The second chakra, called svadhisthana in Sanskrit, resides about the width of two fingers below your belly button and corresponds with your hips, pelvis, and reproductive organs. Associated with the element of water, it represents change, flow, life, creativity, and emotional relationships. It’s a sensual energy center, grounding you in your body, your capacity for pleasure, your reproductive health, and the way you connect with others — both physically and emotionally.
Yoga poses that strengthen and open the hips will move energy through this chakra, bringing more balance to your intimate relationships and increasing your capacity to flow with life’s natural ups and downs.
Read on to learn about the importance of maintaining a balanced sacral chakra as well as five yoga poses to help you strengthen yours.
Recommended: Browse more of our guides on the art and practice of yoga to harmonize your body, mind, and soul.
About the Sacral Chakra
With a deficient sacral chakra, you may experience any of the following symptoms (and more):
- Repetitive Patterns of Dysfunctional or Toxic Relationships
- Low Creativity
- Difficulty Trusting Others
- Feelings That You’re Unworthy of Love
- Lack of Motivation
However, an overactive sacral chakra may cause the following negative symptoms:
- Overly Emotional and Dramatic Behavior
- Addictive Behavior
- Codependency
- Panic Attacks or Anxiety
- Over-Identifying With Sex (Finding Self-Worth in Sex as a Lifestyle)
Healing and nourishing the sacral chakra will bring you gifts of an increased sense of self-worth, more pleasure and joy in your physical body and your relationships, and greater confidence and creativity as you navigate life’s ups and downs.
Here are five yoga poses you can use to help strengthen and balance your sacral chakra:
1. Low Lunge Pose (Anjaneyasana)
- Start in a forward fold pose, reaching your hands to the floor.
- Take a big step back with one foot and bend your front knee into a deep lunge while your left knee bends and comes down to the floor.
- Untuck your toes on the back foot and place the top of that foot on the floor.
- Raise your arms overhead and relax your shoulders.
- Ground yourself into the front foot and back knee, and then draw your energy up through the center of your navel and your spine to the crown of your head.
- Hold the pose for 30 to 60 seconds.
Focusing on balance in this pose will bring strength to your outer hips. For example, you could increase the challenge by coming off your back knee and balancing on your back toes. Balance and strength provide great energy to complement the fluidity and creative shape-changing of the watery sacral chakra.
2. Half Splits Pose (Ardha Hanumanasana)
- Start from a low lunge and begin to straighten your front, lunging leg and bend your back knee while shifting your hips back.
- Place your tented fingers on the mat on either side of your straight front leg. (Note: You may want to use blocks under your hands if you have very tight hamstrings.)
- Maintain a flat back and lean gently into a forward fold.
- Hold the pose for 30 to 60 seconds.
Use the strength of your outer hips in this pose by thinking about contracting or pulling in the muscles around your outer hips for strength and balance. Focus on your unparalleled, unique, and personal creativity as well as your ability to establish healthy boundaries as you flow through life.
3. Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana)
- Take a wide-legged stance facing the long edge of your yoga mat with your toes pointed slightly outward.
- Bend your knees into a squat, ensuring they reach gently outward and align with your toes. (If your toes open too far outward, turn them in just enough so they align with your knees.)
- Squat even deeper and open your arms into a wide hug as if you’re holding a large ball in your arms.
- Hold here for 30 to 60 seconds, breathing deeply.
Allow your attention and your breath to wash over your hips while you hold this pose. Listen to your body and recognize when you have space to squat even deeper or when it’s time to come up and release the tension or take a break. Remember to invoke a sense of creative power rising through your legs and collecting in your hips and pelvis.
4. Wide-Legged Forward Fold
- Start in a wide-legged stance facing the long edge of your yoga mat with your toes pointed slightly inward.
- Bring your hands to your hips and open your chest forward, raising your chin just above the horizon as you inhale powerfully.
- Now, exhale and fold forward.
- Pause halfway down the fold with a flat back while you gently contract your abdominal muscles. (You may start to feel the stretch in your outer hips here.)
- Inhale and exhale to complete the fold, drawing the crown of your head to the ground and resting your hands on the floor or a block.
- Hold the pose for 30 to 60 seconds.
As you practice this pose, focus on feeling a release in your outer hips, thighs, and hamstrings. Remember, you can choose how deeply you take this pose and every other pose you practice. Only you know what feels good in your body and exactly what you need.
5. Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)
- Start in downward-facing dog pose.
- Raise your right leg toward the ceiling, keeping it straight as you stretch it as long as possible on your inhale.
- Now, exhale and sweep your right leg forward to bring your right knee to the floor near your right wrist. Your right foot should rest on the floor and angle back toward the left side of your body or your left hip.
- Stretch your left leg out behind you, untucking your left toes as you settle down onto your left knee and the top of your left foot.
- Press your hands into the floor by your sides and create a balance between your hips so you don’t lean over into one side or the other. (You can either stay up on your hands with your chest open or you can lower your chest toward the floor, coming onto your forearms or even resting your forehead on the floor.)
- Take your time in this pose, holding it for five to 10 breaths or more.
Use your breath to move through each stage of this pose and really feel each level of deepening. This will help you connect to yourself, learn where your boundaries exist, and find pleasure and movement as you unlock a better understanding of yourself and your physical body.
Learn more about your chakra system and how you can heal and support your other chakras.