Facing the world with your heart wide open is a terrifying proposition. If you are human, which I am assuming that most of you are, the chances that you have been hurt by someone you cared about is pretty good. And once you have been hurt once, it is scary to open yourself up to being hurt again. But we all know that being open to others, open to love, open to connection is the way that we find joy in life.
The heart chakra is the fourth chakra, and is located, cleverly, at your heart. If you think about a time when you were wounded by someone you cared about you likely felt it at your heart, heart break. The heart chakra is fascinating to me because it is right in the middle, it connects your lower chakras which have to do with outward action, with your upper chakras which have to do with thoughts, truth and connection to spirit. I like that connection. It is both a centre of action and a place of reflection. When your heart chakra is blocked or unbalanced, you feel guarded, afraid of connection, a lack of trust, and an inability to forgive.
I know that I can think of times in my life when I have felt that way, unwilling to open to others, guarded, closed off. I can think of times when I have really wanted to hold a grudge. I was angry and hurt, I rehearsed angry speeches in mirrors. Wrote myself a script where I could put my offender right in their place. It is so tempting. But it has never made me feel better to hurt someone. Inevitably I feel worse, and guilty for hurting someone else. Getting through those hurtful, painful situations is always forgiveness. The only way to ride yourself of the anger and the pain is through forgiveness, even if it isn't to their face. The only way to truly open your heart again is forgiveness.
There is one person that we often to forget to forgive and love. Ourselves. We hate parts of ourselves, punish ourselves for things we have done in the past. We regret past choices, we hate our bellies, we scrutinize our crow's feet... This closes, blocks, imbalances your heart chakra. It isn't until we can love ourselves unconditionally and forgive ourselves that we can truly love others unconditionally. This is hard, emotional work. Work we often avoid. This disconnection from ourselves makes look for it in other people, and then we are consistently let down. It is only once we love ourselves unconditionally that we can do the same with others. And in turn receive unconditional love too.
Ca can be done with the help of asana through backbends, and also challenging poses like arm balances such as bakasana/crow pose using props to keep you safe (in my own practice this has been important in that it is the physical manifestation of trust and letting go). Back bends make you feel vulnerable, but give you a safe and controllable place to practice being open. In conjunction with your physical practice, meditation can be very helpful. Affirmations such as: "I am worthy of unconditional love." and " I am courageous and willing to open my heart."
All things we do and feel come from one of two places; either fear or love. Where there is love, there is no fear, and where there is fear, there is no love. As wholehearted people it is our goal to spend as much time moving from love as possible. I challenge you to move forward in love this week, be open, be compassionate, see the light in each person you meet. Especially yourself.
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