5 Heart Opening Practices – Removing Blocks From Your Anahata Chakra

Whether you are coupled up or flying solo, may you be surrounded by love today and everyday. Happy Anahata (Heart Chakra) Opening Day!

It’s Valentines Day! If you’re not feeling all the love and would prefer to pass on a day that is specifically dedicated to celebrating it, it is very likely that your heart chakra is out of balance. The heart chakra, also know as the Anahata chakra, is one of the seven energy channels that run from the tip of our spine to the top of our head. When our energy is blocked, it works in reverse of each individual chakras’ intent. For example, if your energy channels are open for your heart you will feel compassion, generosity, and loving feelings toward yourself and others. If the heart chakra is blocked you could be bitter, jealous or overly dependent.

The heart chakra is found in the center of the chest. It is the middle chakra. It separates our lower chakras, which ground us from our upper chakras that move us into a higher level of spiritual thought. If you feel you might be blocked, here are some suggestions for opening your heart.

Heart Opening Yoga Poses

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Yoga offers many poses that will open your heart. Cat-Cows flows are heart openers and can be done in a chair, on all fours, or even standing. Back bends while at their most difficult are not always accessible to everyone, a modified pose where your heart is open and reaching toward the sky will do the trick.

Green is a Heart Color

Believe it or not, your heart chakra radiates a brilliant green. Have you ever noticed how calming the color green can be? This is because it aligns with your heart. Pull out that warm green sweater and get cozy in it. It is heart healing. If green is not a wardrobe choice for you, go outside and get into nature. Ditch the phone and the shoes and stick your feet in the green grass and look up at the green trees. And if you live in the concrete jungle where that is not an option, close your eyes and imagine a glowing green light emanating from the center of your chest.

YAM Your Heart Open

You may be familiar with the universal mantra “OM”. Well, each chakra has it’s own sound and the mantra of the heart is “YAM”. As a mantra, you can repeat this slowly over and over, to yourself or out loud.

Practice Gratitude

It is very hard to not have an open heart when you practice gratitude. Whenever you grumble about something, build a habit of countering it by reminding yourself of one thing that makes you grateful. Maybe it is your good health or your family or the accident you dodge this morning on the way to work by being alert. There are tons of ways to practice gratitude. If you need more ideas, check out my blog “Gratitude – The Happiness Recipe”

“Let that Shit Go”

One of my favorite quotes is something to the effect that if you hold on to something negative that someone has done to you, the only one suffering is you. It may seem protective to close down and build that wall, all the while holding on to experiences that happened to you long ago. If you believe this is a good strategy, you might ask yourself why. You are blocking the good energy from flowing and hold yourself back from experiences that bring a whole new joy. Letting go of old heart break, opens you up to make room for new loving experience. You didn’t make it this far in my post if that is not what you are seeking.

Now that you have a whole box full of tools to get those heart juices flowing, go get to it. Time flies and the next Happy Anahata/Heart Chakra Opening Day will be just around the corner.

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