True Balance-Third Chakra

I'm pretty excited about this chapter of the book. I actually read it before it was scheduled. I was having some problems with what I've always referred to as an ulcer. This happens when I am feeling overwhelmed or vulnerable. When those near me are especially emotional or emotive, I can feel a need to escape or flee and that isn't always possible. It's also a function of peri-menopause (peri=denial of actual menopause ha!). The feeling is this...imagine that you are getting ready to bungee jump or speak to a crowd...or imagine a large truck is coming toward you in your lane and you can't move. That's the horrible feeling I was having and it would make a spot right below my ribs hurt like..umm....alcohol in an open wound. I'm sorry if that's too graphic but I want you to understand fully the actual physical pain I was feeling.

It dawned on me one evening that the next chapter in the book just HAD to be the solar plexus and I knew that this would be the correct area for what I was feeling. I grabbed the book and read the chapter. Boy, did they ever nail it. I was having some real problems with my stepson and truthfully, I allowed him to intimidate me. I almost moved out because I could not imagine how I was going to continue living this way and I certainly couldn't ask Tim to throw his son out. I came to an exercise in the book in which she taught us to take a breath and imagine our solar plexus getting warm and growing. We were to continue doing this as we breathed rhythmically and allowed it to encompass us. This sort of imagery works very well for me. When I think of the Holy Spirit, I imagine this same sort of filling up and being surrounded. This gave me a lot of comfort but it didn't really make my stomach stop hurting.

She gave another exercise of doing the above but in our thoughts to picture the person who was intimidating us and then to get a good breath and sort of snort..meaning to forcefully blow air out and imagine this breath blowing that person out of our "space." I did this a couple of times and like magic, my stomach stopped hurting. I have had that feeling try to come back a time or two and I've started this breathing and didn't even have to get as far as picturing anyone and I was better. I have suffered off and on with an ulcer since I was in jr. high school. This is the first thing that's ever had this sort of instant cure. You can imagine how happy I am. So happy that I was able to be nice to Caleb and not avoid him and he is civil to me. That makes everyone happier and less tense.

This was a small piece of this chapter. It's really about knowing who you are and knowing that you are of value and that you are personally responsible for what happens to you. There is no reason to let someone intimidate you or to berate you. There is noone who has more right to their opinion than you have to yours.

It may sound like she wants us to get puffed up like a bird trying to fool its attacker, but that isn't it at all. Once you realize your own power, rather than make you more rigid, it actually softens you. There is no need to prove yourself and try to make yourself seem larger. When you realize your own power, you realize the power of others also and respect it. I think this is meekness that is spoken of by Jesus. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is recognizing your power and using it wisely and lovingly.

There is too much in this chapter for me to even touch on it all here. That's why it's so great that this group is reading together. We will each get different gifts from reading this one chapter..and this one book, and then we can share these gifts with each other and our families and neighbors.

I'm really happy to be taking this journey with so many wise and loving women. I feel richer already and we're only on chapter three. Imagine.