How’s your posture?
Do you sit or stand up straight, shoulders thrown back and head lifted up high?
Or are you blaming all those hours at your desk, in front of a computer for your poor posture and slumped over shoulders?
Chances are that poor computer is just a scapegoat.
How come?
Because of your fourth chakra, Anahata, and what this energy center governs.
This is your heart chakra and, of course, relates to all things heart-based.
Think your heart, your lungs, your chest and shoulders.
Think also of unconditional love for yourself and others, selflessness without martyrdom, openness, social awareness, peace, forgiveness, trust, kindness and acceptance.
This is no light-weight chakra.
This is also the chakra that I believe is most under attack in our age of technological advances, most vulnerable to stunted growth in ourselves, in our children and grandchildren and most likely one that you are currently out of balance in.
Physically, you can manifest imbalances here as slumped shoulders or poor posture, breathing problems, cardiac problems, high blood pressure, asthma, arthritis of the arms and clogged or slow moving lymph, i.e. sluggishness.
You can also act out as overly selfish or its opposite- the martyr- in relationships. Overwhelming sadness or depression can overcome you or you can become arrogant and insensitive to the needs of others.
All aspects of the heart and its broad range of emotions are governed by the heart chakra.
So how do we integrate such a wide degree of variation into one chakra?
How do we reconcile our emotions as being a result of an energy imbalance or blockage in our heart chakra and not from somewhere else?
How do we know? And when we know, what can we do about it?
Let me say, without apology since I include myself in this assessment, if you spend any amount of time hunched over your desk or pounding away on a computer keyboard, then your heart chakra is out of balance.
How are you sitting right now, reading this?
I can’t see you, but I can guess that you just sat up a little straighter.
“See,” you tell me, “I am sitting up straight. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Okay, so now you’re sitting up straight. Does it feel natural, or forced?
Can you easily sit like that without feeling any strain in your lower back or in your neck?
If you can say yes, you are part of the very few that can.
But if not, then you know that there is some work that needs to be done with this particular chakra.
As much as you may enjoy your job, the time spent at a computer has increased dramatically over the last decade and will, in my opinion, continue to increase.
We are incredibly connected to each other. We’ve got computers, cell phones, instant messaging, skype, social media and the list goes on.
You don’t really need to leave the safety and security of your home any more.
You can order food or groceries online and have them delivered to your doorstep.
Ditto with books, movies, appliances and laundry. Every shred of information you need is at your fingertips. You never need to talk to another living soul, if you don’t want to.
How do you think that affects our interpersonal skills?
A ha! Now we get to the “heart” of the heart chakra!
Computers allow us to be faceless, emotionless and relatively safe. You are at the ultimate level of protection and never need to let anyone know anything that you don’t want them to know.
This is against our nature as humans.
We were made for social interaction, for loving one another, for acceptance, for forgiveness and for trust.
We were not created to sit alone in a room all day staring at an emotionless machine.
This is all done at a great detriment to our health.
With our shoulders slumped over, even in public, we are giving ourselves protection against the outside world.
What we unknowingly do is also constrict and restrict ourselves. First with our breathing, with the mechanics of our bodies and then with our emotions, with our ability to trust and share.
Our hearts are made to be open and expand. That is the best way for our blood to pump freely throughout our bodies.
Our lungs are made to be open and expand. That is the best way for our blood to send nutrients to every cell of our bodies.
So what do we do?
How are we able to open up our heart chakra? To re-balance our need for love and interaction? To be able to stand up a little taller?
The heart chakra calls for gentleness.
Allow yourself to breathe a little bit deeper and a little bit stronger. Explore how your lungs feel with more air. Embrace any constrictions and just allow them to float through you and then past you.
Whenever you can remember, stand up a little taller. Throw your shoulders back and keep your head lifted high. Allow your heart to lead you forward.
Allow your heart to speak to you for when you need quiet and solitude and for those moments when you need the company of a friend or two.
Allow yourself to be vulnerable first to those you trust and then widen that circle.
Listen to your body. Find out what it needs.
Your heart will always stay true to you, so trust, breathe and love unabashedly.
And then you’ll find it easier and easier to stand up a little taller.
