Ep#047 Feeling Stuck In Your Health and Life? It Could Be Your Third Chakra

0 (1s):
Welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition Podcast, where you’ll discover that when it comes to your health, you’re so much more powerful than you’ve been led to believe. And now your host, she’s a holistic nutrition and lifestyle coach, chef author, and Yogi, Christine Okezie. Hello,

Christine Okezie (23s):
And welcome to the soul science nutrition podcast. I’m Christine Okezie. Thanks so much for listening today. So as a health coach, I’ve become more and more aware of the fascinating intersection of two main health issues that I work with in my client’s struggles with self-esteem and digestive problems. Now, of course, in just the last 20 years, there’s been a ton of research on this gut brain connection, which I’ve also explored in previous episodes on the show. But today I thought it would be really interesting to unpack this from a subtle anatomy perspective and offer deeper insight by seeing how these two gut mind issues are deeply embodied in our third chakra.

Christine Okezie (1m 4s):
Now, our third chakra is the energy center of personal power, where we have to literally tap into that fire in our belly and access the will to take empowered action in the world. The third chakra, AKA our solar plexus or Naval center. Well, it’s the area below our diaphragm or the area behind and around the belly button. It’s the physical body connected to our entire digestive system, stomach intestines, liver, gallbladder pancreas. And if we’re not fully connected to the third chakra, while we can have troubles with these organs, including things like weight struggles, addictive behaviors, adrenal fatigue, diabetes indigestion, the third chakra is connection.

Christine Okezie (1m 51s):
However, to the emotional mental body is our sense of self. Our sense of self-confidence. It’s where we hold ideas about how we look. So all fears related to how we look about our body live here, as well as confidence in our physical abilities, how smart we think we are, how we rate ourselves. The third chakra you might say is the place where we digest life, both physically and how we process situations and circumstances that life gives us people who’ve experienced a strict upbringing or an authentic or authoritarian home environment, or those who have suffered.

Christine Okezie (2m 35s):
Maybe some degree of mental or physical abuse tend to have difficulty balancing the third chakra. When the third chakra is weak, you might find yourself prone to self doubt, perfectionism body shame. We are overly concerned with what people think about us, and we can find ourselves hustling to prove our worth sound. We have a tendency to become what is called the exhausted martyr, you know, running around, trying to fix everything and everyone else at the expense of our own needs. Now, in contrast, when our third chakra is strong and balanced, we feel worthy and true to ourselves.

Christine Okezie (3m 22s):
There is a strong sense of I am enough. There’s no hiding, no performance. We have the inner resolve and self-discipline to realize our goals and dreams. Because bottom line, we feel good about ourselves. We feel comfortable in our own skin, respect our bodies. And of course, all good things flow from there because in truth, if we don’t like ourselves, we will lack the inner strength and be incapable of making healthy decisions. We will tend to give away our personal power to people and situations that we enforce this weakness.

2 (4m 1s):
And

Christine Okezie (4m 2s):
Because we have difficulty taking action for ourselves, we’ll get stuck feeling like a victim of our circumstances. So without this strong belief in ourselves, our minds will succumb to rumination and indecision will lack the resolve to take risks and stay stuck in health demoting patterns or situations. The strength of our third chakra is directly related to our ability to sustain positive habit change. We can have the best intentions to do something health promoting life affirming, but without a strong Naval center, we will lack the willpower, the energetic container necessary to sustain our commitments on a spiritual level.

Christine Okezie (4m 45s):
The third chakra is about the energy of self understanding the relationship. Once again, we have with ourselves self-trust and in this regard, this energy center is deeply connected to our intuition. Literally the ability to trust our gut instincts. I see this frequently when a person suffers from low self-esteem self-trust becomes a serious obstacle to health on so many levels. There is a weak ability to act on their intuitive impulses because fear of failure is so intense. And this often shows up around relationship with food. We can’t trust our bodies. We can’t trust ourselves to know what or when to eat.

Christine Okezie (5m 26s):
And so we give away our power to diet culture. For example, I’ve come to know that self-trust, that is having faith in ourselves is really the essence of our personal power. Why? Because having faith in ourselves means trusting ourselves and ultimately a trust in the intelligence of life itself. So seeing our food, weight, and body challenges through the lens of the third chakra is an invitation to heal at the root, by developing self understanding, self respect, and self responsibility. It’s a journey that goes beyond knowing the workings of healing, the gut microbiome, or even beyond a psychological path to health.

Christine Okezie (6m 14s):
It’s becoming skillful at the internal process of self inquiry and cultivating connection to the spirit within our bodies thrive. When our spirits thrive, health is a journey and it’s important to be patient and super compassionate with ourselves as we become more and more. Self-aware the third chakra is also known as the seat of the soul because it’s where we get our inner power to chart a path in our life that aligns with our soul’s purpose, of course, bringing about these positive changes that come when we have a balanced, their chakra, doesn’t just happen overnight.

Christine Okezie (6m 58s):
We need to be sincere and patient and dedicated to rebalancing, strengthening, cleansing our third chakra, especially if it’s been blocked for a long period of time. So there are many ways, many healing practices that are out there I’ll list some of my favorite ones that will help you begin to heal this energetic center. So at the top of my list is clearing blockages with yoga in Kundalini yoga. For example, one of the most powerful ways to strengthen our third chakra is to work with the Naval center through specific exercises and breath work called Naval Koreas. We can strengthen the entire digestive system focusing on those core abdominal muscles, which obviously helps the entire eliminated system.

Christine Okezie (7m 45s):
And I say the entire eliminating system, because it dislodges unprocessed toxic emotions that have been stored in our body, as well as a buildup of wastes in our gut that we know can prevent good absorption of nutrients and provide a breeding ground for bacteria and illness. See when it comes to strengthening or clearing our third chakra, it’s all about asking the all-important question. Where am I directing my energy? Or more specifically, where am I leaking energy, right? Where am I giving away my inner power? One of the things that we can do is we can cut ties with critical and negative people in our life.

Christine Okezie (8m 29s):
Now, perhaps we can’t sever ties totally, but we can certainly do our best to keep a distance from people who, who are overly critical or who belittle us, right? You want in your life supportive people who are there to help you grow, and you want to free yourself from unsupportive people who will drag you down. Remember the power is in your hands. It’s up to you who stays and in your life. Another thing you want to do is explore the sources of resistance in your life. What are you constantly pushing against? What are you constantly pulling away from or what issues keep coming back into your life, right?

Christine Okezie (9m 14s):
Notice when you want to change, but you can’t notice what is the greatest source of energy loss in your life? One of the most common sources of blocked third chakra energy is investing huge amounts of energy towards avoiding or suppressing or pushing against them. So ask yourself, you know, what is in my life that I need to either understand better love a little harder, or let go completely. That’s going to free up the flow of my personal energy. Next we have to let go of any anger that’s been stored inside our bodies.

Christine Okezie (9m 60s):
Releasing pent up. Anger helps us unlock the chakra very powerfully. When we can release pent up anger, we can access our personal power again. And of course you want to look for ways to release anger in healthy ways. And again, we can do this through yoga, through exercise, even, you know, dancing, journaling, crying, art, being in nature, just giving awareness to how we can release the pent up anger, which can be really toxic. So one of the most disempowering mindsets we can have that’s blocking our third chakra is the belief that somehow we’re powerless, right?

Christine Okezie (10m 46s):
That somehow life is happening to us. And if we carry this mindset, it will manifest as the tendency to blame others, everything around us, for our discontent, for our predicament, we can lose a lot of energy playing the victim. And this is not to acknowledge the reality that there are circumstances, external forces in the world that are beyond our control. When we talk about shifting out of the mindset of becoming a victim, this is the internal work. This is the internal work that we need to do towards self-responsibility towards avoiding language.

Christine Okezie (11m 29s):
And self-talk, that makes us feel like a victim. And of course, finally, we want to take care of ourselves every single day. We want to prioritize our self-care and feeling good. And this requires taking a look, taking an inventory to see where maybe our physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual health is being neglected yourself. That caring for yourself is a form of self-love and respect. And as we, as I talk about on the show all the time, no person, then you can take better care than you only, you know, your deepest needs at any and every given moment.

Christine Okezie (12m 11s):
So one of the best things to do is to incorporate a third chakra visualization exercise. A beautiful meditation you might do is just allow your eyes to close and imagine a beautiful swirling ball of luminescent, yellow energy of gold and light located just below your ribs and feeling that ball of beautiful golden energy swirling and swirling, getting brighter and brighter. And as it does dissolving all the blockages, all the deficiencies, all the toxic emotions and energies that are blocking the flow of energy within you.

Christine Okezie (12m 59s):
So as you continue to see this beautiful swirling ball spinning luminosity of yellow light located just below your ribs, dissolving all the blockages, all the deficient flows of energy within you in the following affirmations, I let go of the need to have other people’s approval. I choose inner peace daily. I have high self-esteem and know that I am valuable.

3 (13m 42s):
Everything I need I have within. I know exactly what I need to be my best self. I accept myself unconditionally. I am always in choice in every situation. I love myself and others in my life when I set and maintain healthy boundaries. so as you breathe and continue to visualize this beautiful swirling ball of luminescent yellow light in your third chakra, just breathe and see the golden energy dissolving all those blockages.

3 (14m 39s):
filling the third chakra is really all about making time for stillness, making time to connect with your true self. Taking the time to go within taking a break from focusing our energy outside of our lives and bringing it inside our lives. You’ll feel an immediate sense of calm in your daily life. A relaxed body, certainly improved benefits when you did, when you nurture this connection to yourself, you will naturally boost your energy levels and it takes time and patience and courage and being still for everybody is not the easiest thing.

Christine Okezie (15m 22s):
So be patient and be gentle with yourself above all, to heal the third chakra, we have to learn to honor ourselves to develop self-respect and healthy self-esteem. So I hope you found this discussion helpful on the third chakra, understanding the relationship between some of our biggest emotional and metabolic challenges. And I’ll close with a useful quote that I really love. You are very powerful provided, you know how powerful you are. Thanks for listening my friends and bye for now.