A recent practitioner swap with reflexologist, Shawnie Collier, led to some interesting reflection on the solar plexus and its relationship to shock, trauma and identity. An experienced practitioner Shawnie said she had never felt what happened that morning.
‘It is my belief that trauma, shock and intense emotional experience may be held anywhere in the body (we carry our issues in our tissues). However, grief and shock will often hit us in the solar plexus, a bundle of nerves just below the diaphragm, and we may continue to carry this trauma and ‘stuck’ emotion in the chest area (holding things close to our chest).
During a reflexology treatment the aim is to induce a profound state of relaxation, encouraging the release of tension held within the body, and its grip on the organs and the nervous and circulatory systems. By holding the solar plexus reflex in particular, using intent, the reflexologist can bring soothing and reassurance and allow the body the opportunity to release past issues in order to cleanse and heal.
A therapeutic energetic connection built, with unconditional love, between the therapist and her client can help to bring about this response in a safe and nurturing space. As we gain trust and the client learns to let go, we are able to facilitate and support a person through their healing journey.
Working Jenny’s solar plexus reflex on this particular occasion, we both experienced a sudden ‘jolt’ and we were startled by it. It was not a sensation I had experienced before and it felt like something was ‘given up’. We can’t know exactly what happened in that moment, but we can trust that any healing response following this shift of subtle energy was just right for Jenny at this time. Using this holistic therapy, without expectation, reflexology simply works its magic.’
As Shawnie says, ‘it felt like something was ‘given up’. Certainly, in the months following this reflexology treatment my life started to change. Some familiar but uncomfortable people and situations softened or disappeared whilst other people started to give encouragement and support. It was as if, in that moment or ‘jolt’, I had cut an old cord and in so doing exchanged powerlessness for empowerment.
Shawnie can be contacted via the website ‘contact us’ box.
How the lower chakras work
My main point of reference for this experience was information gleaned in The Shift Network course, ‘Thrive as an Empath in Evolutionary Times’ with Wendy De Rosa. Wendy relates the solar plexus to identity and personal boundaries – in relation to people – our confidence, our Will and ability to manifest. Whilst this chakra’s back side relates to the encouragement we received, or did not receive, as a small child. If the solar plexus chakra ‘blows open’ our sense of belonging can move outside of ourselves and we start to lose our sense of grounding and attach cords to people and situations.
For me, childhood illness resulted in this chakra ‘blowing open’ whilst a devastating piece of news in May 2018 impacted directly in this area. It felt like a boxer had made a direct hit. Afterwards, my boundaries were open to invasion, I lost the instinctual ability to navigate my environment, procrastinated, struggled to make decisions and my digestion of food and stress was poor.
The paragraph below from Belonging and Beyond is based on Wendy’s work. It aims to describe how childhood trauma and the chakra system inter-relate.
‘Often a childhood trauma will contract the first chakra, the root, and blow open one or both second chakras, the sacral and solar plexus. The nature of these power centres is to do with trust and belonging, creativity and vulnerability and personal boundaries and identity. With a contracted root, our primary operating system and unconscious awareness become compromised and a person moves into hypervigilance. We pay attention to everything going on around us, so we know how to behave – make peace, please people, process other people’s emotions. Over time, we can develop a chronic pattern of co-dependency with energy. When the third chakra blows open, we start to connect cords to external things, lose power in the lower body and to operate from a base of powerlessness. Most people can operate from the heart chakra upwards until challenges arise, and the original trauma is triggered or re-enacted’.
