So hi everybody,
Welcome to my class tonight.
My name is Seth Monk.
I am a former Buddhist monk,
So the monk was an adopted adage to my name.
When I would teach school groups sometimes,
The kids would say,
Like,
Seth Monk,
They're like,
Well how did your mom know that you're gonna.
.
.
And I was like,
Well,
First of all,
Your mom doesn't choose your last name.
But second of all,
I made it up.
So you are all here on a wonderful night.
I am in the middle of the chakra series.
Who here has heard the word chakra before?
Who here has never heard the word chakra before?
Who did not raise their hand?
So the chakras are energy centers in the body.
They're connected to the physical body,
But they're also connected to emotional centers.
So each one of the seven main chakras has a different game that it's connected to.
An easy one for you guys would be like the heart,
Right?
We all know about the heart.
And the heart's connected to love,
And also sadness,
And also connection.
And,
You know,
If you think about it,
Right?
Why,
When we talk about the heart,
Do we talk about love?
The heart is this beating,
Blood-pumping thing in the chest.
What does that have to do with love?
Why do we make that association?
Well,
Because we feel that emotion here,
In this part of the body.
So the chakras are not this kind of,
Like,
Philosophical,
Theoretical,
Like,
Mystical thing from India that's kind of bullshit,
But,
You know,
We talk about in yoga classes.
If you actually look at your body,
How your own body reacts to this world,
You'll see very much how the chakra system is an interface between yourself and the world.
So tonight we're going to deal with the solar plexus chakra.
Solar plexus is if you kind of,
Like,
Follow your ribcage down to the bottom.
There's that point where it kind of,
Like,
Suddenly ends,
And there's,
Like,
A soft spot,
You know,
Kind of,
It's where the belly begins.
For people like me,
You know,
The belly begins,
Like,
A little bit higher than maybe for some of you,
Right?
But that soft spot,
Like,
We got Sean here who goes to the gym every day now.
But,
You know,
So this spot right here.
And the solar plexus,
Solar is the word for sun,
Right?
Solar plexus,
So the color is yellow.
But the solar plexus is a chakra that deals with confidence and a sense of ability or capability.
So if you've ever heard the term,
Like,
Somebody has butterflies in their stomach,
Right?
You know that term.
That's because in the solar plexus,
They feel the feeling of unsureness or not confidence or insecurity.
And so the solar plexus is kind of contracting.
It's creating that feeling of having butterflies in the stomach,
Right?
When you're nervous,
You feel sick to your stomach for that reason,
Right?
When people are insecure,
They're kind of like this.
You crunch,
You close off this area.
Conversely,
When you see people that are really confident,
And even if you think about,
Like,
A king,
Right?
They walk around,
And this area is kind of sticking out,
Right?
This really grand feeling of,
Like,
I am,
Right?
That they just feel powerful and confident and capable.
This area also is connected to the stomach itself.
So when I was in the Buddhist monastery,
My monastery was also a Chinese medicine center.
So it was a Buddhist monastery,
And it was a Chinese medicine center.
And one day,
We had somebody come in,
And it was an elderly man.
He came in with his wife,
And he was there.
And they were saying,
You know,
He's starting to get dementia,
Showing signs of dementia.
And I was assisting my teacher,
Who is this Chinese medicine master with needles.
So we worked together,
And he was setting the needles on one side,
And I'd set them on the other side.
And I noticed that the way he was setting the needles,
It was for the stomach.
And so we finished the session afterwards,
And I looked at him,
And I was like,
Why are you treating this person's stomach if they're coming in for dementia?
And it was an interesting moment.
He kind of,
Like,
Stopped and looked at me,
Almost,
Like,
Gauging if I was,
Like,
Ready or not to hear this,
You know?
And I just kind of stood there,
Like,
Smiling at him.
My teacher,
Besides being just a Chinese medicine master,
Was also highly psychic,
Was been a monk since he was a kid,
Had many gifts.
And he looked at me,
And whatever that process was,
He was like,
All right.
And he said,
When this man was a little boy,
His parents were too busy for him.
And so every time he wanted attention,
He would come to them,
And they'd be too busy and too busy.
And he would start to feel like his needs and his feelings were a burden,
And that every time he would try to open up and say what he wanted and say what he felt,
He was shut down,
And he felt rejected.
And so he started,
Then,
Rejecting himself and his own feelings to not create disharmony,
To not be a burden,
To not feel that pain of being rejected externally.
So he held everything inside.
And as he was holding his feelings inside,
He was holding his solar plexus,
His feelings of confidence,
Of I am,
I am enough,
My needs matter.
And this area he was holding tightly,
And physically it was tightening there.
And because that area was physically contracting,
It was also starting to affect his stomach and his digestion.
And because his digestion was off as he's eating,
The stomach's not able to break down the food properly.
And so the proteins would then go from there to the liver,
Where they go next.
The proteins were too big for the liver in the process,
So they would just move through.
And the next place that the blood goes,
After it's filtered through the liver,
Is to the brain.
And these big proteins were getting lodged in the brain,
And the brain was not getting the blood that it needed,
Therefore he was starting to exhibit signs of dementia in his old age,
Because of his childhood.
And this was one of those moments where I was just like,
Fuck,
Chinese medicine.
But the interconnection,
Right?
Just this interconnection between our environments and our childhood,
And these patterns and these habits,
And how we react and relate to them,
And then how we grow,
How it affects our way of interacting with this world.
The fact that a sickness that's happening to you in old age could be directly related to your childhood.
It's insane.
But it made a lot of sense.
And so the solar plexus,
This feeling of being able to present yourself,
Being able to have your needs met.
The solar plexus,
The work that I do,
I work with people,
The themes we often work on in here are pride and anger and desire.
Pride is this attachment to your self-worth,
Attachment to being worthy and enough.
Anger,
Feeling like someone's crossing your boundaries all the time.
And then desire,
Feeling like what you want matters,
Like your desires matter and you're allowed to follow those wants.
And so as we begin working with the solar plexus,
We often also see it's connected to the throat.
The throat is our expression.
If we don't feel confident,
Then we won't express.
If we don't feel sure of ourselves,
If we don't feel like we matter,
And we're worthy and deserving,
Then we won't talk.
And then we shut down this.
And if we shut down this and this,
Then often we go into the head,
And then we get lost in our thoughts.
And then our thoughts often are blaming and judging and criticizing and resentment and depression because we're not letting the energy out that's trying to get out.
If you look at children,
They have no problem screaming and crying and doing whatever they need to do to feel released and relieved.
But through our education of the children,
Through our training of the kids,
Of right and wrong and good and bad and do and don't,
We put them into these little boxes and these molds that are not actually that healthy for them and their growth and can also actually be harmful for them because they'll feel that maybe they're not loved anymore if they're acting in a way that we don't want them to.
So all of this stuff,
It goes so deep and it's so multifaceted.
So tonight we're going to do a little guided journey about the solar plexus.
We're going to go into your own solar plexus.
And we're also going to see how to open that energy center up a little bit.
That sounds good for all of you.
So with that,
I invite everyone to relax,
To get into a position that feels comfortable and stable.
I'm going to shut down these lights.
If you want to lay back in your chair,
You have to kind of pull it forward for it to go backwards.
And as you relax and close your eyes,
I'm going to ask you to just do something really quickly.
It's to stick your hands upwards towards the ceiling.
We call this reaching into the field,
Reaching into the field of energy.
And allowing your hands to kind of move around until they find a place that feels safe.
Where does safety exist around you?
It's a place that feels safe,
That feels energized.
And just taking a moment to connect into the field.
This is only just for a few seconds.
And I want you to take a few deep breaths.
Just allowing yourself to connect to this place of energy.
You might also know this as the feeling of success,
The feeling of victory.
And from this place,
To gently bring your hands down towards the solar plexus,
So over the belly.
And you can just put your hands there for a moment and just take a few deep breaths.
Just feeling this part of your body.
And it's okay to acknowledge that sometimes I feel afraid.
Sometimes I feel not enough.
Sometimes I feel sad and alone.
And I don't want to show myself.
But parts of me know that I matter.
And that I am here for me.
A few deep breaths into that spot.
And when you're ready,
You can just relax your hands,
Your body,
However you want.
You can even remain in this position if that feels good.
So we allow ourselves to begin to relax,
To breathe,
To soften.
As we begin to soften,
We also gently begin to notice the space around the body,
The space of the room.
We are not trapped within this physical form.
As you breathe,
Just imagine that you're breathing into the space around you.
Breathing it out,
And then also as you're breathing in,
You're starting to receive that space around you.
So allowing yourself this moment to gently begin dissolving into space.
As you breathe and relax,
Soften and dissolve.
You allow yourselves to travel outside of this room,
Beyond this physical space,
Into the sky,
Into outer space.
Imagining that you're connecting up to the stars,
Which are actually suns.
And just gently connecting into that light.
And as we connect into that light of the universe,
Imagine that it's shining down onto your solar plexus.
Onto the sun inside of your body.
Just below the rib cage.
Allowing it to feel light and warm.
Gently filling up as you breathe.
And that gentle light in your center of confidence has a message for you.
It is saying you are enough.
That you matter.
That your feelings matter.
That your needs matter.
And as the solar plexus is also the place of setting boundaries,
You decide that you have had enough.
Of treating yourself in a dishonoring way.
Of allowing other people to dishonor you.
As the light of the universe connects in to the solar plexus of your belly,
You truly claim,
I am enough.
I am worthy.
I matter.
And I refuse to accept any less from the people in my life.
As you breathe and relax,
Allowing this light to strengthen,
To become warmer,
More solid,
More stable.
To allow your yeses and nos to matter,
To have a voice.
It's okay if it's scary.
It's okay if it's unknown.
It's okay if we're afraid of losing everything around us.
It's okay to love ourselves fully and completely.
Breathe in.
Integrate.
Allow.
Journey.
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