Leaking from the Solar Plexus

By Wendy De Rosa, April 2009

As an intuitive energy healer, I have noticed similar energetic patterns in people since September 2008, the start of the economic crisis.  These patterns include struggles with confusion, loss of energy, headaches/migraines, stomach problems, difficulty making decisions, frenetic energy, and feelings of worry, fear or chaos.  This indicates to me that there is energy leaking out of the solar plexus – the center or chakra for personal power in our bodies. I see energy clairvoyantly in people, and the frequency of this leakage over the past several months has peaked my interest.  So, I began to investigate the source of this frenzied energy epidemic.

In understanding why this is happening, it’s important to become familiar with the solar plexus as a source of power in our body.  The solar plexus is a big yellow chakra, located between the diaphragm and the naval.  It relates to personal power, our identity, how we see ourselves in relation to our surroundings, confidence, will power and determination.  It is the power center that supports our getting things accomplished in life.  If it is too open or too leaking, the tendency is to feel a loss of center resulting in co-dependency, insecurity, lack of stamina/endurance, and fear of negative outcomes.   The solar plexus also responds to life based on the survival instincts learned before the age of seven years old.  Moreover, those survival instincts are conditioned in the root chakra of the body.

The root chakra corresponds to basic survival instincts that we learn from our tribe or family, such as knowing the difference between right and wrong or sharing versus stealing.  The root chakra also contains programming on finances, home, connection to the earth or our environment, our sense of trusting humanity and feeling secure in life.  Further, the root chakra contains information on how we relate with others, basic nurturing, human suffering, and fear that the earth won’t provide what we need.

To take these two power centers and put them into context with the world today, I will explain it this way:  The energetic perspective of this financial crisis is that many people’s finances are or were tied up in investments that are not grounded locally or stabilized in trusted sources, and the bottom fell out. When our ground shakes in the areas of finances and security, our system goes into a subtle contraction or chaos.  We operate subconsciously in fear and panic when it feels as if the security will be compromised.  Any shock having to do with your finances, safety and security will have an effect in the root chakra of the body.  Even if your job is secure, you may be feeling the effects of being shaken up and not quite understanding why. The root chakra’s vibration is much more subtle than, say, that of the heart.  In the heart, there’s a more obvious feeling of panic.  In the root, our conditioned reactions are hard-wired according to our basic survival instincts.  So, in a time of financial crisis, enhanced survival instincts surface.  For example, if in childhood, a parent dealt with financial struggle emotionally and kept deflecting the problem to others, you may have learned that pattern when it comes to dealing with your own finances in crisis.  So, what happens is that your reactive body, operating on the emotional state of the survival instinct, starts to question its safety.  Once you start to question security, your mind then questions your identity and now you are in the realm of the solar plexus.

If you are an accountant, for example, and now are at a loss for work, you may begin to ask if that is really who you are deep down. The deeper questions surface:  What am I doing with my life?  What do I really want to do?  What is my purpose?   In this realm of questioning, the solar plexus goes through a slow and confusing process of reconfiguring.  The reconfiguring can feel chaotic in the gut, confusion in the brain and possibly emotional instability or spinning of wheels.  The reconfiguring is a good thing once the discomfort settles because it means that spiritually you are seeking deeper truth about your journey in life and your future.  It also means that you may be separating your identity from being a job title and instead, discovering more deeply who you are here to be and choosing to trust that.  The solar plexus governs the mental body and so, there is a correlation between thoughts and creating reality in this power center.  So manifesting what you want in the world is possible as you make more empowering choices.

On the other hand, this reconfiguring and questioning identity can be a very confusing time.  Intuition may be off and there is an urgency to find answers in order to progress and move on.  On the contrary, the best thing to do is to wait, be patient and not make drastic decisions until things become clear.  However, our ego is not always happy with that answer.  Instead, tries to ground you into other people and in other sources who you perceive to be more stable than you, in order to flee from this state of confusion.  I don’t mean that you shouldn’t look to a teacher, a book or education.  What I mean to say is, that if you lose your sense of self in the process of reconfiguring life, and if you believe that your sense of security will come from an outside source, then your solar plexus will leak energy out and into the fields of others in order to get these needs met and to ground. The problem with this is that when you merge energetically with someone or something that you think has more power than you, then you confuse your energy with their energies and are bound to have a weakened sense of self.  Additionally, you may feel tapped out, drained and powerless.

How do we rectify this?  The times are calling for people to turn inward, to strengthen spiritually and to reconsider personal values in life.  This financial crisis is testing us to turn inward to a truer Divine source.  Because historically, we have never before been in a position where American society is so disconnected from the earth and so tied up in technology that when a crisis like this hits, we have few reliable role models to show us how to survive.  We have to become the leaders and we have to get grounded.  The only way to do that is to build interior, personal and spiritual stamina to weather the storms of this time. The way to do this is through a developing a spiritual practice and connection with the Divine through contemplative practices, such as meditation, prayer, music, or a community-based service.

No one has all the answers.  Those who are attempting to pioneer through these times are tapped into a Divine strength that challenges and comforts their human-ness every day.  They have to continue to turn to the Divine for replenishing the body, mind and spirit.

So, back to the solar plexus…it is so important now more than ever to strengthen the core of our bodies.  On psychological level, that means positive affirmation, positive thoughts, empowerment and words of encouragement, and the virtue of perseverance.  On an emotional level, it means to release needing to care-take others for self-gain, ie, martyrdom and neediness.  On an energetic and visualizing level, it means to draw your navel into your spine and pull your Solar Plexus energy back into your body.  Do this regularly.  On a physical level, it means to strengthen abdominal muscles.  This is not to have great abs, but to feel the power that can come from strong muscle energy in this area.  You can’t be in your center if you can’t feel your center.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to strengthen the abdominals to help with centering at this time.

Think of core strength this way:  If you draw your navel into your spine with the help of your abdominal muscles, you will feel an energetic rise to the heart.  In yoga this is called uddiyada bhanda, which means to fly up from the root.  When the energy rises to the chest, there is another power center there, the heart chakra.  The heart chakra then lifts and is supported by the strength of the core energy in the solar plexus.  You can even try visualizing this as the heart resting on a pedestal supported by the lift of this energy from the Solar Plexus.  That lift of the heart can set the foundation in the heart to further soul work, such as: trusting that everything is okay even if the outcome is unknown.  It can also help lift spirits, feel positive and lighten up – so needed when times feel troubling. If there is too much heart and a weak solar plexus then some behavioral patterns surface, such as: excessive giving, to a point of resentment because there is nothing left for the self, or giving compliments but feeling jealously and insecurity underneath.  These are just a couple but neither are healthy patterns.  Ideally, you want an equal balance between all the power centers in your body. Yet, given this day and age, it is so important for the solar plexus to be centered in the body, so that you can ground into yourself.

In addition to strengthening the core and shifting negative thoughts, the advice I have been giving people during this time is to get out into nature – and ground. Get back to simplifying life.  Deepen soul-searching.  Let go of the “shoulds” that have kept you from the career you really wanted to do in the first place.  Enjoy the things that are most dear to your heart – your family, friends or pets. Stop. Breathe in the awe-inspiring moments.

This time will support you in your career shift; it can help you renegotiate how you organize and handle finances. The clearer you are with your intentions to live happily, the more you can invest positive momentum into the area of your life’s work.  That, in turn, pours positive momentum back into the universe.