Chakra Series: Heart Chakra

The heart chakra, known as Anahata in Sanskrit, is the fourth primary chakra in the human body. It is located at the center of the chest, near the heart, and is associated with love, compassion, and emotional balance. This chakra governs our ability to give and receive love, both to ourselves and others, fostering harmonious relationships. When the heart chakra is balanced, we experience deep connections, empathy, and inner peace.

However, when it is blocked or imbalanced, it can lead to feelings of loneliness, jealousy, and emotional instability.

Transcript

Today,

I'm just returning from a couple weeks on the road.

I went down to Texas to see the eclipse.

It was incredible.

So I'm channeling eclipse energy at you tonight.

Before I left,

I'm doing the chakra series here.

So each week we've been working through the chakras.

It's been gone so long,

I actually forget where we're at,

But I think we're at the heart.

So you picked a good day.

I'm actually on the throat chakra,

So you picked a good day.

Okay,

We're gonna stay with the heart.

We're gonna double-dose the heart.

So for those of you that don't know about the chakras or what they are,

This is not like a New Age thing.

This is actually ancient Indian spiritual understandings,

Also spiritual medicine,

That the chakras are energy centers in the body that line up both with glands within the body,

But they also line up with emotional centers.

So the example that I have given in this class a few times,

It's,

You know,

When you're nervous,

Where do we feel that?

We feel it in the belly.

Oh,

You're saying in the heart.

Well,

I guess we feel it in a lot of places.

But,

You know,

We say that you have butterflies in the stomach,

Right?

It's like this thing.

You feel nauseous,

You're sick.

Because the stomach,

This is where the solar plexus are,

Which is your seat of confidence,

Right?

If you see someone who's confident,

They're upright,

Their solar plexus is open.

If you see somebody who is not confident,

Is unsure,

Right?

They'll cross their arms,

They'll hunch to protect that part of their body.

If you wish to speak,

But you're not speaking your truth,

You're not saying what you need to say,

You'll feel tension in your throat,

Right?

You'll have a knot in your throat.

That's because your throat chakra,

The place of expression,

Is not open,

It's not working.

And today we're going to talk about the heart,

Which we may or may not have talked about before.

It's interesting when we talk about love.

If I were to say to even a child,

You know,

Where in the body,

Where do we feel love?

Everyone's like,

The heart.

Why do we say that?

The heart is this blood pumping thing here.

What does that have to,

What is this valve moving blood through the body?

What does that have to do with love?

Why do we say love is here?

It's because that's where the emotional center,

The chakra for love is,

Heart chakra.

When we pray,

We bring our hands together over that spot,

Over the heart.

When mothers are breastfeeding their babies and they're looking at them in the eyes,

It's connected right here to the heart that we feel these feelings of love and compassion,

Kindness,

And connection from this area.

And it's also the place where we can feel disconnection.

We can feel sadness.

We can feel grief or aloneness.

The feelings of the heart are often the feelings that I think people seem to resonate with the most.

People really want love.

Love's just like a big thing.

Everyone wants to feel love.

What's really fascinating is that the more we start connecting to ourselves,

To our own energy bodies,

The more we can uncover experiences that show that we can generate feelings on our own,

That we don't necessarily need an object of love.

The objects of love are just the reminder.

They're just the thing to arise.

The love that's already within us.

Love is ours.

I was a monk,

By the way.

I was a monk for eight years.

I did a three-month silent retreat,

And every night I'd sit in my room and I'd pray.

I had a compass,

And I figured out what's north and all the directions.

I looked at a map,

And I thought about all the people that I knew that were to the north of where I was.

I wrote all the names as much as I could down,

And then I thought of all the people to the east of where I was,

Even in other countries that way.

Then every night,

I would pray,

And I would look at that list of all the people to the north,

And I would just send them love,

And I would send them whatever they needed.

Just,

May all the benefit from my meditations and prayers today go to these people.

Then I sent it that way,

And then I sent it that way.

Then every night,

I would just feel so full of love,

And I felt so connected to everyone.

Then I just spread it over the whole world.

May everybody,

The dolphins,

And the ants,

And the bats,

And just everything experience this love.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings feel connected.

It was this amazing experience of an overflow of love,

Even though I was just sitting alone in my room silently for three months.

I'd say I had some of the more connective experiences my whole life,

Because that is a feeling that we can generate within ourselves.

We often have this kind of if-then mentality around a lot of things in life.

When I get the thing,

Then I feel successful,

Then I'll be happy,

Then I can relax.

Then I get the partner,

I get the job,

I get the gig,

Whatever the thing is.

As a monk,

We learned it backwards.

What if we could actually train contentment?

What if we could train ourselves in already feeling the way we want to feel,

Not needing to be in this endless pursuit of something beyond us?

What if we could feel how much we are loved?

How lovable we are?

How worthy we are of love?

Without needing a partner,

Without needing anyone to tell us.

What if we could even have somebody standing in front of us,

Screaming in our face,

And we could still hold that vibration,

Still hold that knowing that,

Sorry you're mad,

But I am really,

Really loved.

To feel that in a way that's unshakable.

So for tonight's journey,

We're going to go into the heart,

Going to connect to some of that love.

And allow yourself to feel good.

This is self-care practice,

So take care of yourself.

I invite you to lean back and relax.

These seats fold forward to fold back if you want to do like a full bed sort of thing.

If you haven't unplugged your phone,

Make sure it's an airplane mode.

And I firstly invite you just to relax,

To get comfortable.

So you connect with that first point of contact,

With your eyes closed,

Just gently entering into the body.

Consciousness,

The body awareness.

The really powerful body awareness,

The body awareness of what's going on in your life.

With your eyes closed,

Just gently entering into the body.

Consciousness,

The body awareness.

The really basic elemental feeling of the body,

The skin,

The clothing on you,

The floor beneath you.

And you might even notice as you're breathing,

Your body is expanding and contracting kind of like a balloon.

Let's begin by taking a few deep breaths in through the nose,

Filling up down into the belly,

And then out through the mouth.

There's really nothing to do,

There's nowhere to go.

Everything you experience,

Everything that comes into your awareness,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Sounds,

Sensations,

All equally valid.

As you begin to relax,

Feeling comfortable,

Cozy.

What would it feel like?

How would it feel?

Can you connect to the feeling of being really,

Really loved?

Imagining that some loving,

Divine being tucked you in to your bed.

It could be a mother,

A father,

A grandparent,

A brother,

A sister,

A brother-in-law,

It could be a mother,

A father,

A grandparent,

Someone or something you've never even met.

As you connect to this coziness,

This comfort,

And as you relax deeper,

I invite you to connect to the space around you.

The mind is not trapped within the body.

Feeling the space around you,

The space of the room.

The space beyond the room.

As you breathe,

You connect to the space beyond this room,

Up into the sky above us.

You can even connect all the way out to the stars.

Some say the stars are where we actually come from.

As you breathe,

Relax,

Open.

Connecting to a time that you really felt loved.

Time from the past,

A time from the present,

Or even a time in the future.

Wherever you feel that your energy wants to go.

As we breathe and soften.

As the borders,

Barriers,

And boundaries of the body break down.

As the mind merges with the space,

We allow ourselves to feel cared for,

Feel safe.

I feel like everything's going to be okay,

That we are not alone.

That we are so connected to love and to care,

From the past,

The present,

The future.

From this dimension,

From other dimensions.

From those here in our lives,

From those who have already passed on.

And for those who are still yet to arrive.

As we relax and breathe,

We imagine a shimmering golden light coming down.

From the edges of the room,

From the walls of the room,

From the ceilings,

From the walls of the room.

As we relax and breathe,

We imagine a shimmering golden light coming down.

From the edges of time and space,

From the stars.

The frequency,

The vibration of the collected well wishes of all of the people.

In our field of consciousness,

In the three times.

And the shimmering light descends down to earth through the roof of this building,

Into this room.

Gently,

It begins permeating into your very body.

Allowing this shimmering golden light to penetrate into your heart.

Creating connections to any parts of you that are astray.

Rejected,

Alone,

Forgotten.

To any parts of you that have been labeled as bad,

Shameful,

Guilty,

Wrong.

To any parts of you that have not been accepted or that you do not accept.

Just allowing,

Imagining the shimmering golden light connecting into your heart.

Bridging all the parts of you that are yearning to rejoin the whole.

The shimmering golden light of love,

Of care.

The collected energy of all of the beings in the past,

Present,

And future.

Those who you know,

Those who you'll never even meet.

The great religious figures of the past,

Jesus,

Buddha.

The figures of all traditions who prayed for the happiness of all beings.

Their prayers are still available to be received right now through time and space.

By you,

Into your heart,

Through the shimmering golden light.

To all of those in the future who will be praying to their ancestors.

And as they pray to their ancestors,

They are talking about us here and now.

Their prayers are available,

Receiving their thanks,

Their gratitude.

To all of those in our life right now,

In ways big and small,

From family or friends,

To even those we work with,

Pass on the street,

Frequent at the coffee shops.

Receiving their appreciation,

Their love,

Their gratitude that you just happen to be here.

On the earth with them at this exact moment.

That your presence makes their day a little bit better,

A little bit more bearable.

That your presence infuses their lives with more meaning.

With more certainty and confidence.

With more joy,

Care,

And love.

Allowing the heart to fill with this shimmering golden light.

Healing,

Connecting,

Pacifying,

Bringing peace.

Sourcing with energy.

Allowing that light,

That frequency of love to travel throughout the body,

The nervous system.

To any place that needs it,

Anywhere that feels sick or depleted or blocked.

Wounded,

Sad,

Disconnected.

Allowing the entire body to fill with,

To resonate with the shimmering golden light.

As it all so gently expands into the auric fields,

The space around the body.

As if we were in a protective golden egg of light.

Giving us connection,

Giving us healing.

Still receiving this stream of golden light.

From the edge of space and time down to like the umbilical cord from the universe.

Filling you with this infinite,

Endless,

Timeless,

Divine,

Loving,

Healing vibration.

Allowing everything in your perception to be released,

To dissolve,

To collapse into this golden light.

Everything in your perception to be released,

To dissolve,

To collapse into this golden light.

Everyone,

Everything around you,

Your thoughts,

Your feelings,

Your sensations.

This light is inseparable from anything you could ever experience.

Breathe.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

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Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Softening into light.

Taking a deep and full breath into your heart.

Connecting to the feeling of gratitude.

Appreciation for the peaceful stillness and balance.

It's being brought into your nervous system,

Into your energy body,

Into your emotions,

Into your mental world.

Giving thanks for the subtle energy around us,

Within us.

Feeling gratitude for your own breath.

Taking a few breaths in gratitude for the opportunity to be alive.

Breathing deeply,

Fully.

Breathing with your entire body.

Gently we begin returning to the full feeling of the body here.

We can begin wiggling our fingers and our toes.

We can give ourselves some good morning stretches.

Allowing the clicks,

Cracks,

And pops as our bones,

Ligaments,

And discs reorganize.

Shifting from their old structures into the new energy that we have just connected with.

As we stretch our arms,

Our legs.

Hug your knees,

Give yourself some twists.

Whenever you're ready,

Come back completely.

Whenever you're ready,

You can open your eyes.