"The Sacred Truth of the third chakra is "Honor One's Self". The energies that come together in this chakra have but one spiritual goal; to help us mature in our self understanding - the relationship we have with others, and where we stand on our own and take care of ourselves. The spiritual quality is self-respect."Class: 5:30-6:30pm, "Happy Hour", Betsy.
(Dear Universe, please let me go on the Mexico yoga retreat with Betsy and Bryn. I know I can't afford it right now, and it's coming up really soon, but I would reeeeeeeally appreciate your going out on a limb for me on this one...pretty please? With sugar on top? You probably don't eat sugar...being...you know "non-physical" and everything. But you get my meaning...)
Betsy asked us to set an intention before our practice today, and so, dutifully, I put my forehead to the floor and wrangled for a purpose. It went a little something like this:
"Um, intention. My intention for today is um...Before I go into the specifics of the third chakra--where it is and what it's for--let me just say this. Riding on the subway after class, hurrying to work, I thought to myself, "Why am I in such a freakin' RAGE?" It had come on my all of the sudden. Class had been lovely, everything else had been lovely, but starting when I laid down in Savasana, this intense RAGE started to wash over me, and it built in intensity--as I rolled up my mat, as I struggled to get out of class and to my bag, on to the street, on to the subway--everyone and everything seemed suddenly determined to be in my way, in my space, on my nerves...when the subway doors opened at my final destination, I had the distinct urge to push the young guy standing on the platform on the other side of the door. I wanted to push him hard. Not into the train or anything, but just down on the ground...hard.
Peace? No, that's too general. Uh...my...my...
Jaw. I've been working on releasing my jaw in voice class so maybe...or, wait. We're talking about the third chakra so I guess, yeah, okay. My third chakra. My intention for today is to...focus(?)...on my third chakra.
And my jaw.
My third chakra and my jaw.
And breathing.
Okay, my third chakra, and my jaw, and relaxed breathing.
And openness..." and so on.
And that is the moment when it occurred to me that maybe this chakra stuff had some actual palpable IMPACT when a person begins to dive into it. Was it just a big fat coincidence that after an hour spent connecting with my third chakra--my solar plexus--my gut--I suddenly wanted to go on an angry rampage through New York City? I don't know. I didn't know...which is why I'm now sitting here, looking up the third chakra. (Note: when you Google things like "third chakra" you are bound to come across a multitude of websites that make you feel like a very silly person. There are going to be pictures of crystals, and websites that look like they were designed by the boys who played Dungeon and Dragons when you were in highschool, but I suggest you try and see past that. I'm trying to.)
Okay. Manipura. The third chakra. The chakra in your guts. The center of your body. Let me repeat that: The. Center. Of. Your. Body. Your core. Your middle. Your balance. Your CENTER. The halfway point between your feet and your head, between the earth and the sky, between a really full stomach and total spiritual ecstasy. The center.
I am not exaggerating here when I tell you that until a couple weeks ago, my center was located smack dam in the middle of my collarbones. Yes ma'am, from the top of my head to the tops of my ribs I was all there...feeling, thinking, breathing, living, loving...all in that 2 or 3 feet of head/neck/shoulders/heart. Beyond that, well. What need have I for things beyond that? What else is there? My feet? My butt?
How about my emotional center. My intuition. My grounding.
I was actually shocked to discover that there seems to be this invisible line, just above what would be my third chakra, on which I have nailed a "NO ENTRY BEYOND THIS POINT" sign. I do not know what the heck is going on down there! I try to start to feel that part of my body and it's like hammering away at a long-dead limb. I can flex and release muscles but the resulting sensations are dull...and emotions?! The solar-plexus has the largest collection of nerves of almost any part of the human body. Science has guesstimated that the gut actually "thinks" with as much complexity and frequently as the brain itself, and I have been cutting it off. It is the source of my will-power, my balance, my intuition, my "gut-instinct", and is also the hot factory wherein creative impulse first becomes a something. (I know this from my voice class, wherein there has been much talk about impulses being communicated from the mind, down the spine and then first taking shape down in the gut). I can not believe that I have been walking around almost entirely disconnected from this part of my body (my self!).
So, back to our original story: my bubbling post-class rage. Does it make some kind of sense that my first re-introductions to this emotional/instinctual center of my body might produce fits of anxst? Does it make further sense that it might be anger (the emotion I have the most trouble expressing) that is trapped down there? Wouldn't that be a handy if I had cut off the one place where anger might dwell because I have such a rough time feeling and dealing with anger? Do I sound like a total goober?
Regardless, of whether I sound like a goober or not, I'm starting to have some faith in this whole "chakra" thing. I've got a date with my guts tonight...and everyday from here on in....
-Yogalia
