Your 3rd Chakra, your Solar Plexus is also called Manipura.Manipura translates from Sanskrit into “lustrous gem.” Located around the stomach and navel, the area of the solar plexus and up to the breastbone. It is a source of personal power and governs self-esteem and the power of transformation. The Manipura chakra also controls metabolism and digestion.

When you feel self-confident, have a strong sense of purpose, and are self-motivated, your third chakra is open and healthy. If your third chakra is out of balance, you can suffer from low self-esteem, have difficulty making decisions, and may have anger or control issues. The element is fire and the color is yellow, bright like the sun.

Get Fire in your belly

With clear goals, desires, and intentions, you can move forward to achieve them. Each small step you take while honoring the larger intention helps to strengthen your third chakra. The fire within (called Tejas in Sanskrit), is the same fire in the Ayurvedic dosha Pitta. A person with strong Pitta has that inner drive to propel them forward toward their goals. It is also recognised that even if your dominant dosha is not Pitta that you can harness the power of your third chakra to assert your will in a healthy way and achieve any goal you set out to accomplish.

If you find you are stuck with a decision or are at a crossroads and aren’t sure which way to go, look to a gut feeling in your solar plexus for guidance. There is a whole lot more than just a grain of truth in that frequently used phrase “Go with your gut feeling” Western Medicine is finally coming around to the long recognised eastern belief of the intrinsic link between the stomach and the brain.

Exercises to help you tune into your gut

Try this little exercise to bring the answers that you seek:

  • Close your eyes, place your hand over the area slightly above your belly button.
  • Bring to mind the problem or dilemma.
  • Notice how your third chakra feels when you give it choices regarding the subject you’re struggling with. A sinking or nauseated feeling may tell you that the decision is wrong.
  • If you present your solar plexus with the right choice, you may feel lightness in the area or you may even feel like you can breathe easier.

Diets don’t work

There you go, if you ever needed a reason to allow yourself that slice of cake you now have it. When we talk about having a healthy gut, think about how your talk about your body too. Are you always, wishing it was slimmer, larger, taller, shorter. We are all amazing. So when thinking about what you digest, don’t just think about the food and drink you consume and how that makes you feel. Think about how you talk about your body. We are all amazing and unique, embrace your body and love it and it will embrace and love you back ten fold.

Back to the cake, have that slice, enjoy it and if you want another slice, go ahead. Tune into your gut, if you’re going to feel guilty and beat yourself up about the food choices you make, is it worth it? I say probably not, as what you are doing there is creating a double stress on your tummy.

  1. Overeating, so your digestive system will have to work harder to process all the yummy cakey goodness
  2. Stress, guilt anxiety which will lead to a build up of acids and sugars which in turn will affect your digestive system

Keep your digestive system healthy and digest only foods and words that nourish and support you.

Follow these guidelines for more powerful Gut (Agni):

  • Drink beverages at room temperature or slightly warmed; avoid adding ice.
  • Eat about two cupped handfuls of food at every meal to avoid overeating.
  • Stay away from spicy foods if you are a Pitta type.
  • Take small sips of water while eating, and avoid soda, alcohol, and fruit juice. Drinking a lot while eating tends to dilute the digestive acids, while drinking alcohol tends to give you excess acid.
  • Embrace an alkaline rich diet – Avocados, Spinach, Asparagus, Garlic.
  • Let your stomach rest between meals. Grazing and frequent snacking don’t give your body time to replenish Agni, which happens when the stomach is resting.
  • Calm down and bring it back to your breath

The third chakra governs both digestion and metabolism, you can easily awaken both with breathing exercises. (Make sure your stomach is not full before starting this breathing pattern).

  • Sit comfortably with the spine tall and the shoulders relaxed.
  • Start by taking a few deep breaths in and out the nose with the lips closed.
  • Then, forcefully inhale through the nose while inflating the lower abdomen and forcefully exhale through the nose while pressing the lower abdomen toward the spine.
  • Use one-half count on the inhalation and one-half count on the exhalation at a rapid pace.

You will feel like you’re getting an abdominal workout.

Try for 10 repetitions and then work it up to 15 or 20. After you’re finished, you may feel a tingling feeling around the navel.

Love is all you need

Remember a happy gut = happy life so, love your tummy, alleviate stress be they internal or external. Listen to your instincts a little more. Embrace how hard your tummy works to look after and support you.

 

*reference and thanks to http://www.chopra.com/

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