by Laurel Decker Hogge
How is your heart today? Are you taking good care of your hard-working, delicate organ? It is definitely doing its best to take good care of you. Let’s give a little love back to the heart with some techniques that balance the anahata (sanskrit for “heart”) chakra.
Take a few moments to focus on your heart space, which is where the fourth chakra also resides. Are your heartbeats rushed and eager, faint and wistful, anxious and irregular? Though the pace will fluctuate throughout the day, you can bring it into a steady rhythm any time by practicing these steps for calm breathing.
Inhale through the nose slowly, and imagine filling your lower lungs first, then your upper lungs.
Hold your breath to the count of three.
Exhale through the mouth as you relax your forehead, jaw, shoulders, and stomach. Continue the exhale until your lungs feel “emptied”.
Repeat steps 1–3 twice before sealing the lips and breathing both in and out through the nose.
Once you settle into a consistent breathing pattern, allow yourself to continue with your own natural rhythm without counting.
Next, notice if there is any tension in the muscles surrounding the chest cavity. Often, we hold tension in our muscles without even realizing it. And tension in the area of the heart space contributes to rigidity and closing of the heart chakra. To balance this energy point, imagine your muscles around the rib cage softening. Try these simple heart opening exercises as you continually come back to the concept of “softening and opening” the heart space.
Reach both hands behind your back and clasp the fingers together. Feel the shoulders widen. Now pull the clasped hands away from your back, allowing your chest to expand.
Find a clear area on the floor (use a mat if you have one), and lie on your belly with your forearms bent at your side so that your palms are flat beside the shoulders. Gently raise your upper body as your arms straighten against your hands that are planted firmly on the ground. Gaze forward, keeping the shoulders wide. Take care not to bend so far that you strain the lower back. Repeatedly rise and lower, exploring how it feels to match your breath with inhale/rise and exhale/lower.
With your heart rate calmed by focused breathing, and your heart space expanded by movement, slowly read the following affirmations. Take note of which one(s) give you the strongest emotional response at the heart center. Place a hand on your chest and close your eyes while you repeat the affirmation until it feels as if the words are “written” on your heart.
● I am love
● I love myself
● I choose to give and accept love without conditions
● I am worthy of love without conditions
● I am patient with myself as my heart heals
● I am compassionate with myself as my heart heals
● I am grateful for my heart
● My heart is peaceful
● My heart is joyful
● I am in unity with my heart
● *affirmation created by you*
With so much love energy flowing through your heart chakra, you’ll need a partner for this last activity. So, pull your pet close to your chest, or ask a person partner to bring it in for a hug. Lean into the sensation of this exchange that my 13-year-old daughter has called “heart power” since she was four years-old.
Laurel Decker Hogge is a yoga instructor, artist, and wellness guide in Brighton. Laurel is passionate about helping others connect with their own intuition to live with focus and purpose. You can find out more at fourcornerswellnessguide.com.
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We practice for these times, for times like this in the world. We go to our mat, under our shawl, sit on our cushion, to find peace amid the rubble of grief, rage, and fear. We attend to our practice precisely so that when the tides of emotion are strong, so is our practice. We return again and again to our breath, to our body and mind in the moment, returning to ourselves. Our ancestors developed these practices because they knew—they knew that we could be swept off our feet by our emotions, our ability to choose wisely blinded by the redness of rage or the waters of our grief