How To Balance Your Solar Plexus Chakra
The solar plexus chakra sits at the upper abdomen — the body's energetic centre of will, confidence, and personal power. Known in Sanskrit as Manipura, meaning "city of jewels," it is the third of the seven chakras and traditionally associated with yellow: the colour of sunlight, mental clarity, and the kind of steady self-assurance that lets you move through the world with direction and purpose. When this centre feels active and balanced, people often describe feeling capable, grounded in their own identity, and clear about what they want. When it feels depleted or blocked, the experience tends to be the opposite — self-doubt, indecision, or a loss of personal momentum.
This guide explores what the solar plexus chakra is, how it is understood within colour and energy traditions, and the practices many people find meaningful when working with yellow energy.
What Is the Solar Plexus Chakra?
Within chakra traditions, the solar plexus chakra is the third energy centre, located between the navel and the chest. It follows the root chakra (associated with security and grounding) and the sacral chakra (associated with creativity and feeling), and it represents the next level of development: the emergence of individual will and personal identity. Where the lower two chakras are concerned with survival and flow, Manipura is concerned with action — with the part of us that decides, initiates, and takes a clear step forward.
The qualities most often associated with a radiant solar plexus chakra include self-confidence, healthy boundaries, decisiveness, motivation, and a strong but not rigid sense of personal identity. Traditions also connect it with digestion — both physically and metaphorically, the idea of processing experience and drawing nourishment from what we encounter.
To explore the full chakra system, our guide to chakra balancing offers a useful overview, or continue through the individual series: root chakra, sacral chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra, brow chakra, and crown chakra.
The Solar Plexus Chakra — Manipura
What Colour Is the Solar Plexus Chakra?
The solar plexus chakra is associated with yellow — the colour of sunlight, warmth, mental clarity, and optimism. Yellow sits at the brighter, more energising end of the visible spectrum, and within colour and energy traditions it is understood to carry qualities of focus, intellect, and personal will. It is a colour that naturally draws attention and inspires confidence.
Within Colour Energy's framework, yellow is one of the seven core colour energies, each connected to a specific chakra and a distinctive range of emotional, physical, and spiritual qualities. The yellow energy range is oriented around clarity, self-expression, and the quiet confidence that comes from knowing your own mind. Working with yellow — wearing it, surrounding yourself with it, or choosing yellow-associated scents and stones — is one of the ways people engage intentionally with solar plexus energy.
Signs Your Solar Plexus Chakra May Need Attention
Within chakra and colour energy traditions, an imbalanced or less-active solar plexus centre is often described through patterns of confidence, will, and self-direction. People working with this area often notice feelings such as:
- Persistent self-doubt, difficulty trusting your own judgement, or seeking excessive reassurance from others
- Procrastination, indecision, or a general sense of feeling stuck
- A tendency to give away personal power — agreeing to things you don’t want, difficulty saying no
- Feeling overly controlled by others’ opinions or easily destabilised by criticism
- The reverse: a need to control situations or people, or an aggressive assertion of will that leaves little room for others
When the solar plexus energy is described as radiantly active, people often report feeling clear-headed, purposeful, able to act on their own behalf without aggression or apology, and comfortable with who they are. It is associated with the kind of confidence that doesn’t need to prove itself.
These are not diagnoses — they are simply ways of noticing where intentional attention might be meaningful. Many people find the solar plexus chakra particularly relevant during periods of career transition, major life decisions, or any time the sense of self-direction feels uncertain.
How to Work with Solar Plexus Chakra Energy
There are many approaches people use when focusing intentional attention on the solar plexus chakra. The most widely used within colour and wellness traditions include colour, aromatherapy, crystals, and movement.
Colour
Yellow is a naturally energising colour, and working with it consciously is one of the simplest starting points. Wearing yellow, bringing sunflowers or yellow botanicals into your space, or choosing yellow stationery, soft furnishings, or objects you interact with daily are all gentle ways to invite yellow energy into your routine. During meditation, visualising a warm, sunlit yellow glow at the upper abdomen — breathing into it on the inhale and allowing it to expand and brighten on the exhale — is a widely used practice in chakra-focused traditions.
Sunlight itself is often considered the most direct form of yellow energy: spending time outdoors in warm morning light, particularly in open landscapes where the sky is wide and bright, carries a natural resonance with this energy centre.
Aromatherapy
Within aromatherapy traditions, citrus and warm spice oils are most commonly associated with the solar plexus chakra — scents that feel bright, clarifying, and energising rather than heavy or sedating.
Oils often chosen when working with this energy centre include:
- Lemon Essential Oil — crisp, clean, and clarifying. Within Colour Energy’s yellow energy range, lemon is associated with mental focus, optimism, and a fresh sense of purpose.
- Grapefruit Essential Oil — bright and uplifting, traditionally associated with confidence, clarity, and a light, open quality of energy. Many people find it particularly useful when motivation feels low.
- Ginger Essential Oil — warm and grounding with a spiced edge, often associated with personal strength and the fire element connected to Manipura. Within colour and energy traditions, ginger is considered a motivating, activating oil.
- Lemongrass Essential Oil — clean, herbaceous, and clarifying. Often chosen to refresh mental energy and create a sense of openness and forward movement.
The Smarty Pants Colour Your Mood™ Diffuser Mix from Colour Energy is a ready-to-use yellow blend designed to evoke exactly this quality — bright, clarifying, and conducive to focused thought.
Yellow Energy Aromatherapy
Crystals
Within crystal traditions, yellow and golden stones are most commonly associated with the solar plexus chakra. Citrine is perhaps the most widely chosen — a warm, translucent yellow quartz traditionally associated with clarity, confidence, and the activation of personal will. Tiger’s eye, with its golden chatoyance, is often associated with grounded courage and the ability to act decisively. Yellow jasper is traditionally described as a stone of protection and steady determination.
The Crystal Light Spiritual Spray — Yellow from Colour Energy is formulated with essential oils and vibrational frequencies associated with yellow energy, designed to support the solar plexus centre’s natural qualities of clarity, joy, and personal power. Many people use it to open a meditation, refresh their energy mid-day, or set an intention before a challenging task.
Citrine — Solar Plexus Crystal
Movement and Breath
The solar plexus chakra is associated with the fire element, and movement — particularly practices that build core strength, generate heat, or require focused action — is widely used in chakra traditions as a way to activate this centre. Yoga postures that engage the core and build confidence, such as Warrior poses, Boat Pose, or Sun Salutations, are particularly connected to Manipura in many traditions.
Breathwork that builds internal fire — such as Kapalabhati (rapid rhythmic breathing through the nose) or simply placing a hand on the upper abdomen and breathing deeply into that centre, feeling the rise and fall — brings direct attention and intention to this energy centre.
Colour Energy Products for the Solar Plexus Chakra
Colour Energy’s yellow product range is formulated specifically around the solar plexus chakra and the qualities of yellow energy. These are some of the most popular choices when working intentionally with this energy centre:
- Chakra Light Essence Roll-On — Yellow — A 10ml roll-on designed to open and activate the solar plexus energy centre. Apply to the upper abdomen, wrists, or pulse points as part of a daily intention practice before a meeting, creative project, or any moment that calls for clear personal presence.
- Crystal Light Spiritual Spray — Yellow — A high-frequency spray made with essential oils, holy water, alchemy essences, and vibrational frequencies programmed using crystals, sound, and sacred geometry. Mist around your space or aura to set a yellow-energy intention, support focus, or begin a meditation.
- Yellow Energy Blend — Colour Energy’s signature yellow energy oil blend. Diffuse or apply to bring the clarity and confidence of yellow energy into your daily rhythm.
- Smarty Pants Colour Your Mood™ Diffuser Mix — A ready-to-use yellow diffuser blend designed to support mental clarity and focused energy. Ideal for work, study, or any time a clear, bright mental space is useful.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a blocked solar plexus chakra feel like?
Within chakra traditions, people describe it as a loss of confidence or personal direction — persistent self-doubt, difficulty making decisions, or a tendency to let others lead when you’d rather find your own way. These are understood as signals that the solar plexus energy centre may benefit from intentional attention, not as medical symptoms.
What crystals are good for the solar plexus chakra?
Citrine, tiger’s eye, yellow jasper, amber, and golden calcite are among the stones most commonly chosen in crystal traditions for solar plexus work. Citrine in particular is widely associated with clarity, confidence, and the activation of personal will.
What essential oils support the solar plexus chakra?
Oils with bright citrus or warm spice aromatic profiles are most often chosen — lemon, grapefruit, ginger, lemongrass, and bergamot are all traditionally associated with the solar plexus energy centre within aromatherapy practice.
How do I know if my solar plexus chakra is overactive?
Within chakra traditions, an overactive solar plexus energy centre is often associated with the opposite of depletion: a strong need to control situations, difficulty delegating or trusting others, or an assertiveness that can shade into rigidity. Working with balancing practices — gentle breathwork, time in nature, or grounding root chakra practices — is often suggested in this context.
Is the solar plexus chakra connected to digestion?
Within traditional and energetic frameworks, the solar plexus chakra is often associated with the stomach, liver, and digestive organs — its location in the body corresponds to this area. Many people find that stress, indecision, or a general sense of being “in the gut” connects emotionally to this region, and that practices oriented around this centre carry a natural physical resonance.
Claiming Your Own Yellow Energy
The solar plexus chakra is, at its heart, about knowing who you are and being willing to act from that place. It is the part of the energetic body that says: I have a direction, I trust my own judgement, I can do this. Working with it is not about manufacturing confidence from nothing — it is about clearing what gets in the way of the confidence that is already there.
Whether you start with a bright citrus oil diffused in the morning, a citrine kept on your desk, or a few focused breaths into the upper abdomen before something challenging, you are already doing the work that matters.
Explore Colour Energy’s yellow collection and find your starting point → Crystal Light Spiritual Spray — Yellow | Chakra Light Essence Roll-On — Yellow