floor. Put your arms under your head like a pillow and rest your head on one side and relax.

Other benefits of bhujangasanas are:

• It strengthens and tones back muscles.
  
• It may help to relocate slipped discs.
  
• It relieves back pains and helps to keep spine flexible and healthy.
  
• Stretches chest and lungs.
  
• Firms buttocks.

Swadhishtan (sacral) chakra

Introduction

In this post, I will write about swadhistan chakra. Swadhistan chakra is the second chakra in series of the seven chakras of human subtle energy system. Swadhistan is a Sanskrit word. ‘Swa’ means self or own, ‘adhistan’ means abode or place of residence. So it’s called ‘self abode or own place of residence.

Location

Swadhistan chakra is located at the root of the reproductive organ, two fingers width above muladhar chakra. It is located along the spine within sushumna nadi. At the second junction of ida, pingala and sushumna nadis.

Structure

Six yoga nadis emanate from this chakra. So it looks like a six-petalled lotus flower.  It has a bright orange colour in its clear state. It is rotating clockwise. It is connected with the physical element of water, more subtle and more powerful than the element of earth. At this chakra, energy is vibrating at a higher frequency and has more power than energy at root chakra. Its seed mantra or sound to activate it is ‘vam’.

Working

It is associated with reproductive and urinary system. Body organs controlled by this chakra are kidney, bladder, genitals, lower abdomen, and lumbar region of spine. Endocrine glands associated with it are testes and ovaries, producing hormones, testosterone or estrogen, important for sexual behavior or reproduction.

The union of male sperm and female egg produces fertilization, the little most body part called zygote. Zygote is the first master cell. Later it divides into two cells. In astral body, they form muladhar chakra and swadhistan chakra. The spermatozoa and eggs are locations where latent genetic information is stored.

The swadhistan chakra contains unconscious desires, especially sexual desires and unconscious memories of this life and previous lives. It is a place of residence of all human mental impressions or sanskaras. For this reason, it is extremely difficult to raise kundalini energy, the energy of consciousness, above this chakra. Many yogis or practitioners have to face sexual temptations associated with this chakra.

It is associated with creativity and sexuality. The energy of creativity is generated here. It supplies us with energy of creativity of thinking. The energy of creativity fuels our thinking process by breaking down fat particles into brain cells. It connects us with the inner source of inspiration and pure knowledge.

The person with a well-balanced swadhistan chakra has a lot of joy in their life. They are creative, energetic and dynamic in all their activities. They understand needs of others. They continuously learn new techniques through their experiences. Any technique they learn, they transform and improve it,  and put into practise to improve quality of life of oneself and others. As this chakra is associated with water, a person with balanced chakra has inventive and flexible nature. Like water, he or she can adjust under obstacles of life and adapt to any situations.

As this chakra fuels our thinking process, excessive thinking exhaust this centre. Exhaustion of this centre affects functioning of some organs like liver, kidney, pancreas, lower abdomen which are associated with it.

Some of the physical symptoms of malfunctioning of this chakra are bladder and kidney problems, menstrual trouble, impotency etc. The emotional symptoms are nervousness, desire to hide, depression, emotional overflow etc.

Unbalanced swadhistan chakra can be balanced or healed by certain yogic practices such as shakti chaalan mudra (contraction and relaxation of anus and perineum), ashvini mudra (contraction of anus), yogic asanas and pranayamas.