The Susie Zone - Opening Your Heart Chakra (June 2017)
Opening Your Heart Chakra
by Susie J. Briscoe
The heart chakra is actually one of the hardest chakras to open, for a number of reasons. The good news is that if you master opening this chakra, you will be able to harness powerful energies that can transform your body, mind and spirit.
The heart chakra is the lowest of the 4 higher chakras. In Hindu and Buddhist thought, amongst others, it is the seat of our soul. The 7 chakras are all connected by a white central channel that is located just in front of the spine. At the level of the heart chakra is the indestructible drop, that is, a small energy ball both red and white. Our root mind or soul resides in that drop.
Hinduism, Buddhism, and other spiritual schools of thought posit reincarnation, that is, that after death in this lifetime, the soul comes back for countless lifetimes. At the moment of death, the drop at the heart chakra will open and our root mind will go to another host in the same way that we would move from one house to the next. Great meditators and yogis meditate in order to open the heart chakra so they can choose their next life.
Even if we do not believe in reincarnation, heart chakra work is very useful because many of us have a closed-off heart chakra due to the pain of disappointed love and hurtful past relationships. Ironically, it is only through having an open heart that we can let true love into our lives, and offer compassion and unconditional love to every living being.
So, what are the best ways to open the heart chakra? The first is chakra meditation, focusing ,in particular, on the green energy of the chakra as natural and growing just as a plant grows. Using massage, with or without essential oils, can also open up this chakra. Touching it with your hand or a chakra stone will also work.
If praying, or sitting in easy pose for yoga, press your thumbs into the center of your chest to massage the chakra. Choose yoga poses that open up the chest and heart area such as Bridge, Camel, and Upward dog. Use essential oils like rose and peppermint to open the heart chakra. Then see what a difference all your chakra work can make towards you developing a more open and happier heart.
If you are feeling stuck in your life, try one or more of these methods for balancing your chakras and see what a difference it can make to your health.
Yoga for Chakra Work
Everyone knows how healthy yoga can be for the body, but it is also excellent for chakra work if you study Kundalini yoga. First introduced to the West in 1969 by a medical doctor, Yogi Bhajan, it blends the technical and spiritual aspects of yoga to achieve balance.
Kundalini yoga emphasizes mental awareness, breathing, poses, meditation, chanting and bhanda, or locks, to awaken the essential life force - Kundalini energy - which is coiled in the root chakra at the base of your spine and needs to be moved upwards for powerful transformation in your health and vitality.
The most important awareness is that of the breath. "Pranayama" is the word for breath work in Sanskrit. Different patterns and ways of breathing can awaken the chakras. In particular, this yoga uses breath of fire, which pumps the body at the navel chakra and moves the power up the body in the same way we would use a bellows to fan a spark into a flame.
Breath of fire is done through the nose, but imagine the panting of a happy dog and you will get an idea of the movement of the breath. Some of the poses will be done breath of fire or another particular breath pattern.
The poses are similar to hatha yoga, such as easy pose, child pose, rock pose, and corpse pose. But there are several poses that are particular to Kundalini yoga, including Camel Ride, spinal twists, and Sat kriya.
In Sat kriya, chanting is key to the pose. The chant is Sat Nam (pronounced Saht-nahm), “I am truth.” The goal is to work towards your higher self by moving the energy up to the crown chakra and beyond. This is accomplished through locks as part of the pose.
The 4 bhanda, or locks, in Kundalini yoga are used to move the energy up the crown chakra like steps in a staircase.
The 4 locks are:
1 - Root lock
2 - Solar Plexus lock
3 - Neck lock
4 - The Mahabhanda or Great lock, all three of the above locks at the same time.
Sat kriya emphasizes the root lock to move up the energy, but it is at its most powerful if you can do it with the Great lock.
Kundalini yoga is all about power and vitality. Check out your nearest Kundalini yoga studio and see what a difference yoga can make to your chakra work.
Don’t forget to share with me what you discovered during this month and let me know if I may share it within this newsletter next month.
