Women’s Energetics

Women’s Energetics: Healing the

Subtle Body Wounds of Sexual Abuse and Trauma

10 Exercises for Self-Healing and

Empowerment

By Lisa Erickson

V 1.2

Published by Lisa Erickson at Smashwords www.MommyMystic.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or noncommercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Working with the Practices

Preparation

Practice Initiation Ritual

Practice 1: Energy Diagnostic and Journaling

Practice 2: Empowering Your Intent to Heal

Practice 3: Initial Release in Lower Chakras

Practice 4: Transforming Anger and Fear

Practice 5: Working with Energy Lines

Practice 6: Deep Release and Empowerment of All Chakras

Practice 7: Strengthening Chakra Flow and Connection

Practice 8: Engaging and Opening the Sacral Chakra

Practice 9: Traveling Through the Sacral Doorway

Practice 10: Integration and Love

Moving Forward Appendices:

Sexual Healing and Trauma Online Resources

Book Suggestions

Introduction

This e-book will guide you through a set of exercises for clearing and healing your subtle body of energetic wounds resulting from sexual trauma or abuse. It is based on principles from many different energy healing traditions, and on the very important idea that any of us can facilitate our own healing through working with our own subtle body. These practices are not meant to replace counseling or treatment from professionals of any type, but may augment other help you receive or work you have done on yourself.

Most of all, this e-book is meant to empower you.

One of the most devastating consequences of sexual trauma and abuse is the sense of disempowerment they create. From the perspective of energy body teachings, sexual abuse and trauma most directly impact our first and second energy centers, or chakras – the root of our energetic being. When these are impacted, we often feel as if we cannot fully own our personal power or potential, no matter how successful we may appear in the outer world. By helping you to work directly with these chakras yourself, the exercises in this e-book will help you to reconnect to your own power, and your own ability to selfheal. When this foundation is restored, energy can move through your entire being more freely, empowering every aspect of your life.

You don’t need any prior knowledge of energy healing, subtle anatomy, or the chakras in order to benefit from the exercises in this book. I’ve designed this program for any woman to follow, and I’ve included audio files on my accompanying website to help you along. If you’re interested in learning more about the chakras, I also have many resources online that you can use to do so, but that’s up to you. This is a ‘doing’ e-book – I want to help you jump in and begin to work with your energy body directly. You don’t have to understand chakra theory or full subtle anatomy to do this, anymore than you need to read about dance and understand its history in order to dance around your living room.

You also don’t have to be a victim of overt sexual trauma or abuse to benefit from these exercises. Frankly, I feel that every woman on the planet should engage in a process of this type at some point in her life. Often our subtle body – and our lower chakras in particular – hold emotions or blocks related to sexual inequities, harassment, or cultural imbalances that we may not even be conscious of. The exercises here are designed to first surface, release and heal those wounds and blocks, and then to reconnect us to the natural energies and unique spiritual power of our sacral (second) chakra. In addition to the personal benefits, any woman that does this begins to emit a new kind of light, contributing to the rebalancing of energies that is currently occurring in the world, as these issues get addressed on a wider, and more public, level in our society.

However, if you have experienced sexual trauma or abuse, it’s important not to view this e-book as a replacement for counseling or therapy. Although I believe in the power of energy healing, it is based on the mind-body connection, and we often need to address both the mind and body through other means as well. If you have been the victim of sexual abuse or violence of any sort at any point in your life, please seek professional help if you have not done so already. Whether your abuse or violent event(s) took place recently or years ago, you can benefit from professional help, and there are many affordable options. I have included some resources to get you started in the Appendix, but please also go online and research more for yourself. This energetic process will benefit you more once you have completed, or are at the very least engaged in, a therapeutic process.

In the first two sections of this e-book, I will provide you with some guidelines for working with the exercises, and with preparatory steps you can take to maximize the benefits you will receive from them. After that, each section describes a practice, and links to an audio file online you can use to guide you through that exercise if you prefer (although each exercise is fully described here.) Please don’t hesitate to contact me through my website or by emailing me directly at lameditation@earthlink.net at any time with questions. I am honored to be participating in your healing process, and am here to help.

So now we begin! PeaceLisa Erickson

October 2011, Los Angeles, CA http://www.MommyMystic.com http://www.TheMaatInstitute.com

Working with the Practices

The exercises in this e-book revolve around the chakras. Chakras are energy centers in our subtle or energy body – the field of non-physical energy that surrounds and interacts with our physical body. Chakras are intersections of mind, body, and spirit, impacting our health, personal power, and spiritual connection. Such energy centers are posited in many energy healing and spiritual traditions, particularly in the East.

Although it’s not required, if you would like more background on the chakras and/or the women’s energetics teachings that this work is based on before you begin, you can read through some of the Chakras and/or Women’s Energetics resources I have online. I also have a Women’s Energetics booklist that you can look at for other suggested reading. If you like, you can also read through this entire E-book in advance before you begin, although this isn’t necessary –you will be guided day by day.

Although the exercises in this book will help you work with all 7 of the chakras taught in the most common chakra system, they are particularly focused on the first and second chakras, which are most directly impacted by sexual trauma. Because these chakras form the foundation of our chakra system, when they are inhibited in any way, we can find it difficult to fully access our personal power and passion. A healthy second chakra – located in our womb area - is particularly important for women, because of the central role it plays in the flow of our kundalini, or spiritual life force energy.

There are 10 practices in total, consisting of visualization work, meditations, and journaling. I have created guided audio files for each exercise, and linked to them before the description of each exercise. You do not have to use these audio files, as all of the exercises are also described in writing.

Of course, to play the exercises live from this e-book you will need to be connected to the internet through a browser while you are reading. If you prefer to play them offline, go to the main page for all the audio files before you begin, and download them by clicking on each and then selecting ‘Save As’ from your browser to save them to your disk. They are mp3 files, so you should be able to load them into Itunes and from there onto a compatible listening device if you prefer. The audio files are available here: Master Audio Files

The practices are best done in the order they are presented here, as together they form a progressive program that first surfaces and heals issues, and then takes you deeper into empowerment work. However, you can vary this if you like – above all trust your intuition. But do keep in mind that the practices progress, with the focus of the first half of the program on healing, and the second half on empowerment.

Although I initially created these exercises as part of an intensive, 10day program, you can spread them out over a much longer time if you wish. The pacing and intensity will really depend on where you are in your life, and what you think you can handle. You are in complete control of this process, and can choose your engagement level. This is very important, so I will repeat it – you are in complete control of this process!

You can do this process more than once, and you can pull out any of the practices to do individually as you like, although as I said, they were designed to work together, and in this order. I’ve noted when it’s important to combine a particular practice with another one, but these are all accessible, safe practices for any woman to engage in. Over the time I have been teaching these practices, I have received many questions about them, and if you are interested, you can check out the Frequently Asked Questions (and my answers) online.

Please don’t worry about how well you are or aren’t doing the exercises. Although you will use your mind to focus your intent to heal during this work, the process unfolds on the subtle level. Trust that something larger than yourself is occurring, and that it doesn’t require perfection on your part. The important thing is just to do your best, begin your healing journey, at the level that feels comfortable for you. I firmly believe that these practices are empowered and protected by forces much greater than me or you, and that once you begin, you will feel this for yourself, and be guided by it.

Prepar ation

Prepare a quiet, comfortable, safe place to do this work each day. If you already have a meditation corner or spot, use that, or create one for the purpose of these practices. Although you can do them in your bedroom, I do not recommend doing them on your bed. Place some pillows, blankets, incense and/or candles around you. If you have spiritual symbols, pictures, mentors or teachers that are a source of strength for you, consider placing pictures of these around you. You want to create a space where you feel comfortable and safe, and can do the practices undisturbed.

Some women like to do the contemplative exercises – especially the First Practice – as a journaling exercise. You may want to keep a journal or notebook and writing utensil available near your designated space. You will probably also want to print out this e-book to have at your side, although you can simply keep your computer or e-reader nearby instead.

The guided meditations and visualization practices are available in audio form online, and are also linked to individually before each exercise is described. You do not have to use the audio files – all of the practices are fully described in writing here – but if you think you would like to, you might want to download them onto your computer or whatever listening device you are using in advance (although you should also be able to simply click on them on the site and stream them directly from your computer as well.)

You should plan to spend about 15-20 minutes doing each exercise, although time will vary depending on your own preferences and pacing. You can do them at any time of day, but give yourself some space around it – you may need some transition time before or afterwards. Whether you decide to do the work daily, weekly or monthly, you may want to schedule it into your calendar or datebook, to help you stay committed.

Although most women find they get the most out of this process when they do it in a fairly condensed period of time – 2 -3 weeks or so - it is OK if you vary that, especially if it starts to feel overwhelming. If that occurs, give yourself a break, and pick up where you left off when you feel ready. The most important thing is to be gentle on yourself. You can also repeat this process as many times as you like, if you find it helpful, although the first time through instigates an ongoing process of healing, that will continue even after you have stopped doing the practices.

Some women like to coordinate this work with their menstrual cycles, or with the phases of the moon. If you would like to do this, consider starting the work towards the end of your period, and/or on the day after a new moon. This way you are building towards the height of your cycle and/or the full moon as you progress through the initial practices.

If questions arise, please feel free to post them as a comment on the page for this E-book at www.MommyMystic.com or to email me directly at lameditation@earthlink.net. I check both regularly. You may post your comment anonymously or with an imaginary name, if you are reluctant to post openly, and your question may help someone else. But emailing me is also fine - I am here to help.

Finally, healing is a natural process, although sometimes it requires effort and you can feel like there is resistance. Think of yourself like a tree seed sprouting and pushing up through the dirt to find the sun. Any resistance that you feel, in the form of difficult emotions or problems focusing, is natural, and you will find your way to that sun. Although I have tried to make this material non-denominational so that anyone of any spiritual belief system can engage in it, feel free to add prayer, meditations, or spiritual practices of your own to the daily process, in order to empower and spiritualize the process for yourself. No matter what, remember that you are supported and loved as you do this work.

Practice Initiation Ritual

When doing energy work such as the exercises in this e-book, it is important to initiate your session each time you sit down to practice. What follows are four easy steps that will help to center and focus your attention, and connect you with your subtle body. Do these steps each time you sit down to do one of the exercises in this e-book. As with all the exercises, you can listen to the online audio file to help you, or simply follow the written instructions here.

Audio: Practice Initiation Ritual (Click to play online, or Click and then select Save As from your browser if you’d prefer to save it to your hard drive to play later.)

Steps:

1. Ground Yourself: Sit solidly, with a straight spine if possible, and focus on wherever your body is connecting to the floor – your feet if you are sitting in a chair, or your sit-bones if you are on a pillow or the floor. Imagine you are connecting yourself by an anchor of light deep into the earth beneath you. Actually visualize a column of light extending from your tailbone down into the dirt and rocks beneath you in the earth. Allow yourself to feel connected to, and supported by, this connection.

2. Center Yourself: Focus on your heart chakra – the area right in the center of your chest, where your breastbone curves. Picture a beautiful white light glowing in the center of your chest (like E.T.!) Breathe into this space. Allow yourself to feel connected to love and balance. Bring yourself back to this place whenever you need to throughout the practices.

3. Draw Your Boundary: Picture a circle or oval of light surrounding your body – about a foot or so out from you on all sides. You can visualize this extending from just below your navel if you like. This is your ‘safe place’ to do your practices – inside this bubble you are dealing only with the purity of your own energy being. Whenever you feel distracted by thoughts or responsibilities from ‘outside’ this bubble, visualize yourself gently pushing them outside of it.

4. Establish Your Intent: State aloud your goal in undergoing this process. Something like:

“My intent for this practice is to heal myself of any remaining wounds related to past sexual trauma or abuse, so that I may own my personal power to an even greater degree, and live my life in the fullness of joy, passion, and creativity.”

However, you may state it in your own words. You may also ask for help if you like from any spiritual force, guide, or deity that you personally connect with.

After you have completed this preparation work, move into the practice you are currently on.

Practice 1: Energy Diagnostic and Journaling

This first practice is really about beginning to understand how you may have been impacted energetically by any past traumatic sexual experiences. Our first and second chakras, or lower energy centers, are most directly impacted, and since kundalini (spiritual life force energy) moves upward, this can impact our expression of upper chakra energies and themes as well, because we do not have a strong energetic foundation upon which to build.

Don’t worry if this chakra-talk is greek to you; you don’t need to become a chakra expert for the practices in this process to work for you – I include some basic explanation of why each practice is included at the start of each one as background only. Below are some questions for you to contemplate, and journal on if you like, to help explore the energies and psychological forces associated with the first and second chakras, and how they manifest in you.

There are no right or wrong answers - these questions are exploratory. The process of contemplating them will actually begin the process of mind/body self-awareness that guides the energetic healing work. In other words, it’s OK if you don’t feel absolutely sure about your answers – it is the process of thinking about these themes that will begin, and refine, your healing journey.

Step 1: Do the Practice Initiation Ritual to begin – use the description in the prior section and/or the audio file online to guide you.

Step 2: Root or First Chakra Diagnostic

This chakra is related to our ability to feel safe, grounded, connected to our family and personal history in a healthy way, and connected to our physical body in a healthy way. As the result of sexual trauma, we may become blocked from the energies expressed here, or alternatively we may overexpress them in one or more areas, in search of a kind of numbing, over-stimulating affect.

Contemplate the following questions to help you identify how you may be impacted. I suggest you read over them once, and then spend a little time contemplating and/or journaling on each topic. Don’t feel you have to reach absolute answers or understanding on any of these questions – simply contemplating them will help to refine and focus your healing process.

Feelings of Safety/Relationship to Risk: Do you find it difficult to feel safe anywhere? Does your home feel like a safe haven? Can you fully relax there or anywhere? Do you often find yourself feeling like it is you against the world? Are you adverse to risk of any type? Or alternatively, do you think you are addicted to risk?

Do you purposely and repeatedly create or participate in activities others consider unduly risky?

Overall, what do you think your relationship to safety and risk is like? Do you feel it is healthy, or is this an area in which you would like to focus your healing?

Ability to Feel Grounded: Do you frequently feel spacey or lacking in focus? Do you find yourself daydreaming a lot, to the point where it interferes with your ability to focus on the task at hand? Do you escape into other arenas, such as books, videogames, the internet, etc. to the point where it interferes with your ability to focus? Are you able to complete projects you set out to do? Or alternatively, do you feel you keep yourself overly grounded – i.e. you do not allow yourself time or space to daydream, or escape? Do you feel a need to be constantly busy, always with a project, always with a million details to take care of?

Overall, do you feel you are grounded in a healthy way, or is this an area you would like to focus your healing?

Connection to Family and Personal History: Are you connected to your family in a way that feels healthy and satisfying to you? Are there lingering issues of resentment and past history that have not been addressed? If you are cut off from your family, and feel this is the healthiest option for you, do you have a support network of friends that serves the function of family for you? Do you feel you are at peace with your past, and if not, what aspects of it are you still working on coming to terms with?

Note that this can be a particularly difficult topic to navigate, particularly if your sexual trauma took place within your family unit. A healthy connection to your root chakra does not require a strong, active connection to your family of origin, only that you are comfortable with whatever connection you have, and that you have consciously chosen it. Is this the case, or is this an area on which you would like to focus your healing?

Connection to Physical Body: Do you feel connected to your physical body? Note that this chakra has less to do with body image (although this is important too) and more to do with how comfortable you feel being physical, i.e. do you have physical activities that you engage in, in which you feel strong and know you can rely on your body while doing them? Or do you feel disconnected from, or mistrustful of, your body? Do you feel constantly fatigued, even when you get enough sleep? Or do you feel antsy or hyper in your body, and/or have problems with insomnia? Do you feel you have a healthy immune system? Overall, what is your relationship to your body like? Do you feel comfortable with it, or is this an area on which you would like to focus your healing?

Step 3: Sacral or Second Chakra Diagnostic

Our second chakra is related to our ability to feel creative, sensual, sexual, and passionate. It is heavily related to our emotions, and our ‘fluidity’, or ability to adapt and change according to a situation. This chakra plays a special role in women, and when it is blocked or wounded, as is of course often the case in sexual trauma, it can have long-lasting impact on our ability to feel joy, express passion, own our sensual and sexual selves, and create the life we want. We will do a lot of work centered in this chakra, so the questions here are simply meant to get you started in the healing journey.

Connection to Emotions: Do you feel emotionally drained, lackluster, or passionless? Are you able to feel joy and other strong emotions, or do you feel like there is a ‘lid’ on your emotional range? Or conversely, do you feel you are emotionally impulsive – swinging rapidly between emotions on a regular basis? Overall, do you feel you have a healthy relationship to your emotions, or is this an area you would like to focus your healing?

Connection to Creativity: Are you in touch with your creative abilities? This doesn’t have to be through an artistic pursuit, just simply in your daily life - do you feel you are able to creatively problem-solve, and/or address your surroundings and situations in a creative way? Or do you feel you are a creature of routine, always choosing and selecting the same approach to issues? Overall, do you feel connected to your creative self, or is this an area you would like to focus on in your healing?

Connection to Sensuality/Sexuality: Are you able to enjoy sensual, tactile experiences i.e. any activity from massage, to a warm bath, to sitting by a fireplace basking in the warmth? Are you able to enjoy sex? Obviously, this topic can be a minefield for those working through sexual trauma, and hopefully you have already done some work in this area in your counseling. The main question is, are you able to enjoy pleasurable physical experiences, whether sexual in nature or not? Or conversely, do you feel you overindulge in such experiences as a kind of escapism? Overall, do you feel comfortable with your sensuality and sexuality, or is this an area you would like to focus on in your healing?

Adaptability and Fluidity: Do you feel you are able to adapt to changing circumstances in a healthy way, or does change almost always stress you out? Do you have healthy routines, or do you frequently lapse into chaos? Or conversely, are you addicted to routine and find it difficult to function when your routine is disrupted? Overall, do you feel you have a healthy level of adaptability and flexibility, or is this an area on which you would like to focus on in your healing?

Step 4: Refining and Focusing Your Healing Intent

Obviously these are all complicated questions, and highly subjective. The goal is not to feel you have an absolute answer or handle on them, but instead to engage in the process of thinking about them. Doing so will begin the healing journey in your subconscious, and by extension, in your energy body. At the end of your session, you should have a sense of which of these aspects you would most like to focus on in your Practice 2 and 3 work. If so, make a note of them for yourself now. If not, don’t worry about it – just continue to contemplate them until then. There is no harm in focusing on all of these aspects if you so wish, when the time comes.

Step 5: Closing

In Closing out Practice 1, congratulate yourself on beginning this process. Close your eyes for a moment and re-center yourself in your heart, and then visualize your energy ‘boundary’ opening just enough to allow you to interact with others in a healthy way for the rest of your day. Allow some of your boundary to remain however, so that you have a sense of being protected and clear. Be gentle with yourself today, and relax.

Practice 2 – Empowering Your Intent to Heal

Although in every practice of this process you state your intent to heal as part of your Practice Initiation Ritual, now in Practice 2 you will formalize that intent, and communicate it to every level of your being. This step is like shooting an arrow of intent from your conscious mind deep into your subconscious, and through that into your energy body, so that the healing process can begin to unfold on its own at its subtlest level.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Select Your Healing Themes

Revisit your Diagnostic/Journaling Questions from Practice 1. If you wrote down your contemplations, read them for yourself. If not, revisit the questions and review your thoughts on them. Select the 3-4 themes that you think are the most relevant to you from that exercise. For example, do you think feeling safe is one of your biggest challenges? Feeling grounded? Connecting to your creativity? To emotions? You may feel that you would like to work on all of them, which is also fine, although most women find that focusing in on 3-4

themes is the most helpful. You can revisit this process at any time to work on other themes.

Step 3: Create Your Healing Intent Statements

Create a vow or intent statement for each of the themes that you have chosen to focus on. For example:

“With this healing process, I will strengthen my root chakra and my ability to feel grounded and focused in my daily life.”

“With this healing process, I will heal my sacral chakra and strengthen my natural creativity.”

“With this healing process, I will reconnect with my emotions and begin to live from a place of balanced feeling.”

“With this healing process, I will reconnect with my sensual/sexual self, owning the sensations and sexual energy of my being.”

Spend some time crafting your statements in way that feels right to you. Make sure they are positive in nature, stating your end-goal related to each one. Note that you can add other statements of healing intent, that are not directly related to the diagnostic process you underwent in Practice 1, but don’t overwhelm yourself with too many. Write them down, and sit them next to you for the next step.

Step 4: Connect to Your Energy Body – Basic Chakra Rotation

To awaken your connection to your subtle body, you will now focus on each of your 7 in-body chakras in turn. Feel free to use the audio available online for this meditation if you like (link below) or just follow the written description as best you can. Don’t get too caught up in ‘doing it right’ – just try your best to follow along. Any attempt at all will begin to awaken your subtle sense, and mind/body chakra connection.

Audio: Basic Chakra Rotation (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

First Chakra (Root): Sit as straight as possible and focus your awareness on your tailbone. You can press one hand against your tailbone to help draw your attention there if you like. Visualize a red ball of light there, and breathe deeply into this area 3-4 times. If you start to feel a warmth or tingle, focus on that instead. This chakra is your connection to grounding, safety, physicality and familial ties.

Second Chakra (Sacral): Shift your attention to your lower pelvis – 4-5 inches below your navel. You can hold your hands one on top of the other over this area to help you focus. Visualize a beautiful orange or amber light in this area. This is your sacral chakra, and we will do many meditations to help you connect with this area. For now, see if you can experience a tingle or warmth in this, your womb, area. Breathe into your hands 3-4 times. This is your connection to creativity, emotions, including your ability to nurture yourself, as well as to sensuality and sexuality.

Third Chakra (Navel): Shift your attention, and your hands, to just below your navel – about 1 inch below. Visualize a bright yellow light in this area. If you feel a warmth or tingle, focus on that instead of the visualization. Breathe into your hands for 3-4 breaths. This is your connection to your personal power, will, determination, and ability to draw healthy boundaries.

Fourth Chakra (Heart): Shift your attention, and your hands, to the center of your chest – right where your breastbone curves. Visualize a beautiful, vibrant green light in this area, like the color of spring leaves. Breath into your hands and this light for 34 breaths. This is your connection to love, compassion, balance and purity.

Fifth Chakra (Throat): Shift your attention and hands to your throat area. Visualize a beautiful blue light emanating from the center of your neck. Breathe into this area and light for 3-4

breaths. This is your connection to self-expression, communication, and authenticity.

Sixth Chakra (Third Eye): Shift your attention and hands to your ‘third eye’ – the area a little above the midpoint of your eyebrows in your forehead. Visualize a beautiful white light emanating from deep within your forehead. Breathe into this area and light for 3-4 breaths. This is your connection to intuition, wisdom, and metaphysical understanding.

Seventh Chakra (Crown): Shift your attention and hands to your crown chakra – the top of your head, a little towards the back. Visualize a beautiful gold light emanating from deep within the upper back part of your brain, and creating a halo above you. Breathe into this area and light for 3-4 breaths. This is your connection to bliss, spiritual experience, and transcendence.

Step 5: Empower Your Healing Intention

Now that you are connected to your energy body, you can state your vows/intentions to heal.

1. Place your hands over your 2nd and 3rd chakras – one hand just below your navel, and one hand below it, over your pelvis. Breathe into your belly area, into both of your hands.

2. In a clear, strong voice (although it does not have to be loud), state your intentions to heal – the statements you prepared above.

3. Take a few more deep, belly breaths.

4. Visualize a column of light extending down from your belly into the ground beneath you. Then visualize a column of light extending upwards from your belly, all the way up out the crown of your head.

5. Move your hands up to your heart area, and take a few deep breaths.

6. Bow if you like, or close out your visualization however you would like.

Step 6: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. Congratulate yourself for completing Practice 2. Relax your boundary energy, just enough to feel comfortable, and move on with your day with a healthy sense of your boundaries and strength.

Practice 3 – Initial Release in Lower Chakras

Now that you have initiated, focused, and empowered your healing process, we can begin to work on releasing and clearing energetic blocks to your chakras. The next 4 days will be dedicated to this, with the final 4 days focused on developing the subtler spiritual powers of your sacral and other chakras, building on the foundation of new energy and freedom you create over these next 4 days.

We will begin gently in this initial release session, by using chakra visualization work to release blocks to your lower chakras, and then connecting and opening all of your uppers chakras as well.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Root/First Chakra Release

If you are not used to visualization work, this may at first seem very abstract to you, and your focus may wander. Don’t worry about this. Do your best. The visualizations are just a way of directing the subtler levels of your awareness. It is ok if your mind wanders a bit, and if your visualizations are not picture-perfect. Your deeper being will get the message, and trigger the real release work. As always, you can choose to use the accompanying audio or just follow the written instructions. Note that this audio is for both Steps 2 and 3 of Practice 3 – release for both the root and sacral chakras.

Audio: Lower Chakra Release (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Focus your awareness on the bottom of your spine – your tailbone area. Place one hand there, and breath into the area. Visualize a beautiful ball of red light emanating from your tailbone. Sit quietly for a moment to settle into this visualization.

2. Now visualize that the center of this red ball is getting brighter – like a pinprick of bright red light directly in the center of the ball. Visualize this bright spot slowly growing larger, and as it does, pushing out dark matter or blocks that might be there. You might see or sense these blocks, or you might not. If not, just pretend – visualize little black spots or fragments getting pushed out of this chakra as your bright red light slowly grows larger, until you are visualizing a grapefruit size sphere of light emanating from your tailbone.

3. Repeat 2 more times.

4. Re-visualize a bright red dot in the center of this chakra. Take a big inhalation, and on your exhalation, visualize the dot growing to full size in one breath, with your breath and the exploding light once again pushing out blocks, this time quickly.

5. Repeat 2 more times.

6. Now we will calm and center your root chakra, before moving on. To do this, picture yourself sitting under a beautiful tree, surrounded by grass and flowers. If you actually have a favorite tree that you like to sit under, picture it, otherwise, just create an ideal scene for yourself. Visualize your root chakra connected to this tree and the ground. Breathe into this relaxing scene for a few breaths.

Step 3: Sacral/Second Chakra Release

Now you will do this same process with your second chakra:

1. Focus your awareness on your lower pelvis – 4-5 inches below your navel. Place your hands cupped one on top of the other in this area, and breathe deeply into them. Visualize a beautiful ball of orange or amber light resting in this area. Sit quietly for a moment to settle into this visualization.

2. Now visualize that the center of this orange ball is getting brighter – a pinprick of bright orange in the center. Visualize this bright spot slowly growing larger, and as it does, pushing out dark matter or blocks that might be there. Again, visualize little black spots or fragments getting pushed out of this chakra as your bright orange light slowly grows larger, until you are visualizing a grapefruit size sphere of light resting in this area.

3. Repeat 2 more times.

4. Re-visualize an orange dot in the center of this chakra. Take a big inhalation, and on your exhalation, visualize the dot growing to full size in one exhale, with your breath and the exploding light once again pushing out blocks, this time quickly.

5. Repeat 2 more times.

6. Now we will calm and center your sacral chakra, before moving on. To do this, picture yourself sitting by a beautiful ocean beach, lake, or pond. If you actually have a favorite body of water that you like to visit, picture this, otherwise, just create an ideal scene for yourself. Visualize your sacral chakra connected to this water. Breathe into this relaxing scene for a few breaths.

Step 4: Moving Through the Upper Chakras

Whenever you are working with your lower chakras, it’s important to finish by empowering the connection and flow to your upper chakras as well. To do this, you will repeat the basic chakra meditation that you did in Practice 2 to connect to your energy body, but this time only for chakras 3-7:

Third Chakra (Navel): Shift your attention, and your hands, to just below your navel – about 1 inch below. Visualize a bright yellow light in this area. If you feel a warmth or tingle, focus on that instead of the visualization. Breathe into your hands for 3-4 breaths. This is your connection to your personal power, determination, and ability to draw healthy boundaries.

Fifth Chakra (Throat): Shift your attention and hands to your throat area. Visualize a beautiful blue light emanating from the center of your neck. Breathe into this area and light for 3-4

breaths. This is your connection to self-expression, communication, and authenticity.

Step 5: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. Congratulate yourself for completing Practice 3. Relax your boundary energy, just enough to feel comfortable, and move on with your day.

Practice 4 – Transforming Anger and Fear

For many women, the energetic residual of anger and fear is often the longest-lasting energetic affect of sexual trauma, creeping into all areas of their life, especially relationships, long after they feel they have psychologically dealt with the trauma. Even if you do not feel this is true for you, the work of Practice 4 is essential in the ongoing energetic healing process. We will begin to work on our third and fourth chakras – the navel and heart chakras – working upwards from the first and second chakra work already completed.

Hopefully, you have already undergone counseling or done some therapeutic work around these emotions. This means you have already faced many feelings of anger and fear, and dealt with the specific roots and impacts of these in your psyche. The practice outlined here is designed to help you release any remaining ‘stuck’ energy related to these emotions. It may also help you to surface any residual feelings of shame or guilt that have fed off of your feelings of fear or anger (including self-anger.) This is also meant to counteract any repressive tendencies you may have developed as a defense mechanism – any habit of pushing down feelings of anger and fear. In this exercise we will instead work with these energies, and own the strengths that they (as all emotions) hold for us.

To do this, you will first need to trigger recent feelings of anger or fear, to connect with the energy of these emotions, and transform that energy in a constructive way. However, the goal here is not to recall any traumatic events – this is not meant to be a recapitulation of your sexual trauma – just to connect in general to the emotions of anger and fear in a manageable way. As with all the steps in this process, if it starts to feel overwhelming to you, stop for the day, engage in comforting and supportive activities, and return to the work when you feel ready.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Selecting Individual Anger and Fear Triggers

Think back over the last few days or weeks, and try to remember one situation in which you became angry, and one in which you felt fearful. You can go further back in time if you like, although it is better to select recent events, as the closer you are to them in time, the easier it will be to connect with the emotions involved. Remember that these events do not need to be linked to your sexual trauma in any way, and in fact can be quite mundane – feeling a burst of anger at a driver who cut you off on the highway, or a moment of fear when you thought you saw a snake in the corner of your yard. Any little moment of anger or fear is fine, however fleeting. Bigger events are fine too, as long as you feel you can recall the event – as part of the energy practice in Step 4 – without getting involved in the ‘story’ of it (the details and conversations that occurred.) You simply want to recall the feeling, not get caught up in a full-scale recapitulation of a difficult event.

You may want to jot down the memories you selected, for use in Step 4.

Step 3: Selecting Empathic Anger and Fear Triggers

Now select one issue that makes you angry in the world – an injustice, attitude, or event in the world that makes you angry on behalf of others. The ‘others’ you are angry for may be close to you personally (family or friends), or more general – a class, nation, or group of people. You may want to select an issue you perceive as a women’s issues – an injustice or wrong perpetrated against women somewhere in the world.

Then do the same thing regarding fear – select an event, attitude, or trend present in the world that makes you fearful for others. Again, you are not necessarily linking this directly to your sexual trauma, and in fact selecting unrelated items may be the easiest to work with – an environmental fear, an economic fear, etc.

It’s careful not to let this step become a minefield. You are not creating a social policy platform here. And you do not need to feel that the items you select are the most important issues of the day, even to you. The goal is find themes that awaken your sense of anger or fear on behalf of others, not only yourself. You will be working with the energy of the feelings these issues evoke, not the issues themselves.

Jot these down if you need to – you will use the memories and social issues you have selected in Steps 2 and 3 in the next Step.

Step 4: Anger and Fear Release and Transmutation

The energy practice in this step will help you to connect with your feelings of anger and fear, release any aspect of these emotions that is not helpful or healthy for you, and transform the remaining energy into a healthy expression. It is available as an audio file online. It is one of the longer practices in this process, so feel free to stop and read as you go along, if you are not using the audio file.

Audio: Anger/Fear Transmutation (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Hold one hand over your heart chakra, and one hand over your navel chakra as you do this exercise. Take a few deep breaths to center yourself.

Releasing Anger Residual

2. Recall your individual anger trigger memory from Step 2. Recall just enough of the situation to connect with the feeling of anger, but try to keep yourself from entirely re-playing or reimagining the event. If your mind wanders into this realm, just gently pull it back to the emotion of anger.

3. Explore this feeling of anger a bit. Where is it located in your body? Can you feel it physically? How would you describe it energetically – thick or thin, sharp or dull, fuzzy or clear?

4. Now shift your focus to your breathing, and imagine that each time you breath in, you are inhaling a beautiful, healing, gold light. On your exhale, imagine you are breathing away this feeling of anger. If it is helpful, focus on the physical location of this anger as you feel it in your body. Repeat this process of breathing in healing gold light and out the energy of anger 5 times.

Releasing Fear Residual

5. Now recall your individual fear trigger memory from Step 2. As before, recall just enough of the situation to connect with the feeling of fear, but try to keep yourself from entirely re-playing or re-imagining the event. Explore this feeling of fear. Where is it located in your body? How would you describe it energetically?

6. Shift your focus to your breathing, and imagine that each time you breathe in, you are inhaling a beautiful, healing, gold light. On your exhale, imagine you are breathing away this feeling of fear. Repeat this process of breathing in healing gold light and out the energy of fear 5 times.

Transforming Anger

7. Now recall your empathic anger trigger from Step 3. Tap into your sense of feeling angry on behalf of others. Explore the energy of this anger for a moment. Does this anger feel different than the first one? If so, how so?

8. Now try to tap into the common energy beneath both sets of angry feelings. At the core of anger is a strong, forceful feeling – a strong, willful energy. Try to tap into this energy apart from the anger of emotion. In other words, drop your connection to your memory or issue, and just try and explore the depths of the energy of anger, not the emotion. This might feel very abstract to you, but just give it your best shot – as with all of this work, the attempt will trigger a subtler process deep in your energetic being.

9. Sit for a moment and breathe into this forceful energy that you have found. Place your hand over your navel chakra and breath into it. Imagine that this forceful energy is at the core of your navel chakra. Visualize a beautiful yellow light in your navel area lit up by this forceful energy. Transforming Fear

10. Now recall your collective fear trigger from Step 3. Tap into your sense of feeling fearful on behalf of others. Explore the energy of this fear for a moment. Does this fear feel different than the first one? If so, how so?

11. Now try to tap into the common energy beneath both sets of fearful feelings. At the core of fear is a receptive compassion – a genuine concern for yourself and others’ well-being. Try to tap into this receptive, compassionate energy apart from the emotion of fear - drop your connection to your memory or issue, and just try and explore the depths of the energy of fear, not the emotion.

12. Sit for a moment and breath into this compassionate energy that you have found. Place your hand over your heart chakra and breathe into it. Imagine that this compassionate energy is at the core of your heart chakra. Visualize a beautiful green light in your heart area lit by this compassionate energy.

13. Sit with one hand on your navel and one hand on your heart. Own the strong willful feeling in your navel chakra, and the warm empathic feeling in your heart. Know that these are the strengths of anger and fear, and that you can connect to these energies – without the harmful negative aspects – of your anger and fear whenever you need to. Instead of repressing or indulging in your anger or fear in a damaging way, you can transform and connect to the strength and compassion inherent within them.

Step 5: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. Make sure you have fully released your connection to the anger and fear you evoked. If you feel you have not, try the 7-chakra Basic Rotation meditation from Practice 2. Alternatively, simply visualize yourself sitting on a beautiful beach somewhere – or any favorite place of yours – and relax into it for a bit.

Give yourself an extra big congratulations for the work you have done in Practice 4 – it was a biggie! Relax your boundary energy, just enough to feel comfortable, and move on with your day.

Practice 5 – Working with Energy Lines

We all establish energetic lines or cords between our own energy body and the energy bodies of the people in our lives. Energy flows back and forth across these lines all the time, triggered by interactions of all types, and even our thoughts and emotions. It is helpful for any of us to periodically cut or clear energy lines that we no longer need or that are not healthy for us – lines to people no longer in our life, or that we have developed an unhealthy or unproductive dynamic with. Even the energy lines of people we care about, and that care about us, can become problematic at times, and focusing on clearing them can bring us a new sense of strength and support.

Of special importance to women healing from sexual trauma is the cutting of any residual energy lines to the perpetrator. This clearing process does not involve reliving the traumatic event(s), but it does involve using some memory of your perpetrator in order to select and cut any remaining energy lines. Hopefully, the counseling or therapy that you have already undergone has brought you to a point where you are comfortable with this, but if not, you do not have to participate in this step of the practice. You can do the rest of the steps, and return to this practice at some point in the future if you like. There is tremendous power in cutting this line however, and many women find it creates a new sense of closure and freedom.

In this practice, you will first identify lines to cut and clear, then create a support network ‘mandala’ to identify the positive lines in your life, and finally use these lists and mandala to do the energy practice itself.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Identify Lines to Cut and Clear

First you need to identify the individuals you may want to cut or clear energy lines with. Grab a piece of paper, and make a list of the following categories. Try and keep each list to 5-8 individuals – any more than that at one time will get overwhelming. You can return to this practice whenever you like in the future.

In the practice you will cut lines with individuals you no longer have contact with, or that you feel you do not have a positive relationship with. You will clear lines with individuals that you want in your life in a meaningful way, but that you feel an unhealthy dynamic of some type has developed with. Even if you cut a line, you are not saying you will never choose to see this person again, you are simply cutting any ongoing energetic exchange that may be occurring. This is an important step in fully owning your own personal power in the present, and not ‘giving it away’ to the past. None of this work is any way vengeful or harmful to the individuals you focus upon – you are focusing on your energy line to them, and on ending or clearing it; you are not sending any harmful energy to them, or receiving any from them.

Lines to Cut

- Past romantic/sexual partners that you are either no longer in contact with, or that it is time to shift into a definitively casual mode with. This is the single biggest area of energy drain for most women, because we invest so much emotionally in our relationships, and because an ongoing sexual relationship creates very deep energy lines in a woman’s energy being.

- Friendships or family relationships that you have chosen to end for whatever reason. Any other individuals from the past that you feel are ‘lingering’ in your attention, and that you feel you need to fully move on from.

- The perpetrator(s) of your sexual trauma. Lines to Clear

- Family, friends and partners that are important to you, but that you feel some sort of unhealthy dynamic has evolved with. You do not need to analyze the issue now - that is not what this practice is about. Just make the list.

- Co-workers, neighbors, acquaintances and others in your life that you have no choice but to associate with, but that some sort of unhealthy or negative energy has developed with.

Step 3: Create a Support Network Mandala

Set your lists aside, and get a fresh sheet or page of paper to draw a support network mandala on. A mandala is a geometric, symmetrical, circular line drawing like this:

Don’t worry, your support mandala does not need to be nearly this elaborate. The idea is to draw a mandala representing your support network – the people in your life who most care about and support you. We will strengthen this mandala during the energy practice of Step 4.

Below are suggested steps for going about this, but you can draw your mandala however it feels comfortable to you. As with all the exercises in this process, don’t worry about it being perfect, just do the best you can with the time you have available.

1. Write your name in the center of the paper, and draw a circle around it.

2. Draw spokes radiating out from your name circle like a wheel and at the end of each spoke write the name of one of the most important, and supportive, people in your life. This is your ‘inner circle’ of supportive family, friends, and relationships. Draw a circle around this level of names.

3. Create a second level of spokes coming out from this inner circle. Write the names of other people in your life that are important to you, but not the core of your support network – this may be more distant family and friends, or include neighbors and co-workers. Draw a circle around this level too.

4. Draw another series of spokes and list individuals that are peripherally in your support network – neighbors, co-workers, teachers etc. that you may not know well, but that are a definitive and necessary part of your life, and support you in some way. Draw a circle around this level.

5. Instead of spokes, draw another circle. Between these last two outer circles write words that represent your spiritual beliefs or strongest held values. The idea is to ‘encase’ your support network mandala in these energies. You can write the names of deities, saints, or mentors, and/or you can write traits and values such as ‘truth’, ‘integrity’, ‘love’, ‘kindness’, ‘strength’, etc.

Step 4: Cutting, Clearing and Strengthening Your Energy Network

Now it is time for the actual energy work. You will want your lists and mandalas from steps 2 and 3 next to you. As always, just do your best with the visualizations. What is important is your intent.

Audio: Working With Energy Lines (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Place your hands over your navel chakra, and take a few deep belly breaths into your hands.

2. Go through your list of energy lines to cut. As you get to each individual, briefly visualize them, and a line or rope of energy extending from your navel to them. Then visualize cutting that energy line with a pair of scissors. Use your fingers as scissors to add that physical component to the process. Do not linger on each name, just keep moving, although you can visualize cutting each line more than once if you like. You can do this! As you cut each line, visualize your part of it snapping back into your belly, as you reclaim whatever energy has been lost to that line back into yourself.

3. Go through your list of energy lines to clear. Visualize each individual, and an energy line between you and them. From the center point of that line, visualize a gold light emanating back to each of you, cleansing and purifying that line. Then visualize yourself ‘closing’ the line – not removing it, simply closing a little door at the point where it reaches your navel chakra. As with all our energy lines, you control when you would like it open and when you would like it closed.

4. Look at your support network mandala. Visualize yourself sitting happily and serenely, encased in light. Then visualize your inner circle of individuals surrounding you, smiling supportively at you, also encased in light. Continue with the outer two layers of your mandala. Don’t worry if you can’t hold the entire thing your mind at once, just cycle through the names and levels.

5. Now return back to your visualization of yourself sitting happily and serenely alone. Drop your visual of all energy lines and your mandala. See yourself encased in light, solitary and peaceful. Feel your strength and equanimity.

Step 5: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. Do not dwell on or second-guess any of the lines you cut or cleared. You did what felt right at the time for this day. You can return to this practice after your 10-step process if you like. For now, it’s important that you focus on the remainder of your healing journey, and release any connection to this practice or the people you focused on. Congratulate yourself on being halfway through this healing journey. Tomorrow you will engage in a deep release of all your chakras, in preparation for you ascent back into the full joy and power available to you.

Practice 6 – Deep Release and Empowerment of All Chakras

You have focused your healing, initially released at your first and second chakra levels, worked at transforming anger and fear, and cut and cleared problematic energy lines. You are ready to release and empower each of your seven chakras – essentially cleansing and engaging your entire energy being. This step is the turning point in this energetic healing process, as it is the last step that is focused on release of energies from the past that might have been stuck in your energy being. Starting tomorrow, with Practice 7, you will focus on reclaiming your personal power, and the power of your sacral chakra, your doorway to feminine power and spirit.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Selecting Triggers

This step is very similar to the step in Practice 4, when you selected anger and fear memories to help you connect with those emotions energetically, in order to release and transform them. In this step, you are going to work through each of the 7 chakras, and select a disempowering and empowering memory related to the energies of that chakra. In the energy practice of Step 3, you will walk through each chakra, and work on releasing the energies associated with the disempowering memory, and strengthening those associated with the empowering one.

First (Root) Chakra: The energies of the first chakra that we are working with in this process are feelings of safety, groundedness, connection to family, and connection to physical body. Select a

recent memory in which you felt unsafe, ungrounded (spacey), disconnected from your family in an unhealthy way, or disconnected/mistrustful of your physical body. All you need is one memory that evokes one of these feelings. You are not trying to create an exhaustive list, as this is simply a trigger memory, to work with in your energetic practice.

Now select an empowering memory – a memory of a situation in which you felt safe, grounded, connected to family in a healthy way, or connected to your physical body in a strong, vital way. Write down a note to help you remember each memory.

Second (Sacral) Chakra: The aspects of the second chakra that we are working with are creativity, emotional connection, sensuality/ sexuality, and adaptability/flexibility. Select a memory of a situation in which you felt either uncreative (stuck), emotionally disconnected (numb or unable to feel), lacking in sensual or sexual connection, or rigid/inflexible. Just one memory that triggers one of these energies is all you need. Then select a memory of a situation in which you felt either creative, emotionally connected or passionate, sensual/sexual, or adaptable/flexible. Write down each memory for use in the energy practice.

Third (Navel) Chakra: The aspects of the navel chakra that we are working with are personal power, will power, ability to plan/manifest, and ability to maintain healthy boundaries. Select a memory of a situation in which you felt disempowered, discouraged, scattered, unable to complete something you wanted to complete, or in which you felt your energetic or emotional boundaries were violated. Then select a memory of a situation in which you felt empowered, determined, productive, organized, or in which you felt you maintained a particularly healthy boundary. Record your choices.

Fourth (Heart) Chakra: The aspects of the heart chakra that we are working with are love, compassion, purity, and balance. Select a memory of a situation in which you felt unloved, out of balance, or were the victim of an unkind or malicious act. Alternatively, you can select a memory in which you felt that you yourself acted in an unloving, unkind, or impure way. Then select a memory of a situation in which you felt loved, understood, balanced or pure in intent. Alternatively, you can select a memory of a situation in which you felt particularly loving, compassionate, pure or balanced. Record your choices.

Fifth (Throat) Chakra: The aspects of the throat chakra that we are working with are self-expression, communication, authenticity, and speaking truth. Select a memory of a situation in which you felt repressed, unable to express yourself honestly or communicate effectively, disingenuous, or forced to lie. Then select a memory in which you felt you expressed yourself well, spoke your truth, communicated effectively, or spoke or acted in an authentic way. Record your choices.

Sixth (Third Eye) Chakra: The aspects of the third eye that we are working with are intuition, wisdom, insight, and metaphysical understanding. Select a memory of a situation in which you felt blocked from your intuition, unable to understand, stupid, or lacking in vision. Then select a memory of a situation in which you accessed your intuitive knowledge, or felt smart, insightful, or wise. Record your choices.

Seventh (Crown) Chakra: The aspects of the crown chakra that we are working with are bliss, spiritual experience, and feelings of transcendence. Select a situation in which you felt spiritually disengaged, repressed, or doubtful – a crises of faith. Then select a memory of a spiritual or faith-filled experience, when you felt affirmed in your beliefs and spiritual path. Record your choices.

Step 3: Releasing and Empowering Your Energy Body

Now you are ready to begin your release and empowerment work. Chakra by chakra, you will visualize your disempowering memory to trigger the associated emotion/energy, and then visualize loosening and releasing that energy from your energetic being. Then you will visualize your empowering memory, and visualize strengthening that energy, owning it fully, and pulling it deeper into your energy being. As always, just do your best, and keep the process moving. Don’t worry about whether you are doing it right – your natural healing instincts will guide you.

Audio: Deep Release All Chakras (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Focusing on your tailbone, the focal point for your first/root chakra, recall your disempowering memory for this chakra, just enough to feel some emotion/energy associated with it. Do not go deeply into replaying the full memory, it is not necessary. Focus in on the feeling this memory creates in you, and try to connect with the energy of it. Then imagine this energy, and this memory, dislodging from your root chakra and floating away in a bubble - away from your body, and outside your energy boundary. Imagine the bubble popping once it is well away from you and dissipating into pure energy. Know that it is gone from you, along with any associated feelings or energies.

2. Continuing to focus on your root chakra, recall your empowering memory for this chakra. Revel in the feeling of safety, groundedness, family connection or physical vitality that this memory triggers for you. Focus on the energy of this feeling. Imagine it getting stronger and brighter, and settling deep into the core of your root chakra. This feeling is natural and lasting for you – part of your birthright that you can access at any time.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 from above for chakras 2-7. For each chakra, first focus on the physical location of the chakra for a moment. Then recall the disempowering memory that you selected for that chakra, attempt to connect to the energy of it, then imagine that memory and energy becoming dislodged from the chakra, floating away from your body, and popping/dissolving into pure energy. Then visualize your empowering memory, and pull the energy triggered deep into your chakra, owning it forever.

Step 4: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. Congratulations on completing the release phase of your healing journey. Tomorrow we will begin your ascent back into power, joy, and spiritual fulfillment.

Relax your energy boundary and move on with your day.

Practice 7 – Strengthening Chakra Flow and Connection

Now the fun begins! Practices 7-9 are entirely meditation oriented – you do not need to do any journaling, memory selection, or writing of any type. All of these meditations are available as audio files online. Each is an important step in processing and integrating the healing release and empowerment work you have done so far.

In today’s session, you will do two guided meditations. The first is designed to establish a strong upward movement of energy from your lower to upper chakras. The second is designed to strengthen the connection between your ‘masculine’ chakras (the odd- numbered ones) and your ‘feminine’ chakras (the even-numbered ones.) Masculine and feminine are used here like yang and yin – we are talking about active (yang, masculine) and receiving (yin, feminine) energies that everyone has within them. This has nothing to do with gender. Women recovering from sexual trauma often have trouble connecting to both energies, and so we will be strengthening your connection to both before focusing in on your sacral chakra – the root of our feminine power – in the next two days.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Strengthening Chakra Flow

In this meditation we will focus in on each of your 7 chakras in turn, just as we did in the chakra meditation in Practice 2. Then you will do this cycling quickly several times, focusing on the upward movement between the chakras as you go.

Audio: Chakra Flow (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Go through the entire chakra rotation meditation that you did in Practice 2 – beginning with focusing for a few breaths on your root chakra, and then continuing up through each of the chakras until you reach your crown chakra.

2. Now return to your root chakra, and cycle through each of your 7 chakras quickly – spending only a quick couple of seconds to visualize – and tap with your hand if you like – the chakra. As you move from chakra to chakra, try and visualize a line of light moving upward between the chakras, connecting them all.

3. Do this quick chakra cycling 3 times.

4. Now slow down, and do the chakra rotation one last time, but

more slowly – 10-20 seconds on each chakra. Visualize a strong upward flow of energy between each chakra.

Step 3: Establishing Your Masculine and Feminine Chakra Links

Now that you’ve established a flow between all of your chakras, the next meditation will help you to link your masculine/yang chakras (numbers 1-3-5-7) together and your feminine/yin chakras (2-4-6.)

Audio: Masculine and Feminine Chakra Links (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Begin by focusing on your root chakra. Hold your right hand in a fist and gently place it against your tailbone. Visualize red light at your root chakra under your fist. Then hold your left hand in a fist and place it over your navel chakra. Visualize yellow light under your fist. Next focus on the connection between these two fists and chakras – your right hand at your root and your left hand at your navel. (Note that the fists aren’t meant to represent aggression, just a strong, radiating ball of energy.)

2. Leaving your left fist at your navel, now move your right fist to your throat chakra and repeat – focus on the light of each chakra, and then on the connection between them.

3. Finally, move your left fist to your crown chakra and repeat, solidifying the connection between your throat and crown chakras. As you move between chakras, try to visualize a straight line of light connecting the prior chakra to the current one, i.e connecting 1 and 3, 3 and 5, 5 and 7.

4. Now you will cycle through just your feminine (evennumbered) chakras. This time you will use a spiral movement of your finger – a figure-eight or infinity symbol – to connect them. First focus in on your sacral/second chakra. With on index figure, draw a figure-eight linking your sacral chakra to the earth – the bottom of the eight touches the ground, and the top touches your sacral chakra. Continue drawing this spiral/eight connection between the earth and your sacral chakra for a minute or so.

5. Next, shift your attention to your heart chakra, and draw the same figure-eight with an index figure between your sacral and heart chakras. The bottom of the eight touches your sacral chakra and the top touches your heart chakra. Try to visualize a line of light traveling between these chakras. Do this for a minute or so.

6. Now shift your attention to your third eye. Draw a figure eight with your index finger between your heart and third eye chakras.

Try to visualize this figure eight as made of light, connecting the two chakras, for a minute or so.

7. Finally, you will draw this figure eight pattern between your third eye and the sky. The bottom of the figure eight is your third eye, and the top is the space above your head.

8. To finish, place one hand on your heart chakra and one on your navel, and take a few deep, calming breaths. You have generated a lot of movement in your energy body, and now it is time to quiet it down and center yourself.

Step 4: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. Relax your energy boundary to the appropriate level and move on with your day.

Practice 8 – Engaging and Opening the Sacral Chakra

Today, we will focus in on your sacral, or second, chakra. In energy medicine this chakra rules our sexual and reproductive organs, and our sexuality along with it, so it is most directly impacted by sexual trauma. In both men and women this chakra is connected with creativity, emotions, sensuality, sexuality, and fluidity. However, in women this chakra plays a special role. It is the ‘seat’ for our kundalini, or spiritual life force energy. It also is a focal point for our intuitive abilities, and is connected to a special feminine, spiritual doorway – the energetic counterpart to our womb.

This doorway is the heart of feminine spirituality traditions. In Practice 9 we will focus more on the spiritual vortex that this chakra offers, but for today we will focus on helping you to connect and strengthen this chakra. The two meditations here are available online in audio form.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Energy Kegels

Yes, kegels! If you have been pregnant, and/or have incontinence issues, you probably are already familiar with kegels. Kegels are a physical exercise in which you tighten all the muscles you would normally use to stop the flow of urine – all the muscles of your pelvic floor. Women who are pregnant or have other pelvic floor weaknesses are often advised to do several sets of these muscle contractions each day, to strengthen the corresponding muscles.

What we will do here is Energy Kegels – along with the physical muscle contraction, you will visualize a contraction and expansion of energy in your sacral chakra, and then released upwards from it.

Audio: Energy Kegels (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Sit comfortably and focus for a moment on your sacral chakra.

2. First practice a few physical kegels. Contract all the muscles in your pelvic floor that you would normally use to stop the flow of urine. If you find yourself contracting your anal or stomach muscles, you are not isolating your pelvic floor. Continue to practice contracting and releasing these muscles until you feel comfortable with kegels. (You may notice that this practice seems more connected to your root chakra than your sacral chakra – it is connected to both, and creates a strong connection between them from which to work.)

3. Now you will begin your Energy Kegels. Each time you contract your pelvic floor muscles, imagine the orange light in your sacral chakra area growing brighter. As you release your muscles, visualize this orange light shooting upward through your other chakras, and all the way out the top of your head. You can synchronize this contraction and release with your breath as well if you like - inhaling on the contraction, and exhaling on the release. But don’t be concerned with this if it is too much to handle. The most important aspect of this is synchronizing the energy visual with the muscle contraction and release, and with assuring that the energy release visualization goes upward.

4. Do this for 3-4 minutes. You can take breaks during this time as needed.

Step 3: The Sacral Lotus

In this meditation you will visualize your sacral chakra as an open lotus, with your root chakra as the roots, and a flow of light emanating from it upward through your other chakras. This visual most closely represents the role of your sacral chakra in your overall energy being, especially from a spiritual perspective. This visual will help you to reestablish your sacral chakra as the seat of your creativity, sensuality, joy and femininity.

Audio: Sacral Lotus (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Deep in your pelvis, at your sacral chakra, visualize a big, beautiful open lotus of any color (although orange, pink, or white are great.) If you like, to help you establish this visual you can first visualize the lotus as a closed bud, and then open it over and over. Imagine the lotus floating on a peaceful pond (water is the element associated with the sacral chakra.)

2. Now visualize roots extending out from the bottom of this lotus, down into the water, and through your root chakra, into the earth below.

3. Now moving upward, visualize a line of pure white light flowing upward from the center of the lotus and piercing your navel chakra. Stop and visualize a white sphere of light at your navel chakra. Then continue the flow of white light upwards to your heart chakra, and pause to focus there. Continue upwards through your throat, third eye, and crown chakras.

4. Once you have gotten to your crown chakra, try to hold the

entire visual in your mind for a time. Visualize roots extending down through your root chakra into the earth, a beautiful lotus sitting stop these roots in your sacral chakra, and a line of pure white light flowing upwards through all of your chakras, and exiting out your crown chakra. Rebuild this visualization in your mind each time your mind wanders. Try to stay with this for 3-5 minutes.

Step 4: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. You have generated a lot of sacral chakra energy, and may feel like you need to meditate on one of your upper chakras to balance it for a bit. Then relax your energy boundary and move on with your day.

Practice 9 – Traveling Through the Sacral Doorway

In women, the second chakra is the spiritual doorway to creation and life itself, just as its physical counterpart, the womb, is. In Eastern traditions that include energy body spiritual practices, such as Tantric Buddhism and kundalini yoga, there are specific practices for women, designed to help us connect to the different levels of this chakra from a spiritual perspective. Lineages of Gnostic Christianity, Kabbalah (mystic Judaism), Taoism, Sufism, and many native religions also have practices focused on this center, although they do not always use the word ‘chakra’. It may simply be called the ‘womb center’, ‘womb doorway’, or in the case of Taoism, ‘the uterine palace.’

Most of these practices are done as part of an ongoing meditation or yoga program or routine, and are not considered suitable for novices to energy work. But the practices outlined here are specifically designed to be accessible to anyone. You can incorporate them into your regular spiritual regime if you have one, although be careful to balance it with other meditation and work – it’s particularly important that you don’t only focus on your sacral chakra, but approach your chakras in a balanced way. Doing this practice even once will help trigger a new kind of connection to this spiritual pathway for you, regardless of whether you consider it a main part of your path going forward or not.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Complete a Full Chakra Rotation

Rotate meditatively through all 7 chakras, as you did in Practice 2. Spend a few breaths on each one, visualizing the color, and using your hands to help you focus if you like. Although you will be focusing on your sacral chakra for this practice, it’s important to activate all of the chakras, so that the energy does not get ‘pooled’ there.

Step 3: The Cradle of Life

In this practice, you will connect to the nurturing, creative aspect of your sacral chakra, by connecting to its element of water, and its color, orange.

Audio: Cradle of Life (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Place your hands cupped over your lower belly, at your sacral chakra location. Breathe into this location, and see if you can connect to the energy there.

2. Now visualize yourself surrounded by a beautiful body of water. You can visualize yourself floating on a boat, or even a magic lotus, or sitting on a little island. The body of water can be an ocean, a small pond, or anything in between. Whatever you feel drawn to. The important thing is that you are alone, and surrounded by water.

3. Imagine graceful flows of light – watery light if you will – flowing between the body of water and your sacral chakra. From water, life emerges, and we float in the water of our mother’s wombs as we develop. Water is considered a feminine element.

See if you can feel the water energy of your second chakra. Spend 3-4 minutes working with this visualization.

4. Now drop your water visualization and center your mind back on your sacral chakra. Visualize a beautiful, warm, orange or amber light in this area. Orange is a blended color, joining the red of your root chakra (physicality) and the yellow of your navel chakra (will). When these two are joined in the power of your sacral chakra, you can create – art, a baby, your life, anything.

This chakra brings forth, births, whatever you wish to birth. Contemplate the creative aspect of this chakra, and see if you can connect to this feeling of something bursting forth from it, from your sacral chakra. Work with this visualization for 3-4 minutes.

Step 4: The Sacral Vortex

Now that you have connected to your sacral chakra as the center for life and creative energies, you can begin to experience it as the doorway to Source itself, the original root of all life, by whatever name you use for this.

Audio: Sacral Vortex (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Focus in on the center of your second chakra – try to identify with your mind the center-point, or originating point, of the light or energy you see or feel there. If this is too abstract, press one finger on your pelvis area, and try to focus your awareness an inch or two in from that, inside your body. Just do your best – if you can relax, your intuition will guide you.

2. Visualize a doorway at this point, like the center of a vortex, which opens out to a vast sea of space and stars. With your mind, move through this doorway, into the space and stars. Many women experience a sense of release, of having been released from physical boundaries. Keep working with this visualization over and over – find the center-point, imagine a doorway, and imagine yourself moving through this doorway into a sea of space and stars – infinite, boundless space.

4. Visualize closing this doorway. Bring yourself back to a visualization of a strong, orange light in your sacral area.

Step 5: Moving the Energy Up, Physical Integration

It’s important to move the energy up after working on your sacral chakra, and to connect with your physical body.

1. Rotate through your chakras from your navel up, taking a few deep breaths focused on each one, 3-4 times.

2. Now give yourself a little body massage – massage your feet, calves, and thighs. Now massage your lower back, shoulders and collarbone. Massage your hands. Finally, massage your jaw, temple and crown. This will help you fully inhabit your physical body again, after walking through your sacral doorway.

Step 6: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. . You have moved deeply into your sacral chakra. Know that you are forever connected to Source. You can find this connection whenever you like, though this path or another. Relax your energy boundary to the appropriate level and move on with your day.

Practice 10 – Integration and Love

You have cleared, released, healed, transformed, opened, and empowered your energy body, and re-established your link to your sacral chakra. Although healing is always an ongoing process, you have come a long way towards owning your natural birthright of power, joy, and love.

Love is the central theme of this final practice, as you move the newfound energy of your sacral chakra up in to your heart chakra – our center of love and balance. Doing so will help integrate the work you have done with your entire being. Limits on our ability to love or feel loved are often the most damaging aspect of sexual trauma. With this practice you are integrating your newfound connection to life force, creation and Source into your heart, so that you can fully own your ability to love and be loved.

Step 1: Complete Your Practice Initiation Ritual

Step 2: Healing Review

Briefly review for yourself the work you have done. Flip through the practices for each day in order, to remind yourself of each step. Review any notes or journaling that you did. This is just a brief review though – you can do more later if you like – to help you pull back and integrate all of the power and knowledge you have accumulated in your energy body through this process.

Step 3: Complete a Full Chakra Rotation

Spend a few moments, 3-4 breaths, focusing on each chakra in turn, moving from the root to your crown, as you have done before.

Step 4: Activate Your Second Chakra

To activate your second chakra, select one of the two exercises from Practice 8 – Energy Kegels or The Sacral Lotus. Either one of these will generate lots of energy in your sacral chakra, and activate the flow between chakras. Spend 3-5 minutes on this practice. Step 5: Linking the Sacral and Heart

Audio: Linking Sacral and Heart (Click to play or Click and Save As to save to disk.)

1. Now settle down into your sacral chakra. Place your hands there and breath deeply into them, visualizing your gentle orange/amber light.

2. Find the center-point of this light, as you did in yesterday’s meditation (although don’t visualize or go through the doorway, keep it closed.)

3. Over the course of several minutes (2-3) visualize this light slowly growing larger. You can do this over and over if you like – each time, find the center-point of your chakra, and then imagine it getting bigger and bigger, until it encompasses your entire pelvic area.

4. Now imagine that this beautiful ball of orange light travels slowly upward, through your navel chakra, and into your heart. Do this several times (5-10.)

5. Visualize this orange light getting absorbed into your heart chakra.

6. Now meditate just on your heart for 5-10 breaths. You can visualize green light there if you like, or if you prefer pink, try that. Just breathe deeply into your heart, and see if you can connect to feelings of love and compassion generated there.

7. Direct this light inwards, towards yourself – imagine the light from your heart is expanding to fill your entire body. If you like, give yourself a hug and say ‘I love you’ (really.)

8. Direct this light outwards – imagine the light from your heart is getting bigger and bigger, until it expands far around you, out into the world. Imagine releasing your hold on it, so that the energy of love from your heart is floating outwards on its own.

9. Now ground and center yourself back into your heart. Briefly focus on your throat, third eye and crown chakras to establish the continued upward flow of this energy. Then return to your center and gently open your eyes.

Step 6: Closing

Sit quietly for a moment and close out your session. Congratulations, you are amazing! Know that you can return to any of these practices whenever you like. Relax your energy boundary and move on with your day. You can read the closing notes now, or wait until later on, for follow-up advice.

Moving Forward

This 10-practice process will very likely have an immediate impact on your energy body, and on your connection to your personal and spiritual feminine power. However, it also triggers a deeper, longer process that continues for some time. To maximize the benefits of this process, you can continue the meditations outlined in Practices 7-10 if you wish, adding your favorites to an existing meditation, prayer, or exercise routine. However, even if you do not choose to do that, know that this work is ongoing, and you will most likely continue to feel its affects for several weeks.

You may also want to review some of the other resources I have created at www.MommyMystic.com related to women’s energetics. In particular, the post entitled ’21 Ways to Care for Your Sacral Chakra’ outlines many ways you can continue to strengthen and nurture this most amazing energy center, including diet and exercise suggestions. If you are interested in further reading, be sure to check out the book list of books related to women’s energetics from both a health and spiritual perspective.

Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, or suggestions at lameditation@earthlink.net. I also offer teleseminars and private phone guided energy work sessions if you are interested in those. You will find information at www.MommyMystic.com .

Thank you for engaging in this process. You have done something wonderful for yourself, for everyone around you, and ultimately the world. We are all part of healing the wounds, and rebalancing the energies, of the inequity and injustices that have occurred here between men and women. Together, we can bring yin and yang, and unionized light and love, into this world for ourselves, our sons and daughters, and all whom we care about.

Namaste-

Lisa

Appendices

Abuse and Trauma Online Resources

The following are online resources for finding therapists, counselors and support groups near you.

http://www.helppro.com/ - A therapist finder where you can specify a specialty (such as sexual abuse, rape, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Women’s Issues, .etc)

http://www.sidran.org/ - SIdran Institute, Traumatic Stress Education and Advocacy – also includes an online Help Desk where a trauma specialist will help refer a therapist.

http://apps.rainn.org/ohl-bridge/ - Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Hotline (RAINN) - includes referrals.

http://www.pandys.org/index.html - Pandora’s Project - Support and resources for survivors of rape and sexual abuse – message boards, forums, articles.

Books

The books listed here are focused on self-healing, as opposed to justice and advocacy issues. Some are oriented around general trauma, while some are specifically for the healing of sexual abuse and trauma. All have a strong mind-body focus.

Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body, Peter A. Levine

Sexual Healing (CD), Peter Levine

Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body, David Emerson, Elizabeth Hopper

The Courage to Heal Workbook: A Guide for Women and Men Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, Laura Davis

The Sexual Healing Journey: A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse, Wendy Maltz

Healing from Trauma: A Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life, Jasmin Lee Cori