Orange Trauma
By: Ann Litts
Tags: Chakras, Meditation, Life, Self-awareness, Yoga

Photo by Alexei Scutari on Unsplash

January 2018:

The second chakra is where the seat of romantic and power relationships reside. Its color is orange. And it’s not surprising to know — this is where we hold onto our trauma. From abuse — all abuse — sexual, emotional, physical, childhood, or any kind where there is an imbalance of power.

I went to a workshop this weekend to learn about my second chakra and work to open it up with some flow yoga and meditation. What I came away with was a greater understanding of why the energy in my body had been stuck in a traffic jam caused by a giant mudslide at this place on my internal highway for literally decades.

She began to speak and the words which poured out of my teacher’s mouth began to hit home like a gong. Abandonment issues — anyone left alone a lot as a small child — check. Sexual abuse issues — check. Anxiety — check. Emotional abuse — check. Relationships in your workplace where there is an incredible imbalance of power — check. Miscarriage or abortion — check.

Just name a trauma and it lives there — strangling the energy in your lower abdomen and causing you to contract.

Imagine this area of your body encompassing the sludge of all the pain of all the unresolved traumas in your life. Imagine the emotions you refuse to acknowledge in your current life adding more and more sediment to the mix. Imagine your romantic partnerships stuck in the concrete which is your second chakra.

If you believe in the premise that our minds, bodies, and spirits are connected and also manifest illness — there is a long laundry list of physical disease processes which go along with a blocked second chakra. Go ahead and Google it. I heard enough in my workshop to understand why I had been plagued with debilitating menstrual cramps, fibroids, a miscarriage, and a few other ‘female’ issues in my life.

And then we got to the emotional sludge. That’s when things really hit home. It felt like my teacher was describing my internal landscape and the ensuing conversation from one of my therapy sessions.

The Universe had my attention.

Over the last year, I have listened and let The Universe lead me to the places I needed to go to open up and heal. But its hard work — every day — dealing with all the emotional traffic which is supposed to flow through the highway that is the second chakra. The go-to response is to constrict. To close down and just make everything sit and wait.

Yoga, meditation, journaling, therapy. They all played a role for me as spoonful by spoonful, I began to move the mudslide. But it takes a new mindset. You have to stop adding to the sludge or it’s going to be a never-ending battle all of your life.

What is the cure? How do we open up the highway? And keep it open?

My teacher this weekend told us the element associated with the second chakra is water. Perhaps — the real long-term answer is to start looking at this place where my traumas live not so much as a highway, but as a river. Water is cleansing. Water flows. Water is powerful and can move even rocks. What if instead of a congested mudslide induced traffic jam — my chakra turned into a lazy river? What if I let the water wash away the sludge? What if I set each of my traumas — past and present — on a raft and let them drift away? What if I let them go?

Can we do that? Our traumas are part of our stories after all. They have ‘made’ us who we are. What if I change my story? Who are we if we don’t have them?

I’ll tell you who we are. We are free.

Maya Angelou said, “It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.”

I’m done with mudslides and traffic jams. Take me to the river!

Namaste.