Guest guest Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Day Two - Second Chakra " Lose your mind and come to your senses. " Fritz Perls Name:::Svadhisthana (sweetness) Element:::Water Purposes:::Movement and Connection Issues::: Se+uality, Emotions, Movement, Sensation, Desire, Need, Pleasure Goals::: Fluidity, pleasure, healthy se+uality, feeling Color::: Orange Location:::Lower abdomen, sacral plexus Orientation:::Self-gratification Archetype:::Lover Basic Rights: To Feel and Have Pleasure A culture that frowns upon emotional expression or considers sensitivity a weakness infringes upon our basic right to feel. " You have no right to be angry. " " How can you express your emotions like that? You should be ashamed of yourself! " " Boys don't cry. " These kinds of injunctions infringe upon our right to feel. Feeling is the way we obtain important information about our wellbeing. When the right to feel is impaired, we become out of touch with ourselves, numb, and discon- nected. A corollary of this right is the right to want, since if we cannot feel, it is very difficult to know what we want. Our right to enjoy healthy se+uality is intimately connected with our right to feel. Affirmations: " I deserve pleasure in my life. " " I absorb information from my feelings. " " I embrace and celebrate my se+uality. " " My se+uality is sacred. " " I move easily and effortlessly. " " Life is pleasurable. " Identity of Chakra Two: Beneath the surface of the body churn the emotions. The emotions are the clothing of our feelings. When we experience a strong emotion, we feel our aliveness and often identify with the feeling involved. Even our language makes this identification: I am angry, I am scared. (Other languages say, I have fear or anger.) This is the identity that says, I feel therefore I am, and whatever I feel is what I am. Some people identify their main sense of self in this way. The second chakra, then, is our emotional identity, and its job is self-gratification. Emotion emerges from the physical identity and yet brings in an added dimension. We have to feel our bodies in order to feel our emotions and learn to interpret their messages. Emotional identity expands the experience of the body and gives it dimension and texture, connecting us to the flow of the world. ...a sensate exploration of the world. Demon of Chakra Two: Guilt Guilt undermines the natural flow of emotional and se+ual energy through the body, and inhibits us from reaching out, diminishing emotional and se+ual connections with others. Guilt curtails the free flow of movement, largely by taking the pleasure out of it. If I feel guilty about what I am doing, I do not fully enjoy it. I cannot fully sense the experience if one part of me is frozen off, restricting or trying to control what I am doing. Guilt polarizes the personality. It divides light against dark, good against bad. We are wonderful one day and horrible the next, all because of something we did. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. The greater the guilt, the more we try to emancipate ourselves by flawless behavior. Flawless behavior inhibits the natural flow of energy moving up from the lower chakras and tends to polarize mind and body. A polarized personality is characterized by either-or thinking. Without the multiplicity of the rainbow, we find ourselves locked in black-and-white choices. There is, or course, a healthy place for guilt: as a feeling that allows us to examine our behavior before, during, or after our actions. When it's not distorted, guilt tells us where the boundaries are and where we need to make change. In its appropriate place as feedback, guilt is not a demon but a guide. It is only when guilt becomes excessive, habitual, internalized, and toxic that it dom- inates the free flow of movement and the full sensate experience of life that is so necessary to the second chakra. Guilt is a teacher when it guides us, but a demon when it binds us. Swimming in the Waters of Difference " The myth of going under water, of being drowned and born again, has been passed down through history in different cultures as the myth of baptism--the being immersed in the river to be drowned, to die, in order to be born again. This is a daring leap into non-being with the prospect of achieving new being. " Rollo May Diving in the Waters As we enter the second chakra, we encounter the watery realm of emotions and sexuality. Where we have worked for grounding and stability in the first chakra, we now cultivate feelings and movement; where we have been concerned with survival and structure, we now focus on se+uality and pleasure. Our associated element has shifted from earth to water, from solid to liquid. In this transmutation we encounter change.Through consistency, consciousness finds meaning; through change it finds stimulation and expansion. If we think of the body as a vessel for the soul and spirit, then the element of earth in chakra one provides support and containment for the fluid essence of chakra two, much like a cup holds water. Without appropriate containment, water flows out and the cup runs dry. With excessive containment, however, water cannot flow at all and becomes stagnant and dull. Ideally, we want to have a cup that is capable of filling, holding, and emptying. The task of the first chakra was to build this container. Now we look to its contents. Letting Go To Movement To find consistency within change is to embrace the unfolding flow. Where we developed grounding, stability, focus, and stillness in the first chakra, now our second chakra challenge is just the opposite: to let go, flow, move, feel, and yield. Only by moving does our consciousness expand, and only through change is our consciousness stimulated. Movement and change stimulate awakening. Movement overcomes the inertia of chakra one. Through movement, we extend our field of perception, increasing our sensory input. By moving the body, we build muscle tissue, increase circulation, stimulate nerve endings, and generally enhance our flexibility and aliveness. The flow of pleasure and excitation through the nervous system bathes the organism in sensation and awareness and awakens the consciousness within. Movement becomes its own pleasure. Sensation The senses are the essential link between the inner and outer worlds. Only through the senses do we transcend isolation and make connection to a larger sphere. Sensate experience is simultaneously physical, emotional, and spiritual. The senses are the gateway between the internal and external world. Sight, sound, touch, taste, and hearing give us a constantly changing inner matrix of the world around us, through which we form our basic belief systems, coping strategies, and thought processes. The senses are the data input of our overall system. They orient us in the world, allow us to connect, give meaning to our experience. Through our senses, we differentiate between pleasure and pain, we expand or contract, move forward or backward, react or enact. When there is pain or emptiness, our senses shut down. When this happens, we restrict information entering our consciousness, and cut ourselves off from the world around us. Senses are the only means we have of experiencing connection. The complex combination of sensation and feeling gives us the emotional texture of experience. Senses, as the language of feeling, form the basis of our values. How we perceive something and how we feel about it are the ways that we determine value. Without a sensual connection to what is around us, we lose our sense of values and distinctions. Emotions Emotions are instinctual reactions to sensory data. If the senses bring in raw information, feelings are the unconscious reaction to this information, and emotions are the way we organize our feelings. Without consciousness, emotions govern our reactions. We may get angry, fall in or out of love, feel depressed or afraid, but these emotions generally arise from the depths of our psyche quite of their own accord. We may choose the way we respond to these emotions, but the feelings have a life of their own. I believe that ultimately, emotions have a spiritual function as the language of the soul. This language is spoken through the body. We can think of sensations as the words, feelings as the sentences, and emotions as the paragraphs. These building blocks are the primary levels of our experience through which our story unfolds, giving us meaning. Meaning integrates our systems, our felt sense of experiencing the world. Se+uality Se+uality is the ultimate expression of the many issues associated with the second chakra: movement, sensation, pleasure, desire, emotions, and polarity. It is the resolution of difference, the union of opposites, and the connecting experience that transcends isolation and forms the foundation for the next chakra level: power. It is the grounds for much of our growth, as it brings us into contact with others who are by nature different from us. Se+uality is the incorporation of Eros, the basic force of attraction. Eros is an ancient god, the connecting force that unites and delights, bridges and soothes. This is accomplished through a constantly moving flow of dynamic energy that is created and enhanced by two energy systems meeting one another. In Hindu mythology, Eros is the god Kama, the originator of all the gods, the binding power of allurement that holds the universe together. To deny Eros is to court disintegration and destruction. To embrace Eros is to have the capacity for surrender, to be able to flow with the biological nature of the instinctual/emotional body. To dance with Eros is to dance with the life force in the liberating current of the lower chakras. Se+uality is the ecstatic expression of that force. Se+uality has been massively misunderstood by our culture. The wounds of mismanaged se+uality are deep and pervasive, affecting the natural flow of excitation through the body. Guilt, as demon of the second chakra, is a direct antidote to pleasure and self-esteem. Guilt has been poured through the se+ual gates from which Eros flows with such force that for many this portal no longer opens. Thus an essential gateway to pleasure and transformation becomes locked. Se+uality is rejected and sent to the realm of the shadow, where it takes on its demonic form of dissociation and perpetration, desperately seeking connection at any cost. To reclaim the second chakra is to reclaim our right to feel and our right to healthy se+uality. It is the reclamation of the force of Eros as it flows through all aspects of life. This does not mean that this energy always culminates in the se+ual act. Eros is alive and well in every aspect of our existence--the smell of food cooking in the kitchen, the colors of a sunset, eating ice cream on a hot day. Eros needs to be an honored part of our experience, honored for the powerful god that he is. Balanced Characteristics A balanced second chakra has the capacity for se+ual satisfaction, physical pleasure, general enjoyment of life, comfort with intimacy, and the ability to accept movement and change gracefully, including graceful physical movements. There is steadiness and clarity in emotional states. One can feel deeply without excessive histrionics. Balance involves the ability to nurture self and others while still maintaining healthy se+ual and emotional boundaries. From Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith * * * * Osho music for the Chakras: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3o4V2aK0B4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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