Physical Vitality and Psychic Clarity for the Anahata Chakra ‘THE ANATOMY OF THE CHAKRAS with Tias Little “The Lotus Heart” | Video 36 The first chakra is the middlemost chakra and its central position suggests its role in harmonizing all the other chakras. Along with the lung, the heart is the seat of emotion in the body. Ina healthy personality, there is a capacity to feel across an entire spectrum of emotions. Lying at the very heart of this chakra is a capacity for self-acceptance and a greater capacity to feel not only joy and love but to embrace change, complexity and loss. Ways to Promote Health in Anahata Chakra Physical * Meditation on heart-beat + Mediating on both joy and pain + Bhakti Yoga + Metta practice (cultivating loving kindness) * Reflecting on all things as impermanent and thus fragile + Chanting * Practicing pranayama with focus on inhalation + Regular inversion practice * Balancing prana vayu + Have a sense of humor Psychological + Experiencing unconditional love + Having a capacity to feel tendemess + Self-acceptance + Being nonjudgmental + Being devoted to one's teacher, family, community ete + Experiencing empathy + Having altruistic motivation + Embodying the brahma viharas (The Four Immeasurables) * Ability to be tender and vulnerable (with oneself and others) + Can set good boundaries in relationship to other people + Working for social causesPhysical Vitality and Psychic Clarity for the Anahata Chakra ‘THE ANATOMY OF THE CHAKRAS with Tias Little “The Lotus Heart” | Video 36 Causes of Deterioration in Anahata Chakra Physical + Exaggerated chest size, overly muscular upper body (military chest) + Constricted chest that is narrowed and pulled downward * Excess tightness in upper back and kyphotic curvature, tension at back of heart space, between shoulder blades * Tight shoulders + Prone to high blood pressure + Has trouble doing inversions + Collapsed shoulders, sunken chest + Shallow breather + Weak Immunity (thymus is endocrine gland related to heart chakra) + Weak arms and has difficulty in any arm balance poses Psychological * Inability to connect to loving-kindness + Attitudes of rejection, especially self-hatred + Excess grief + Experience of great shame + Getting caught in cycles of blame + Getting trapped in depression and melancholy + Experience of great loss as in the loss of a loved one + Emotional and psychological trauma, experienced when young + Emotionally unavailable + Nihilistic attitude + Jealousy + Narcissism + Possessive of lover, partner or children * Identifying Love is conditional + Hard-hearted, cold and unfeeling + Lack of generosity, lack of empathy + Prone to getting stuck in grief, has unacknowledged griet + Lack of self-acceptancePhysical Vitality and Psychic Clarity for the Anahata Chakra ‘THE ANATOMY OF THE CHAKRAS with Tias Little “The Lotus Heart” | Video 36 + Experience of shame + Codependency + Clingy personality * Prone to self isolation, fear of intimacy + Has poor boundaries around relationships + Prone to depression + Prone to getting stuck in care-taking role + Prone to betrayal Transformation through the Granthi: Untying the Knot The second major granthi in the chakra system is in the heart chakra, called the Vishnu granthi. The "knot" of the heart symbolizes emotional blockage. When the heart chakra is entangled, itis difficult for people to have empathy and compassion for others. Loving kindness (meita), tolerance, forgiveness and patience are hallmarks of the heart chakra In order to move through the anahata chakra, one must be able to feel genuine self-acceptance. This self-acceptance is an antidote for cycles of self-condemnation and self-loathing that are so common today. Additionally, moving through the heart chakra Suggests a capacity to trust, that is, to trust one's life and the world around them. This includes trust in a divine or inexpressible underlying presence, similar to the animus or anima in Jungian psychology. “When all the knots (granthis) that fetter the heart are cut, then a mortal becomes infinite. A hundred and one are the nadis of the heart, one of them leads up through the crown of the head. Going upward through it, one reaches the infinite, the others lead to various directions.” ~Katha Upanisad, Chapter Il Verses 15-16