What I’m Teaching…The Heart Chakra

Anahata, or the heart chakra is the fourth chakra. Anahata means unstruck or unhurt. The heart chakra is located in and around the heart and includes the chest, lungs, diaphragm, shoulders and ribs. It governs how you relate to others and how you handle relationships and is responsible for your ability to forgive and accept.

The heart chakra is an air element and is often represented by the color green. (Although, sometimes it is represented by pink, especially in the case of crystals.) Essential oils that represent the heart chakra tend to have floral notes, such as rose, lavender, jasmine, and orange. When selecting a crystal to represent anahata, pink or green stones are often selected. We focused on green adventurine, which helps protect the heart; attracts wealth, abundance, and success; can help with personal growth; and helps to process unresolved emotional issues.

To help balance the heart chakra, be kind to others, forgive old grudges, and avoid being overly critical. We took time to look at forgiveness, including the difference in difficulty in forgiving someone we liked, someone we respected, someone that made us angry, and someone we did not like.

When planning our flow and overall class, I kept a few things in mind. It was important to select poses that opened our heart, such as camel pose, supported fish, and cat/cow. We also looked at poses that showed love for our bodies, such as giving ourselves a hug and massaging our feet in a seated butterfly pose. To prepare for this chakra, we started off with a bit of centering and Breath of Joy to invigorate our practice. This chakra gave us the opportunity to be playful and we left class with a sense of ease and forgiveness for ourselves and others.