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!

As I stir chicken broth
and garlic cloves into the simmering pot of bland-looking cauliflower, I smile
and chuckle to myself. How will this concoction go over at the dinner table
tonight? It doesn’t matter – I
don’t even care. Because, right now, I am having fun.

That evening, assuming the
usual mashed potatoes sit alongside his dinner of roasted salmon and leafy
salad, my husband shovels a forkful of my experiment into his mouth.

“Are these potatoes?” he
asks after swallowing. 

“Do you like them?” is my
non-answer. 

“I do.”

“Good, because our
culinary rut is about to change.”

Drowning in Sameness

For years, crammed between
carpooling, meetings, and piles of laundry, I would race through the grocery
aisles, grabbing spaghetti and chicken and broccoli – items from my memorized mental shopping list – and tossing them into the grocery cart.

Those were simple ingredients
based on menus I knew my family liked; meals I could prepare on autopilot while
I folded laundry, watched the news, or picked up the house. 

With my sons rushing between
sports practices and homework, my job was to get dinner on the table in the
most efficient way possible. Eat, clean up the kitchen, and move on to the next
activity. 

Except – what is the next activity now? 

I no longer quiz a child
with spelling words or sit in the bleachers at baseball games or pack lunches
for the following school day. I don’t need to fling dinner together and move
on. 

Could I slow down, take my
time, and find joy in the cooking process?

Cooking and Me

In recent years, I’ve
ogled luscious photos of bubbling lasagnas and seared halibut and
confetti-sprinkled layer cakes. I’ve tapped hearts on foodie sites and pinned
recipes to boards with labels like Holiday Foods and Weeknight
Dinners and Healthy Eats.

Arranged in color-tagged
folders on my laptop are instructions for Appetizers and Slow-Cooker
Meals and Entree Salads. 

Seldom did I return to my
organized stash of recipes and actually make any of these dishes. I relied on
the predictable standbys, the same rotating menus. 

Here I go again, I realized. I’m drowning in sameness.

Instead of admiring the
photos of foods other people make, why don’t I head to the kitchen and
give some of those dishes a try? 

Based on the success of my
pseudo-mashed potatoes, I began to tackle recipes I once labeled too much
effort or not for me.

The healthy
meatballs I prepared were delicious spooned
over packaged pasta. Even better when I served them atop spiralized squash.
Slice a sweet potato, drop it in the toaster, and slather it with almond
butter? Who thought of THIS?! 

I bought ingredients I
didn’t quite know what to do with – ghee
and coconut aminos and almond milk – and explored the
Whole 30 craze. I felt up-to-date and informed, engaged and curious – and I liked that me. 

I Can’t Cook and Worry at the Same Time

When I scooped the seeds
and membrane from a red pepper for a lunchtime tuna melt or manipulated the
fragile collard greens into a wrap, I forgot to worry about the lab test
results and car troubles and elderly parents. While I chopped onions and grated
parmesan, I let go of the little – and
big – issues in my life. 

Like knitting, carpentry,
or painting may do for other folks, cooking unfamiliar recipes gave me
something to concentrate on besides my problems and concerns. 

Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this process “flow,” and his research indicates this is one of the secrets to a happy life. In his book, Finding Flow, he defines a flow state as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake.” 

My Perfectionist Self Let Go

My black and white cookie
batter went into the garbage one gray, rainy afternoon. The confectioner’s
sugar I grabbed from the pantry, instead of the flour, produced a runny,
inedible, snow-white soup.

My perfectionist self
surprised me. I didn’t grouse over the cost of ingredients or the wasted time
in the kitchen. I allowed myself to laugh at my unfortunate mistake, make
another (successful) batch, and enjoy my time in the kitchen. 

In her book, Lifting Depression, neuroscientist Dr. Kelly Lambert writes, “With today’s overly-mechanized lifestyle we have forgotten our brains crave the well-being that comes from meaningful effort. Whether planting a garden, repairing a lamp, or cooking a meal, you are bathing your brain in feel-good chemicals and creating a kind of mental vitamin.”

Cooking Can Produce Feel-Good Chemicals

Instead of grazing on
cheese and crackers – or
cookies – and calling it dinner, I
tried new creations when I dined alone. Pesto, tomatoes, mushrooms, and
avocados make for a fancy grilled cheese sandwich at lunch.

Sheet pan dinners are a
breeze for one person. I fired up the stove or the oven and assembled salmon
salads and turkey burgers – for
my party of one.

Cooking gadgets became the
gifts du jour for Mother’s Day and my birthday. As I unwrapped a pasta maker
from my sons, I admit the words “work” and “mess” rolled through my mind.

And – yes – fettuccini from scratch was a flour-spattered
production. But as I kneaded the dough and maneuvered the fussy strips through
the machine, I realized I enjoyed my own company – and the challenge of it all.

Nowadays, I still enjoy a good dinner out, and most Friday and Saturday nights my kitchen is closed. I don’t make new recipes every day, and I’ve tried plenty I won’t make again. 

But when I do go into my
kitchen to attempt a new dessert or salad or soup, I’ll feed my body – and I’ll also feed my soul. 

Do you have an activity that helps you experience flow? What hobby causes you to “lose yourself?” When was the last time you tried a new recipe? Please share with our community!