The seven main chakras
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
-Rumi
As I continue with the introduction to the chakra system, we make our way to the 4th chakra. Its Sanskrit name is Anahata and is often referred to as the heart chakra. It is the center of the chakra system and blends the earthly lower chakras with the spiritual upper chakras. The ability to love freely, without fear or self-consciousness is generated here. Negative feelings and emotions are neutralized. The heart chakra facilitates healing through forgiveness, acceptance of suffering, or accepting your current circumstances. Through this chakra, we connect with our souls and the souls of others. It is our affinity with self and others and oneness can be remembered and felt here.
In Balance: Exudes a feeling of wholeness. You experience tolerance and acceptance of life and relationships. There is a balance of the material world and the spiritual. Ideally this chakra brings us compassion, forgiveness, healing, and the ability to love.
Out of Balance: The love that is given is not sincere or is done for a reward. One may experience an inability to accept or feel the love given by others. A blockage can create self-loathing, using guilt to control others or being controlled through guilt.
Exercise for restoring balance.
Practice forgiveness
When you hold a grievance toward someone or a situation, it is only poisoning you. It affects your mental health as well as your physical health. There is a rapidly growing body of research that identifies this.
In his book, “Five Steps to Forgiveness”, clinical psychologist Everett Worthington, Jr. offers a five-step process he calls REACH. First, recall the hurt. Then empathize and try to understand the act from the perpetrator’s point of view. Be altruistic by recalling a time in your life when you were forgiven. Commit to putting your forgiveness into words. You can do this either in a letter to the person you’re forgiving or in your journal. Finally, try to hold on to the forgiveness. Don’t dwell on your anger, hurt, and desire for vengeance.
Anahata
4th Chakra
Loving Beyond the Self (located in center of chest)
Associated body parts: Heart, upper back, rib cage, chest, skin, lower lungs, circulatory system, abdominal cavity.
Symbol: 12-Petaled lotus.
Color: Green
Balancing color: Red
Mantra and tone: Yam, F
Essential oils: Geranium, Bergamot, Rose, Clary Sage.
Gemstone: Emerald, green jade, rose quartz, kunzite.
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