The Third Chakra Manipura

The Third Chakra is Manipura

The third chakra is the seat of your power, your warrior energy. Every culture recognizes this. In yogic philosophy the element of Manipura is fire, in western culture we refer to “having a fire in your belly”. You reach you potential in personal power by practicing mastery of the self. The whole self, mind and body so that you can touch and recognize your true self.

The third chakra is located at the navel point and the systems and organs associated with this energy plexus are the digestive system including the stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas and small intestines; the sympathetic and para sympathetic nervous systems, adrenal glands and the nervous system as a whole. The sympathetic nervous system is the home of the flight or fight response and is triggered too often in the modern world as a response to stress. The answer to controlling the stress response is to learn to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system and bring on the rest and digest response. It is possible to do this through stimulation of the Vagus nerve. Yoga is an excellent vehicle for learning how to stimulate the Vagus nerve to control stress levels.

Svadhisthana is the center from which you create ideas, Muladhara is the center from which you manifest those ideas in the physical world. When Manipura is balanced and strong it provides the will power to organize your goals and move your ideas into creation.

If Manipura is out of balance it can manifest as physical disorders such as indigestion, hypoglycemia, diabetes, disorders of the associated organs and chronic fatigue. The mind-gut connection will be thrown off kilter and when that happens it can wreak havoc throughout the entire body.

The third chakra is the seat of your identity and ego and so is unbalance can cause a number of psychological problems and disorders. Everyone can think of someone who exhibits too much ego and someone who doesn’t have a strong enough ego to withstand pressure applied by others. This is the result of a excessive or a deficient third chakra respectively. Shame is a terror learned in childhood and there are two reactions to being shamed. The excessive response is to overcompensate by constantly or inappropriately asserting your power – the bully. The deficient response is to shrink away from perceived exposure. You can overcome shame by focusing your power on achieving the goals and ideas formed in the second chakra.

The promised free monthly gong meditation will be on the last Tuesday of each month. The sound of the gong is a deeply healing sound current. Our bodies are 60% water and as such our tissues and psyche are affected by sound current even more than air.

To balance the third chakra strengthen the core muscles, practice Breath of Fire or bhastrika breath, long deep breathing with the exhale longer than the inhale.