Living Energy Blog

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The Sacral Chakra is located in the pelvis approximately three finger widths below the navel and it develops between 3 and 8 years of age. With proper support at this stage we learn about feelings and how to express and manage them. With adequate guidance, modeling and mirroring a healthy sense of entitlement (deserving) and self worth are developed. The second chakra is the seat of our emotions and regulates the flow and distribution of energy.

Physically the sacral is associated with the health of the reproductive organs and hips. It also governs the body’s liquids, E. G. blood, lymph, mucus, saliva. Health issues that reflect an imbalance in this chakra occur in the areas mentioned.

Metaphors From Water
The sacral chakra’s element is water. As we think about the qualities of water we can get a felt sense of how second chakra energy functions in our lives. Nature clearly demonstrates both the power and attributes of water and reflects the possible states for the manifestation of our energy.

Water can be smooth and flowing as in a river stream, it can pack the power of ocean waves crashing on the shore; it can be stagnant as a pond that receives no fresh and cleansing input. Water can be as refreshing as a mountain lake, cold as the frozen tundra or volatile as steam exploding from a too tight container. Water can be refreshing, life giving and life enhancing. However, too much or too little water can be a problem as can stagnation, or the lack of containment. These, as we all know, can be harmful or destructive. And so it can be with the emotional power of the second chakra.

Construction or Destruction—Your Choice
The sacral chakra has been described as a dark interior cave where all manner of demons lie but it also holds some of the most profound raw material for the creation of our lives. The negative interpretation arises as the second chakra is where our most challenging shadow material is registered. It is up to us whether we choose to work with these energies so they become our allies or leave them unconscious where they become our inner enemies.

At best this energy center is the womb of creation. It is a place where new life gathers its power and is gestated until it is ripe and ready to be birthed into the world. It is a profound, complex and powerful center of our core nature.

My opinion is that a useful and productive way to approach this energy center is that of getting to know a multifaceted friend full of meaning who has wisdom and great gifts for us hidden beneath some pain. This friend needs kindness, compassion and acceptance. Once embraced in this way the full power of this mysterious interior spring can nurture our lives and be a source of resilience and emotional intelligence.

Emotional Symptoms of Imbalance
One clue that something is amiss in this energy center is feelings of shame or of having done something wrong. This feeling is different than the healthy guilt that comes from having actually broken a law, done harm or crossed a line that is against one’s own integrity. Shame is a sense of BEING wrong, flawed or bad in the deep inner fabric of your being. There may be confusion and lack of understanding of where this feeling came from. Often the origin of shame is the result of projected emotions from others early in a person’s life. These feelings are rooted deeply in the disowned feelings of others that got absorbed into the field of a growing child. Once something is inside us we feel it and that being so, we believe it is ours to own.

Other signs that there are issues or blocked energy in the second chakra are: difficulty appreciating life’s goodness; nothing seems good enough and depression can result. There can also be a sense of being stuck, of having no ability to adapt or change; there may be insensitivity to one’s own feelings and emotional needs and an inability to express emotion; there may be denial of pleasure with unyielding, strict and rigid self imposed boundaries—this can include healthy practices done in the extreme. An excess of energy in this center may show itself as a compulsion for pleasure and being extremely emotional.

At its best the sacral chakra is liquid and flowing providing an ability to be flexible and adaptable. However we can go too far in this direction as well and create imbalance. You know this is a problem if you feel in a constant state of flux with an inability to ground or set boundaries; there also may be a tendency to be overly emotional and dramatic.

Opening and balancing the sacral chakra fundamentally involves letting go of shame, unhealthy guilt and frustration and learning to go with the flow of life. Balancing the sacral chakra allows emotion to freely move through our systems. Just as flowing water is purifying, refreshing and revitalizing so it is with feelings set in motion without resistance that includes proper channeling. When the energy here is open, flowing and balanced we are responsive, intuitive, buoyant, and full of dreams and healthy desire.

For Sacral Chakra Meditations:

Energy Aerobics http://bit.ly/wWnQ2J

Chakra Guided Meditations http://bit.ly/w1D4sN

Related articles

• Chakra energy system (windowsofmeditation.wordpress.com)

Image by Brandon Doran via Flickr

A hidden facet that creates difficulty with moving on at anytime let alone into a new year is that of grieving losses and letting go of that which no longer is useful or appropriate to your life. Leaving your losses not properly attended to can also make it hard to be motivated to stay with your resolutions. Any grief, sorrow, sadness or anger that has not been brought through to completion continues to rock around in your unconscious creating blocks to forward movement, as well as blocking the full healthy flow of energy. Just as you need to empty a closet of the old to make space for the new, your inner world needs to be cleared, pruned or aired out.

Your energy and nervous system require the experience of letting go (not merely thoughts of letting go) in order for it to truly happen. Simply thinking about letting go or knowing that it is a good and necessary thing is not enough…we just don’t work that way. Tools or “inner technologies” that can help bring the concept of releasing into reality are: breath work, meditation, emotional freedom technique, journaling, learning to shift levels of consciousness, and energy healing techniques can all help bring about true inner release, as well as to assist with integrating new skills and states of awareness.

Proper planning, making lists, using vision boards and using goal setting techniques are all useful for resolution making and execution. But don’t forget to make time and space for the complimentary practices that clear the way for your success. Also remember to take time to build strong energy and experience pleasure, relaxation and ease. Spend time in nature, relax, do ‘nothing’, play, listen to wonderful music, and visit with friends. These are all ways of being that can open you to spontaneity, serendipity and synchronicity! Invite the unexpected… be open to unanticipated help, allow answers and connections to happen in your life. Enable them to come to you easily and effortlessly.  Sometimes we get so focused on the practical left brain way of approaching things that we forget to employ our right brain intuition and creativity that is connected to the magic of life.

So this week reflect on where you are in your life and where you want to be.  Tune into your emotions and feelings.  Listen to your heart.  Notice what comes up.  However you are feeling is OK.  It’s not good or bad, it simply IS.  Spend some time with it now, in the present moment.  Simply BE with it.  If something comes up that no longer serves you, resolve to let it go in 2012.  Look around your living and working spaces. Lighten it up by letting go of physical items that you don’t use or don’t love.  Clearing physical space can support clearing inner space.

As you reflect on where you have been, consider where you are headed and how you intend to shape it.

Some tips/questions you may find useful as you prepare for 2012:

What strengths can you bring forward to your new aspirations?

How are your new goals connected in some way to your past ones?

How can you use the foundation you’ve created to propel you into 2012?

Where would you like to be and how would you like to feel one year from now?

Write a letter to your self or a story “as if” you are already there.

Write down your thoughts, feelings and goals, mark the date and tuck the paper away for the year.  Put the paper and your letter/story in a place where you’ll find it one year from now … perhaps in an envelope that says “open at New Year’s 2013.” At that point, open it up and you’ll see how far you’ve really come!  Then once again you can set new goals with renewed enthusiasm.

Everything that I have been studying and reading lately reinforces how change must come from the heart. Inner peace, health and wellness, life balance, job satisfaction, meaningful relationships, prosperity and much more … everything really … is in relationship to the subtle energy of your heart, the energy that you hold subconsciously, below the surface. As you heal your heart, your frequency shifts and things begin to fall into place more easily.  All of this is an inside job and no one can do it for us. It is a life-long process. The Healing Code by Alex Loyd and Ben Johnson brought much of this together for me. It’s another method to release our blocks and improve our lives. Check it out, along with some of our Living Energy programs. It doesn’t matter where you begin. Different methods work for different people. What is important is that you make each day better or a little lighter for yourself than the previous one, regardless of what is transpiring on the outside. What can you do today to lighten up? One step forward is enough.

Stress Managment for the body, Mind and Soul: Suspending Judgment 

Try these ideas on for just one day and see how you feel…

1. Notice when judgments come up for you. Notice the themes of your judgments.

2. As you go along or at the end of the day make a list of what judgments you noticed.  

3. How do you feel when you are judging, after?

4. What information is there for you about yourself?

5. Are your judgments telling you about something you are missing or wanting?

6. Is there another way to view the people, events or situation you judged?

7. What does this tell you about what qualities you want to strengthen or build?

8. What skills or techniques can you practice to help you get there?

As you become more conscious and aware of how your “lower” mind creates judgment, you can  practice shifting into a more open energetic state of surrender and acceptance … letting go and accepting things as they are in the present, in the here and now…the more you allow an open free flow of energy, the easier it will be to release negativity of all kinds!

To accept things as they are requires entering a state of surrender and being fully present.

Caregiver Corner, Monday, Nov. 15 @ 10 A.M.

Forgiveness:What is it and how can you get some!!

What is “forgiveness” really? How do we let go of hurt, anger and resentment? What are the benefits of forgiveness? Does forgiveness mean that what “they” did is OK and we let “them” off the hook?

Listen in as we discuss how to really let go and move on from the past.

Holding on…holding up…..holding in….are familiar ways of being for many of us as we navigate the choppy seas of daily life and try to maintain some sort of balance and equilibrium. We tend not to realize that these “ways of being” have ramifications in body, mind, and spirit, that is, until they accumulate and cause us problems with our physical, emotional or mental health.

 How can you know when you have unprocessed life experiences or emotions hiding and building up within you? One of the quickest ways to know is to check in with your body. How do your shoulders feel? WHERE ARE your shoulders? Are they headed north toward your ears or are they nice and relaxed, supple and flexible? How about your midsection? Is it relaxed? Can you feel it at all? How about your lower back? Do you have muscle tightness, spasms or aching there? How do you tend to hold your body in general? Do you feel relaxed, easy, open and flowing in your posture and movements?

  Our bodies can tell us a lot about what is happening in our minds and with our emotions, as well as about how we are typically responding (or not) to the events of our lives.  

 In truth, we first react to our life experience through our energy fields. If we are in touch with our subtle energy, we can feel the effect of a person, place or thing immediately. However, we tend to be moving at such a speed through our lives that even those who may be more sensitive in that way may not attend to the wealth of incoming information our energy can provide. That being the case our bodies can give us clues as to how we are managing our energy, how it is being impacted and how we are holding in, up an on instead of freely experiencing, processing, letting go and flowing with life.

 We all hold on, hold in and hold up in some way. We are generally unconscious about how our bodies are reflecting what is happening in our mind and emotions. Through checking in with our body we can get a clue about what is going on in the deeper parts of our being. Once we do we are on our way to being aware of important information about ourselves. In addition, we can then know more about what we need to release so that we can move toward greater health, emotional freedom, well being and happiness.

 Next time: Once you know….how to let go?

“Fear constitutes a much larger and more comprehensive presence than has yet been realized. Beginning in the nineteenth century, therapeutic psychology sought to identify the symptoms related to this phenomenon. The types of fear recognized included hysteria, behind which some trauma, real or imaged, was always to be found; shell shock or combat neurosis, now commonly called post-traumatic stress syndrome, which was first investigated after World War I; abuse and domestic violence; fear of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or fire; individual phobias such as panic attacks, anxieties, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. 

The reality of fear is far more wide-ranging, however. Working with victims of trauma does little to impede the larger presence of fear in the world. The goal is to become more conscious of what we are dealing with and to recognize that different fears require different capacity of soul to overcome them. The need is not to remove fear from the world, but instead to develop in ourselves the psychic capacity to confront its destructive power. In this realm, consciousness, coupled with love, is everything. Enlarging consciousness to include an awareness of soul allows a healthy struggle with fear, and love makes possible its transformation, not just within ourselves but also within the world.” Robert Sardello, Freeing the Soul From Fear

Training ourselves to release fear and choosing to feel love more often—instead–helps to attune our energy to more of what we DO want to experience. 

 Great commentary on the working of the mind–and finding the heartbeat of the universe…the God within> 

 

Bedes Griffith was a Catholic monk who adopted the trappings of Hindu monastic life and entered into dialogue with Hinduism. Griffiths wrote twelve books on Hindu-Christian dialogue. Griffiths’s form of Vedanta-inspired Christianity is called Wisdom Christianity.^{[citation needed]}

Griffiths was a proponent of integral thought, which attempts to harmonize scientific and spiritual world views. In a 1983 interview he stated,

“We’re now being challenged to create a theology which would use the findings of modern science and eastern mysticism which, as you know, coincide so much, and to evolve from that a new theology which would be much more adequate.”^[1]

Griffiths died at Shantivanam in 1993, aged 86. The archives of the Bede Griffiths Trust are located at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. ( From Wikipedia)

One of the key elements in an energetic approach to living is to FEEL good. Not only is this a goal, it is also a part of the method to achieve the goal. We are so accustomed to working hard, striving, pushing…efforting to reach our destination that it never occurs to us that there can be another way. It is not that we are to give up making an effort to reach our targets…the point is that we can do so with a lot less angst than most of us generate! The key here is in the attitude and inner state that shapes our approach.

 Fortunately the same techniques that are used to help discover our problem patterns can also be part of the solution. Meditation and strategies encouraging healthier patterns of breathing can help heighten awareness of mind-body patterns that have resulted in a depletion of our energy resources. At the same time these methods begin to help develop an easier inner state of being and can be used to coach the mind to create new patterns and healthier ways of thinking and feeling. The enhanced well being that comes in the practice eventually spills over into real life!

 Numerous studies have shown that these two simple techniques used on a regular basis result in ‘stress hardiness’ and improved health. So even if you have no interest in becoming knowledgeable about energy you can still benefit in very significant ways!  In addition to strengthening the nervous and immune systems, these practices also help quiet the mind and body so you can become aware of subtle energies within yourself and in your environment. They are the cornerstones for other methods that can eventually provide you with greater control over your energy.

Guru Tim Reports On Stress From Across the Globe

Guru Tim has been traveling the globe with Tony Pace and observing the cultural climate in various places in the world regarding stress.

 Listen to hear:

 What are people saying?

How is stress experienced in different cultures?

What are the ways people in other countries cope with ”world stress”?

 MOST IMPORTANTLY, we will be discussing healthy ways that you can move beyond coping, away from suffering and into flourishing despite the external triggers.

Join us live or on the web at 10 A.M., Monday, June 28, 2010 or listen to the download at your leisure.