Tag Archives: Sacral Chakra

How Understanding the Sacral Chakra Can Improve Your Writing

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Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

After we make a thorough and in-depth investigation of our people’s backstories by understanding the Root Chakra, we can then begin to explore each character’s understanding and relationship with herself. A common practice to show readers a character’s view of herself is to use interior monologue – to take our readers inside the character’s mind.

Another way to accomplish this is by understanding the Sacral Chakra, which is about the Self as expressed in our one-on-one relationships with others, as well as our ability to create, which can take many forms.

Give thought to how your people support, interfere with, and reflect each other’s most vulnerable parts, including their ability to create.

If you’re writing fiction (a novel or screenplay), focus on the relationship between your protagonist and her antagonist – that person (or thing or system) who keeps her from her greatest desire. Then focus on your protagonist and her number one supporting character – that person who believes in her no matter what.

If you’re writing memoir, as with fiction, focus on the relationship between your protagonist (you) and her antagonist – that person (or thing or system) who keeps her from her greatest desire. Then focus on your protagonist and her number one supporting character – that person who believes in her no matter what.

If you’re writing a non-fiction book in the self-help or how-to category, focus on your Ideal Reader and block(s) that prevent her from achieving her greatest desire. This could be a person/people, time, herself, her belief system/mindset, or her lack of discipline or willpower. Then, focus on the people in your Ideal Reader’s life who want the best for her.

How do your characters describe and/or define each other through thought, action, and dialogue? What do these descriptions tell you about the character doing the describing or defining

How understanding the sacral chakra will improve your writing

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After we make a thorough and in-depth investigation of our characters’ backstories by way of understanding the Root Chakra, we can then begin to explore each character’s understanding and relationship with herself. A common practice to show readers a character’s view of herself is to use interior monologue – to take our readers inside the character’s mind.

Another way to accomplish this is by understanding the Sacral Chakra. It can shine a light on a character’s self-awareness by focusing on his relationship with others (how he relates to others based on his impression of himself) and on his ability to be creative, which can take many forms.

Give thought to how your characters support, interfere with, and reflect each other’s most vulnerable parts, including their ability to create.

How do your characters reflect each other through thought, action, and dialogue?

How understanding the Heart Chakra can help your writing

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Recently, I wrote about how understanding the Root, Sacral, and Power chakras can help your writing. This week, I’m writing about how understanding the Heart Chakra can help.

indexBut first, remember, we always want to begin with a framework of a character. In this case, let’s say a 35-year-old man.

Now, from a generative standpoint, we can begin with one of the primary fears or negative manifestations of the heart chakra (because we want to give our character something to struggle with, consider, or transform): inability to forgive oneself or others.

What might he have done that he can’t forgive himself for? Imagine all possible scenarios and pick the one that resonates most with you. Get him thinking about it. Get him moving around in a space. Start to write.

From a corrective standpoint, let’s imagine that we already have the 35-year-old man who we know is racked with guilt and can’t forgive himself for some act or decision he’s made. We can begin to look deeper at the Heart Chakra and ask these questions:

  • Who does he love?
  • What makes him happy?

Even better if he’s done the very thing that makes him happy but is not able to forgive himself for it because it will hurt the person he loves. That will create some good tension, which is just what we want.

 

Where did this lead you?

Leave an excerpt here.

 

 

 

How understanding the Sacral Chakra can help your writing

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Last week I wrote about how The Writing Through the Body™ process is both generative and corrective. And we looked specifically at the first chakra, the Root Chakra.

This week, let’s take a look at the second chakra, the Sacral Chakra, which is located in the lower abdomen, about three inches below the navel.

If we’re working from a generative position – that is, if we want to write but are uncertain how to get going – the first step is to begin with a character. How about a 40-year-old male?

Next, we can learn about the Sacral Chakra elements and see what resonates with us. For instance, if we look at the negative

image credit: sacramentovocalmusic

image credit:
sacramentovocalmusic

manifestations of the Sacral Chakra (one of which is the killing of creativity due to fear), that can give us a place to start. What if the 40-year-old male is a classical composer with a commission deadline coming up, and he’s hit a serious block (killing of creativity due to fear). He’s tried and tried, but he just can’t get the piece finished.

If we then understand the primary fears associated with this chakra (one of which is loss of physical body due to death or illness), we can start to experiment with what the underlying fear might be that’s preventing him from finishing the piece. Maybe he hasn’t been feeling well, and while he’s writing it off as stress from the project, in the far, far back corners of his mind is the fear he’ll die of cancer the way his father did, at a very young age. We can then begin to explore his relationship with his father and see where that takes us.

If we’re working from a corrective position – that is, if we already have a story underway and we’re working with this character and his problem, we can simply begin by learning which chakra corresponds with the character’s particular problem and go from there, the ultimate goal being to take the character through an arc of transformation, which might be ability to take risks, one of the primary strengths of the Sacral Chakra, and/or he’s able to break through the block and create, one of the primary strengths of the Sacral Chakra. And of course, in some situations the character doesn’t make that transformation, but the reader will. The reader will ride the waves of uncertainty and struggle right along with the character, and she’ll be able to see aspects of him he can’t see himself. And in doing this, she’ll be changed, whether he is or not.

image credit: theelegantuniverse.tumblr.com

image credit:
theelegantuniverse.tumblr.com

The beauty of working with the chakras in this way is that there’s always an answer. Any problem we throw at our characters, there’s a road map, of sorts, in the chakra system. Every obstacle we face as humans can be tied back to one of the chakras.

How awesome is that?!

Who’s your character and why can’t he finish what he set out to do?

 

Second Chakra – Sacral Chakra – Partnership Power

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Yesterday, I wrote about the Root Chakra and how it can inform our writing in terms of our own or our characters’ identities in relation to the concept of tribe. Today, I’m writing about the second chakra, the Sacral Chakra, which is about partnership power and our power to create.

The Sacral Chakra relates to our ability to go with the flow, so while all the chakras are important, this one is especially important when it comes to creative flow. Creative flow can mean a lot of things. It can mean artistic flow and creating in that way, or it can mean actually creating life. This chakra is about self-expression in a very deep sense, and it also aligns with partnership, sexuality, pleasure, and relationships. So, while the Root Chakra was about our relationship to our tribe and our place in it, the Sacral Chakra is about our relationship with another.

I’ve observed that, oftentimes, creative people have a difficult time finding that balance between honoring their creative impulses and their relationships, and all too often, their writing practice takes a back seat. While the Sacral Chakra is about creating, as mentioned above, it’s also about creating ourselves, and if we’re to successfully create ourselves, it means we means we have to find balance in our relationships so we don’t get lost in them.

Below is a brief explanation of the Sacral Chakra and some ways we might integrate its attributes into our writing.

Second Chakra – Sacral Chakra Orange Sphere1

Location
Lower abdomen, slightly below the navel

Primary strengths
Ability to take risks, to protect oneself and survive financially and physically, to recover from loss, and to recreate oneself

Primary fears
Loss of control at the hands of another (rape, impotence, abandonment, betrayal, addiction, financial) and loss of physical body due to death or illness

Positive manifestations
Creativity, confident self-expression, adaptability, flexibility, bringing forth new life (literally and figuratively), setting healthy psychological boundaries and creating a sense of personal identity

Negative manifestations
Anger, jealousy, killing of creativity due to fear

Lesson
Accepting that we cannot be in control

Aspects we might consider for our characters or ourselves
Ability to protect oneself, creativity and self-expression, fears around loss of control, anger and jealousy

As with yesterday, below you’ll find a meditation specific to the Sacral Chakra, and some prompts to help you think about how to use the Sacral Chakra to deepen your writing and your understanding of yourself.

Try the following meditation and exercise, and let me know what you come up with.
Feel free to post it below this post, or email me at:  johnnie@johnniemazzocco.com.

Meditation
Close your eyes and do a short visualization of the Sacral Chakra: An orange, pulsating orb in your abdomen, just below your navel. Imagine it expanding and contracting and spreading out to each hip. Sit with this pulsating, enthusiastic and creative energy for as long as you can, breathing deeply, for 5-10 breaths. Count to ten slowly on both the inhale and the exhale for each one. When you’re ready, let the energy begin to recede and return to its original size. Maintain its presence in your body as you open your eyes and begin the following writing exercise.

Writing Exercise
Fiction Writers
Think of a character you’ve created, maybe one you’ve been working with recently. It can be a new one, or it can be the one you used yesterday. Imagine a relationship for your character with one other person. This can be any sort of relationship (intimate, familial, platonic, work-related). The characters can be any gender or age. Feel free to build on the exercise from yesterday, if you like. Is this other person a family member your character is on her way to visit and you’ll just continue on with the story you set up yesterday, or is this other person a stranger on the train? What is the overarching tone of the relationship? How do these two characters relate to each other? Do they speak, or is their entire interaction internal for them both, or for only your initial character? What do they think about or say to each other? What happens between them?

Creative Non-fiction Writers / Memoirists
Pick a relationship from your life. This can be any sort of relationship (intimate, familial, platonic, work-related).
What’s the overarching tone of this relationship?
How do creativity, sexuality, and/or abundance (or lack of) figure in to this relationship? Are you generally on the same energetic plane with each other? If so, how? If not, does the energy of one of you overshadow the other and drive the relationship somehow?

Sending you mad writing mojo…

Johnnie
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