Did you know that you have an in-built energy battery that powers your digestive system and metabolism and charges your personal power? It’s called the navel chakra.
It’s the innate source of your confidence, motivation, and self-esteem. It also allows you to set clear boundaries, confidently pursue your goals, and trust your instincts.
By harvesting the energy of the third chakra, you get access to your inner guidance. This way, you can live your life from a place of profound purpose with ease and grace.
What is the Navel/Manipura Chakra?
The navel chakra is also known as the manipura chakra or solar plexus chakra. Despite having multiple names, it’s the body’s energy powerhouse.
It’s the “charge,” as Anodea Judith, a leading chakra expert and the trainer of Mindvalley’s Chakra Healing Quest, calls it. She explains that this energy center is where you combine the earth and water elements and start the fire.
“If you rub your palms together, this movement creates heat,” she says. “That’s how you use the solidity of the earth and the fluidity of the water to generate power.”
The manipura is responsible for several things:
- Promote a healthy digestive system and your digestive fire, known as “agni.”
- Promote healthy kidney function on a physiological level.
- The source of self-esteem, sense of control, and personal power.
- Your career and capabilities, according to the research of Dr. Cross.
So where is the navel chakra located? Its name gives a hint: in the “navel” area. More specifically, just above the belly button and below the ribcage.
Learn more: Solar Plexus Chakra: A Guide to Your Personal Power
The Meaning of Manipura
“Manipura” is a combination of the Sanskrit words “mani,” meaning “jewel” or “gem,” and “pura,” meaning “city” or “place.” So the “Manipura” meaning stands for “city of jewels” or “lustrous gem.”
In Hindu and yogic traditions, the term “jewel” can describe something that’s precious, valuable, or divine. And in the case of “manipura,” it can be interpreted as a reference to the precious, powerful energy of the solar plexus.
That’s why this chakra is the seat of your personal power. And its main purpose is to find and cultivate your inner guidance system so that you can move through life with confidence and a strong will.
Navel Chakra Blockage: The Symptoms
According to Anodea, as you learn to turn your impulses into actions, you gain a sense of self-esteem.
But if you’re constantly shamed and your actions aren’t validated, you start to equate your actions with who you are. This shame can turn against you and collapse your third chakra.
For example, parents who are authoritative can cause blockages in their children’s chakra. And in another instance, when you aren’t allowed to be autonomous, it negatively affects this energy center.
When the Manipura chakra is imbalanced or blocked, you may experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms. Some common symptoms of an imbalanced navel chakra include:
- Low self-esteem and self-doubt,
- Lack of motivation or willpower,
- Digestive issues,
- Fatigue and lethargy, and
- Mood swings and anxiety.
In essence, the excessive third chakra manifests as being overly aggressive and reactive, while the deficient chakra results in a weak will and inactivity.
How Do You Heal the Navel Chakra?
In Anodea’s chakra healing system, there are three aspects to every energy center: physiological, psychological, and spiritual. So it’s important to address all of them holistically.
Physiological aspect
How does it look in the body when you have blocks in the navel chakra?
Since this energy center governs your digestive system and all corresponding organs such as your stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and intestines, they manifest in the area of your solar plexus.
Anodea calls it a “bulging belly.” And you can examine it by pressing on it—is it hard or soft? Is it easy to put your fingers under the ribs?
That’s how you know whether it’s excessive or deficient: if it’s excessive, this area is hard; if it’s deficient, your belly is collapsed.
The navel chakra also governs your digestion and metabolism, so blocks result in poor digestion, a sluggish metabolism, and chronic constipation.
How to heal your navel chakra
To keep your digestive fire active and open, you can apply the following dietary changes to your lifestyle:
- Drink warm or room-temperature beverages,
- Avoid overeating; keep to smaller portions,
- Stay away from spicy foods,
- Avoid alcohol and soda drinks, and
- Take small sips of water while eating, as drinking too much water while eating will dilute your digestive enzymes.
Additionally, yoga is a great way to balance your navel chakra and activate its healing. Three poses that can help are Boat Pose (Navasana), Reverse Plank Pose, and Surya Mudra.
Psychological aspect
This aspect has to do with your self-identity and self-worth. So healing this aspect implies cultivating your ability to assert yourself in the world and take action toward your goals.
How to heal your navel chakra
To heal the third chakra on a psychological level, Anodea suggests several practices, including:
- Recognizing and owning our personal power. It means seeing clearly both your abilities and limitations and taking full ownership and responsibility for your actions.
- Cultivating self-esteem. It’s about developing a healthy self-image and unconditional self-worth that is not dependent on approval from others.
- Setting healthy boundaries. It implies knowing your limits and communicating them assertively to others, as well as respecting the boundaries of others.
- Cultivating a profound sense of purpose. Having a clear life vision and mission and taking inspired action to actualize them helps you live your life in a purposeful place.
- Listening to your gut feelings. The third chakra is associated with the gut, so listening to your intuition and gut feelings can help you make decisions in alignment with your personal power.
By working on these psychological aspects, you can balance and strengthen your third chakra, which can lead to greater confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of inner strength.
Spiritual aspect
From a spiritual perspective, the navel chakra is associated with the element of fire, which represents transformation and the will to change.
How to heal your navel chakra
To heal the third chakra on a spiritual level, Judith suggests several practices, including:
- Accessing your inner fire. This involves tapping into our passion, drive, and motivation to create positive change in our lives and in the world.
- Connecting with a higher power. When you seek spiritual guidance through prayer, meditation, or other spiritual practices, you access universal wisdom and connect to the divine purpose beyond yourself.
- Seeing your personal power as a gift. It implies reframing the common understanding of power and defining it for yourself based on your personal values.
- Cultivating a sense of gratitude. By focusing on the blessings in your life and expressing gratitude for them, you can connect with the divine within and access a sense of inner strength.
By working on these spiritual aspects, you can develop a greater sense of purpose, inner wisdom, and connection to the divine within.
How Can You Nourish Your Navel Chakra to Improve Your Life?
Chakra healing is a journey. It’s an ongoing process of nourishing this energy center through daily practices and routines.
Here are a few practices you can incorporate to assist you on this journey:
1. Chakra meditation
Chakra meditations often include mudras, mantras, and chakra stones corresponding to the energy center.
Here’s how to meditate on your third chakra:
- Put your hand right above your belly button and close your eyes.
- Focus on your solar plexus area and breathe deeply into it.
- Bring the energy up from the heart of the Earth through your root and sacral chakras, filling your upper abdomen, and igniting your inner sun.
- Imagine a ball of golden-yellow energy lighting up your solar plexus area, getting larger with every inhale, until you feel a slight tingle in your upper abdomen.
- Affirm to yourself, “I trust my intuition and guidance, and follow them wherever they lead me without question or hesitation.”
2. Chakra color
The active color of the navel chakra is yellow, so finding ways to incorporate this color into your daily life will nourish this energy center.
Here’s how to incorporate the color yellow:
- Wear yellow clothing and accessories.
- Eat more yellow foods like bananas, pineapple, mango, oats, and corn.
- Elevate your space with crystals for the navel chakra like citrine, calcite, sunstone, or heliodor.
- Add yellow decor elements to your interior.
3. Mantra chanting
Each chakra corresponds to a particular seed syllable called “bija,” designed to clear, cleanse, and balance the associated energy.
The corresponding spoken syllable for the third chakra is “RAM.” So chanting it helps heal its physiological and spiritual aspects.
Here’s how to use mantra chanting:
- Find a quiet and peaceful place to chant.
- Begin by taking a few deep breaths to center yourself.
- Start chanting “RAM.”
- Focus your attention on the sound and vibration of the mantra.
- Continue chanting for as long as you like.
- When you’re ready to finish, take a few deep breaths and gradually return your awareness to your surroundings.
Learn more: The Powerful Benefits of 12 Chakra Mantras
4. Affirmations
An affirmation is a short, positive statement that helps you gain control over your thoughts and affirm an action. Positive navel chakra affirmations can assist you in cultivating trust in your inner guidance and power.
Examples of positive solar plexus affirmations include:
- “I deeply and completely trust myself.”
- “I am calm, powerful, and confident.”
- “I am ready to pursue my purpose with confidence.”
- “I forgive myself for past mistakes.”
- “I let go of any control and trust my inner guidance.”
- “I am confident in my abilities and talents.”
- “I radiate positivity, self-assurance, and unconditional self-worth.”
- “I honor and respect my personal power.”
- “I am worthy of achieving my goals and dreams.”
- “I am deeply grateful for all the blessings in my life.”
Here’s how to use affirmations:
- Choose an affirmation that resonates with you.
- Repeat it to yourself several times a day.
- Visualize it as if it’s already true.
- Use it consistently.
- Stay open and receptive to any positive changes that may come.
A good time to include an affirmation is first thing in the morning, right before you go to bed, or after a meditation session. You can also affirm them when you doubt your decisions or feel powerless.
Healing Your Personal Power, Healing the World
When you can access your inner wisdom and connect with the divine within you, you can live from a place of universal values based on cooperation and mutual respect.
This is the foundation of the new paradigm, where we collaborate, cooperate, and co-create together. And this is the result of healing the seat of your power on an individual and collective level.
If you want to learn how to ignite your inner sun to become whole and make the world a better place, the Chakra Healing Quest with Anodea Judith is for you. This is what one of the students of the Quest experienced:
Thank you, Anodea Judith, for helping me find more inner peace and for bringing a sense of awe, wonder, and beauty back into my life.
— Trent Thomason, student of Chakra Healing Quest
This quest has helped thousands of people around the world heal their minds, bodies, and spirits, with over 18,000 success stories. The best part is that you can sample classes from this Quest by unlocking your free access.
Welcome in.
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Featured image generated on Midjourney.
