If you’ve ever struggled with low self-esteem, you know just how much of an impact it has on all aspects of our lives. Our relationships, jobs, daily satisfaction all become affected by this nagging feeling that we are not good enough. If you’ve tried solving the problem with affirmations, self-help books and therapy and that didn’t help, perhaps it’s time to look into how balancing your third chakra can help you regain your self-esteem.
The third chakra is associated with our self-esteem, self-confidence, and sense of worth. This is where our feelings and beliefs about ourselves are stored. To reap the benefits of a well-balanced third chakra, try yoga poses that strengthen your core. Any physical activity that activates the abdomen will help you regain your personal power and a sense of control over your life.
The Third Chakra
The third chakra, also known as the Solar Plexus or Manipura chakra, is located in front of the spine and between the navel and the solar plexus. It is that place where you feel a ‘knot’ when something unpleasant happens. Its color is yellow and its corresponding element in nature is fire.
Physically, the third chakra is connected with our digestive fire and adrenal glands. Stomach problems are often connected with an imbalance of the third chakra. Psychologically, this is the seat of our personal identity and how we manifest ourselves into the world. It is from here that the warmth of our personality radiates into the world. The third chakra is the center of our self-worth, self-esteem, personal power, ego, self-discipline, and boundaries. It helps us move from inertia to action. When our third chakra is balanced, we make decisions and act on them easily. And everything we do, we do out of self-love.
(Speaking of boundaries, here’s how yoga can help create and maintain them. And as for self-love, here’s how yoga, pranayama and meditation can open your heart chakra to let in that sweet feeling of loving yourself.)
This chakra develops in our teenage years when we start becoming aware of our own identity. However, it can become imbalanced due to traumatic childhood experiences – if you’ve, for example, been criticized too much. This energy gets stored in our bodies and is later carried on into our adult lives and affects many things, one of which is our self-esteem.
Issues That Those With Unbalanced Third Chakra Might Have
Those who have an overactive third chakra tend to be:
- dominant
- aggressive
- insensitive to others’ needs
- feel superior to others
- and/or prone to manipulating
And when the third chakra is underactive, we:
- experience a lack of self-esteem and confidence
- are prone to harsh self-criticism and self-judgment
- feel that we are not ‘good enough’, or that we may be ‘too much’
- have a hard time making decisions
- question ourselves too much
- experience self-doubt and feel powerless
- feel inertia
- close ourselves from others to protect ourselves
- often feel stress, anxiety or jealousy
- have no sense of self, especially in relationships
- are often in toxic or dysfunctional relationships
Why Opening the Third Chakra to Increase Self-Esteem Is Important
How we view ourselves is a direct predictor of the quality of our lives. How successful we will be in terms of jobs, relationships, friendships, parenting all depends on our self-esteem. When our self-esteem is not in the right place, we might choose partners that are not good enough for us (“I don’t deserve any better”), we will not be able to stand up for ourselves, and do everything we need to do to achieve our goals in life.
To learn more about how mindfulness and meditation can help you nurture your relationships, go here. And to discover a few mindfulness tips for parenting, head here.
Moreover, we won’t even be able to set our goals realistically. You can be as smart, beautiful, or hard-working as you want, but if your self-esteem is low, you will not get where you want to. And even if you do, you will probably still not feel at peace with yourself.
Also, people with healthy self-esteem have well-developed intuition. They can listen to the signals their body wisdom is sending them, such as that feeling in our guts, and interpret these correctly. Luckily, just like any muscles in our body, self-esteem is a skill that can be developed consciously.
To learn more about much underappreciated wisdom of the body, aka embodiment, head here.
How to Heal Your Third Chakra to Boost Self-Esteem – Step-By-Step Guide
Presented here is a detailed step-by-step sequence consisting of breathing, meditation, affirmations, and yoga positions to help you open your third chakra and grow self-esteem. You can practice the whole sequence of just some parts of it, depending on how much time and willpower you have. However, since lack of willpower is linked to an imbalanced third chakra, it’s perhaps better I say – practice this every time you don’t have the willpower to do it.
Note: the following sequence is adapted from the book Yoga Sequencing: Designing Transformative Yoga Classes by Mark Stephens.
Breath of Fire
Sit in a comfortable position with your spine straight. Keeping your mouth closed, suck in the muscles of your abdomen and simultaneously take a quick, forceful exhalation through the nose. Then release the muscles of the abdomen. As you do it, do not inhale intentionally. Instead, allow the inhale to happen spontaneously because you relaxed the abdomen. Start slow until you get comfortable with this practice, and then gradually increase the pace, until it’s really fast. Do 3 cycles, 50 breaths each, and end with a long, deep breath.
Plank pose
If it’s too difficult, place your knees on the ground. Hold for 5-10 breaths.
Downward Facing Dog
Child’s Pose
Stay for a few breaths.
Downward Facing Dog
Come back to a Downward Facing Dog and stay there for as long as it’s comfortable. Then slowly walk your feet towards your hands. Bend your knees and slowly start raising the spine, lifting one vertebra at a time. The head is the last to come up.
Chopping Wood
Stand up with your feet about shoulder-width apart and bend your knees slightly. Raise your arms above your head and join the hands as if you’re holding a hatchet. Bending from the waist, swing your upper body down and in between the legs, or as close as you can. While swinging down, exhale from your mouth making a loud ‘ah’ sound. Release as much energy and force as possible. On an inhale, raise your body and repeat 12 times in total. When you’re done, feel the energy flowing through your upper body.
Tadasana
Stay here for a bit. Notice the contact between the soles of your feet and then spend some time focusing on your core.
Sun Salutation
Do any version you know, but stay focused on your core throughout all of the poses. Let your core guide your Sun Salutation.
Forearm Plank
Hold for 1 minute. Again, lower the knees on the ground if it’s too difficult.
Dolphin Pose
Stay for 5 breaths.
Rest in Child’s Pose
Dancing Warrior
Boat pose
Now come the more difficult poses. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t do them perfectly. Remember that it’s not about the poses, but about you strengthening your core. And because they are so difficult, the following 3 positions are really good at this. Try each of them a few times and rest in between each try.
Reclined Butterfly Pose
Great job! Congratulations, it’s time to rest. Feel your core and how strong it is.
Happy Baby
Hold for 1 minute.
Bridge Pose
Wheel Pose
Repeat 2 times and hold for 5 breaths.
Knees to Chest
Stay here for 1 minute.
Revolved Abdomen Pose
Hold for 5 breaths on each side.
Dandasana
Hold for 5 to 10 breaths.
Wide-Angled Seated Forward Fold
Hold for 2 minutes.
Revolved Head to Knee Pose
Hold for 1-2 minutes on each side.
Half Lord of the Fishes/Sitting Half Spinal Twist
Take 5 breaths on each side.
Seated Forward Bend
Hold for 1 to 2 minutes.
Legs up the Wall
Stay here for 1 to 2 minutes.
Savasana
Stay here for 5-10 minutes releasing all unwanted tensions and emotions into the ground.
Meditation for Opening the Third Chakra and Increasing Self-Esteem
Sit in a cross-legged position and start by taking a few deep breaths. Place one hand on your upper belly. Place your focus on the hand and the feeling of warmth that your hand touching the belly is producing. Next, imagine a warm yellow light similar to the sunshine in that part of your belly. Breathe into it. Imagine making it bigger and stronger. Now imagine it’s so big it’s filling your entire body. Now, it’s going beyond your body – it’s all around you, enveloping you. This is your personal power. As you breathe in, inhale it. As you breathe out, make the light even stronger and brighter.
Self-Esteem Affirmation Script For Opening Your Third Chakra
The following script comes from Shad Helmstetter’s book “What to Say When You Talk to Your Self.” Dr. Helmstetter is a behavioral researcher and a pioneer of self-talk research in personal growth. He began his work back in the seventies and his books are still among best-sellers.
Sit or lie down comfortably and place your hand on your belly, just under your ribs. Read the following script with as much determination and faith as you can muster. Bring these words to life. Shout them if you have to! And just for the time of this practice, set all your doubts and disbeliefs aside. Talk to yourself as if you are the most important person in the world.
Repeat 3 to 4 times a day for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Just do it.
The Script:
I really am very special. I like who I am and I feel good about myself. Although I always work to improve myself and I get better every day, I like who I am today. And tomorrow, when I’m even better, I’ll like myself then, too. It’s true that there really is no one else like me in the entire world. There never was another me before, and there will never be another me again. I am unique from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. In some ways I may look and act and sound like some others-but I am not them. I am me.
I wanted to be somebody and now I know I am. Actually, I would rather be me than anyone else in the world – I like how I feel and I like how I think and I like how I do things. I approve of me and I approve of who I am. I have many beautiful qualities about me, I have talents and skills and abilities. Actually, I even have talents that I don’t even know about yet. And I am discovering new talents inside myself all the time. I am positive, I am confident. I radiate good things. If you look closely, you can even see a glow around me. I am full of life, I like life and I’m glad to be alive. I am a very special person, living at a very special time.
More about me:
I am intelligent. My mind is quick and alert and clever and fun. I think good thoughts, and my mind makes things work right for me. Also, I have a lot of energy and enthusiasm and vitality. I am exciting and I really enjoy being me. I like to be around other people and other people like to be around me. People like to hear what I have to say and know what I have to think. I smile a lot because I am happy on the inside and I am happy on the outside.
Moreover, I am interested in many things. I appreciate all the blessings I have, and the things that I learn, and all the things I will learn today and tomorrow and forever-just as long as I am. And I am warm, sincere, honest, and genuine. I am all of these things and more. And all of these things are me. I like who I am, and I’m glad to be me!
Final Thoughts
There is a story about Dhalai Lama I heard once. Back in the seventies, he was at a conference and someone asked him what he thinks about low self-esteem. He didn’t understand the word, so his translator explained it to him. Upon hearing what it means, the Dalai Lama looked up in surprise and said, “Why would you do this to yourself?” Apparently, such a word didn’t even exist in the Tibetan language! Imagine there is a world out there, a culture, where the idea that you’re not good enough doesn’t even exist! Wouldn’t it be nice to live in such a way? So, next time when you catch yourself struggling with any self-diminishing thoughts, get surprised about it and really ask yourself: “Why would you do this to yourself?”
Tatjana Glogovac, Senior Contributor At L’Aquila Active
Tatjana is a writer and educator in mindfulness, emotional intelligence, learning, psychology and self-development. She is a certified yoga and meditation teacher. Her goal is to make yoga and meditation a practical daily tool for everyone looking to find some peace of mind and a healthy physical practice for their bodies. This especially goes for people struggling with anxiety, stress, depression, excessive worrying, overthinking, and other ailments of the modern man. You can connect with her via LinkedIn.