Anahata🍃Mended Heart

June 24, 2024

🌳🌷 Hello Beautiful Friends!!

✳️ I think Anahata, our Heart Chakra may be my most connected to chakra! We live in a broken world full of pain & suffering, but also full of people who have overcome and found light in that dark tunnel, carried their heaviness to the tunnel’s exit, to shed that light into the world, our world needs that compassion, joy, and peace! During this busy summer, remember to carve out time for YOU! This world is moving super fast, take the time to slow down, before your body & mind FORCE you to slow down either with injury, illness or exhaustion. Your mental health should always take priority, if it hasn’t, make this summer THE time to change that! Every breath is a new opportunity to begin again!

❇️ This week we’re diving into the fourth chakra, our Anahata: the Heart chakra! This swirling energy center lies in the heart, is green in color, and its element is air! It is here where we find love of oneself, compassion & empathy for others, resolve inner conflict, let go of negativity we have been harboring in the heart that may cause tightness in the chest. In our heart chakra, we find our nurturing nature, and kindness toward all living things! We find forgiveness & inner peace. Anahata is the bridge between our lower & upper chakras, the bridge between heaven & earth. It is the link between body & spirit, earth & divinity. The heart chakra expands more when connected with pranayama or breathwork!

Connected Anahata Crystals: Aventurine, rose quartz, moss agate, jade, malachite, rhodonite, emerald.

Connected Anahata essential oils: Bergamot, eucalyptus, rose, jasmine, lemon, pine, rosemary, geranium, sage.

When Anahata is *In Balance*:

We forgive others, practice self love, love for all living things, are kind & affectionate, nurturing, have inner peace.

When *Out of Balance*:

We are co-dependent, hold onto grief, anger, guilt. Look for revenge, cold & distant, selfish, can't forgive or trust.

🍃 Throughout this summer, I’ll be leading a heated vinyasa on Mondays, and a gentle version on Fridays! I truly love teaching the gentle classes, it encourages me to intentionally slow down, both my mind, the pace of class, and really focus on the mental health & somatic lessons, breathwork, and intentional movements. So, on Friday, I'll be teaching the gentle version of each chakra I taught on Monday!

🐢 We opened in a Half Lotus🪷, grounding the sit bones, connecting to the earth, drawing that grounding energy from the root of the spine, our Muladhara, into the pelvis & hips, up each vertebrae of the spine to the shoulders, as they relax down from the ears, crown reaching toward the heavens. We formed our Padma Mudra, our lotus flower, opening the fingers out while keeping the pinkies and thumbs together. The Lotus flower is rooted deep in the soil of the pond, and grows up through the muddy, dark waters, all the way to the surface of the water, reaching for the sunlight, where its blooms open and blossom, soaking in the nourishing light! We placed our mudra at our heart chakra to connect to our Anahata energy center. We moved into our Pranayama practice, 3-part breath, filling up to the belly, chest, and crown, with our mudra, deep inhales through the nose, long slow exhales through the mouth, releasing all our past events, and future to do lists, becoming truly present! We took time just for ourselves, present in this space, in this moment. We slowed down the chatter of the mind!

🍏 We released our mudra, brought the the palms behind the head, opening through the heart, the chest, elbows out to the sides, inhaling through the nose, gaze to the sky, exhaled forward, rounding the back, forearms meet, cradling the head, repeating 3 more times. We inhaled the fingertips to the sky, melted into twists to the right & left, into seated cat cows with arms crossed, hands reaching behind the glutes for a backbend, opening the chest, exhaling forward into a fold, tenting the fingers, a little sway side to side. We inhaled floating up into the hands, unraveled the legs, widening the knees, sinking the hips back into a child’s pose. We walked the hands to the right, hips drawing back and to the left, hands through through center, and to the left, hips drawing back and to the right, through center, melting the heart.

🥝 We walked the hands toward the knees, bringing the knees close together into our Hero’s pose, sitting onto the heels for our self-healing reiki practice! We often forget our hands are tools for healing, not just for others but for ourselves as well!! We softened the body, released jaw clenching, smoothed through the forehead, released chest tightening. We focused on our mental health, sending healing energy to the soul, releasing everything we no longer need. We sent healing energy to the mind, quieting the chatter. The mind is often a time traveler, becoming stuck in the past or traveling too far forward into the future. We connected to the body, which is always present, releasing the past pain & frustrations, and future worries. We sent gratitude to the heart & lungs, set our intention, inhaled fingers to the sky, melting into side bends, and interlacing the fingers, palms up to the sky, inhaling while opening the chest, exhaling palms forward, curling the back, repeating 2 more times. We released the hands behind the glutes into a backbend, and exhaled forward into our puppy, melting the heart.

🥑We moved in yummy ways, with a yummy warm up flow of Cat-Cow, adding in organic movements, hips swaying side to side, child’s pose waves, listening to what the body needs! We thread the needle, extending one leg out, opening the chest, floating up into a supported side plank, melting down into a fallen tree, side bending, lifting the hips into a rainbow arch, and floating up into our Gate with side bends to each side. We honored the left side. Super delish!! We opened our heart, chest & lungs, lengthened, extended, linking breath + movement, opened our hips, releasing tension & tightness to release negative energy & nourish the body.

🍐Our first flow spiced up our energy, kept us warm, and rooted to the earth as we flowed from our downward dog, into plank, creating waves as slowly as possible, into pranam, low cobra, downward dog, into our tadasana, rooting the feet into the earth, feeling that grounding energy all the way up to the crown. We used our strap to circle through the shoulders, a huge heart opener, overhead and behind the back, overhead, and in front of the body, flowed through side bends, with our strap, swan diving forward into a fold. We released our strap, stepped back into a plank, chaturanga, upward dog, downward dog + knee to tricep taps, and knee pushups with extended toes, coming up and stepping the foot between the hands rising up into Warrior 1. We inhaled, opened the chest, cactused the arms, exhaling the hands out and forward, 3 times, as if were pulling water toward us! We fluidly moved into Warrior 2 toward the back of our mats. We lengthened into Sky archer,, cradling the head, binding the fingers behind the back, opening the heart! We unraveled the arms out to a T, and pivoted to the back of our mats into Warrior 1, cactus the arms binding behind the back, humbling in 3 times, then melting into our Triangle from the ground up. We floated forward into our Half Moon. Both were big heart openers!

🌲We walked the hands to the long side of our mats, into a WideLeg Forward Fold, rolled up into a 5 point star, into our Goddess, dancing side to side, then extended the arms out, inhaling, opening the chest, exhaling inward for a hug, 2 more times, into heel lifts. We extended back up into our star, folded forward, letting the head and shoulders hang heavy. We twisted to the right opening through the chest, and to the left. We walked the hands to the top of our mat for our Twisted Lunge and then into a side plank! We flowed through vinyasa to honor the left side. We encircled the healing space on our mats!

🪴Somatic experiencing gave us tools to regulate our nervous system, to agitate those emotions, to help them release, and to serve as a reset button. We began at the crown, massaging the fingertips all over the crown, into the temples, the jaw, the perfect release for jaw clenchers like myself. We pulled gently downward on the ear lobes, outward at the ear edges, and upward at the tops of the ears! We tapped into the collarbone, and into the sternum! We inhaled through the nose as we tapped into the sternum, and stacked the hands at the heart as we exhaled while audibly humming into our bee breath🐝! If you hold tension here in the chest, this is a nice release! We squeezed into the shoulders, deltoids, biceps, triceps, and forearms, and swayed noticing the effects: we can feel cool, heat, or tingling sensations! We removed anything stuck, anything harmful & toxic still attached to the body! We stimulated the vagus nerve, the super highway of information located at the base of the brain and runs throughout the entire body, touching every organ system! We sent messages to the brain that the body is not under threat, it does not have to exist in a continuous active state (fight mode). We helped our body adapt to triggers. We have the ability to help our nervous system shift fluidly between states when each are needed, the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems! Both are useful and 100% needed, but we do not want to become stuck in one state for too long. These practices are so useful off the mat as we encounter stress or triggers in our daily lives!

🌳Our final flow began in Tadasana, grounding into one foot as the other lifted at the knee into our Pilar, opening the knee out, stepping out behind the opposite leg, squaring the hips forward, up into our open gate, closing the knee through center, opening into our Dancing Shiva, bringing the knee back through center to reach back for the foot, coming into our Dancer pose! We unraveled the back foot in front of the hips into our Half Lotus adding our Padma mudra, balancing, lifting our lotus to the surface of the water to meet the light and bloom, bringing it back to the heart, unraveling the foot to the sky as the hands plant for a standing split! We stepped the lifted foot to the back, swept the opposite foot through center into our 3-limb dog. We bent the knee, opened the hip, circling through the hip, or flipping our dog! We extended the leg, hovered the knee at the chest, and thread the foot through into our Fallen Star, and unraveled back into our downward dog! We melted the knees into our Dancing Camel! Another big heart opener, moving fluidly side to side! We honored the left side of this final flow, and after this side’s downward dog, we walked the hands back into our yogi squat with heart opener arm extensions! We lifted the hips, walked the hands forward into a downward dog.

🌵Our cool down moved us from downward dog, hopping the feet forward into our staff pose, and folding forward. We walked the hands up the legs, brought a knee with us to the chest, wrapped the opposite arm around the knee for a hug, and opening the chest into a twist! We dropped the knee to the earth, lifted the hips arching into a rainbow, melting the hips back down, and moving into a reverse table, opening the heart! We honored the left side, and after the final reverse table, the hips melted down, soles of the feet together into our butterfly, hooked the toes and opened onto our Straddle V shape, balancing on the root, and then gracefully rolling back into our happy baby!

🌿We lengthened long, hugged the knees into the chest, extended the feet to the sky into our T-pose, crossed one foot over the other, bending at the knees, hugged the thighs together and reached for shins gently pulling the knees toward the chest. We extended one leg out straight, other bent, opening the hips, folding back in, planted the bottom foot, for a supine twist! We honored the opposite side. We made time to come into any final poses we needed before our final rest such as legs up the wall, bridge, plow or wheel!

🌴We connected our now open & balanced Anahata heart chakra to the words “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu” translated to “May all beings everywhere be free from suffering.” We made it to our PEAK POSE: Savasana! Together, we completed a full body cleanse! We found meditative peace, a calming of the mind, insight into ourselves, we experienced growth fearlessness, release, and freedom. Yoga helps us shed what we no longer need, so we may see our most purest selves! Connect to divinity! 🙏🏻To slow down means to heal! That is why savasana is the peak pose, the most important pose, the goal. To find peace. In the stillness! We surrender. We discover ourselves again without the layers, the armor, the walls. They all come down, revealing our divine self.🙏🏻