Eagle Pose

Camel Pose

Cow Face Pose

The heart chakra (also known as Anahata chakra) is an energy center located at the center of the chest. Yoga practices to open this area give the heart breathing space to function more effectively on a physical level, and in turn, on a more subtle energetic level. Emotionally this chakra corresponds to love in the pure and unconditional sense. Physically it relates to the heart, circulatory and respiratory systems as well as the the chest and the shoulders. When this chakra is balanced it's related organs and systems are healthy. If you notice yourself slumping forward, with the head forward and the chest sunken, then chances are you could benefit from some heart opening and balancing postures. Opening the heart center involves opening both the front and back of the upper body.

Postures such as Cow Face pose, Eagle pose and Hare pose open the back of the upper body. Backbends such as Cat, Sphinx, Cobra, Camel pose open the front of the chest and cultivate a sense of trust and surrender. These postures open the heart space to increased blood flow, and more importantly, expand our ability to express and feel love. Follow opening and energizing backbends with forward bends to promote grounding and introspection. This will balance the energy of the heart chakra.

Try the heart opening series below to open the door to a Valentine's day full of love and joy. Maintain your awarenss and breath focus on the front and back of the heart center and stay in each posture for at least 3-5 slow breaths. Move into child's pose in between the lying back bends for balance:

Slow moving Sun Salutations (Until you feel soft and open) 

Eagle pose on both sides

Cow Face Pose

Cat Lift and Tuck

Sphinx Pose

Cobra Pose

Bow Pose

Camel

Hare

Sitting Spinal Twist

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Loving-Kindness Meditation (See meditation article below)

Savasana

Then proceed into the rest of your day overflowing with love for yourself and all those fortunate enough to be sharing your day and the beautiful energy that you will be emanating.

There is no better time than the month of February to incorporate love into a meditation practice. Buddha taught a meditation practice of loving-kindness to develop the mental habit of selfless or altruistic love. The Dhammapada says: "Hatred cannot coexist with loving-kindness, and dissipates if supplanted with thoughts based on loving-kindness." Meditation on loving-kindness has the immediate benefit of transforming habituated negative thought patterns.

Meditation comes in many forms. It is often associated with removing all the thoughts from the mind, however for those new to meditation, emptying the mind can be more challenging than the most advanced asana. Sometimes focusing less on emptying the mind and more on a specific sound, image or emotion is more effective in releasing one from the daily racing of thoughts that sometimes make it difficult to experience day-to-day life in peace, acceptance and gratitude. There is a saying that there are as many pathways to the divine as there are people. If you have had difficulty with focusing in other types of meditative practices then meditation on loving-kindness just might be the path for you.

To begin meditating on loving-kindness, first prepare yourself to sit in a comfortable position, where you will not be interrupted, and allow yourself to settle into a natural breath rhythm for a few minutes. Then cultivate the emotion of love by focusing on something, or someone, that evokes a powerful uncomplicated love response. Allow this emotion to penetrate your full experience and then slowly transition from the object or person that helped you connect with this emotion to sitting with the emotion itself in it's purest form.

Once you have allowed yourself to sit immersed in loving-kindness for a period of time, visualize this feeling being released from your heart center to fill your whole body. Do a body awareness sweep. Smile at your feet and send love to them. Move up your body repeating this process until you have spent some time on each part of your body. Continue to do this until you feel full of this emotion, flowing completely into love, loving yourself unconditionally. This initial step can sometimes be difficult. There can be resistance to sending love to oneself. If you experience this, you may need to spend some time identifying and releasing feelings of unworthiness, replacing them with loving acceptance. Giving the practice some time to blossom in your heart will eventually allow you to overcome any feelings of self-doubt or negativity. This may not happen immediately, but with practice, you will remove this initial hurdle and be ready to systematically develop loving-kindness towards others. This is a key part of the process. When we feel genuine love and acceptance for ourselves we open the door to an unlimited source of love and kindness that can then be effortlessly shared with the world.  

The next step is to allow this love to expand to include everyone in your close circle of family and friends, one at a time, or as a group. You can mentally repeat, "May they be healthy, live happily, and may they love one another and themselves." Pause here and then expand your loving circle to include, aquaintances, strangers (This would include neutral people, the person who serves your coffee or unknown faces in far away locations, for example), again repeating, "May they be healthy, live happily, and may they love one another and themselves."  Next, move on to include those who have hurt you in the past, those for whom you find it difficult to feel compassion in daily life, and again repeat the loving phrase written above. This step helps us better understand why Buddha described love as being the best armor. When we love those who are unkind to us, we remove the damaging impact that their behavior has on our lives and well-being. We cannot control how other people act. We cannot always understand what motivates them to do what they do, but we can control how we respond. If we feel loving-kindness towards those who do not treat us well, we remove their power to injure us and we stop the perpetuation of this behavior and energy.

And finally, for as long as you feel comfortable simply be with this love, sit with this love and breathe with this love. Repeating this practice even for just a few minutes daily will allow you to cultivate these emotions more easily and in a shorter period of time. Happy Heart Opening!