Every chakra in the human body corresponds to one or more physical, emotional, and spiritual traits. If you're already familiar with the first two chakras, solar plexus chakra will take you farther on your spiritual voyage of the chakra system.🏄🏻 What does solar plexus mean? Where is it situated? What happens when it's active or blocked?
The third chakra in the human body is popular for awakening the sun within you. It’s the core of your personal power. It brings health, confidence, energy, enthusiasm, self-acceptance, and much more with it.
Instead of guessing how to heal and tap into the power of the solar plexus, go through this comprehensive article to understand its traits, nuances, and magic right away.
The following lists out the core topics we will learn today:
- What does solar plexus chakra mean and indicate?
- What are the characteristics of the third chakra including its location, symbol, element, ruling planet, and more?
- Understanding overactive and underactive solar plexus chakra
- What’s the difference between the solar plexus and other chakras? How does it affect the third chakra?
- How to open, balance, and heal solar plexus chakra?
- How to use crystals to heal the third chakra?
Table of Contents
Basics: What is the solar plexus chakra?
Referred to as the third major chakra in the human body, solar plexus chakra is the seat of your emotions. It’s where physical well-being emerges from. You’ll come across this chakra in Hinduism as "Manipura", a Sanskrit word that translates to "the shiny gem", "the city of jewels", or "the lustrous gem".
Chakra lovers often call it the power chakra owing to how it fills you with inspiration, self-acceptance, passion, and confidence. It’s capable of affecting the stomach, kidneys, adrenal glands, and liver physically. The powers of the solar plexus go as far as blocking the brain from feeling pain.
Manipura rules your personality and ego to light up your path to success. It develops in the age of self-awareness typically from 15 to 21 years. This is actually the age when you begin to grow wisdom. The third chakra encourages you to take risks, get out of your comfort zone, redesign life, and connect with other major chakras.
Fun Fact
Earth’s solar plexus chakra is located in Australia and it’s a dual chakra situated in Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
Understand the characteristics of the solar plexus chakra
The third chakra is also popular as the "Celiac Plexus Chakra" owing to its location at the sophisticated network of nerves where 72,000 nadis meet. The symbol of the sun is symbolic of the nadis that branch out like the sun at this chakra.
Celiac in Greek means "belly" and "plexus" in Latin is "braid". It’s sometimes referred to as the "power chakra" or the "personal sun" that resides within each of us.
Where is the solar plexus located?
The Vedic scriptures say that solar plexus chakra is located six inches above the belly button around your diaphragm. If you can identify where your sternum is, the third chakra is right below it. The same is why it’s often called the nabhi or the navel chakra.
What’s the symbol of the solar plexus chakra?
Represented by a yellow flower with ten petals, the solar plexus is often painted with an inverted triangle outlined in color red (representing the triangle of fire). Lastly, the seed mantra of the chakra is called "Ram" and it’s written in the center of the ten-petaled flower.
Sometimes, each of the ten petals is inscribed with mantras—dam, ddham, nnam, tam, tham, dham, dhham, nam, pam, and pham.
What’s the solar plexus chakra color?
Solar plexus chakra is represented by mostly the color yellow but it may also be represented by orange shades. It’s the color of energy, enthusiasm, and warmth. Manipura also represents the light of knowledge and the fire of passion within you. Spiritually, it’s the color of abundance and wisdom.
What’s the element associated with the solar plexus chakra?
🔥Powered by the energy of the fire element, the celiac plexus chakra is believed to contain the powers of God Agni. It’s often represented by Lord Agni riding the ram. The same is why this chakra is best awakened with fire rituals. It’s an element that’s perpetually in motion and the epitome of purity according to Hindu beliefs.
Activating the fire energy helps you physically by aiding digestion and mentally to find your purpose in life. Another representation of the Manipura chakra is using the image of God Rudra, the God of Anger.
What’s the planet ruling the first chakra?
While the main astral body ruling the solar plexus chakra is the sun, it’s not the only one. The sun powers this chakra from within while Mars maintains it.
Being the head of our solar system, the sun is the source of power. On the other hand, Mars is a warrior ruler with masculine energy. It gives you courage, patience, confidence, strength, and passion to enhance your personal power.
What happens when the solar plexus chakra is balanced?
An active, open, or balanced Manipura chakra leads to the awakening of many physical and emotional virtues. Here’s what you will feel or experience:
- Confidence: Your self-esteem will rise and you’ll believe in your strengths.
- Motivation: You’ll find it easy to find inspiration to pump up your will.
- Responsibility: You gain the drive of purposefulness that helps you multi-task and manage several things at once.
- Enthusiasm: Your passion and core drive increase so much that you’ll be eager to do things.
- Relaxation: You won’t be bothered by stress or tension anymore.
- Self-trust: You’ll find it easy to trust your gut feelings.
- Independent: You won’t feel the need to depend on anyone or anything with Manipura.
- Self-acceptance: You begin to start respecting your principles, values, emotions, and thoughts.
- Healthy: Your circulatory and digestive systems stop facing any troubles that lead to the pink of health.
Solar plexus chakra imbalances: Overactive and underactive solar plexus chakra
Feeling under the weather isn’t just a sign of the common cold or the flu, but could be an indication of your blocked Manipura chakra too. What are the other physical and mental signs of solar chakra problems? How does it happen? Can you prevent it? What to watch out for?
Signs of overactive and underactive solar plexus chakra
When your personal sun is weak, your solar plexus is underactive or inactive. On the other hand, if the sun is blazing too much, your celiac plexus chakra becomes overactive. In order to work on the Manipura chakra, you need to know if it’s off-kilter first.
Let’s find out the symptoms of the third chakra imbalance.📝
- Arrogance or insecurity: An undue feeling of superiority or inferiority is common to solar plexus energies that are out of whack.
- Poor understanding: Unable to understand simple things or constantly feeling a lack of clarity is common too.
- Low self-esteem: If you’re feeling down or negative about yourself, it might be a sign of underactive celiac plexus chakra.
- Uptight: When your third chakra is overactive, you become oversensitive about things and direly want others to follow your path.
- Powerless: Feeling a complete lack of energy, passiveness, or weakness in the body and mind is a sign of underactive Manipura chakra too.
- Anger problems: The feeling of frustration, anger, and high sensitivity are typical symptoms of overactive solar plexus.
- Dominant behavior: Looking for perfectionism is basically a control issue that arises from overactive third chakra.
- Shame: A sense of self-pity often drives shame towards yourself, which is nothing but a sign that your celiac plexus chakra is haywire.
- Addiction: While substance addiction is one sign of poor solar plexus energy, addiction towards anything such as alcohol, food, media, social media, etcetera might also point towards the same.
- Physical conditions: Poor balance of the third chakra often leads to diseases like diabetes, digestive problems, heartburn, nausea, and ulcers. So, watch out!
What causes solar plexus chakra imbalances?
Physical and emotional pain or prolonged discomfort can throw your solar plexus chakra on the blink. If you’re in an abusive or toxic relationship, whether it’s with your spouse, friend, or family member, it can block the solar plexus energy too. From childhood abuse to trauma, even a dysfunctional upbringing can cause famished celiac plexus chakra.
Guilt is another emotion that leads you to self-punishment, thus depleting your solar plexus chakra in the long run. Overdoing anything is also detrimental to your mind and body and that’s how overworking can exhaust this chakra.
If you suffer from untreated indigestion, fatigue, intolerance, and gastric troubles without diagnosis or treatment, it affects the Manipura chakra. Things like rejection, failure, criticism, and lack of acknowledgment or appreciation also play a deep role in derailing the balance of this chakra.
Any type of illness, especially contamination via food that affects the stomach can pose a danger to your third chakra. For those of you who are constantly stressed, anxious, and worried, the solar plexus remains perpetually out of balance.
Learn more about solar chakra imbalances from this video.
Solar plexus chakra vs. Other six primary chakras
Now you know the effects and powers of solar plexus chakra, it’s time to discover how it affects the other major chakras in the human body. The third chakra is the center of willpower. When it’s active, open, or balanced, your life force energy, intuition, heart energies, and communication skills become better.
Solar plexus chakra vs. Adjacent chakras
The third chakra directly affects the second and fourth chakras, which are sacral and heart chakras, respectively. One is the chakra of life force energy and the other the energy of love itself. How does the Manipura chakra affect these points of energy? What can it do together?
Sacral chakra contains the power of kundalini that flows into the subsequent chakras only when the solar plexus is open. When your third chakra is blocked, it affects the sacral chakra and leads to poor self-worth.
When the life force doesn’t flow into the heart, you lack in love too. You’ll feel a weak "Anahata chakra" (heart chakra) when Manipura is blocked.
Solar plexus chakra vs. Other chakras
If your solar plexus chakra is inactive, your physical health falls into chaos. Hence, it affects the mind and the spirit not long after.
Solar plexus can end up hurting other chakras when the life force energy ceases to flow into the rest of the chakras. It begins to blur your sense of communication, and awareness by affecting the throat, third-eye, and crown chakras respectively.
Manipura can help you ground by affecting the root chakra and tap into intuitions by connecting to the third eye chakra.
Get to know more about the other chakras in our comprehensive chakra guide.
Solar plexus chakra healing: 7 effective methods explained
When your solar plexus chakra is blocked, you fail to recognize yourself at first. It goes on to self-doubt next. On the flip side, you feel happy with yourself, physically healthy, and satisfied when this chakra is balanced.
Let’s dig up the best way to activate your solar plexus chakra.📝
Connect with fire
Being the chakra powered by the element of fire, the celiac plexus is best healed with fire. You can connect with the fire element by lighting a lamp, campfire, candle, or so on. Because the sun and nature around are representative of the same fire, basking or spending time in the daylight hours can be particularly rewarding.
Yoga
A culmination of body movements, gestures (mudras), and breathing control, there are many yoga asanas (yoga techniques) that can be used to drive up the solar plexus chakra. The best poses to use are the Spinal Twist, Vrukshasana, Mandukasana, Cow Pose, and Camel Pose as it helps the flow of kundalini energy into the third chakra.
You can also try the "Hakini Mudra" where you touch the tips of your thumb and the pinky finger with the rest of the fingers. Hold the mudra in front of the solar plexus position and dwell on it to open it up!
Affirmations
Often recommended by astrologists for Mars, the third chakra is the chakra of the personal spirit. That’s why positivity is the bedrock of an active solar plexus chakra.
Here are a handful of positive affirmations to unblock this point:
- I have a purpose and I will achieve it.
- I am filled with the light of my personal sun.
- I respect my body, mind, and spirit.
- I am strong, able, and talented.
- I have strong willpower.
- I am independent and decide for myself.
- I honor my spirit.
- I am in control of my life, not that of others.
- I allow kundalini energy to flow within me.
- I am genuine and authentic.
Meditation
You can invoke the power of solar plexus chakra with deep meditation. As chakras are energy centers, the meditative energy of thought vibrations can influence and repair the Manipura chakra easily.
When you’re meditating, visualize the ten-petaled flower in the color yellow for solar plexus awakening.
Here’s a good solar plexus meditation music you can use to get started with its healing.
Foods
Yet another brilliant way to emanate the spiritual vibration of the solar plexus chakra is by eating foods that affect this chakra. It’s simple and effective to keep your body connected to the solar plexus chakra throughout the day.
You can select from a wide array such as banana, pumpkin, corn, ginger, cinnamon, lemon, yellow tea, potatoes, cheese, yellow peppers, and yellow mustard, to name a few.
Aromatherapy
You can also awaken the third chakra by soaking in the scents meant for this point. Herbs like chamomile, bergamot, rosemary, cedarwood, are all excellent to smudge or smoke for healing the Manipura chakra. As this chakra corresponds to the fire element, it’s equally good to burn the herbs.
But if you’re intolerant to smoke, use essential oils of the same scents to open the celiac plexus.
Crystals
If you don’t want to smoke or eat to power up the third chakra, crystals might be an easier way to tap into the energies of this chakra. That’s where healing stones come into the foray because they are natural storehouses of specific chakra energies. You can touch, wear, or carry on you to keep your chakra energies charged throughout the day by tapping into these.
How to heal solar plexus chakra with crystals?
Bringing the energy of crystals on board to help open your Manipura chakra is more rewarding than you think.
While all the other techniques require you to unblock this chakra largely on your own, crystals bring the fresh vibrations of the solar plexus in the purest form. What’s more, you can even combine other techniques with crystals to amplify the power of any healing technique too.
Amber
A complete stone of healing, amber is actually fossilized tree resin. Crystal users love it because amber contains the flora and fauna, sometimes from the dawn of the earth itself.🦗
This healing crystal is typically seen in dark-orange, brown, or yellow with things inside it from the ancient era. That’s also the reason why this is a stone of immense wisdom. It can help you understand your past to empower the third chakra without self-doubt.
If you want to open up the Manipura using this stone, try a reiki session with nothing but amber placed on your solar plexus chakra point, and then wear it as a pendant or ring afterward. It can bring clarity to your mind and attract success or power towards you.
Citrine
This soft-golden-colored stone is the harbinger of luck. It can also bring inspiring positivity into your life to open up your creativity. Citrine sets off a chain of reactions that ends up in success for wearers and that’s why it’s nicknamed the "success stone".✌🏻
If you’re feeling low or pissed at yourself, citrine can help to cleanse the negative emotions and help you discover your hidden abilities. It’s the stone of wealth and prosperity if you’re interested. The best way to use this stone is by wearing it as a bracelet or meditating by holding it against your solar plexus chakra. You can also chant positive affirmations while holding it to heal the third chakra.
Take care to ensure your citrine isn’t just heated amethyst because a lot of that exists on the market today.
Yellow Calcite
The stone of enlightenment and awareness, yellow calcite awakens your Manipura chakra to manifest desires and dreams. It’s a stone that makes you hopeful besides pumping up your self-esteem. The best healing technique is wearing yellow calcite jewelry because it can remove thoughts of self-doubt, self-pity, and embarrassment en route.
Yellow calcite is excellent for those who are overly cynical or pessimistic. You can use it by wearing it in your lower pocket from sunrise until sunset or meditate under the sun or after dusk around a campfire. Yellow calcite is also best placed on your solar plexus chakra for a few minutes to unblock it.
Tiger Eye
What if the problems you’re having with the solar plexus chakra stem from toxic energies from others? You need a cleansing stone filled with the Manipura powers to protect you against evil energies.
Tiger eye is such a stone you can wear on your neck or fingers as a chain or ring to awaken the third chakra. To help you accomplish your goals, create a solar plexus grid using tiger stones. If you feel like adding other gemstones, keep the tiger eye in the middle and use solar chakra crystals and nothing else.
Gazing into the tiger eye stone can also wake up the dormant personal sun within you. It gives you purpose, hope, and goals. Another excellent way to heal the solar plexus with the tiger eye stone is by trying breathing techniques while holding the stone in your dominant hand.
Yellow Jasper
The best stone to help you power up your mood and solar plexus chakra, yellow jasper is a harmony stone. Healing crystal users call it the "nurturing stone". It’s great for those going through tumultuous relationships as well.
Experts recommend reiki with yellow jasper to heal food intolerances, immunity, and digestive troubles. You can wear it on your body to trigger a yellow jasper into balancing the flow of energy inside the body.
A dark yellow stone, yellow jasper promotes new growth with the energy of Goddess Persephone. You can wear it as a talisman around your neck or place it in the center of your bedroom to heal the fire energies.
Pyrite
Another crystal of luck, prosperity, and wealth, pyrite is the best stone for those who’re going through transitions, especially students and teenagers. You can tap into its power by wearing it on the lower body as a wristlet, anklet, or waist chain.
Pyrite is also one of the easiest stones to activate the third chakra. All you need to do is hold it in the palm of both your hands before setting an intention using affirmations. You can also spend a few moments with the healing stone at dawn to awaken its golden vibrations of the Manipura chakra.
Experienced users say pyrite can deflect toxic energies and people away from you. You can also meditate with the pyrite stone on your solar plexus chakra to find out your true purpose and goals.
Rutilated Quartz
Designed by nature to empower those with a history of trauma and hopelessness in their lives, rutilated quartz is the best stone to awaken an underactive solar plexus chakra. It can be worn over the navel area as a locket on a long chain for a few days to heal the third chakra. Make sure to cleanse it at the end of every day.
Rutilated quartz can ward off infections and diseases that are troubling your lower body. It’s a great stone to cleanse your aura.
When meditating with this stone, it can show possible life paths and careers that will suit you. If you have a rutilated quartz wand, point it at your solar plexus chakra and chant your mantras to make your dreams come true.
Find your power with solar plexus chakra
The sun powers our whole solar system and in the same way, solar plexus chakra is your personal sun that powers your entire energy system. It’s the third chakra in the body that brings mental and physical health.
Located a few inches above your belly button, solar plexus chakra brings the energy of the sun and the element of fire together. Experts call it the Manipura chakra and you can visualize it as a yellow flower with ten petals and the seed mantra of "Ram".
When your Manipura chakra is awake, you feel confident, powerful, hopeful, inspired, relaxed, and trust in yourself. On the other hand, a blocked third chakra can make you feel arrogant, passive, angry, ashamed, addicted, etcetera. It’s a common problem in those with blood glucose disorders too. Your solar plexus chakra can get blocked owing to abusive relationships, guilt, lying, and anxiety, among other things.
If you leave it untreated, blocked Manipura can affect your spiritual awareness, sense of reality, and even communication skills.
You can reverse the changes by healing the third chakra. The easiest way to do so is by connecting with fire. Yoga poses, the right herbs, oils, foods, and affirmations can also help. But if you want the best of best, nothing beats healing with solar plexus crystals.🙌🏻
You can wear, carry, or even use crystal jewelry for opening solar plexus chakra using the methods shared above. It’s simple, easy, and more effective than all the rest.
Have a go at it!
