Chakra Tuning, Heart Openers, and Pushing Your Edge

We’d been warned. Prior to the whole experience, they’d told us that emotions would come up. That memories, feelings, and distractions would become present.

We even had the intellectual training. We could discuss all seven Chakras, their colors, their tastes, their attributes. We could define what a Guna was and what kind of student we were, and aspired to be.

And here we were.

One of our instructors led a Friday night Chakra-tuning workshop.  The idea is this: the yoga class was sequenced in such a way that it moved from the root chakra through the crown chakra, bringing awareness to each.

I was prepared. I’ve been making some Pretty Significant Personal Decisions, and I thought that things like fear and instability would come up as we moved through the root chakra. Nothing. Everything felt stable.

Huh.  Maybe I’ve already dealt with that.

Surely then, in the second chakra – bringing awareness to memories and creativity and ideas – something would come up. I’ve got great ideas and projects and relationships in the works right now! Perhaps an epiphany, a breakthrough will strike in half pigeon.

Nothing. But… SOMETHING ALWAYS COMES UP FOR ME IN HALF PIGEON.

At this point, I’m frustrated. First, that there weren’t any bells and whistles going off, then that I was so over-analyzing everything that I wasn’t allowing myself to fully experience anything.

Fine, I thought. Somewhere in the third chakra, I thought of swaha – I offer it up. I let go. So, I did. And then thinking back to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, I decided that instead of trying so hard to stop thinking about things, I’d practice the opposite and would exert some control over the thoughts I was having.  I decided to focus my internal monologue on exactly how my body felt in each asana (posture).

Oooh, great right hip stretch. Hmm, that hurts my knee a little, maybe I should adjust my stance. Drop shoulders back.  Soften your gaze.

At this point we moved into the heart-opener sequence, the fourth chakra. Yessssss. I love love. I’m a lover, not a fighter. I love connecting people, bonding. I’m a warm and fuzzy feely kind of person, BRING ON THE HEART OPENERS.

And then she had to go and talk about forgiveness. Talk about how maybe there’s that one person you might resent just a little, may still be holding a teeny tiny grudge against. Haven’t fully let go of yet. I was immediately reminded of a conversation I had deliberately and swiftly chosen to ignore and avoid just a few days prior. Making an obviously displeased face, I thought to myself, I have absolutely nothing to say to you, sir. And quite frankly can’t imagine what you think you have got to say to me.

Ignore.

This came to mind. The same displeased scrunchy-face face found my expression as we pushed up into bridge pose. I do NOT want him near my heart, I do NOT want to lift him up. But fine. I went through the motions even though my heart – quite literally – wanted no part of it. Then, as we pushed back into wheel, we were instructed to go beyond uplifting this person and let them go, unattach ourselves.

I was more than ready for that part. So I did.

We moved out of wheel and prepared for camel. I felt a little lighter, looser, a little more… calm. And for the first time in my little yogi practice, I reached back and grabbed my heels in camel pose, finding for the first time ever this expression.

I don’t believe this was a coincidence, nor was it unrelated from the mental stuff that had just happened.

It’s more than about being bendy. Sure, I’ve spent the last 6 weeks training my body to do things it’s never done before, but I’ve also trained my mind and heart to push to their own edges and beyond them. It’s about redefinining what that edge is not only in how far you can reach your hands, but how far you can reach your heart, your ideas, your potential.

It’s determining a new edge every time you move past the last one you set.  Patting yourself only briefly on the back for the accomplishment, and focusing continually on the next edge, the next breakdown, and the next breakthrough.

It’s easy for me to look back over these weeks and see growth; I’ve no doubt moved further in my yoga practice than ever before.  But it’s just as apparent how much more I have to learn and express throughout what’s a very early stage in a lifetime of practice.

Bring. It. On.

Tagged as: chakras, CorePower Yoga, patanjali, Yoga, yoga sutras