Finding Balance: Session Three - Our Personal Power

Finding Balance

A series of suggestions to help balance our energies

and our sense of self

There are seven main energy centres throughout our bodies, known in some philosophies as chakras. These energy centres align with the spine, from its base to the crown of the head. They have been described as swirling wheels of our vital life force, where matter and consciousness meet, and they correspond to significant nerve centres in the body. It's important for our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being that these energy centres stay open, unblocked, and balanced. Each of the seven sessions focuses on a different energy centre. They can be used by individuals or by groups. 

The workshops offered on this blog are the result of my thoughts, reflections, and experiences, woven together using my own words and sometimes adapting the words others have used: I am indebted to their wisdom. Please use these workshops freely, adapting them as suits your own context. I am always pleased to hear from people who have used them.

Session Three : Our Personal Power

The third work-shop is to do with the Solar Plexus, where the energy to do with our

personal power is focused. For this session you will need:

• a rug or mat and a yellow stone for each person present (remember to have some extras for unexpected attendees)
• a broom
• peppermint or lemon juniper incense, a large candle, smaller candles or nightlights for each person present, and matches

You may also wish to play music during the meditation, in which case choose

something quiet, calm, and unobtrusive.

The Welcome, Introduction, and 'Show & Tell':

Welcome again to you all!

Here we are, to continue learning some ways that may help us to achieve greater

balance and vital energy within our selves. Today we will focus on the third energy

centre, which is the centre of our personal power.

But before we begin, and as a follow up to our second session about the chakra of

creativity, let's take few minutes to share some of our creations with each other –

a sharing, not a competition! As we go round the circle, please show us all what

you have made, and explain something about it, and about how you felt about

creating it...

About the Solar Plexus:

Solar Plexus means Network of the Sun, and it's central to our life force. It's associated with the expression of will, personal power, responsibility, and our abilities both to establish ideas and to bring them into reality. Just as fire transforms solids into liquids and liquids into gas, so the firey solar plexus transforms our unconscious into conscious awareness.

This energy centre provides the energy we need to move forward and to realise our desires and intentions - and so it builds on both our creativity and our secure roots.

Our emotional memories are stored here, but it's also connected to our digestive systems - which is why we talk about our 'gut feelings'!

When it's in balance, we're assertive, without being dominating, we have a strong sense of self-worth, are full of positive energy, feel confident, and take full responsibility for our own life. When it's out of balance, because it has to do not only with power but also with our concepts of status and our self-image, we may become either manipulative, or, conversely, we hand over our power to others, ending up feeling dis-empowered, helpless, angry and victimised. Imbalance may also result in such symptoms as digestive and liver problems, stomach ulcers, and anorexia or bulimia.

The Recollection:

Working on our energies, and on finding greater balance in our selves, is a time of

change, of transition, just as dusk and dawn are times of transition: they're neither

the lightest nor the darkest times, they can feel shadowy, blurred, maybe even

confusing, or sharpening, brightening, clarifying.

While we are in this time of our own transition, it's a good time to recollect the

steps we have taken, and the changes we have already been through, which have

ultimately brought us together here and now - not just our growth from babyhood

to adulthood,but our development in terms of our interests, our likes and dislikes,

the way we express our selves, the things and people and situations

we feel comfortable or uncomfortable with.

We'll keep a few moments of quiet now, while we reflect on these things...

The Sweeping Away:

Shifting our balance can feel difficult, unstablising. The way we were before was

familiar; what is to come is unknown. And all of us carry with us things that are

best left behind: old habits, memories of times of low self-esteem, of being

treated badly, the detritus of broken trust, chosen wrongs, all kinds of

negativity...

But we have everything we need to enable us to become the person we were each born to be, and it is safe for us to let go of everything and anything that disrupts our passage through life.

As we pass this broom round the circle, if you wish to, please turn outwards, and symbolically sweep away from the circle everything you need to release from your life, using the words:

       I sweep away the dust and ashes from my life

       and step forward into a new beginning.

The Thanksgiving:

Now we are ready to step forward, in perfect love and perfect trust,

lifting up our selves, our powers, our hopes,

and offering our thanksgiving for the glory and abundance of life:

       We give thanks!

We give thanks that that nothing in our universe lives in isolation,

that we are able to step beyond self-interest,

to share with other people, to give and receive help in times of need, and to form relationships of friendship and love:

       We give thanks!

We give thanks for times of change and of transition,

when we can learn and grow and stretch our selves,

leaving behind what we no longer need to carry with us,

fearing neither shadows nor sharpness,

and trusting that our next stepping stone will bear us safely forwards:

       We give thanks!

Beginning to balance:

Step One - The Breath of Fire

Our first stepping stone today is the Breath of Fire. Sit comfortably with a tall spine and relaxed shoulders. Start by taking a few deep slow breaths in and out through the nose. Then forcefully inhale through the nose while inflating the lower abdomen, and exhale forcefully through the nose while pressing the lower abdomen towards the spine. Use one half count on the inhalation and one half count on the exhalation at a fairly rapid pace – it'll feel like an abdominal workout!

We'll repeat this 10 times while we're learning it, but if you do it at home, try to build up to 15 or 20 times. By the time we finish, we may feel a good tingling or glowing feeling around the solar plexus and abdomen.

Step Two - Salute to the Sun

Our second step today is to learn a simple version of the Salute to the Sun

• Stand upright at the front of your mat, with your feet hip width apart, arms at your sides; look forwards; make sure your balance is evenly distributed between both feet
• Do what at my old ballet class was described as 'tummy in, tail tucked under', and breathe evenly through your nose
• Keep breathing evenly and slowly through your nose throughout the following sequence
• Place your hands in a prayer position in the centre of your chest
• Raise your prayer hands up towards the ceiling, following your hands with your eyes, and very gently arching your back as you look up. Make sure you don't hunch your shoulders, and keep your chest area open
• On an exhalation, bend forwards, keeping your back straight and hinging at your waist, and releasing your hands to move to the sides of your legs; bend as far forwards as is comfortable
• Now bend your knees and plant your palms flat on the floor in front of your knees, pressing down to support you
• Walk forwards on your hands, lowering your body down until you're lying on your front, with your hands beside your shoulders
• Straighten your elbows, raising your head and arching your back
• Adjusting your toes as necessary, raise your bottom up, walking your hands backwards until you're in a press-up position, then walk your feet forward as far as comfortably possible, to make a triangle, while looking between your legs
• Walk your hands backwards, bending your knees if you need to, and gradually uncurl until you're standing up
• Place your hands again in a prayer position in the centre of your chest, then raise them towards the ceiling, very gently arching your back as you look up towards your hands
• Keeping your spine straight, exhale, releasing your hands in a downward arc, and returning to the starting position

Step Three - Meditation

The element of the Sun Network, not surprisingly, is fire, and its colour is yellow,

so before we begin, please take one of these yellow stones, and hold it just below

your rib cage. The meditation will take about five minutes. Please make yourself

comfortable....

Suggested script for Guided Meditation:

Take a long deep breath in...

And now, as you exhale,

move your attention to the lower part of your chest,

where you're holding the yellow stone,

and imagine the bright yellow wheel there, spinning with vibrant energy...

The glow from the wheel is like sunshine,

spreading out across your chest to the whole of your body...

Imagine that you're standing in sunshine...

You're in an endless field of sun-flowers, under a cloudless blue sky...

Look up at the expanse of the blue sky, and towards the sun -

the rays won't hurt your eyes...

The sunshine is soothing and warming,

and you find yourself being gently pulled towards the sun itself...

Imagine the fields of yellow flowers are now far below you...

and as you rise further, the earth becomes a distant blue ball...

Imagine you're getting nearer to the sun, and that, for all its heat,

it's safe for you to move into its centre...

Imagine you can see the planets revolving around you,

around your solar plexus, the Network of the Sun,

and that you gain strength as yellow light and warmth wash over you...

As you breathe deeply, taking in the yellow light and the warmth,

you can feel the energy channelling through you,

making you warm and strong...

Rest in this feeling of warmth, of strength, of confidence, of safety...

Now imagine that you're travelling on the rays of the sun

back towards the earth...

You're back in the field of sun-flowers,

but the warmth and strength and light of the sun will stay with you...

Rest in that awareness...

now bring your awareness back to your body and your breathing...

and when you're ready, have a good stretch and open your eyes...

Ways of Incorporating the Power Chakra:

We can continue to balance the chakra by adding elements of yellow in our daily life – yellow toned clothing, flowers, and food. Apart from yellow foods, food associated with the third chakra includes grains (as pasta, bread, and cereals), flax and sunflower seeds, milk, yoghurt and cheese, and such spices as ginger, mint, chamomile, cumin, turmeric and fennel. To strengthen the digestive fire of the third chakra, we can take warm, not iced, drinks, eat smaller meals, take only small sips of water while eating, to avoid diluting gastric juices, and let our stomachs rest between meals without snacking.

If we find we're stuck about making a decision, or we're at a crossroads in our life, and not sure which way to go, we can look to our solar plexus chakra for guidance – our gut feelings.

First of all we close our eyes and place a hand over the solare plexus area; then bring to mind the dilemma, and notice how the chakra feels when we give it choices about whatever it is we're struggling with. A sinking or sick feeling may indicate that that way wouldn't be best; but the best way should be indicated by a feeling of lightness, and of being able to breathe more easily.

There's a sheet here for each of us, with a guide for chanting, and a nice relaxing Child's Pose to practice.

And finally, as well as our yellow stones, we'll have another tangible reminder of this session:

The Lighting of the Fire:

We close this time together by lighting this candle as a token of the Sun that warms the

earth, giving us light and life, and as a symbol of the Light that guides each of us on our

paths of life:

The large candle is lit.

And now, as a sign of our inter-dependence, each of us will pass the light to our

neighbour:

Each person present takes a small candle.

One person lights their candle from the central candle,

and then uses it to light the next person's candle,

and so on round the circle, until everyone has a lighted candle.

Now all our lights are lit, we say together:

       As we grow and learn together and separately,

       like the light of a candle, of fire, and of the Sun,

       may Light guide us on the way of life.

Chanting:

Chanting helps bring us back to balance because sound creates vibrations in the body, which help the cells work together, literally in harmony.

For the powerful Network of the Sun we chant the word 'RAM'.

The colour of this energy centre is yellow, so as you breathe in, between the words, imagine you are breathing in yellow energy, and, like the air you take it, let it flow throughout your body.

As you breathe out, on the word RAM, imagine that flow of yellow energy picking up all

the impurities of your body and expelling them.

Use something that chimes to give you a comfortable note for the chant...

Child's Pose: This pose is calming, and relieves stress and fatigue.

• Kneel on the floor; touch your big toes together and sit on our heels; then separate your knees about as wide as your hips
• Exhale, and lay your torso down between your thighs; lay your hands on the floor alongside your torso, palms up, and release the fronts of your shoulders towards the floor
• Stay in this resting pose for between 1 to 3 minutes, breathing steadily, and then come up on an inhalation