Thursday, April 14, 2011

ANAHATA or Heart Chakra

Located in the centre of the chest, this is called Anahata or the heart chakra. It represents unconditional love, inner peace, intuition, curing, beauty, the arts and sensitivity. Linked to the thymus, it corresponds to the element AIR and the sense of smell.

It denotes our capacity to ‘be moved and touched’. This energy centre is a source that allows us to identify with ourselves, to feel, to be flexible and to vibrate. Thanks to it, we can perceive the beauty of nature, the harmony of music and the arts. This is where images, words and sensory impressions are transformed into feelings.

The function of the Heart Chakra is union through love: each desire for intimate contact, union, harmony is expressed through this chakra, even if the desire takes the form of sorrow, fear of separation or the disappearance of love. The path of the hearts passes through tender and understanding acceptance of the self, which is fundamental and inevitable in the acceptance of live and others.

Every negation engenders separation and refusal, while the positive acceptance of love generates a vibration within which negative expression and sentiment cannot be sustained. In fact, an intense feeling of sadness, anger or despair can be neutralised the moment you focus your attention on it with love and without restriction or prejudice.

When we are sick or in pain, we can significantly speed our recovery by sending thoughts of love towards the affected part of the body. So we actually have at our disposal, in the form of the heart chakra, vast potential for transformation and healing, for ourselves and for others.

In the initiatory tradition, the heart chakra is called the ‘Gateway to the Soul’, because it is not only the seat of our deepest, most vivid feelings of love, but also an energy centre enabling contact with the universal part of our soul, that divine spark that burns in every one of us.

If this chakra is open and functioning harmoniously:

The heart’s energy has the power to reconcile, and even cure people around us. We radiate natural warmth, openness and a spontaneous enthusiasm that inspires those around us, spreading confidence and joy, as well as compassion and kindness.

Our feelings are devoid of any conflict or untroubled by any doubt or insecurity. We love for the sake of loving, feel joy at the joy of giving, without expecting anything in return from the other person. Everything we do we do with all our heart. By drawing on the wisdom of our heart, we see life’s events and the world in general in a different light: we no longer see life as something separate from the self, but rather as forming an integral part of our own existence. Our feelings of vitality are so great within us that we realise what ‘life’ means in its purest and most primitive form: the expression of love and divine beatitude.

If it is dysfunctional:

We still like to give and to be there for people and help them whenever we can, but we do it in the absence of any link to the source of our love. Without being aware or admitting to ourselves that we are expecting recognition in return for this ‘love’, we are disappointed if our efforts are not sufficiently rewarded.

Or perhaps we feel powerful enough to share this strength with others, but we are ourselves incapable of accepting love from others, of opening up sufficiently to receive it. Everything to do with tenderness and softness embarrasses us. Or we convince ourselves we don’t need the love of others.

When the heart chakra is not functioning normally, we are vulnerable and dependent on the love and affection of others. For example, if we are on the receiving end of rejection, we are deeply hurt or wounded (particularly if we have found the courage to open up to the other). We like to give love but out of fear of fresh rejection, we never find the right time to do it. And as soon as our heart is truly solicited, we tend to shrink back or withdraw, out of fear of future hurt.

Someone whose heart chakra is closed often displays coolness and indifference towards others, perhaps to the extent of becoming hard-hearted. To be capable of feeling something, they need strong external stimulus, to help them to overcome the rejection of their own feelings.

In summary, the heart chakra is unbalanced: if you have emotional problems, if you can’t find inner peace, if you’re shut off to your intuition, if you regularly repress your feelings, if in cases of conflict you can’t stay calm and get perspective, either in your head or your emotions.

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