heart center exercise

The heart center (chakra) holds the essence of life When life is good and joyful, the heart sings and feels light. When life is sad and painful, the chest constricts and feels heavy. One leads to the other. Start from within and keep the light of the heart center glowing bright and outside influences will have less impact. Pain and darkness cannot penetrate the light.

Focus on your heart center. Feel the center of your chest warming and feel your chest expanding. Breathe deeply in light around and you and thank the sweet air that fills your lungs for the oxygen it brings into your body. Exhale out the tightness and tension. Expand your breath with each inhalation and feel more warmth coming in.

Bring into your mind a picture of something that makes you feel happy. It could be a loved one's hug or a picture of a pet. Maybe it is a beautiful sunset or a green forest. Bring in the picture and make it into a movie that is playing in your heart. Feel the happiness that it brings to you as if you are there in the moment now. Inhale it deeply into your chest and expand the feeling into your throat. Feel the flow enter your stomach and release any tightness you feel there. Let the warmth continue up your neck and up to your face. Focus on a spot in the center of your forehead and feel a warmth and expansion there. breathe deeply into your stomach area and let the warmth run down past your belly button and down into your legs. Feel it run out your feet and into the ground below. Focus inward on your forehead and feel the warmth travel up to the top of your head and then up into the sky.

Imagine the light from your feet and the light from your head curve toward each other to meet and form a curve, that comes back around and encircles your body, forming a bubble of warmth and light. Feel the warmth from this bubble filling up the space around you and warming everything around you. Keep breathing and expand the bubble around you until it fills the room. Expand it further until it fills the house and then expand it to fill your neighborhood. Expand again until you can see it encompassing the planet. Sit and think about your bubble of love feeling encompassing the planet for as long and you wish until the light of the bubble dims, them bring the bubble back in until it surrounds only you.

Hold your hands across your chest and give yourself a big hug. Say "I love you" and "Thank you" to yourself, either out loud or silently. Enjoy this hug for a few moments, then open your eyes.