Manipura: The Center of Your Self-Worth
This month’s focus is the third chakra, Manipura, or solar plexus, which is a few inches above the belly button. It is represented by a golden, ten-petaled lotus with an upside-down triangle at its center that symbolizes the fiery energy of the first three chakras rising up to connect to the higher chakras. This is the center of your identity, your personality, your ego, and your mental processing and discernment. Within this chakra is also your self-esteem and sense of self-worth. When it is balanced, you are confident and proactive. You are not judgmental, emotionally reactive, or overwhelmed, nor are you passively allowing life to happen to you. This chakra is about choice: when it is balanced, you choose things that are good for you; when it is imbalanced, you choose things that are bad for you.
Solar Plexus Crystals
The solar plexus chakra resonates with the color yellow. Crystals that are aligned with this energy bring in the sun: amber, citrine, tiger’s eye, and pyrite are all easy to come by and have many qualities that make them supportive for your third chakra. Some stones that are harder to find but that offer healing and support include hypersthene, bumble bee jasper, and golden aura quartz. You can place these crystals around your home or workspace, carry them in a pocket, hold them during meditation, or wear them as jewelry (particularly amber, as it is somewhat difficult to find loose and is soft and easily damaged by heat or by dropping). Citrine has the added quality of being the stone of abundance—put a small piece in your wallet or put a large piece in the back left corner of your home to welcome abundance, particularly financial abundance.
Solar Plexus Essential Oils
The oils of ginger, juniper, cedarwood, and geranium are all lovely and supportive for the solar plexus chakra. You can diffuse them into the air or dilute them and wear them to carry their smell all day long. Earthy sandalwood is another wonderful oil that supports the solar plexus, but it is very expensive in its pure form, so I definitely recommend using it in a carrier oil (like avocado or jojoba) to make it last a little longer. You may also choose to apply any of these oils directly to your belly, particularly during meditation.
Solar Plexus Foods
Eat yellow! Fruits like bananas, lemons, and pineapple; vegetables like corn and yellow peppers; and spices like turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and cumin will all help jump-start your solar plexus. Because this chakra in part governs your stomach, eating whole grains and beans will make your belly happy and, thus, support this energetic center.
Solar Plexus in Mudra and Movement
There are many mudras that you can use, but I like the rudra mudra: put your hands palms-up on your legs, then touch your index and ring fingers to your thumb, leaving the middle finger and pinky straight. This mudra connects with the power of Shiva, one of the principal deities in Hinduism. He is auspicious and powerful, and this energy helps to ignite your self-confidence. Another one is the merudanda mudra, where you sit with your hands in fists but your thumbs upright, like giving a thumbs-up with your fists resting on your legs. The hakini mudra both calms and activates the mind, which can support manipura as well: hold your hands facing each other with the tips of each of your fingers and thumbs touching but with your palms tented out from each other—almost like you are holding an invisible ball, but with your fingertips all touching. Then rest the tips of your connected thumbs against your stomach at the level of the solar plexus.
An imbalanced solar plexus has “stuck” energy, often manifesting as anger, judgment, and frustration. Vigorous exercise can help to clear that stagnation—put on your favorite dance playlist and dance that stagnation away. Yoga poses like bow pose, upward dog, and wheel pose can help as well. If you have experience with yogic breathing, kapalabhati pranayama, or “breath of fire,” is a fantastic way to stoke up your inner fire and clear out manipura.
Solar Plexus in Meditation
In meditation, you can work with crystals and essential oils, and you can also add mudras, mantras, and chanting. You can chant the seed sound for the solar plexus is RAM (pronounced like /rahm/, not like the animal. You may repeat mantras like the following—either silently or aloud—to affirm yourself and to strengthen the solar plexus:
I love and accept myself.
I am open to change.
I am powerful and strong.
I choose the best for myself.
I choose healthy relationships.
I direct my own life.
I feel my power.
You may also want to try some visualizations: imagine a ball of yellow light inside your body above your navel. With each in-breath, imagine it getting brighter and larger, until it fills you up and reaches outside your body, then gradually bring it back down to the size of a grapefruit, but still glowing and powerful. You can also imagine an inner flame in the same place: picture it growing more powerful with each breath. Or just focus your attention on this area of your body, sending love and gratitude for all this chakra does for you.
Solar Plexus: Doing the Work
This month, as you work on supporting your third chakra, you may want to consider journaling in response to the following questions. Though some of these questions may seem straight-forward and like they don’t require more than a few seconds to answer, if you write down your responses, you may find that you have more to say about them than you thought.
What do you choose to welcome into your life?
How do you choose to act in order to get what you want?
Who or what is at the center of your choices?
What are you choosing that’s in alignment with your values and beliefs?
Are you choosing things that are good and healthy for you?
Who are you holding accountable for your choices when things go right? When things go wrong?
For the next month, take some time to check in with your solar plexus. Send it love and use that connection to send love to your body and to yourself. Think about the questions above and your responses—even if you don’t make any changes. Notice what you discover. Think about how shifts could change the way you feel—you don’t need to decide to change anything until and unless you’re ready, but giving yourself permission to think about what that would look and feel like is an important first step to support your solar plexus as it helps you to internalize your inherent worth and value. You are powerful, valuable, and worthy. You are enough.
