Harlem News ARTICLE: HEART CHAKRA cont'd from June 5th

As most of you know, I've been writing a weekly HERBS ARE NATURE'S MEDICINE column for a local New York community "good news only" newspaper (Harlem News Group) for the past five years.  The last few articles have been on healing the chakras - which will be a major part of my upcoming eBook - and I wanted to share that healing information with you.  We are subject to many imbalances that manifest as disease, that we (and our Doctors) don't really know how to heal.  Our 7 chakras are energy hubs in our bodies that the Creator put in us as tools to heal all that ails us.  But in this society, we were never taught about our Spirit, or how to access or heal it.  That's what I'm offering us in my eBook and my many, many articles: tools to heal ourselves.

The information below is an expansion of this weeks article on the 4th Heart Chakra.  There was soo much I wanted to share, there wasn't enough room in the limited article space.

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The Heart Chakra is the healer, the unifier, as LOVE IS THE PRIMAL GLUE OF THE UNIVERSE.  LOVE INTEGRATES and LACK OF LOVE DISINTEGRATES. There is nothing more devastating than lack of love.

Heart Chakra

The Heart is the center of the chakra system, the mid-point of our journey.  Like the green growing plants, which push up towards the heavens from their roots in the earth ~ we, too, reach outward in two directions: anchoring that Kundalini energy deep in our bodies originating at the base of the spine, and expanding upwards, liberating our energies as we reach beyond ourselves through our Crown Chakra for that Universal Energy source.

IT IS LOVE THAT OPENS THE ROAD TO DEEPER AND WIDER CONSCIOUSNESS, AND A DEEPER CONNECTION WITH OURSELVES.

Our Fourth chakra represents our basic right to love and be loved. Unfortunately this chakra is easily damaged, diminished or wounded, and that wounds both spirit and soul, affects both the mind and body, and impacts the very core of the self. Love, balance, self-reflection and acceptance, relationship intimacy, grief and compassion are the basic isues of this chakra. This chakra is located in the chest (cardiac plexus), and is of the air element.  It is oriented towards self-acceptance as well as acceptance of others.

The abuses and traumas that damage this chakra are rejection, abandonment and loss; constant criticism, unacknowledged grief, divorce, death of a loved one, a loveless environment, and sexual or physical abuse.  Abuses to the lower chakras will also manifest as wounds and scars to the heart, as the energy and strength of one chakra builds on the next.  When we are unable to face, resolve and heal the traumas, our personalities manifest as antisocial, withdrawn, critical in judgment and intolerant of self or others; depression, fear of intimacy or relationships.  Fear and grief usually block our attempts, and can eventually block the heart chakra itself.  If we develop survival mechanisms that are excessive in its energy, we will manifest a personality that is codependent, exhibiting poor boundaries, demanding, clinging or jealous.  We oftimes think our friends and family are just mean, negative or bad people.  No, they/we simply need to heal their/our hearts.  

All forms of child abuse are travesties of love - though they are not a complete absence of love, but simply an absence of "healthy love." Most often it happens when this most needed element of life is twisted and torn, withheld and used as a means of control. When this happens in childhood, we grow up not knowing what healthy love looks like and thus have a hard time creating it in our lives.

Without a healthy relationship with the self, reflective consciousness is impossible. So we end up seeking our groundedness through another - they become our reality, which usually drives them away. But when we "give them everything" and we lose them, we bankrupt ourselves because we don't have a center to which others can be attracted and stay - because 'no one is home.' There is no one inside us to love because we have given ourselves away.

Being loved by another increases our experience of Self, as we are reflected in the eyes, words, and behavior of our lover. Suddenly we catch a glimpse of our own divinity, our specialness, and begin a new way to truly care for ourselves and feel a sense of pride and purpose.  WeThe most common block in the heart chakra is the absence of self-love. How can we have intimacy with others, reach out to others or maintain balance between ourselves and others if we have no balance within, are drowning in our own shame and self-criticism and/or are distanced from our own self?

Part of our healing process would need to include breathing exercises (pranayama), working with our arms - reaching out and taking in.  (As the 3rd Chakra involves mastering the vibrational principles of 'holding on and letting to,')  Of course there is much more, but I won't presume to be a Psychotherapist, but you could/should seek deeper assistance . . . as we ARE able to heal all.  We just need to take the first steps.  AFFIRMATIONS: I am worthy of love; I am loving to myself and others; there is an infinite supply of love; I live in balance with others.

Mandala of the Heart Chakra

Suggested reading: Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith

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