Photo by Uyển Trang Nguyễn (ivy)
Heart
space, heart chakra — you
can call it what you want, and believe what you want about spirituality — but the openness of feeling that you
get when you open this space is undeniable. It’s
a “space
of loving in the divine sense”, according to ReikiHelp.com.
I’m
no expert on this. But I’ve always been an emotional person
and I’ve always known that I feel things really deeply. Every
emotion, to its fullest extent, scraping out every last drop in the present of
that feeling. I didn’t know how to get out of the lows. I’d
ruminate and relish in them for hours at a time, and I didn’t
know how to externalise the moments where sheer, fulsome happiness would bubble
up either. But then I started meditating and I began to get a sense of myself.
Here’s
how I learned to externalise all that, and beam everything outward and
inward through my heart space.
1.
Meditate.
Do
five minutes a day to begin. Don’t get impatient with yourself.
Practising focus takes practice in itself. Drop any expectations of how you should
feel. Meditation is a way of caring for yourself, so lose every ounce of
frustration once you realise it’s there. You’ll
eventually master the mechanics of breath, of focusing your mind on a single
strand of thought, of dropping a question into the abyss of consciousness and
not feeling any need to answer it immediately. As you (with patience) master
the basics, you’ll learn to direct your meditations toward certain feelings
you want to feel and externalise: appreciation, love, calm… meditation
slows the chaos and lets you, carefully, feel and observe, and it’s
only then that you can, layer by layer, amount the chaos and strength of
feeling back to somewhere where the feeling peaks. I cried with happiness for
the first time a couple of weeks ago, while meditating.
2.
Sing.
Music
is perfect for opening yourself to a feeling, and opening the heart space,
because you don’t have to elucidate and explain whatever it is you’re
feeling: someone’s already done that part for you! There’s
music for everything. Sad songs, happy songs, peaceful songs… and singing is an amazing way of
letting go, physically, and making a feeling real. When you’re
singing, you’re heard, and for the length of the song, you’re
putting something temporary but real out into the world. It’s
the perfect way to let loose and let go of pent-up feelings. Like screaming
into a pillow, belting out a song can really cathartically open something up.
3.
Acknowledge that you should be kinder to yourself.
There’s
something sad but hopeful about admitting this. It’s
natural to be harsh on yourself, but this simple admission will make you more
conscious of how you treat yourself and how you look after yourself when you
aren’t
feeling your best.
4.
Dogs!
It’s
silly, and simple, but dogs (unless you hate dogs…)
are an instant mood boost. With regard to how they can help you open your heart
chakra, this takes more thought. Dogs are characteristically loving creatures.
They thrive off human interaction, off attention and love, and so really, love
and connection is what constitutes most of a dog’s
life. The beauty is in its simplicity. They wake up, connect with you, and you
go out, live your day-to-day existence, but to them, the day starts and ends
with you. There’s nothing in between. Dogs give no better example of how to
radiate love, compassion, sadness, joy. Emotion is their whole life, marked by
mechanical intervals of food and sleep. You can learn from that.
In
Sanskrit, heart chakra translates to anahata — “unhurt, unstruck, and unbeaten”.
 I’m no expert on chakras or spirituality. Nor am I an expert, by any me...){kind=link}
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