Anahata translates from sanskrit as ‘unstuck’ , or unhurt and unbroken.
It is the fourth chakra and is thought of as a bridge between the upper and lower chakras. Moving from practicing on ourselves to sharing kindness and compassion with the world. The colour associated with this chakra is green. It is located in the middle of the chest.
It is my favourite chakra to work with, as it allows us to look inwards into our hearts and in doing that, create the space we need to transform, to accept things the way they are and to start healing. With practice, it allows us to forgive and make peace with our past, focusing more on the present moment.
Balanced…
When this chakra is balanced, we feel unconditional love, a lack of ego, a passion and a joy for life. We live our truth, feel no jealousy or envy and feel compassion for ourselves and for others.
Out of balance…
On the converse, when it is out of balance, we feel co-dependent, unable to cope on our own. People might be unintentionally manipulative and suffer trust issues. It can cause us to have difficulty opening up, relating to others and lead us to be withdrawn, defensive and scared or fearful of intimacy.
Physical inbalances can manifest as circulatory problems and lung infections.
How to balance this chakra…
We need to go beyond our ego and preconceptions, of our preoccupied minds and have an acceptance and make peace with what is.
To achieve this, on an every day level, is to engage with people, activities and places that we find inspiring, comforting and beautiful. Look after ourselves and others more, be open to giving more (look up random acts of kindnesss!) and be of service to others.
A key element is to practice meditation and breathwork exercises more also.
We all carry hurt and it is wonderful to meditate on this to forgive others in our life that have caused pain and suffering. It is very therapeutic for us and the people around us.
It helps us look at things from a different angle, of compassion.
It is useful to practice breathwork (pranayama) also to ground and calm the body and practice backbends in yoga, to open up our heart chakra (but overworking this can lead to purging of some unwanted emotions, so be wary!)
Some useful meditations and heart chakra music is linked below.
Open Heart Chakra ➤ Love Frequency 528hz Music
Heart Chakra healing meditation
Experiences with this Chakra…
As people deepen their practice, they start to realise the importance of meditation and working on letting go of the ego. When I do this, i feel so much more peaceful, compassionate and feel such love for those around me, my friends and my family. From a place of not wanting, or needing anything from them, just an unconditional love.
I see the beauty in the world and just want to be of service and a good person.
It’s not always like this, it’s normal to still get pangs of anxiety and worry and be affected by others actions, but it is something that we have to continually work on. When students put these techniques into practice, students report that personal suffering decreases day by day, especially working on forgiveness and looking at different viewpoints from other people.
There is a Buddhist quote –
‘If you truely loved yourself, you could never hurt another’
Which I connect and resonate with, as when I have hurt others, it comes from a place of hurt within myself… so I always try to see things from anothers point of view. Normally when someone hurts me, its because of their own internal pain and struggle, so it makes it easier to forgive.
A daily Yoga, Meditation and Breathwork practice allows us to work with this Chakra to improve our physical and mental wellbeing.
What is your experience with this?
Peace & Love