Category: Yoga Teaching

What more appropriate chakra to explore on Valentine’s Week than the heart chakra?

We are all familiar with the sensations of the heart.  Almost everyone can relate when someone says that they feel ”light-hearted” or that they have a “heavy heart.”  In this way, the sensations of the heart chakra are some of the most accessible of the system.

At the heart, we reach the very center of the chakra system.  Perfectly balanced between the upper and lower chakras, anahata is the chakra guiding relationships, compassion, and emotional well-being.  It is in the heart that the intuition of the body and the wisdom of the spirit come into manifestation.

While the heart chakra usually is thought to be outer directed (compassion to others), it is also the place where we come into deeper and more harmonious relationship with ourselves.  Here we resolve the myriad of relationships within different (and frequently contradicting) aspects our own life. Only through the compassion and spaciousness of love can we fully accept and integrate the lost or shadowed parts of our history and personality.  When we are able to accept ourselves fully, then we can also begin to accept others fully, without being triggered by the remembrance of fragmented parts of ourselves.

As you practice heart-opening, notice if any judgments or restrictive sensations arise.  Practice nurturing a space of radical self-acceptance and expansion.  Utilize the surrender and freedom of the inhalation to physical space for compassion and integration.

Manipura Chakra is the seat of the ego and self-definition.  Its element is fire and it the seat of the ego.  Too much fire breeds anger, aggression, over-assertion; too little fire and we are not able to create boundaries, self-determine, or speak our minds.

A healthy third chakra is marked by empowerment.  When we are self-empowered, we do not need to dominate in order to fill the gap.  Self-empowerment leads to autonomy and personal responsibility, which are key in initiating conscious transformation.  When we honor the power within us, we can freely make decisions that honor our own personal truth.  Rather than internalizing the voices of our parents, peers, and culture, we give ourself the power to question, re-determine, and transform.

To access manipura chakra, open yourself to the fire of your own practice.  Through heat, we begin to safely shift and transform the physical body.  Through twists and navel focused asana like bakasana, we access the power of the core.  Connection to the stability of the core anchors us in our own body.  From the core, we discover the fantastic movement of radiation and contraction.  Energy moves from the center out, just as energy draws into the center.  This dynamic flow and pulsation is a reflection of the greater movements of our life: learning what to let in, learning what to let go. The constant ebb and flow keeps us alive, invigorated, open to new ideas, and anchored in what we choose to keep.

Explore the fire of your practice.  Become attuned to your relationship to your own personal power.  Can you relish responsibility without guilt or shame?  Can you risk transformation in order to connect to a deeper, more authentic  expression of your self?

As we move into the second chakra, life starts getting juicy.  Now that our primal survival needs have been addressed, we move into the realm of feelings, pleasure, creativity, and sexuality.

To paraphrase Anodea Judith, we are creating a container in the first chakra…and in the second chakra we fill this container with fluid and movement.  This movement of the second chakra takes us into the world of balance and grace.  When can we go too far?  When are we too stuck?

In our culture, there is frequently a dismissal of pleasure in favor of asceticism and work. In reclaiming the second chakra, we validate the needs of our pleasure body and emotional body.  When these centers are fed, they reward us with deep insight, intuition, and embodiment.  Part of being fully alive is to appreciate the magnificence of our own capacity for sensuality and pleasure.  Whether we are sipping a cup of tea or feeling the sunshine on our face (or in Vancouver, we are frequently feeling the rain), we are connecting to a primal deliciousness.  In my own experience, finding this connection allows me to honor my body’s needs: to rest when I’m tired, eat nourishing foods, and practice yoga from a place of joy rather than obligation.

In your yoga practice, see if you can connect to the yumminess of movement. Close your eyes and feel the practice from the inside out.  Rather than worrying about what the posture looks like, see if you can sense it from within.  Give yourself the freedom to relish your body.  Even in “still” poses, there is always a divine movement.  Our breath, our blood…we are in constant fluid motion.

Re-energizing the second chakra doesn’t take much and a little attention can reap enormous rewards.  Simply pause a few times a day to connect to your senses.  Feel the carpet under your toes, enjoy the taste of your food, stretch deliciously.   Tasting the little pleasures of your life will create spaciousness for presence and increase your capacity for juicy joy.

Can we be strong without being rigid?  Can we own our own space without being overbearing?  Is our relationship with our body healthy?

These are just a few of the issues encompassed by our first chakra. Located at the base of the spine, muladhara chakra is the “root” of the chakra system.  Like the foundation of a house, the health of this chakra affects all the others above it.    Anodea Judith describes the first chakra as reflecting our “right to be here,” which includes our “right to establish individuality” and our  right to take care of ourselves” (Eastern Body, Western Mind).

The element of the muladhara chakra is earth and the chakra resonates with the part of ourselves that solid and physical.  Judith estimates the development of this chakra during the first year of life, in which we first learn if we can trust the outer world to meet our essential needs.  This primal experience shapes our future interactions with our environment:  do we have enough to sustain us without hoarding?   On a more psychological level, can we allow ourselves to take up space  without becoming impermeable?

In our asana practice, can we be strong without becoming rigid?

As we practice, we can connect to the strength of the earth through any part of our body that is connected to the ground. As we press into the earth, the strength of the earth radiates back into our muscles and bones.  In standing poses, the feet and legs to draw up the strength of the earth into the core of our body.  In downdog, uttanasana, and chaturanga, our hands become like a second pair of feet, anchoring us into the solid girth of the planet.  Explore becoming more animal in your practice.  Get low to the earth and play with the weight and rebound of gravity.  And as you connect to the deep stability and safety of the ground, can you trust enough to let go of any hard edges?

When you feel spacey or ungrounded, explore some slow, steady standing poses like Warrior II or chair that work the hips and legs…or simply lay in savasana for a few minutes and give the floor your weight.  As you connect to earth, be reminded that you are of the earth.  Embrace your right to be here.

The increasing darkness of winter is an invitation to move more deeply into our shadow selves.  We can hunker down, get internal, and examine what pieces of ourselves no longer serve.  It is time to clear out space and let go of old habits and limiting patterns, so that when the sun begins to come back, we have room to create anew.

To clear out the old, we begin with detoxification.  Manipura chakra is the center of willpower and is associated with the fire element.  The solar plexus is also the seat of digestion and the digestive fires, which can burn out the restrictions of energy at the base.  As we inhale, we fan the flames down to these blockages.  The exhalation reinforces uddiyana bandha and mula bandha, which draw these blocks up into the fire to be purified.  Thus, the power of the breath and the fire of our bodies work together to unleash our energetic potential.

While physical movements such as sun salutations and standing poses certainly heat our bodies, it is the the effort to focus and our will to concentrate that fans the flames.   Moving into twists to tone the abdomen and balancing poses to strengthen the mind, we purify the physical and energetic body simultaneously  – burning away dis-ease and attachment.

In the darkness of winter, we create our own internal sun.