The Heart Chakra

The next chakra is the heart chakra, located in the center of the chest.  It sits between the first three lower body chakras relating to the external world, and the three higher chakras, relating to intuition and spirituality.  The heart chakra is where the physical and spiritual meet, acting as a bridge between thought, emotion and spirituality.

The heart chakra is the place of unconditional love and emotional power, including compassion, empathy, forgiveness and acceptance.  This includes love for oneself and others, and everything related to transformation, integration and change.  It controls the love energy in the body, influencing your capacity to love and let go, as well as compassion, affection, the ability to remain tranquil and have inner peace regardless of the external.  This chakra is also about emotional openness, self-love, self-reflection, self-acceptance, and the depth of your emotional connectedness in your relationships.  

The heart chakra can become blocked due to stress, illness, or emotional discord.   If you have experienced physical or emotional abuse, been raised in an environment that was emotionally cold and lacked affection and love, or had experiences that held a strong emotional charge or made you feel emotionally drained or hurt (perhaps you experienced grief or loss), then your heart chakra could probably use healing.Heart Chakra

When in balance, one can experience unconditional love and connection with all beings, and have healthy, deep, meaningful relationships. It allows one to be who one is instead of trying to fit the expectations of others, and enables one to deal with charged emotions and also with change.

When out of balance we may experience feelings of isolation and separation.  We may find it hard to accept love from others,  display a lack of empathy, feel an inability to trust ourselves or others, and  experience grief, hate, fear, jealousy or anger.

This chakra is connected to the element of air, and our sense of touch.  The color green represents this chakra.  Our thoughts, feelings and emotional state are an indicator of the well-being of this chakra.

Healing the heart chakra allows us to live a live a full, balanced life, experience the joy of love for all beings, have inner peace, and feel connected.

A few ways to create an energy shift in the heart chakra:

Breathing :

  • As the heart chakra is associated with air, breath work can be beneficial.   Try alternate nostril breathing. 
  • Sit comfortably, placing your left hand in on your knee.  Place the second and third fingers of your right hand on your forehead above the nose.  Close your eyes. 
  • Use your right thumb to close the right nostril while inhaling through the left nostril. 
  • Then using your ring finger, close the left nostril, exhaling through the right.
  • Inhale through the right nostril, and exhale through the left.   
  • Then inhale through the left nostril, repeating the process again. 
  • Do this for a few minutes until you feel calmer.  This breathing technique creates space within.

Meditation: 

  • Sit comfortably in a quiet space.  Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to ground and center yourself. 
  • Now picture a swirling ball of green light, in the center of your chest.  See this light flowing; growing bigger and brighter, and expanding to fill your being.   This light represents love energy. 
  • Feel this love energy flowing through your body expanding past your physical being, surrounding you in a glowing sphere of love. 
  • Now feel this love filling your being – feel it dissolving those emotions that no longer serve you;  feel yourself being filled with  unconditional Divine love and acceptance, allowing yourself to release any emotions that hold weight.  
  • Hold onto this feeling. Take a few deep breathes to cement this feeling of pure love into your being, and then open your eyes.  From this space of unconditional love, move forward in your day.

Letter of forgiveness: 

  • Sit in a quiet, comfortable spot.  Take a few deep breaths.  Set the intention to heal your heart chakra and open yourself to forgiveness.  
  • Now take a pen and paper and write a letter to someone that you feel left an emotional wound in you.  Let out everything you are feeling about this person or experience. 
  • As you write, visualize the words leaving your body, your being, and transferring to paper instead.  
  • Use the affirmation:  “Forgiveness is my divine right.  I forgive you for what you have done.  I forgive myself for holding onto it.” 
  • Now take the paper and burn it or tear it up into shreds, with the intention that what you were holding onto is no longer part of you.

Affirmations:

  • I unconditionally love and accept myself. 
  • I open my heart to forgiveness of self and others. 
  • I give and receive unconditional love.
  • I feel compassion towards myself and all beings.
  • I give myself permission to let go.
  • I am worthy of love and forgiveness.
  • I create supportive, healthy and loving relationships.
  • I see love in all things and all beings around me. I stand in the space of love in all interactions.

What thoughts do you think to fill your being with love?

Many Blessing
Santa

RUNNING THROUGH DARKNESS
MEMOIR OF A SPIRITUAL WARRIOR

BY SANTA MOLINA-MARSHALL ‧ RELEASE DATE: MAY 3, 2022

This debut memoir chronicles a woman’s spiritual exploration and growth as she overcame a disturbing childhood and helped others heal.

Brought to America from the Dominican Republic as a youngster, Molina-Marshall should have led a happy life. Her father was a diligent worker, and his large family wanted for nothing. But the author recounts that her dad had a drinking problem and was a serial philanderer. Molina-Marshall’s long-suffering mother left him for a woman. Then it was all downhill for the bright, 12-year-old girl, who was shuttled between foster care and relatives. According to the author, she was sexually abused by the husband of one of her siblings. This resulted in Molina-Marshall becoming alienated and moody. By 15, she simply tried to survive. In her favor were grit and a restless intelligence. She quit school, rented a room, and found a factory job. Time went by, and for a while she was happily married. Yet when her husband left her, her life truly began. She turned to religion for answers but decided that blaming God for her woes was a cop-out. 

In this absorbing and moving memoir, Molina-Marshall’s vivid storytelling is fearless. She frankly discusses the truths she discovered and the indignities she suffered. These admissions are disclosed with a touch of resignation and plenty of bite. However painful, everything she experienced was a lesson, and she bravely realized that she was part of the problem: “The fear of being hurt, rejected, or abused often led to me feeling lonely and misunderstood. No one knew the agonizing pain I felt being trapped in my thoughts and anger. I was becoming my biggest threat.” 

The author skillfully recounts her intricate spiritual journey. To deal with her psychic wounds, she searched for an inspirational system. Her open-mindedness led her to the interfaith concept—cherry-picking from various religions and spiritual movements, yoga, and Indigenous beliefs as a way of finding peace. Along with her female partner, she built a therapy practice, making use of every spiritual element that aided her and others. The road was bumpy, and she found that women of color in same-sex relationships were not welcomed everywhere. To do good works—and finally live on her own terms—she effectively overcame bigotry.

An engrossing, cathartic account of empathy and success through determination and confidence.

Pub Date: May 3, 2022   |    ISBN: 978-0-578-38315-6  |   Page Count: 264    | Publisher: From Trauma to Triumph  |   Review Posted Online: June 13, 2022