Energise the Manipura Chakra, the city of jewels and the centre of our personal freedom

I kinda completed my ‘to-do’ list today! I woke up, wrote a list of things I needed to do and set about them. It didn’t even take that long! I even had time to drink a mango smoothie by Ho Tay (West Lake, Hanoi) and watch the water for half an hour. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING WHEN YOU COMMIT TO IT! So commit to doing this 20-minute Manipura chakra yoga practice. You will feel so empowered and energise at the end of it!

If you’re joining again in this series, welcome back! If you want to go back and start from the root, check out the root chakra post and the sacral chakra post. Fill in the form below to access all three great yoga flow videos and practice with me! Each flow is only 20 minutes, perfect for squeezing into your lunch break or whenever you get a chance to practice and clear your mind.

 

What is the Manipura chakra and why do I need to balance it?

Third of the seven wheels of energy in the body also known as ‘the city of jewels’, the Manipura or solar plexus chakra is the yellow energy centre focussing on personal freedom, identity and authenticity.

Bring this chakra into balance to feel calm and respectful of others, their opinions, desires and beliefs, and chase away feelings of stubbornness or low self-esteem. Align your body and mind towards your values and moral compass and feel empowered to achieve YOUR to-do list.

The solar plexus is in charge of: personality, ego, and identity; and personal freedom, choice, and authenticity:

• Make choices that are aligned to you and your values
• Unlock your true and authentic self
• Ignite your fire with a strong core
• Boost your energy and focus and reduce stress
• Feel more energized and more authentically YOU!

All about the Manipura chakra, AKA the solar plexus:

 

Asanas: Four poses to help you boost your energy and power

 

Crunching planks to side plank: activate your core to unlock your power!

Start in high plank, shoulders stacked over wrists, hands shoulder-width apart and feet hip-width apart. Draw the tailbone under and the bellybutton to the spine, gaze between your hands.

Variation A: Plank crunches. Extend the right leg in line with your body, try to lengthen as far as you can in a straight line, and then crunch your right knee in to your chest, rounding through the upper spine and see if you can touch your knee to your nose. Repeat for 3-5 rounds then switch legs. You can take a little rest in between each side if you need to too.

Modify: Substitute table top for high plank. Bring both knees to the floor, stacking shoulders over wrists and hips over knees. Extend the right leg back then crunch knee to nose, just like in high plank!

Variation B: Side plank pivots. Keeping your hands grounded, pivot onto the outside of your right foot and inside of your left. Keep the hips lifted, then pivot back to the centre and then to the left. If your feet are hip-width apart to start, you should be able to easily move from one side to the next without getting your feet tangled up!

Bow pose (lift and roll): Stretch the abdomen and lift up! 

Bow pose, or Dhanurasana, is a super powerful pose and backbend, it requires strength and some flexibility too, and is super good for the whole front of the body, like our abdomen, our thighs, our PSOAS muscles and our throat!

On your tummy, bend your knees and reach your arms back – either one at a time or together) to catch the toes or ankles. Your fingers should be on the outside. On your next inhale, start to lift! Kick your feet into your hands and pull your hands away from your feet and try to lift the legs up as HIGH as you can!

If possible, see if your inner feet can comfortably touch! Bring awareness to the inner thighs, drawings thighs and knees towards each other. Draw your gaze to the ceiling, with the intention or awareness that one day, maybe we will see our feet! What a time to be alive!

Not comfortable? Bring a neatly folded blanket underneath you. No creases! Not only are creases uncomfortable (hey there, Princess and the Pea) but they also disturb the flow of energy. Take the time to smooth your blanket.

Variation A: roll! Keeping the shape of your Dhanurasana, roll over to the right and try to have the whole chest lifted off the mat! Keep kicking feet into hands and try to keep the neck in line too.

Modify: Can’t reach your feet? Use a yoga strap or sock or scarf as an extension of your arms to help you! Remember, this is a challenging pose for the spine, so if you need to modify further and take a sphinx, seal or cobra pose instead, you do you.

Marichyasana C: twist and release the energy inside!

Twist and release, boost your energy!

Marichyasana is named after Marichi, the son of Brahma, and may also be referred to as Sage’s Pose. It has looooaaaads of variations, I am most familiar with the four variations in the Ashtanga Primary Series. But even just looking at one of these poses, we have plenty of variations within that so that YOU can find the pose that suits you.

Start from Dandasana (seated staff) pose, with your legs extended forwards and your sitting bones grounding down into the mat (you may need to slide your bum out to the sides first), bring the right knee close to the chest and set the sole of your foot on the mat next to the left thigh. Left hand to the knee, inhale to lengthen the spine and exhale to twist to the right, bringing the right hand behind you on the mat. Every inhale lengthens the spine, every exhale twists a little deeper, drawing the bellybutton in towards the spine and keeping both sitting bones grounded down. Gaze over the right shoulder. Stay for 3-5 breaths then release to the centre and repeat with the left side.

Variation A: Instead of holding the knee, hook the left elbow over the right knee.

Variation B: From A, straighten the left arm and swing it behind your back, looking for either a hold on your tee shirt OR catching the fingers on your right hand, swinging it around to meet the left.

Navasana or Boat pose (low and high): build strength in the body and mind

Strong, sturdy and UNSINKABLE! Navasana is the true unsinkable ship!

Navasana is one of my favourites! It’s so fun and it’s so useful for tracking your progress. Do you remember your first Navasana? How hard it was? How you thought, how the hell is that teacher holding their legs up like that?! It didn’t happen by magic, they worked for it. Let’s work it together!

Start seated on your mat and draw your knees in towards your chest. Open the chest, lengthen the spine, and start to toe tap and find your balance. The first option of the pose might be here for you, work here, that’s great! The second option is to reach the arms forwards! Stay for 3-5 breaths then cross your legs and do 3 rounds of seated cat and cow pose to stretch the spine, PSOAS and abdomen, or take a Vinyasa! Check out the free video of this flow if you’re not sure what that means, just fill in the signup forms dotted around the page.

 

Variation A: Knees parallel to the floor!

Variation B: Legs straight! Gaze to your big toes!

Variation C: Low boat!

Variation D: Rocking boat! Inhale up to high boat, exhale to low boat! Challenge different muscles with each variation and do what you can!

Modify: Keep your hands on the mat behind you OR come down onto the forearms to support the back. If you have ANY back pain in Navasana, then this is the variation for you!

Want more variations for Navasana? Check out twisting Navasana here!

Did you give any of these poses a try? Amazing! Every time we step onto our mat (even if that ‘mat’ is just a space in our office or classroom), we allow ourselves to check out of stress and check into more energy and better living. I hope these yoga poses bring balance to the Manipura chakra and energy to your day, AND I hope you check out the FREE 20-minute yoga video too, and practice with me! There are some extra bits and pieces in there that I don’t include in the blog, so be sure to check it out! Just use the sign-up forms dotted about this blog post then check your email for video access.

 

What else can you do? You can sign up for my NEW and IMPROVED 30 Days of Gratitude workbook, helping you to start and maintain a daily gratitude practice until the habit is set with you. Bring more joy into your life with gratitude and feel better with each passing day. It really is as easy as that. There is always something to be grateful for. Today, I’m grateful for socks, keeping my cold toes warm on winter days.

 

I hope you are enjoying this series exploring the chakras but if you’re new here today, be sure to check out my posts on the Muladhara (root) and Svadhishthana (sacral) chakras too,  plus many more 20-minute or less yoga videos that are perfect for squeezing into your day. I usually practice at lunchtime, giving me more energy and patience to continue my day with peace and love, no matter how many times 20 three-year-olds interrupt me.

Enjoy the journey

Namaste

Lolli the Yogicorn