When I was first approached about writing a piece for the Second Chakra issue of Human Shift, it seemed apparent that I, a fertility specialist, would focus on sex and procreationt. Once I started pondering the sacral chakra however, my mind took another course. I started contemplating the meaning of the second chakra and its expression, or lack thereof, in our technology-addled world.
The second chakra, Svadhisthana (meaning: in your own place), has deep roots in how we connect to ourselves and relate to our environment. It builds upon the strong foundation of our root chakra. It’s about our ability to relate, create, express ourselves, experience pleasure, expression, emotion and connection and feel the outer and inner worlds. It supports personal expansion and identity through relationships. Its characteristics are flow and flexibility. Connecting outward and inward, using all our senses.
I really love the second chakra. Now here’s the rub. How do we connect when eye contact is a lost art? When it didn’t really happen until you Instagrammed it? When electronic screens are held, like veils, between us and the actual moment, making all our visual experiences second-hand? When you can’t even eat without first taking a picture of your meal and posting it? How did this happen? We are living a virtual life—how do we get back to our real one?
Answers to these questions have come with a host of new retreats, classes, workshops and therapeutic experiences. I’ve seen new trends in holistic therapies popping up in the last few years trying to fill that space. These therapies, for the most part, are things that we used to just do without thinking but are now viewed as “therapeutic” as they are helping us reincorporate our use of the second chakra.
Water is the element of the second chakra. The universal solvent, it has the unique ability to dissolve more substances than any other liquid. It creates a relationship with almost everything it touches. The human body is 60 percent water, so connecting to this element (or other natural elements) in therapies has the power to heighten our awareness of ourselves. These experiences, with intent or not, are waking and flexing the sacral chakra.
“The second chakra, has deep roots in how we connect to ourselves and relate to our environment. It builds upon the strong foundation of our root chakra. It’s about our ability to relate, create, and express ourselves to experience pleasure, expression, emotion, and connection; and to feel the outer and inner worlds.”
Forest Bathing, the mother of all eco-therapy, is the medicine of simply being in the forest, taking it in with your senses. Not hiking or strenuous exercise, just simply being among the trees. I absolutely love sitting and communing with the forest so much so I bought a house in the Catskills. The forest and natural bodies of water have a way of dropping your blood pressure, lowering your heart rate, reducing stress hormone production, boosting your immune system, and improving overall well-being. You breathe deeper and longer; you sleep hard. Could it be that simply connecting with the natural environment engages the second chakra and helps you find your place?
Earthing refers to the benefit of walking barefoot, creating direct physical contact with the limitless supply of electrons on the Earth’s surface. The surface of the planet is electrically conductive, and mounting evidence suggests the Earth’s negative potential can create a stable internal bioelectrical environment supporting all body functions. Modern life has increasingly separated us from the primordial flow of the Earth’s electrons up through our skin. The benefits of Earthing are too numerous to discuss in this article, suffice it to say the National Institute of Health is supporting it. The connection to the Earth is one of the main relationships of the second chakra.
Spiritual baths are experience a renaissance but have played a major role in human society throughout history. Think of water’s role in ritual and ceremony for most world religions. Water has a purifying function— the original cleanse, if you will. Similar to Earthing, the vibrations of water flow and resonate through us via the bath. Baths are typically done with the stages of the moon and contain a variety of salts, plants, crystals, etc., dependent upon the recipient’s needs. Spiritual baths cleanse on a deeper level, releasing us and connecting us to our higher selves and elements of nature. I’m a big fan.
Other wellness trends I believe support the second chakra are sound healing, plant medicine retreats, salt rooms, therapeutic gardening, and classes in artisanal skills like hand carving and sewing. All of these activities create a deeper connection to self and nature supporting the second chakra. They all involve specific elements that awaken the senses and create relationships within and without.
The most interesting therapy I would like to discuss in relation to the second chakra is microdosing. Microdosing is the act of consuming sub-perceptual amounts of psychedelic drugs. The dose is too small to trigger hallucinations, but strong enough to sharpen the mind. Typically individuals integrate microdosing into their weekly routine for a few weeks to several months. It’s being explored as a treatment for depression and anxiety with remarkable results. Microdosing enables neuroplasticity, meaning it rewires your neural circuitry and enables you to interact with the environment in a different way. Scientists in the Netherlands have found that psilocybin microdosing improves both convergent and divergent thinking, which psychologists consider key ingredients in creativity as these ways of thinking produce unconstrained consciousness and a sense that everything is connected. Seeing connections that elude other people is a very close approximation of the definition of creativity.
Microdosers report heightened spiritual awareness and enhancement of all five senses. Microdosing causes brainwaves to shift toward alpha oscillations, allowing flow states to be more consistent. Flow state is colloquially known as being “in the zone,” or finding your sweet spot. I would argue that integrating with your sacral chakra is being in your flow state (think: what does water do?). So it seems as though microdosing is helping individuals live an actualized life rather than a virtual one.
My advice for tuning your second chakra? Put down your screen, remove your ear buds, go outside, take a deep breath, and look around. Whether you choose to take off your shoes and go for a stroll through the woods, spend a weekend at a plant medicine retreat, microdose, or somewhere in between, know what you are really trying to do is awaken the sacral chakra. The second chakra will not be ignored, so make the time to listen.
Michelle Spina L.Ac. MTOM is a healer by birth and a practitioner of TCM, NAET, Mayan Massage & Spiritual healing by education. She is a mother, wife, confidant, and outlaw with a side of fertility goddess.
