Open Hearts | Morning Yoga Flow

An in-depth look into practice

So much of our days are spent looking down – whether that be at work, on our mobile devices, cooking, or working with our hands. Our gaze is important, it controls our intention. Wherever our gaze goes, our hearts will follow. 

Take some time this morning to look up, to open your heart, and counteract all the rounding that is placed in our spine through gazing down. Our heart chakra, or Anahata Chakra, is the energetic center of compassion and intention. This is why we often set intentions with our hands at heart center. As we physically open our chest and spine, we energetically awaken our anahata chakra and create space to set powerful intentions.

Doing this practice at the start of your morning will give you the energy and means to have a productive and intentional day.

As you open your heart, emotions may come up in the form of past hurt or past holdings – that is natural. Your mat is your space to carve out some time to process. This life, this world just keeps going. Sometimes experiences place marks upon our heart that our busy lives don’t give us proper time to investigate. Sometimes we don’t even know they are there.

I, personally, am not a psychologist, but I know pain, I know hurt, and I know the power of yoga. This word, ‘yoga’, means to join or unite. But in order to merge with our true identity, we must go through the pain that rests upon our path. We must come face to face with it to tell it we no longer need it. Because the most interesting thing about pain is it’s intention is to help – to protect us from past mistakes. Pain was never inherently linked to sadness, that only came to be when we decided to live in it. Pain is like a door on the home of your heart that you keep locked – it was never intended to be your shelter. As we come face to face with our pain and set it free, we unlock the door to our heart.

And yes, wanderers may come in to our pure heart and leave more pain, more locks that make it harder and harder to be open, but that’s why this is a practice. Because if it was a one time treatment than it would be a cure, and there simply is no cure to this unprecedented and unpredictable thing called your life.

But one day, when the locks are off and the day is still, you will step through that door and into the sacred space of your own heart. And when you do, I hope you light a fire and stay a while. I hope you take some time getting to know the stripped down, open hearted version of you.

And I hope you fall in love.

Because if the universe had one truth, I am entirely convinced it would be that you are deserving of love. And not the you that you think you should be. Not the you in five years after you’ve placed a down payment on your house or payed off your mortgage . Not the you after a you’ve got that job, or asked for that raise, or got that promotion. Not the ‘fitness goals’ version of yourself or the you after a haircut or in a brand new outfit. You, right here and now, just as you are – you are deserving of love.

You are perfect.

Open your heart and love yourself.