The Heart Chakra

       

   To open your fourth chakra, and reach to the fourth plane of consciousness, here is a simple exercise you can practise whenever you have a quiet moment. But you'll gain the most benefit from doing it first thing in the morning, before you start your day.

              Heart-opening exercise

   Sit down comfortably, with your back really straight, in a cross-legged position if possible, with a cushion slipped under your buttocks if need be, so that your folded legs are lower than your pelvis. Place your hands flat on your thighs, or bring them together in your lap, palms up, against your abdomen. Concentrate for a few moments on your breathing, to make it deeper and more regular, calm and relaxed. Don't force it. Make sure you breathe "abdominally" - you should feel your abdomen swelling slightly when you breathe in. Then your thoughts will gradually subside.

   Now concentrate, without straining or tensing up, on your brow (Ajna chakra) and try to feel or visualise that you are sitting in the sun. Imagine that the sun is in front of you, and that you can feel its heat and rays striking you and penetrating your chest. Now sense a "heat-spot" developing inside your chest. Feel that your chest is "opening up" as though the air was going in and out of you through your chest. Feel this heat spreading throughout your body and radiating all around you. Then you will be filled with a sense of peace and plenitude, a well-being which may even verge on ecstasy. Just allow yourself to experience this wonderful state, and nourish yourself from it.

   If you keep repeating this exercise, you will gradually find a new core building inside you, a warm and stable inner core which gives you a new sense of being more alive, more profound. This will give you the strength and courage to be more genuine, more natural.

   Here is another technique for opening the Heart Chakra. This one is based even more on the confidence you have in yourself, others and the Universe. Remember that your feeling of confidence echoes your relationship with the Universe and with the Yang pole, and therefore your relationship with your father and men in general.

          Second exercise: Let yourself fall!

   This exercise is done with a partner. You stand with your eyes closed, and your partner stands behind you. Take a moment to completely relax by breathing calmly.

   Your partner counts up to 3, and on 3, you let yourself fall backwards, with complete confidence. Your partner catches you at the last moment. Repeat the exercise several times, until you feel perfectly at ease doing it, then reverse the roles.

   Spend some time thinking about what you felt after this experience. What did it teach you about confidence?