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4.1 Anaharta—The Heart Chakra Introduction [Archive] - MysticWicks Online Pagan Community and Spiritual Sanctuary

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Shatril
February 3rd, 2006, 01:50 PM
What & Where?

The Sanskrit name of the 4th chakra is Anahata, which means, sound that is made without any two things striking; unstruck. It is located in the center of your chest. The colors are green and pink, and it is associated with the planet Venus.

The green in the symbol is the protective layer of the delicate pink inside. The outside corresponds to the pericardium of the heart, and protects the pure heart from negative, outside assault. The inner heart remains pure and unblemished, and is the seat of the Spirit that dwells in us all. This spirit may be called anything; I just call it the Word.

Main Function

The Heart Chakra is the central Chakra which is the conduit from the lower Chakras of the worldly concerns of security, procreation and personal power; to the higher concerns of expression, inner voice and spirituality. It also is the flow of the spirituality of the upper three chakras to the lower chakras of worldly concerns. Without opening and balancing the heart chakra it is difficult to balance the other Chakras, and the flow from the upper to lower and lower to upper chakras is diminished or blocked.

This Chakra is the center of Love. It is about self-acceptance, forgiveness and compassion. It is the acceptance of everyone, including ourselves, by recognizing that we are all doing the best that we can at this moment in time. Self-love, self-acceptance, forgiveness and compassion need to be applied to oneself as well as others in order to be able to love unconditionally. When we lack any of the conditions it can lead to low self-esteem, self-doubt and self-pity, and balancing this chakra will break this cycle. Balancing this chakra will improve all relationships in your life, whether of a romantic, familial or friendship nature.

An imbalance in the lower chakras will seriously affect ones ability to balance the heart chakra. Insecurity, emotional imbalance, lack of self-esteem or other dysfunction of the lower chakras will make it difficult, if not impossible, to balance the Heart Chakra. Without self-esteem, a sense of security, and emotional balance it is not possible to love unconditionally.

Does the phrase follow your heart mean anything to you? My heart goes out to them, I know in my heart of hearts that…, it breaks my heart to hear that…. All of these are expressions of the range of emotions that deal with the heart chakra. We tend to be rational beings and think with our heads. However, the heart is often a better means of determining our deeper needs. You tend to lose something when you only “use your head.”

Related Bodily Functions

The body associations are heart, chest, lungs, and circulation. Related health issues, high blood pressure, trouble breathing, heart disease and cancer.

Over Active

When you are full of doubt, cling, act needy and jealous with someone you profess to love, you can be sure that the heart chakra is overactive. Often with over active Chakras love is conditional, and if someone does not meet these conditions you threaten to withhold your love. Under these circumstances only and imitation of love is achieved. You may repeat patterns of love of those who raised you. You may be judgmental and critical of those you love, and hope that the object of your “love” will somehow change to fit your ideal. You need to stop and look at your self. How is your self-love? Until you learn to love yourself, you will have difficulty loving others in a way that does not smoother them or dry up over time as you lose interest in the imitation. The Archetype here is the Actor/Performer, as they don’t know real love, compassion or forgiveness. They look outside themselves for love and fulfillment.

Under Active

When you avoid relationships with people, whether romantic or platonic, it is a sure sign that the chakra is under active. Do you feel unworthy of love? Are you constantly seeking affirmation that your romantic and personal friends love you? You may fall in love and it will be so hard that it is difficult if not impossible to let go of that love. You may avoid getting into relationships, or even attempting to get into a relationship because you fear the rejection. This is the person that will go to the dance, but never ask anyone to dance for fear of the rejection. In all of these situations self-pity may also be present. Do you feel sorry for yourself?

Balanced

The balanced chakra is characterized by your ability to know and love yourself called selfhood. It allows you to love everyone unconditionally, secure in the knowledge that you are anchored in Selfhood. This is the condition where you give and receive love freely. People in balance with their heart chakra tend to be loving, inclusive and exude a warm fuzzy feeling when you are around them. It is possible for them to love others without reservation. They will not project some fantasy of love on others, as they have self-love that frees them to love others. When this Archetype of the Lover comes into your life, it will change for the better.

Assignment 1:

Answer these questions, you may share your answers or not as you choose.

How do you respond to others? Is it through your mind and intellect or with your heart?
How much do you feel connected to others? Try smiling at other people? Record their response.

Are you hard on yourself for your failings? Forgiveness and compassion are based in this chakra. Balance is key. Accept and honor your light and dark sides, they are there for a reason.

Do you “put on a good face” detached from your feelings?

Do you see yourself as compassionate or do you judge others?

http://www.tantra-kundalini.com/anahata.htm

"The person that meditates perseveringly on this chakra may easily have out-of-body experiences and fly thus to parallel astral universes. Such a person is the perfect instrument of the divine cosmic love and obtains all other divine qualities." (Swami Shivananda (http://sivasakti.com/articles/the-seven-chakras-anahata.html))

OrionNeb87
February 4th, 2006, 05:34 PM
How do you respond to others? Is it through you mind and intellect or with your heart?

Both I would say but more with mind and intellect. There are only a few people I have met that I respond to with my heart.

How much do you feel connected to others? Try smiling at other people? Record their response.

I feel very connected with certain people. But on the whole I'm not a big people person. I will randomly smile at people I pass while walking to class and usually they will smile back. Some won't but I figure they are distracted, lost in their thoughts and worries.

Are you hard on yourself for your failings?

I have been known to be very hard on myself for my failings. I think I have gotten better though. I no longer berate myself for getting lower than a B on exams and such. But I sill tend to insult myself when I do something that doesn't get a great response.

Do you “put on a good face” detached from your feelings?

Yes this is something I often do.

Do you see yourself as compassionate or do you judge others?

I do judge others every once in a while but I'm more compassionate than judgemental.

MalPixie
February 4th, 2006, 09:27 PM
How do you respond to others? Is it through you mind and intellect or with your heart?
I guess it would depend on the person and the situation! If I know the person real well and feel comfortable probably with my heart. Other people just with my mind I guess.

How much do you feel connected to others? Try smiling at other people? Record their response.
Depends on the person again somepeople are easy to connect with others are shut off! I do and most of the time they will smile back but once and awhile you get someone who is just grumpy.

Are you hard on yourself for your failings? Forgiveness and compassion are based in this chakra. Balance is key. Accept and honor your light and dark sides, they are there for a reason.
I am harder on myself then on others!

Do you “put on a good face” detached from your feelings?
Yeah sometimes if I need to!

Do you see yourself as compassionate or do you judge others?
I try hard not to judge others especially the first few times I meet someone! But I am very understanding of people cause everyone has problems and no one is perfect!

Akeyla
February 6th, 2006, 04:36 PM
How do you respond to others? Is it through you mind and intellect or with your heart?

Mainly it is with my mind and intellect, although it's not because I don't care and/or love them, it is rather that I am quite passionate about it and this usually freaks people out, lol. So I usually express my feelings in the small things and hope that they get the message that they are special to me.

How much do you feel connected to others? Try smiling at other people? Record their response.

People I know, very connected. I can usually get someone smiling even if they are in a bad mood. I am always the one who takes 'the edge off' a bad situation which allows the person to see it in a new light and releives the stress of it all. I am also quite empathic so I can feel what they are feeling and I try hard to 'turn their frown upside down' lol. "look at me go with all the cliche's" :hahugh:

Are you hard on yourself for your failings? Forgiveness and compassion are based in this chakra. Balance is key. Accept and honor your light and dark sides, they are there for a reason.

Yes I am harder on myself than perhaps I should be and this usually leads to some depression and self-pity. My heart chakra is present but I don't believe that it is balanced and there are some blockages there that I need to work on.

Do you “put on a good face” detached from your feelings?

Most of the time. When I was growing up there was so much chaos going on that no had time for my feelings so I learned to push them away. This has stayed with me ever since. Few people ever know how I truly feel about something and even then I usually express it in a poor way which only leads to more confusion, but that has to do with blockages in the Throat Chakra.

Do you see yourself as compassionate or do you judge others?

A little of both, My hubby is very judgemental of others and over the years this has rubbed off on me without my being completely aware of it. Now that I am, I try hard to not judge others and just let them be. The Gods know that I'm not perfect so how can I expect others to be too, a little unrealistic.
So I am working on that.



One last thing I have to say, a personal observation of my own as I work on my chakras. They don't really make the problems in my life 'go away' like magic, rather they force me to be honest with myself and others and face these problems head on. Sometimes it is very hard and I get discouraged in the face of people who just don't understand or are unwilling to face the problem even though they are a part of it. But in the end you can't or shouldn't force people to face things that they are not ready for. I enjoy working on my chakras and I find that many areas of my life have greatly improved but there is still a lot of work to be done. It will be a life long process for me.

Idril
August 22nd, 2006, 08:14 AM
How do you respond to others? Is it through you mind and intellect or with your heart?Mmm, I don't know very well, but I supose that with my heart.
How much do you feel connected to others? Try smiling at other people? I feel connected with very few people, it is difficult for me feeling part of a group, I always end feeling apart, different. But yes, I'm almost always smiling :)

Are you hard on yourself for your failings?Yep, it's difficult to forgive me sometimes. I think that the worst part of my character it's my lack of perseverance so when I fail an exam and I haven't studied enough or similar things... then I get very angry with myself and frustrated :(

Do you “put on a good face” detached from your feelings?Yep, as I have said, I hate others say me crying or sad, when I am in that mood I prefer to be alone, but if I have to be with other people I can be a good actreess.

Do you see yourself as compassionate or do you judge others?This is funny cause I had always thought that I was a very critic person, but listening to other people I'm realizing that I'm the Mother Teresa. I was critic with the aspect mostly but if we talk about actions or behaviours of other people I tend to find an excuse or a reason instead of judge them. If someone ofends me and it's not serios I forget quickly but if it is really serious... then it's much more difficult, even impossible :S

Shatril
August 22nd, 2006, 04:50 PM
How do you respond to others? Is it through you mind and intellect or with your heart?Mmm, I don't know very well, but I supose that with my heart.
How much do you feel connected to others? Try smiling at other people? I feel connected with very few people, it is difficult for me feeling part of a group, I always end feeling apart, different. But yes, I'm almost always smiling :)

Are you hard on yourself for your failings?Yep, it's difficult to forgive me sometimes. I think that the worst part of my character it's my lack of perseverance so when I fail an exam and I haven't studied enough or similar things... then I get very angry with myself and frustrated :(

Do you “put on a good face” detached from your feelings?Yep, as I have said, I hate others say me crying or sad, when I am in that mood I prefer to be alone, but if I have to be with other people I can be a good actreess.

Do you see yourself as compassionate or do you judge others?This is funny cause I had always thought that I was a very critic person, but listening to other people I'm realizing that I'm the Mother Teresa. I was critic with the aspect mostly but if we talk about actions or behaviours of other people I tend to find an excuse or a reason instead of judge them. If someone ofends me and it's not serios I forget quickly but if it is really serious... then it's much more difficult, even impossible :S
You might try a little more compassion for yourself when things go wrong. Just look at what happened, decide to do better next time, and move on.
Being critical of yourself,and letting that little voice in your head tear you down does no one any good. Not you or anyone around you gets anything out of self-critisism. I'm not saying that you just let everything go, but look at it, decide how to do better, and then let it go. This is called self-love, and it is important.

Shatril