Opening Your Heart Chakra

by Lisa Erickson

 






Buddha Chick Life’s February theme is ‘In Love With Life’, and I find that refreshing in a month that we usually associate with cupids and valentines. There is so much pressure around the search for romantic love, and the expression of it. Women especially are conditioned from a young age to consider romantic love as the primary foundation for happiness. But isn’t loving your life the real key to happiness?

In relation to Energetics and energy body mappings – the topic of this column – the heart chakra is the center of our ability to experience love in any form. It is also the center of our energetic structure – literally the center chakra in the most commonly used 7-chakra mapping. And although there are many different energy center mappings that have evolved around the world through various healing and spiritual traditions, I have yet to find one that does not center on the heart chakra. The heart is the universally acknowledged center of our being.

  What does it mean to open our heart chakra? In a way, all of life is about opening our heart chakra, especially once we consciously embark on a path of self-development. In our relationships with everyone in our life, from parents, children, and closest friends, to those we just interact with once a day or once a lifetime, we are always faced with choice points – situations in which we can choose to act from love or some other emotion or state. And either way, we feel the results. We learn over time, how it feels to live from love vs. something else. As social creatures, every human interaction becomes our spiritual practice, an opportunity to open our heart more.

But there are also formal spiritual practices and meditations designed to help us open our heart.  Within these practices, our ability to access love is often described in terms of levels:


-       The first level might be called emotional love. This is what we are culturally conditioned to think of as love – the actual feeling of love. The affection or warmth we feel for someone when we are intimate with them, or when we have a meaningful encounter in some form with them.


-       The second level can be thought of as expanded or unconditional love. This is when we begin to experience love as a force that comes through us, and that does not require an attachment – a person we have feelings for – in order to be triggered.


-       The third level is universal love. This is when we begin to know the source of our own being as love. We experience our entire being as an expression of love, as opposed to experiencing love as an emotion or state that comes and goes.


These levels are of course just a way of talking about love – the gradations and variations are infinite, perhaps as infinite as the number of people on the planet. But in many spiritual traditions – some people might say all spiritual traditions! – the spiritual process is about moving from emotional love, through expanded love, into universal love. And then learning to integrate that love into our every thought, word, and deed.

Here is a simple heart chakra meditation that anyone can use to begin to open their heart energy and explore the movement between these levels:


-       Sit quietly and take a few deep breaths. Now visualize some being that you care deeply about, and who instantly evokes a deep sense of affection and connection in you. Often our most ‘uncomplicated’ relationships are the best focus for this – young children or even pets, with whom we have little emotional ‘baggage’, so that our mind doesn’t get pulled into mental conversations or distractions.


-       Visualize this being for a few minutes, until you are actively feeling the emotion of love towards them. This may even manifest as a warmth or tingle in your chest area – your heart chakra. Don’t worry if your mind wanders – as with any meditation, just keep bringing your focus back.

 
-       Now let go of the visualization, and see if you can sit in the feeling of love that you have generated. Don’t try and control the experience, but see if you can simply sit quietly in the feeling, without the visual cue. If it fades, simply re-establish your visualization for a bit.


-       If you feel as if you are able to sit in this beautiful feeling of love without your visual cue, try to move your awareness towards the center of this love. See if you can find this center. In other words, actively seek the source for this feeling of love. Over time, this search will open you up to love in a universal way, to love as the source of your being. You may begin to experience yourself as an expression of love, rather than the other way around.


This practice is really a lifelong practice – in some spiritual traditions, it is literally so. There is no end to love, and so there is no end to the deepening this practice can activate. As our heart center evolves, we can learn to work with that energy in a new way in our daily lives as well. And that truly gives a whole new meaning to ‘In Love With Life!’

 
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Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."

Buddha Babies - The Sun in My Tum Tum

by Danielle Rutledge

(Photo by imagerymajestic)





How do you explain to your children about their soul, God, and why we are here?  I’m experimenting each new day.  Mainly with an open mind, lots of helpful articles, books, tips, my heart and definitely a dose of silly and fun.  I want us to take life seriously and our contribution seriously, but it MUST be a fun and loving experience.  

Spirituality is fun.  Loving God is fun.  Loving the God IN you is fun.  Doing things like praying, giving, sharing, and growing our little spirits each day with knowledge and laughter is fun.  That’s the point of these articles. 

I labeled God as boring in my past.  I labeled God as someone outside of me in my past.  The more I accept myself as a part of God and a source to live through him the more patience, love and acceptance I have for myself and all.  I want the same for my children.  I want them to understand their power and step into it now.  Not when they are grown up!  Now! 

My beaming little sparks of light shine so brilliantly now with their pure hearts, loving intentions, and sweet perceptions.  Let’s help encourage them to keep this spark of divine energy that God gifted us burning brightly each and every day.  Let’s teach them to bring in the sacred and spread the sunshine.  Blessings.

The Sun in My Tum Tum

There is a brilliant and golden sun residing in your tum tum.
It's a beautiful, bright and luminous light shining deep inside.
You may not see it, but I know you will feel it.

Without you knowing it's there sparkling, shimmering and glowing.
It's the fuzzy feeling or sensation you get when you share the love of your spirit.
It's that warmth in your heart that expands when you lend a helping hand.
It sparks a twinkle in your eyes when you smile big and bright.

You may brighten your light by choosing to do what feels right.
Your glow within will expand out by loving who you are without fear or doubt.

You may know others who wish for your light to be dimmed.
They may say and do things that will cause you to hurt within.
When this happens know that what they speak of is surely not so.
Take a deep breath and illuminate the glow in your soul.
Know that you are safe, perfect and whole.

You’re doing it right if you feel the love inside you and then share it times two.
Every kind word and generous act will lovingly impact all and that’s a fact.
Act and live in everyday by using your guiding star.
Spread your sunshine, shine your light, and be the luminous light that you are.

Why feel "ho hum" when you’re capable of shining as bright as the sun?
Breathe in love and radiate peace.  Try it!  It’s helpful and fun!

We need your brilliant light to illuminate day and night.
Pay attention to your glow and be sure to keep it warm and bright.
Be sure to notice what makes your light sparkle and grow.
Then do more of it to increase the warmth and enhance the glow.
By doing so you will encourage others around you to take note and follow.
You have the world to change so give it a go.

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Danielle, in her own words: I am a young woman seeking out ways to help and heal my life.  I am releasing my fears and worries to enlighten and lift my being in order to better myself, my children and the world around me.  I am learning to be responsible for my energy and my contribution.  I live in tiny town in the middle of Illinois on 2 beautiful sandy lakes surrounded by family.  I have 14 beautiful healthy nieces and nephews and 2 amazingly bright children that help me to live life on the silly side.  Children are so pure and free to be.  They inspire me to let loose and live optimistically. Danielle writes the column "Buddha Babies." You can find Danielle on Facebook too. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Blossoming-Buddha-Baby/246912155353686

21 Ways to Love Yourself More

(It's Not a Selfish Thing, but a Self-Aware Thing)

by Janice Lynne Lundy 




 (Photo by photostock)





I’ve banned the “S” word from my vocabulary. I hope after reading this column you will too.

“Selfish” … it’s what women are often called when they take time for themselves. And it’s the primary reason, I believe, why so many women do not take good care of themselves—or give themselves what they need to feel healthy and whole. We’re afraid of being perceived as selfish.

And why is it that when we manage to get beyond the “S” word and do beneficial things for ourselves, we automatically assume that someone else will be deprived or neglected. Women have been tremendously dis-served by this perspective—that we can take time, spend money, or indulge in self-care only if:

• we have done all our other work

• no one else needs us at the moment

• we have extra money to spend

Beneath the surface of each of these faulty notions is the belief that we, and our personal time, are not as valuable as others’. We seem to need to convince ourselves that we are worth it; that we are worth our time, money, and personal attention. This February, the month of Love, I’d like to invite you to change your thinking about this and to explore and cultivate self-love in a bold new way.

Our journey takes off when can begin to say “Yes!” to ourselves more often; give ourselves permission to receive the same loving regard we give to others. Without the “S” word cropping up. Or its evil twin, “Guilt,” paying a visit. Would you like to try? I hope so because you are worth it, and you—just as much as anyone else—deserve your own loving-kindness. 

For the next 21 days, practice showing more love to yourself in these simple, yet powerful ways. It takes 3 full weeks to create any new habit and self-love is no exception. Make consistent time for yourself and you’ll be well on your way to creating a more loving relationship with YOU!

1.     Say no to taking on more responsibility.

2.     Take one-half day a week to do exactly what you want to do.

3.     Spend at least 30 minutes each day by yourself, with no one tugging at you.

4.     Be a little girl again and play!

5.     Take up the hobby you’ve always wanted to or revive an old one you’ve let go.

6.     Stop rushing. Do things like walking, bathing, shopping more leisurely.

7.     Allow other people to clean up after themselves and make their own decisions.

8.     Turn off the TV, cell phone, computer; spend time in the quiet and enjoy your own company.

9.     Do something to cultivate female friendship.

10. Eat at least one outrageously healthy meal each day.

11. Get outside and let Nature nurture your spirit.

12. Sleep when you’re tired.

13. Stay away from people who demean or demoralize you.

14. Buy yourself flowers.

15. Trust your own choices.

16.  Talk lovingly to yourself.

17. Quit one bad habit.

18. Give yourself permission to feel all of your feelings.

19. Take yourself on a date and go somewhere you’ve always wanted to go.

20. Eat something truly decadent without guilt.

21. Become passionately self-aware of what you need in any given moment to be relaxed, happy, and healthy and give yourself that!

“Self-aware”—now that’s an “S” word I’m more than happy to embrace! And it’s a very good way to reframe any thoughts or feelings that might arise to sabotage our emerging self-love.

After 21 days, because you will have created many self-loving habits, I can just hear you giving voice to self-love whenever a well meaning other questions what you’re doing—or tries to sabotage your self-care efforts:

“Yes, I am being quite self-aware, thank you, and it feels really good.” Stay strong, persevere, be passionate about your journey into love, and, in time, others will appreciate you more. Why? Because people who love themselves more, become more loving and magnanimous toward others. And who doesn’t want to be more loved by you?

Funny, how life works. We give our true self what it needs and everybody benefits.

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