| Heart Chakra
(Anahata)
The fourth chakra, the heart chakra,rests in the center of
the chakra system, at the core of our spirit. Its physical
location is the heart, upper chest, and upper back. The fourth
is the balance point, integrating the world of matter (the
lower three chakras) with the world of spirit (the upper three
chakras). Through the heart chakra, we open to and connect
with harmony and peace. The health of our heart center registers
the quality and power of love in our life. In Sanskrit, the
heart chakra is called Anahata, which means “unstruck”
or “unhurt.” Its name implies that deep beneath
our personal stories of brokenness and the pain in our heart,
wholeness, boundless love, and a wellspring of compassion
reside.
This chakra’s element
is air. Air spreads and energizes. Like water, air assumes
the shape of whatever it fills, yet it is less subject to
gravity than water. When you feel swept up in love, you often
need to replant your first chakra in order to stay grounded.
Air permeates breath, so pranayama practice helps balance
and tone this chakra. All forms of pranayama can help you
use more air, more prana, thereby increasing your vitality
and enthusiasm for life.
If you notice that you are
sitting with your head forward, shoulders rounded and your
chest collapsed, it’s a good time to start practicing
fourth chakra poses to give your heart some breathing space.
When we lead with our head and not with the heart, we may
be overly focused on thought and tend to cut ourselves off
from the emotions and the body. When the heart chakra is deficient,
you may experience feelings of shyness and loneliness, an
inability to forgive, or a lack of empathy. Physical symptoms
can include shallow breathing, asthma, and other lung diseases.
Asanas that enliven the heart
chakra include passive chest openers in which we arch gently
over a blanket or bolster, shoulder stretches such as the
arm positions of Gomukhasana and Garudasana (Eagle Pose),
and backbends. Being an even-numbered, feminine chakra, the
heart center naturally yearns to release and let go. Doing
backbends develops the trust and surrender we need to open
the heart fully. When we feel fearful, there is no room for
love, and our bodies show contraction. When we choose love,
the fear melts away, and our practice takes on a joyful quality.
In many backbending poses, the heart is positioned higher
than the head. It's wonderfully refreshing to let the mind
drop away from the top position and instead lead with the
heart.
Some signs that the heart
chakra is overpowering your life can include co-dependency,
possessiveness, jealousy, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
For these symptoms, forward bends are the best antidote, because
they are grounding and foster introspection. While people
with deficient heart chakras need to open to receive love
more fully, those with excessive heart chakras find healing
by slowing down to discover inside themselves the nourishment
they have been seeking from others.
The most powerful way to open,
energize, and balance not just the heart chakra but all of
our chakras is to love ourselves and others. Love is the greatest
healer. In our hatha yoga practice, remembering what we love
and appreciate as we practice fourth chakra asanas enhances
the power of the poses and our general well-being.
Your Heart Chakra:
Balanced Heart
Located near your heart, in
the very center of your chest, your fourth
chakra is the domain of human intimacy. It is essential to
affection, warmth, nurturing, friendship and familiarity.
Your fourth chakra is the seat of your ability to feel joy,
unity, laughter and especially, love-the very highest power
in your life. It expands your capacity to be generous, sensitive,
forgiving and tolerant.
With a balanced fourth chakra,
the circulation of your blood is healthy and smooth, your
heart rhythm is regular and your arteries are clear from blockage.
The fourth chakra is generally
considered the most important energy center in your psyche,
because it is from this chakra that love emanates. It is naturally
associated with family, partners, friends, spiritual family
members and animals. When it is balanced, you care about how
you affect others. You want to touch them in a positive, nurturing
way. You want to reveal to them the power of love.
Heart Chakra Facts:
· The heart chakra rules your compassion, forgiveness,
generosity and love.
· A well-balanced fourth chakra will result in stimulating
your highest
ideals and desires, and leave you feeling positive and nurturing.
· In your body, the fourth chakra governs the heart,
circulation, breasts, and arteries.
· An apt image for the fourth chakra is an open doorway.
· The heart chakra vibrates with the color green.
· The heart chakra's mission statement is: I give,
I care, I love.
When your heart chakra is
balanced, you non-judgmentally accept yourself and others.
You recognize beauty-in yourself and in everyone-while overlooking
weaknesses. It is because of a balanced fourth chakra that
you are kind and forgiving, as well as quick to pardon. You
are also tolerant, optimistic, resourceful and humorous.
If your heart chakra is off
balance or shut down, you might have a tendency to run away
from intimacy. You might even intentionally push otherwise
loving and lovable people away from you. Without this sense
of connection, you become critical, suspicious and defensive.
Paranoia becomes a real possibility. If your heart center
shuts down completely, you may be inclined toward secrecy,
betrayal and addictions.
By closing your heart, you
continue to push people away, who in response reject you again,
seemingly validating your initial etermination to seal yourself
off. Again and again you pull back. Again and again you're
pushed away. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your heart becomes
more closed and you become more isolated.
A heart chakra imbalanced
in the opposite direction-too wide open-causes problems too.
You can become too empathic, too easily picking up on the
anger or depression of others. You live at the mercy of the
moods and feelings of those around you. This can be psychically
and physically draining.
More Articles To Help With The Heart Chakra
(Chakras)
(Chakra
Balancing - Working With Chakras Pt1)
(Chakra
Balancing - Working With Chakras Pt2)
(Chakra Healing With Reiki)
(Chakra Chart)
(Chakra Colors)
(The Seven Chakras)
(Chakra
Meditation)
(Root Chakra)
(Sacral Chakra)
(Solar
Plexus Chakra)
(Heart Chakra)
(Throat Chakra)
(Third Eye
Chakra)
(Crown Chakra)
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