SEASONAL SELF-CARE BLOG
Fourth chakra – Anahata
Posted on November 17th, 2015
Our fourth chakra, Anahata chakra, means the “unstruck” sound. This chakra is the seat of anahata nada, the transcendent cosmic sound heard only in deep states of meditation. Perceived only through pure consciousness, the sound cannot be heard by the ears or the mind. Anahata chakra is the seat of compassion, divine love, connectedness with all beings. The heart chakra is the center of awakened unconditional love. The personal love and sexual relationship that is prevalent in the second chakra, is elevated to a devotional spiritual love of all beings. Located in the center of the chest, Anahata chakra, is the air element, governing the lungs, heart, thymus gland, circulatory system, arms, and hands.
The fourth chakra is green with 12 petals on which are inscribed the Sanskrit letters, Ka, kha, ga, gha, na, ca, cha, ja, jha, na, ta, tha. In the center of the lotus is Yam, the bija mantra or seed syllable for Anahata chakra. Chanting Yam as well as the sanskrit letters is very healing and opening for the related organs as well as emotional and mental aspects of Anahata.
The beautiful image of the Fourth Chakra is from “The Invisible Seven Psychic Lotuses” by YogaShakti Mission.
AIR ELEMENT
Air is freedom, infinite, expansive, vast, immeasurable. It is everywhere, yet unseen. We can only “see” air in the relationship to the objects it affects like the wind blowing the trees. Air, the element of our fourth chakra, is the most important element, for without it we die. Located in the center of the chest, Anahata chakra governs the lungs and the heart, joining the inner being and outer world through breath and love. In harmony, Anahata chakra is in balance between giving and receiving, what we bring in and what we release in our bodies and lives. The breath supports and directs the flow of Prana, our life force, in our body. Pranayama practices are very effective to awaken Anahata and increase our vitality.
I love this simple breathing exercise to awaken the heart. I call it….
Opening the Wings of the Heart
- Stand comfortably. Breathe into your heart center
- Raise your arms directly in front of you so that your arms are parallel to the floor
- Externally rotate your arms so that your palms face the ceiling
- Inhale, straighten your legs and open your arms out the the sides of the room
- Exhale, bend your knees and draw your arms together
- As you breathe in and out, you can say inside to yourself “I open myself to give and receive love fully”
- You can also do the exercise visualizing that you are standing in front of a vast ocean.
- As you inhale, breathe in the expansiveness of the of the ocean to awaken the infinite compassion in the heart.
- As you exhale and draw your arms towards each other, imagine someone you love standing in front of you, and offer them a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
Repeat many times
PARTNER SHALABHASANA/FLYING DOWNWARD DOG
Awaken joy and heart connection
Yoga offers many beautiful heart opening poses to awaken the heart chakra. If you feel lonely, depressed, fear of intimacy, are withdrawn or act or callously toward others, your heart chakra may be deficient. In excess, you may give too much of yourself away to others in co-dependent relationships. Imbalance in the heart chakra often manifests physically through rounded tense shoulders, sunken chest, and low immunity. If you’re experiencing any of these issues, practice more shoulder openers and backbends to help open the heart chakra and infuse your being with prana, vital life force. Partner poses are a joyous way to nourish the heart chakra and offer balance between receiving and giving, mutual support and open-hearted listening.
APAN VAYU MUDRA
nourish the heart chakra
The vulnerable, tender, and delicate nature of our heart makes it often difficult to stay open through our life journey. Our sweet loving heart often gets wounded in relationships and experiences. So we build up protective barriers and defensive postures which create a kind of numbing of the heart to dull the pain and grief of our emotional wounds. This freezing of the heart, not only keeps out the pain, but also the joy and beauty in our life. When our heart is shut down, we are de-sensitized, lack compassion for others, and have difficulty engaging in relationship. It’s a terribly lonely place. To help bring balance in our heart chakra and awaken vibrancy, love, and tenderness, work with practices to awaken self-love, acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion.
To coax the delicate heart open again, practice Apan Vayu Mudra.
• Place the index finger at the base of the thumb.
• Join the middle and ring fingers and the thumb together.
• Do for 5-15 minutes 3 times a day.
• Try it with this lovely flower visualization & affirmation from Gertrud Hirsch’s book “Mudras”.
“Imagine a red rosebud in your heart. Whenever you exhale, a petal opens, until the entire flower is completely open. The petals now form a rosette, and the rosette gets a bit larger with every breath until the flower is oversized and rests upon your chest. You can feel it’s weight. Just as your chest rhythmically rises and falls while you breathe, the flower moves as well. Perhaps you can even imagine the fragrance of the rose.
Affirmation: I have the time and leisure to see beauty and enjoy silence.”
joyous heart!
Leigh
Third Chakra – Manipura
Posted on November 17th, 2015
The third chakra, “Manipura” means “jewel city” derived from the Sanskrit, “mani” – jewel and “pura” – city. The lustrous gem center, yellow and radiant is located according to some texts in the solar plexus and others in the navel. Manipura, as the fire element, governs our digestive organs: stomach, spleen, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, and small intestines. Related to our ego identity, it gives us our sense of personal power in the world. A person with a balanced manipura chakra has good a good sense of self, is confident, intelligent, productive, focused and responsible as well as playful. They have vibrant energy and are able to take action and manifest their visions in the world with ease. Blockage in the third chakra displays as digestive disorders, low self-esteem, lack of self-discipline, poor follow through on tasks, indecisiveness, anger, hostility or a sense of victimization.
The third chakra has 10 petals on which are inscribed the Sanskrit letters, Dam, Dham, Nam, Tam, Tham, Dam, Dham, Nam, Pam, Pham. In the center of the lotus is Ram, the bija mantra or seed syllable for Manipura chakra. Chanting Ram as well as the sanskrit letters is very healing and opening for the related organs as well as emotional and mental aspects of Manipura.
The beautiful image of the Third Chakra is from “The Invisible Seven Psychic Lotuses” by YogaShakti Mission.
FIRE ELEMENT
Fire is the element of “Manipura”, our third chakra. It is the power of transformation, luminosity, digestion, radiance, intelligence, vitality, and activity. Associated with vision, fire as light is the energy that fuels both outer sight and inner vision of comprehension and recognition. The fire element is Integral to our yoga practice in which the inner heat, activated through asana practice, burns impurities and awakens insight. The earliest term for yoga like activities is Tapas which is derived from the Sanskrit root, “Tap”, meaning “to burn” or “to glow”.
Our digestive fire is called Agni in Ayurveda. Located in the solar plexus, Agni governs metabolism as digestive enzymes and other metabolic processes that break down, digest, absorb, and assimilate our food. Strong agni is also important for nourishment of our tissues and immune system. This photo, taken at a retreat that I led in Guatemala, was for a very powerful Shamanic protection ceremony.
REVOLVED SPLIT-LEGGED HEADSTAND
Shine up your gem center with Parivrttaikapada Sirsasana!
Twists are very beneficial poses for the Third Chakra. Located in the solar plexus/navel area, Manipura chakra governs all of our digestive organs: stomach, spleen, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, small intestines, and large intestines as well as the kidneys. The spiraling action of twists, wrings out physical, emotional, and mental stagnation and sluggishness in our organs. As we unravel the twists, fresh oxygenated and nutrient rich blood rushes in and the stagnant blood is pushed out, offering a deep cleansing and detoxification process. Inverted twists, like Parivrttaikapada Sirsasana, provide an even more effective cleansing of accumulated metabolic waste and toxins from our system.
RUDRA MUDRA
If you’re feeling insecure, unconfident, indecisive, weak & listlessness, and have digestive difficulties, you may have blockage in your third chakra. Try Practicing Rudra Mudra to awaken your solar plexus chakra, revitalize your prana, and strengthen your center.
• Touch the thumb, index and ring fingers together and extend the other fingers easefully.
• Practice 5 minutes, a few times a day.
• Affirmation: “I rest at my center and draw strength and joy from my center.”
joyous heart!
Leigh
Second Chakra-Svadhisthana
Posted on November 17th, 2015
The Sanskrit name for the second chakra “Svadhisthana” translates as “Sva” as “one’s own” and adishthana “the place of residence”, meaning “the original home of the self.” It houses one’s unconscious mind, mental imprints “samskaras”, past lives and experiences, karma, and ancestral memory. Located between the genitals and the sacral nerve plexus, it is often referred to as the sacral chakra. Governing our reproductive and urinary organs, the second chakra guides our sexuality, emotions, intimacy, pleasure, desire, and personal relationships. Taste is the sense organ and the element is water.
The orange lotus of the second chakra has six petals. As with all of the chakras, on each of the petals is one of the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. Chanting the Sanskrit sound resonates through the petal of the chakra and the related areas in the body, offering therapeutic healing through the sound vibration. This is the same for all 50 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and the total of 50 petals of all of the chakras. The particular sanskrit letters for the second chakra are ba, bha, ma, ya, ra and la. They are written on the 6 petals of the orange lotus. The bija mantra for the sacral chakra is Vam, written in the center of the lotus.
The beautiful image of the Second Chakra is from “The Invisible Seven Psychic Lotuses” by YogaShakti Mission.
WATER ELEMENT
Water is the element of the second chakra, “Svadhisthana”. Governing our reproductive and urinary organs, the second chakra guides our sexuality, emotions, intimacy, pleasure, desire, and personal relationships. Deeply nourishing, water invites fluidity, cleansing, flow, lubrication, ease and support both in our bodies and lives.
The healing powers of water draws us all to oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, swimming holes, hot springs, hot tubs, bath tubs, and steam rooms to be restored and rejuvenated. I teach all of my yoga retreats on the water immersed in nature to help restore our stressed out body/minds and nourish our spirits. These pictures were taken at my Thailand Retreat at Jungle Yoga, our gorgeous retreat center, floating on the water in the midst of Koh Sok National Park. It is incredibly healing to be immersed in the elements so completely!
As fabulous as it is to submerse yourself in water in nature, it is also important to nourish the water element within our own bodies.
- In Ayurveda, Ojas, our primal vitality, is the subtle energy of water which nourishes and sustains us. Similar to primordial yin, Ojas offers us endurance and resilience through cellular immunity.
- According to Chinese Medicine, the kidneys, often referred to as the mother organ, are the connected to the element of water, governing all that flows within us. They rule the reproductive, developmental and urinary systems, the health of the lower back, our bones, and hearing. Since our bodies are said to be approximately 70% water, we are bathed in an internal ocean of fluids and the health of our kidneys is essential.
- Unfortunately our stressful lifestyles, overwork, lack of sleep, overindulgence in caffeine, sweets, sex, prescription and recreational drugs, and environmental toxins, among other things overheats our system, weakens our kidney chi and we feel “burnt out”. In this state, the cooling capacity of the kidneys is tapped out and unable to cool our overheated state.
SUPTA BADDHA KONASANA
To restore fluidity, easeful flow in our beings, we can do specific yoga and self-care practices to help nourish the health of our kidneys, the water element within us, and our second chakra, “Sacral chakra.” Winter is the Season to tend to the kidneys and water element.
One of the most beneficial poses for the Second Chakra is Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Bound Angle Pose). Opening the inner leg lines which correspond to the Kidney meridian-the water element in our being, this pose nurtures the cooling, healing energy in our body/mind. Surrendering into the complete support of Supta Baddha Konasana offers you a delicious invitation to completely soften and nourish your whole being. It helps relieve stress and anxiety, calms the nerves, and quiets the incessant chatter in the mind. Also known as Goddess pose, it is extremely beneficial for women, helping ease pre-menstrual, menstrual, as well as menopause discomfort and agitation.
BHUDI MUDRA
Try Bhudi Mudra (fluid mudra) to help nourish the water element, balance your second chakra, and restore fluidity and easeful emotional flow in your being. Bhudi Mudra can help revitalize and maintain fluid balance in our bodies which are 50-70% water. This simple sacred gesture, helps when you have dry and burning eyes, or dryness in the mouth, kidney and bladder issues. It is said to improve the sense of taste, which is the sense organ for the second chakra.
joyous heart!
Leigh