Say "Haah"

If only we could sell shares of our shame, we’d be multi-billionaires. But, instead, our shame is ours to deal with, not sell. I recently read a good description of the difference between shame and guilt. Guilt is something you feel after a particular event. Shame, on the other hand, isn’t a feeling tied to a specific event. Shame is a feeling of worthlessness, embarrassment, and small-ness that is a general feeling.

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LOOK BEHIND YOUR BELLY BUTTON

Shame is a feeling tied to an energy center, or chakra, in the body located around your rib cage. The third chakra is also called the Solar Plexus, and it is the center of your personal power, or personal fire. In eastern medicine it’s believed that feelings of shame are associated with a depleted third chakra. Feelings of wanting to hide, disappear, and of general embarrassment of self, insecurity, and needing reassurance are all hallmarks of a tired third chakra. However, with a balanced third chakra, we feel respect for others, for ourselves, we sense the strength of our personal power, and we’re spontaneous and uninhibited. Basically, better.

“SAY HAAH”

One method for energizing your depleted personal fire is to use breathing, the Fire Breath. It’s easy to do, and funny. I feel powerful, firey, and fierce when I do this breath--like a warrior.

Take a deep breath. Then, with your hand placed gently on your lower belly, force out all the air from your body in one, loud HAAH breath. Your hand will feel your belly pushing, the stomach muscles working and pushing against your hand. Do a couple, then breathe normally, then repeat three to five times. Do this as many times during the days as you like. (You may feel soreness in your abdomen. Good. That means it’s working.)

PERSONAL FIRE IS NOT FOR LENDING OUT

When I was five or six my dad took me to Perkins for pancakes one Saturday morning. He brought up the fact of his girlfriend becoming his wife and that it might be a good idea for her to adopt me. This sounded absurd to me. I had a mother. Maybe I didn’t live with her, maybe she was unreliable, but, like I said, I already had a mother. But when I looked at my dad’s face, I saw the answer he was waiting for. I saw what he was seeking from me. He wanted me to let him off the hook. He wanted this, no less, from his five-year-old daughter. Every cell in my body screamed, “Absurd idea!” Yet, I said, “Okay.” Nothing about my body-language from that day and for the next twenty suggested that it was okay. It wasn’t. I was too young to exercise my personal power, but it's my strongest memory of lacking it.

Given away your personal power lately?
Retrace your steps. Visualize the situation, and walk through it seeing yourself and hearing yourself behave the way you wished you had, full of your personal power and compassion.

If you admire someone, from close-up or afar, who “owns” herself or himself, who possesses personal power and acts from that strong base, observe him or her. Then get like that in your own way.

STICKY NOTE TO SELF

As our personal power, or personal fire, begins to strengthen, this becomes the truth:

I have compassion for who I am--exactly as I am

I am becoming a better “me,” today

I behave with self-respect, for myself and for others

I am unashamed.

I do not embarrass easily.

I accept myself, entirely.

3 YOGA POSES TO LIGHT YOUR PERSONAL FIRE

There are a few more yoga poses that you could add to your routine, but these 3 are solid, simple poses that will get you going. It's enough.

The Woodchoppper
Stand with your feet apart (far enough apart for a toddler to run through). Hold your hands above your head, letting your back arch a bit. In one movement, breathe AHH while swinging your arms down and bend so that you swing your arms and head through your legs. End with your head hanging and fingers dangling toward the floor. If you head and hands don’t go through your legs, don’t worry, just let yourself bend as far over as you can. Hang in that position for a few moment. Then, repeat.

The Boat Pose
With this one, you’re going to become a human V (well, almost). Lay on your back on a soft surface. Arms at your sides. Keeping your stomach strong, lift your torso up and raise your legs (keep legs straight) and, at the same time, let your arms rise and move towards the outsides of your knees. Only your butt should be touching the floor. Hold this position for as long as you can. Then slowly ease back down. Repeat. This will strengthen your abdominal muscles as well as oxygenate your third chakra. (I've seen an advanced version of this one is with arms straight overhead as you rise up to form a V, and doing so extremely slowly.)

Bridge Pose
Lay on your back, hands at your sides, and your knees up. Have your feet hip-width apart. Lift up your stomach enough so that you can clasp your hands behind your back on the floor (lacing your fingers together). Then, push your abdomen up, up, till you’ve formed an arch. Flex your butt muscles, which will help push you up. Press down into your feet to take some of the pressure off your back and also push let your shoulders take some of the pressure. Hang out like that for a while...breathing. Then ease back down, and repeat.

LINKS

The Woodchopper
Woodchopper from iVillage UK

The Boat Pose
Yoga Journal illustration of Boat Pose

Bridge Pose
This looks harder than it is!
Yoga Journal illustration of Bridge Pose

Comments

[marina]

Good post, but Im a bit confused, I had always understood that the belly button was the second
chakra or Hara or Dantien, and that the 3rd Chakra,
solar plexus, was slightly higher under the breastbone. I imagine that both chakras, however, are
influenced by these poses,given they are extensions.
Happy Holidays by the way,and thank you, I do find your posts extremely helpful.