Healing the Physical BodyELEMENT: Air (Vayu)
COLOR: Emerald Green
MANTRA SOUND: YUM
SPECIAL HEART CHAKRA MANTRA: Om mani padme hum
The fourth chakra is located in the heart center. It’s where matter and spirit meet. It marks the halfway point, with three chakras below and three above. This is a very important chakra indeed, as it’s our center of love and connection.
Here you transcend the confines of the lower chakras and move into a greater awareness of living in dharma, your righteous duty or virtuous path. Love flows from you. You are peaceful, joyful, and compassionate. Your actions are no longer self-serving but are motivated by helping others overcome suffering.
Anahata encompasses the heart center, lungs, arms, and hands. It also includes the circulatory and lymphatic systems.
The flow of prana, or life force, is prominent in the fourth chakra as the lungs reside here. Air flows in and out from the time you are born until the time you take your last breath. The strength of prana is regulated in part by control of the breath. The mind, in turn, remains calm or becomes agitated based on your ability to regulate your breath. The slower and more controlled your breath becomes, the calmer your mind. A faster, erratic breathing pattern gives way to rapid, disorganized thought, which can lead to anxiety, panic, and even psychosis. A panic attack cannot manifest in the presence of a calm, even, and steady breath.
The Anahata chakra is also where your deepest heartfelt desires reside. While you have desires that emanate from the second and third chakras, fourth chakra desires are deeper and more profound, with a greater spiritual quality to them.
Two Ayurvedic doshas are predominant in the fourth chakra: Kapha and Vata. The main seat of the Kapha dosha is in and around the chest, including the stomach, lungs, heart, bronchial passages, and mucus membranes that line the respiratory system. Vata, too, has a main role in the fourth chakra as the chakra’s element is air, one of the components of Vata. The sense of touch and the sense organ skin are both integral parts of the Vata dosha and the fourth chakra. Also, Vata’s subdosha, prana vata, located in the heart and lungs, is responsible for the upward flow of air.
The gunas ruling the fourth chakra are rajas and sattva.
The color we attribute to the heart chakra is emerald green. The mantra, or bija (seed) sound, we vocalize for the fourth chakra is YUM.
While imbalances in any of the chakras can create disease, those in the heart chakra can cause major, life-threatening diseases. Mind, body, and spirit are intimately linked, and the anatomical region of the heart chakra governs major life-sustaining bodily systems. Among them are respiration and heart health, which is why I encourage you to make certain that you keep the heart chakra open and aligned. In the United States, heart disease is the number one cause of death, and respiratory disease is the third.
Ailments of the fourth chakra include heart disease, lung disease, blood pressure issues, thymus problems, vascular problems, respiratory and circulatory problems, and breast problems such as breast cancer.
The English translation for the Sanskrit word Anahata, “unstruck” or “unhurt,” embodies perfectly the energy of the fourth chakra. Love, the emotion of the fourth chakra, can be vague and difficult to understand in its fullest sense. You can say in the same thought, “I love chocolate and I love my mom,” but love of those two things has different meanings. Loss of chocolate may not generate the same reaction as loss of your mother, yet you can use the same word to describe the emotion you feel about both things.
The fourth chakra bridges matter and spirit, and we begin to experience a more altruistic form of love that only grows with greater spiritual awareness. In the first three chakras, love is mostly motivated by having needs met. The first chakra meaning of love is “I love so I can get my needs met.” Second chakra love is “I love so the other will love me back.” Third chakra love is “I love so others can recognize I’m a good person and therefore I’m able to love myself.” These are all stages of development in love and not inherently wrong, but they can be immature expressions of love.
Growing in spiritual maturity, when you reach the fourth chakra, love comes from a less conditional source. You learn to love regardless of being hurt and regardless of whether others meet your needs all the time. You love because you know that, like honesty, learned in the third chakra, love is a higher vibrational frequency that will lead you to greater authenticity.
A young child being reprimanded will often say to her parent, “I hate you, Mommy! I hate you, Daddy!” A parent operating from the fourth chakra responds not with hatred but with love. The greatest spiritual leaders of the past always responded with love in the presence of hate. Jesus said to God while being crucified, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Mahatma Gandhi forgave those who oppressed him. Nelson Mandela forgave those who imprisoned him for twenty-seven years. These examples embody the true meaning of Anahata. Despite being hurt physically, mentally, and emotionally, they did not allow the hatred to penetrate their hearts.
A person in fourth chakra energy, who is “unstruck,” experiences strikes from others but without the marks of being struck. That is powerful. Their sense of worth, well-being, and ability to love is no longer measured by external forces. The love from within radiates outward.
Our Societal Relationship with the Fourth Chakra
The form of love most often portrayed in the media is not the true form of love from the fourth chakra. But we do have moments when we touch on this love, often during times of crisis, when people make sacrifices to help others. For example, after Hurricane Harvey damaged 203,000 homes and caused $180 billion in damage, federal emergency workers rescued 10,000 people trapped under their homes or on the highways. American companies pledged over $157 million toward recovery efforts. A great number of other people poured money into charities such as the Red Cross to aid the rescue and recovery efforts. Outpourings of love often take the form of volunteerism for those in need, and these acts of selflessness are an expression of fourth chakra energy. However, on a societal level, the degree of consciousness doesn’t consistently calibrate at the level of unconditional love.
To help you fully grasp the different levels of love, I’d like to share definitions of the word love from concepts in Greek philosophy. While there are around seven different definitions of love in Greek, I will present a handful to point out how our societal view of love relates to fourth chakra love.
Society today often defines love in the way of passion and sexual attraction. If you look at TV shows, movies, and advertising, the portrayal of love is about immediate satisfaction and passionate romance. Much of the draw to reality TV today is because of the display of eros and society’s attraction to it. Eros mostly represents the first and second chakra energy of survival and procreation.
Deep friendship, brotherly bonds, and camaraderie all define the essence of philia. This type of love represents goodwill to others for a cause or purpose. Much of society is built upon this kind of love. For example, people who serve together in the armed forces have a special bond; those who attend the same schools, belong to the same fraternal organizations, or work for the same companies tend to get together for celebrations; and fans of the same sports teams bond with one another. Philia bonds are formed through community and connection and are important for society as a whole, as having citizens who are lovingly connected is better than having isolated individuals who feel alone.
Philautia, or self-love, can express itself negatively or positively. On the negative end, philautia can manifest as narcissism, with the person becoming self-obsessed and driven to acquire personal glory, fame, and power. The positive expression of philautia is when the person experiences self-love from a higher level of consciousness and shares that higher love with others. Self-love in the negative becomes a disservice to society as a whole.
While I am not skeptical in general, I do see a trend today of narcissism affecting society. Whether it’s politicians seeking political power for their own self-glorification or young people seeking five thousand likes for selfie pictures, this “me only” worldview is dangerous. It creates an “us” versus “them” mentality that causes one group to rise up against another, and in the end, everyone gets hurt.
The negative form of philautia is the same as negative or unbalanced third chakra energy. It’s when the unruly child is ruling the world.
The highest form of love and the one that best represents the fourth chakra is agape. This is an altruistic form of love. When the Greeks defined agape, it was in relation to God’s love for us and our love for God. This kind of selfless love is extended to everyone, including strangers or enemies. As Pope Francis so eloquently voiced during the 2016 US presidential elections, love is about building bridges and not walls.
Agape is about realizing that when you help others, you are helping yourself. In the fourth chakra you begin to understand that there is no separation.
Society as a whole can make this shift in consciousness when enough individuals make the conscious choice to live at this level of love. Life is no longer about survival or getting what’s “mine” but about going through life with the attitude “How can I help?” and “How can I serve?” When enough of us make this decision and it reaches critical mass, we can all move forward in a new direction to awaken to a different state of being.
Living Life in the Anahata Chakra
The transition from living life in the lower chakras to living life in the higher chakras is akin to awakening from a deep slumber for the first time. Life is no longer rooted in survival, procreation, attainment of worldly pleasures, pleasing others, or self-serving goals. Life now becomes an expression of service to others through compassion, giving, and openheartedness. Fourth chakra living doesn’t embody the go-getter attitude of third chakra energy, but rather a passive openness, which attracts others to it. While the third chakra embodies yang, or masculine energy, the fourth chakra holds yin, or feminine energy. An air of peacefulness surrounds Fourth chakra people. They’re lighthearted and laugh heartily. Their laughter is contagious. Love flows from their beings.
Fourth chakra people are compassionate to those around them. Their hearts ache and feel deeply for those who suffer. Their sense of empathy is real. They readily cry or laugh with others out of genuine connection to their experiences. Their giving comes from kindheartedness and not from selfish motives. The light that radiates from their hearts attracts others to them.
I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting Mata Amritanandamayi, or as her followers affectionately call her, Amma. She’s known as the “hugging saint.” Besides running many charitable organizations, she goes around the world giving hugs to people for sometimes up to twenty-two hours per day, not leaving a site until everyone who wants a hug receives one. Amma grew up poor in southern India. Even as a child with little to no resources, Amma would give to others in need. According to her Hindu religion, suffering comes as a result of karma, or past action that must be repaid. In pondering this concept, Amma continually asks, “If it is one man’s karma to suffer, isn’t it our dharma (duty) to help ease his suffering and pain?” Amma truly represents fourth chakra love. As you sit in her presence, you can feel the peacefulness and calm that radiate from her being. Her eyes dance with joy and laughter. It’s impossible to see any turmoil within her. Having felt her powerful vibrational energy, I can only imagine what being in the presence of Jesus must have been like. True love vibrates at a higher frequency than most of us can imagine.
Recognizing Fourth Chakra Imbalances
Vulnerability is an attribute of the fourth chakra. To experience the rewards that emanate from the heart requires openheartedness, a two-way exchange of giver and receiver in an authentic manner. Intimacy and closeness are the prizes to be gained by your willingness to be vulnerable.
The limitations arise in recognition that we don’t live in a vacuum and that even those who live most of the time in fourth chakra energy also live in the energy of the first three chakras. If you’ve read the limitations of the first three chakras, you’ve also learned how they can easily bring you back down to lower states of consciousness.
I’m sure you’ve experienced moments of vulnerability at some point in your life. You opened your heart to someone and received hurt in exchange. Once this happens often enough, you learn to put up walls or close your heart to love altogether. The limitation lies in being selective in your willingness to love and be loved based on past experience.
Giving in to the fourth chakra limitations can lead to a continual fear of rejection and loneliness, and therefore putting up more walls. As you keep people out, those same people who once opened up to you and approached you with love will eventually leave, which further validates your fear of intimacy and vulnerability.
The way to end this cycle is to access higher sources of love that come from your spiritual connection to your Creator. Healing your heart each time you’re afflicted by someone else or even by self-disappointment is crucial to not falling prey to fourth chakra limitations.
Maturity and growth in this chakra come from the realization that you don’t need to remain in a state of hurt. You recognize that you have nothing to gain and everything to lose when you refuse openness.
As many of us are used to the eros form of love, we become used to chaos and drama. We tend to associate true love and real-life experiences with a sense of disharmony that comes from passion. When we experience moments of peace and harmony, we can disregard them or brush them off as boring as we look for the next intense experience. Some people will even pick fights, find points to argue, or surround themselves with dramatic people just to “keep things interesting.”
Being fully open to fourth chakra gifts is about being able to find peace in the midst of chaos. It’s about letting go of drama in exchange for deeper enjoyment in the events of life. As I once heard Dr. Deepak Chopra say, “Where is the enjoyment in chaos and hysteria?” When you find your sense of inner peace, life begins to flow. You become lighthearted and you’re able to laugh in any life circumstance. You’re aware that there is beauty in all things, even in tragedy, and that beautiful things can be born out of tragedy. One example is Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which was formed in 1980 by moms who’d lost their children. This great organization has managed to lower the number of deaths by drunk and drugged drivers by 55 percent since its inception. I’m sure you’re able to think of other organizations that were born as a result of tragic events.
Living in laughter, love, peace, and harmony daily doesn’t mean you have to sit in a drum circle singing “Kumbaya” all day, and the world wouldn’t necessarily benefit from that anyway. When you live from a space of inner peace, you automatically raise the consciousness of those around you, even as you go about the mundane activities of your day. You get in touch with a more spiritual existence in each moment. Your experiences become more meaningful as your perception widens.
Om mani padme hum.
May the lotus flower contained within my heart be open to love, compassion, and forgiveness.
Cardiovascular exercise is one of the best things you can do for your physical health in the fourth chakra. Doing cardio every day is most important and can be achieved through brisk walking for thirty minutes daily. Of course, if you enjoy other cardio activities, you can mix up your routine, but strive for movement that will elevate your heart rate to between 50 and 85 percent of your maximum heart rate for at least thirty minutes at a time. As a member of a Western and mostly sedentary society, you will see enormous benefits when you add this simple routine to your day.
To prevent blockages in the heart and cardiac plexus, as well as to keep your respiratory health optimal, you can eat a mostly vegetarian diet with a heavy emphasis on leafy green vegetables, berries, whole grains, lentils, beans, herbs, and spices. Since the Ayurvedic Kapha dosha governs the area of the chest, a Kapha-pacifying diet is especially beneficial if you have heart disease, high blood pressure, or respiratory illnesses. You can learn more about all Ayurvedic diets in my first book, The Wheel of Healing with Ayurveda: An Easy Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle.
YOGA ASANAS AND PRANAYAMA EXERCISES TO HEAL THE FOURTH CHAKRA
All yoga breathing techniques are good for the fourth chakra, as each one enables you to breathe more fully. One simple breath I enjoy is what I call the four-count breath.
To view a video demo of these exercises, go to
www.youtube.com/c/MichelleFondinAuthor.
Click on the Playlists tab, and select
Chakra Healing Asanas & Pranayamas.
Scroll down the list until you find the one you’re looking for.
Four-Count Breath: Sit with your spine tall, and roll your shoulders back and down. With your lips closed, begin inhaling through your nose as you inflate your lower belly. Inhale to the count of four. Then hold your breath for four counts and exhale through your nose for four. Repeat this breath for two to five minutes. As you become more accustomed to breathing in this way, you can increase the count to five, six, or seven.
Thymus Thump: The thymus gland is located at the center of the chest below the collarbone. It is an important gland for the immune system and is particularly large during childhood, when it produces most of the body’s T-cells, an extremely important type of white blood cell that protects us from pathogens. The thymus shrinks in adulthood and its function diminishes. You can strengthen your immune system and your energy level by practicing the thymus thump, which looks exactly like Tarzan thumping his chest.
Make fists with both your hands, and place them against the center of your chest, a few inches apart from each other, with your knuckles about three finger-widths below your collarbone. As you inhale, pound on the center of your chest, alternating between your two fists. Exhale the word ah while you continue thumping. Repeat the exercise for four complete breaths.
Cow Face Pose — Gomukhasana: Sit on a yoga mat with your knees bent and your feet flat on the mat. Draw your left foot inward and set it down on the mat underneath your right leg close to your right hip. Then bring your right leg over the top, and set your right foot down on the mat close to your left hip. Your knees should be aligned in the middle, with the right one on top of the left. If you’re unable to fold your legs in this manner, sit in a simple cross-legged position. Reach your left arm out to the left. Bend the arm downward and fold it behind your back with your fingers reaching upward. Bring your right arm straight up in the air and then fold it behind your head and reach for your left hand. If you’re able, clasp your hands together behind your back. If you can’t reach, hold on to a scarf, necktie, or yoga strap, with one end in each hand, and walk your hands as close to each other as possible. Once you’ve clasped your hands together, lengthen through the spine and keep your head in a neutral position. Breathe deeply from your lower belly, and hold the pose for five breaths. Switch to the other side and repeat the exercise. Cow face pose opens the chest and stimulates the lymphatic system.
Camel Pose — Ustrasana: While camel pose is wonderful for opening the area of the heart and cultivating the fourth chakra attribute of vulnerability, it can be quite challenging for a yoga beginner. Gather the following props if you’re new to yoga or unfamiliar with this pose: a folded blanket or towel and two yoga blocks. (If you don’t have yoga blocks, you can use two stacks of books, both roughly even in height, about nine inches tall.)
Start by kneeling on your yoga mat with your knees hip-width apart and with one block at its maximum height next to each of your feet. If your knees are sensitive, place the folded blanket underneath your knees. Either rest the tops of your feet on the mat or flex your toes and tuck them under, depending on your comfort level with leaning on flexed feet. With your hips directly above your knees, lengthen your spine upward and then arc it backward toward your feet. Bring your hands behind you to hold on to your heels. If you can’t reach your heels, rest one hand on each of the blocks. As you hold on to your heels or blocks, bring your pelvis forward and allow your head to extend backward and down toward the floor. If this causes discomfort in your neck, bring your chin down toward your chest instead. Hold the pose as long as you can while maintaining a steady, smooth breath. When you’re finished, take child’s pose (balasana) as a counterpose: lower your hips to the floor and then extend your torso forward and rest it between your thighs, with your forehead on the floor.
Standing Bow Pose — Dandayamana Dhanurasana: Stand on your mat with your feet together. Rest your gaze on a fixed point on the wall in front of you. This will be your focal point, or drishti. Lift your right foot behind you, and clasp your foot or ankle with your right hand either from the outside or the inside. If you hold your ankle, you will have a firmer grasp. If you can’t quite catch your foot, you can use a yoga strap to hold it. Once you have your foot, reach your left arm forward in front of you, with your thumb up and your fingers pointing forward. Lift up through the crown of your head, and press your foot or ankle into your hand as you lift the leg higher. Your torso will automatically come slightly forward as you create a bow shape with your right arm and leg. Balance comes from the dynamic of your left arm reaching forward as your right foot presses back against your right hand. Hold the pose for at least five breaths. Repeat on the other side.
Healing the Emotional and Energetic Body
Healing the emotional body in the fourth chakra is by far one of the most important things you can do for your health. With years of experience in Ayurvedic lifestyle counseling, I am convinced that heart health is directly linked to our emotional state.
A few years ago I had a client come in for an Ayurvedic consultation. He had suffered a heart attack at age forty-five and had a stent put in. He wanted to learn how to manage stress and adopt a healthier lifestyle. During the consultation I asked him what had happened emotionally in his recent past. He looked at me strangely but answered that he couldn’t think of anything except that he had gotten a divorce a couple of years prior to the heart attack. I shared with him that the divorce was likely a contributing factor to the heart attack. He wasn’t convinced because he was only focused on the physical.
This is but one example. When there are blockages in the heart chakra, there is always an emotional component. Healing the heart — one of the most difficult things to do, yet crucial for growth — is mostly about letting go of past hurt and learning how to forgive.
You don’t always consciously choose what happens to you throughout life. You can’t control how others will act around you or toward you. You can’t even regulate another person’s opinion of you. As long as there are people in your life, you can guarantee you will be emotionally hurt at some point. It’s inevitable.
You’re going through life trying to get your needs met, and so is everyone else. If I’m trying to get my needs met and you’re trying to get your needs met, there will be some clashes. Most of the time when someone hurts you or disagrees with you, it’s not even about you. Think about this for a second. Have you ever considered the idea that most people are absorbed with their own needs and desires?
The alcoholic father who ignores you is just worried about getting his next drink. The teacher who scolds you for talking is just trying to manage the thirty children in her class and to get the job done. The person who cuts you off on the road is just trying to get to work on time. The jealous sister who talks badly about you is just trying to get the attention and love that she feels she isn’t receiving. Most of the time you’re just in the way of another person getting his or her needs met. It doesn’t make it right, just, or fair; it just is. Each person has his or her own pathway.
When you hold on to past hurt, you are weighing yourself down unnecessarily. You’re creating heaviness in your own heart that could otherwise be lifted by simply letting go. Whatever happened in your past needed to happen so that you could be where you are today. If you had only good times or people who lifted you up all the time, you couldn’t have had the emotional and spiritual growth to reach higher heights. You needed the adversity, resistance, and sometimes even hatred to propel you toward your destiny.
A couple of years back when I was training for a half marathon, I hired a personal trainer to teach me how to gain strength through weight training. I wanted to make sure I didn’t injure myself, and I knew that by creating muscle mass I would be less prone to injury. During the first session the trainer worked me hard but took it a little easy on me. But after the first session he pushed me to the limit. He added more weight, created more resistance, and added even more repetitions. During the session, it was awful. I’m not good at handling pain. I complained and nearly cried, but I did what he asked me because I knew I wanted to be stronger. You might argue that I was paying him to put me through this adversity. While this is true, I couldn’t have gained muscle mass without the pain and resistance. I was hurting after every session, to the point of barely being able to walk the next day. But I was grateful, because I knew that the next time I encountered his tough workouts it would be easier, for a time. If I had avoided the workouts and the weight lifting I wouldn’t have seen any positive changes in my body.
Letting go of past hurt is as easy as a decision. Your ego might tell you otherwise, but it’s really that simple. Yes, you may have grown up in an abusive household. You may have had a spouse cheat on you. Any number of things may have happened in your past, however unfortunate. Yet the choice to hold on to the hurt or to let it go is all yours.
When you make the choice to let go, it doesn’t mean continuing to put yourself in the same situations that allowed the hurt in the first place. It means letting go and then making different choices that can put you on a different path.
Once you make the conscious choice to release the hurt and pain, the only way to completely heal your heart is through the power of forgiveness. The act of forgiveness is extending grace to a person (including yourself) for what occurred. Offering forgiveness doesn’t mean you’re condoning the act itself or suggesting that it was acceptable. Forgiveness means that you’re choosing peace rather than the turmoil that the grievance holds. When you hold on to the need to be right or to seek revenge in any way, you’re destroying your own heart. The other person has perhaps long forgotten what happened. Or maybe the person never realized she’d done anything wrong in the first place. By keeping the grievance alive in your heart, you are allowing the poison to grow.
I once had a client whose husband had committed suicide five years prior to our conversation. Even though they were separated when he took his life, she confessed that she was still furious at him for selfishly killing himself, as they had a young daughter who needed him. I explained to her that by holding that anger she wasn’t hurting him (he was already dead), but she was hurting herself. I suggested that she write him a letter outlining all the reasons why she was angry, after which she was to place it on his grave or burn it to let go of all the negativity.
Letting go of hurt and forgiving are about keeping your heart space pure.
When man has love, he is no longer at the mercy of forces greater than himself, for he, himself, becomes the powerful force.
— LEO BUSCAGLIA
The most important lesson we can learn from our emerging spirituality at the level of the fourth chakra is that our Creator is infinite love. The wellspring of love flowing through the entire universe is infinite. There is no shortage of unconditional love. Every person has equal access to this love regardless of age, gender, race, or socioeconomic status. The question remains: How open are you to receiving this love?
Human love is almost always conditional in at least one aspect or another. If you expect perfect, unconditional love from another human being you will constantly be disappointed. The only perfect love is one that comes from your spiritual Source.
The awakening you experience in the fourth through seventh chakras is through harnessing this unconditional love, from your Source, and being able to use it in your interactions and relationships. In order to best achieve this, you will need to regularly practice balancing through letting go of the constant demands of the ego.
Those demands sound something like this:
“I don’t want to forgive him. He started it.”
“She hurt me first when I was being nice.”
“He doesn’t deserve a second chance.”
“She ruined my life with her betrayal.”
“I hate him.”
As I mentioned in the third chakra, you will never lose your ego completely while you are alive. You can, however, hush it down a bit. This generally happens when you shift your internal conversation from “What’s in it for me?” to “What’s in it for you?”
The ego is always concerned about being hurt, affronted, and humiliated. It’s constantly in reaction mode. Dr. Wayne W. Dyer used to quote frequently from A Course in Miracles: “I can choose peace rather than this.” When you’re confronted with expressions of hatred and fear, you can choose how you react to them. You can react with your ego or with your heart. It’s a simple choice. It’s not always easy to choose peace, but it’s a choice nonetheless. And you will be continually confronted with people who will give you opportunities to practice. There is no shortage of these people.
Choosing peace might mean you walk away with no comment. It might mean you answer with empathy and understanding. Or it could mean you no longer wish to associate with that person. Choosing peace means making the choice not to be offended or to let other people’s remarks harm you.
Cleansing your heart space is the first half of clearing the fourth chakra. The next part is keeping the doors to your heart open. In his book Love: What Life Is All About, psychologist Leo Buscaglia states, “Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love, you will find that you are left holding only yourself.” I believe this to mean that you should neither clasp too tightly nor release and then refuse to let anyone else in. When you love fully and unconditionally, your loved ones feel equally loved by you whether they are close or far, or whether they are pleasing you or not. Either way, it’s all the same. The idea is to love in the same way that your Creator loves. God doesn’t change his mind about the way he loves you. You have free will to come and go as you please. He will love you if you seek a relationship with him, and he’ll love you if you don’t. You have been given a choice. But he’ll love you all the same.
Too often we set limits on love. We say things such as “I’ve opened my heart too much” or “I’ve given too much, and look where it’s gotten me.” Remember, every time you think of reasons not to open your heart to love, that is your ego getting in the way again.
Merriam-Webster defines compassion as a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” While the third chakra ego is much concerned with “me,” “mine,” and “Where am I going?” the fourth chakra spiritual essence revolves around the suffering of the world and how to end it. When your heart is moved by a touching story and you feel empathy for another, you’re practicing compassion. When you reach in your pocket to give a dollar to a homeless person, you’re allowing the spirit of compassion to enter your heart. Some people are naturally compassionate, while others aren’t. I believe that compassion can be a learned trait.
One spring during Lent while I was living in France, I decided to take on a project that created a lot of discomfort in me. I wanted to do something good for others during the forty days prior to Easter instead of the traditional practice of giving up chocolate or sweets. In Aix-en-Provence, France, near where I lived, there were a lot of homeless people. Most of them were illegal immigrants, or gypsies, as the French called them. I made the decision to pack lunches every Wednesday during Lent and to go seek out homeless individuals in the city and give them the bagged lunches. In addition, I decided to take my three-year-old son with me. Coming from suburbia in the United States, I wasn’t accustomed to homeless people or comfortable around them. I made the decision to put myself into discomfort to help other people. I didn’t feel it was enough to give money or donate to a food bank. I needed to be on the streets and spontaneously giving and interacting with those less fortunate than I. It was the best thing, I believe, and the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.
At first, the homeless people I encountered were very skeptical of my kindness. The French, in general, don’t have a habit of taking kindly to homeless people. They have social systems in place that can give even a homeless person a monthly source of income. However, as I mentioned, most of these people were illegal immigrants and therefore not eligible to receive such aid. In the beginning I had to urge some of the homeless people to accept my lunches, especially those with children. But as time went on, they received me with open arms. I adapted to make extra for the homeless children with their parents or to include a little toy or plush animal. Seeing them would usually bring me to tears. Some Wednesdays I would get nervous because I didn’t want to go out there and face them. Other times the weather was bad and I just didn’t want to get out of my comfort zone to fulfill the promise I had made to myself and God. But I did. The level of compassion I achieved during that project was unmatched by anything else I’ve experienced. I believe the reason I was able to achieve that level, at that moment, was because I pushed myself to the edge of discomfort. I learned: the greater the self-sacrifice, the greater the inner reward.
I don’t mention this story to pat myself on the back. Except for my family, most people have no idea I ever did this. I tell this story to demonstrate that you can heal your heart through acts of compassion. It doesn’t have to be as big as making lunches for the homeless. You can offer someone a smile, a joke, or a warm hug. You can give a person the gift of your full attention by turning off your phone when you’re with him or her. If you know your friend or family member has had a rough day, you can ask, “Is there anything I can do for you?” Then do it.
Awareness of others’ suffering and a desire to alleviate their pain are all it takes.
Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Bring your awareness to your heart center, your source of love and compassion. Imagine, think, or feel an emerald green color radiating from your heart. This sparkling green light is shining outward in every direction. Breathe into this space, and feel the circumference of the light surrounding your heart getting wider and wider. Feel the balance between physical matter and spirit here. Feel yourself grounded and open and awakened to spirit at the same time.
Now that you’re aware of your radiating, compassionate light moving out of your body and into the world, bring your attention back to your heart center. Search within your heart for any discomfort that resides there. If you find any, send the discomfort flowers and then escort it away from your heart. As you’re escorting away the discomfort, which can come disguised as hurt, shame, blame, anger, or lack of forgiveness, thank it for its message and let it know that it can go now. Repeat this with every source of discomfort that comes up in your heart center, until you’re only left with light and ease of breath. You will know when you have let everything go because your heart will feel lighter, as if a large weight has been lifted off your chest. Feel how easy it is to breathe now.
Now that your heart is clear, feel flooded with unconditional love. Allow this love to flow in and fill your heart space. Feel the warmth and expansiveness of this love. Allow yourself to receive. Allow yourself to feel vulnerable and open to this great love, of which you are worthy. You are becoming a vessel of love with each and every breath. Love flows to you and through you. You become a conduit for this love, and as this love fills every cell of your body, you feel lighter and more joyful. Your joyfulness radiates throughout your being. You may even find yourself smiling for no apparent reason. Let it be as it is, for this is the state of love. At this moment you may even feel a tingling sensation pulsating through your body. This is normal, as you have raised the vibrational frequency of your being. Sit with this sensation. It’s here, and you can always access it whenever you desire.
You can sit in this silent meditation for as long as you like before opening your eyes and slowly returning to activity. To enhance the vibrations, chant the mantra sound YUM three times.
ENERGY-BODY HEALING WITH GEMS AND COLORS
As mentioned earlier, the color for the fourth chakra is emerald green. You can wear this color or keep it in your awareness while healing your heart.
Rose quartz is the most beautiful and effective stone for bringing love and compassion into your life. Keep a rose quartz stone with you throughout the day. If you can, wear the stone close to your heart. You can even get a rose quartz in the shape of a heart to remind you of healing each time you hold it.
Fourth Chakra Mindfulness Ideas to Ponder
1. I am ready to release hurt from my heart and forgive everyone who has harmed me, including myself.
2. I am open to giving and receiving love and know I am worthy of love.
3. I feel compassion toward others, especially those whom I don’t understand.
4. I am a vessel of God’s love, transporting unconditional acceptance to all who need it.
