Chakra Class: Solar Plexus...

Seeing as its Monday, I went to my Chakra class at Kula.  We practiced with the Solar Plexus Chakra in mind tonight.
  Solar Plexus Chakra
Sanskrit Name: Manipura
Location: Naval
Color: Yellow
Element: Fire

The solar plexus chakra defines our self-esteem.  It is associated with action, willpower, assertion, empowerment, and ego mastery. By opening the navel chakra, you may be able to reach deep into your own sense of self and find your balance or boundary point. 

After last weeks insanity class I was a little nervous for tonight. The Manipura Chakra is the fire chakra, located in the navel, representing your power and energy plus your personal willpower. I figured tonight would be all about the core and the determination to spend the entire class doing sit ups and core work. I was mentally prepared to rock it and test my willpower even though I wasn't looking forward to it.

She had jungle drumming music playing in the back ground and tonight's vinyāsa almost seemed like a tribal dance. There was some interesting standing twists and fluid movement back bends set to the breath and many high energy sun salutations. I felt like I was dancing around a campfire in the amazon jungles. I was defiantly getting fired up and feeling some serious energy coming from within. I found myself pedaling my heels in down-dog just waiting to pounce forward to start a brand new sunnie (sun salutation) with even more energy that the last.  It was an awesome feeling. I felt totally empowered and felt like I could do exactly what I was doing for hours!

After firing up all that energy came the test of willpower in form of Warrior II.  While flowing and having fun "dancing" we stopped the flow at Warrior. Warrior II always makes me feel empowered and strong, even though we usually only hold it for 5 breaths or less.

I knew this is were the willpower was going to be tested as we were going to be hanging out in the pose for a while. With all that new found energy burning inside I knew I could hold it for as long as I needed to.  When my arms started to scream, I held with more strength. When my legs began to burn, I sank lower. When my feet began to slip, I dug deeper. I tried not to think about the fact that I would have to do it all over again on the other side.  I didn't want to give up. I was in charge of my strength and my determination tonight. No one could decide for me. I had a hunger to stick with it, and to feel the fire inside begin to rage. It hurt like hell but I wanted the empowerment. It felt incredible and when we were finally released out of the pose you couldn't help but smile. I was rewarded with another amazing Savasana after class where I just felt I was on top of the world and so relaxed all at the same time.

In the grand scheme of things, holding a yoga pose with determination is pretty small and insignificant. People are tested everyday with much harder life struggles. Holding that pose for that long was hard but the difficulty is a direct representation of the shit we may have to deal with in our everyday lives. What makes yoga so amazing, to me, is that something that "small" can make me feel so empowered in my life for weeks to come. Yoga teaches me that all the power I need comes from within myself.  If I want something I can get it. Nothing is easy and it's going to hurt like hell to get there but once I do, the rewards will be amazing.

Namaste xo.