The Solar Plexus, the Heart, and Your Throat

The solar plexus, the heart, and your throat
 OK, I’m going to go a little metaphysical on you, but it's important. The reason it’s important is because it will make sense on a different level as to why you have chosen food as, “your thing”. Hang in there; it will make sense in the end. I am sure that many of you have heard of chakras, but for those of you that have not I will keep this brief and simple.

The solar plexus resides and encompasses the stomach area, and it pertains mainly to self-esteem issues, ego, and anger! (This is a very simplistic explanation and I do encourage you to pick up a book on chakras, you will find it fascinating).  So, is it interesting that the stomach is the same area that you hold all those other emotions that I have been talking about in past blogs/e-zines.

So when we are having issues of self-esteem or if we are angered or are trying to suppress that anger and we are down on ourselves what is it that bothers us physically? Well, for some of us, we get hungry or we believe it to be hunger, but it's not.  That’s why I asked previously in other e-zines to ask yourself that one question as to what is really going on, what is bothering you because it isn’t going to be hunger.  Hunger feels like hunger, your stomach growls and you feel a little lightheaded maybe.  This is different, when something happens and you are upset and feel less of yourself than you should or something is not going your way or someone puts you down it's your self-esteem that is being nudged sometimes straight out kicked as if the wind was knocked out of you. Or it’s masked as anger to protect you, or so you think. 

This feeling hurts, not really physically but much deeper, it’s such an old sad wound that starts to gnaw at you. Well for those of you that have not yet learned how to explore this and release it, it will feel very uncomfortable for it to come up.  So, what do we do?  Well, fill it up! Start eating, because that makes the gnawing subside and you can stop feeling.  You will feel many other emotions after you do this but you will again have stopped yourself from feeling any other emotion that is there, so deep that you may not even know it is there, clearly not consciously but subconsciously it is and that makes you uncomfortable or perhaps angry and if you eat enough it will take away that feeling of emptiness. But it is not lack of food it is lack of _______________(you can fill in this blank because it will be slightly different for each one of you but it is something that you are lacking).  That is what you are missing, it's not hunger it’s your solar plexus reminding you that you are not fulfilled and not satisfied so instead of doing anything real, because it's hard, you eat.  It’s actually the perfect solution.
OK, that’s the stomach.  Let's move up a notch or a chakra to the heart.  When we eat the food passes through the throat chakra then the heart chakra and then the solar plexus.  Such a perfect path for the over-eater!

The heart chakra is right where we think it is, smack in the middle of our chest.  It is not actually where the heart is but it does encompass that area as well. The heart chakra pertains to love.  Again, I will leave this very simple but again I am encouraging you to pick up a good book on Chakra’s.  The heart chakra is not only the love that we receive but the love that we give.  It is all of the heartbreak in our lives pertaining to love, all of it since we were born! So that may be a lot of heartbreak for some of you and it's normal by the way to carry a lot of this with us since it is really hard for most of us to be at peace with our past.  But I am going to be even more specific.  I find that with most women and weight loss when there is an issue of lower self-esteem it is usually not a love from our past that has broken our hearts but the inability to love the self.  To love yourself! To put yourself first rather than last. To take care of your needs first rather than last or never. 

Most of you are probably cringing at this thought, it may seem even selfish and self-indulgent.  Well, it isn’t! I believe that putting yourself first is the most selfless thing to do.  When in a home, a woman usually dictates the mood and energy of that home.  If that woman is happy and fulfilled then that home is a happy healthy home with abundance of love and kindness and generosity for all that live and enter.  Women are amazing!  But that is not always the case, is it? Nope, women are usually the most stressed out lately, doing way too much to please everyone else and putting themselves last.  So the home is not always the safest place to be, not always the sanctuary that it should be.  A happy woman/mother/wife is a happy family/husband/home.  This is true and I know that you know it is also. 

I like to think of the airplane scenario.  You know the one, when they tell you that in an emergency the oxygen masks will drop down and they tell you to put yours on first then your children’s second.  Why do they say this? Because we instinctually will go to give first to them, to save them.  But in this act of perceived selflessness, you all may just die.  You will not be able to help them since you have not taken care of yourself and now you can't breathe and then they can't.  They tell you that you first put the oxygen mask on your face first! Then when you are okay you can place your children's masks on after.  Then everyone survives.  You must start placing yourself first! It is selfless to do this.  You must be happy and healthy and fulfilled first so then you can give from abundance to everyone around you if you choose it but from abundance rather than from crawling at the bottom of the barrel scraping up whatever scraps are left over for yourself, but that’s ok, right?  Wrong!!!

So, you can see why the heart and the solar plexus are the perfect partners for this eating relationship.  Because when one of them starts to ache, then the other will begin to ache and then you will want that aching to subside so you will eat to numb the feeling and you perceive it to be hunger but it is not. It's emotional, and you may mask it with anger but it's not really anger it's pain, it's hurt, it’s a lack of love, it’s a lack of the love that you do not give to yourself. That you may not believe you deserve so you give it to everyone else and you are left outside in the cold, eating.

To end this trilogy we will move to the throat.  Now the throat chakra pertains to your voice and expression. Not only verbal expression but creative as well.  I am again going to simplify the explanation of the throat chakra and generalize to make a point.  When something happens that tweaks our heart chakra or our solar plexus we could actually take care of it at the moment that it happens if only we would express it!  So easy to say but not quite so easy to do.  When we suppress our words we swallow them.  We swallow those words that should be spoken out loud! We should say them with conviction.  NO MORE! I give up! I can no longer keep this in!  I want to be loved, I need to be loved, and I demand to be loved! I want you to think of me! Think of me first! Give to me even if I don’t give back just give to me for once.  Do not speak to me like that! Be kind to me. Consider me. Look at me! See me!! Acknowledge me.  I am important too! I am worthy to be hear on this earth too! Regardless of what I do for you and everyone else. Regardless of anything, I deserve to be loved.  I if you won't love and honor and respect me then I will! I will place myself first not last.  I will not take what is not mine but there is plenty we can share what is there and I can take my share.  I have a right to be here too! I have a right to happiness too, not in spite of you but because there is enough for everyone.  I will not allow anyone to take from me anymore!  When someone is not kind to me I will tell them that it is not ok anymore, it never was and they may not treat you like that any longer.  People that love you will stay and people that didn’t may go, so let them.  The only thing that is truly ours is ourselves.  We are responsible for ourselves first and foremost.

Does any of this ring true for any of you?

I have often thought throughout my life, “When is it going to be my turn?”, well here is the truth, never! Unless I take my turn.  Take it, there are plenty of turns for everyone.  No one is going to stop the merry-go-round and say wait a minute, Janey has not had a turn yet, let's let her get on because she has been so kind and generous and patient, let's give her turn!  Go on Janey, go and enjoy yourself.  And if this did ever happen, that someone got off of their ride to let you on, what would you do with your turn?  I will tell you, you would say, “Oh its ok, I'm fine, someone else can go instead”. How sad.  Then they won't ask you anymore if you want a turn because they will all assume that you are fine and that you don’t need a turn, because you are just happy serving and pleasing and making sure everyone else gets a turn and you prefer it like that. 

Take your turn!  Take it every day from now on. You are not taking anything away from anyone.  You are joining them in life.  There is enough air for everyone to breathe, plenty so breathe in deep.
So when we suppress our words, feelings, and emotions, the aching begins. Then the heart starts to hurt and our stomach starts to ache. These are not physical but metaphysical feelings. They may seem physical and then you perceive them as hunger.  You are not hungry!!!!! So ask yourself what is really going on, answer that question first so even if you do go on a binge you will know that it was not because you were hungry but because something inside of you started to ache and you didn’t want to deal with it, or it was too much to even begin to fathom.  So you eat.  At least do it with awareness, if you are going to overindulge do it with honesty.  Say it out loud, I am not hungry I am angry/sad/frustrated/hurt!  And it hurts so much that I can't take it anymore so I will eat until I go numb until I have beaten myself up enough because I don’t deserve more than what I have.  But that is a lie, isn’t it?