Chakra Class: Heart Chakra...

Tonight was the Heart Chakra. What a class...I am still awestruck by it. I never know how she is going to represent each Chakra but somehow she manages to blow my mind each week. So here goes...

Heart Chakra
Sanskrit Name: Anahata
Location: Heart, Upper Chest
Color: Green 
Element: Air

The heart chakra,rests in the center of the chakra system, at the core of our spirit. The Heart Chakra connects the bottom three chakras, representing balance and grounding, with the upper three chakras representing love, intuition and spirituality. Anahata, in Sanskrit means “unhurt.” Its name implies that deep beneath our personal stories of brokenness and the pain in our heart, wholeness, boundless love, and a wellspring of compassion reside. 

Tonight the music was more calming and seemed almost romantic. I knew tonight was going to be all about the heart and how much love we allow into our lives. She asked us to remember when our heart had been broken, when we felt defeated. She then asked us to remember the opposite of a broken heart and when we felt utter joy and when our heart was bursting.  She reminded us that the hearts search for bliss is never ending.  Its not something you just find, its something you enjoy while you travel on your life journey. The more times your heart is broken, the better the opportunity to mend, absorb the lessons and allow yourself to fill your heart back up again with the bliss we constantly seek.

The class was to be all back bends though. Hearing this immediately shut my heart down and I felt nothing but fear. My back injury, the one that left MY heart feeling defeated, happened in a back bend. I avoid them as they carry physical limitations as well as emotional ones. I usually don't even attempt them out of fear. I always leave class disappointed in myself but I never want to return to where I was in the past two years. The feeling of constant anger and helplessness is something I never want again. If you have ever had an injury for longer than six months, you can fully understand. 

I didn't think I could do the class and I was actually, for the very first time, thinking of leaving.  Realizing that I would actually leave a yoga class before it even began made me realize I needed to do this. I would trust my body and go back to my roots and listen to my limitations and be OK with them.

The reason she chose back bends to represent the Heart Chakra, is because a proper back bend is about opening you heart high to the sky and not actually compressing your spine. By truly opening your heart, you bring a lightness into your body with allows more room and growth through your spine. I tried to remember this all class.

As class progressed, I felt nothing but frustration. I was afraid to try anything. We were also doing another pose I deeply struggle with due to everyday computer work and that is clasping our hands behind our backs and extending the arms overhead. This pose opens up all those tight, shortened muscles in the chest area. The class was just this  pose and back bends. I was hating it.

I was losing the point of the class and was closing myself off to any possibilities of an open heart.  I realized my heart was not only closed, it was also scarred.  I needed this class and what it represented to allow me to break the emotions and start learning from my experience of pain.  I stopped thinking about what I thought I could and couldn't do and just allowed myself to do it. I allowed myself to bend backwards and express my heart to the sky. I took care to use the right muscles to stay safe in the pose but mainly I trusted my body and my heart and I let go. I let go of my fear and really finally opened my heart and to new possibilities.

I didn't rationalize any of these thoughts or what was really represented until Savasana. I went into to final resting pose still frustrated but once I settled in and fully released, I began to cry. I mistook the tears as sweat at first but then I realized what was happening. I have heard this happening to people but it has never happened to me before. It was a little overwhelming, as I didn't even see it coming.  I realized what I finally allowed myself to do. Yes, I did back bends for an entire class, but mainly I let go. I let go of fear and emotional memories of what it was like to be in constant pain. I let go of compression and allowed length and space instead. I let go of a feeling of being defeated in a part of my life to make room for new possibilities and experiences. I feel amazing.

What I like about these Chakra classes, is not the practice itself but what each one represents.  Each class represents something different to each person in it. I go into each class with an open mind and try to find deeper meaning each time. There always seems to be a different meaning and every time I learn something new. Sometimes they surprise me as I don't know what I am going find when I am in there.

This is why I love yoga.
 Namaste xo.