Understanding Your Solar Plexus Chakra: Where Power, Confidence & Purpose Begin

When it comes to understanding your solar plexus, there are many questions you can ask yourself about how you show up in the world. Here are just a few:

How is your self-confidence, or sense of identity? Have you mastered the ability to shrink yourself in order to keep others comfortable — to the point where it has become so natural you barely notice you are doing it?

Or maybe it's the opposite…

You might feel the need to push, control, and grip tightly onto outcomes, because somewhere along the way you learned that softness wasn't safe.

Do you trust your own decisions and hold strong boundaries?

Or do you struggle to feel like you are enough, and feel guilty the moment you actually do take up some space, set a boundary, or make a decision that is for yourself vs. another?

This is your Solar Plexus Chakra giving you information.

What Is the Solar Plexus Chakra?

The Solar Plexus Chakra is an energy centre located just above the navel, in the upper abdomen. It is known as your body's seat of personal power. This chakra is where identity, confidence, willpower, and self-worth are formed and held. It is where your ego resides and your personality shines through, out into the world.

This chakra develops through adolescence, roughly during the ages of 14 to 21. At this point, a healthy and supported nervous system moves beyond questioning "am I safe?" and "is it safe to feel?", into a more exposed question:

"Am I allowed to be who I am?"

This is the age where you were beginning to individuate. This means forming your own opinions, testing your own voice, figuring out where you end and everyone else begins.

This is an incredibly vulnerable stage of development, because it plays out fully with family and peers. At this age, you are navigating the expectations that were placed on you long before you had any say in them, and figuring out if and how they actually work for you now as an individual.

If this process was well supported during the development of the first 2 chakras (Root & Sacral) it was because you were raised in a safe family, helping you form a healthy sense of safety in relationships and with your emotions. This means that you learned that your identity and personality was allowed to exist and take up space.

If this was not the case, and your early years were not so emotionally or physically safe, you likely learned to collapse your energy. This means you learned to shrink yourself because you felt you had to hand your power over to those who dominated you, seemed to need it more, or made you feel small when you tried to express yourself.

These earlier years tend to have an impact on behaviour in the teenage years, and beyond. As humans, we need to feel that our will, our choices, and our sense of self are legitimate. Without that, the core emotion activated from this chakra is shame.

The Core Imprints of the Solar Plexus Chakra

The Solar Plexus Chakra doesn't hold just one theme.

It has a lot of work to do!

It shapes how you experience your own authority in multiple areas of life.

Below are the three primary ways this shows up:

1. Personal Power & Self-Worth

Your relationship with your own worth is shaped in many ways, but one of these includes how your early efforts, opinions, and "no's" were received.

Were you praised for who you ACTUALLY were? And I don't mean for what you achieved or how "convenient" or "good" you were to have around!

Were your opinions taken seriously, even as a child? Or were you told you were "too sensitive," "too much," or… "too stubborn" for having a will of your own?

Was your worth conditional? For example, it may have been tied to good grades, performance, or being easy to manage and staying quiet. How were you rewarded or punished for certain behaviours?

All of this shapes a lot of the way you show up in the world now.

When personal power is supported early on, a person learns:

- My worth isn't up for negotiation

- I am allowed to have my own opinions

- I don't need to earn love through performance

When it isn't supported, a person often learns:

- I am only valuable when I am useful, agreeable, or impressive

- My needs are an inconvenience

- I have to shrink myself to be accepted

2. Confidence, Identity & Individuality

Your self-confidence forms through what was encouraged, mocked, or compared during your most formative years.

Were you allowed to explore your own interests, style, or opinions,  even the ones that didn't match your family's expectations?

Or was individuality met with criticism, comparison to a sibling, or a subtle (or not so subtle) message that standing out wasn't safe?

A healthy sense of identity shows up as:

- A person who doesn't depend on outside validation

- Feeling comfort in being visible and taking up space

- The ability to hold an opinion under pressure

When imbalanced, it can look like:

- Imposter feelings, even when there's real evidence you're capable

- Over-identifying with roles that please others (the "responsible one," the "strong one") instead of being true to your actual self

- Confidence that collapses the moment someone disagrees with you

With repeated criticism and judgment, your nervous system adapts, making visibility and individuality feel unsafe, long after the original damage was done.

3. Boundaries, Decision-Making & Assertiveness

The Solar Plexus Chakra also shapes your ability to hold a boundary, make a decision, stay true to yourself, and trust that decision once it's made.

Were you allowed to say no as a child, and have that no respected? Or did "no" get you punished, guilted, or ignored?

Were you allowed to make some of your own smaller decisions, like what to wear, what you liked to eat, or how to spend your play time? Or were they constantly overridden by someone who "knew better"?

If this imprint is stable, you will likely experience:

- The ability to set a boundary without over-explaining or apologizing, that others do not question

- Trust in your own decision-making

- Healthy assertiveness that doesn't tip into control or come across as demanding

If unstable, it often shows up as:

- Second-guessing every choice, even after it's made

- Issues around rejection, failure & poor boundaries

These 3 imprints are some of the most common ones I deal with on a regular basis with my clients. They cause anxiety, fear, a contracted, “controlled" personality, and a shrinking away from where they are meant to shine in the world!

In particular, it shows up with my clients in their relationships with their parents, spouses and in their careers. I have a strong client base of women who have given away their power to their husbands, because they watched their mothers do the same, or because they were treated so poorly by their fathers. Now they come to me with a desire to step into their personal power in a new way, as they awaken to their deeper truths.  Very often this translates to "how can I use my gifts in the world in a meaningful way… without it being diminished, or the fear of being torn down for it?"

Here is the thing that pulls all of this information together: your Spirit comes in through your upper chakras and into the solar plexus, to shine the light of your Spirit into the world… who you came here to be… but it gets blocked by all of the belief systems that were formed as a result of childhood trauma.

Your nervous system needs to know that you are worthy and that you will be safe when you allow your true Spirit to shine through.  And this is why the need to heal the beliefs, the relationships with others, and your self-confidence becomes an important piece of accessing your true power.

What Are Other Signs of a Solar Plexus Chakra Imbalance?

When this chakra is balanced, you move through life with quiet, grounded confidence. A gentle, steady knowing.

When it's not... your sense of self either dims or overcorrects.

Here are some of the ways you could know if your solar plexus is out of balance. Keep in mind that while these symptoms are divided into 2 lists to help you make sense of it more, both these lists often surface in the same person. My observation within myself and my clients is that it is very situation dependent.

An Underactive Solar Plexus Chakra may feel like:

- Low self-esteem or chronic self-doubt

- Difficulty making decisions without outside approval

- People-pleasing, boundary issues, or a pattern of disappearing in relationships (probably the most common thing I see in my clients within this chakra)

- Feeling powerless, invisible, or like your needs don't matter

- A general lack of direction or drive

An Overactive Solar Plexus Chakra may feel like:

- A need to control people, outcomes, or environments

- Anger or reactivity when you feel your boundaries are being violated, or things do not go your way

- Perfectionism used as a shield against being seen as "not enough" (I see this a lot as well, often in combination with people pleasing)

- Ego or dominance that's compensating for a deeper insecurity

You begin either abandoning your power completely, or controlling so tightly that you exhaust yourself trying to protect it. Either way, it's rarely about the moment in front of you. It is about the old imprint still running the show.

But let me take this to an even more interesting level to explore within yourself, with a personal example I have learned through my journey of chakra healing that reflects an ego-based solar plexus imbalance:

One of the more subtle signs I've noticed in myself is how judgment… even the “compassionate” kind… impacts my solar plexus.

It's not the obvious version of judgment that we all know and fear.  That one tenses up my body before anything ever comes out of my mouth, so I can instantly catch it and shift my perspective right away… it has become natural to not engage with. 

What I am talking about here are things like observing the shenanigans happening in my back alley and sharing the story with others (because I have concerns). Or, it's watching someone navigate their life in a way that bothers me... not because I'm angry, but because their struggle genuinely bothers me. I feel for them… based on my limited perception of the situation.

The point is ... it's still judgment.

Thus, it is ego-based ... because I have an opinion (that I likely have no business having).

What I've noticed is that the moment I go there, I can feel my Solar Plexus contract. That contraction is because the ego lives in the Solar Plexus, and any ego-based opinion or judgment of another… is not of the light. So the moment I'm in judgment, however gently or well-meaning, I'm dimming my own light rather than letting it move through me, and out into the world.

For me, this is a good barometer, and overall my body and her chakras have been a fabulous teacher of what is in the light or not. Just the sensations alone tell me whether or not I am in alignment… and I am still learning the quieter subtleties of this.

How Is the Solar Plexus Chakra Connected to the Physical Body?

The Solar Plexus Chakra is closely tied to your digestive system and your core, which makes sense, since this is the centre where you "digest" not just food, but experience, criticism, and other people's expectations of you. You "digest life" via this energy centre.

Based on its location, some physical experiences may include:

- Digestive issues: bloating, IBS, or a "nervous stomach"

- Tension held in the abdomen or diaphragm

- Low energy, fatigue, or a lack of drive

- Blood sugar imbalances, weight gain

- Shallow breathing, or a tight, guarded chest and core

Your sense of personal power and your physical body are constantly in conversation. When you're not able to express your will, your gut is often where it settles instead. A lot of gut issues are tied to issues of the solar plexus.

How Do I Heal My Solar Plexus Chakra?

There is no single correct way to heal this chakra.

This isn't as simple as "just be more confident" or "assert your boundaries." Confidence and boundaries built without addressing the underlying imprint tend to look good from the outside, but collapse under real pressure.

For some, the work is learning to take up space for the first time, and master the art of real, secure boundaries. For others, it's learning to loosen a grip that's been protecting them for years. The deeper work in all of it is releasing the old beliefs around your sense of self, and that being in your power was unsafe in the first place.

I have found that an often unseen piece to this chakra being out of balance is the presence of energy cords with others.  Issues around confidence, sense of self, boundaries and personal power can be played out via people syphoning energy off of others power centres, or giving their own power away, by cording out to another.  There are many ways and scenarios that this can occur.

I have noticed something else happening alongside all of this too.  When we sit in judgment of someone, even quietly, we draw that person's energy into our field. That's not necessarily through a cord, but being in a state of judgement is another way we give our power away.

One area I see in a lot of cording scenarios (I too have been guilty of this in the past) is that they are held in a root of victim consciousness.  Then the story becomes "they corded me"… "they took my power"… "therefore I am not responsible.”

But that is not really the case.

While it can be true that someone has corded into another and is benefiting from their energy (and we all have done this), the underlying story is often the ego’s creation, declaring itself powerless without even realizing it - hence the cording!   Every time we sit in a victim state, which is often unconscious and can show up in many subtle ways, or if we keep telling the story ”poor me, I've been corded again," we're telling the universe we have no power here, opening ourselves up to others' energy without even realizing it.

And the universe simply meets us with more of that same energy.

If you have tried all the other things and you still have issues, cording is the next place I would look. However, I would be careful with how you deal with it, as it is important to uncover why it's there in the first place, as well as to sort out the victim and blame stories lurking in the background.  It is also important to make sure they are released properly, vs. just “cutting" them.

Daily Practices to Support Solar Plexus Chakra Healing

Along with deeper guided healing work, small daily practices can help rebuild trust in your own power:

Here is my favourite daily practice that helps to settle my mind and allow me to focus more, also making my meditation easier. It was a self-discovery, but it sure makes sense: I ground my Solar Plexus!

This means that I create a grounding cord from this chakra into the centre of the earth and let the excess "noise" drain out. Once my ego calms down and my mind is quiet enough, I then expand the chakra further out into my aura, so that my power centre takes up space… my own space!

Some other simple daily practices that are common include:

- Core-engaging movement: yoga twists, planks, or any practice that activates your centre

- Breath of fire (kapalabhati) or other activating breathwork

- Morning sunlight, even ten minutes supports this chakra directly, as this chakra is connected to the sun

- Citrine or tiger's eye, both carrying a warm, activating energy

- Cinnamon, ginger, or turmeric: warming foods and spices that support this centre

- Yellow foods: bananas, lemons, corn, yellow peppers, other citrus

- Essential oils of mint, grapefruit, or lemon

And here are some confidence and boundary-building practices that can help you really anchor in some new levels of personal power:

- Making one small decision a day without polling anyone else first

- Practicing boundaries in low-stakes situations before you need them in a high-stakes one

- Naming what you need out loud ... and watch what happens ;)

- Noticing where you apologize out of habit rather than necessity (and then try the sentence again without it)

- Start eliminating people-pleasing behaviours… these can be sneaky!!

Consistent, small practices like these can begin to shift the pattern over time, especially when combined with an experienced energy healer who can help you see and unlock the deeper trauma and resulting patterns behind it all.

A Note on Healing

As with all the other chakras, healing never happens through force. When addressed properly, it will unravel in time and in the correct order for you.

Often we work with the digestive organs, especially the liver, gallbladder, spleen, pancreas, and stomach, as these are connected to the solar plexus chakra.

Energy work, somatic practices, and various forms of therapy can all support this process in different ways. What matters most is your awareness, repetition, and safety. Also, that you find a practitioner who your nervous system can settle with, and who is experienced in this area.

Bringing It All Together

You cannot force confidence and personal power into existence. It has to be rebuilt from a place of safety, the same way trust or emotional expression does.

Start small. Choose one or two practices that feel aligned, and let your nervous system show you, over time, where it's ready to heal & reclaim more.

Eventually you begin to know that:

- Your worth was never conditional

- You are allowed to take up space

- Your decisions are yours to make and trust

- Boundaries are not a betrayal of love, but rather an expression of it

Your healed Solar Plexus Chakra will allow your spiritual light to shine out into the world, instead of staying dim.

Some questions worth sitting with as you work through this:

- Where in my life have I handed my power over to someone else's opinion?

- What would I choose today if I trusted myself completely?

- Is there a boundary I've been avoiding, and what is it costing me to keep avoiding it?

- When was the last time I said no and meant it?

So many of us were taught, in one way or another, that our power was something to apologize for.

That taking up space was selfish.

That having an opinion made us "too much."

That softening ourselves for everyone else's comfort was the price of being loved.

Your Solar Plexus doesn't forget any of that. It holds all of this information in its library until you're ready to feel it, question it, and finally let your own light move through you again, fully, and without apology.

If you recognize these patterns in yourself, and you're ready to feel more confident, grounded in your worth, and in control of your own life ~ I will be grateful to be your guide:

Click HERE to Book Your Healing Session Today

If you wish to join my waitlist for a 7 week group chakra healing series: CLICK HERE

In the meantime, if you haven't read the earlier posts in this series, you can start with the Beginner's Guide to the Chakra System, or read the Root Chakra and Sacral Chakra posts.

Next, we move into the Heart Chakra — your centre for love, self-love, joy and grief.

Stay tuned for this next post.. you can join my newsletter at the bottom of this page to be informed when it and others comes out in the future.