What Your Emotions Are Trying to Tell You | The Sacral Chakra

🎙️Show Notes

Summary

This episode is part of my seven-part Chakra Series, exploring the traditional teachings of yoga in a practical, down-to-earth way for modern life.

In this episode of Rooted in the Seasons, we continue our journey through the seven chakras by exploring Swadhisthana, the Sacral Chakra.

Together we'll look at what our emotions can teach us, why this chakra is associated with the water element, and how yoga encourages us to respond to life's changes with greater awareness rather than automatic reaction.You'll discover the traditional symbolism of Swadhisthana, including the lotus, Varuna, Rakini and the crocodile, along with simple yoga practices, reflection questions and the VAM mantra to help you cultivate greater emotional balance in everyday life.

Keywords

• Swadhisthana Chakra
• Sacral Chakra
• Chakras for Beginners
• Yoga Philosophy
• Yoga Podcast
• Emotional Balance
• Emotional Awareness
• Yoga and Emotions
• Water Element
• VAM Mantra
• Ayurveda
• Meditation
• Yoga Practice
• Self-Awareness
• Rooted in the Seasons

Key Topics

• Understanding the Swadhisthana (Sacral) Chakra
• Why emotions are invitations, not obstacles
• The water element and emotional adaptability
• The symbolism of the six-petalled lotus
• The crocodile and our instinctive reactions
• Varuna, Rakini and Vishnu in yogic tradition
• Balancing openness with healthy boundaries
• The VAM mantra and meditation practice
• Yoga poses to support the Sacral Chakra
• The chakra journey from stability to movement
• Bringing yoga philosophy into everyday life

Titles

1 Swadhisthana Chakra Explained | Understanding Your Emotions Through Yoga

2 The Sacral Chakra: What Your Emotions Are Trying to Tell You

3 Understanding the Sacral Chakra | Yoga, Emotions & Emotional Balance

Sound bites

"Our emotions aren't obstacles. They're invitations to understand ourselves more deeply."

"The question isn't whether life will change. The question is how we respond when it does."

"We don't find steadiness by stopping the river. We find it by learning how to move with it."

Chapters

00:00 Welcome & The Sacral Chakra
01:22 What Moves You? Exploring Emotional Longings
02:24 What Our Emotions Reveal
03:54 Understanding the Sacral Chakra
05:06 The Water Element & Emotional Flow
06:36 Emotions Are Invitations
07:44 The Six-Petalled Lotus
08:28 The Crocodile: Instinct & Protection
10:16 Varuna & Learning to Flow with Life
11:58 Rakini: Finding Emotional Balance
13:48 Practices for the Sacral Chakra
14:50 The VAM Mantra
16:09 Yoga Poses for Swadhisthana
17:14 Responding Instead of Reacting
19:52 The Yoga Journey Continues
20:35 Next Time: Building Self-Confidence

Resources

🌿 Read the accompanying blog post:

Swadhisthana Chakra: Emotions, Creativity and the Flow of Life

https://www.zestforyoga.com/blog/swadhisthana-chakra-healing

 🎙️ Listen to the previous episode
 Root Chakra: Finding Stability in an Uncertain World
 https://www.zestforyoga.com/blog/root-chakra-guide


📩 Download your free guide:
5 Daily Ayurvedic Shifts to Feel Like Yourself Again
https://pages.zestforyoga.com/5-ayurvedic-shifts

🌸 Back to Rhythm
Join the interest list for my new 12-week programme exploring yoga, Ayurveda and practical daily rhythms for steadier energy, digestion and emotional balance.
https://www.zestforyoga.com/back-to-rhythm

🎁 Get my free guide: 5 Daily Ayurvedic Shifts to Feel Like Yourself Again
 

Practical tips to feel calmer, clearer, and more like yourself — without overhauling your life.
 👉 GET THE FREE GUIDE HERE

🎙️ Rooted in the Seasons is created by Katja Patel at Zest for Yoga & Ayurveda.
 Explore more episodes at zestforyoga.com/podcast

Transcript

Katja (00:00)
Hello and welcome to Rooted in the Seasons. The podcast where we explore yoga, Ayurveda and seasonal living to help you feel calmer, steadier and more connected in everyday life.

I'm Katya Patel, yoga teacher, teacher mentor, and Ayurveda Diet and Lifestyle Educator. Today we're continuing our journey through the seven chakras.

Last time we explored the Mooladhara chakra, the root chakra. Discovering how a steady foundation helps us feel safe, grounded, and supported in our lives.

Today our journey continues to move upwards towards the Svadhishthana Chakra, the sacral chakra. while the root Chakra asks, Am I safe? The Svadhishthana chakra begins asking a different question. What moves me?

What brings me alive? What am I longing for?

I know exactly how that feels. It's almost like a sting, and maybe you remember similar situations from your life. When for example a colleague decides to follow a path, you always wanted to take yourself.

On one hand you're generally pleased for her, yet something inside you tightens. There may be envy, regret, a quiet sadness, or perhaps a feeling that you have somehow been left behind. That moment

Has very little to do with another person. It's revealing something about you. Yoga has been interested in moments like these for thousands of years. Not because emotions are something to suppress or feel guilty about.

On the contrary, they often point towards something deeper. They reveal what matters to us, what we value, what we long for, sometimes they gently show us where we have drifted away from ourselves.

This is where today's chakra begins.

Svatihthana is the second of seven main chakras.

It is traditionally located in the mid-pelvis area and it's associated with the water element. If Mooladhara gave us a stable foundation, Svatishtana introduces movement.

Life is no longer simply about feeling safe. It's about feeling, connecting, creating, experiencing, adapting to whatever life brings. It invites us to ask: what moves me? What brings me alive? What am I longing for? Water is the perfect symbol for this chakra.

Think about how water behaves. Sometimes it's calm and still, sometimes it flows gently around obstacles, and sometimes it rushes forward with incredible force. It adapts, it changes, yet it always remains water.

Our emotional life is much the same. Some days we feel joyful and inspired. Other days we feel frustrated, disappointed, jealous, uncertain. We often think these emotions are the problem. Yoga sees them differently.

Rather than asking us to push them away, it invites us to become curious. What is the emotion trying to tell me? Why has it appeared right now? What might it be asking me to notice? Our emotions aren't obstacles.

Their invitations to understand ourselves more deeply.

So, so far we have explored why Svatishtana is connected to our emotional life. We have seen that our emotions aren't obstacles, their invitations to understand ourselves more deeply.

We have discovered that just like water, our emotional life is constantly moving and changing.

The traditional symbols of these chakra help us explore that idea even further. Like every chakra, Svadhishthana is represented by a lotus. This lotus has six petals. Different traditions interpret these in slightly different ways.

But they often represent emotional tendencies that can pull us away from our natural balance.

Feelings such as attachment, anger, jealousy, pride, fear, or confusion. Yoga isn't asking us to get rid of these experiences. It simply invites us to notice them. Because awareness always comes before transformation.

Another important symbol is the crocodile. At first glance, a crocodile might seem like a rather unusual companion for a chakra associated with creativity and emotions. But the crocodile represents our instinctive nature.

The part of us that reacts before we've had the time to think. The part that wants to protect itself. We've probably all experienced that. Someone says something, and before we even realize it, we've become defensive or irritated.

Or jealous. Yoga helps us become aware of these instinctive behaviours. Because once we're aware, we have a choice. We can continue reacting automatically or instinctively.

We begin responding with greater understanding. The crocodile has another beautiful meaning because it's the vehicle of Varuna, the Vedic deity of water and the oceans.

Once again, we return to the central teachings of this chakra: water, movement, adaptability, the ability to flow with life rather than constantly resisting it.

Just as a river finds its way around rocks instead of fighting against them, yoga encourages us to meet life's changing circumstances with awareness instead of resistance. So already we begin to see a pattern.

Every symbol of this chakra is pointing towards the same teaching. Life changes, emotions change, relationships change, seasons change. The question isn't whether change will come, it's how we meet it.

Another figure traditionally associated with this chakra is the goddess Rakini. Different traditions describe her in different ways, but she represents the balanced expression of this energy.

Emotional wisdom, healthy relationships, creativity, the ability to enjoy life without becoming controlled by it. I often think that's one of the greatest balancing acts we face. How do we stay open without becoming overwhelmed?

How do we enjoy life without becoming attached? How do we care deeply without losing ourselves?

I don't think that's something we master once and for all. I think it's a practice we keep returning to throughout our lives. And perhaps that's why Rakini belongs here. A healthy life needs both.

Steady foundations and the capacity to move when life changes. Too much movement leaves us ungrounded. Too much stability can become rigidity. The balance between stability and flow may be one of the simplest descriptions.

So how do we begin exploring this in our practice?

Let's begin with a simple reflection. Is there an emotion that has been visiting you recently? Perhaps excitement, frustration, envy, jealousy, rather than asking how you can make it disappear.

Ask the different question. What makes this emotion? What might this emotion be trying to show me? What longing or value could be sitting beneath it?

Every chakra is also associated with a bija mantra, a seed sound. For Swadhisthana, the mantra is VAM

Traditionally this sound is said to resonate with the qualities of this chakra, encouraging greater flow, adaptability, and emotional balance. You might like to sit quietly for a few moments and gently repeat VAM

Allowing the vibration to settle into your lower abdomen. As always, there's no need to force an experience. Simply notice what you notice. If you like to try this, I have included a short meditation in the accompanying blog post.

If you'd like to explore this chakra a little more deeply, sometimes giving ourselves a few quiet minutes is enough to notice something we hadn't seen before.

From a yoga perspective, hip opening postures are associated with this chakra. Poses such as butterfly or cobbler pose, pigeon pose, garland pose, or goddess pose.

A slow flowing practice can also help cultivate ease and fluidity.

As always, the pose itself isn't the goal. The invitation is to notice what arises while you practice. And perhaps the most important practice doesn't happen on the yoga mat at all. Next time a strong emotion appears, pause.

Before reacting, become curious. Ask yourself, what is this emotion trying to tell me?

I don't always like the answer. Sometimes it shows me that I'm tired. Sometimes that I have ignored something important for too long. Sometimes it simply reminds me that there's still something I deeply care about.

But I have learned that listening is almost always kinder than pretending the emotion isn't there. That one small pause may completely change the conversation you have, the decision you make, or the way you understand yourself.

Before we finish, let's return to our journey through the chakras. In Mooladhara, we established a steady foundation. Now, from that foundation, life begins to move. As our yoga practice develops, more energy is generated.

If our foundation is steady, that energy supports greater awareness. If not, it simply amplifies whatever is already present. That's why Yoga begins with the root chakra Before inviting us into movement.

Today's journey has shown us that emotions aren't something to fear. They are guides, teachers, invitations to understand ourselves more deeply. Like water, they remind us that life is always flowing.

There is something that I've learned around both yoga and life. It's that we don't find steadiness by stopping the river. We find it by learning how to move it, and perhaps our practice isn't about trying to stop that movement.

Perhaps it's about learning to move away more consciously. Next time we'll continue the journey into Manipura, the solar plexus chakra. We'll explore another important question: how do our emotions become purposeful actions?

Why do some people trust themselves enough to take the next step while others remain stuck even when they know exactly what they want?

That's what we'll explore together next time.

these conversations are really the beginning. They are an invitation to pause and reflect.

If you're ready to take the next step and begin putting these ideas into practice with guidance and support, I'd love you to join the Back to Rhythm interest list. You find all the details in the show notes.

Thank you so much for listening to Rooted in the Seasons. If you enjoyed this episode, you can subscribe or follow Rooted in the Seasons on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. That way, new episodes land automatically for you.

If you'd like more support between episodes, you can download my free guide five daily Ayurvedic shifts to feel like yourself again. And join my Sunday read newsletter. You'll find all relevant links in the show notes.

And if something in today's episode resonated, I genuinely love to hear from you. You can connect with me on Substack or drop me an email. I always read and answer them. Until next time, stay rooted in the seasons.