Thanks for joining me.
My name is Anika.
This meditation is all about creating a quiet space for you to listen to your own heart.
Your heart has more to tell you than you probably realize and there's a lot of power in learning how to listen to your heart.
This is something that I learned many many years ago through some of my spiritual practices.
It's interesting because I feel like there's so much about love and those romantic notions and I think the thing that's also taught me the most about my own heart has been my own spiritual practice.
I remember I was doing a meditation it was called a healing sounds meditation and in this meditation you focus on these different aspects of your body and I was working with the heart sound which will be one of the sounds that we work with today and I'll never forget that I felt this searing pain in my heart.
It really shocked me and if I'm honest it scared me a bit and instead of running away from it I leaned into it.
I think that's one of the powers of having some of these spiritual internal practices is learning how to have the courage to listen to parts of yourself that perhaps you weren't really expecting and if we're honest maybe even excited to hear and what I realized is that I have been carrying a lot of pain a lot of hurt from my past and I knew in that moment that I needed to really take some time to heal and to listen to my own heart.
I'm so thankful that I had the courage to do that because it allowed me to go through a process of releasing and letting go so that I could move with a more open and light and loving heart and so today I wanted to create that space for you.
A space to get quiet so that you can hear the messages of your heart.
As we move through this practice today I want your focus to be on awareness not judgment for whatever comes up whether it's the most beautiful experience ever or if it's one that perhaps you weren't expecting and has a little more pain and challenge in it.
These are all just messages things to make you more aware but not to judge.
I want you to take a moment to connect with your breath just breathing through the abdomen feeling the stomach expanding out with the breath as you exhale just slowly releasing the breath as the navel sinks in towards the spine and just settling in relaxing the shoulders relaxing the jaw the brow while still lengthening out through the crown of the head and I just want you to draw the shoulders up and back and down as you really kind of lift that chest creating that space for the heart to really move forward and as you begin to connect with that breath and following it inward I want you to start to connect to the heart center.
We're going to work with the color green so in the yogic system the heart chakra is associated with this emerald green and so as you're connecting with the heart just want you to imagine this emerald green color perhaps it starts off as this really kind of small energy ball but as you connect with the breath and connect with the heart I want you to imagine that emerald green color just beginning to expand this warm glowing energized color coming from that heart space my heart supports my whole body my whole body supports my heart there is much love here for me and I have much love to give I am open to the messages of my heart and there's a lot that we can learn from the heart about love love is multifaceted just as we are there's those aspects of self-love learning how to love yourself when you're at your best and even at your worst in all of those moments there is much love here for me I love myself for the fullness of who and what I am in all of my beauty as well as even all of my ugliness there is much love here for me and I have much love to give I appreciate the power of my heart to love others to have love for things that are not like me for people perhaps for animals that are beyond and outside of me the power of the heart is to be able to take us beyond ourselves to have love care compassion for others I have much love to give I appreciate that about my heart breathing through the abdomen slowly letting it go connecting with that emerald green color as it expands further and grows deeper and warmer and richer there's also that element of universal and divine love that love is always available for us at the end of the day all there is is love but it certainly gets covered up by so much I'm a part of the universe the universe is a part of me the universe is love I am an expression of that love no matter how heavy or broken at times my heart may be there's always love that is available in here if only I can just open myself to receive today I open my heart just a little more I receive just a bit more love love for self love from others love from the universe there is much love here for me and I have much love to give I appreciate my heart I have the courage to listen to my own heart I have the space and the strength to receive the messages that my heart has for me we're gonna work with the heart sound which is an ah sound as you inhale in you're gonna exhale as you connect with the energy of the heart inhaling softly exhaling that sound so I want you to continue to work with that heart sound that ha sound and as you work with that sound just connecting with that heart chakra I am open to the messages my heart has for me my heart supports my whole body my whole body supports my heart my heart is open resilient and courageous I honor the messages of my heart connecting with the breath connecting with the heart and just taking a few moments just to listen no judgment just awareness breathing through the abdomen connecting with that emerald green color in the heart just internally saying with that ha sound the heart sound and then ever so softly just smiling to the heart center feeling that warm glowing energy of the heart what messages does your heart have for you today and just slowly bringing your awareness back breathing through the abdomen softly feeling the navel drawing into the spine I invite you to perhaps as you come out of this meditation this moment to connect to your heart to journal what came up for you were there certain feelings or colors was there a message there's power and listening to your own heart and thank you for joining me on this heart centered meditation
