Heart Chakra, or ‘Anahata‘, is the central point of your entire chakra system and a place where you can finally realize the oneness of all things.
It functions as your spiritual center, which helps you to grow a loving connection to yourself and others by cultivating compassion, empathy, joy of being alive, and truth.
When your heart chakra is in its healthiest state, it allows you to have a sense of oneness with everything and transcend duality. The energy of the heart chakra is similar to the qualities of air: it is expansive, formless, soft, and gentle.
When your heart chakra is blocked, you will experience an overwhelming feeling of emptiness, apathy, stress, anxiety, lack of genuine connection with others, and lack of self-trust.
One of the main reasons for heart chakra blockage is the fear of living an authentic life. Restoring the balance in that center calls for an honest assessment of your current lifestyle.
Healing and unblocking your heart chakra will allow you to ultimately transcend the ego and connect to the unifying force of love.
Love is the essence of your soul, and your heart center has its own unique intelligence.
Let’s have look at my favorite ways to cultivate a loving heart and open your heart chakra:
DOWNLOAD & PRINT IT FOR YOURSELF
1. Heart Chakra Breathing
Breath is one of the best ways of working with your heart chakra. Hindus understand the importance of breath (sometimes referred to as ‘prana’) and its purifying energy.
Pranayama techniques in yoga have been designed to practice breath control, increase the oxygen flow in the body, and expand consciousness. Breath in traditional Chinese culture (known as “Qi”, which translates to “air” or “life force”) is the foundation of medicine and martial arts, such as Qigong.
Air is the element that represents the qualities of heart chakra: expansiveness, freedom, and a constant flow. Breath is your energetic life force and a primary nutrient of the body.
Here are few amazing breathing exercises for a healthy heart chakra:
1a. Diaphragmatic Breathing
It is an easy and powerful breathing technique that involves contracting your diaphragm muscle, which separates the abdomen from the chest.
The best way to practice diaphragmatic breathing is to place one of your hands over your chest and the other hand on your belly.
When you take an inhale, your belly is supposed to expand and poke out with your lower hand going outward.
There should be a minimal movement of your upper hand, and the air during inhalation should be going downward. As you exhale, the air is going upward, and your belly contracts.
Practice this technique daily for 5-10 minutes to get into the habit of breathing from the belly, not the chest.
1b. Gamma Breathing
This is my personal favorite breathing technique, which works wonders on releasing stress, anxiety, increasing your focus, creativity, happiness, and connecting with the power of love.
Gamma breathing shifts your brain into the gamma state. Gamma brainwaves are of the highest frequency in our brain (40-200Hz), and they are much more active in experienced meditators.
The good news is that you can easily shift your brain into this state by using this breathing technique!
Gamma breath consists of 4 cycles of breathing, where you alternate between breathing through your mouth and nose.
| BREATHE IN (3 sec inhale) | BREATHE OUT (3 sec exhale) | |
| 1. | Mouth | Mouth |
| 2. | Mouth | Nose |
| 3. | Nose | Nose |
| 4. | Nose | Mouth |
Repeat this sequence at least 3 times and let me know in the comments below the article what do you think of it.
You can learn more about the power of gamma waves on the Mindvalley blog. (https://blog.mindvalley.com/gamma-brain-waves/).
1c. Alternate Nostril Breathing
Alternate nostril breathing, also known as nadi shodana, is a purifying breathing technique used to release trapped energy channels in your body and calm the mind.
Nadi shodana will fill your heart center with oxygen and allow you to experience a gentle, cooling sensation throughout your body.
Here’s how to do alternate nostril breathing:
- Sit down with your back straight.
- Take your index finger and middle finger of your right hand and fold it towards your palm.
- Use the right thumb to close the right nostril and slowly inhale through the left nostril.
- Pause after the inhale and seal the left nostril with your ring finger.
- Slowly exhale through the right nostril.
- Keep your ring finger in the same place and inhale through the right side.
- Seal the right nostril with a thumb and exhale through the left.
- Keep your thumb in the same place and inhale through the left nostril.
If you find it confusing, keep in mind that each time you inhale, you’re sealing and alternating to the next nostril.
1d. Breath of Fire
Breath of fire, also known as Kapalabhati Pranayama, is a powerful detoxifying breathing technique, which involves a…
Click here to read this complete article.
