Is your Solar Plexus Chakra Affecting your Gut Health?

Our third chakra or “manipura” is sanskrit for shining gem. It represents personal autonomy, direction and motivation. It influences our ability to receive nutrition and support from our mother and from the mother earth. It affects our flexibility and ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Within our solar plexus, exists the energy of our inner child. This can be responsible for filling us with vibrant and playful energy, or contributing to fear, worry and anxiety or irritability. Because we develop our identity at the age of five to seven years old, there is often a sense of our “inner child” living within the solar plexus. It is there that we develop our sense of autonomy, motivation, and desire to move forward with dreams and goals. The solar plexus is associated with the planet Jupiter, which is a masculine energy that governs over Sagittarius and Pisces. Jupiter is associated with growth and expansion, recreation and leisure as well as success and prosperity when it is operating within a place of power. It governs philosophy, religion and higher education. 

The solar plexus contains the liver and spleen, two of our internal organs that benefit from flexibility and movement, spending time in nature, and thinking outside the box. When we optimize our exploration, play, and movement in our body we have more optimal digestion.

Additionally we can do more profound intellectual work when we are able to mobilize our digestive system and avoid stagnation. Our brain burns up a ton of glucose when we are studying as well as engaging in worry and mental pensiveness. In Chinese, the energy of the spleen is represented by the Chinese character Yi, or intention. It represents our ability to focus on the task at hand and complete our work. The solar plexus also encompasses the pancreas, the stomach, and the adrenal glands. These structures give us the ability to absorb nutrition, transform it into energy for our bodies, as well as assimilate new ideas and engage in creativity. A blockage in creativity or feeling “stuck” can often be an issue with this chakra not transforming vital nutrients to other energy centers.

An imbalanced chakra can lead to feelings of worthlessness, lack of self esteem, lack of purpose, victim mentality and trouble committing. These are signs that your solar plexus needs more vitality and strength. An overactive solar plexus can lead to aggressiveness, hostility, excessive criticism or judgement, or desire for control. This can be related to feeling trapped in the ribcage and having trouble detoxifying the stomach, liver or gallbladder. These vital organs must share a small space with one another so it is vital that the flow of energy and movement through the ribcage is harmonious. Engaging in physical activity, getting outside, and doing yoga poses is very helpful for opening up this energy flow.

Engaging our inner child with activities we enjoy can be important to allowing us to feel freedom within the ribcage, and avoid feelings of stagnation and resentment. Additionally, feelings of harmony and security in our family systems is important for us to accept and absorb nutrients. An estimated 90% of Americans have low stomach acid, which is often a result of stress, trauma, and the lack of ability to spend time with our meals. This can have negative downstream affects on the rest of the gut; lack of absorption of nutrients, undigested proteins causing leaky gut, acid reflux, and bacterial or fungal overgrowth as a result of undigested food in the small intestines. Leaky gut over time can lead to autoimmunity as the body will attack these proteins that are crossing the blood brain barrier.

We can improve our digestion and overall stomach acid by spending more time with our meals; taking the time to smell and taste our food, putting our phones away at meal times, and eating and engaging with friends and loved ones. It is also wise to address emotions that may be coming up in our body. Unprocessed emotions can be toxic to our solar plexus and have many downstream affects on the rest of the body.

Some yoga poses to help improve digestion and release solar plexus tensions include:

Half lord of the fishes pose

Sit with both legs extended and bring your right foot to the outside of your left quad, making sure both hips are rooted firmly on the mat. Bring your left elbow to the outside of your right knee and your right hand behind you.
 
Keep a sense of length in the spine through the crown of the head. Hold for a few breaths on each side.

Supine Spinal Twist

Lying on your back, hug the knees toward your chest. Drop both knees to the right, using a yoga block under them if needed. Extend the arms out in a “T” position.
 
Breathe deeply into the solar plexus!

References

https://www.bmj.com/content/290/6479/1383.abstract

https://www.yogiapproved.com/yoga/yoga-twists-all-levels/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00535-012-0634-8