Everything begins in the third chakra, linked to life via our umbilical chord in our mother’s womb, the lifeline that fed us and nourish us until we arrived into this world.
Manipura chakra is the center not only of our physical being but also energetically as it defines our own being and our capacity of acting. It is our power and our healthy integrated ego. The third chakra is located in our solar plexus, right below the sternum (breastbone), where our digestive organs are. These organs transform the food we eat in order to leave the body assimilate what it needs and eliminate what is not necessary anymore. So it is not coincidence that the element of this chakra is fire: the transforming element!
Biologically, what our stomach basically does is to “burn” the food with acid to transform it into what our body will absorb in order to live (absorbed by our small intestine) or what it eliminates as waste (by the large one). This process gives us the energy we need to live, function and move.
What happens when we talk about a subtle perspective? It is quite similar… Our solar plexus as the center of our body is “digesting” and transforming our energies and emotions. It is situated in a huge nervous center which is a gate connecting our lower body chakras and the upper ones. So if we don’t make this “emotional digestion” properly we will have this feeling of having a “knot in the stomach”. Does it sounds familiar to you?
We must have this chakra balanced in order to enable the energy to flow through it and allow us to keep what is going to “nourish” us (through the energy rising up to the upper chakras) and eliminating the “wastes”, allowing detachment of what is not longer needed (energy that descends to the lower chakras).
That’s why the stomach is called also our “second brain” or we use the expressions such as “trust your gut”. We need to also take into consideration the subtle perspective of this broader energetic zone that is our nourishment center in all senses.
Manipura is therefore the chakra that kicks us out of the inertia: it makes us jump from the sofa to the mat or to write, dance or simply walk. It allows us to meet challenges and move forward in life. And this sun in the middle of our body is recharging us with energy as the star in the sky (located in the center of our universe) does during the day.
This sun in the middle of our being symbolizes the center, our most personal “ME”, braveness and ambition (appetite). But we must take care of the appetite (as in our biological life) because if it is excessive it can cause us indigestion and ulcers and if it is insufficient it will weaken us. When this “center” is working in balance we can define this as the will of the spiritual warrior who never abuses power and acts from strength, truth and honor. A strong third chakra means confidence, accomplishment, effectiveness and the concept that we can feel that the umbilical cord that linked us to our mother is now linking us to the Universe, making Manipura shine as the lustrous gem that it is. Then we will control our acts and take decisions as a result of a combination of passion and compassion, with no submission or oppression. On the contrary, if it is weak our self-esteem will be low and we will get stressed and chose to be in the role of victim trying even to control and manipulate the others. Also we will suffer digestive and metabolism problems.
When talking about the third chakra in Kundalini Yoga, we always think about the navel point, which is the center of power and energy. Located approximately two inches below the belly button it is directly connected to our third chakra.
The navel point is said to be the point where 72,000 nerve endings come together and it is the key to kundalini yoga and the key to raising the kundalini energy. We recharge it with our famous breath of fire that makes our energy moves giving us tremendous power. Because as the transforming element, fire is the energetic fuel of life!
Power means being capable. We have the right to act but we must do it from a conscious energy. We must choose consciously, using the passion from our lower chakras but balanced by the compassion of our heart and moderated by the reason of our upper chakras. The goal is power.
But as previously mentioned, power is not submitting. That is what we learn in school – this world of control. Since our time as children at school we are suppressed: we have to obey and our rage and energy is contained. Our Manipura becomes weak and that is the reason for this society of exploitative bosses, armies and taxes, a society where we have no say really, at all. So it is time to decide if we want to be a lamb or a lion!
How to balance this chakra?
Wear yellow, take decisions, trust your gut! feel your center of power and balance in every posture. The abdomen and navel point are always helping you to raise your body, stay in posture, move and also protects your lower back.
In Kundalini Yoga we have loads of exercises and kriyas for the navel point: BREATH OF FIRE, stretch-pose, sat kriya, nabhi kriya, navel intelligence kriya, nabhi kriya for prana-apana…
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