LA GOMERA - SOLAR PLEXUS
LA GOMERA - SOLAR PLEXUS (3rd center)
Our ability to be confident and in control of our lives
LOCATION: Upper abdomen in the stomach area
GLAND OR HORMONE CENTER: Pancreas
EMOTIONAL ISSUES: Self-worth, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-power, personal identity, independence
IF THIS CHAKRA IS BALANCED WE FEEL: Self-confident, have a strong sense of purpose, and are self-motivated
IF THIS CHAKRA IS IMBALANCED WE MAY EXPERIENCE: Low self-esteem, difficulty in making decisions, or may have anger and control issues
PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS: Central nervous system, pancreas, liver, digestive tract, skin
HEALING EXERCISE:
Kundalini yoga: boat pose
Dancing, shake those hips! :)
HEALING FOODS:
Yellow-colored foods like corn, pineapple, yellow pepper, lemon, banana
Grains and fiber-like granola and whole wheat bread
Herbal teas like chamomile, ginger, and peppermint tea
For more info on the chakras, please visit:
What to know about La Gomera?
It is the second smallest of the seven main islands. The island is very mountainous and steeply sloping and rises to 1,487 metres (4,879 ft) at the island's highest peak, Alto de Garajonay. Its shape is rather like an orange that has been cut in half and then split into segments, which has left deep ravines or barrancos between them. The slopes are crisscrossed by paths that present varying levels of difficulty to visitors, and stunning views to seasoned hikers. Garajonay National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.
The inhabitants of La Gomera have an ancient way of communicating across deep ravines by means of a whistled speech called Silbo Gomero, which can be heard 2 miles away.
Christopher Columbus made La Gomera his last port of call before crossing the Atlantic in 1492 with his three ships. He stopped here to replenish his crew's food and water supplies. He, then, stopped here again in 1493 on his second voyage, and in 1498 on his third voyage to the New World. The house in San Sebastián in which he is reputed to have stayed is now a tourist attraction.
What did I like most about the island?
THE LANDSCAPE
GOING FOR LONG, ADVENTUROUS HIKES
THE ROADS
VALLE GRAN REY
Exciting road curves down into the valley which opens up at the delta to the sea. There are several beaches in the area (Playa del Ingles, the long Playa de Valle Gran Rey, or the protected Charco del Conde), where I enjoyed snorkelling in the Atlantic and sunbathing on the fine black sand.
Tourism in La Gomera started with an influx of hippies in the 1960s, as it did in many other now gentrified tourism destinations in Europe like Ibiza or St.Tropez in France.
https://lagomera1.blogspot.com/
Despite some people still write about their experiences with hippies in VGR (Valle Gran Rey) I didn't discover many traits of the hippie lifestyle. There are shops with very colourful prints and eye-catching handmade jewelry made mainly from materials found in nature but most of them are not locally made. In one of these boutiques I was browsing for small souvenirs and they were all from South America. Eventually, I strolled down to the weekend market where I found local creative people's hand-made products and chose a framed picture for my mum and a bracelet for myself.
VGR is a very popular destination among German people. Many have moved here permanently and so there are plenty of bio food shops and holistic healing treatments like massage, reflexology, reiki, etc. available for visitors. VGR reminded me of a small German holiday town by the lake with the difference that the "lake" in this case was the ocean. And because the collective energy was coming from the German community I felt a bit alone. Maybe because people from countries with cold and dark weather conditions have somewhat colder and distant natures too. I felt a bit outcasted for being a solo traveller. Despite the fact that I was a solo traveller in El Hierro, La Palma, and Tenerife too I didn't feel alone there at all.
"I wish I had a friend here with me to hang out and share the experience!" I said it to myself one day on La Gomera. Everything was so incredibly beautiful and idyllic but something was missing. Even when I went for a 4.5 hour hike in the national park the first time during my stay, I was walking to Mirador del Alto de Garajonay, my eyes could see the beauty of the land and trees, and my body experienced the adventure of trekking but there were no positive feelings followed the senses. I couldn't create the inner experience. I couldn't connect to the beauty. Energetically something was off either within me or around me.
As La Gomera is the Solar Plexus island the self-worth, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-power, personal identity, independence issues did get enhanced during my stay.
This was the first island where I booked a self-contained flat just for myself and the first time I booked a car for my entire stay of 16 days. This is when it got to dawn on me that I am a single young woman alone in the world with responsibilities to supply for my needs and interests. I needed to look after myself, the flat and the car. I, however, had an amazing host, Brigitte a German woman who is married to a local Canarian. Brigitte welcomed me with an honest smile and a few goodies on the kitchen table: homegrown apples, bananas, dragon fruit, mangoes, home-made dried mango and mango jam, yam! Thanks to the warm climate, many tropical fruit trees grow here.
This was the first time I tasted dragon fruit, the artistically beautiful looking tropical fruit which is loaded with antioxidants and is home to carotene, protein, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and phosphorus. The latter helps in promoting tissue and cell growth, maintenance, and repair.
"The third chakra is the centre of our self-esteem, willpower, self-discipline, as well as our warmth in our personality. The energy of this chakra allows us to transform inertia into action and movement. It allows us to meet challenges and move forward in our lives. The main challenge for the third chakra is to use our personal power in a balanced manner. That means consciously harnessing the energy of this chakra. It means being proactive rather than reactive or inactive. If we have a blocked or deficient third chakra that is passive and inactive we allow life to pass by while we do nothing."
My spiritual experience
There was a day when I didn’t feel like leaving my apartment so I stayed in to cook and lie around the flat. I love lying on the floor, so I lied on the floor for quite some time. Toward the evening I put on some meditation music on YouTube and when I almost fell asleep I heard myself saying the name Sarah. The next day in the evening I searched for a movie just to put it on in the background until I was having a shower and prepare a meal. The film was in the middle when I heard the name 'Sarah' being called in it. “OMG! Did they say Sarah?” I went back to the beginning of the movie and started to watch it by paying close attention to the characters. It turned out that Sarah was the main character who lived a free, independent life travelling to different countries to write her essay on culinary foods (something like that). In the movie she was in New York at her sister's when she met her neighbour, a guy who was stiff and conventional and was about to take over his father’s company. But the guy’s real passion was in architecture that he was afraid to tell his father. Like my twin who works in a hospital whereas his real passion is football. The man in the movie also had 2 older sisters, like my twin in real life, who tried to bring him back together with his ex-girlfriend. Anyway, in the end, love prevailed. The guy eventually found his way to his heart, spoke his truth to the family, and chose Sarah over the mean ex-girlfriend. At this time I still had a strong feeling of wanting to know what is blocking the connection between my twin and me. The movie made me think if his family has something to do with the answer.
I also realized that the accommodation I booked on Fuerteventura is hosted by a girl called Sara.
I tell you more about it in my Fuerteventura post. :)
Another gift I got from La Gomera was Meera.
We met in the street of Vueltas (part of Valle Gran Rey) but the full story involves flies and the beach and it is so funny!
So I was on the bigger beach, called La Playa, that afternoon lying topless on the black sand when after a while I felt I got attacked by flies. At the beginning they just tickled me then it became more obvious that they don’t leave me alone (and I didn’t even have any suncream or lotion on me or food around me that would attract them) and I turned bothered. I sat up and looked around to check people nearby me if they have a lot of flies around them too but everybody seemed to be fine. I didn’t want to leave the beach yet so I lied back on my towel. After a few minutes, I started to feel the flies on my sun-kissed back and limbs again then I became very annoyed and decided to wrap up and go for a walk until sunset. So I was wandering around the tiny town when I bumped into Meera (or she bumped into me?) in one of the street corners. She started to speak to me in German and when she found out I speak English, she switched language and after that, we talked for hours until dark. We popped in a food store in the meantime and walked down streets toward the petrol station where it turned out that she lived toward the direction where my accommodation was so we kept walking together. At some point of the steep road we departed and I walked furthermore partly on the road, partly under the trees with the help of the moonlight. There were no street lamps just the moon showing me the path. And it was magical! There is so much peace, trust, and beauty in the nights of these small places on the islands. I’ve learned that nature (the Universe) is there to support me when I need it.
Okay, so it turned out the Meera used to work as a hypnotherapist and that she was a gift for me as I had been wanting to meet a hypnotherapist for some time who could take me back to find out more about my challenging birth experience. But Meera herself encountered minor health interruptions in her life so she couldn’t do hypnotherapy on me this time. I was happy to have met her and from now on I had a partner to spend time with and felt less alone. We did road trips, swim in the ocean, sit in cafés, we chit-chatted about our lives, experience, and ideas on men, spiritual practices, feelings, and our time in London. It turned out that my life path and choices including my creative interests, travel, and work experience are the same as she had in her youth.
On our last day together we visited Finca Argayall (Place of Light) which is like a relaxing temple offering accommodation, energy healing, holistic treatments, and community activities like meditations and dancing. We participated in a collective meditation practice that she treated me within return of the road trips and shopping we did in my hired car for her. Our friendship is still alive and I hope to see her again soon.
🌻
I also want to share my energy treatment experience at Argayall (the one that cost €60!!). I loved that the practitioner thought I was 20 years old. She was shocked when I told her that I was 35. It’s crazy (good crazy) how much younger people see me! They averagely guess my age to be 25 which is 10 years younger. I heard somebody say that most Lightworkers look younger than their real age due to their innocent, loving way of living. I believe, of course, avoiding cell-damaging negative thinking, harmful habits, and toxic lifestyle help us stay looking young and healthy. I also believe many other people who are not Lightworkers can achieve the same qualities with the right way of thinking, feeling, and living.
What are Lightworkers?
Lightworkers, also known as star seeds, Earth angels, and Indigos, are spiritual beings in human existence sent here to heal.
Lightworkers feel very connected to other people. They regard others as extensions of themselves. The basis for that sense of connection is unconditional love.
Lightworkers embrace the truth and live honestly.
Lightworkers often spend a lot of time on introspection, always looking for deeper truths. They’re very considerate of the meaning behind their actions. Lightworking requires that you rid your life of falsehood and inauthenticity. This is one of the first activities new lightworkers undertake. It’s a process of shedding lower energies that are incongruent with the new path. This may include quitting jobs, leaving relationships, dropping friends, or moving to new places. The lightworker looks to get rid of anything that would likely lead him/her astray.
Indigo children are sensitive, curious, independent, open-minded, and artistic. They are intuitive and are misunderstood by the status quo. Indigo children are said to have been born between 1978 and 1988.
Getting back to Argayall...
During the treatment, I was led to a tent and I needed to lie on my back and relax. I couldn’t completely relax but I did my best in the given circumstance. The practitioner touched certain parts of my body and held her hand or fingers on those points. Once when she was over my stomach area she asked: “If you could have one thing in your life to hold what would it be?”. She said I should just say the first thing that came to my mind but nothing came to my mind so I said “I don’t know.” (maybe my twin? I wasn't sure at this point if I wanted my twin but if she asked this question 2 months ago I would have said: "my twin"). It was interesting though that she felt energetically something over my stomach that made her ask this question. The pit of the stomach is the location of the Solar Plexus chakra which is connected to this island, La Gomera.
Anyway, I didn’t feel anything during or after the treatment, I left the way I had come. But much later on when I was walking home between the ocean and the cliffside a sudden feeling slowed me down. For a second I felt something far away and beyond my physical body got removed or became unhooked. I felt relieved and lighter like I could swim in the air. Maybe an energetic block got lifted and removed. I felt it through my head, more precisely through the back of my head. It was a short but beautiful feeling that made me shine throughout the rest of the day.
So this was my experience in La Gomera.
Thank you for reading! ♡
The next island will be Tenerife - Heart chakra.