Feeling the “holiday blues” – stressed out by all the shopping, or sad that you’re without your family or a relationship at this time? Disappointed by family fights or economic concerns? Now’s the time to show love and compassion toward yourself and others. The heart chakra is the seat of love and compassion. ‘Tis the season of forgiveness, the greatest gift you can give yourself, your family and friends. Use this HEART CHAKRA MEDITATION to move you toward this goal…

Breathe in and out a beautiful emerald green into the center of your chest, the home of the heart chakra, with love, joy and compassion for other people and yourself. Feel any tension blocking the flow here, shutting off or shutting out love. Any anger or fear is past, it can be healed. When you let it go, you’ll feel your true essence of love and joy. To send forgiveness, wrap those people who have caused you pain in the bright green light, cleansing and healing the situation. Release yourself and them from any negative connections, only keeping the good. Let go of anger to have space for love to grow. Now, with love and compassion, wrap yourself and your whole life experience in healing green light.

Spread the Love. Don’t expect a duplicate of an ideal holiday from years gone by. Create new traditions, fill your calendar with fun events and meet new people. Don’t wait for others to include you in their holiday parties – invite those who are without family to a potluck in your home instead.

Strengthen Your Mood through Movement and Music. Get exercise – yoga, walking, running – to beat depression, moving to music that uplifts you. Try getting at least 20 minutes of sunlight a day to fight any chemical causes (Vitamin D deficiency) for holiday funk. Exercise your mind too – read inspiring stories about those who have overcome adversity and succeeded. May I suggest The Chakra Diaries?

Express your Gratitude. Count your blessings, taking stock of all of the positives in your life. It will quickly cheer your mood. Ask yourself what you are most grateful for and to whom you are most grateful. Then tell them if you can.

Give of Yourself. Helping others is the best antidote to seasonal sadness and self-pity. Make someone else smile and, in the end, you’ll be the one smiling.

Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries

Buddha said, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." Unfortunately we are all holding on to anger of one sort or another, against one parent or another, an ex-lover, ex-husband, ex-employer, etc.  In The Chakra Diaries, several of the characters are held back from the lives they want by the anger they're holding on to toward themselves and others.

A new book by my friend, Dr. William Jacobson, Forgive to Win, explains fully and completely why it's necessary and in our own best interests to let anger go.

There are many wonderful books on Forgiveness already on my bookshelf, but I welcomed this one because it lays out a structured daily program, it's not just a philosophical treatise. The steps suggested help train ourselves to let go of self-sabotaging behavior and learn to love ourselves - by loving and forgiving others, no matter what they've done. Once our self-esteem is raised to the heights possible through self-love, there's nothing you can't achieve.

Forgiveness may seem like an easy task, but it's not. And Dr. Jacobson guides the reader in how to forgive. His "Forgiveness Diet" is a unique set of recommendations to help us establish and maintain the 90-day commitment to acts of kindness and forgiveness that could literally change one's life. He also includes Forgiveness Affirmations and Visualizations that I and my counseling clients have already used to great benefit.

Looking at it from the vantage point of health, anger throws us off-balance, especially in the solar plexus and heart chakras, and creates tension that can lead to chronic pain and disease. Forgiveness opens the floodgates of our body's own healing energy, and keeps us grounded, alert, empowered and able to recognize opportunities for success.

The last chapter of the book is entitled, "Getting Everything You Want!" If you don't already have it, I highly recommend this book.
Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries

"Through love all pain will turn to medicine." ~ Rumi

All healers work their magic through the power of love. And we can all heal ourselves - by releasing the tension that stops our healing energy from flowing. How? Through love. Open your heart chakra, and feel the love and compassion flow through yourself and out to the world.

The 4th or Heart Chakra is located at your heart center. It represents selfless love, kindness, compassion, and is where we store emotional experiences.

Signs of an unbalanced Heart Chakra include anger, insensitivity, depression, grief, despair, jealousy and sadness. When this chakra is balanced, we are able to give and receive love, be compassionate and feel true connection with others. We can enjoy our feelings. This is also where we begin to experience the power of pray and meditation, which emanate from this center.

YOGA POSES FOR THE HEART CHAKRA
The Spinal Twist opens and expands the heart center. The Head of Cow, where you reach your arms behind you to meet in the middle of your back, also opens the chest and relieves tension in the back and shoulders.

MEDITATION ON THE HEART CHAKRA
Feel the yellow sacral chakra light from the navel area travel up to the center of your chest, turning into a bright green, as it enters the home of the heart chakra. Breathe in and out the beautiful emerald green mist surrounding you with love, joy and compassion for yourself and others. Feel any tension blocking the flow of this love. Any anger is passed. Any fear is in the future. Heal these emotions in the now. When you let go of negative emotions, you'll relax the tension they create and feel your true essence of love and healing power flow. Send forgiveness to those who may have caused pain, wrapping them in the bright green light, cleansing and healing the situation. Release yourself and them from any negative connections, only keeping the good. Now, wrap yourself and your whole life experience in healing green light.

Several of the characters in The Chakra Diaries learn forgiveness in the course of chakra balancing, and their lives are freed from the restraints of negativity. They are free to love and be loved, to spread their love to the world. Read more in The Chakra Diaries ~ on special sale now at Amazon.com.

Namaste!
Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries

Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse for indulging in scrumptious chocolate, and also the time to ponder if your heart chakra is open to love.

As you meditate on your heart chakra while slowly chewing high-quality, dark chocolate, the flavanols in the cocoa and chocolate will serve as antioxidants and have other positive effects, such as lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow to the brain and heart, making blood platelets less sticky and able to clot, and lowering cholesterol. Chocolate will also improve your mood.

Valentine's Day is also the perfect time to open your heart chakra to love...
Try this Heart Chakra Meditation and download my complete "Chakra Meditations from The Chakra Diaries" on the Meditations page of TheChakras.org.

Heart Chakra Meditation:
Breathe in and out a beautiful emerald green into the center of your chest, the home of the heart chakra, with love, joy and compassion for other people and yourself. Feel any tension blocking the flow here, shutting off or shutting out love. Any anger or fear is past, it can be healed. When you let it go, you’ll feel your true essence of love and joy. To send forgiveness, wrap those people who have caused you pain in the bright green light, cleansing and healing the situation. Release yourself and them from any negative connections, only keeping the good. Let go of anger to have space for love to grow. Now, with love and compassion, wrap yourself and your whole life experience in healing green light.

Here's to love!
Becca

Do you have frequent sore throats, much trouble with swimmer’s ear, chronic sinusitis or asthma? Has your inner-Helen Reddy been caged and silenced, that is, are you speaking and no one is hearing you? If so, your Throat Chakra may be blocked. Balancing it could improve your ability to fluidly and creatively express your thoughts in voice and song. You may even be able to communicate telepathically by refining your skills to a high degree.

So, now that we know what the benefits of a balanced Throat Chakra are, how do we get to this elusive state of power beyond words; this place of calm where the majestic and amazingly powerful, yet largely silent elephant lives in harmony with the showy and threatening Queen of the Jungle?

Let’s begin as Mary Poppins might say, with A-B-C, airway, breathing and circulation. As I mentioned in yesterday’s thread, humans can live about 56 days without food or 12 days without water but only a mere 3 minutes without air. So, let’s practice breathing as deeply as we can, all the time, not just during yoga or meditation, but when we are at our work desk, on the train, waiting in traffic, feeding the chickens, riding our horse and even making love, either alone or with a partner. We can begin to harness our prana, to bring that rose of life back to our cheeks and peace to our hearts and minds by singing, chanting HAM or playing an instrument. The “melody” or rhythm of our expression is not important, only that we are creating a vibration that ripples through our gorgeous bodies and flows outward into the universe, ferrying our physical and emotional tensions with it.

If there are feelings of hurt or anger that are lurking in your mind that you just can’t seem to get rid of, write these feelings down on paper without editing or censure. Do not re-read or “polish” what you have written. Instead, burn the paper in your fireplace or over a candle to help cleanse your emotional debris. Repeat the process as many times as is needed to bring you to a sense of contentment and peace. Forgive yourself for your negative emotions – they are not your true being. Watch them come and go and rise above them.

Practice the Camel Pose or Ustrasana to open up the front of your body and to promote good blood supply to your neck, the seat of the Throat Chakra.
Namaste! Becca

If you begin by forgiving yourself for all the things you may have done that were not okay with another, you will find it much easier to forgive another for what was done that is not okay with you, as Neil Donald Walsh wrote. Once you've forgiven yourself, shower yourself with praise and love; then shower everyone and everything with praise and love. Believe me, love is more rewarding than revenge.
Namaste! Becca Chopra, author of The Chakra Diaries

Heart chakra balancing can help you release your anger to let love and compassion live there. First, you have to realize that forgiveness, even of something unspeakable, is necessary for you to live a healthy, loving life. You don't have to forget or condone an action or behavior, you just have to let go of its importance in your life. As the Buddha said, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned."

Most of the characters in The Chakra Diaries had to deal with forgiveness, of themselves and others, to release the tension in their bodies and allow the healing power of love to flow. Put your present happiness first, and forgive past transgressions - drop the hot coal.
Namaste!
Becca Chopra

As Rumi said, seek now love but the barriers to love.  Forgiveness may seem hard to do in some circumstances, but I find this meditation helps...
Feel the yellow sacral chakra light travel up the spine to the center of your chest, the home of the heart chakra. Breathe in and out a beautiful emerald green, with love, joy and compassion for other people and yourself. Feel any tension blocking the flow here, shutting off or shutting out love. Any anger or fear is past, it can be healed. When you let it go, you’ll feel your true essence of love and joy. To send forgiveness, wrap those people who have caused you pain in the bright green light, cleansing and healing the situation. Release yourself and them from any negative connections, only keeping the good. Let go of anger to have space for love to grow. Now, with love and compassion, wrap yourself and your whole life experience in healing green light.
Namaste! Becca Chopra