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Hi! I’m Jessica. In this podcast, I will discuss how a balanced solar plexus chakra can help with weight loss! You may ask, “What is the solar plexus chakra, and how can it help with losing weight?” Let me give you a brief answer for now. You can think of this chakra as an intense energy center that helps you say “no” to that doughnut! If you have listened to my previous three podcasts, I discussed the chakra system and how integral they are to helping your body acheive wellness. Overall, we may explore different weight loss ventures, but tend to discount our willpower’s energetic force. It is this energetic balance that gives us the ultimate drive to self-restraint. In this article, I will explain how to improve your ability to say “no” to that bag of chips by balancing your solar plexus chakra.
Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura)
This chakra comes in third when anatomically working your way up on the body from the root and sacral chakras. It is the chakra that corresponds with our personality, self-esteem, and sense of worth. 1 According to Yogapedia, the solar plexus chakra corresponds with the energy of personal power. It governs willpower, well-being, and achievement; hence, in yogic teaching, it is believed to radiate positive energy to the lower chakras as well as feelings of love up to the heart chakra.2
How can you tell if your solar plexus chakra is not in order?
Overall, there are several ways to tell if this chakra is out of balance! Of course, the most obvious one that we already mentioned is a lack of willpower. Do you feel the need to eat everything in your pantry? Guess what? Your solar plexus chakra probably needs some work! It may also be out of harmony if you have struggled with a sense of self-worth. If you strive to respect yourself and have self-pity, then you should also focus on this chakra.
Besides, the solar plexus chakra being important for weight loss, it is also essential to keep it in check to prevent manifestations of illnesses. Some physical dysfunctions can include anything from arthritis to hepatitis or diabetes.7 If you want to read more about this, go here.
A balanced solar plexus chakra and weightloss
For you to achieve self-restraint, it is crucial to balance your solar plexus chakra. You can fast all day long or follow a keto diet, but if you don’t have the willpower to know when to stop eating, you will not lose weight. As a clinician, I have people tell me that they don’t understand why they aren’t losing weight when following a keto diet or intermittent fasting. First of all, it does come down to if you eat more calories then your body can consume, you don’t lose weight and may even gain ( you can read more about this in my Keto-Carb Cycling post). However, when further analyzing this, it goes down even further than that! It is all about your energetic balance at that time!
Can you remember a time when you lost weight while doing a particular diet? You may not have realized it, but you probably had a well-aligned solar plexus chakra during this timeframe! Think about it? During that time, you had improved self-worth because you wanted to eat beneficial things! You did not want to consume that ice cream or cookie because you knew that it would interfere with your image. You felt good about yourself and wanted to do good things for your body! So you see, it is vital to have a proper mindset before any dieting.
Solar plexus chakra balancing
There are several ways to balance your solar plexus chakra to have weight loss. I am going to go through several of them. You can pick one method or do all of them. That is entirely up to you! I recommend incorporating several techniques into your life to achieve maximum benefits. After all, the whole goal here is for you to lose weight, so why not improve your odds.
Sleep
I am mentioning this one first! Sleep lays the ultimate foundation for any type of chakra balance. If you don’t sleep, then it will be hard even to have the motivation to take time to balance your chakras. Sleep is essential for mindset, but physiologically if you don’t get snooze time, a hormone called ghrelin increases to make you hungrier. There is increasing evidence from laboratory and epidemiologic studies indicate that insufficient sleep may be a risk factor for obesity. 3.
It is of utmost importance to put sleep as a priority in your life! You need to take whatever measures possible to get a good night’s rest. Recently, I have implemented better sleep hygiene in my own life. I know it is hard, but you just have to be regimented before going to bed. For instance, I love watching TV the night before bed, but I decided to stop to improve my sleep quality. Stopping TV before bed is one of the essential steps to follow to improve your sleep hygiene. This is just one of the many It is necessary to implement good sleep hygiene in your life to improve your sleep.
If you have insomnia or hot flashes, then consider ordering a Chilipad. Recently, I just ordered one! The Chilipad works by cooling off your body temperature at night, which will also help you sleep deeper! I highly recommend you consider one too to improve your sleep! Did you know that there is data from 765,000 Americans which showed that an increase in nighttime temperatures increased their self-reported nights of insufficient sleep 12?
Strong research shows that warmer temperature can lead to worse sleep duration, shallow sleep, difficulty falling asleep, and lower sleep satisfaction13. Yikes! In fact, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) suggested that the ideal bedroom temperature is somewhere between 15.5 degrees C (60 degrees F) and 19.4 degrees C (67 degrees F)14.
Meditation
Meditation is a great way to balance the solar plexus chakra along with all the other ones! By meditating, you will allow yourself to be more mindful of your surroundings. It is essential to carve out at least 5-10 minutes of your day to do this. When people picture meditating, they tend to envision people sitting up in Lotus Position or a meditation pose. You don’t have to do this to meditate! When I meditate, I do it lying down with music to get me in that mind state. I would recommend you start with a guided meditation, especially if you are a beginner. You can go to YogaDownload.com. They have a guided meditation, which will help lead you into a deep relaxation, which will aid the mind-body connection into restoration.
Adopting a meditation practice is all about mindfulness and has little to do with any religion. It is all about being present and learning to live, not thinking about the past or future. It is beneficial with anxiety and for nurturing your solar plexus chakra. If you meditate and feel present, it will, in turn, increase your self-worth because you feel confident to deal with the here and now. When we think of the past or future too much, it increases our worry, which will diminish our self-esteem.
Affirmations
When you meditate, it is good to say affirmations to yourself. In other words, you want to incorporate positive sayings to promote body healing. Affirmations for health can help you to heal your life 4. I highly recommend a book by Louise Hay; the name is Heal Your Body. You can find it on my Recommendations page under books. Reading this book, you will realize the connection between our mind and body! It is amazing how many positive affirmations she comes up with for the different diseases or symptoms.
Now let us explore some different affirmations that will help with the solar plexus chakra. Some mantras may include ” I can,” ” I am strong and powerful,” ” I radiate light as the central sun of my universe,” ” I am enough,” or “I manifest my reality.” These are just a few; I’m sure you can incorporate more! However, I would start by saying these when you are meditating to heal your solar plexus chakra.
Yoga
Yoga has to be one of my favorites when it comes to balancing the solar plexus chakra for weight loss! There are so many benefits from yoga; it is fantastic. Some of the benefits to boot include improving posture, flexibility, increased bone health, increased immunity, improving focus, decreasing anxiety, deep sleep, great exercise, weight loss, and more! I like it because I can do it right in the comfort of my own home. So convenient! It doesn’t get any better than that. The solar plexus chakra is the center of personal power and confidence, so any pose that moves with a lot of energy, makes you feel strong, fans the flame of your inner fire, or asks that you middle spine be flexible would suffice 5. Some of the best poses include Cat Pose, Cow Pose, Sun Salutation, Boat Pose, or Half Boat pose. Leg lifts are also very effective, or you can try breathing exercises like Breath of Fire or Bellows Breath.6
When it comes to recommendations for yoga, several web sites come to mind! I am very fond of Yogawithadriene.com and CatMeffan.com. If you are looking for an excellent solar plexus yoga, click here. Another useful website is Yogadownload.com.
Essential oils
Another good way to open up your solar plexus chakra for weight loss is by using essential oils. The essential oils which are pertinent for this chakra are cardamom, chamomile, lemon, lemongrass, marjoram, and peppermint 8. When purchasing these oils, it is always good to get them in the purest form. You can place them in a diffuser and enjoy or even in your bath to get benefits. I like to put them in a diffuser when I meditate or rub them on my wrists. Typically, I pick the corresponding essential oil for the chakra that I feel like I need to balance at the time. Another way to enjoy their benefits is by placing them in your hands and rubbing them together to create friction to release the scent. When you rub your hands jointly, you will find that it releases the energy of the oil 9. If you learn to use essential oils in your everyday life, there are numerous benefits. I recommend purchasing Essential Oils: Ancient Medicine for a Modern World to better your understanding of them. You can find the ones I recommend here.
Crystals
Crystals are an excellent tool to open up that solar plexus chakra to lose weight! To use them, you want to make sure that you clean them. When you clean the stones, you are removing all the old energies from the people who previously used them. I like to wash mine with sage after I purchase them. Some good crystals for opening up the solar plexus are amber calcite, citrine, sunstone, and tiger’s eye 11.
Grounding
Did you realize that grounding can help to open up your solar plexus chakra in an indirect way? Maybe you aren’t sure what grounding is or the benefits? Grounding is connecting with the earth both physically and spiritually. It is the key to physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. It creates emotional stability, and calms and clarifies the mind. If you have listened to my prior episode on the Root Chakra, you probably remember that grounding is good for opening up the Root Chakra. Well, guess what? It is important to balance the Root Chakra first before we proceed to others, or we will lack the stability and rootedness necessary for true transformation and personal growth15.
When it comes to grounding, you can go outside and take off your shoes and put your bare feet on mother earth! First, make sure that the conditions are favorable! Also, realize that it can’t be concrete or rocks. You have to establish that direct connection to get the full effects of grounding. I recommend that you go to Earthing.com to purchase to get the grounding benefits inside your house!
Other ways to open up your Solar Plexus Chakra
Anything that builds your self-confidence or your power will serve to open your solar plexus chakra for weight loss. Have you wanted to take up Tae Kwon Do? Then do it! Martial arts are excellent for strengthening your power10. If you had something else in mind for boosting your confidence, then try it out. Do things outside of your comfort zone! It will be worth it when you have this chakra open up and lose weight. Another thing that you can do to open up this chakra is wearing yellow clothing! So yes, pull out that canary color shirt that you haven’t worn in years and put it on!
Adopting a keto diet to help open up your Solar Plexus Chakra
Did you know that even the Keto diet could help open this up? Think about it. The keto diet makes you feel better because you are eating low carbohydrates, and as a result, you are producing those feel-good ketones. By doing this, you are fueling your brain to function off of ketones and not glucose. The brain loves this! As a result, you overall feel good and have more energy. Ketones will fuel your brain, which will, in fuel, your motivation to keep that solar plexus in line! If you want to read more about the Keto diet, you can go here.
Specific chakra opening up foods
Do you realize there are also specific foods that will help the solar plexus open up? Yes, it is true. These foods include squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, lentils, yellow and orange peppers, lemons, corn, yellow pears, golden apples, brown rice, oats, and spelt. 16 Now I know this list is not “keto-friendly,” so to speak( except the peppers and lemons). However, you can incorporate those on your Keto-Carb cycling days.
Solar plexus chakra healing is a step towards a journey towards wellness.
In conclusion, please remember that healing your solar plexus is a big step in the right direction. If you want further order on healing your chakras, I recommend that you see a Reiki Master or a Shamin help guide you. Healing is a journey and is not an overnight process. As your mentor, my main purpose is to educate you on these things, so you know which steps to take to achieve better health. Do you difficulty trying to find out where you can start? If so, I encourage you to go to my Start Here page and learn more about the seven stepping stones towards wellness.
Overall, it is essential to take time out to care for yourself to get to wellness. If you are stressed out and feel anxious, stop whatever your doing and take several deep breaths. Or maybe go for a walk, do yoga, ride a bike or meditate. Do not let yourself continue to be anxious, as it can lead you down a path toward destruction. Remember, your conscious mind can affect your body! If you have in your thoughts that your body can be affected by your emotions, then you will make more to take time for yourself. I hope you can find peace and gratitude in your life.
Namaste friends!
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Alcantara, M. (2017). Chakra Healing. A beginner’s Guide to Self-Healing Techniques that Balance the Chakras. Berkeley, CA: Althea Press 1,5,6,7,9,10 .
“What Is the Solar Plexus Chakra? – Definition from Yogapedia.” Yogapedia.com, www.yogapedia.com/definition/5522/solar-plexus-chakra 2 .
Hanlon, EC, et al. “Sleep Restriction Enhances the Daily Rhythm of Circulating Levels of Endocannabinoid 2-Arachidonoylglycerol.” Pubmed.gov, 1 Mar. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Sleep Restriction Enhances the Daily Rhythm of Circulating Levels of Endocannabinoid 2-Arachidonoylglycerol3 .
“101 Positive Affirmations For Health and Healing That Can Help.” Positive Affirmations, 6 Apr. 2020, positiveaffirmationscenter.com/positive-affirmations-health/ 4.
Pfender, April. Essential Chakra Meditation: Awaken Your Healing Power with Meditation and Visualization. Althea Press, 20198,11.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5446217/12
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6351950/ 13
https://www.sleep.org/articles/temperature-for-sleep/14
https://www.chakra-anatomy.com/root-chakra.html 15
https://www.chakras.info/open-solar-plexus-chakra/ 16
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