The Practice of Unconditional Self-Love: The Heart Chakra
By Ashley Paige, Yoga for Eating Disorders Writer
Anahata, the fourth chakra, also known as the heart or air chakra, governs our sense of worthiness and our right to love and be loved. Located between the upper and lower chakras in the center of the chest, the heart chakra connects our mind, body, and spirit. It represents our self-acceptance and acceptance of others. We feel harmonious, compassionate, and healthy in our relationships when this chakra is balanced. However, when it is unbalanced we feel possessive, codependent, jealous, and lack boundaries.
How the Heart Chakra Relates to Eating Disorders
When we struggle with an eating disorder, our body becomes a battleground. Our self-love is conditional upon the high standards we hold ourselves to. Logically, we know how to care for ourselves, but practically we lack self-respect to do so.
We judge ourselves for the way we engage with food; a relationship based in mistrust. In order to maintain our disordered behaviors, we isolate ourselves which robs us of having healthy relationships. Rather than practice self-compassion and forgiveness, we criticize ourselves for being human.
Perfectionism becomes the standard for everything we do. We are unwilling to accept ourselves and our emotions as they are. A sense of safety feels out of reach, we avoid our emotions, and lack self-esteem. When our heart chakra is unbalanced, the chakras below it are unbalanced as well.
How to Balance the Heart Chakra
Remembering our inherent worthiness is the first step to balancing the heart chakra. The longest and most intimate relationship we will ever have is the one we have with our selves.
We must establish a foundation of self-love that isn’t conditional on any external factors. This can be challenging because we live in a culture obsessed with achievement and constant productivity. If we’re constantly chasing validation outside of ourselves, we can’t give ourselves time to be, to think, to breathe.
The yoga sutra of Patanjali reminds us of the importance of ease, or sukha (sooka), which means "good space”. Becoming established in ‘good space’ is only possible when we balance effort with ease.
To distinguish whether our actions are guided by self-love, we have to get clear on our intentions. There is a big difference between getting on the yoga mat from a place of love versus fear. A loving yoga practice is one that moves mindfully with acceptance and respect for our body. A fearful yoga practice is one that’s motivated by toning and sculpting (aka ‘fixing’) our body. To know our true intention is to be honest with ourselves.
Yoga asks that we listen to what our body’s needs in each moment and honor that. As we give our body the opportunity to grow and heal in each posture, we are choosing self-love over ego. In a loving yoga practice, we strengthen our interoceptive awareness, which is our ability to detect the subtleties of our internal landscape, such as sensations and emotions. Moving mindfully on our mat translates to greater self-awareness off the mat.
With a balanced heart chakra, we know that we are unconditionally worthy and prioritize caring for ourselves as we would a child. We forgive ourselves for our humanness and look at our behavior with curiosity rather than judgment. We have the ability to see ourselves as flawed, imperfect individuals and still hold ourselves in high regard. We are all inherently worthy simply because we exist.
For more specifc yoga practices related to the heart chakra, I invite you to search the word “chakra” on the Yoga for Eating Disorders Community Facebook group to learn more and do the free yoga practices and guided meditations we share.
Raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Ashley is a yoga instructor and body image coach on the Pacific Southwest coast of Nicaragua. Through her recovery of orthorexia she transitioned from a rigorous asana practice to now healing, accepting, and connecting with her body through yoga philosophy. She’s rediscovering hobbies like psychology, baking, music and art, as well as pursuing new interests such as writing and surfing. She believes her healing journey can support others to overcome their own struggles with body image. Ashley writes for our blog and is founder of Ashley Paige Coaching.