The Chakra Way
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THE CHAKRA WAY W E E K F O U R - P O W E R W I T H R O S A N N E N I E B O E R W W W . C H A K R A - W A Y . C O M WELCOME TO WEEK 4 SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA - MANIPURA CHAKRA Section Page At a Glance 5 Solar Energy 9 Manipura in Action 11 Gut Instincts 12 Directing our Energy 14 Fire 15 Personal Power 17 Will 19 Aligned Action and Self Esteem 23 Shame 25 Ego 26 Finding your Power 27 Symbols 32 Affirmations 34 Practice 36 SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA M A N I P U R A C H A K R A The third chakra is the seat of our personal power, our free will and our life force. It is where our ego lives and our sense of empowerment originates. It is the powerhouse for the self, and determines how we see our place in the world. Here we will explore our sense of self and our egos, our will power and self esteem as well and seeing how closely related this chakra is to our instincts. W W W . C H A K R A - W A Y . C O M THE SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA REPRESENTS POWER EGO SELF CONFIDENCE PERSONAL POWER ASSERTIVENESS WILL POWER MANIPURA CHAKRA AT A GLANCE LOCATION - Navel to Solar Plexus TRANSLATION - Lustrous gem CHARACTER - empowerment COLOUR - yellow CHANT - RAM ELEMENT - Fire SENSE - sight AFFIRMATION - I am empowered RIGHT - to act, to do BODY PART - abdomen, solar plexus ORGANS - digestive organs GLAND - Pancreas, adrenal EMOTION - sense of self, ego AGE - 15-21 MANIPURA CHAKRA AT A GLANCE FOODS - Starches MINERALS - Amber, topaz, yellow citrine ANIMALS - Ram PLANETS- Mars PETALS- Ten OPERATING FORCE - combustion LOTUS SYMBOL - Ten blue petals encompassing a downward facing triangle of Hindu solar crosses and at the base a running ram. PANTHEONS - Apollo, Athene, Agni, Lakini PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS - Digestive disorders, diabetes, ulcers, hypoglycemia EMOTIONAL MALFUNCTIONS - anger, domination, fatigue, low self esteem, competitiveness, comparing self to others MANIPURA CHAKRA AT A GLANCE ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA Shaping of personality. Unfolding of personality. Growing from experience. Sense of self. Judgement of self. Personal power. Fear of rejection. Self-esteem. Nourishment of self. DESIRE ASSOCIATED WITH THE SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA Desire to be liked. POSITIVE QUALITIES OF THE SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA Taking full responsibility for our actions. Self-esteem. Self-respect. Integrity. Living by an honour code. Keeping our word. SHADOW SIDE OF THE SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA Shame. Feelings of inadequacy. Self-consciousness. Lying/Dishonesty/Irresponsibility. Criticism of self. Solar Energy As we move up to the third chakra it is important that we recognise the connection between all the chakras and how the first two earthly chakras have bought us here. The Muladhara Chakra gave us stability and focus and a groundedness of form - a unity. The Svadhisthana Chakra bought movement, passion, choice, desire and duality expanding us beyond merely existing, toward pleasure and togetherness. When we take both of these together - matter and movement - we can begin to create energy. Like rubbing sticks together we can create combustion which in physical terms is our metabolism and in psychological terms is our enthusiasm, power, will and activity. The "doing" part of us. The purpose of this chakra - the Manipura - is transformation. The passive elements of earth and water transforming into power and energy. Whilst earth and water will always be subject to gravity and will move downward, this third chakra moves upward like flames, taking us onward and upward on our journey on the Chakra Way! It is with the use of our WILL that we can begin to find change and continue to grow. In order to release ourselves from well-worn behavioural, and thought, patterns we have to find the strength of will to affect change. Overcoming inertia is the toughest part of this process and getting to know this powerhouse chakra will help us make a start. We must direct our energy - whilst our solar rising energy empowers us we must bring intentionality by incorporating descending currents of intention from our higher selves and chakras. When these two forces of energy and intention combine that is where we find our POWER. Manipura in action The health of this solar plexus chakra can be seen in several ways. Physically, we need to look at the solar plexus area which encompasses the area from the lower sternum to the belly button and includes our digestive system. We can look at this area of our bodies to see what state this chakra is in. A large belly often indicates a large ego! The desire to dominate and control and have all the power or even the overblown egotistical need to occupy space. We can all see how common this is! A sunken diaphragm and sunken abdomen can indicate a fear of taking power, or standing out - a literal shrinking back in to the self. Excessive weight can indicate a malfunctioning chakra as the metabolism is not making food in to energy but storing it as fat. This chakra governs our metabolism and digestive systems - the easily understood combustion of matter (food) into energy (action and heat). As such issues as diabetes, hypoglycemia or any stomach issues such as ulcers, irritable bowel sydrome, colitis, as well as issues with liver and pancreas, relate directly to this centre. We can study ourselves in this chakra by looking at its element - fire. Are you often cold? Do you like hot or cold drinks? Do you crave spicy hot foods or avoid them? Do you sweat easily? Do you suffer with fever or chills when you're not well? Are you quick and energetic or slow and lathargic? ILLNESSES CONNECTED WITH THE SOLAR PLEXUS CHAKRA ARTHRITIS STOMACH PROBLEMS/STOMACH ULCERS CANCER OF STOMACH/COLON/SPLEEN DIVERTICULITUS/IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME DIABETES LIVER PROBLEMS/HEPATITIS GALL BLADDER PROBLEMS INDIGESTION/NAUSEA ANOREXIA/BULIMIA Manipura in action Gut Instincts To fully comprehend the solar plexus chakra it is important to have an understanding of the autonomous nervous system of our bodies. These are the automatic systems within us that regulate bodily processes such as heartbeat, digestion and breathing. The autonomous nervous system responds to external factors and to a delicate balance of action or stimulation and relaxation. There are two sides of the autonomous nervous system that are vital to us - the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response) which will ready the body for action, increase heart rate and glucose, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which enables the body to relax, promotes digestion and lowers heart rate. In our yoga practice it is the 'rest and digest' parasympathetic nervous system that we are encouraging to become prevalent. Our parasympathetic nervous system is very clearly linked to the adrenal gland and the fight or flight response that is also closely linked to our Muladhara Chakra. Here, we begin to see the inter-weaving and connectedness of the chakras. Understanding the autonomous nervous system allows us to consider the Enteric Nervous System - the part of our nervous system that operates our gastrointestinal system. There are hundreds of millions of neurons connecting the brain to the enteric nervous system - it is scientifically accepted that it is like a second brain! This mind-gut connection monitors our hunger levels, our stress levels and whether we have ingested something bad and extends from our esophagus to our anus. Whilst it cannot write a symphony or paint a picture it will tell us when we are scared, nervous, anxious, stressed... We have commonly used expressions that show that we know our stomach has a brain! We have learnt to trust our guts, to listen to our gut instinct. Stress can be "gut wrenching", "stomach churning", or give us "butterflies in the tummy". The Enteric Nervous System, which is this gut instinct, can operate without direct signalling from the Central Nervous System. This can be linked to a deep internal listening and reflection of the self-esteem, ego and personality and is in essence intuition. Our cranial brain is analytical, good at learning, thoughts, memories and practicalities whereas our "belly brain" processes emotions, moods, intuition and information outside the radar of the cranial brain. Directing our Energy There is quite a nice clear path that we can follow with finding where we are with this chakra. It is like a chain reaction that we will look at here and then go in to more detail on each step of this path. First, we must light the fire of the solar plexus chakra and we get the flame burning just right. We then have the energy to be active and assert our personal power into actually doing, into action. Once we have our personal power in action we must use our will to direct it in the right way and here we find aligned action where we have conjured our energy and are using it intentionally to get our desired outcome. Once this has been achieved we find that our self-esteem will be strong and we can continue this cycle and keep our solar plexus energy spinning effectively. Fire Our internal flame lives here in our Manipura and like the heat of fire it will help us create transformation which is the action of this chakra. We all know that fire can be dangerous and needs to be managed carefully and so it is with our internal flame. You may well have a fire in your house. You keep it well tended - if it burns out of control then your house might burn down and if it is too weak then you will be cold and miserable.