To see more of Kim's amazing art, please visit KimDryerArt.com.The Heart Chakra by Kim Dreyer

To see more of Kim's amazing art, please visit KimDryerArt.com.

Finding My Center: Self-Confidence and the Solar Plexus Chakra

This post is about the Solor Plexus Chakra but the story begins, not with the chakra system, but with an experience born of my decision to branch out into a form of media I had not tried before - live internet radio.  I created a show on BlogTalkRadio and called it The Mystic Review.  I planned weekly segments on various metaphysical topics.  Each segment was to include a different featured guest.

I was excited about the show but I was nervous too.  I had never been comfortable with speaking and had experience severe stage and debilitating stage fright ever since I remembered.  It didn't matter that in this case there was no stage.  I would be directly addressing a live audience real-time.  Despite my nervousness, however, I decided that doing the show would good for me.  A way of stretching my own limits.

A wonderful online friend, Jenny Sieck, offered to help, volunteering to be my very first guest. Jenny is an intuitive counselor and Tarot reader with an advanced degree in psychology and the host of her own BlogTalkRadio show, The Inner Voice Intuitive Hour.  In addition to this, she is a talented jewelry designed and the creator of Sacred Bracelets on Etsy.
  

Having also created symbolically themed personalized bracelets at one point in my own jewelry making career (see pic lower left), I really appreciated Jenny's work.  In it she combines precious stones, color and symbols meaningful to the individual client, to create a highly personalized piece of jewelry.  One of the elements she uses  in her bracelets, as well in her own spiritual practice, is color therapy largely reflective of the chakras and she has a great knowledge base in this area.

This was synchronicitic for me as I was focusing on the chakra system at that time in my own meditative practice.   I decided to do my first live broadcast on the chakra system with Jenny as my featured guest. 

I prepared by writing out a few interview questions for Jenny and doing some concentrated research on the chakra system using Liz Simpson's fantastic book, Chakra Healing.  Reading through the material on the afternoon of the show, I was struck by my third or solar plexus chakra issues.  I was experiencing a lot of pre-opening night anxiety, wondering how I could possible get through a live 30 minute show and seriously doubting my ability to to do so.

According to Simpson, the solar plexus chakra is associated with fear of rejection and criticism.  A too open solar plexus chakra leads to feelings of superiority and can result in judgmental and controlling attitudes.  A blocked or sluggish solar plexus chakra is associated with those who are overly worried about what others may think and fearful of being alone.  Insecurity and a need for constant reassurance may result.

My Own Celtic Bracelet with Wire-Work Copper Charm

Reading Chakra Healing in the nervous hours before my first radio broadcast I paid particular attention to the solar plexus chakra section.  In it Simpson says, "By strengthening and stimulating the Solar Plexus Chakra you will reach  state in which you can shake off the fears of rejection, criticism, and standing apart front he group and create your own unique identity.  One that is founded on self-acceptance, self-respect, and the ability to take risks in the knowledge that you can handle any situation with which you are faced.  This is true inner. personal power."

This I realized was exactly what I needed and I had the clear intuition there was a direct correlation between the state of my solar plexus chakra and my severe performance anxiety.  I stopped to focus on this chakra and did some free form clearing work and then continued with the book.  

As I continued to read about the solar plexus chakra, I noticed some mild indigestion, a feeling of upset in my upper abdomen that progressed very very quickly to moderate to severe pain and severe nausea.  I was, suddenly and unexpectedly, extremely ill.

The illness lasted for several hours making it necessary for me to call Jenny and reschedule our show.  Although I was very nauseous throughout, I did not throw up or experience any other GI symptoms.  Although the symptoms were intense, I felt fairly sure that I was clearing.

In constant contact with my angels throughout, I received messages of healing and the clear understanding that this purging of negative energetic debris was a necessary step upon my path.

By that evening I was fully recovered.  The following week I did the show and while I was still a little nervous doing the show was possible.  I went on to do several more live radio shows on several different metaphysical subjects changing the name of the show along the way.

I have not done internet radio for sometime but I intend to pick up the show, The New Age Review, when things become a little more settled in my personal life (I am in the process of rehabbing houses and moving).  I continue to do my own free form chakra clearings when I feel the need.  Well I have not had an experience of that intensity since, I can feel the process of clearing psychic debris and attachments to varying degrees.

That experience of clearing not only lead to ongoing improved self-esteem but an entire new focus for me in terms of energy healing.  More on that next month.

To listen to my BlogTalkRadio show with featured guest Jenny Sieck, please click on the player embedded below:

Listen to The New Age Review!

Lost and Found: Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

Today marks the one year anniversary of a good friend's passing. And I have been thinking of him even though our friendship ended many years ago.

We said goodbye apparently for good in 1984 when he was making plans to leave the area and I was making plans to marry someone else.  Naturally, a great deal has happened in the intervening years.  So it's not surprising or even in anyway indicative of my feelings for him that I thought of him rarely if at all.

But three weeks ago I had a dream.  And my friend Tim was the leading character.  He was young and handsome in the dream and taller than I remembered.  There was a remarkable brightness about him.  And I know that kind of brightness.

He looked different but I recognized his energy.  I sensed it as if I was standing right next him, stepping back in time to re-experience the soul quality of a person I once loved.  In the dream, we met by chance.  I was living alone in a big sunny apartment and he was working at a nearby market.  We bumped into each other at his work and he asked if he could see me. Later on, standing in my dream apartment he told me he'd wanted to contact me before but that he was afraid that doing so would stir up old emotions. 

And then he explained the decisions he had made so very long ago - sharing information I hadn't heard before but found surprisingly believable.  This new information changed things, putting my recollection of our relationship in an entirely new perspective. I no longer felt responsible.  My old guilt lifted. It was obvious to me, even in the dream, that he had come to lighten that load.

After we had spoken we set out together on a wide boardwalk with long strings of golden lights on either side.  There was some kind of festival happening around us and I was  happy.  I told him that he was right about the emotion.  I can feel it, I said, can you?

He didn't answer or if he did, I don't remember.  There was a knowing that our time was limited and the dream faded before I could say goodbye.  When I woke up and considered the brilliance and clarity and the incredible coherence of the dream, I knew for the first time that he had transitioned. 

I told my current boyfriend about the dream and what I thought it meant and then I pulled my laptop into bed and found the obituary online. It  occurred to me, not for the first time, how multidimensional every act of spirit is.  In this instance a single dream was healing and affirming in very different ways to all involved.  To me, to my partner, and I hope to Tim as well.

Thank you for remembering.

The Solar Plexus Chakra: The Amazing Chakra Art of Kim Dryer

To see more of Kim's amazing art, please visit KimDryerArt.com.

Radiating Orange: Meditation, Psychic Sight & Second Chakra Clearing

My meditations on the chakras are historically free form. And while I have found the inclusion crystals, yantras and scent as recommended in Saradananda's Chakra Meditation and Simpson's Chakra Healing to be both helpful and fun, in the end, I generally revert to my own method.  

Using this method these last few weeks has reminded me of something.  I biased in my chakra work. This is to say that I do not treat all the chakras fairly.

To explain how I have come to understand the bias, I have to explain the method which really simply just 'to be.'  Not in a Zen way necessarily but in the way of internal focus.  I apply this focus to visualize the flow of energy.  

In doing this, I psychically see the white light which spiritually innervates the system and visualize the colors of the chakras as they they illuminated, shining like neon, pale centers radiating outward into color.  Visualizing for me is not quite the same as psychically seeing however which calls for a clarification of terms as I apply them.  

When I visualize I am imagining.  This is not imagining in the sense of making things up because generally I have a clear intuition already that what I am imagining already exists but it is imagining how something looks - picturing it, I suppose you could say, mentally as opposed to really seeing it.  

Psychic sight however is, for me, truly seeing.  A vision, if you will, though not all visions are created equal.  Some visions are, in my experience, unusually vivid or incredibly bright while others are much less colorful.  What all visions have in common however it that, eyes open or shut, you know that you are really seeing. And this brings me back around to my bias with the chakras.  

When I meditate on the higher chakras I do quite literally (psychically) see their colors because psychically seeing blues and purples and greens is easy for me.  I see violet and indigo colors through my third eye with my physical eyes shut  whenever I try and frequently when I don't.  I can see aqua and green in both auras and meditation without a whole lot of effort.  And blues in particular are very intense for me both in meditation and in dreams.  

The other end of the spectrum however is no where near as well represented.  There is a reason why this is the case.

I am drawn to spirit which is not always necessarily balanced or grounded.  Working with the so-called lower chakras has given me an opportunity to ground myself and address some of my issues with physical reality.  And it is my belief that however avoidant we may be, this is not only valuable work but an important part of what we were sent here to do.

Working with the sacral chakra this week, I caught small glimpses of psychic orange and that is progress.  More importantly however, I have visualized the white light of spirit clear this sometimes troublesome energy center like the heart of sunlight giving way to a halo of orange.  And in this instance, in my belief system, this kind of imagining is not to say that I have made it up but rather that I have brought into being. 

The Energy of Orange: The Sacral Chakra by Artist Kim Dreyer

For more of Kim Dreyer's amazing work please visit KimDreyer.daportfolio.com.

Summing Up My Muladhara or Root Chakra Focus Segment

This week finishes my first chakra focus segment. This segment was dedicated to working with root chakra energy with other chakra centers to follow sequentially. I am not sure, to be honest, how well the yantra meditative practice has worked for me. Perhaps I didn't put enough time into gazing at the yantra but I was not able to see it with my eyes shut (in a third eye sense) at any point.

I found myself reverting to my own method of meditating which is free form and frequently visual. When doing it I focus and invite in the energy from the upper realms, imagine it flowing through my body and energizing the chakra centers. Normally I visualize blues and violet well but can rarely clearly warm colors such as orange or red. Over the course of the last two weeks however I was able to clearly see the color red in my mind's eye on several occasions. I think this is progress.

Meditating repeatedly on the root chakra does seem to have created a better energy flow as born out by pendulum testing and my own intuition. Additionally I feel less apprehensive about house hunting and moving then I did prior to the concentrated meditation. As the root chakra relates to survival issues I think this is significant.

I am not giving up on the yantras however. I am going to try to find and print some particularly appealing ones to use in the upcoming weeks and will post the images as I go.

Next week: the sacral chakra.