Ashtanga Yoga | Vinyasa Flow | Hatha Yoga
Ashtanga Yoga | Vinyasa Flow | Hatha Yoga

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Chakra Series – Manipura or Solar Plexus Chakra

As we journey through the body in this series, we take a look at the third chakra – the Manipura chakra – which governs the fire inside of us.

You can find the third or solar plexus chakra somewhere between the navel and the base of the sternum, a couple of fingers above the belly button. You may like to visualise it in the centre of the body, rather than at the front.

In Sanskrit this chakra is called Manipura meaning city of jewels. Together with the first (the root) and second chakra (the sacral) these energy centres are often referred to as the lower triangle. These energies are the clearest and easy to understand.

The components of Manipura

Element:

The navel chakra governs the fire element inside of you. It is your strength, your vitality, your ego, your willpower, your stamina, your inner power.  It’s the centre where you get things done and your sense of self.

Physical Body:

Digestive system, gall bladder, pancreas, adrenals, and liver.

Emotional Body:

The Manipura chakra is also all about being able to deal with things, it’s how you ‘digest’ your life. Can you stand up for yourself? Are you strong and courageous, worthy of love and respect? Do you feel strong in your body and in the world? Fire is action and transformation. Allowing yourself to grow and become a better version of yourself means taking action and leaving behind what no longer works for you.

Fire is action and transformation. Allowing yourself to grow and become a better version of yourself means taking action and leaving behind what no longer works for you.

Mental Body:

Being free to choose your path in any situation, being proud of your achievements and being the master of your own destiny. To know where you’re going and how to get there. To understand you have the strength to achieve your goals.
Imbalances
Due to stress in any layer of the body (physical, mental, emotional and energetic), you can slow down, stagnate or completely go into overdrive. When life gets too overwhelming and you’ve experienced a couple of significant experiences one after the other, it can be difficult to process. So we might feel our fire is not burning as strongly, we need time to ‘digest’ what has happened. Therefore, it may be hard to get out there and deal with everyday situations, because you are simply already full.

Getting to know your body and its different layers and learning about the chakras can give you valuable insight into where you have imbalances and stagnation.

Checklist for the third chakra

  • Do you feel you can do anything you set your mind to?
  • Do you digest your food easily? Or do you suffer from indigestion and an upset stomach?
  • Is your energy stable and do you wake up in the morning eager to start the new day?
  • Is there enough spice in your life? Things that make you feel excited and want to do things.
  • Do you feel your life has too many toxic elements in it?
  • Do you always feel tired?
  • Do you get snappy easily?
  • Do you feel like a victim of the world?

The Solar Plexus Chakra

Between the naval and the sternum is the third chakra, represented by a golden yellow color that gives us the energy to make the choices and decisions that lead us to our goals. The symptoms of a closed solar plexus chakra are feelings of insignificance and voicelessness, or having little faith in one’s own opinions, goals or dreams. Conversely, blockages in the third chakra can also create a sense of false confidence

An Introduction to Mudras

Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.

– Jerry Hansen

Philosophy of Mudra Therapy

The natural sciences of Mudra therapy believe that the five fingers correspond to the five basic elements viz. Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. • Thumb – The fire (Agni) • Index finger – The air (Vayu) • Middle finger – The ether (Aakasha) • Ring finger – The earth (Prithvi) • Small finger – The water (Jala) So as to bring back the balance in the five elements, there are some specific methods of touching and aligning the fingers with each other. These are referred to as ‘Hast-Mudras’ and this easy and doable therapy may be practiced anytime as an augmented relief from your malady as well as a handy tool for restoring your wellness.

Mudra Therapy: Hand Alignments for Holistic Health.

Your health & wellness is in your hands! Our hands are particularly blessed with virtues of wellness. The four fingers and the thumb represent the five major building blocks or the ‘Panchamahabhootas’ of which the entire universe is made viz. Sky (Ether), Air, Fire, Water and Earth. According to natural sciences, disease is nothing but a limitation that emerges in the continuity and balance of these five elements.

Dhyana Mudra

In this Mudra, you simply need to overlap your left hand with the right hand and keep steady in your lap. This alignment of the hands also tends to soothe your tensed up nerves. Practice this regularly to combat the everyday stress and strain and also for meditation. Varuna Mudra This Mudra is formed when you touch the tip of your little finger to that of your thumb. As specified earlier, the little finger represents the water element. Thus, the Varuna Mudra is particularly beneficial for dehydration. This may be also practiced for dry skin problems and it also works as natural blood purifie.

Zazen” practice gives solid experience of “Dzogchen” Rigpa. There is no more stronger practice for it.it is very strong meditation practice and the original practice of historical Buddha, Tathagata himself. Zazen is indeed like a light of Sun, Buddhas zazen is infinite.It is practiced in padma-asana with dhayani mudra (dhyana=zen).

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How to Deepen Your Yoga Practice

Ashtanga Yoga Practice

Manda explores what deepening our yoga practice (or Sadhana) entails, reflecting on her own journey and seeking insight from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Definitions

Deepen

  • to become, or to cause something to become, stronger or more powerful
  • to make something fuller or more complete

Sadhana

  • conscious spiritual practice

The focus on the physical by Yoga Asana Practice

Yoga is an internal practice the rest is just a circus ~ Sri Pattabhi Jois

As I began thinking about what deepening our Sadhana meant I reflected on my own journey over the last thirteen years and what might be the critical distillations. I also sought some insight from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras which will follow.

For many of us our entry point into yoga was Asana (yoga poses). Typically, progression takes on the momentum of ‘excelling’ in certain postures, milestones are reached when we can finally touch your toes or balance in Crow pose (see picture).

We might have associated deepening our Sadhana with advancing our yoga postures, i.e. getting stronger and more flexible. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, but in my opinion the practice of yoga is so rich and there are so many gems to be discovered beyond the physical postures.

Asking the right questions

The style of asana practice we first embarked on might not be the asana practice that continues to serve us over the years.

As we practice over months and years, we can go deeper by listening and responding to what the mind and body are communicating to us about the practice we are engaged in. How is our breath maintained throughout the practice? How are our energy levels sustained and regulated during our practice? Do we leave energized? Depleted? Where is our head at whilst we are practicing? Distracted? Absorbed? Do we look forward to arriving? Or are we more excited for it to be over? Is our practice a chore? Are we driven to practice out of obligation or fear? Or do we genuinely arrive on our mats grateful and excited to be there? Are we willing to question our practice, to take a step back and become curious about what experience we are having and whether the experience is beneficial to ourselves and to our relationships?

Are we willing to question our practice, to take a step back and become curious about what experience we are having and whether the experience is beneficial to ourselves and to our relationships?

Motivation and intention

Which brings us to a fundamental question… What is yoga to you?

What experience are you pursuing and how do your choices on and (maybe more importantly!) off the mat contribute toward your yoga?

Knowing your motivation and your intention keeps you on your path. It’s very easy to get distracted by the shoulds and musts, getting drawn into practices because everyone else is, flitting from one practice to another because the resistance you meet feels too uncomfortable – only to meet it again in a different guise.

It’s very easy to get drawn into practices because everyone else is, flitting from one practice to another because the resistance you meet feels too uncomfortable – only to meet it again in a different guise.

I remember acquiring book after book looking for THE answer to all my problems, somewhere between pages 20 to 50 the answer was given…. cultivating a meditation practice. Nope, that was not the answer I was looking for, so I put down one book and purchased another, THE one that would give me THE Right answer. No prizes for guessing how this played out…

Taking responsibility

The previous question brings yet another question…. How significant are the details of the practice?

What are the constituents or necessary ingredients for you to create your experience of yoga? How rigid or flexible are those elements? Again another open question.

Once upon a time, I would arrive at class as a consumer with the expectation that it was the teacher’s responsibility to make yoga to happen for me, to me, even. At times I left disappointed, I didn’t work in the way I wanted to yet I was unwilling to take responsibility for my own practice in this way. TKV Desikachar’s words echo in my mind, ‘Finally, I must become my own therapist’.

When I was studying to become a yoga teacher, part of my Sadhana project and final essay was to ‘abstain’ from going to a yoga class for a month and instead develop and deepen my self-practice at home. This is what I felt my yoga needed to evolve and grow. And this is responsibility – the ability to respond to our fluctuating internal experiences, our forever changing external circumstances and identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for us to experience yoga.

This is responsibility – the ability to respond to our fluctuating internal experiences, our forever changing external circumstances and identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for us to experience yoga.

Looking to Patanjali

Practice with consistency

Master Patanjali offers us two core principles to apply towards our yoga practice elucidated in Yoga Sutras 1.12-1.16. Patanjali does not tell us what to do, but how to engage with our practice. The first principle is Abhyasa: to practice with consistency, to constantly choose the appropriate practices and exertion of effort for us to access our yoga. Once more we are met by a teaching that does not prescribe the whats but insists upon the hows; it’s about approach rather than technique. A consistent and sincere enquiry, questioning, curiosity and unwavering commitment to your Sadhana.

Practice with non attachment

The second principle is Vairagya – non-attachment, a gradual letting go of our preferences, our likes and dislikes, the colourings that oxymoronically dull the mind. When the mind clings to something it becomes rigid and inflexible, we calcify and become narrow in our perspective. By taking an expansive and open-minded approach we experience more freedom and liberation and we are less disappointed by the outcomes of things not going our way.

When the mind clings to something it becomes rigid and inflexible, we calcify, we become narrow in our perspective. By taking an expansive and open position we experience more freedom and liberation.

We feel less entitled in other words: ‘what can you or the universe do for me and my preferences?’ Instead within the vastness and breadth of our non-attachment lies so much opportunity and possibility. So much room for growth and transformation. So much space for yoga to happen. What is more, a pace is implied in these teachings.

Patanjali does not suggest it’s a quick fix, microwavable enlightenment in biodegradable packaging. Critically, what is proposed is consistency over time and a gradual letting go and shedding of the layers of our preferences. In this way I feel the marriage and application of the two companion principles Abhyasa and Vairagya is complete and profound

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