Solar Plexus Chakra: My Personal Journey to Personal Power
Updated: Jul 16
Part One: Identity, Healing, and Finding My Inner Fire
Opening Reflection
I deeply relate to the Solar Plexus Chakra.
Solar Plexus Chakra: My Personal Journey From People-Pleasing to Personal Power
Part One: Identity, Healing, and Finding My Inner Fire
Opening Reflection
I deeply relate to the Solar Plexus Chakra.
What I am about to share is my perspective alone. Our memories and experiences are deeply personal, and this is simply how I remember and made meaning of my own journey.
There are no hard feelings; in fact, all has been well for many, many years.
I see these experiences as part of my own growth, and I hope anyone involved understands that this is not about blame. It is about honoring the experiences that shaped us and finding meaning in the life we were all given to live.
For a long time, I experienced a significant imbalance in this energy. At times, I didn’t really know who I was beneath all the roles I was playing.
I often found myself in a pattern of over-giving, adapting, and trying to meet the needs of others. Looking back, I can see that I slowly lost touch with my own needs, my own voice, and my own sense of identity.
The Solar Plexus Chakra is often associated with personal power, confidence, self-worth, identity, and the ability to take action.
When this energy feels balanced, we trust ourselves. We make choices with clarity. We understand that our needs matter.
When it feels blocked or out of balance, we may find ourselves seeking approval, struggling with boundaries, over-apologizing, or feeling like we have lost ourselves while caring for others.
Looking back, I can see how some of my life circumstances shaped the way I viewed myself and my place in the world.
Sometimes life places us in situations where we genuinely feel powerless.
We may not have chosen the circumstances we were given, but those experiences can influence how we learn to respond.
For me, healing the Solar Plexus Chakra was not about pretending difficult things did not happen. It was about recognizing where I had given away my power, understanding why those patterns developed, and learning that I could choose differently.
Where My Story Began
Before I understood anything about personal power, boundaries, or self-worth, I experienced something difficult as a toddler.
I experienced sexual abuse at a very young age.
Because I was so young, I did not have the words to understand what happened or process it in the way an older child or adult might.
In that moment of my life, I learned to comply within a circumstance of overwhelm, before I had the understanding, language, or ability to fully comprehend what was happening.
As I have grown and healed, I have come to understand that early experiences can influence how we relate to ourselves, our bodies, our boundaries, and our sense of safety in the world.
I do not share this from a place of blame or anger. I share it because it is part of my story and part of my journey toward understanding myself more deeply.
Healing the Solar Plexus Chakra has been, in part, about reclaiming the parts of myself that once felt powerless and learning that my voice, my body, and my choices belong to me.
I am the oldest of eight children.
My second sibling came when I was four years old, and by the time I was nine, our household was growing quickly and more siblings continued to arrive.
Being the oldest daughter carried its own set of responsibilities. I naturally became aware of what needed to be done, who needed help, and where peace needed to be maintained.
In many ways, I stepped into that role in the best way I knew how.
My dad was often stressed and, at times, could be harsh. I learned to shrink myself to avoid anger and conflict.
My mom was doing her best to keep things steady and peaceful while also caring for a large household of children.
My dad was frequently gone, and in his absence, I found myself helping in whatever ways I could.
By my teenage years, I was very involved in caregiving responsibilities.
Before I worked full time and finished high school classes, I spent much of my time caring for younger siblings—changing diapers, soothing crying babies, helping manage conflict between toddlers, and trying to create harmony in a busy home.
At the same time, something important was beginning to awaken in me.
During my teenage years, while balancing high school and working, I began experiencing a sense of independence and confidence that came from earning my own money and taking responsibility for myself.
Those experiences gave me a glimpse of my own capability.
I began to see that I could make decisions, contribute, and create something for myself.
Even in the midst of the responsibilities I carried, there were moments when my own personal power began to emerge.
Over time, I carried a mix of responsibility, exhaustion, and emotions I didn’t yet have language for.
That pattern of over-functioning stayed with me for many years.
Looking back, I can see that many of these patterns developed for understandable reasons.
When we grow up in environments where we need to adapt, caretake, stay quiet, shrink, or keep the peace, those behaviors can become survival tools.
They may help us navigate certain circumstances, but later in life, they can also prevent us from fully knowing ourselves.
The circumstances may not be our fault, but they can shape how we see ourselves.
For me, healing the Solar Plexus Chakra meant learning that while I could not change the past, I could change my relationship with it.
It wasn’t until my early thirties, when I divorced and started massage school, that I began a deeper journey of rebuilding my sense of self and reclaiming my personal power.
When Old Patterns Return
As time went on, my husband experienced significant stress that sometimes came out as anger. I became a buffer between him and our children.
He did not physically harm us, but there was often harsh yelling and posturing, which brought up familiar emotional patterns from my childhood.
In those moments, I found myself returning to what felt familiar:
Staying quiet.Trying to keep the peace.Making sure everyone was okay.Creating space between conflict and the people I loved.
Looking back, I can see that my responses made sense based on what I had experienced earlier in life.
When we learn early that safety comes from adapting, anticipating, and keeping things calm, those strategies can follow us into adulthood.
They are not signs of weakness.
They are responses we developed to navigate circumstances that felt overwhelming.
This is one of the ways a Solar Plexus imbalance can show up.
Sometimes we are placed in circumstances where we truly feel powerless. We may be too young, too inexperienced, or too overwhelmed to change what is happening around us.
But over time, we can begin carrying those feelings of powerlessness even after our circumstances change.
We may begin believing:
“My needs are not as important.”
“Keeping everyone happy is my responsibility.”
“If someone is upset, I must have done something wrong.”
“I have to earn my place by being useful.”
Healing is not about blaming ourselves for developing these patterns.
Healing is about recognizing them with compassion and understanding that the things we learned to survive are not always the things we need to continue carrying.
The Rebuilding of Self
It wasn’t until my early thirties that I reached a major turning point in my life.
During that time, I divorced, started massage school, and began a deeper journey of rebuilding my sense of self and reclaiming my personal power.
For the first time in many years, I began asking myself:
Who am I outside of the roles I have always played?
What do I want?
What do I believe?
What kind of life do I want to create?
After my divorce, I became stronger and stronger—largely because I had to.
I had to begin saying no.
I had to stop overextending myself.
I had to stop believing that my value came only from what I could do for others.
I had to choose who I was going to be.
And in that space, something began to shift.
I started realizing that personal power does not mean controlling everything around me.
It means recognizing:
During that time, I enrolled in massage school.
My self-esteem grew as I developed skills and discovered that I could build something on my own.
For the first time in many years, I began seeing myself differently.
I was capable.
I was intelligent.
I had something valuable to offer.
I was no longer only the person who helped, fixed, or carried the weight of everyone else’s needs.
I was becoming someone who could create, choose, and trust herself.
Finding My Own Voice
I also found a program called The Landmark Forum, which became a meaningful turning point in my life.
It helped me process and come to terms with my experiences with both my father and my ex-husband in a more grounded and compassionate way.
It means freeing myself from carrying stories, anger, and pain that no longer needed to define me.
I could honor what happened while also choosing freedom.
I could acknowledge the impact of my experiences without allowing them to determine the rest of my life.
From there, I started a practice and didn’t look back.
It became very successful for 13 years.
Through that experience, I discovered a part of myself that had always been there but had not always been recognized.
My creativity.
My intelligence.
My ability to connect with others.
My ability to create something meaningful.
From my early thirties to now, in my sixtieth year, I have developed a stronger sense of self and a clearer understanding of my rights, my needs, and my voice within relationships.
I am still growing.
I am still learning.
I am still human.
But I no longer see myself as powerless.
The circumstances of my life shaped me.
They do not define me.
Breaking the Chains of Feeling Powerless
One of the greatest lessons of the Solar Plexus Chakra is understanding the difference between being in circumstances where we felt powerless and continuing to live from a place of powerlessness.
There are moments in life when we truly do not have control.
A child cannot change their environment. A person cannot always change another person’s choices. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where our voice feels small, our choices feel limited, or we are simply trying to survive.
Those experiences matter.
They shape us.
They leave impressions on how we see ourselves and the world around us.
Healing does not require us to pretend difficult things did not happen. It is not about blaming ourselves for the ways we adapted.
Healing is about compassionately recognizing those patterns and asking:
“Where do I have power now?”
Not where did I have power then.
Not what should I have done differently.
But:
What choice is available to me today?
Breaking the chains does not mean denying the past.
It means refusing to let the past be the only author of our future.
“I may not have chosen everything that happened to me, but I can choose how I move forward.”
That is where personal power begins.
Reflection
As you think about your own Solar Plexus journey, consider gently asking yourself:
Where have I learned to give away my power?
Where have I made myself smaller to keep peace or gain approval?
What is one small choice I could make today that honors my own needs?
These questions are not meant to create judgment.
They are invitations.
Healing happens through awareness, compassion, and small choices made over time.
A Personal Note
For me, healing my Solar Plexus Chakra was not about pretending difficult things had not happened.
It was about understanding where I had given away my power and why those patterns developed.
It was about having compassion for the younger versions of myself who were doing the best they knew how with the circumstances they were given.
For many years, I learned to be helpful, agreeable, and easy to rely on while quietly ignoring my own needs.
I learned to read the room before I learned to read myself.
I learned to care for others before asking what I needed.
Over time, I became disconnected from parts of who I truly was.
The Solar Plexus journey is not about becoming perfect or fearless.
It is about remembering:
Your voice matters.
Your needs matter.
Your dreams matter.
Today, I still have moments of self-doubt. I am human, and growth is not a straight line.
But I also have something I did not always have:
A deeper trust in myself.
I have my experiences.
I have my wisdom.
I have the ability to move through difficult moments with awareness, compassion, and choice.
And that is personal power.
A Final Message From Bobbie
If this feels familiar, you are not alone.
Many of us learn to survive by adapting, pleasing, and making ourselves smaller while quietly ignoring our own needs.
The Solar Plexus journey is an invitation to remember:
You are allowed to have a voice.
You are allowed to take up space.
You are allowed to choose yourself.
Healing does not mean becoming someone new.
It means returning to the person you were before you learned you had to shrink.
It means reconnecting with your inner fire and remembering that your power was never truly gone.
It was simply waiting for you to reclaim it.
And as the Let’s Chakra Chart and oil say:
You Rock!
— Bobbie Baird
Reflection Question for Part One
Where in your life have you learned to survive by giving away your power, and what is one small choice you could make today that would help you begin reclaiming it.
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