Solar plexus chakra: signs it is blocked and how to activate it (meditation included)

In the livestream series where we worked on one chakra each evening, the third evening was for the solar plexus chakra — chakra 3, Manipura. I dressed in yellow, put up yellow paintings, lit a yellow candle, and before beginning listened to chakra 3 mantras, those with RAM, which are my favorites. This is my favorite chakra: through it I manifested in this life. And if I could leave you just one thought from this article, it would be this: you need to become the sun in your life. You radiate, you trust yourself, you act.

Below I explain what the solar plexus chakra is, what it looks like blocked or overactive, what supports it, and the sun meditation we did together in the livestream, step by step.

What the solar plexus chakra (Manipura) is

The solar plexus chakra is the third chakra in our system, in the navel area, at the solar plexus. Its Sanskrit name means ‘luminous precious stone’ — hence it is also called the jewel chakra. It brings you money, but not alone: it works with the two chakras below.

To recognize it, here are its characteristics:

• element: fire (the first chakra is Earth, the second water; here we burn);
• color: yellow;
• location: the solar plexus;
• mantra: RAM;
• frequency: 528 Hz;
• symbol: a downward-pointing triangle in a circle with ten petals;
• associated gland: the pancreas, linked to digestion;
• affirmation: ‘I do.’

Advice I give for every chakra: find its image online or print it, place it before you, look at it, then close your eyes and meditate.

And something else: online you can find tests showing, from your birth date, what percentage of each element you contain. It is worth knowing because you work better with your own elements. I am 60% fire, so Manipura is at home within me.

Chakra 3 means ‘I do’

Let us take them in turn. In chakra 1 you arrive on this plane and connect with the Earth: ‘I am safe, I have a place here’. I wrote in depth about it in the root-chakra article. In chakra 2 you discover who you are: ‘I am, I have gifts, I create’. And in chakra 3 the self you discovered asserts itself: ‘I do’. Action, karma in the sense of action.

The chakra system does this naturally: energy is created in the root, transformed in the sacral, and expressed in the solar plexus. Arriving here on Earth and knowing everything are pointless if you do not act. Many on the spiritual path stumble precisely here. Before discussing the third eye, the first three chakras are the foundation.

The solar plexus chakra is the center of will, personal power, and transformation. I have will and confidence and manifest them — but not at others’ expense. Here also resides the ability to make decisions: if you are a manager, work on chakra 3. It is your inner fire, making you act and achieve ambitions. I feel it as somewhat masculine energy, which both women and men have.

An important point: when you express yourself, you do it for yourself, not others. That is our nature as creators.

I worked in sales for years and saw something clearly: a salesperson without confidence in themselves or what they said did not sell, even if they were a good person. The customer senses it. If you do not trust yourself, how do you expect others to trust you?

If you feel you have no energy at all, work on the first three chakras — often the problem is actually chakra 1, because energy comes from there and chakra 3 only manifests it outwardly. And take an inventory: how large is each chakra? My solar plexus is the largest because I worked on it all my life. Your elements matter, but everything depends on perseverance.

Signs the solar plexus chakra is blocked (underactive)

When chakra 3 is too small or insufficiently active, it looks like this:

• You lack self-confidence and are afraid — even of your own shadow.
• You feel inferior and powerless.
• You fear others’ judgment.
• You are passive: you say nothing, ‘I have nothing to say’, and make yourself small to avoid disturbing others.
• You struggle to make decisions.
• You often say ‘I cannot’ and ‘I do not know’. Most often, ‘I do not know’ actually means ‘I do not want to know’ — an energy sitting like a concrete block.
• You cannot say ‘no’ and do everything others ask. If you say ‘yes’ to everyone, do not be surprised you do not feel well.
• You sabotage yourself. When you do not believe you are capable, you enter self-sabotage and stop doing things. I wrote about this mechanism in the self-sabotage article.

Physically, in the livestream we also discussed bloating, constipation, lack of energy, and chronic fatigue. If you have such symptoms, see a doctor first: chakra work can support you, but does not replace examination and treatment.

How to move beyond fear: step by step

As a child, I was very shy. I blushed as red as a pepper. Now I have no problem speaking publicly. So it can be worked on, and you can work on anything by doing it. Fears are overcome through doing.

‘I cannot’ is an illusion. We are made in God’s image and likeness; imagine the world if God said ‘I cannot’. Lacking confidence? That is fine; sit with it, but begin doing things where you push yourself a little. I know how it is: you know you need to do something, postpone it, fidget, until you become annoyed with yourself and say ‘come on, do it already’. And each time you do, self-confidence energy is released, shining like a sun.

A few things that helped me:

• Take small steps. If something seems enormous, divide it into pieces. Choose how much you will do today; if you do not manage, resume tomorrow or change perspective.
• Take the first step yourself. The team helping you — angels, guides, God — only waits for you to take a step because your step sends the vibration into the Universe. Saying you want change is pointless if you do not show it through deeds.
• Stop whipping yourself and comparing yourself. Everyone has gifts; sometimes shyness is even an advantage, depending on your path. Comparing yourself with someone else is like comparing tomatoes with oranges.
• View judgment differently. Usually those who criticize do so because they do not dare themselves. First they judge, then fall silent, then imitate you. And when you judge, look carefully: either you do that thing in other circumstances too, or it is something you do not dare do.
• Prioritize yourself. You fill with power the moment you put yourself first.

If lack of confidence is a major subject for you, also read the article on lack of self-confidence and releasing it.

Signs the solar plexus is overactive

The reverse exists too. I was here myself and still work on it — sometimes I said ‘it is not a question, it is an order’. An overactive chakra 3 means:

• you are authoritarian and have an excessive need for control;
• you become angry quickly, irritable and impatient;
• you have a compulsive need to prove something, very often arising from childhood lack of validation;
• arrogance and an oversized ego: you do everything, you are the smartest.

It is a form of toxic masculine energy. The truth is that, unlike with an underactive chakra, at least you manifest. But at the expense of your feminine energy, perhaps others, and this is destructive both to your relationships and to you. We seek neither extreme; we seek balance.

If you feel childhood wounds — lack of validation, criticism, pressure — keep you in this pattern, also seek a psychologist or psychotherapist. Energetic work goes hand in hand with therapy.

For an overview of all chakras, I wrote about the 7 signs of blocked chakras and how to unblock them.

The black thread in the plexus and giving it to fire

In livestream cleansings, I find in many people, at the navel, a black thread: sometimes thin, sometimes like a rope. It attaches to the plexus with programs like ‘I do not trust myself’ or ‘I carry things for others’ and feeds on your power.

In the chakra 3 livestream, I shared an exercise I did beside a large fire. I watched the fire, connected with it — yes, you can speak with the elements — and asked it to draw out through my navel everything no longer serving me. I felt a thread of dark energies emerge and strength return. I particularly recommend doing it at the full moon: make a fire with all due care, connect with it, and give it old energies no longer serving you. You can also connect with fire through a candle.

Then say aloud:

• ‘I cancel all lack-of-self-confidence programs.’
• ‘I cancel the “I carry things for others” program.’
• ‘I call back all my power from all times, spaces, and dimensions, purified and passed through light. My energy belongs to me and me alone.’

Fill the space with yellow light and close your energy body with a bubble of light, not concrete armor. If you want to go further with release practices, the store also offers the release-practices collection.

I want the seven-chakra cleansing PDF guide →

Spirituality and action: left, right

At one point, I asked why many people on the spiritual path cannot manifest money. The risk is that when you go deeply into spirituality, you forget to manifest. I speak from experience: I read constantly throughout childhood and spent much time in psychoanalysis. If you remain only passive, you risk becoming the archetype of the girl who only reads in the library. Balance yourself: one step working on yourself, one step applying it. Like walking — left, right.

And something I truly learned: all decisions I made that were very good long-term were taken from intuition, from the gut, not the mind. Those made through the mind seemed good short-term but were not long-term. That is how I left for Denmark in 2007, when it was not yet discussed; leaving for America came from the gut too. I believe decisions will increasingly come from here, the solar plexus.

A few years ago, before my spiritual awakening, I asked myself where to invest my money. And it came to me: first of all, in myself. If I do not trust myself enough to invest in myself, what is that? Know that making money and enjoying life are your divine right.

What supports the solar plexus chakra

Chakra 3 is very simple to work on: the sun, candle, fire. It is not expensive or much effort.

• Yellow. Yellow clothing, paintings or decorations, a yellow candle lit while you work.
• The sun. Since childhood, I have looked at the sun; you can meditate with the sun and fill with energy. Stay in its light, especially morning or evening when gentle, and take care of your eyes.
• Fire. Watch fire and connect with it. Fire warms you — especially if you have much fire element and often feel cold.
• Yellow foods: bananas, lemons, pineapple, corn, yellow peppers. My favorite cake is lemon cake. Also spices like cardamom and cinnamon. To ‘ignite myself’, I also eat spicy things with chili.
• Sound. RAM mantras set you in motion and purify you. When you feel lazy, put on music that moves you — chakra 3 music is also on my YouTube channel.
• Movement. The best thing is to start moving. Chakra 3 has a smiling, celebratory vibration.
• Citrine, the solar plexus crystal — it lights a fire under you.

The store also has a yellow candle with frankincense made especially for chakra 3. You can light it for the exercises below.

I want the yellow candle for chakra 3 →

Cleansing breathing: single-nostril pranayama

Before meditation, we did a pranayama exercise together. Breathing is very important in spirituality: it helps cleanse chakras, especially chakra 3, and calms you.

1. Choose a side. It does not matter which; I began with the left.
2. Close one nostril and inhale through the other, then exhale through the opposite side. Inhale through the same nostril each time.
3. Repeat five to ten times. You will feel that whole side of your body cleansing and becoming more spacious.
4. Do the other side too to balance yourself.

The solar plexus chakra meditation: the steps

1. Settle in a comfortable position. Imagine only yellow light around you and feel the sun above illuminating you.
2. Bring consciousness down to the navel.
3. Create a cord between yourself and the sun. The sun rises every day for everyone — including you. If you cannot make the link, ask the sun to connect to you through a ray.
4. Visualize at the navel a triangle in a circle with ten petals. If you cannot see it, do not force yourself.
5. Let the ray bring solar energy and yellow light into you through the navel. You are light.
6. If you wish, do Agni mudra, the fire mudra: ring finger under the thumb, hands on the legs. It activates the fire within you. You have become fire, consciousness of solar energy.
7. Bring energy from chakras 1 and 2 toward chakra 3: red becomes orange, orange becomes yellow. Nourish the flow with energy from the sun and create the link between Earth and sun through you.
8. Open and let old energies leave with love, peace, and much light so you can receive.
9. Spin the three chakras. When chakra 3 spins, it emits rays of light: everything not light flows out, while the sun comes from above.
10. Shoot arrows. As Rama has a bow and arrows, you too can make your path in life and open new fields for yourself. By spinning chakra 3, you create space for manifestation around you.
11. If you feel something blocked, imagine a round safe door at the chakra and turn the wheel harder or more gently, depending on the energy’s sensitivity. If you burp or yawn, that is fine. Whatever gestures come naturally are right: the body knows.
12. Receive a drop of golden light from above, God’s gift. The sun has protected and warmed you since birth. As it shines every day, you too can shine.
13. Place your hands wherever you wish on your body and return slowly.

You can do the safe-door gesture alone whenever you feel you have reached a threshold: turn the wheel gently and the chakra expands.

Do the meditation with me

The video below is the livestream dedicated to chakra 3, Manipura. The breathing exercise begins around minute 37 and meditation around minute 52. I also did a separate livestream on confidence.

If you want to work with the whole chakra system, there is also the seven-chakra activation PDF guide, while the video course takes you through all of them step by step.

I want the Chakra Healing video course →

Frequently asked questions about the solar plexus chakra

What is the solar plexus chakra?

The solar plexus chakra (Manipura) is the third chakra, in the navel area. It is the center of will, personal power, self-confidence, and decisions. Its affirmation is ‘I do’: here the self discovered in chakra 2 asserts and manifests outwardly, together with energy from the first two chakras.

What color, mantra, and frequency does chakra 3 have?

Its color is yellow, element fire, mantra RAM, and the frequency I worked with is 528 Hz. Its symbol is a downward-pointing triangle in a circle with ten petals.

How can I tell whether my solar plexus is blocked?

When underactive: you lack confidence, fear others’ judgment, are passive, struggle to decide, and often say ‘I cannot’. When overactive: you are authoritarian, want control, become angry quickly, and need to prove something. Both are imbalances.

How do I activate the solar plexus chakra?

With sun, fire, and yellow: stay in sunlight, light a candle, listen to RAM mantras, practice pranayama and the meditation above connecting you to the sun through your navel. Above all, take small steps in daily life: confidence grows through doing.

What do I eat for chakra 3?

Yellow foods: bananas, lemons, pineapple, corn, yellow peppers, and spices like cardamom and cinnamon. I also eat spicy foods to ignite my fire.

What is the black thread in the solar plexus?

That is how I see, in energy cleansings, old energies and ties drawing on your power at the navel. You can give it to fire with intention, then cancel lack-of-confidence programs, call your power back, and fill the space with yellow light.

The sun rises every day for everyone, including you. Remember your right to act, manifest, and enjoy. Stop waiting for anyone’s permission. Sending you a kiss, and I look forward to seeing you at the next livestream.